s the
central line must have crossed far S. of Rome, the stars must have been
seen not at Rome but somewhere else.

An eclipse occurred on July 19, 418 A.D., which is remarkable for a
twofold reason. People had an opportunity not only of seeing an eclipse,
but also a comet. We owe the account of the circumstances to
Philostorgius,[69] who tells us that--"On July 19, towards the 8th hour
of the day, the Sun was so eclipsed, that even the stars were visible.
But at the same time that the Sun was thus hid, a light, in the form of
a cone was seen in the sky; some ignorant people called it a comet, but
in this light we saw nothing that announced a comet, for it was not
terminated by a tail; it resembled the flame of a torch, subsisting by
itself, without any star for its base. Its movement too was very
different from that of a comet. It was first seen to the E. of the
equinoxes; after that, having passed through the last star in the Bear's
tail, it continued slowly its journey towards the W. Having thus
traversed the heavens, it at length disappeared, having lasted more than
four months. It first appeared about the middle of the summer, and
remained visible until nearly the end of autumn."

Boillot, a French writer, has suggested that this description is that of
the zodiacal light, but this seems out of the question in view of the
details given by the Chinese of a comet having been visible in the
autumn of this year for 11 weeks, and having passed through the square
of Ursa Major. Reverting to the eclipse--Johnston finds that the greatest
phase at Constantinople, which was probably the place of observation,
occurred at about half an hour after noon, when a thin crescent of light
might have been seen on the northern limb of the Sun. From this it would
appear that the central line of eclipse must have passed somewhat to the
south of Constantinople. To the same effect Hind, who found that
95/100ths of the Sun's diameter was covered at Constantinople.

An eclipse of the Sun seems to be referred to by Gregorius Turonensis,
when he says[70] that:--"Then even the Sun appeared hideous, so that
scarcely a third part of it gave light, I believe on account of such
deeds of wickedness and shedding of innocent blood." This would seem to
have been the eclipse which occurred on February 24, 453 A.D., when
Attila and the Huns were ravaging Italy, and to them it was doubtless
that the writer alluded. At Rome three-fourths of the Sun's disc