484 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



Hebrew priests, as has been demonstrated in the author's Chro- 

 nologia Sacra, 1846, p. 97. John the Baptist having been born 

 six months before Christ, and on the longest day (June 24), had 

 been announced to Zacharias, a priest of the 8th class (course), 

 viz. that of Abia, whilst the same was in the temple about Sep- 

 tember 20th, in the year — 2. Now, the Hebrews, having returned 

 to Jerusalem, inaugurated the new altar on the day of the autum- 

 nal equinox (Ezra iii. 8), and during this week the first of the 

 reorganized 24 classes of the priests had to serve the sanctuary. 

 Hence, an easy computation establishes the fact that from the 

 inauguration of the new altar down to the annunciation of the 

 Baptist neither more nor less than 1 151 turnus and 7 weeks trans- 

 pired. Consequently the end of the Babylonian captivity, and the 

 destruction of Nineveh, with which the reign of Darius Medus alias 

 Cyaxares II. expired, and the monarchy of Cyrus commenced, 

 belongs to — 532 ; and this year was, as we have seen, the seventh 

 prior to Cyrus's death in — 526. To this very year, then, the solar 

 eclipse belongs which preceded the conquest of Nineveh, called 

 Laryssa (Hfib. r^^a^, thei'uins), the present Mosul (36° 31' N., 43° 

 30' E.), as Xenophon (Anab. iii. 4, 7) testifies. He reports that 

 the king of Persia (Cyrus), when taking the supremacy from the 

 Medians, besieged Nineveh (Laryssa) for a long time, but in vain, 

 till, one day, the sun disappeared {qXtov usipsXr) itpoaxakixpo^jaa 

 ■/^(fdvcaxs, (JLey^pc i^sAiTZOu o> d.v&()co-oc xai oi)T(0(; kd/.io). This is, 

 then, the eclipse in — 532, Jan. 26th, i5h. 45m. P. T., ?5 20° E. ; 

 curve, touched by the shadow of the moon, 34°, 36°, 64°. Accord- 

 ing to our Table (p. 429), the longitude of the U was shorter by 

 nearly 6° 5', and hence the eclipse must have been a large one 

 in Nineveh. The conjunction happened, according to our Table, 

 nearly one hour before noon, local time. On this occasion it 

 comes to light that Layard referred the destruction of Nineveh 

 too eaily by 74 years. Prof. Airy referred Xenophon's eclipse to 

 — 558, May 19, 2h. 15m. Paris time; but in this case the Baby- 

 lonian captivity would have lasted 47 years only, and not, as the 

 Hebrew chroniclers testify, 70 full years. 



We come now to the famous total eclipse (No. 4) observed on 

 the Halys in the course of the battle between the Medians and 

 Lydians. Herodotus (i. 74) reports that in the sixth year of ihe 

 war between the Medians and Lydians, during the battle on the 



