Kidinnu

Kidinnu (flourished 4th or early 3rd century bce, Babylonia) was a Babylonian astronomer who may have been responsible for what modern scholars call System B, a Babylonian theory that described the speed of the Moon’s motion around the zodiac as increasing gradually and then decreasing gradually in the course of a month, following a regular sawtooth pattern. In this very successful theory, the Sun also varied its speed in a sawtooth pattern. The Babylonian lunar theory included a scheme for the motion of the Sun, since the Sun figures in the prediction of lunar phenomena such as phases and eclipses. In the simpler and probably older System A for the behaviour of the Moon, the Sun was assumed to move at two separate constant speeds in two different parts of the zodiac. Kidinnu was also attributed by later authors with discoveries about the motion of Mercury and the relation between two different lunar periods.

Little is known of Kidinnu’s life. In Babylonia, astronomy was the occupation of the temple priests, so that was probably Kidinnu’s occupation. Prior to the decipherment of Babylonian astronomical texts early in the 20th century, knowledge of him was limited to mentions by several ancient Greek and Roman writers. The Greek geographer Strabo (64 bce–23 ce), in discussing the astronomers and astrologers of Babylonia, mentioned Kidinnu as well as Nabu-rimannu (in Greek, Nabourianos). The Greek astrologer Vettius Valens (2nd century ce) said that, in computing when eclipses would occur, he used Kidinnu, along with other authorities, “for the Moon.” The Roman encyclopaedist Pliny the Elder (23–79 ce) wrote that, according to Kidinnu, the planet Mercury is never seen more than 22° away from the Sun. An anonymous 3rd-century commentary on Ptolemy attributed to Kidinnu the discovery that 251 synodic months = 269 anomalistic months. The synodic month (about 29.531 days) is the average time from one full moon to the next full moon. The anomalistic month (about 27.555 days) is the average time from the moment of the Moon’s quickest motion through the stars to the next moment of quickest motion. (The Moon moves most quickly when it is at perigee—that is, when it passes closest to Earth). This period relation underlies System B and plays an important role in eclipse prediction.

About the beginning of the 20th century, the name Kidinnu or Kidin was deciphered on Babylonian cuneiform clay tablets carrying computations of lunar phenomena in System B. One such tablet bears the inscription “tersitu of Kidinnu,” where tersitu can mean “apparatus” or “preparation” or perhaps in this case simply “computed table.” (Another tablet, carrying lunar computations according to System A, probably bears [the reading is not certain] the inscription “tersitu of Nabu-rimannu.”) In both systems, arithmetical rules were applied to the variations in the speed of the Sun and the Moon around the zodiac that allowed Babylonian scribes to work out predictions of lunar phenomena, including dates of new and full moons, as well as those of eclipses. The theory was reasonably accurate and was far better than anything that Greek astronomers were capable of before Hipparchus’s lunar theory (c. 130 bce).

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One common view of historians is that Nabu-rimannu was the originator of System A and that Kidinnu was the originator of System B. While this is plausible, it should not be taken as certain. Since the oldest surviving clay tablets concerned with System B refer to dates around 260 bce, Kidinnu’s period of activity could be no later, but nothing more definite can be said about his date. It is common for historians to contrast the individualism and competitiveness of ancient Greek society, in which individual philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers staked claims to major theories and discoveries, with the anonymity of Mesopotamian society, in which the names of very few scientific discoverers are known. While the general contrast is valid, the examples of Kidinnu and Nabu-rimannu show that at least in a few cases the names of particular Mesopotamian astronomers were remembered and revered.