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This date is one of the few definite points in the history of the period; it is fixed as May 28, 585, by the astronomers; the other eclipse of the period, that on Sept. 30, 610, was only partial in Asia Minor. The later date (585) is given by Plin. (N. H. ii. 53) and (approximately) by the ancient chronologers, Eusebius and Jerome. It suits also the circumstances:

(1) The fall of Nineveh c. 606 had enabled Cyaxares to extend his power north-west, and so brought him into contact with Lydia.

(2) Labynetus (i.e. Nebuchadnezzar) did not begin his reign till 604.

It used to be argued (e.g. by Stein) that H., because Cyaxares was conqueror of the Scyths, had wrongly introduced him here, and that Astyages began to reign in 594 B.C. But the revised Median chronology (App. III, ยง 6) makes all the dates nine years later, and so the account in H. becomes possible.

Thales is the Merlin or Michael Scott of Greek sixth-century tradition. It has been maintained that this prediction is impossible, in view of what we know of his scientific theories; Stein thinks that he can only have explained the phenomenon afterwards. But H., who rejects the story as to his engineering (75. 6), accepts this one. Thales' prediction may have been based on Chaldean calculations (cf. Burnet, Early Gk. Phil. 35). (See Note E, p. 450.)

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