After CHRIST. | | 59 | _April_ 30 | An Eclipse of the Sun. This is reckoned among | | the prodigies, on account of the murther of | | _Agrippinus_ by _Nero_. | | 237 | _April_ 12 | A total Eclipse of the Sun. A sign that the reign | | of the _Gordiani_ would not continue long. A sixth | | persecution of the Christians. | | 306 | _July_ 27 | An Eclipse of the Sun. The Stars were seen, | | and the Emperor _Constantius_ died. | | 840 | _May_ 4 | A dreadful Eclipse of the Sun. And _Lewis_ the | | Pious died within six months after it. | | 1009 | ---- | An Eclipse of the Sun. And _Jerusalem_ taken by | | the _Saracens_. | | 1133 | _Aug._ 2 | A terrible Eclipse of the Sun. The Stars were | | seen. A schism in the church, occasioned by there | | being three Popes at once. [Illustration: Plate XI. _J. Ferguson delin._ _J. Mynde Sculp._] [Sidenote: The superstitious notions of the antients with regard to Eclipses. PLATE XI.] 329. I have not cited one half of RICCIOLUS’s list of potentous Eclipses; and for the same reason that he declines giving any more of them than what that list contains: namely, that ’tis most disagreeable to dwell any longer on such nonsense, and as much as possible to avoid tiring the reader: the superstition of the antients may be seen by the few here copied. My author farther says, that there were treatises written to shew against what regions the malevolent effects of any particular Eclipse was aimed: and the writers affirmed, that the effects of an Eclipse of the Sun continued as many years as the Eclipse lasted hours; and that of the Moon as many months. [Sidenote: Very fortunate once for CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.] 330. Yet such idle notions were once of no small advantage to CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS; who, in the year 1493, was driven on the island of _Jamaica_, where he was in the greatest distress for want of provisions, and was moreover refused any assistance from the inhabitants; on which he threatened them with a plague, and that in token of it there should be an Eclipse: which accordingly fell on the day he had foretold, and so terrified the Barbarians, that they strove who should be first in bringing him all sorts of provisions; throwing them at his feet, and imploring his forgiveness. RICCIOLUS’s _Almagest_, Vol. I. 1. v. c. ii. [Sidenote: Why there are more visible Eclipses of the Moon than of the Sun.]