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therefore, is, The Pleiades set in the morning on the second of April. But it will be seen from the table given above, that the Pleiades really set in the morning on the 9th of November. They set in the evening, however, on the 8th of April, which comes tolerably near to the date fixed, and is clearly the phenomenon the poet intended to record, but he blundered between the morning setting and the evening setting, which are six months apart.

Again, in Fast. V. 599.

Pleiades adspicies omnes, totumque sororum
Agmen, ubi ante Idus nox erit una super.
Tum mihi non dubiis auctoribus incipit æstas:
Et tepidi finem tempora veris habent.

The meaning here, although not very clearly expressed, is, The Pleiades rise in the morning (heliacally) on the 14th of May, marking the end of spring and the beginning of summer.

But it will be seen by the table, that at the time when Ovid wrote, the Pleiades did not rise heliacally at Rome until the 28th of May, but they did rise heliacally at Athens on the 16th, in the age of Meton. Hence this notice was manifestly copied from a Grecian Calendar computed for the fifth century, B.C.

We have already (p. 361) adverted to an error with regard to the rising of Sirius, which Ovid assigns to the last of April, the very day on which, according to Columella, who is here perfectly correct, it sets heliacally.

In the same passage (see extracts, p. 90.) we are told that the constellation Aries sets on the 30th of April. Here again, we have a mistake. The Occasus vespertinus apparens must be indicated, but it is placed more than five weeks too late, since it actually took place on the 20th of March, even the Occasus matutinus verus was on the 5th of April.

We have seen, p. 360, that Ovid fixes upon V. Id. Feb. (9th February) as the commencement of spring, and on VII. Kal. Mai. (25th April) as the middle point.

He departs here from the arrangement of Cæsar, who divided the year into eight portions according to the following scheme.1

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1 Compare Varro R. R. 1. 28. Plin. H. N. XVIII. 25. Columell. R. R. IX. 14.

The commencement of spring was marked by no celestial phenomenon, but announced by the soft breathings of Favonius, the beginning of summer was connected with the morning rising of the Pleiades, which, however, took place, the true on the 16th of April, the apparent on the 28th of May. The true evening setting of the Lyre was on the 14th of August, the apparent on the 24th. The true morning setting of the Pleiades on the 29th of October, the apparent on the 9th of November.

It may be a matter of surprise that Julius Cæsar did not begin his year with the winter solstice, which happened B. C. 46, at Rome on 24th December, Oh 9' A. M. He was probably induced to neglect this natural arrangement by a superstitious desire to make the beginning of the reformed calendar correspond with a New Moon. According to the calculation of Ideler, the mean New Moon fell upon the first of January, B. C. 45, at 16 minutes past six in the evening, the true New Moon on the second of January, at 34 minutes past one in the morning.

It seems highly probable that Macrobius alludes to this fact, when he observes,

Annum civilem Cæsar habitis ad lunam dimensionibus constitutum edicto palam posito publicavit ;

for in no other way could the Julian Year be said to have any connection with the course of the Moon.

In this Appendix the excellent work of Ideler, entitled "Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie," has been closely followed. The principal authorities with regard to the sidereal astronomy of the ancients are "Joannis F. Pfaff, Commentatio de Ortibus

et Occasibus siderum apud auctores classicos commemoratos." Gotting. 1786—a paper by Ideler, "Ueber den astronomischen Theil der Fasti des Ovid," in the Berlin Transactions for 1822-1823; and Symbolæ Observationum in Ovidii Fastos," by F. H. Gesenius, printed at Altona in 1806.

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