NOTES. XC1X 



that the air was thick; cold, and misty, and the fruits of the earth 

 failed (Plutarch, in Jul. Cses. cap. 87, Dio Cass. xliv. Virg. Georg. 

 i. 466). 



A.D. 33, at the time of our Saviour's crucifixion. " From the sixth hour 

 there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour" (Matth. 

 xxvii. 45) ; and in the parallel passage in St. Luke, " the sun was dark- 

 ened" (Luke, xxiii. 45). Eusebius adduces, in explanation and con- 

 firmation, an eclipse of the Sun in the 202d Olympiad, mentioned by 

 Phlegon, of Tralles, a writer of chronicles (Ideler, Handbuch der 

 mathem. der Chronologic, Bd. ii. S. 147). But Wurm has shown 

 that the eclipse belonging to this Olympiad, and which was visible 

 over all Asia Minor, took place on the 24th of November, 29 years 

 after the birth of Christ, or between three or four years earlier. The 

 Crucifixion was at the time of the Passover, 14 Nisan (Ideler, Bd. 

 i. S. 515-520), which was always celebrated at the time of the full 

 moon. The sun cannot, therefore, have been eclipsed by the moon 

 for three hours. The Jesuit Scheiner was inclined to attribute the 

 diminution of light to a group of large solar spots. 



358. On the 22d of August, an obscuration of two hours in length, 

 previous to the terrible earthquake of Nicomedia, which also destroyed 

 many other towns in Macedonia and Pontus. The darkness lasted 

 between two and three hours : "nee contigua vel adposita cernebantur." 

 Ammian. Mar cell. xvii. 7 



360. In all the Eastern provinces of the Roman Empire (per Eoostrac- 

 tus) there was " caligo a primo aurorse exortu adusque meridiem" 

 (Ammian. Marcell. xx. 3), but stars were seen ; therefore it could 

 not have been caused by showers of ashes ; nor, from the long dura- 

 tion of the phenomenon, could it have been the effect of a total solar 

 eclipse, to which the historian attributes it: "Cum lux coelestis 

 operiretur, e mundi conspectu peuitus luce abrepta, defecisse diutius 

 solem pavidse mentes hominum sestimabant : primo attenuatum in 

 lunse corniculantis effigiem, deinde in speciem anctum semenstrem, 

 posteaiHie in integrurn restitutum. Quod alias non evenit ita per- 

 spicue, nisi cum post insequales cursus intermenstruum lun^ ad idem 

 revocatur." The description is quite that of a true solar eclipse ; 

 but what is to be done with the length of time and " caligo" in all 

 the Eastern provinces ? 



409. When Alaric appeared before Rome : the darkness such that 



