mulative force and amount may be the better seen and appreciated. It is necessary however to premise to this review that in some cases the Roman date of the eclipse has been assigned, along with the fact of it, in terms of the calendar for the time being; and this can be compared at once with the Julian date of the same natural phenomenon, at the same point of time, as either obtained by calculation for ourselves, or taken from the Tables of eclipses already calculated. In such cases the confirmation of our calendar by this species of testimony is complete. The Julian date thus obtained by calculation or taken from the Tables, and the Roman date assigned by our calendar in terms of the Julian calendar, are always the same. In other cases, the fact of an eclipse has been mentioned in its proper order of time, but without its Roman date for the time being. In such instances, the year of the phenomenon is known; and generally perhaps the time of the year but the actual day is a desideratum. We propose to include these also in our review. They are useful in a secondary degree as means of confirming the arrangements and details of our Roman Fasti; and no confirmation by means of such testimony as this ought to be omitted. Lastly there are some instances also on record of phenomena which, though not specified as ecliptic in the history of the time, appear to be referrible to the class of eclipses; but whether of pseudo-eclipses or true must depend on the circumstances of the case. We propose briefly to notice these also. The survey which we are contemplating of this particular kind of testimony and corresponding kind of proof will extend from B. C. 750 down to B. C. 49 at least: and it might be continued from B. C. 49 to A. D. 186. But we reserve such cases of the same kind as come between B. C. 45 and A.D. 186 for the illustration and verification of the Julian Correction. SECTION II.-Eclipses, of which both the Roman and the i. Solar Eclipse at the Foundation of Rome m. U. C. 4 Varr. U. C. 3 Cap. U. C. 1 Polyb. B. C. 750. Nundinal calendar, Cycle i. 1. Martii 1 Feb. 4. To illustrate the date of this eclipse both in the Nundinal calendar of the time, and in that of Numa, in which the proper date of the Foundation or of the Natales urbis was xi Kal. Maias, we will suppose Numa's calendar to have been in existence along with the Nundinal one of Romulus at the time of the Foundation itself, and its proper date to have been the Kalendæ Januariæ U. C. 1, February 4 B. C. 750. U. C. 39 Varr. U. C. 38 Cap. U. C. 36 Polyb. B. C. 715. U. C. 354 Varr. U. C. 353 Cap. U. C. 351 Polyb. B. C. 400 Cn. Cornelius Cossus iii L. Valerius Potitus iv. n Vol. i. p. 118. sqq. • Vol. i. p. 128. m Vol. i. pages 108. 112. sqq. 157. iv. Solar Eclipse on the day of the battle of Zama P. U. C. 552 Varr. U. C. 551 Cap. U. C. 549 Polyb. B. C. Ti. Claudius Nero M. Servilius (Pulex) Geminus. Irregular calendar, Cycle i. 7. 356 days. Kalendæ. 203-202. B. C. viiii Septembres July 20 x Octobres Aug. 18 September 18 mid. B. C. 202 v. Solar Eclipse U. C. 564 v Idus Quinctiles. Per eos dies, observes Livy of this year 9, quibus est profectus ad bellum consul Ludis Apollinaribus ante diem quintum Idus Quinctiles coelo sereno interdiu obscurata lux est, quum luna sub orbem solis subisset. It is an important eclipse, in order to ascertain the exact relation of the calendar year at this time to the natural, and the amount of the irregularity which had been already generated in the former; though the regular administration of the calendar had been laid aside only eighteen years. The Kalends of January in this year of the city were falling on August 16 B. C. 191. The year before it they fell on August 4: and that was the 9 xxxvii. 4. cf. xxxvi. 45 : xxxvii. 1. greatest degree of deflection from their normal or rectified position in the calendar to which they ever attained. After U. C. 563 B. C. 192-191 they began to ascend upwards again and they never fell back so low as August 4 or August 16, a second time, down to the date of the Julian Correction itself. : U. C. 564 Varr. U. C. 563 Cap. U. C. 561 Polyb. B. C. 191–190. L. Cornelius Scipio (Asiaticus) Pingré, eclipsed March 14 7.30 A. M. Paris. B. C. 190. vi. Lunar Eclipse before the battle of Pydna. Livy alone has preserved the Roman date of the eclipse which preceded the battle of Pydna: though the fact itself of a lunar eclipse at that time is very generally attested г. Nocte, quam pridie Nonas Septembres sequuta est dies, edita hora (secunda sc. noctis usque ad quartam) luna quum defecissets. After which, Postero diet, the battle. The date in the calendar for the time being was consequently iii Nonas Septembres, reckoned from midnight to midnight. Eutropius makes this the date of the battle ; on which principle, if his text is not in error, he has confounded iii Nonas with ii Nonas, or Pridie Nonas. Some of our authorities (for instance Cicero) would imply that Gallus' explanation of the physical cause of the phenomenon was given the next morning; not (as Livy and others represent) the evening preceding, and before the eclipse itself. But this is a circumstance of dis r Polybius, xxix. 6. § 8. Cicero, De Republica, i. Valerius Max. viii. xi: 1 De effectibus artium raris. Pliny, H. N. ii. 9. Plutarch, Æmilius Paullus, xvii. Frontinus, De Strategematis, i. xii. 8. Justin, xxxiii. 1. § 7. Lydus, tinction between these different accounts which does not affect the date of the eclipse. U. C. 586 Varr. U. C. 585 Cap. U. C. 583 Polyb. B. C. 169-168. Pingré, D eclipsed June 21 7.45 P. M. Paris B. C. 168. SECTION III.-Eclipses, the fact of which and the year are known, but not the Roman date of the time being. i. Solar eclipse U. C. 537 Feb. 11 B. C. 217. U. C. 537 Varr. U. C. 536 Cap. U. C. 534 Polyb. B. C. 217. Cn. Servilius Geminus C. Flaminius ii. Decemviral Calendar, Cycle x. 16. 355 days. Kalendæ Januariæ January 25 mid. B. C. 217. xiii Kalendas Februarias Feb. 11 mid. An eclipse of the sun is incidentally mentioned by Livy, in the enumeration of certain prodigies or portents, the news of which reached Rome at the beginning of this consular year: Augebant metum prodigia ex pluribus simul locis nuntiata. in Sicilia militibus aliquot spicula, in Sardinia autem in muro circumeunti vigilias equiti scipionem quem manu tenuerat, arsisse . . . et solis orbem minui visumTM. w xxii. I. Cf. Orosius, iv. 15. who repeats this, after Livy, of the year of Thrasimen; Nam et solis orbis minui visus. |