Among the Chinese they were long calculated, and, in fact, it is thought by some that they have pretended to a greater antiquity by calculating backwards, and recording as observed eclipses those which happened before they understood or noticed them. It seems, however, authenticated that they did in the year 2169 B.C. observe an eclipse of the sun, and that at that date they were in the habit of predicting them. For this particular eclipse is said to have cost several of the astronomers their lives, as they had not calculated it rightly. As the lives of princes were supposed to be dependent on these eclipses, it became high treason to expose them to such a danger without forewarning them. They paid more attention to the eclipses of the sun than of the moon.
Among the Babylonians the eclipses of the moon were observed from a very early date, and numerous records of them are contained in the Observations of Bel in Sargon's library, the tablets of which have lately been discovered. In the older portion they only record that on the 14th day of such and such a (lunar) month an eclipse takes place, and state in what watch it begins, and when it ends. In a later portion the observations were more precise, and the descriptions of the eclipse more accurate. Long before 1700 B.C. the discovery of the lunar cycle of 223 lunar months had been made, and by means of it they were able to state of each lunar eclipse, that it was either "according to calculation" or "contrary to calculation."
They dealt also with solar eclipses, and tried to trace on a sphere the path they would take on the earth. Accordingly, like the eclipses of the moon, these too were spoken of as happening either "according to calculation" or "contrary to calculation." "In a report sent in to one of the later kings of Assyria by the state astronomer, Abil Islar states that a watch had been kept on the 28th, 29th, and 30th of Sivan, or May, for an eclipse of the sun, which did not, however, take place after all. The shadow, it is clear, must have fallen outside the field of observation." Besides the more ordinary kind of solar eclipses, mention is made in the Observations of Bel of annular eclipses which, strangely enough, are seldom alluded to by classical writers.
A record of a later eclipse has been found by Sir Henry Rawlinson on one of the Nineveh Tablets. This occurred near that city in B.C. 763, and from the character of the inscription it may be inferred that it was a rare occurrence with them, indeed that it was nearly, if not quite, a total eclipse. This has an especial interest as being the earliest that we have any approximate date for.
It is possible that the remarkable phenomenon, alluded to by the prophet Isaiah, of the shadow going backwards ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz, may be really a record of an eclipse of the sun, such as astronomy proves to have occurred at Jerusalem in the year 689 B.C.
We have very little notice of the calculation of eclipses by the Egyptians; all that is told us is more or less fabulous. Thus Diogenes Laertius says that they reckoned that during a period of 48,863 years, 373 eclipses of the sun and 832 eclipses of the moon had occurred, which is far fewer than the right number for so long a time, and which, of course, has no basis in fact.
Among the Greeks, Anaxagoras was the first who entertained clear ideas about the nature of eclipses; and it was from him that Pericles learnt their harmlessness.
Plutarch relates that Helicon of Cyzicus predicted an eclipse of the sun to Dionysius of Syracuse, and received as a reward a talent of silver.
Livy records an eclipse of the sun as having taken place on the 11th of Quintilis, which corresponds to the 11th of July. It happened during the Appollinarian games, 190 B.C.