Battle of Halys (585 BC)

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict = Battle of Halys
partof =


caption =
date = 28 May 585 BC
place = Halys River
result = Halys River declared the border between two warring nations
combatant1 = Medes
combatant2 = Lydians
commander1 = Cyaxares
commander2 = Alyattes II
strength1 = Unknown
strength2 = Unknown
casualties1 = Unknown
casualties2 = Unknown

The Battle of Halys, also known as the Battle of the Eclipse, took place at the Halys River (present-day "Kızılırmak" river in Turkey) on May 28, 585 BC between the Medes and the Lydians. The final battle of a fifteen-year war between Alyattes II of Lydia and Cyaxares of the Medes, the battle ended abruptly due to a total solar eclipse; the eclipse was perceived as an omen, indicating that the gods wanted the fighting to stop.

Since the exact dates of eclipses can be calculated, the Battle of the Eclipse is the earliest historical event of which the date is known with such precision. (This date is based on the proleptic Julian calendar.)

Causes

The war is thought to have started because of clashing interests in Anatolia; Herodotus ("Histories", 1.73-74) claims, however, that some Scythian hunters employed by the Medes who once returned empty-handed were insulted by Cyaxares. In revenge the hunters slaughtered one of his sons and served him to the Medes. The hunters then fled to Sardis, the capital of the Lydians. When Cyaxares asked for the Scythians to be returned to him, Alyattes refused to hand them over; in response, the Medes invaded.

Aftermath

A truce was hastily arranged. As part of the terms of the agreement, Alyattes's daughter Aryenis was married to Cyaxares's son Astyages, and the river Halys was declared to be the border of the two warring nations.

The eclipse

According to Herodotus (1.74):

According to NASA, the eclipse peaked over the Atlantic Ocean at coord|37.9|N|46.2|W| and the umbral path reached south-western Anatolia in the evening hours, and the Halys River is just within the error margin for delta-T provided. [http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEatlas/SEatlas-1/SEatlas-0599.gif]

References

*G. B. Airy, "On the Eclipses of Agathocles, Thales, and Xerxes", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Vol. 143, 1853, pp. 179-200
*Alden A. Mosshammer, "Thales' Eclipse", Transactions of the American Philological Association, Vol. 111, 1981, pp. 145-155
* Herodotus, translated by Robin Waterfield, (1998). The Histories. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-282425-2

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