[Footnote 56: Simplicius, (who quotes Porphyry,) de Coelo,
l. ii. com. xlvi p. 123, lin. 18, apud Marsham, Canon.
Chron. p. 474, who doubts the fact, because it is adverse to
his systems. The earliest date of the Chaldaean
observations is the year 2234 before Christ. After the
conquest of Babylon by Alexander, they were communicated at
the request of Aristotle, to the astronomer Hipparchus.
What a moment in the annals of science!]