Where was Moses when the light went out?  In the dark, duh!

Where was Thucydides when the sun went out?

Thucydides was writing his History (of the Peloponnesian War) in 431 BCE.  He references a solar eclipse with great lucidity: "The same summer, at the beginning of a new lunar month, the only time by the way at which it appears possible, the sun was eclipsed after noon.  After it had assumed the form of a crescent and some of the stars had come out, it returned to its natural shape."(1)  There is one small problem.  This eclipse occurred on 3 August.  From the History, he was likely in Athens earlier that year and again later in the year.  However, the issue is that the annular eclipse was not such that stars would have been visible.  How can one question such a meticulous author?

However, there is a solution!  At that point, he was still a valued diplomatic official for the city of Athens and as such he would have had access to vessels of the Athenian fleet; he was also strongly associated with Thrace, possibly even royalty there.  If, in the summer, he were north or northeast of Athens in the general direction of Thrace, then the eclipse would have been more complete, allowing the stars to be visible.  Note that he didn't give his location; he probably didn't realize that an eclipse appears different when viewed from differing locations - plus this is almost incidental to his narrative.

So where was Thucydides on 3 August 431 BCE when the sun went out?  At sea!

[... or maybe in Thrace(4)]

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I had heard about this problem, but never discovered its resolution, which was published in 1919(4) and reproduced to the web by Bill Thayer in 2017.  My conclusion is slightly different, but not significantly so.  Maybe there are other historical sources addressing this, but I didn't immediately find them.

(1) History tr. Richard Crawley, 2.28
(2) Ibid, 1.23 & 4.52
(3) Ibid, 7.87
(4) J.A.R. Monroe, The Classical Quarterly 13, 127-128, 1919.

Thucydides also mentions another solar eclipse in 21 March 424 BCE(2).  However, the most devastating effect was as a result of the lunar eclipse of 28 August 413 BCE, when the Athenians and their commander were alarmed and advised by soothsayers not to move for another "thrice nine days."  By hesitating they were completely annihilated militarily, and almost all of the losing combatants killed or sold into slavery.  "This was the greatest Hellenic achievement of any in this war, or, in my opinion, in Hellenic history; at once most glorious to the victors, and most calamitous to the conquered.  They were beaten at all points and altogether; all that they suffered was great; they were destroyed, as the saying is, with a total destruction, their fleet, their army, everything was destroyed, and few out of many returned home.  Such were the events in Sicily."(3)  The conquered were his beloved Athenians.  This may have marked the beginning of the end for Athens: Sparta conquered the city a mere nine years later in 404 BCE.

Note that Thucydides also painstakingly documented earthquakes and associated tsunamis, plus (topically for today) plagues and their recurrences.

Gareth Hunt, 05 April 2020