332 GREEK SCIENCE. 



in another work (' De Emen. Temp, in Can. Isag.' p. 321), he fixes 

 the date of this eclipse to be the 1st of October, 583 B.C. Calvisius 

 states it in his ' Opus Chron.,' to have taken place in 607 B. c. Pe- 

 taviussays it happened July 9th, 597 B.C. (* De Doct. Temp.' lib. 10, 

 cap. 1), which date has likewise been adopted by Marsham, Bouhier, 

 Corsini, and by M. Larcher the French translator of Herodotus (torn. i. 

 p. 335.) Usher is of opinion that it happened 601 B. c. ; and Bayer, 

 May 18, 603 B. c. ; which latter opinion has been supported by two 

 English astronomers, Costard and Stukeley ('Phil. Trans/ for 1753). 

 But Volney attempts to show, in his ' Chronologic d'Herodote,' that 

 it could be no other than the eclipse which happened February 3rd, 

 626 B. c. 



Mr. F. Bailly has examined with great care and labour the proba- 

 bility of these several statements, from which it appears, that most of 

 the eclipses above alluded to happened under circumstances which 

 render it absolutely impossible any of them should be that alluded to 

 by Herodotus ; most of them were not even visible in that country, 

 which must necessarily have been the scene of action between the 

 Medes and the Lydians, and none of them was total in those places. 

 He has, therefore, with great perseverance, by means of the latest as- 

 tronomical tables of the ' Bureau des Longitudes,' computed backward 

 to find whether any eclipse of the sun actually happened within the 

 probable limits of the event recorded by the historian, arid the result 

 of his research is, that on the 10th of September, 610 B. c., there 

 was a solar eclipse, which was total in some parts of Asia Minor ; 

 and which, he therefore concludes, with great probability, was the 

 identical one referred to by Herodotus. Admitting, therefore, the 

 conclusion, we have one decided point of time to which we are 

 enabled to refer with confidence, at which time, the state of astro- 

 nomy is known to have been such as we have described. See 'Phil. 

 Trans.' for 1811. 



Anaximan- The successors of Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, and Anaxa- 

 goras, contributed considerably to the advancement of astronomy, 

 ^e ^ rst * s sa ^ * nave mvente d or introduced the gnomon into 

 Greece ; to have observed the obliquity of the ecliptic ; and taught 

 that the earth was spherical, and the centre of the universe, and that 

 the sun was not less than it. He is also said to have made the first 

 globe, and to have set up a sun-dial at Lacedaemon, which is the first 

 we hear of among the Greeks ; though some are of opinion that these 

 pieces of knowledge were brought from Babylon by Pherecydes, a 

 contemporary of Anaximander. Anaxagoras also predicted an eclipse 

 which happened in the fifth year of the Peloponnesian war ; and taught 

 that the moon was habitable, consisting of hills, valleys, and waters, 

 like the earth. His contemporary Pythagoras, however, greatly im- 

 proved not only astronomy and mathematics, but every other branch 

 of philosophy. He taught that the universe was composed of four 

 elements, and that it had the sun in the centre ; that the earth was 



