V 



THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK SCIENCE 



TJERODOTUS, the Father of History, tells us that 

 1 1 once upon a time which time, as the modern 

 computator shows us, was about the year 590 B.C. 

 a war had risen between the Lydians and the 

 Medes and continued five years. " In these years the 

 Medes often discomfited the Lydians and the Lydians 

 often discomfited the Medes (and among other things 

 they fought a battle by night) ; and yet they still car- 

 ried on the war with equally balanced fortitude. In 

 the sixth year a battle took place in which it happened, 

 when the fight had begun, that suddenly the day be- 

 came night. And this change of the day Thales, the 

 Milesian, had foretold to the lonians, laying down as 

 a limit this very year in which the change took place. 

 The Lydians, however, and the Medes, when they saw 

 that it had become night instead of day, ceased from 

 their fighting and were much more eager, both of them, 

 that peace should be made between them." 



This memorable incident occurred while Alyattus, 

 father of Croesus, was king of the Lydians. The 

 modern astronomer, reckoning backward, estimates 

 this eclipse as occurring probably May 2 5th, 585 B.C. 

 The date is important as fixing a mile-stone in the 

 chronology of ancient history, but it is doubly mem- 

 orable because it is the first recorded instance of a pre- 



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