COMETS. 543 



For the explanation of what has been said above of the 

 remark of Chinese astronomers on the occasion of their 

 observation of the Comet of March, 837, in the dynasty of 



at the time of the earthquake at Achoia, and disappeared 

 in the constellation of Orion, in 01. 101, 4 (373 B.C.): 

 Kucles, the son of Molon, erroneously called Euclides Dio- 

 dorus (xii. 53,) in 01. 88, 2 (427 B.C.), as is also con- 

 tinued by the commentary of Johannes Philoponus; the comet 

 of Xicomachus in 01. 109, 4 (341 B. c.). The date as- 

 signed by Pliny for the juba effigies tnutata in hastam, is 

 Ol. 108 (Plinius, ii. 25). Seneca also agrees in connecting 

 the comet of Asteus (Ol. 101. 4) immediately with the earth- 

 quake in Achaia, as he mentions the downfall of Bura and 

 Helice, which towns Aristotle does not expressly mention, in 

 the following manner : '* Effigiem ignis longi fuisse, Callis- 

 thenes tradit, antequam Burin et Helicen mare absconderet. 

 Aristoteles ait, non trabem illam, sed cometam fuisse." "Callis- 

 thenes affirms that the fiery shape appeared long before the 

 sea overwhelmed Buris and Helice. Aristotle says that this 

 was not a meteor, but a comet." (Seneca, Nat. Qucest. vii. 5). 

 Strabo (viii. p. 384, Cas.) places the downfall of these two 

 frequently mentioned towns two years before the battle of 

 Leuctra. whence again results the date, Ol. 101, 4. Finally, 

 after Diodorus Siculus had more fully described this event 

 as having occurred under the Archon Asteus (xv. 48, 49), 

 he places the brilliant comet which threw shadoivs (xv. 50) 

 under the Archon Alcisthenes a year later, 01. 102, 1 

 (372, A. c.), and as a prediction of the decline of the 

 Lacedaemonian rule ; but the later Diodorus had the habit of 

 transferring an event from one year to another : and the oldest 

 and most reliable witnesses, Aristotle and the Parian Chronicle, 

 speak in favour of the epoch of Asteus before that of Alcis- 

 thenes. Now since the assumption of a period of revolution for 

 the beautiful Comet of 1343 of 147| years, leads Boguslawski 

 to assign to its appearances the dates 1695, 1548, 1401, and 

 1 106 up to the year 371 before our era, the comet of the earth- 

 quake of Achaia corresponds with it, according to Aristotle, 

 within two according to Diodorus to within one year : which, 

 if we could know anything of the similarity of the orbit, is, 

 when taking into consideration the probable disturbances, 



