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[2] They were still warring with equal success, when it happened, at an encounter which occurred in the sixth year, that during the battle the day was suddenly turned to night. Thales of Miletus had foretold this loss of daylight to the Ionians, fixing it within the year in which the change did indeed happen.1

1 All evidence, historical and astronomical, fixes the date of this eclipse as May 28, 585 B.C. There was another eclipse of the sun in Alyattes' reign, on Sept. 30, 610; but it appears that this latter was not total in Asia Minor: and Pliny's mention of the phenomenon places it in the 170th year from the foundation of Rome. Thales died at an advanced age in 548 B.C.

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