22 6 
Mr. Baily on the Solar Eclipse 
since the territories of the two belligerent powers were pro- 
bably separated by the river Halys (which was the case in the 
subsequent reign, although we have no authentic information 
that it was so at the period now under consideration), and as 
the battle was probably fought on the confines of these two 
empires, I think it will be evident from the preceding extracts, 
that no solar eclipse could be the one mentioned by Hero- 
dotus, unless it was central and total in some part of Asia 
Minor ; that is, the centre of the moon's shadow, in such total 
eclipse, must have passed over that part of Asia Minor where 
the contending armies were engaging. Consequently the 
fact is capable of being verified or disproved by the present 
state of our knowledge in astronomy. 
M. Th. S. Bayer is the first who seems to have fixed the 
attention of the public to this point, in a paper entitled Chro- 
nologica Scythica , inserted in the Petersburg Memoirs for the 
year 1728. He consulted his friend Fred. Chris. Mayer on 
this subject, who has shown, from the astronomical tables then 
in use, that neither the eclipse mentioned by Pliny, Scaliger, 
Calvisius, Petavius, or Usher, could possibly be the eclipse 
alluded to by Herodotus. For, the first two (he says) hap- 
pened between the hours of sun-set and sun-rise in Asia 
Minor. In the third, the centre of the moon's shadow passed 
too near the equator, and in the last two it passed too far 
to the north of Asia Minor, for it to cause any remarkable 
obscurity there. In order, however, to set the question at rest, 
lie calculated all the solar eclipses that could possibly be seen 
in Asia Minor from the year 6 08 B. C. to 55b B. C.; and he 
found that the one which took place May 18, 6 03 B. C. was 
the only one that was at all likely to be that mentioned by 
