NOTES. 



231 



Achilles Tatius. The Chaldeans rather than the 

 Egyptians might be suspected of not having been ac- 

 quainted with the Balance, since Servius, in his com- 

 mentary on those well known verses, 



Anne novum sidus tardis te mensibus addas, &c. 



observes, that the Chaldeans divided the zodiac into 

 eleven constellations, and the Egyptians into twelve. 

 The commentary of Germanicus puts the question in 

 the clearest light, by showing, that the Balance of the 

 Egyptians was what the Greeks named chela; and 

 I find that Eratosthenes makes the same remark h 

 %v(hoLi o' euri Quyog. Whence could he have taken this 

 similitude, if the Balance did not exist in his time ? 

 Eudoxus was a Greek ; and, in speaking to Greeks, it 

 was right for him to employ the name of chela, which 

 was known to them : but Eratosthenes writing in 

 Egypt, and explaining the Greek sphere, could deter- 

 mine to what Egyptian sign this name answered. We 

 also know, from the Zend Avesta, that the ancient 

 Persians were acquainted with the astronomical Ba- 

 lance ; and St. Epiphanius says the same of the Pha- 

 risiens. What is there in fine more positive, than this 

 passage of Achilles Tatius ? " the chela, which the 

 Egyptians call the Balance." (Uranol., p. 168.) But I 

 should never finish, were I to cite every author. With 

 respect to the monuments, we are so little acquainted 

 with them, and they are so recent, except those of 

 Egypt and India, that they give us no information 

 respecting the antiquity of this asterism ; but of this 

 antiquity every thing bears proof. Even at Rome, 

 before the Balance was placed in the heavens, the name 

 was known. Cicero employs the word jiigum ; it is the 

 same with Varro ; Geminus makes use of the word tyyg. 



