Note 69 — CHAP. XVIII. Of Eclipses: Their Number and Periods. A large Catalogue of Ancient and Modern Eclipses.

Each Olympiad began at the time of Full Moon next after the Summer Solstice, and lasted four years, which were of unequal lengths because the time of Full Moon differs 11 days every year: so that they might sometimes begin on the next day after the Solstice, and at other times not till four weeks after it. The first Olympiad began in the year of the Julian Period 3938, which was 776 years before the first year of Christ, or 775 before the year of his birth; and the last Olympiad, which was the 293d, began A. D. 393. At the expiration of each Olympiad, the Olympic Games were celebrated in the Elean fields, near the river Alpheus in the Peloponnesus (now Morea) in honour of Jupiter Olympus. See Strauchius’s Breviarium Chronologium, p. 247-251.