--399, June 21; eclipse of Ennius. Totality occurred immediately after sunset at Rome. The identity of this eclipse is doubtful. --309, August 14; eclipse of Agathocles. This eclipse would be one of the most valuable for testing the tables of the moon, but for an uncertainty as to the location of Agathocles, who, at the time of the occurrence, was at sea on a voyage from Syracuse to Carthage. F.K. Ginzel (_Spezieller Kanon der Finsternisse_) has collected a great number of passages from classical authors supposed to refer to eclipses of the sun or moon, but the difficulty of identifying the phenomenon is frequently such as to justify great doubt as to the conclusions. In a few cases no eclipse corresponding to the description can be found by our modern table to have occurred, and in others the latitude of interpretation and the uncertainty of the date are so wide that the eclipse cannot be identified. Of medieval eclipses we mention only the dates of those visible in England, referring for details to the works mentioned in the bibliography. The letter C following a date shows that the eclipse is mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. The dates in question are:-- A.D. 538, February 15, C. (partial). | A.D. 878, October 29, C. 540, June 12, C. (partial). | 885, June 15. 594, July 23. | 1023, January 24. 603, August 12. | 1133, August 1, C. 639, September 3. | 1140, March 20, C. 664, May 1, C. | 1185, May 1, C. 733, August 14 (annular). | 1191, June 23, C. (annular). 764, June 4 (annular). | 1330, July 16. Besides these, the tables show that the shadow of the moon passed over some part of the British Islands on 1424, June 26; 1433, June 17; 1598, March 6; 1652, April 8; 1715, May 2; 1724, May 22. Of these the eclipse of 1715 is notable for the careful observations made in England, and published by Halley in the _Philosophical Transactions_. The next dates are 1927, June 29, when a barely total eclipse will be seen soon after sunrise in the northern counties near the Scottish border, and 1999, August 11, when the moon's shadow will graze England at Land's End.