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May 28, 585 B.C.: Predicted Solar Eclipse Stops Battle

wired.com — A solar eclipse in Asia Minor brings an abrupt halt to a battle, as the warring armies lay down their arms and declare a truce. Historical astronomy later sets a likely date, providing a debatable calculation point for pinning down some dates in ancient history.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 28, 2008

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63 Comments

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  • dleesgeetar, on 05/28/2008, -0/+77if only an eclipse was all it took these days
  • bixby1, on 05/28/2008, -1/+49Dugg for a fascinating bit o' history I had never heard about.
  • forceuser, on 05/28/2008, -1/+22Buried for 2,593 year old news.
  • Hetman, on 05/28/2008, -1/+20History is awesome. I think if I was there and did not have knowledge of why or how a eclipse takes place I would definatly stop fighting. I imagine everyone there thought it was a sign from God.
  • cccombobreaker, on 05/28/2008, -0/+18these days we need mushroom clouds :(
  • Aidje, on 05/28/2008, -0/+17Grammar's not the boss of him.
  • inajeep, on 05/28/2008, -2/+17Your not the boss of me.
  • GumdoMike, on 05/28/2008, -0/+13'digg me' = bury
    'bury me' = digg

    'Don't digg me or bury me' = head assplode
  • VaporBro, on 05/28/2008, -4/+15And it came to pass that the Red team bravely pressed forward towards the ruthless blue team. "They want War? Let's give them MOAR!" And behold; many were crazy slain. It was the 5th day of the 5th month of the 585th year of our Lordy. The heavens uBer darkened quite quickly. "OMGwtfHAX" someone yelled. All of a sudden both sides felt the presence of a higher power; nay...even Power itself. True, peaceful, celestial power. Soldiers of both kings put down their weapons. The battle was over. And so was the war...

    Thank you Moon.
  • Kallius, on 05/28/2008, -0/+8I doubt even mushroom clouds would stop certain leaders today. The clouds would just make them feel justified to drop more bombs.
  • leerayIG88, on 05/28/2008, -1/+9You're?***
  • inajeep, on 05/28/2008, -0/+6Yes it is.
  • Scynet, on 05/28/2008, -1/+6It's safe to look during the moment of total eclipse, but it only lasts for a very brief period.
  • WayneCA, on 05/28/2008, -0/+4And Herodotus isn't exactly the most reliable source, although he is the ONLY source.
  • ddfall, on 05/28/2008, -0/+3Yes they did. End of season 1 / start of season 2.
  • Stevethegreat, on 05/28/2008, -1/+4Thales was Greek, one of the best known pre-Socratic philosophers. By all standards his contributions are accounted as Western, at least the Western scientific and philosophical tradition was based on those fellas.
  • quill, on 05/28/2008, -2/+5"To coin a word, you can postdict as well as predict."

    Google search: Results 1 - 100 of about 3,640 for postdict. (0.47 seconds), including a wikipedia entry talking about retrodiction/postdiction.

    I've specifically seen the term used in at least one book, The Elegant Universe.

    Let me coin a word: coinidiot.
  • GeekyGerge, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2Thats a schooner.
  • LP88, on 05/28/2008, -3/+5Thats no moon...
  • pell, on 05/28/2008, -2/+4Damn the wives of the soldiers who died must have been pissed.
  • Kallius, on 05/28/2008, -1/+3And I wonder how many of them had permanent vision damage from looking directly at the eclipse? Or did they have legends warning against that?
  • cesclaveria, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2I think it would be:

    let D = "Digg me"
    let B = "Bury me"

    which means we have
    D'B'

    Because what he really wanted to say was: "Don't digg and don't bury me"
  • inactive, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2So tempted...
  • glycodoc, on 05/28/2008, -2/+4The comments are almost as interesting as the article!
  • mweflen, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2This story is SO OLD....frickin' 2600 years out of date....NO DIGG!!!!



    (actually, plus digg because I love the Pre-Socratics)
  • MrBlackkcalBrM, on 05/28/2008, -0/+2"The Ancients" lol, Are you by chance a wizard?
  • misterparry, on 05/28/2008, -1/+3save the cheerleader, save the world.
  • kamisamaji, on 05/28/2008, -1/+3Don't worry, we can find a solution using the power of formal logic!

    let D = "Digg me"
    let B = "Bury me"

    which means we have
    D' + B

    and since we do the opposite of whatever the poster asks, that means we must do the inverse:
    (D' + B)'
    which, by DeMorgan's Law, equals
    DB'
    or "Digg and Don't Bury"

    QED.

  • sipsyrup, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1You need to write a novel
  • nugz85, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1even if that was true, 585 bc was only 2593 years ago.
  • kublerross, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1umm how do we know thales didnt just guess it was that year?
    theres no record of what calculations he made, no mention of whether he got other predictions wrong, and no mention of how many other people incorrectly predicted eclipses.
  • Aidje, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1For all this thinking, no one has yet acted. No has dugg or buried him. He's getting what he wants. We can't let that happen.
  • WayneCA, on 05/28/2008, -2/+3It's going to take more than an eclipse to get us out of Iraq.
  • Eezyville, on 05/29/2008, -0/+1This got me thinking.

    What if some videogames had rare and random events happen during death matches. Like eclipses and astroid impacts that completely changes the battle and battle field.
  • inajeep, on 06/09/2008, -0/+1I am ashamed. I would digg my own comment down if I could.
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 08/11/2008, -0/+1And APOCALYPTO. It's a classic plot device.
  • liviaokokok, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Thats what i was thinking too
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  • pentupentropy, on 05/28/2008, -1/+2yeah that's neato stuff
  • ScottMitchell, on 05/28/2008, -0/+1Christopher Columbus used a lunar eclipse to terrify the natives into continuing supplying his ships and men.
    http://starryskies.com/The_sky/events/lunar-2003/c ...
  • Cybermaul, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0...and the wives of the soldiers who didn't, I'm sure, were very grateful.
  • techmoney, on 05/28/2008, -2/+2The mathematics involved to accurately predict when and where the eclipse was visible is truly astounding. The ancients have a lot to teach us yet.
  • inactive, on 05/28/2008, -2/+2Eastern Astronomy and their prediction is always fascinating.
  • feliks2, on 05/28/2008, -1/+1Two eclipses and a bottle of whiskey?
  • BXRWXR, on 05/28/2008, -3/+3If you tilt that pic just a bit more to the left you'd have an awesome goatse.
  • citizenchan, on 05/28/2008, -2/+2Dugg for Heroes reference.
  • Haoie, on 05/28/2008, -0/+0It's interesting how astronomical phenomenon were interpreted by ancient civilizations, I think.

    I mean, among the earliest forms of worship were after all, sun/moon worship. Who knew how they'd react to something that they didn't understand?
  • trebnoj, on 05/29/2008, -0/+0I checked on Stellarium and this is not accurate. There was not a solar eclipse on this date in Asia Minor. I checked within 1 or two years and it might have happened in -584 but if it did it was at sunset.
  • philberttheduck, on 05/28/2008, -2/+1YATTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
  • tak84, on 05/28/2008, -2/+1postdict...
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