47^ TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



Aristophanes, because in —423, about Mar. 20, no lunar eclipse 

 was possible. Moreover, supposing the Athenians had elected 

 their strategi after March 20th, the warlike exploits of the Greeks 

 would have commenced prior to the orderly elections of the stra- 

 tegi ; for Thucydides and Xenophon narrate that usually all bel- 

 ligerent expeditions set out in January. 



15. Thucydides (vii. 50, 'q aekjvTj ixhcrrec), Plutarch (Nic. 

 33, p. 393 R.), Diodorus (xiii. 12, p. 551 S.), Polybius (Exc. ix. 

 19, TYj^ azli^vTiZ, lxhnoi>a'qz ^zcatbaijiovr^aaq, iuc, re deiubu Tipoaiq- 

 fiacvooaqi: iTzia^e T7)v dvaCoyrji^), report that at the end of i^epo^ 

 a total elipse of the moon, soon after sunset, happened in Sicily, 

 which caused the ruin of the Attic army in Sicily, viz. during the 

 20th year of the Peloponnesian war, Archon Callias, two years 

 prior to the archonship of Glaucippus in —408, which year is 

 mathematically fixed by the calendrical inscription, p. 411. Thu- 

 cydides specifies 21 days from the eclipse to the capture of the 

 army (see Clinton's F. H. to this event), and the latter Plutarch 

 (Nic. 33, p. 393 R.) refers to "the 27th day of the Spartan month 

 Carneius," consequently to the 29th of Metageitnion, the 31st day 

 of July, Julian style (p. 408). Since, then, the eclipse happened 

 21 days prior to July 31, the same must have taken place on July 

 8th in —410, soon, as Thucydides says, after sunset. Indeed, in 

 — 410 only, July 8th, yh. 45m., a total eclipse of the moon hap- 

 pened soon after sunset. No lunar eclipse coinciding twice, dur- 

 ing a period of 19 years, with July 8th, the epoch of this eclipse 

 is fixed with mathematical certainly. The obscuration of the 

 moon, however, amounted, according to the present lunar theory, 

 to 6.5 inches only, because the 15 lay 7° E. of the centre of the 

 earth's shadow ; but, according to our Table, p. 429, the longitude 

 of the XS was shorter by 5° 29', and hence this eclipse was, as the 

 authors report, a total one after sunset. Petavius, according to 

 his erratic chronology, recurred to the eclipse in —412, Aug. 27, 

 loh. 15m., 13 4° W. ; yet this eclipse belonged to ^ecjiwu, and it 

 did not precede, but followed, the fall of Nicias, on July 31st, by 

 27 days. 



16. Xenophon (Hell. i. 6, i) reports that during the 26th year 

 of the Peloponnesian war, Archon Callias, namely, a short time 

 after the beginning of &£po^, and soon after sunset ()^ asXiji^Tj 

 t^ih~ev karripa^), a lunar eclipse occurred in Athens. This is 



