ASTRONOMY.

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in at a certain time before; called likewise Annus mun-danus, or yertens. Macrob. in Somn . Svip. ii. 11.Censorin. 18, which was supposed to contain 12,954 years.Serv. in Ibidem, or 15,000 years. Macrob. ibid, the begin-ing of this, or any other period was called an epoch.

The lunar cycle began 432 years before the commence-ment of our era, JElian, xiii. 2.; and according to it theGreek calendars, which determined the celebration of theirannual feasts, &c. were adjusted. Meteon is said to havederived his knowledge of this subject from Chaldea. (Videthe succeeding article, word Sorros.)

The opinions of the subsequently registered astronomer,Xonopiianes, founder of the Eleatic school, are so trulymonstrous, that after the light which had appeared, he musthave travelled with his eyes shut; or else the rage fornovelty alike affected the scientific of Greece , as it didtheir literati; choosing to travel a long way for newthoughts, when they might have found much better at hand.Xonopiianes, among other whimsical opinions, main-tained that the stars were extinguished every morning,and illuminated every evening, Plut. ibid. ii. 13. ; that thesun is an inflamed cloud, ibid. c. 20; that eclipses happenby the extinction of the sun, which is afterwards lightedup, c. 24; that the moon is ten times larger than the earth;that there are many suns and many moons to illuminedifferent climates. Plutarch , ibid. Lactan. Divin. In-stit. iii. 23.

The Eleatic school, was chiefly famous for the study oflogic, Logica vel dialectica, or the art of ratiocination, firstinvented by Zeno, of Elea. Cic. Orat. 32. Those of thissect paid but little attention to sciences, or the study ofnature. Philosophy was anciently divided into three parts,natural, moral, and the art of reasoning, called Dialectica ,vel Logica. Plutarch, de Placit Philosoph. pronom .Xonopiianes,. was followed by Parmenides, his scholar ,who, in addition to his master’s absurdities, taught that theearth was habitable in only .the two temperate zones,Plutarch, de Placit. Philosoph . iii. 11; that the earth wassuspended in the middle of the universe, in a fluid lighterthan air; that all bodies left to themselves, light on its sur-face, Ibid. 15. This bore a slight resemblance to the New-tonian doctrine of attraction.

Democritus of Abdera, a scholar of Leucippus , whoflourished 456 years before Christ, was the first publisher ofthe Atomic Cosmogony, invented by Mochus, the Phoeni-cian, said to have been received by his master Leucippus .