An Account of the Eclipse Predicted by Thales; By the Rev. William Stukeley, M. D.

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[ 221 ]

XXXIII. An Account of the Eclipfe pre-
diSied by Thales \ by the Rev. William
Stukeley, M. D.

Read May 3 , x <r THILST I lived in Lincolnshire, I
»753* yy was v ifited by Mr, Edmund Wea-
ver, who was a very uncommon genius* particularly
he had made himfelf a great mafter of aftronomyi and
was fcarcely to be accounted the fecond in the king-
dom. He compofed complete tables of the celeftial
motions, which he was very much folicited to pub-
lifh \ but the world waited for Dr. Halley's.

Thefe tables were fhewn to Dr. Halley : we may
have a notion of their value from what the dodtor
faid thereupon, that he fufpedtedy Mr. Weaver had
feen his tables. He was well known to, and much
efteemed, by Mr. Martin Folkes. He taught himfelf
writing, arithmetic, algebra, fome fublime parts of
the mathematics, the whole art and fcience of aftro-
nomy; as his annual publications fufficiently evince..
He was an inftance of great merit in obfeurity : he
died in a little hoqfe of his own, foon after I re-
moved to London, Dec. 27, 174S. and was buried
at Cathorp near Grantham.

Thus much I thought proper to commemorate of
this worthy perfon. An intimacy grew up between
him and myfelf during that twenty years I lived in
the country , nor was it unfruitful ; for we often
agreeably entertained ourfelves in calculations of
aftronomy, with a view to antient hiftory. One of
them I here produce before the Society, done many

years

[ 222 ]

years ago ; but, upon hearing that read on the fame
fubjetft from Mr. Coftard, it put me in mind of it,
and I hope it will be an acceptable illustration and
confirmation of that famous piece of hiftory, the
eclipfe predi&edby Thales the Milefian; which hap-
pened in the 603 year before the Christian aera.

I fhall recite the hiftory of this matter, as con-
cifely as I can, from the hiftorians and writers, tho*
they all miftake the year. But this fhews the ad-
mirable ufe to be made of aftronomy in afcer taining
matters of hiftory.

The great king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, was
now bufy in executing the vengeance, which God
had made him the inftrument of, upon the nation 0$
the Jews, for their incorrigible wkkednefs and folly.
Their king Jehoiaehin was carried away captive to
Babylon* and kept in prifon 37 years together, till
he died.

At this time there was a fharp war between the
Medes and Lydians, of which Herodotus give us an
account Halyattes, father of the famous Croefus,
was now king of the Lydians.

After the Medes had conquered all the upper or
northern part of Afia, from the old poffeffors the
Scythians, they again extended theit borders to the
river Halys in Lefler Afia, the boundary between
Cappadocia and Armenia, or between the Lydians
and Medes. It was not long before there happened
a war between thefe nations, which continued for
five years together, with various fuccefs*

In the fixth year they engaged each other, with

the utmoft of their ftrength 5 intending to rtiake that

battle decifive of the quarrel, that was between them:

5 but,

C 223 ]

but, in the midft of the engagement, whilft the
fortune of the day feem'd to hang in an equal balance,
there happened a total eclipfe of the fun, which over-
fpread both armies with a horrible darknefsj info-
much that, being affrighted at fuch a critical judg-
ment of heaven (as they thought it), both fides put
up their fwords ; and they agreed to refer the con-
troverfy between them to two arbitrators, Halyattes*
king of Lydia, chofe Siennefis, king of Cilicia * Cy-
axares, the Median monarch, chofe Nebuchadnezzar,
now bufy in leading the Jews into captivity.

Nebuchadnezzar is by Herodotus called Libynetus*
It feems to me, that the letter N, fn the beginning
of the word, has, in the antient copies of "Herodotus,
been turned into A 5 and then the words, in two
different diale&s, are not very different.

Thefe great arbitrators compromifed the matter be-
tween the contending parties, by making a match
between the two royal families 5 and fo reftor'd peace
and friendftiip. Aftyages, the fon of Cyaxares, king
of Media, married Ariena, daughter of Halyattes,,
king of Lydia, of whom, a year after, was born
Cyaxares, whom the prophet Daniel calls Darius the
Mede. And in that laft mention'd year, king Cyax-
ares gave his daughter Mandane in marriage to Cam-
byfes king of Perfia 5 of whom, the next year, was
born the great Cyrus, the founder of the Perfian mon-
archy, whom the prophet Ifaiah foretold by name,
that he fhould reftore the polity of the Jews, the city
of Jerufalem, and the temple, and return the facred
veffels of gold and filver, which Nebuchadnezzar
had carried away, .and put into his heathen temple at
Babylon.

Thus

[ 224 J

Thus ended this famous quarrel between the Medes
and Lydians, thro* the timely event of a total folar
eclipfe, made ftill the more eminent, that it was cal-
culated, and foretold to the Ionians by Thales of
Miletus, at that time in the 37 year of his age*
He was born of Phoenician parents ; and there, no
doubt, learned his knowlege in aftronomy. He was
the firft, who brought this fcience into Greece, and
that 300 years after the pretended Chiron of the
Argonauts.

It is an invincible argument, that he learned his
art; for a whole life is not fufficient, fo to obferve
the motions of fun and moon, as to be able to calcu-
late an eclipfe.

This is the firft eclipfe, which we have recorded
in fo circumftantial a manner. Notwithftanding all
this, it is ftrange to fee, how the learned have erred
about the true year tof this memorable affair.

Pliny begins the miftake, telling us, that it was
the fourth year of the XLVIII Olympiad ; whereas
it was the fourth year of the XLIIL It is not un-
likely, the numeral letter V is crept into the original.
Clemens Alexandrinus makes it about the fiftieth
Olympiad. Dr. Prideaux makes it f years too late j
Archbifhop Ufher 2 years. Sir Ifaac Newton gives
us the true month and day, but afiigns the j8jt year,
as Ricciolus.

I have defigned the map here exhibited, from my
friend Weaver's calculation (Fig. IX.), which will
prefent us with a juft notion of the whole affair. It
is a projection of the moon's fhade, as it paffed over
the earth's furface from 20 to 60 degrees of longitude
eaft from London j and from 25 to ^50 degrees of

north

^5^ tn&0MJ <duufe, tn-tAe imal^om^r eefjfa
tms^riday may yt8.4ne Soa^^ea^^y^e CHRIST, itfutf 0*1 end-to y /
*%y *jU %jD *fXJ

y 40 ^5 bO 55 * 60

^Fy S.JfjnJ*J+. 66

C 225 ]

iior th latitude, with the hours, half-hours, and quar-
ters of time, where vertical. This was on the 18 of
May in the proleptic Julian ftyle ; in the year of the
Julian period 41 1 1, the 603 year before the vulgar
aera of Chrift.

The eclipfe was total 4 minutes and a half, where
the battle was fought. The (hade enters our map, in
the defert of Barca in Africa, foon after <> o' clock
in the morning. It traverfes the mediterranean fea,
and ifle of Cyprus ; enters Afia Minor at Cilicia, a
little before 1 1 ,* about half an hour after, it paffes
the city now called Erzerum ; near which I fuppofe
the battle was fought, as being at the boundary be-
tween the two kingdoms. It is between the river
Halys, and the river Melas, on which was the antient
city Melitene. The river Melas runs eaftward into
the Euphrates. At half an hour after 12, the fhade
enter'd upon the Cafpian fea, and at 1 upon the Kal-
muc Tartary.

We fee here an authentic parapegtna in antient
hiftory, deduced from aftronomy : and we fee a re-
markable inftance, brought about by Divine Provi-
dence, of a moft furious war, terminated by the in-
tervention of an eclipfe. But eclipfes, fay we, are
natural and neceffary phenomena, confequent to the
eftabliihed motions of the celeftial bodies. True ;
Providence ordered them at the beginning, as well as
comets, and earthquakes, and the like portentous ap-
pearances, as antiquity rightly denominated them,
and regarded them : but Providence did not there-
by reftrain its own power and authority, to render
them at the fame time of moral ufe. Providence
can fo over -rule the adtions of us men, as to bring
them to coincide with thefe fore-ordain'd and necef-

F f fary

[226]

fstry motions* Co as to prove himfelf the Governor
both of the natural and moral world $ tho' improv'd
philofophy has given us a juftfer notion of thefe mat-
ters than the antients had. I wifh our religious fen-
timents may advance, in proportion to our improved
philofophy.
March 16, 1753.

Wm. Stukeiey.

XXXIV.. A farther Account of the Giant'x
Caufeway in the County ^Antrim in Ire-
land, by the Rev. Richard Pocock, LL.D.
Archdeacon of Dublin, and F. R. S.

Bead May 24,TTN a letter, which I wrote in 1747 to
1753. J^ Martin Folkes, Efq ; Prefident of the
Royal Society, which was read in January, and.
printed in the Philofophical Tranfafitions for that-
month, I obferved, in relation to the Giant's Caufe-
way, that there appeared in the Sea-cliffs three ftrata
of pillars between thirty and forty feet high, with
ftrata of a black rock between them y that the caufe-
way itfelf was the loweft of all thefe, extending in
a point into the fea ; and that another is feen towards
the top of the cliff.

Laft fummer I took another view of it; I went
from Bally -Caftle, which is about 10 miles to the eaft
of the Caufeway. When I came two miles to the
weft of Bally- Caftle, within lefs than a mile of Bal-
lintoy, half a mile to the fouth of the fea-cliffs, and
about a quarter to the fouth of the road, 1 faw the

fame