"History is the long, difficult and confused dream of Mankind"

(A. Schopenhauer)

Words of what happened came to us through the ages, first by word of mouth, then in books copied over and over, translated as best as it could in different places. One can doubt the veracity of those words, considering the aging men who recounted it, considering the many hands that copied over words they didn't understand, considering the will of those controlling the knowledge of past times and their interpretation of the facts. Considering all that happened between now and then, one can ask if what we know as History is the truth; but then, one can argue that there is no ultimate truth and all is subjective...

More than twenty five centuries have passed, and we only know that the war ended when the sun disappeared. The fearful men engaged in a conflict for domination fell to their knees under the presage. No doubt the day becoming night had been a sign for them to bring over peace to their people. Though the event had been foretold by a great man, a sage of a great civilisation, those men pursued their power struggle for five years before the Gods signalled their ire in a spectacular way.

The two warring nations became one after that, by way of a union between a young ruler and the daughter of an older one. To these days, the peace treaty was attributed to the events that happened when the day turned night, thus ending what is known as the 'Battle of the Eclipse'.

What really occurred on the day of the total solar eclipse? What made the rulers of those two powerful warring nation kneel and agree to peace?

In a way, the answer may probably be found in the sky itself, in this same place where the sun meet the moon on this fateful day. Records of the episode all came from the one in the Historia. Those who study the past don't really look further than it. They retell it the same way decades after decades, centuries after centuries, millennia, even... This is what mankind is all about; learning from the past, but not looking outside the predefined and accredited frame that makes the official History.

I know more of what happened in this battle. Though no one will listen to me. I know that the supposedly foretold total solar eclipse had been once engineered by the Gods. It was truly the sign they had send to the warring nations to instil fear in their heart and to lead them to peace.

What did the Gods want, I am not sure about this part. I didn't find much in the old records about their intentions. I suspect, however, that the Gods wanted peace in this region so they could start to implement the slow evolution of the civilisation, guiding it and controlling it so they could ensure the success of their experiment.

In the old ages, Man believed the Gods existed and were almighty. What gave them the right to lord over humanity, if not the humans themselves shackling themselves to the dream of a benevolent and loving entity working for their best interests?

I know the Gods were not this loving, nor that benevolent. I know they worked for their best interest and not the one of a flock of men roaming the Earth. I know this, because I read it in the sky, in the stars. I am an Historian, an observer of civilisations, one that look for answers none of my predecessors has ever found. I have read all that exists in the known World, and I know that the Battle of the Eclipse didn't really occurred the way it was described.

There had been two nations engaged in a conflict for the control of a region. They were fierce warriors, well trained armies pertaining to advanced civilisations. They had been fighting for years, alternating victories and defeats to the extent that after five years no side was truly victorious. They entered in the sixth year of this conflict, deciding that the output of the battle would decide on the victor.

As the iron clashed, the day turned into night, as foretold. Then the leaders accepted a peace treaty as proposed by their allies. The Historia tells it that way: "[...] when they saw that it had become night instead of day, ceased from their fighting and were much more eager both of them that peace should be made between them. [...]"

I learned the truth in the records of Uruk. It is said in one of the volumes that the eclipse had been the result of the meeting of Nanna and Utu with the kings of the region, Syennesis and Labynetos. Nanna and Utu had brought their observational vessels in orbit around the Earth and wanted to assess the evolution of the civilisation they had implemented. Except for the war, they had been satisfied to see that the monetary system was well implemented, moreover, the law code and language they had given to the humans fifteen centuries before had been well assimilated and showed signs of evolution.

The Ur were so satisfied with what they saw when they orbited for their observation that they decided to give a reminder to the people on the planet below that they had to grow and multiply, not battle and decimate the rank of their enemies. Thus, the meeting with the rulers of the belligerents' neighbouring nations, which brought a number of vessels descending to the Earth. What the warring kings saw in this fateful day was in fact, not only the day changing to night, but the sky falling.

This is the truth about the Battle of the Eclipse. What the historians on Earth retell is only part of the story. How was the great Thales able to foretell the event? This is another mystery I am now engage in solving...

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Notes:

This is my entry for challenge 16 on the #SciFriday challenge series. The challenge was about to chose among titles and to write a 1k words max story, having no link at all to the original.

This story is 994 words, excluding this author's note.

When looking at the titles, I thought 'Skyfall'... interesting... what about the fear the ancients had that the sky would fall on their head? What about the fear brought by an Eclipse?

Also, when thinking of History, Schopenhauer's words are always on my mind. there are few quotes that always make me think a lot before taking for granted any lesson of history. The one in the introduction of this piece is one of it, the other one, more crude would be: "Clio, the muse of history, is as thoroughly infected with lies as a street whore with syphilis"

Finally, some facts about the Lydia vs. Media conflict and the Battle of the Eclipse:

* On May the 28th, 585 BC, a total solar eclipse ended a five year war between Lydia and Medes. Herodotus mentions this battle in his Historia, and precise that it had been predicted by Thales who calculated the day of the occurrence precisely.

* With the actual scientific knowledge, it is possible to calculate exactly the date of past eclipses, thus the Battle of the Eclipse 

* The extract about the Battle of the Eclipse is taken from a translation of Herodotus' Historia: Histories, 1.73-74, trans. Macaulay. The next part of the extract mentions the neighbouring kings partaking in the peace treaty: "And they who brought about the peace between them were Syennesis the Kilikian and Labynetos the Babylonian[...]"

* Nanna is the Sumerian Moon god; Utu, son of Nanna, the Sun god.

* Uruk is the capital city of Gilgamesh, hero of the Epic of Gilgamesh.

Sources: among others, here are two pages about the Battle of the Eclipse and Thales prediction.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_of_Thales

https://www.academia.edu/6355805/THALES_AND_THE_SOLAR_ECLIPSE_OF_28_MAY_585_BC