The record in Herodotus clearly refers to a total eclipse of the Sun, and there is no doubt that it was the eclipse of B.C. 585 May 28. That year or years in the immediate neighbourhood are given by those Greek and Latin writers who have inherited the chronological tradition. I have discussed the method by which Thales predicted the eclipse in a paper on Cleostratus in the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1919.[1] It will be sufficient on this occasion to say that Thales must have used the Babylonian cycle of eighteen years and have based his prediction on the eclipse of B.C. 603.
On the accompanying map the northern and southern limits of the zone of totality are marked by straight lines. The zone includes the northern part of Ionia and the whole of Lydia. Astronomers, misled by historical students, have generally assumed that the fighting would be near the river Halys, across which Croesus advanced against Cyrus forty years later, and have attempted to amend the lunar theory accordingly. It will be seen that the position of the zone of totality indicates a battle-field in southern Asia Minor rather than in the neighbourhood of the Halys. Sir William Mitchell Ramsay has contributed a most interesting article to the Journal of Hellenic Studies for 1920,[2] in which he draws attention to the military importance of the Pisidian road, which is indicated on the map by a curved line passing south of Iconium. This road is one of the few routes in Asia Minor which command a sufficient supply of water to satisfy the needs of an army. If the fighting was in the neighbourhood of this road, it was close to the Cilician frontier, and this may have been the reason why the Cilician ruler should have been selected as one of the mediators. He would be the nearest neutral sovereign available.
