Event #2675: Solar eclipse recorded by Ennius, reported by Cicero

Text #3717

Afterwards our Ennius¹ appears to have been acquainted with the same theory², for he wrote in the 350th year of Rome’s foundation, that in the nones of June, Soli luna obstitit et nox—“the sun was covered by the moon and night.” The calculations of astronomic art have attained such perfection, indeed, in this respect, that from that day, thus described to us by Ennius, and the pontifical registers, the anterior eclipses of the sun have been computed as far back as the nones of July in the reign of Romulus, when that eclipse took place, in whose portentous obscurity, it was affirmed that Virtue bore Romulus to heaven, in spite of the perishable nature, which urged him to the common fate of humanity.³

1. c. 239 BC – c. 169 BC, the father of Roman poetry. [nE] ↩

2. The theory of Anaxagoras who was credited with discovering the causes of eclipses, i.e. the interposition of another body between earth and the sun or the moon. [nE] ↩

3. i.e. the Apotheosis of Romulus. [nE] ↩