xed
for Christ's public ministry. This eclipse was for a long time, and by
various writers, associated with the darkness which prevailed at
Jerusalem on the day of our Lord's Crucifixion, but there seems no
warrant whatever for associating the two events. The Crucifixion
darkness was assuredly a supernatural phenomenon, and there is nothing
supernatural in a total eclipse of the Sun. To this it may be added that
both Tertullian at the beginning of the 3rd century and Lucian, the
martyr of Nicomedia, who died in 312, appealed to the testimony of
national archives then in existence, as witnessing to the fact that a
supernatural darkness had prevailed at the time of Christ's death.
Moreover, the generally recorded date of the Crucifixion, namely, April
3, A.D. 33, would coincide with a full Moon. As it happened, that full
Moon suffered eclipse, but she emerged from the Earth's shadow about a
quarter of an hour before she rose at Jerusalem (6 h. 36 m. p.m.): the
penumbra continued upon her disc for an hour afterwards.

Speaking of the Emperor Claudius, Dion Cassius[63] says:--"There was
going to be an eclipse on his birthday. Claudius feared some
disturbance, as there had been other prodigies, so he put forth a public
notice, not only that the obscuration would take place and about the
time and magnitude of it, but also about the causes which produce such
events." This is an interesting statement, especially in view of what I
have said on a previous page about the indifference of the Romans to
Astronomy. It would, likewise, be interesting to know how Claudius
acquired his knowledge, and who coached him up in the matter. This
eclipse occurred on August 1, A.D. 45. Barely half the Sun's diameter
was covered.

Philostratus[64] states that "about this time while he was pursuing his
studies in Greece such an omen was observable in the heavens. A crown
resembling Iris surrounded the disc of the Sun and darkened its rays."
"About this time" is to be understood as referring to some date shortly
preceding the death of the Emperor Domitian which occurred on September
18, A.D. 96. This has usually been regarded as the earliest allusion to
what we now call the Sun's "Corona"; or, as an alternative idea, that
the allusion is simply to an annular eclipse of the Sun. But both these
theories have been called in question; by Johnston because he cannot
find an eclipse which in his view of things will respond as regards date
to the statemen