CHAP. 9. (12.)—AN ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVATIONS THAT
HAVE BEEN MADE ON THE HEAVENS BY DIFFERENT INDIVIDUALS.
The first among the Romans, who explained to the people
at large the cause of the two kinds of eclipses, was Sulpicius
Gallus, who was consul along with Marcellus; and
when he was only a military tribune he relieved the army
from great anxiety the day before king Perseus was conquered by
Paulus[1]; for he was brought by the general into
a public assembly, in order to predict the eclipse, of which
he afterwards gave an account in a separate treatise. Among
the Greeks, Thales the Milesian first investigated the subject, in the fourth year of the forty-eighth olympiad, predicting the eclipse of the sun which took place in the reign
of Alyattes, in the 170th year of the City[2]. After them Hipparchus calculated the course of both these stars for the term
of 600 years[3], including the months, days, and hours, the
situation of the different places and the aspects adapted to
each of them; all this has been confirmed by experience,
and could only be acquired by partaking, as it were, in the
councils of nature. These were indeed great men, superior
to ordinary mortals, who having discovered the laws of these
divine bodies, relieved the miserable mind of man from the
fear which he had of eclipses, as foretelling some dreadful
events or the destruction of the stars. This alarm is freely
acknowledged in the sublime strains of Stesichorus and Pindar, as being produced by an eclipse of the sun[4]. And with
respect to the eclipse of the moon, mortals impute it to
witchcraft, and therefore endeavour to aid her by producing
discordant sounds. In consequence of this kind of terror it
was that Nicias, the general of the Athenians, being ignorant
of the cause, was afraid to lead out the fleet, and brought
great distress on his troops[5]. Hail to your genius, ye interpreters
of heaven! ye who comprehend the nature of
things, and who have discovered a mode of reasoning by
which ye have conquered both gods and men[6]! For who is
there, in observing these things and seeing the labours[7]
which the stars are compelled to undergo (since we have
chosen to apply this term to them), that would not cheerfully submit
to his fate, as one born to die? I shall now,
in a brief and summary manner, touch on those points in
which we are agreed, giving the reasons where it is necessary
to do so; for this is not a work of profound argument, nor
is it less wonderful to be able to suggest a probable cause for
everything, than to give a complete account of a few of
them only.
1. This eclipse is calculated to have occurred on the 28th of June, 168
B.C.; Brewster's Encyc. "Chronology," p. 415, 424. We have an account
of this transaction in Livy, xliv. 37, and in Plutarch, Life of Paulus
Æmilius, Langhorne's trans. ii. 279; he however does not mention the
name of Gallus. See also Val. Maximus, viii. 11. 1, and Quintilian, i.
10. Val. Maximus does not say that Gallus predicted the eclipse, but
explained the cause of it when it had occurred; and the same statement
is made by Cicero, De Repub. i. 15. For an account of Sulpicius, see
Hardouin's Index auctorum, Lemaire, i. 214.
2. An account of this event is given by Herodotus, Clio, § 74. There
has been the same kind of discussion among the commentators,
respecting the dates in the text, as was noticed above, note 4, p.
29: see the
remarks of Brotier and of Marcus in Lemaire and Ajasson, in
loco. Astronomers have calculated that the eclipse took place May
28th, 585 B.C.;
Brewster, ut supra, pp. 414,419.
3. Hipparchus is generally regarded as the first astronomer who
prosecuted the science in a regular and systematic manner. See
Whewell,
C. 3. p. 169 et seq., 177–179. He is supposed to have made
his observations between the years 160 and 125 B.C. He made a
catalogue of the
fixed stars, which is preserved in Ptolemy's Magn. Const. The only
work of his now extant is his commentary on Aratus; it is contained in
Petau's Uranologie. We find, among the ancients, many traces of their
acquaintance with the period of 600 years, or what is termed the great
year, when the solar and lunar phenomena recur precisely at the same
points. Cassini, Mem. Acad., and Bailly, Hist. Anc. Astron., have shown
that there is an actual foundation for this opinion. See the remarks of
Marcus in Ajasson, ii. 302, 303.
4. Seneca, the tragedian, refers to this superstitious opinion in some
beautiful verses, which are given to the chorus at the termination of the
fourth act of the Thyestes.
5. We have an account of this event in Thucydides, Smith's trans. ii.
244, and in Plutarch, Langhorne's trans. iii. 406. It is calculated to
have happened Aug. 27th, 413 B.C.; Brewster, ut supra, p. 415, 421.
6. The elegant lines of Ovid, in his Fasti, i. 297 et seq., express the
same sentiment: "Felices animos, quibus hoc cognoscere primis," &c.
7. I have already remarked upon the use of this term as applied to the
eclipses of the moon in note4, p. 31.