Note 148 — Chapter IV

Ἥλιον δὲ νεφέλη προκαλύψασα ἠφάνισε.] This reading has been adopted by Dindorf and others, from a conjecture of Brodæus or Muretus; the manuscripts have all ἥλιος δὲ νεφέλην προκάλυψας, except two, one of which has the ν erased in νεφέλην, and the other νεφέλῃ. Those who read with Dindorf refer to Plutarch de Placit. Philosoph. ii. 24, where the cause of an eclipse of the sun is said by some philosophers to be a condensation of clouds imperceptibly advancing over the disc. Bornemann and Kühner restore the reading of the manuscripts, which Langius thus interprets: sol nubem sibi prætendens se obscuravit; than which no better explanation has been offered. That we are not to suppose an eclipse of the sun to be signified in the text, is well observed by Bornemann; as Thales had previously ascertained the causes of such eclipses, and had foretold one, according to Herodotus i. 74; hence it is impossible to believe that Xenophon would have spoken of a solar eclipse himself, or have made the inhabitants speak of one, so irrationally. Hutchinson and Zeune absurdly understand τὴν πόλιν with ἠφάνισε.