252 



NATURE 



IJuly 25, 1872 



chronological import, viz., that the eclipse was total in Nineveh 

 for between three and fonr minutes shortly before sunset. The 

 date of the final destruction of Nineveh is closely connected with 

 the eclipse of Thales. 



"4. The Eclipse of .Ker.-ces, n.c. 478, February 17. — Much 

 difficulty has bicn e.\perienced by chronologists with regard to 

 an eclipse which occurred, according to Herodotus, in the early 

 spring, when Xer.ve.s was setting out from Sardis on his expedi- 

 tion against Greece. It is certain there was no such phenomenon in 

 the year B.C. 4S0, to which this event is usually referred, and 

 in examining the eclipses about this period I have found only one 

 that can apply. There is no doubt that the sun was very largely 

 eclipsed at Sardis on the morning of February 17, B.C. 47S. A 

 direct calculation for this place shows that more than 94-iooths 

 of the sun's diameter would be covered, the greatest phase ten 

 minutes after II, local tini;. The eclipse was annular, and 

 Sardis appears to have been just outside the annulus. One 

 other eclipse only was visible in eastern Europe about this year, 

 it occurred e.g. 475, October 2, and has been considered to be 

 the one which occurred at the time Cleombrotus consulted the 

 oracles at Sparta. Its magnitude there is found to have been 

 about 6-ioths, the greatest eclipse at oh. 50m. If the eclipse of 

 II. c. 478 be truly the one recorded by the historian, the date of 

 the battle of Salamis will be required to be brought down two 

 years. 



"5. The Eclipse of Agathocles, B.C. 310, August 15 (Dio- 

 dorus, Justin). — On the morning after the fleet of Agathocles 

 sailed from .Syracuse for Aftica, the historian tells us the sun was 

 eclipsed to such a degree [laiHum fit solis dLliquiuin) that the 

 stars everywhere appeared as at night. Though Agathocles 

 could hardly have been more than 100 miles from Syracuse, it is 

 uncertain in which direction he had sailed, or whether he was 

 rounding Sicily on the north or south side, and this circumstance 

 detracts from the scientific value of the record. My calculation 

 throws a central line near the African coast, so that the lleet, 

 if sailing southwards, would be near the northern lihiit of 

 totality. 



"6. The Eclipse on the Passage of the Rubicon by Cx'sar 

 (Dion), B.C. 51, IMarch 7. --This would appear to have been a 

 very notable phenomenon on the Rubicon and in Northern Italy 

 generally. The eclipse was annular, and the annular phase con- 

 tinued 6m. 30s. At Rome there would be a partial eclipse, about 

 three-fourths of the sun's diameter being covered. A line drawn 

 from 9° 24' E., and 43" 26' N., to 14" 39' E., and 46" 15' N., 

 will define the course of the central eclipse across Italy, and the 

 ring-formed appearance of the sun would extend to about i" 35' 

 north and south of this line. The Rubicon would be placed 

 about midway between the central line and the soutlieru limit. 

 Near Ariminum the middle of the eclipse occurred at oh. 50in. 

 By soTie writers (including the Abbe du Fresnoy, in his valualile 

 'Tablettes Chronologiques, ') the eclipse is dated B c. 50; the 

 above, hoA'ever, is the correct year, 



" A great eclipse his baen referred to the year B c. 43 or 44, 

 soon after the death of Julius Ccesir, and it is instanced by Urron 

 de Zach and M. Arrgo as the first annular eclipse upon record. 

 Calculation shows that there could not have been an eel pse, 

 annular or otherwise, visible in Italy in either of those years, 

 nor, indeed, for several years before or after. The phenomenun 

 alluded to was, no doubt, of a meteorological character, and this 

 would appear from the passage in Suetonius, one of the authors 

 quoted upon the subject. 



"7. The Eclipse of Herod (Josephus). — The lunar eclipse 

 which I take to be the one recorded by the Jewish historian 

 during Herod's last illness occurred B c. i, January 9. On this 

 occasion the moon passed nearly centrally through the earth's 

 shadow, entering in at iih. 23m. I'.M. meantime atjerusilcm, 

 and emerging at 2h. 57m. A.M. on the loth ; the totil'eclipse 

 continued im. 395, This is the date recognised by Calvisius and 

 recently supported by Mr, Bosmquet, An eclipse in B.C. 4 on 

 the night between March 12-13, which other chronologists have 

 supposed to be the one referred to, was partial only, artd did 

 not commence till I a.m. ; little more than half the moon's 

 diameter was immersed in the earth's shadow at greatest phase. 



"8. The Eclipse of Phlegon in the 202nd Olympiad (Euse- 

 bius) A. D. 29, November 24. — Total on a line crossing the Black 

 Sea rather west of Odessa in Sinope, thence near the site of 

 Nineveh to the Persian Gulf. At Jerusilem a partial eclipse; 

 about II. 10 A.M. eight-tenths of the sun's diameter would be 

 covered; at Ileliopolis (Baalbec) alsoparti.il — nine-tenths. At 

 a point on the central line near Sinope the totality would con- 



tinue I. I, minutes. Humboldt mentions that this eclipse had been 

 calculated by Wurm, but I have not met with his results. It is 

 the only solar eclipse that could have been visible in Jerusalem 

 during the period usually fixed for the ministry of Christ. 



" The moon was eclipsed on the generally received date of the 

 Crucifixion, a.d. 33, April 3. I find she had emerged from the 

 earth's dark shadow a quarter of an hour before she rose at 

 Jerusalem (6.36 r.M.) : but the penumbra continued upon her 

 disc for an hour afterwards. 



"9. The Eclipse of 113, May 31. — Kepler, after endeavour- 

 ing to ascertain the date of a total eclipse mentioned by Plutarch 

 as having 'recently occurred about noon, ' when the darkness 

 was like that of night, and stars were seen in all directions, states 

 he had found none which accorded better with the description 

 than the above. On submitting it to calculation on the modern 

 elements, the central line appears to have passed too far north — 

 over central Germany, I have not succeeded in discovering the 

 date of this eclipse, though I have accurately examined several 

 at the close of the first and beginning of the second century. 



" 10. The Eclipse of 418, July 19. — Very large at Constan- 

 tinople, according to Philostorgius, who relates that at the 

 eighth hour of the day the sun was so far eclipsed that the stars 

 appeared, and a comet which had not been previously perceived 

 became visible during the obscurity, and was watched for more 

 than four months afterwards. According to my calculation the 

 central line passed somewhat to the south of Constantinople, 

 where ninety-five hundredths of the sun's diameter would be 

 covered. At a very short distance below that point the eclipse 

 would be total. This is the second occasion upon which the 

 discovery of a comet during a total, or nearly total, eclipse of the 

 sun is recorded in history. 



"11. The Eclipse of 671, December 7, on the attempted re- 

 moval of the pulpit of Mahomet from Medina. — Prof. Ockley, 

 in his ' History of the .Saracens,' mentions on the authority of 

 several Arabian writers, a large solar eclipse which occurred 

 about the 52nd year of the Hegira. The Caliph Moawiyah 

 having formed the intention of removing the Prophet's pulpit 

 from Medina to his residence at Damascus, his people proceeded 

 to do so, * when immediately to their great surprise and astonish- 

 ment the sun was eclipsed to that degree that the stars appeared,' 

 Baron de Zach refers the eclipse to 674, October 4, but in this 

 he is certainly mistaken — I believe through a wrong assumption 

 as regards the moon's latitude. The correct date would appear 

 to be 671, December 7. The eclipse of this day was annular on 

 the central line. At Medina the greatest phase occurred at 

 loh, 43m., when 85-iooths of the sun's diameter would be ob- 

 scured. In the clear skies of that part of the world such a degree 

 of eclipse might be sufficient to bring out the brighter planets or 

 stars. No larger eclipse, visible at Medina, occurred about this 

 epoch. 



" 12. The Eclipse of 840, May 5. — .\mong the causes which 

 are said to have brought on the maladie dc laiigueiir that termi- 

 nited the life of Louis le Debonnaire was 'the fright which a 

 to'.al eclipse of the sun had occasioned him.' It is related that 

 the King was taken ill at Worms, and having been removed to 

 Ingelheim, near Mayence, he died there on June 20. I fin I 

 the northern limit of totality in this ecUpse passed about loo miles 

 south of Worms, and on the central line in this longitude the 

 total eclipse continued 5m. 25s., an unusually long interval for 

 the latitude of Central Europe, The middle occurreil at 1.15 

 P.M., with the sun at an altitude of 57°, The phenomenon 

 under such circumstances must have been a very imposing one, 

 and well calculated in those days to inspire alarm, 



"I have already described in your columns the track of the 

 total eclipse of 1 140, March 20 (William of Malmesbury) across 

 this country, and merely refer to it now to add, that if any one 

 of your readers is aware of its being recorded as total in London, 

 he might be doing an astronomical service by making the fact 

 generally known. 



" 13. The Eclipse of 1 133, 'August 2 (William of Malmesbury), 

 a great solar eclipse, considered as foreboding evil to Henry I. 

 of England, — The central line traversed Scotland from Ross to 

 Forfar, and the eclipse was, of course, large in every part of the 

 country. It would be total in Northumberland. In the centre 

 of Forfarshire totality continued 4m. 20s. Berwick-upon-Tweed 

 was about 20 miles within the south limit. 



" During the existence of the kingdom of Jerusalem there is 

 mention of an eclipse which would appear to have been total in k 

 the city or its immediate neighbourhood, and has been varit)usly I 

 dated from the election of Godfrey of IJouillon in 1097. I am 1 



