tation of the words
was not for a long time realised. In Cicero's time the Nones of June
fell on the 5th, but in the time of Ennius, who lived a century and a
half before Cicero, the Nones of June fell between June 5 and July 4 on
account of the lunar years and the intercalary month of the Roman
Calendar. The date of this eclipse is distinctly known to be June 21,
400 B.C., but the hour was long in dispute. Professor Zech found that
the Sun set at Rome eclipsed, and that the maximum phase took place
after sun-set. Hansen, however, with his better Tables, found that the
eclipse was total at Rome, and that the totality ended at 7.33 p.m., the
Sun setting almost immediately afterwards at 7.36. This fact, Hansen
considers, explains the otherwise unintelligible passage of Ennius
quoted above: instead of saying _et nox_, he should have said _et simul
nox_, "and immediately it was night." Newcomb questions the totality of
this eclipse, but assigns no clear reasons for his doubts.[51]

On August 14, 394 B.C., there was a large eclipse of the Sun visible in
the Mediterranean. It occurred in the forenoon, and is mentioned by
Xenophon[52] in connection with a naval engagement in which the Persians
were defeated by Conon.

Plutarch, in his _Life of Pelopidas_, relates how one, Alexander of
Pherae, had devastated several cities of Thessaly, and that as soon as
the oppressed inhabitants had learned that Pelopidas had come back from
an embassy on which he had been to the King of Persia, they sent
deputies to him to Thebes to beg the favour of armed assistance, with
Pelopidas as general. "The Thebans willingly granted their request, and
an army was soon got ready, but as the general was on the point of
marching, the Sun began to be eclipsed, and the city was covered with
darkness in the day-time." This eclipse is generally identified with
that of July 13, 364 B.C. If this is correct, Plutarch's language must
be incorrect, or at least greatly exaggerated, for no more than about
three-fourths of the Sun was obscured.

On February 29, 357 B.C., there happened an eclipse, also visible in or
near the Mediterranean. This is supposed to have been the eclipse for
the prediction of which Helicon, a friend of Plato, received from
Dionysius, King of Syracuse, payment in the shape of a talent.

We have now to consider another ancient eclipse which has a history of
peculiar interest as regards the investigations to which it has been
subjected.