SEYFFARTH — ON THE THEORY OF THE MOON's MOTIONS. 459 



matically confirmed by the solar eclipse a.d. 67 (No. 40), and 

 by the epochs of all Olympian games mentioned in Roman and 

 Greek histories (p. 449). Petavius erroneously referred the usual 

 celebration of the Olympian games to a.d. 65, accordingly their 

 postponed celebration to a.d 67, and then the nonsense comes 

 out that Tvipua: (the preceding year) signified two years earlier. 

 As, then, both Apostles died in the "13th year of Nero, June 29, 

 they must have been martyred a.d. 68, and not a.d. 67. Hiero- 

 nymus, it is true, twice refers the same martyrdom to the follow- 

 ing, the 14th year of Nero, a.d. 69, and not, as Eusebius does, to 

 his era 2083, but 2084 after Abraham. Yet the statements of 

 Eusebius and Hieronymus do not contradict each other ; for Hie- 

 ronymus commences the same era, as every historian knows, 

 one year earlier than Eusebius does, and hence his 14th year of 

 Nero was the same that Eusebius calls the 13th; in the second 

 place, Clemens Romanus, who lived at the same time in Rome, 

 testifies (Ad Corinth, i. 5) that both Apostles were put to death 

 in that year in which Nero attended the postponed Olympian 

 games, a.d. 68. This testimony is confirmed, furthermore, by 

 the explicit reports in the "Martyrologium Pauli" (a.d. 396) ; for 

 it relates that the Apostles suffered death on the "iii. Kal. Jul." 

 (June 29th) " in the 69th year after Christ's birth." Christ, as 

 we have seen, was born seven days previous to the year o, the 

 first of the original Christian era, two weeks prior to Herod's 

 eclipse of the moon (No. 31, p. 454), observed in the same year 

 o ; consequently the Apostles were put to death a.d. 68, this year 

 being the 69th after Christ's birth. Further, the same Martyrolo- 

 gium adds that the martyrdom of the Apostles occurred "in the 

 36th year after the crucifixion of the Lord," which, as we have 

 seen, took place a.d. 33, Mar. 19th, being the 14th day of Nisan 

 (p. 414) ; therefore the Apostles died a.d. 6S, this year being the 

 36th after the crucifixion. This result, finally, is positively 

 confirmed by the eclipse a.d. 67, May 31, observed in the course 

 of the consulate of Telesinus a.d. 67, because the Apostles died 

 during the following consulate, the 13th year of Nero, and in a.d. 

 66 no solar eclipse was possible. These historical and astrono- 

 mical certainties put it beyond any question that the jubilee of 

 St. Paul's and St. Peter's martyrdom ought to have been solem- 



