List of solar eclipses in antiquity explained

This is a list of selected solar eclipses from antiquity, in particular those with historical significance. Eclipses on this list were not only recorded, but sometimes would have large effects such as ending a war.

Historically significant solar eclipses

Date of eclipse	Type	Saros	Magnitude	Gamma	Time (UTC)			Central Duration	Eclipse Path	Notes
Start					Mid	End
22 Oct 2137 BC	Annular	9	0.9736	0.3842	–	03:25:29		02m52s		It is said that Ho and Hi, the Drunk Astronomers failed to predict this eclipse. (story may be fictitious or misinterpreted) http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html#-2136 http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-2136Oct22A.pdf
3 May 1375 BC	Total	16	1.0295	0.7755	–	04:51:04		02m07s		Ugarit eclipse. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-1374May03T.pdf
June 24, 1312 BC	Total	35			–	10:44	–	04m33s	Anatolia	Known as Mursili's eclipse, could provide an absolute chronology of the ancient Near East.^[1] ^[2] ^[3]
5 June 1302 BC	Total	26	1.0805	0.2982		02:10:48		00:06:25		Early Chinese eclipse. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-1301Jun05T.pdf
16 Apr 1178 BC	Total	39	1.0599	0.5187		10:00:58		00:04:33		Odyssey Eclipse. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-1177Apr16T.pdf
21 Apr 899 BC	Annular	53	0.9591	0.8964		22:21:56		00:03:04		China's 'Double-Dawn' Eclipse. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0898Apr21A.pdf
June 15, 763 BC	Total	44			–	08:23	–	04m59s		Attested in Assyrian sources and providing an absolute chronology of the ancient Near East.^[4]
6 Apr 648 BC	Total	38	1.0689	0.6898		08:31:03		00:05:02		Archilochus' Eclipse. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEhistory.html#-0647 http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0647Apr06T.pdf
May 28, 585 BC	Total	57			–	14:28	–	06m05s		Allegedly predicted by Thales; occurred during the Battle of the Eclipse.^[5] ^[6]
19 May 557 BC	Total	48	1.0258	0.3145		12:52:26		00:02:22		The Siege of Larisa, firstly recorded by Xenophon. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0556May19T.pdf
or	Annular	42/65			–	9:58:51/11:51:0	–	06m00s/07m57s	Greece	Eclipse occurring prior to Xerxes' first march against Greece. The exact dating has been debated, as the writings of Herodotus (who chronicled the eclipse) give a date for which there was no eclipse visible in that area of the world.^[7]
August 3, 431 BC	Annular	48			–	14:54:51:8	–	01m04.5s	Greece, Mediterranean Sea	Recorded by Thucydides;^[8] Pericles shows his Greek Army that the eclipse was not much more than a covering of the sun by something bigger than his cloak.^[9]
21 Mar 424 BC	Annular	42	0.9430	0.9433		07:54:29		00:04:39		8th year of the Peloponnesian War. http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE-0423Mar21A.pdf
May 6, 319	Total	72			–	14:24:49	–	03m56s	Georgia, Europe, Mexico, United States	Thought by astronomers to be the eclipse preceding the Christianization of Iberia by Mirian III of Iberia.^[10]
July 17, 334	Annular	80	0.9759	0.3268	–	11:21:41	–	02m23s	Rome, Mediterranean Sea	Recorded by Firmicus Maternus in his Mathesos.^[11] https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhistory/SEplot/SE0334Jul17A.pdf

Statistics

Longest total eclipses

Below is a list of the 10 longest total eclipses between the 30th century BC and the 4th century.

Date of eclipse	Central Duration	Reference
data-sort-value="-2585"	30 May 2585 BC	07m17s	^[12]
data-sort-value="-2567"	10 June 2567 BC	07m21s
data-sort-value="-2249"	6 May 2249 BC	07m20s
data-sort-value="-2231"	17 May 2231 BC	07m21s
data-sort-value="-762"	5 June 762 BC	07m25s
data-sort-value="-744"	15 June 744 BC	07m28s
data-sort-value="-726"	26 June 726 BC	07m18s
data-sort-value="345"	16 June 345	07m17s
data-sort-value="363"	27 June 363	07m24s
data-sort-value="381"	8 July 381	07m22s

Solar eclipses by century

Century		Eclipse type				Longest eclipse		Two-eclipse months
		Partial (P)	Annular (A)	Total (T)	Hybrid (H)	Length	Date
20th BC	239	84	71	62	22	11m38s	28 December 1983 BC	align=left	March 1958 BC
19th BC	253	93	80	63	17	08m57s	28 October 1896 BC	align=left	January 1806 BC
18th BC	254	95	74	64	21	11m10s	10 November 1710 BC	align=left
17th BC	230	75	71	60	24	12m07s	12 December 1656 BC	align=left	July 1611 BC
16th BC	225	78	67	59	21	10m07s	25 January 1583 BC	align=left	June 1535 BC, May 1524 BC
15th BC	226	77	69	62	18	10m00s	25 September 1410 BC	align=left	April 1448 BC
14th BC	234	76	84	68	6	11m29s	18 November 1320 BC	align=left
13th BC	250	93	86	64	7	11m11s	9 December 1284 BC	align=left	December 1210 BC
12th BC	252	93	89	63	7	10m27s	14 December 1108 BC	align=left	October 1123 BC, September 1112 BC
11th BC	238	79	91	68	0	10m34s	25 December 1090 BC	align=left	August 1036 BC, July 1025 BC, June 1014 BC
10th BC	226	84	75	61	6	09m01s	24 October 984 BC	align=left
9th BC	225	80	75	66	4	10m21s	7 November 817 BC	align=left
8th BC	234	79	88	64	3	11m29s	10 December 763 BC	align=left
7th BC	253	96	87	63	7	10m06s	22 November 604 BC	align=left	December 689 BC, November 678 BC, October 602 BC
6th BC	255	96	86	65	8	10m50s	4 January 531 BC	align=left	September 591 BC, August 515 BC, July 504 BC
5th BC	241	84	78	62	17	10m24s	26 January 495 BC	align=left	May 417 BC
4th BC	225	83	63	56	23	10m16s	7 December 391 BC	align=left
3rd BC	226	83	62	57	24	11m47s	30 November 214 BC	align=left
2nd BC	237	80	73	63	21	12m08s	22 December 178 BC	align=left
1st BC	251	92	77	65	17	08m51s	14 February 87 BC	align=left
1st AD	248	90	75	58	25	11m18s	4 November 96	align=left	August 7, July 18, April 97
2nd AD	237	80	77	64	16	12m23s	7 December 150	align=left
3rd AD	227	79	74	69	5	11m09s	8 January 205	align=left
4th AD	222	73	76	66	7	10m44s	2 January 363	align=left

Notes and References

1. KUB XIV 4.24: [''ma-a-an I-NA'' KUR ''A'']zi-ma i-ia-ah-at nu ^dUTU-us sa-ki-ya-ah-ta "[When] I marched [to the land of A]zzi, the Sungod gave a sign." Theo P. J. Van Den Hout, The Purity of Kingship: An Edition of CTH 569 and Related Hittite Oracle Inquiries of Tutẖaliya (1998), 42f.
2. [Trevor R. Bryce]
3. Web site: Archived copy . 2009-12-15 . 2009-09-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20090915002259/http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas-2/SEatlas-1319.GIF . live .
4. Rawlinson, Henry Creswicke, "The Assyrian Canon Verified by the Record of a Solar Eclipse, B.C. 763", The Athenaeum: Journal of Literature, Science and the Fine Arts, nr. 2064, 660-661 [18 May 1867].https://books.google.com/books?id=L5dTAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA660
5. Stephenson, F. Richard, and Louay J. Fatoohi. "Thale's Prediction of a Solar Eclipse." Journal for the History of Astronomy 28 (1997): 279 . 1997JHA....28..279S . 2019-07-15 . 2019-07-15 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190715021159/http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1997JHA....28..279S/0000279.000.html . live . Stephenson . F. Richard . Fatoohi . Louay J. . Journal for the History of Astronomy . 1997 . 28 . 279 . 10.1177/002182869702800401 . 118345852 .
6. Web site: Archived copy . 2009-12-15 . 2020-05-31 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200531111601/https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas-1/SEatlas-0599.GIF . live .
7. Lynn . W.T. . Eclipses during the war of Xerxes with the Greeks . The Observatory . 1884 . 7 . 138–140 . 21 August 2020 . 1884Obs.....7..138L . 17 October 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211017200540/http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1884Obs.....7..138L . live .
8. Web site: Eclipse – Assyrian . Encyclopedia Britannica . 21 August 2020 . en . 12 August 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200812013040/https://www.britannica.com/science/eclipse/Assyrian#ref11220 . live .
9. Web site: The Eclipse of Pericles • An Exchange in 'The Observatory' (1884). penelope.uchicago.edu. 21 August 2020. 17 October 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20211017200513/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Gazetteer/Topics/astronomy/_Texts/secondary/journals/The_Observatory/Eclipse_of_Pericles%2A.html. live.
10. Sauter, J. Simonia, I. Stephenson, F. R. & Orchiston, W. (2015) The Legendary Fourth-Century Total Solar Eclipse in Georgia: Fact or Fantasy? Springer Publishing p. 24, 42
11. Maternus, Mathesos libri octo, I.iv.10.
12. Web site: Catalog of Long Total Solar Eclipses: -2999 to -2000 . 2009-12-15 . 2014-11-19 . https://web.archive.org/web/20141119152836/http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEcatmax/SE-2999--2000MaxT.html . live .