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Plutarch's Lives Volume III. by Plutarch
page 35 of 738 (04%)
assist the Syracusans, and the Athenians began to perish from malaria,
even Nikias himself agreed that it was time to retreat, and issued
orders to his men to hold themselves in readiness to embark.

XXIII. When all was ready, and the enemy off their guard, as they did
not expect the Athenians to retreat, an eclipse of the moon took
place, which greatly terrified Nikias and some others who, from
ignorance or superstition, were in the habit of taking account of such
phenomena. That the sun should be sometimes eclipsed even the vulgar
understood to be in some way due to the moon intercepting its light:
but what body could intercept the moon's light, so that suddenly the
full moon should pale its light and alter its colour, they could not
explain, but thought that it was a sinister omen and portended some
great calamity.

The treatise of Anaxagoras, the first writer who has clearly and
boldly explained the phases and eclipses of the moon, was then known
only to a few, and had not the credit of antiquity, while even those
who understood it were afraid to mention it to their most trusted
friends. Men at that time could not endure natural philosophers and
those whom they called in derision stargazers, but accused them of
degrading the movements of the heavenly bodies by attributing them to
necessary physical causes. They drove Protagoras into exile, and cast
Anaxagoras into prison, from whence he was with difficulty rescued by
Perikles; while Sokrates, who never took any part in these
speculations, was nevertheless put to death because he was a
philosopher. It was not until after the period of which I am writing
that the glorious works of Plato shed their light upon mankind,
proving that Nature obeys a higher and divine law, and removing the
reproach of impiety which used to attach to those who study these
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