Abstract

Plutarch's dialogue De facie in orbe lunae contains a mention of an eclipse, the identification of which would give a terminus post quern, for the composition of the work. The speaker is the Etruscan Lucius, the Pythagorean friend of Sulla the Carthaginian, and his words are as follows : ‘Concede me this, remembering this recent eclipse, which, beginning immediately after midday , caused many stars to appear in many quarters of the sky.’ For such a phenomenon to occur the eclipse must have been nearly or quite total