312 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1753. 



battle between the Lydians and Medes to have been fought, that this can hardly 

 have been the eclipse mentioned by Herodotus. 



Father Hardouin, in his chronology of the Old Testament, rejects this eclipse, 

 as not happening, he says, in the reign of Cyaxares, but in that of Astyages ; 

 not on the 4th year of the Olympiad, but a month before it began ; as falling 

 out too late in the day ; the greatest obscuration being scarcely half an hour be- 

 fore sun-set; and not total or central, or 12° 56' digits, as Riccioli makes it, but 

 almost Q. Though Pliny therefore says this eclipse was Olymp. xlviii, 4, and 

 A. V. G. CLx, yet six mss. he observes, in the French king's library, have clxx, 

 and so most printed copies. He thinks therefore, that instead of clxx, the num- 

 ber should be clvii, which he says is Olympiad xlviii, 4, and the year before 

 Christ 597 ; when there was an eclipse of the sun, on Wednesday July the Qth, 

 at 6 o'clock in the morning. 



This eclipse Petavius also prefers ; though he makes the digits eclipsed only 

 9,22' : which is strange enough, as it could not have been lay any means the 

 cause of such a darkness as is described by Herodotus. Bu,t F. Hardouin sup- 

 poses, that this battle was fought on the banks of the river Halys in Cappadocia, 

 and in latitude north 40" ; where, says he, this eclipse must have been central 

 and annular. 



According to Dr. Halley's tables, the year before Christ 597, the apparent 

 time of the true conjunction at Greenwich, was July 8'^ 21^ 50™ 9'; the be- 

 ginning of the general eclipse 19'' 8™ l6% and the end 9'' o'' 49™ 2^ 



And from the course of the centre of the penumbra, it appears that this eclipse, 

 at Sardes, or any where else where we can suppose this battle to have been 

 fought, could not have been great enough to turn day into night ; and there- 

 fore does not answer the description of Herodotus. 



Archbishop Usher rejects both these eclipses, as inconsistent with his chrono- 

 logy ; and supposes that intended to have been a.m. 4113, An. Nab. 147, be- 

 fore Christ 601, Olymp. xliv, 4. Sunday July 20 3*' 25™ before noon, digits 

 eclipsed 9. But this also is greatly defective as to quantity. But though this is 

 insufficient for the purpose, yet there was one 2 years before this, or the year 

 before Christ 603, that will be found by good tables entirely satisfactory. Pe- 

 tavius indeed makes the digits eclipsed only 7 -20'; but, according to Dr. Hal- 

 ley's tables, the apparent time of the true conjunction was at Greenwich, May 

 J yd 20^ 42™ l^'- The place of the luminaries V 19° 12', and the moon's lati- 

 tude north 25' 17'. 



Beginning of the central eclipse. 19^ 13™ 27^ 



End of the central eclipse 22 3 47 



And if modern maps and geographers may be depended on, the centre of the 

 shadow passed over the kingdom of Barca and Africa, and crossed the Mediter- 



