SKYFFARTH — OX THE THEORY OF THE MOOn's MOTIONS. 457 



been nearly total. Dio refers the same eclipse to the 5th, and not 

 to the 3d year of Claudius, probably because F (3) was taken 

 for E (5), being very similar .to the former. 



37. The decree of Claudius, and the inscriptions referring to 

 his consulates, demonstrate, as we have seen (p. 422), that Clau- 

 dius reigned not 14, but 13 years only, and that the consuls Asia- 

 ticus and Silanus were extraordinarii, and not ordinarii. Hence 

 all consuls subsequent to a.d. 47 must have ruled only one year 

 later than Petavius stated. This result is mathematically con- 

 firmed by the transit of Venus referred to the 6th year of Claudius 

 (p. 415) and to the Sooth year urbis condit^e ; for, since Rome 

 was founded in the spring of — 752, the Sooth year u.c. was annus 

 Domini 48 (800 — 752=248. or 799 — 751^=48). According to 

 the same rule, the third centennial jubilee of Rome was, as 

 Livy narrates, celebrated, coss. Valer. Maximus and Vir. Tri- 

 costus in — 452 (p. 431), i.e. u.c. 300; consequently, the lunar 

 eclipse referred to the 5th year of Claudius belongs to a.d. 47. 

 Seneca (Q_ N. ii. 26) mentions an eclipse of the moon observed 

 in the course of the consulate of Valerius Asiaticus, i.e. a.d. 47 ; 

 but the same eclipse Cassiodor refers both to the consuls Vinicius 

 Quartinus and Corvinus and to the 5th year of Claudius. Con- 

 sequently Valerius Asiaticus must have been a consul sutlectus in 

 the 5th year of Claudius, a.d. 47, whilst Quartinus and Corvinus 

 were ordinarii. Hence the said eclipse was that in a.d. 47, June 

 35, I5h- 30m. (-|-2h. 15m.), ft 1° E. ( — 3° 29') Petavius refer- 

 red the same consuls to a.d. 45, during which year, however, no 

 lunar eclipse whatsoever occurred. 



38. Aurelius Victor (Claud, iv. 12) reports that in the same 

 year in the course of which the jubilee of Rome was celebrated, 

 and Phoenix appeared, i.e. in the 6th year of Claudius, an eclipse 

 of the moon happened. The same eclipse Dio Cassius (Ix. 29) 

 refers to the coss. Claudius IV. and L. Vitellius III., i.e. a.d. 48. 

 Hence the attested eclipse was that in a.d. 48, June 14, 6h. p.m., 

 ft 7° W. During the same eclipse, however, the island of Thera 

 emerged from the yEgean sea, which Seneca (Q. N. ii. 26) refers 

 to the preceding year, in accordance with Eusebius (Chron. ii. p. 

 204, ad 01. 205, 4). 



39. Pliny (H. N. ii. 70 = 72) says: "Solis defectum Vipstano 

 et Fontejo consulibus, qui fuere ante paucos annos, factum 



