Daniel's 70 weeks (3) Redating the eclipse of Thales during the Battle of Halys from 585 BC to 601 BC

 

In my previous video titled “Nabonidus was Nebuchadnezzar, proven by lunar eclipse in Nabonidus' 2nd year reign” I showed that historians gave the wrong date for the lunar eclipse that occurred in the 2nd year of Nabonidus which they dated September 26, 554 BC. I dated this lunar eclipse seven years earlier on August 15, 561 BC instead. 

The Reign of Nabonidus King of Babylon 556-539 BC, pg 127 last paragraph by Paul-Alain Beaulieu: It is known from the Royal Chronicle that the eclipse must have taken place in the second year of Nabonidus or slightly before…

If the lunar eclipse indeed took place on August 15, 561 BC during the early part of Nabonidus’ second year, then the first year of Nabonidus must have been in 562 BC instead of 556 BC, or six years earlier than the historically recognized date. 

We know for certain that Astyages, the last king of Media, was defeated by the Persian king Cyrus the Great in the sixth year of his Babylonian colleague Nabonidus as recorded in the Nabonidus Chronicle Column II lines 1-2:

[ii.1] [The sixth year: Astyages] mustered (his army) and marched against Cyrus, king of Anšan, for conquest [...]

[ii.2] The army rebelled against Astyages and he was taken prisoner. Th[ey handed him over] to Cyrus.

Since the first year of Nabonidus was actually in 562 BC, this means his sixth year starts from 557 BC and ends in  556 BC. I picked 556 BC instead of 557 BC as the last year of Astyages’ reign as this choice will put Darius the Great’s reign starting in 519 BC. Darius the Great was the third Persian King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire following Cyrus the Great and Cambyses II. I will explain later why 519 BC as the start of Darius I’s reign is Biblically significant. But first allow me to continue examining and correcting the chronology of the Median empire.

According to Herodotus Book I: Clio par. 130, Astyages, the last king of the Medes, ruled for 35 years. This means the start of Astyages’ reign was in 591 BC if 556 BC was the last year of his reign. 591 BC is six years earlier than the historically accepted start of Astyages’ reign in 585 BC. Now Marcus Tullius Cicero, a Roman philosopher, mentioned a solar eclipse predicted by Thales of Miletus that occurred at the time of Astyages’ reign:

CICERO ON DIVINATION Book I, XLIX, 111-112 Thales of Miletus, who, …  is said to have been the first man to predict the solar eclipse which took place in the reign of Astyages.

I believe the solar eclipse that occurred on May 18, 584 BC was the eclipse during the reign of Astyages mentioned by Cicero. And that this was also the eclipse cited and dated by Pliny the Elder in Book 2, par. IX of his work Natural History to have occurred in the 170th year after the foundation of Rome on April 21, 753 BC corresponding to 584 to 583 BC. Without mentioning Astyages of Media, according to Pliny the Elder this eclipse occurred during the reign of Alyattes of Lydia. One can only assume that this eclipse occurred while both kings were reigning simultaneously.    

Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2506 fragment 98, a comment on a poem of Alcaeus, mentions a war between Astyages and Alyattes, thus confirming that their reigns actually overlapped. And this confirms my conclusion that the May 18, 584 BC solar eclipse that occurred during Astyages’ reign is one and the same as the solar eclipse that occurred during Alyattes’ reign.

The Median empire ruled by Astyages and the Lydian empire ruled by Alyattes was bordered by the Halys river whose mouth or outlet is the Black Sea. Thus, any solar eclipse visible to both Lydia and Media should be visible to both the Halys river and the Black Sea. 

And the solar eclipse that occurred on May 18, 584 BC in the 170th year after the foundation of Rome and visible throughout the Black Sea, the Halys river and the entire Lydian and Median empire must have been the solar eclipse that occurred during the reigns of Astyages and Alyattes.

The solar eclipse predicted by Thales of Miletus which  occurred during the war between Cyaxares of Media and Alyattes of Lydia as recorded by the Greek historian Herodotus in his book “The History”:

This war is also known as the Battle of Halys as some scholars assume the location of this battle was near the Halys river which was located in the border region between both kingdoms at that time.

Wikipedia, Eclipse of Thales: The eclipse of Thales was a solar eclipse that was, according to The Histories of Herodotus, accurately predicted by the Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus. Many historians believe that the predicted eclipse was the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BC.

According to Herodotus, the appearance of the eclipse was interpreted as an omen, and interrupted a battle in a long-standing war between the Medes and the Lydians. The fighting immediately stopped, and they agreed to a truce.

For the solar eclipse of May 28, 585 BC to be the eclipse that occurred during the Battle of Halys, it had to be visible near the Halys River also known as the Kizilirmak river where the battle took place. This river is the longest river entirely within Turkey.

Using Stellarium and setting the Algorithm of delta T to JPL Horizons, the date to May 28, 585 BC (or -584 in astronomical year numbering) at  15:59:30 UTC, and the location at the mouth of the Halys river with coordinates 41°44' 04.0"N, 35° 57' 23.0"E, one can see that at maximum eclipse obscuration of 86.91%, the Sun was about to set below the horizon in just 48 minutes. 

The September 20, 601 BC total solar eclipse occurred during the reign of Cyaxares believed by historians to be between 625 to 585 BC. Thales of Miletus is believed to have lived between 626 or 623 BC upto 548 or 545 BC, which means Thales was already either 25 or 22 years old when this eclipse happened. 

Using Stellarium and setting the Algorithm of delta T to Chapront-Touze & Chapront (1991), the date to September 20, 601 BC (or -600 in astronomical year numbering) at 12:22 UTC, and the location at the mouth of the Halys river with coordinates 41°44' 04"N, 35° 57' 23"E, one can see that at maximum eclipse obscuration of 89.38%, the Sun was to set below the horizon in 3 hours 25 minutes still. 

Lake Tuz is the second largest lake in Turkey, and located very near one of the largest catchment basins of the Kizilirmak river. I believe the area between Lake Tuz and the nearby Kizilirmak river was the setting for the Battle of Halys. Using Stellarium and setting the Algorithm of delta T to Chapront-Touze & Chapront (1991), the date to September 20, 601 BC (or -600 in astronomical year numbering) at 12:25:20 UTC, and the location at Lake Tuz with coordinates 38° 44′N, 33° 23′E, one can see that at maximum eclipse obscuration of 97.76%, the Sun was to set below the horizon in 3 hours 31 minutes still. 

And this is why I believe the September 20, 601 BC total solar eclipse was the eclipse predicted by Thales during the reign of Cyaxares. This means also that Thales predicted two solar eclipses and not just one, if one counts the solar eclipse he also predicted during the reign of Astyages on May 18, 584 BC when he was either 42 or 39 years old already.