Event #52: Comet during the plague of Athens

The Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote around -329 and said “when Euclees, son of Molon, was archon of Athens, there was a comet toward the north in the month of Gamelion [sometime during January and February] around the time of the winter solstice.”

426 BC, Winter, Greece. A comet appeared in the north around the time of the winter solstice. Barrett (4).

-429 The Roman astrologer Marcus Manilius finished the Astronomica around 14. He suggested “Heaven in pity is sending upon earth tokens of impending doom… Such was the plague which ravaged Erechtheus’ folk and bore forth ancient Athens to an unwarlike grave… Such are the disasters which the glowing comets oft proclaim.” A. A. Barrett (1978) noted that this is the only reference to this comet and since Manilius committed inaccurracies, “this observation is highly suspect.”