440 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO l6gh 



found he had left Britain on the left hand ; but then the tide turning, they fell 

 to their oars, and by noon reached that part of the island where he landed 

 before, and came on shore without opposition ; and then marched up into the 

 Country, leaving his ships at anchor in littore moUi et aperto. 



This is all in Caesar that is any thing pertinent, and I find no where else any 

 thing to guide us further, except one passage in Dion Cassius, who speaking of 

 the first landing of Caesar, says « jubrot xai r Un Tr^otri-xiiv, that is, as I translate 

 it, " but he landed not where he intended, for that the Britons hearing of his 

 coming, had possessed all the usual places of landing." "Ax^ai/ oZv moi ■K^o'iy^tra.y 



nxiia-af, £ip9n T*)f yric jtjaTuVa;, in my English, " Wherefore doubling a certain head 

 land, he made to the shore on the other side, where he overcame those that 

 skirmished with him at the water's edge, and so got safe to land." Here I 

 make bold to translate the words k rx nvxyr^, " at the water's edge," which in 

 H. Stephens' edition is interpreted " in paludibus," but I have the authority of 

 Suidas, who says TEvayo?, niXxytx IxCj, or the sea mud, and is therefore properly 

 the ouse on the sea shore ; and by an easy figure,^ may be put for the shore itself, 

 where such ouse commonly is found. 



From these data, that it was in the year of the Consulate of Pompey and 

 Crassus ; that it was Exigud parte aestatis reliqu^, and 4 days before a full- moon, 

 which fell out in the night time ; the time of this invasion will be determined 

 to a day : For by the eclipse of the moon, whereof Drusus made so good use 

 to quiet a mutiny in the Pannonian army, on the news of the death of Augustus, 

 it follows that Augustus died Anno Christi 14, which was reckoned anno urbis 

 conditae 7^7 ; and that this action was 68 years before, viz. in the 55th year 

 before Christ current ; in which year the full-moon fell out August 30, after 

 midnight, or 3 1st in the morning before day; and the preceding full-moon was 

 August 1, soon after noon ; so that this could not be the full- moon mentioned, 

 as falling in the day time; nor that in the beginning of July, it being not 10 

 days after the summer solstice, when it would not have been said exiguA parte 

 aestatis reliqud. It follows therefore that the full-moon spoken of, was on 

 August 30, at night, and that the landing on Britain was August 26, in the 

 afternoon, about a month before the autumnal equinox ; which agrees with all 

 the circumstances of the story in point of time. 



As to the place ; the high land and cliffs described, could be no other than 

 those of Dover, and are allowed to have been so by all ; it remains only to 

 examine whether the descent was made to the northward or southward of the 

 place where he first anchored. The data to determme this, are, first that it 

 was 4 days before the full-moon. 2. That that day, by 3 o'clock in the after- 



