The Hipparchian modification of the Callippic cycle is based on his result that

the tropical year is shorter than the julian year by about 1 day in 300 years.6 The
multiple of 19 nearest to 300 is 304 = 76·4. Hence we know that a cycle of 304
years should contain not only 304 . 12 + 112 = 3760 synodic months but also the
number of 304·365 1/4-1 = 111 035 days. 7 Hence one year would obtain the
length of365;14,48,9, ... days, only slightly more than the estimate 365 1/4-1/300=
365;14,48. For the mean synodic month one also finds a good approximation
29;31,50,6,22, ... of the Babylonian value 29;31,50,8,20 which was otherwise
adopted by Hipparchus 8 and which is considerably better than in the Callippic
cyc1e. 9
Ginzel stated, 1 0 in my opinion correctly, that the Hipparchian cycle was
never practically employed. Dinsmoor 11 tried to demonstrate that not only traces
of actual use can be found but also that its chronological applications could be
almost completely restored, beginning with -144 July 21. All this requires such a
mass of complicated and unprovable hypotheses 12 that I can only consider them
as a confirmation of Ginzel's conclusion.
C. Constant of Precession; Trepidation
In a preceding section 1 we reviewed the considerations which led us to ascribe
to Hipparchus the estimate
3651/41/144days=365;15,25d (1)
for the length of the sidereal year. This number is arrived at by assuming 10 per
century as constant of precession, in combination with the accepted length of
365;14,48d for the tropical year. From a remark in the Almagest 2 we know,
however, that Hipparchus considered a precession of 10 per century only as a
lower limit and therefore it is quite permissible to look for a higher estimate for the
precession in Hipparchus' work.
Evidence in this direction has indeed turned Up.3 Among the numerical relations
underlying the Hipparchian lunar theory Ptolemy mentions 4
126007d 1 h = 345 sid. rot. of the sun - 7;300 (2)
6 Cf. above p. 293.
7 The insight that the Hipparchian cycle is motivated by his estimate for the length of the tropical
year
is due to Ideler, Chron. I, p. 352; also Ginzel, Hdb. II, p. 390.
8 Cf. below p. 310.
9 Cf. note 5.
10 Ginzel, Hdb. II, p. 391. Similar already !deler, Chron. I, p. 353.
II Dinsmoor, Archons, p. 410-423.
12 E.g. Archons, p. 414: "Therefore we may assume that the authorities .. , called in a specialist,
namely,
Hipparchos. "
I Above p. 293.
2 AIm. VII, 2 (Man. II, p. 15).
3 The following is due to Viggo M. Petersen [1966]. Mr. Toomer drew my attention to the fact
that
exactly the same conclusions had been reached by L. Am. Sedillot in 1840 (cf. his Materiaux ...
des
sciences mathematiques chez les grecs et les orientaux, Paris 1845, p. 11-14). Van der Waerden
[1970,2] accepting Petersen's result as of absolute numerical accuracy expanded its consequences
to
all related parameters, in my opinion much too rigorously.
4 AIm. IV, 2 (Man. I, p. 196); cf. below p. 310 (5