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HISTORY OF PHYSICAL ASTRONOMY.
pened in the first year of the Peloponnesian war. He mentions that ittook place about noon, and that several stars were visible*. The languageof the writer is somewhat equivocal with respect to the question whetherit was a total or a partial eclipse. Kepler considers it to have been totalt.It occurred on the 3rd of August, 431 a.c.
Diodorus Siculus relates that a total eclipse of the sun happened whenAgathocles, king of Syracuse , was proceeding with his fleet to Africa.He affirms that the darkness was so great as to bring on the appearanceof night, and that stars were visible in all directions. This eclipse iscomputed to have occurred on the 15th of August, 310 a.c.
Philostratus, in his “ Life of Apollonius, ” mentions that the death ofDomitian , the Roman emperor, was previously announced by a pheno-menon which appears to have been no other than a total eclipse of thesun. “In the heavens,” says he, “there appeared a prodigy of thisnature: a certain corona, resembling the Iris, surrounded the orb of thesun and obscured his light.” It follows from a remark which he after-wards makes in reference to this event, that the darkness was so great asto cause the appearance of night. The corona to which Apollonius alludesis a phenomenon that is generally seen around the dark body of the moonduring a total eclipse of the sun. A more detailed account respecting itwill be given presently. This eclipse has been referred to the year95 A.D.
Plutarch , in his “Dissertation on the Lunar Spots,” alludes to a totaleclipse of the sun which had recently happened about mid-day. Thedarkness was so great as to cause the day to resemble night. Stars wereeverywhere visible. This eclipse must have occurred towards the close of thefirst century, or early in the beginning of the second. Kepler states thathe calculated a great many eclipses which occurred about the year 100 a.d.,and that he found no one which agreed better with the words of Plutarch than a total eclipse of the sun which happened in the year 113 a.d.It is not improbable, however, that it is identical with the eclipse men-tioned by Philostratus , the date of which is necessarily antecedent to themonth of September, 90 a.d.
Total eclipses of the sun are also recorded to have happened in theyears 237, 300, 418, 484, 787, 842, 878, 957, 1113.
It has been mentioned that Halley, in a paper communicated to theRoyal Society , alludes to a total eclipse of the sun which ^happened atLondon on the 20th of March, 1140 a.d. The illustrious astronomerdoes not state in very explicit terms whether his knowledge of thiseclipse is founded upon records of its actual occurrence, or upon a strictcalculation of its date by means of the solar and lunar tables. NeitherKepler nor Riccioli makes any allusion to a total eclipse of the sun havingoccurred in this year. The following passages extracted from the worksof contemporary writers will shew, however, that it was not allowed topass unrecorded.
In the section of the Saxon Chronicle which relates to the events of theyear 1140, there appears this statement: “ In the Lent the sun and theday darkened about the noontide of the day, when men were eating; andthey lighted candles to eat by. That was the thirteenth day before thecalends of April. Men were very much struck with wonder.”} The
* Thucyd., lib. ii. 4 Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, p. 292.