[ 46o ] 
think it no-where appears from the poet himfelf. 
That it is a delcription of fome total eclipfe, is, how- 
ever, not improbable : And tho’ an eclipfe, at the time 
Homer is fpeaking of, feems purely poetical ; yet the 
great eclipfe of the Sun, in the year before Chrifl 603. 
that parted the Lydian (3 1) and Median armies, muff 
have made fir on g impreffions on every Ionian’s mind, 
that faw it, and may be here very beautifully intro- 
duced. 
I defire no greater ftrefs may be laid on thefe paf- 
fages than they will bear: But I obferve, that, in 
placing the age of Homer thus, we fliall be enabled 
farther to folve a difficulty mentioned by Strabo (32). 
For this curious and accurate geographer and hiflorian 
remarks, that Homer no- where mentions the empire 
of the Medes, nor the cities of Babylon and Tyre. 
But this lafl city was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, after 
a long fiege (33), about the year before Chrift 593 . 
and was to continue, according to Jfaiah(34), in a 
low defpicable condition 70 years ; and therefore, 
probably, did fo the greatefl part of Homer's life-time. 
The city of Babylon was, I think, taken by the 
(31) Herodot. p. 29. Edit. Gronov. See Maier’s Chrvnolog. Scy- 
thic. in the Adi. Petropolit. Tom. III. and what I have laid in the 
Pbilof. Tranf. 
(32) OjUiifof yvv r.Tz r t M ie/W dpypv o//iSr yut> 
oil 1 AiyumtAS ovofj.d.i^uy, K&i r k&i t ov boivmyi tAktoi, t 
iv B itGukcbvi ^ N l tvo ^ EnCdTayoii Pag. 1068. O.' uAv \v 
rronnai, f "S-iSlva, Ti5pukkiiKA7i //4AAor O/ziipS^ 3 xdi /xi/miTAi d 
TuF«. Pag- 1097. x , , 
(33) Ezek. xxix. 18. E*m EibuGakeo rx Het7ikiu; i<woki'jpKY«TZ Na- 
Gyr^oPovo^n-of T Ttf'p*P s-sr’ £Tii dlsKclTpict, Jofepb. coni. Apion. p. 1344. 
Ed. Hudf 
(34) Chap, xxiii. ver. 15. 
Medes 
