Page:The Natural History of Pliny.djvu/139

 Chap. 73.] DURATION OF DAY. 105 in Armenia, between the eleventh and twelfth hour^ ; thus the curve of the globe both reveals and conceals different objects from the inhabitants of its different parts. If the earth had been flat, everything would have been seen at the same time, from every part of it, and the nights would not have been unequal; while the equal intervals of twelve hours, which are now observed only in the middle of the earth, would in that case have been the same everywhere. CHAP. 73. (71.) WHAT EEGULATES THE DAYLIGHT OS THE EARTH. Hence it is that there is not any one night and day the same, in all parts of the earth, at the same time ; the intervention of the globe producing night, and its turning round producing day'. This is known by various observations. In Africa and in Spain it is made evident by the Towers of HannibaP, and in Asia by the beacons, which, in consequence of their dread of pirates, the people erected for their protection ; for it has been frequently observed, that the signals, which were lighted a,t the sixth hour of the day, were seen at the third hour of the night by those who were the most remote"*. Philonides, a 1 "We have an account of Corbiilo's expedition to Armenia in Dion Cas- sius, ]x. 19-24, but there is no mention of the echpse or of any peculiar celestial phsenomenon. 2 The teiTHs employed in the original are " oppositu" and " ambitu." Alexandre's explanation of the first is, "quum globi teiTaquei crassitude interposita sohs arcet radios ;" and of the second, " quvun nostra hujus globi pars a sole ambitm" Lemaire, i. 389. 3 One of these towers is mentioned by Livy, xxxiii. 48 ; it is said to have been situated between AchoUa and Thapsus, on the sea-coast. and ingenuity to give a plausible explanation of tliis passage. Alexandre, as it must be confessed, with but too much reason, remarks, " Frustra desudavit Harduinus ut sanum aliquem scnsmn ex iUis Plinii delira- mentis excuteret." He correctly refers the interval of time, which was said to occur between these signals, not to any astronomical cause, but to the necessary delay which took place in the transmission of them. He concludes, " Sed ad cursum sohs hoc referre, dementia; est. Nam ut tanta horarum differentia iutersit, si moram onmem in speculandis ao trans- mittendLs signis sustuleris, necessc erit observatores illos ultimos 135 gradibus, id est, sesquidimidio hcmisplia?rio, a primis dislare turribus. Recte igitur incredibilem Plinii creduhtatem ludibrio vertit Uayhus in Dictionario suo." Lemaire, i. 389.
 * Hardouin, according to his usual custom, employs aU liis learning