Babylonian cuneiform inscriptions tell us that about 575 B. C., when Nebuchadnezzar overran Elam, “a star arose whose head was bright as day, while from its luminous body a tail extended like the sting of a scorpion.”
According to Pliny, again, a Comet in the form of a horn was seen in the year B. C. 480, just before the great invasion of Greece by Xerxes ending in the bloody sea fight of Salamis.
The next Comet mentioned by Lubienitius appeared in B. C. 466, when it was seen for 75 nights all over Greece. In that year Greece was ravaged by war between the Spartans and Athenians, and the city of Sparta was all but destroyed by an earthquake.
The next Comet appeared one generation later in 431 B. C., and was seen through 60 nights all over the ancient world. This Comet was followed by a terrible pestilence which swept over Aethiopia, Egypt, Athens, and Rome. War broke out all over Greece. It was the beginning of the great Peloponnesian War, which devastated Greece for a generation to follow.
In the year 394 B. C., there was another Comet seen in Greece, followed by the great Corinthian War with the bloody battles of Knidus and Koronea.
Aristotle records a Comet seen by him in his fifteenth year, 371 B. C. The sight of it inspired the youth to a special study of astronomy. The Comet was visible until the end of the first week of July. On July eighth was fought the great battle between the Thebans and Spartans, when Epaminondas, one of the greatest generals of antiquity, overthrew the Spartans.
The next Comet, that of 338 B. C., which was likewise observed by Aristotle, who had then become the teacher of Alexander the Great, marked Alexander’s first public entry into the history of the world. The Comet blazed its brightest on the eve of the bloody battle of Chaeronea, Alexander’s first victory and achievement in war.
In the year 344 B. C., there was another Comet, followed by another war in Greece and Sicily. Diodorus of Sicily wrote of this Comet: “On the departure of the expedition of Timoleon from Corinth for Sicily with all his war ships, the Gods foretold success by an extraordinary prodigy: A burning torch appeared in the Heavens for an entire night and went before the fleet into Sicily.”
The Comets of Carthage.
Nearly a hundred years passed before the appearance of another Comet in 240 B. C. This is the first recorded appearance of Halley’s Comet. By the light of this Comet, Hamilcar, the great Carthaginian general, made his young son Hannibal swear eternal enmity to the Romans. Hamilcar was then in the midst of preparations for the war against Rome, which broke out soon afterward.