412 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



dates of the lunar months of this year with the dates of the 

 solar ones as follows: The ist day of the 2nd Pritany coincided 

 with the 8th day of the solar Metageitnion (July lo), the 13th day 

 with the 2ist, the 17th with the 25th, the 23nd with the 30th of 

 Metageitnion, the 23rd with the ist of Boedromion, the 24th with 

 the 2nd, the 36th with the 14th day of the solar Boedromion. 

 According to our solar calendar the Sth day of Metageitnion com- 

 menced on July loth, and consequently the ist Pritany must have 

 begun 56 days prior to the Sth day of the solar Metageitnion, that 

 is to say, on July 3rd, being the ist day of the lunar Hecatom- 

 bason. Indeed, the first astronomical new moon during the 

 archonship of Glaucippus took place in — 408, on the ist day of 

 June about noon, and the crescent appeared on June 3rd after 

 sunset, with which the ist Pritany commenced to officiate. This 

 inscription, therefore, puts beyond any question that Archon 

 Glaucippus ruled in — 408, and not, as Petavius imagined, in — 409. 



A similar inscription (Corpus Insc, Pt. ii., No. 11, p. 50) reads 

 as follows : ^ Em Ncxodofioo a^tiovroz izc zr^^ KsxpoTicdo^ sy~r^c 

 ITpuzapsia^, FajusAiMuo^ kudsxdv/^, sxtyj xac elxoazri zy^^ Ttoozausca^ 

 X. T. X. Hence, during the archonship of Nicodorus the 26th day 

 of the 6th Pritany coincided with the nth day of Gamelion (Dec. 

 14). Accordingly the ist Pritany must have ruled earlier by 206 

 days (5X36 -{-26=: 306), i.e. since May 23rd, and this day must 

 have been the first day of the lunar Hecatombaeon. This was 

 the case only in — 312, for the astronomical conjunction took 

 place on May 20th about midnight, and the crescent appeared on 

 May 22d after sunst-t, with which the lunar month Hecatombaeon 

 began. Consequently Archon Nicodorus must have ruled since 

 July in — 312, and hot, as Petavius fancied, two years earlier. 



Alexander the Great was, notoriously, born on the 6th day of 

 Hecatombaeon (Daesius), i.e. June Jtli, Archon Elpines, Ol. 

 106, I, namely, "during the Olympian games" (Plutarch Al. 3 ; 

 Cic. De div. i. 23). The latter being celebrated from the nth to 

 the i6th day of the lunar Hecatombason preceding the day of the 

 summer solstice (Thuc. v. 49. 50; Schol. Pind. Ol. iii 35), the 

 respective new moon must have preceded Alexander's birth-daj- 

 (Jun. 7) by about 1 1 days, and this was the case only in — 353 ; for 

 during this year the astronomical new moon happened on ]May 25 

 about II p.m., and the crescent became visible on May 27th, and 



