SEYFFARTH — ON THE THEORY OF THE MOOn's MOTIONS. 475 



Peloponnesian war, as the two following eclipses evidence. The 

 later scholiast perhaps viewed the eclipse during the rule of Arch. 

 Isarchus, in —420. 



13 d' 14. The eye-witness Aristophanes (Nubes, 581) testifies 

 that in the early spring of the following year, and a short time 

 previous to Cleon's first orderly election as strategus, a very small 

 eclipse of the sun and a total one of the moon were perceived in 

 Athens. Eha (says Aristophanes) rov Tlaiplayova fjviy^ ?jpda- 

 dac azpaTrj-fdu, rac ofpui; ^ui/jyoyev xartoioutisv decva — ^ az'/r^vr^ 

 d''ix/JXoi7T£ ra^ bdoh^ (Herod, vii. 37), 6 o'' Tjho^, ttju d^pca/Md^ si; 

 katjzov sudico; g'ji^s/jc'jaa;, ob (pavtlv l(paaxzv bpHv^ ec arpavr^- 

 pjasi KXtiov a//' bfiio; BiAzadat zo~jtou. The scholiast in Scali- 

 ger's " Synage" informs us that the same solar eclipse took place 

 on the 1 6th day of Anthesterion (^Audsfftr^puoi^o; sxtYj irzc dixa), 

 that is, as we have seen (p. 408), on Jan. i8th. About that time 

 there is but one year to be found within which a solar and lunar 

 eclipse occurred during spring, at which time the strategi were 

 elected : and it was only in —420, Jan. 18, 2h., 15 17° E., that a 

 small eclipse of the sun happened on the i8th day of January. 

 The total eclipse of the moon took place on Feb. 2d, 6h. p.m., SI 

 2°E. (—5° 32')- These two eclipses, then, mathematically de- 

 monstrate that Arch. Isarchus ruled during ^spo; in —420, and 

 his predecessor Stratocles in —421 ; that, moreover, Thucydides' 

 reports (iv. 119) concern the year —420. It is strange, however, 

 that Thucydides (iv. 52) refers the same solar eclipse to the pre- 

 ceding year, to —421, in which neither solar nor lunar eclipses 

 w^ere visible in Athens during the spring ; for the solar eclipse on 

 Feb. 26th, 23h., U 5° W., described the curve— 56°, -44°, —5% 

 and hence it was invisible in Athens. The lunar eclipse in —421, 

 Feb. 1 2th, 22h. 30m. coincided with noon. It is, therefore, pro- 

 bable that Thucydides (iv. 52 : roD izcpynopiiuo'j ^ipo'j; s'W'j; 

 TOO ij/dou ly).c-r^z r: i^'ivsro), whilst writing his work twenty 

 years later, confounded with each other, concerning the eclipse, 

 the 9th and loth years of the Peloponnesian war. Besides, the 

 ascertained solar eclipse in —420, Jan. i8th, confirms our Table, 

 p. 429 ; for the U laj- not 17°, but 12° only east of the sun, and 

 without this correction no eclipse would have been possible at all. 

 Petavius, as was natural, had recourse to the eclipse in —423, 

 March 20th, 2oh., 15 10° E., which contradicts the eye-witness 



