SKYFFARTH — ON THE THEORY OF THE MOON'S MOTIONS. 461 



controvertibly demonstrate that all consuls and emperors from 

 Claudius to Titus reigned one year later than hitherto has been 

 believed; hence Jerusalem was destroyed a.d. 71, and not, as 

 Petavius conjectured, a.d. 70. 



Since the consuls Commodus Verus and J^ovius Priscus, as we 

 have seen (p. 423), were a.d. 78 extraordinarii, and not ordinarii, 

 to whom Pttavius erroneously attributed an entire year, and since 

 Vespasian reigned not ten but nine years only, it is natural to 

 conclude that Titus commenced to reign in the same year (a.d. 

 So) which Petavius assigned him, and that all consuls and all 

 Roman eclipses after Titus belong to the very same years during 

 which the latter were observed, according to Petavius's Doctrina 

 Temporum. 



Roman Eclipses from Titus to Constantinas Magnus. 



4o. O +73, July 22, 22h., Bceotia. Plutarch (De facie in orbe 

 lunae, c. 13 ; vol. ix. p. 680 Reis) asserts that he really witnessed 

 a total eclipse of the sun in Chaeronea (38° 30' N. Lat., 20° 46' 

 Long.), which commenced with noon — (rayz-;jc sva^'JfOs '^C 

 aouodou, fiueadei^ze!;, rj nolku. fiku darpa no/./a'^odeu tou oupai^ou 

 diecr^usi', vjdhc ix /jiear^/jiSpca^ dp^afiewj xfmmv dk, olou to /.uxau- 

 yk^, zco difJi Tzapiayzv.) The computation will be found further 

 on, Greek Eclipses, No. 26. 



46. O + 95, May 21st, ^s^• 3o™-' ^ 5° E., Ephesus (38° N., 

 35° 15' E.), curve 16°, 47°, 50°. Philostratus (V. A. viii. 23, 

 p. 365) narrates as follows : rbv zou i^Xcou x'jxMv nepee/Mcou azs- 

 cai'O^, ioixio:; ' Inioc, zr^v dxzlva i^paJjpoo, — which phenomenon 

 happened in the 14th year of Domitian, a.d. 95. Eusebius (Chr. 

 ii. 303, ad 01. 218, 4) mentions only dcoar^pziac Tto)lai. Lambert 

 and Struyk took the phenomenon for an eclipse of the sun in 

 Ephesus, A.D. 95, May 21, iqh. 30m., y 5° E., curve 16°, 47°, 50°, 

 obscuration i inch. The report, however, is very doubtful, and 

 it probably means an iris around the sun ; otherwise the eclipse 

 agrees with our Table ([). 429). 



47. O +98, March 21st, 3h, W 10° E., Rome, curve 7i°-73°, 

 Europe. Aurel. Victor (Ep. xii. 12) reports that "eo die, quo 

 (Nerva) obiit (Jan. 25th), solis defectio facta est." Since Nerva 

 died on Jan. 25, and no eclipse, about that time, occurred on that 

 dav, it is evident that Aurelius Victor referred the death of Nerva 



