Cultural History of the Lunar and Solar Eclipse in ... - Richard Carrier

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of their inexperience or superstition,” for the scientific truth “was not easy to apprehend,” 14 recognizing the difficulty of the concepts involved. An excellent look into the social world of eclipse lore is provided by Quintus Curtius Rufus, Seneca’s contemporary, who describes the superstitious reaction to a lunar eclipse by the army of Alexander the Great, though his comments have a ring of contemporary relevance. 15 He records that Alexander’s response was to manipulate their superstition by employing ‘Egyptian soothsayers’ (Aegyptios vates) to interpret the omen favorably. 16 Curtius then lavishes a sackfull of loathing on both the soothsayers and the credulous masses. His comments are instructive. He charges that although the soothsayers know very well the natural causes of an eclipse, “they do not teach the masses the knowledge that they themselves have learned,” 17 a charge that Curtius could as easily level at himself, since it is unlikely that any member of the vulgus in his day would read his book, and there was certainly no program at Rome to promulgate scientific lore to the people. Instead of proposing a solution in mass education, or even an oral dissemination of natural science, Curtius has little sympathy for the innocent vulgus, for “nothing governs the multitude more effectively than superstition,” because they are, “generally fickle, wild and lacking in self-control” and because of this, “when seized by a false religion, they are more obedient to soothsayers than their own leaders.” 18 It is unlikely that Curtius is thinking only of Alexander’s soldiers. This is no doubt his opinion of the vulgus of his own day. However, we get a different spin on a similar story in Livy. Writing on the third Macedonian war, with the Roman legions about to engage the enemy at Pydna, Livy tells an interesting tale. Gaius Sulpicius Gallus, a man noted by Cicero as a geometer and astronomer, 19 was at that time a tribune of the soldiers. Knowing that a lunar eclipse was due to occur, and no doubt wishing to avert a situation like that faced by Alexander, Gallus conferred with the consul and summoned the soldiers for some basic instruction in astronomy, predicting for them the very hour of the event. His speech, and the reaction of the soldiers, as constructed by Livy, is noteworthy. “No one should regard it as a portent,” Gallus says, “because it happens according to the natural order at established times and it can be predicted and known in advance.” 20 And so, he continues, they should not be amazed when it happens, any more than they are when 14 Plutarch, Nicias, 23.1-2. 15 History of Alexander, 4.10.1-7. The same eclipse is also reported without much ado in Plutarch, Alexander, 31.8 and Arrian, Anabasis, 3.8.7. 16 Arrian, Anabasis, 3.7.6, reports that it was Alexander’s diviner Aristander who interpreted the omen favorably. 17 rationem quidem ipsis perceptam non edocent vulgus. On the mingling of science and superstition by diviners and mages, see below, p. 34, 39-40, 43-4. 18 nulla res multitudinem efficacius regit quam superstitio, alioqui impotens, saeva, mutabilis, ubi vana religione capta est, melius vatibus quam ducibus suis paret. 19 On Old Age, 14 (49); according to the elder Pliny, he wrote a treatise on lunar and solar eclipses after this event (Natural History, 2.9 (53)), which may be the source for what Pliny, Cicero, and other Romans knew about the phenomena -- as well as this event (see below, p. 10). 20 Livy 44.38.5-9: ne quis id pro portento acciperet...id quia naturali ordine statis temporibus fiat et sciri ante et praedici posse.
the sun and moon rise and set. When everything came to pass as he predicted, “the wisdom of Gallus seemed almost divine to the Roman soldiers,” 21 a remark demonstrating the gulf between the world view of Gallus and that of the commons. Of course, on the other side the uninstructed Macedonians were demoralized, taking the same event as a dire omen (triste prodigium), and raising a din (clamor ululatusque) until the moon returned, even despite the apparent use of vates to put a positive spin on the event in the same manner as their ancestor Alexander. 22 This story, though probably based on reality, has a noteworthy touch of legend in it. For others tell it differently. Plutarch omits the instruction, 23 and indeed any reference to Gallus, noting that although the consul Aemilius knew the truth, he nevertheless made sacrifices out of his personal religiosity, while the soldiers behaved superstitiously but interpreted the omen as foretelling the fall of a Macedonian king. Pompeius Trogus follows Plutarch in a greatly abbreviated version, reporting that it was the Macedonians who interpreted the omen this way. 24 In Plutarch’s version, if it is true, one might imagine such a rumor being spread deliberately by Aemilius among his own troops to manipulate the omen to his advantage (see below, p. 17), and his religious behavior would be in tune with such a strategy. However, Livy is closer to the event in time, and he adds the detail that it was the Macedonians who interpreted the omen as dire, even despite apparent attempts to manipulate the omen by the Macedonian leaders (if we assume the same strategy). However, Cicero’s account is probably closest to what really happened. He portrays the soldiers as reacting to the eclipse with fear and superstition, and being instructed afterwards to calm them down. The words of Gallus in his account are similar to those reported by Livy: “it is no prodigy,” he taught, for “it happened then, and would happen at fixed times in the future, because the sun had been so positioned that it was unable to reach the moon with its light.” 25 Valerius Maximus follows Cicero, reporting that “the fear of our soldiers was overcome,” because Gallus “most skillfully lectured them on the logic of the heavens and the nature of the stellar bodies.” 26 I am inclined to believe that something like Cicero’s account is true. The only reservation I have about this is the fact that Gallus wrote a treatise on eclipses after this event, which may very well be the source for this story. If so, the tale could have been fictionalized to any degree for literary or philosophical reasons, and then taken as fact by later writers. This is especially a concern since Livy’s order of events is repeated by the elder Pliny, who writes that Gallus was “the first of the Roman race to divulge to the masses the rationale behind both kinds of eclipse,” first to the army at Pydna, and “soon 21 Romanis militibus Galli sapientia prope divina videri. 22 movit nec aliter vates. 23 Aemilius Paulus, 17.7-11; a fragment of Polybius, 29.16, corresponds briefly with this account, simply reporting that the omen was interpreted by the Roman soldiers as foretelling the fall of a king, which could only bode ill for the Macedonians. 24 via the epitome of Justin, 33.6-7; the brevity is no doubt due to Justin, not Trogus. 25 On the Republic, 1.15 (23): nullum esse prodigium, idque et tum factum esse et certis temporibus esse futurum, cum sol ita locatus fuisset, ut lunam suo lumine non posset attingere. 26 Ibid., 8.11: metum nostrorum militum vicisset by de caeli ratione et siderum natura peritissime disputando.
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Cultural History of the Lunar and Solar Eclipse in ... - Richard Carrier

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