igg professor g. b, airy on the eclipses 
as well as every part of the results, Mr. Hind has most obligingly communicated to 
me), passed over Koenigsberg, Astrakhan, and Khiva. The other is that o b.c. , 
Mav 17, which crossed the Persian Gulf in a north-easterly direction. 
48 I imagine therefore that if this be a record of a total eclipse (which I see no 
sufficient reason for doubting), it relates to the same eclipse as that recorded by 
Herodotus. It appears, from Sir John Malcolm’s remarks on the Persian historical 
traditions in general, that the names of provinces are in many instances given erro- 
neously. 
Section VI. Eclipse of Xerxes. 
49 In the spring of the same year in which the battle of Salamis was fongbt (to 
which the date b.c. 480 is usually assigned), there occurred a phenomenon which i^s 
thus described by Herodotus, Book vii. “ With spring, the army [of the Persians ,, 
being ready, set out from Sardes on its march to Abydos ; and as it was setting out, 
the sun leaving his seat in heaven was invisible, when there were no clouds but a 
nerfectly clear sky ; and instead of day it became night. Xerxes, who saw this and 
heard about it, felt some anxiety, and inquired of the Magi what the appearance 
portended ; they replied that the deity prognosticated to the Greeks the desertion of 
their cities ; saying that the sun was the prognosticator for the Greeks, the moon for 
the Persians. When Xerxes heard this he was very joyful, and proceeded on Ins 
50. This account, interpreted as a record of a total eclipse of the sun,^ has given 
great trouble to chronologers, and not without reason. The only solar eclipse which 
it is worthwhile even to examine is that in the morning of the 19th of April, b.c. 481. 
The numbers computed from Greenwich Unvaried Elements are as follows ; 
For —480, April 18, 16^ Greenwich Mean Solar Time. 
w. 
X , 
t. 
-• 
y- 
Damoiseau’s Elements 
Greenwich Corrections..... 
9 
21*90139 
-•27849 
4^9528 
-•0599 
397*9207 
— *2785 
156*6612 
19U9616 
+ *1648 
Greenwich Unvaried Elements..!... 
21*62290 
44*8929 
397*6422 
156*6612 
192*1264 
16'*. 
\1\ 
0 
23 
44 56*7 
o 
// 
22 
47 45*1 
22 
50 
9*1 
21 
2 27*8 
21 
4 
42*9 
8 
58 37*3 
8 
59 
31*4 
15 48*2 
22 37 22*9 
23 
14 
5*5 
19 34*8 
16 
12*0 
20 
45 16*4 
21 
21 
1*9 
9 
12 51*7 
9 
23 
31*5 
60 19-3 
16 28*6 
24"' 9"-85 
U 
26"' T'ol 
— 
