INFLUENCE OF THE MACEDONIAN CAMPAIGNS. 533 



as Simplicius maintains, in accordance with the advice of 

 Aristotle) to send to Greece observations of the stars for a 

 very long period (Porphyrius says for 1903 years) before 

 Alexander's entrance into Babylon, Ol. 112, 2. The earliest 

 Chaldean observations mentioned by Almagest (probably the 

 oldest which Ptolemy found available for his object), only go 

 back 721 years before our era, that is to say, to the first 

 Messenian war. It is certain " that the Chaldeans knew the 

 mean motions of the moon with an exactness which induced 

 the Greek astronomers to employ their calculations for the foun- 

 dation of a lunar theory."* The planetary observations to which 

 they were led by their ancient love of astrology, appear also to 

 have been used for the true construction of astronomical tables. 

 The present is not the place to decide how much of the 

 Pythagorean views regarding the true structure of the heavens, 

 the course of the planets, and of the comets which, according 

 to Apollonius Myndius return in long regulated orbits,f may 

 be due to the Chaldeans. Strabo calls the mathematician, 

 Seleucus, a Babylonian, and distinguished him in this manner^ 

 from the Erythra3an, who measured the tides of the sea. It 

 is sufficient to remark that the Greek zodiac was most probably 

 taken from " the Dodecatemoria of the Chaldeans, and that, 

 according to Letronne's important investigations^ it does not 



* Ideler, op. cit., bd. i. s. 202, 206, und 218. When a doubt is 

 advanced regarding the astronomical observations said to have been 

 sent by Callisthenes from Babylon to Greece, on the ground that there 

 is no trace of these observations of a Chaldean priestly caste to be found 

 in the writings of Aristotle (Delambre, Hist, de l'Astr>momie ancienne, t 

 i. p. 308), it is forgotten that Aristotle, in speaking (De Cozlo, lib. ii. cap. 

 12) of an occultation of Mars by the Moon, observed by himself, expressly 

 adds,, that " similar observations had been made foi many years ou the 

 other planets by the Egyptians and the Babylonians, many of which 

 have come to our knowledge." On the probable use of astronomical 

 tables by the Chaldeans, see Chasles, in the Comptes rendus de I Aca- 

 dfrnie des Sciences, t. xxiii. 1846, pp. 852-854. 



+ Seneca, Nat. Qucest., vii. 17. 



J Compare Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 739, with lib. iii. p. 174. 



These investigations were made in the year 1824 (see Guigniaut, 

 Religions de VAntiquite, ouvraye traduitde I'Allemand de F. Creuzer, 

 t.i. pt. 2, p. 928). See a more recent notice by Letronne, in the Journal df./t 

 Savans, 1839, pp. 338 and 492 ; as well as the Analyse critique des Repre- 

 sentations zodiacalesen Egypte, 1 84(i, pp. 1 5 and 34. (Compare with these 

 Ideler, Ueber den Ur sprung des Thierkreises, in the Alhandlungen der 

 Akademie der Wiftnuckqflc* zu Berlin aus dem Jali* 1838, s. 21.) 



