Ghap. 73.] 
DTJEATIOK or PAT. 
105 
in Armenia, between the eleventli and twelftli hour^ ; tlius the 
curve of the globe both reveals and conceals different objects 
from the inhabitants of its different parts. If the earth had 
been flat, everything would have been seen at the same time, 
from every part of it, and the nights would not have been 
unequal; while the equal intervals of twelve hours, which are 
now observed only in the middle of the earth, would in that 
case have been the same everywhere. 
CHAP. 73. (71.) — ^WHAT EEOTLATES THE DATLiaHT OIT THE 
EAETH. 
Hence it is that there is not any one night and day the same, 
in all parts of the earth, at the same time ; the intervention of 
the globe producing night, and its turning round producing 
day^. This is known by various observations. In Africa and 
in Spain it is made evident by the Towers of HannibaP, and in 
Asia by the beacons, which, in consequence of their dread of 
pirates, the people erected for their protection ; for it has been 
frequently observed, that the signals, which were lighted at 
the sixth hour of the day, were seen at the third hour of the 
night by those who were the most remote^. Philonides, a 
^ We have an account of Corbnlo's expedition to Armenia in Dion Cas- 
sius, Ix. 19-24, but there is no mention of the echpse or of any peculiar 
celestial phsenomenon. 
2 The terms employed in the original are " oppositu" and " ambitu." 
Alexandre's explanation of the first is, "quum globi terraquei crassitude 
interposita sohs arcet radios ;" and of the second, " quum nostra hujus 
globi pars a sole ambitur." Lemaire, i. 389. 
3 One of these towers is mentioned by Livy, xxxiii. 48 ; it is said to 
have been situated between Acholla and Thapsus, on the sea-coast. 
* Hardouin, according to his usual custom, employs all his learning 
and ingenuity to give a plaiisible explanation of this passage. Alexandre, 
as it must be confessed, with but too much reason, remarks, " Frustra 
desudavit Harduinus ut sanum ahquem sensum ex illis Phnii delira- 
mentis excuteret." He correctly refers the interval of time, which was 
said to occur between these signals, not to any astronomical cause, but to 
the necessary delay which took place in the transmission of them. He 
concludes, " Sed ad cursum sohs hoc referre, dementise est. Nam ut tanta 
horarum differentia intersit, si moram omnem in speculandis ac trans- 
mittendis signis sustuleris, necesse erit observatores illos ultimos 13 S 
gradibus, id est, sesquidimidio hemisphserio, a primis distare turribus. 
Recte igitur incredibilem Plinii creduhtatem ludibrio vertit Baylius in 
Dictionario sue." Lemaire, i. 389. 
