Page 44 - BBC History - September 2017

Celestial events

1 2
A match made
Fear of the dark
in heaven
A Persian army made hay when
How a solar eclipse of 585 BC persuaded two
belligerent kingdoms to make love not war the sun vanished in 557 BC
A mere 28 years after an eclipse brought an end to the
Lydia–Media war, the course of ancient history was
For the first known example of Unsurprisingly Cyaxares
a celestial event changing the was enraged by the Scythians’ once again shaped by a celestial phenomenon.
course of history, we must head antics, but Alyattes refused to Our source for this is Xenophon, a Greek
to the sixth century BC when send his visitors back. War philosopher-historian, who in 401 BC accompanied the
King Cyaxares, ruler of an raged between Lydia and Media army of Cyrus the Younger on an expedition to take the
ancient Iranian people known for the next six years, with Persian throne from his brother Artaxerxes. En route
as the Medes, allowed nomad neither side able to gain the they came across a deserted city called Larissa on the
Scythians to settle in his upper hand. Finally, during one banks of the river Tigris, somewhere in modern Iraq.
kingdom. In return for Cyaxares’ battle, so the Greek historian Xenophon explains that Larissa had once been a
hospitality, the Scythians Herodotus tells us, “day was well-fortified stronghold, its 100ft-high clay brick walls
trained Median boys in archery. suddenly turned into night”. sitting on a 20ft-stone base with a six-mile perimeter. It
But then the relationship So horrified by this were the had certainly proved too formidable for a Persian army
turned sour. combatants, they gave up the 200 years earlier. Back then the Persians had
One day Cyaxares hurled fight and settled for peace, repeatedly tried – and failed – to break the Larissans’
abuse at the Scythians for which was guaranteed by resistance. But then the heavens had intervened.
going out hunting and coming Alyattes’ daughter marrying Xenophon reports that “a cloud covered up the sun
home with nothing. In revenge Cyaxares’ son. and hid it from sight”. This had so unsettled the
the Scythians killed one of their Remarkably, Herodotus Larissans that they promptly abandoned their city,
trainees, chopped him up, reports that Thales of Miletus some taking refuge on a pyramid nearby, and leaving
cooked him and fed the meat to had predicted the event, which Larissa defenceless before the Persians.
Cyaxares, pretending it was we now know took place on The track of the total eclipse of 19 May 557 BC
one of their hunting kills. Before 28 May 585 BC – the first passed right through southern Syria and Iraq. This
Cyaxares got wind of their ruse, recorded prediction of a solar must have been the event that so spooked the
the Scythians had fled to the eclipse. The eclipse passed right Larissans that they were prepared to give up a city ALAMY
court of King Alyattes of Lydia through southern Europe and that had for so long stood fast against their enemies.
at Sardis (western Turkey). across modern Turkey into Iraq.

A relief depicts
a group of Lydians,
whose compatriots lay
down their weapons
after witnessing
a solar eclipse

44 BBC History Magazine