520 TRANS. ST. LOUIS ACAD. SCIENCE. 



E. (p. 429). Both eclipses were invisible in Italy, but the writers 

 who mention these two eclipses only intended to record the sin- 

 gular phenomenon that two eclipses had occurred about the day 

 of Caesar's assassination, but visible in the eastern Roman provin- 

 ces only. The same year is fixed by the recurrence of the Olym- 

 pian games (p. 448). 



No. 7. Hind correctly determines the date of Herod's lunar 

 eclipse, witnessed by Josephus (Ant. xvii. 6, 4), which happened 

 in the year o, Jan. 9th, I2h., ft 0° W. ; for Christ was born 16 days 

 earlier, and Herod died a few months later. Thus the error of 

 Ideler, who puts the same eclipse four years earlier, comes to light. 

 Ideler's eclipse, moreover, was invisible (p. 454), and Christ was 

 not born four years prior to the accepted date of his nativity. 



No. 8. The total eclipse of the sun observed at Nicaea in Bithy- 

 nia (40° 30' N. Lat., 27° 30' Long.), which Phlegon and other 

 ancient authors refer to the 19th year of Tiberius, and to Ol. 202, 

 2, and to midday, was that of a.d. 33, Sept. i ith, 22h. 30m. P. T, ; 

 for, since Augustus died a.d. 16, on the 19th day of the month of 

 August, the I St year of Tiberius commenced on the very same day, 

 and his 19th year began a.d. 34, according to Roman usage. But 

 the Egyptians and oriental nations, as is known, reckoned the 

 reigns of the emperors from the previous local newyears day, and 

 hence the 19th year of Tiberius commenced in Asia Minor a.d. 

 33. Some authors put the same eclipse in 01. 202, 4, instead of, 

 as we have seen, Ol. 202, 2, because some ancient chronologers 

 were in the habit of beginning the Olympiads two years earlier. 

 The said ecliptic conjunction took place a.d. 33, on Sept. nth, 

 22h. 30m. P. T., but, according to the Table on p. 429, 2h. iSm. 

 later. The 15 lay, according to Lalande, 8° E., and the curve 

 described by the moon's shadow was, according to Pingre, 78°, 

 63°, 33°. Since, however, the longitude of the U was shorter (p. 

 429) by 3° 32' , it will be found both that the obscuration was total, 

 and that the eclipse commenced really with noon in Bithynia. 

 Hind, on the contrary, referred Phlegon's eclipse to a.d. 29, Nov. 

 24th, iih. lom. a.m. Jerusalem time ; but the obscuration of the 

 sun was not total there, and was very partial in Bithynia ; it did 

 not, moreover, begin with " the sixth hour of the day" ; it also 

 remains irreconcilable with Roman history and with the 19th 

 year of Tiberius. 



