Page:Historical eclipses.djvu/33

 in the way of a supposition that he sailed north of Sicily. If he sailed south, we should expect him to be still to the south of the zone of totality when the eclipse was seen next morning. But I cannot say that the southern route was impossible. If he kept in close to land, a voyage of seventy-five miles or thereabouts would bring him to the southern edge of the belt of totality. And who shall say for certain that he did not make seventy-five miles by the morning after he set sail? It must be remembered that on the first day he had to run for his life. On the other hand, the speed of a fleet is that of its slowest ships, and, whatever might be done by individual ships, seventy-five miles is a liberal estimate for a fleet of sixty ships in a voyage of part of a day and the following night. The whole voyage, which occupied six days and six nights, is only 270 miles. Moreover, he probably did not keep close to land, since he purposely kept both his own men and his enemy ignorant of his destination, and the further he went from the land, the further he would have to go before coming within the zone of total eclipse as I have drawn it. I infer, therefore, that he probably sailed to the north, but I admit that the conclusion falls short of certainty. Ginzel has deliberately adopted values for the astronomical terms so as to satisfy both assumptions as to the route traversed. This seems to me to be an attempt to gain more for astronomy from history than the evidence warrants.

Eclipse of Pydna.

The last ancient eclipse to which I will draw your attention is the total eclipse of the Moon which happened in B.C. 168 June 21. Like most of those recorded in Greek and Roman history, it is connected with military operations, and the more distant the authors who