An eclipse known as that of Ennius is another of the eclipses antecedent to the Christian Era which has been the subject of full modern investigation, and the circumstances of which are such that, in the language of Professor Hansen, “it may be reckoned as one of the most certain and well-established eclipses of antiquity.” The record of it has only been brought to light in modern times by the discovery of Cicero’s Treatise, _De Republicâ_. According to Cicero,[50] Ennius the great Roman poet, who lived in the second century B.C., and who died of gout contracted, it is said, by frequent intoxication, recorded an interesting event in the following words:—_Nonis Junii soli luna obstetit et nox_, “On the Nones of June the Moon was in opposition to the Sun and night.” This singular phrase has long been assumed to allude to an eclipse of the Sun, but the precise interpretation of the words was not for a long time realised. In Cicero’s time the Nones of June fell on the 5th, but in the time of Ennius, who lived a century and a half before Cicero, the Nones of June fell between June 5 and July 4 on account of the lunar years and the intercalary month of the Roman Calendar. The date of this eclipse is distinctly known to be June 21, 400 B.C., but the hour was long in dispute. Professor Zech found that the Sun set at Rome eclipsed, and that the maximum phase took place after sun-set. Hansen, however, with his better Tables, found that the eclipse was total at Rome, and that the totality ended at 7.33 p.m., the Sun setting almost immediately afterwards at 7.36. This fact, Hansen considers, explains the otherwise unintelligible passage of Ennius quoted above: instead of saying _et nox_, he should have said _et simul nox_, “and immediately it was night.” Newcomb questions the totality of this eclipse, but assigns no clear reasons for his doubts.[51] On August 14, 394 B.C., there was a large eclipse of the Sun visible in the Mediterranean. It occurred in the forenoon, and is mentioned by Xenophon[52] in connection with a naval engagement in which the Persians were defeated by Conon. Plutarch, in his _Life of Pelopidas_, relates how one, Alexander of Pheræ, had devastated several cities of Thessaly, and that as soon as the oppressed inhabitants had learned that Pelopidas had come back from an embassy on which he had been to the King of Persia, they sent deputies to him to Thebes to beg the favour of armed assistance, with Pelopidas as general. “The Thebans willingly granted their request, and an army was soon got ready, but as the general was on the point of marching, the Sun began to be eclipsed, and the city was covered with darkness in the day-time.” This eclipse is generally identified with that of July 13, 364 B.C. If this is correct, Plutarch’s language must be incorrect, or at least greatly exaggerated, for no more than about three-fourths of the Sun was obscured.