UFOs in Classical Antiquity
Unidentified Flying Objects in Classical Antiquity ↟↟
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Author: Richard Stothers
Source: The Classical Journal , Oct. - Nov., 2007, Vol. 103, No. 1 (Oct. - Nov., 2007), pp. 79-92
Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South, Inc. (CAMWS)
Preamble
- AD is also called CE (Common Era)
- Anno Domini (AD) is a Medieval Latin phrase meaning "in the year of the Lord".
- BC is also called BCE (Before the Common Era)
REFERENCES
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Abstract: A combined historical and scientific approach is applied to ancient reports of what might today be called unidentified flying objects (UFOs).
217 BCE ↟↟
* In 217 BCE "at Arpi, round shields (parmas) were seen in the sky" (Liv. 22.1.9; Orosius 4.15).
A 
Mock suns (sundogs) are an unlikely explanation, since in the Roman prodigy lists these were routinely described as "double suns" or "triple suns" (i.e. two mock suns on either side of the real one).
212 BCE ↟↟
* In 212 BCE "at Reate a huge stone (saxum) was seen flying about" (Liv. 25.7.8). The implication would seem to be that the object in question was a stony gray color; that it is said to have moved irregularly (volitare) leaves open the possibility that the object Livy describes was a bird or some kind of airborne debris.
Sporadic reports of similar objects continue to appear after this in the Roman prodigy lists.
The immediate sources are again Livy and his extractors Pliny, Plutarch, Obsequens and Orosius:
173 BCE ↟↟
* In 173 BCE "at Lanuvium a spectacle of a great fleet was said to have been seen in the sky" (Liv. 42.2.4).
154 BCE ↟↟
* In 154 BCE "at Compsa weapons (arma) appeared flying in the sky" (Obsequens 17). The term refers to defensive weapons, especially shields.
104 BCE ↟↟
* In 104 BCE "the people of Ameria and Tuder observed weapons in the sky rushing together from east and west, those from the west being routed."
Thus Pliny (Nat. 2.148) who uses the term arma; Obsequens' (43) version is essentially the same. Plutarch (Mar. 17.4) calls the weapons "flaming spears and oblong shields," but may be merely glossing and expanding; since he noted the time as night, the phenomenon in question might be the streamers of an aurora bore alis.
100 BCE ↟↟
* In 100 BCE, probably at Rome, "a round shield (clipeus), burning and emitting sparks, ran across the sky from west to east, at sunset."
Thus Pliny (Nat. 2.100), although Obsequens (45) called the phenom enon "a circular object, like a round shield." The clipeus was a round shield similar to the parma, but bigger.
1st Century BCE ↟↟
Seneca (Nat. 1.1.15; 7.20.2), quoting Posidonius (1st century BCE), referred to a class of clipei flagrantes, saying that they persisted longer than shooting stars.
Nothing in the ancient reports forbids that these were spectacular bolides (meteoric fireballs), which move across the sky more slowly than ordinary shooting stars, but enormously faster than genuine comets, which are seen for days or weeks.
218 BCE ↟↟
* At Rome in the winter of 218 BCE "a spectacle of ships (navium) gleamed in the sky" (Liv. 21.62.4).
Franklin Krauss, for lack of an alternative explanation, speculated that the "ships" were clouds or mirages, although suggestive cloud formations had been long understood, familiar features.11 9 See n. 6, above; Krauss (1930).
Perhaps Krauss did not understand that the average adult human may know the difference between a cloud and something distinctively different?
Being skeptical is good, but assuming that everyone else in the world is stupid and you alone know the truth is pathetic arrogance.
It did not escape the shrewd notice of Liv. 21.62.1 and 24.10.6 that the increased number of prodigy reports generated at this time was a sociological consequence of the many reports that had already been made and publicized, as well as a psychological product of fear caused by the war with Carthage.
Or perhaps there was a flurry of UFO activity around this period of time?
Although Livy voiced skepticism about some of these reports, he did not specify which ones he doubted. Krauss (1930).
Cloud forms when imaginatively interpreted were generally recognized in antiquity to be psychological projections: Ar. Nu. 346-57; Lucr. 4.129-42; Cic. Div. 2.49; Theophanes Confessor AM 5870.
217 BCE ↟↟
* In 217 BCE "at Arpi round shields (parmas) were seen in the sky" (Liv. 22.1.9; Orosius 4.15).
A parma was a small round shield made partly or wholly of iron, bronze or another metal; we do not know whether the luster of these devices (and not just their shape) was intended to be an element of the description.
Mock suns are an unlikely explanation, since in the Roman prodigy lists these were routinely described as "double suns" or "triple suns" (i.e. two mock suns on either side of the real one).
212 BCE ↟↟
* In 212 BCE "at Reate a huge stone (saxum) was seen flying about" (Liv. 25.7.8).
The implication would seem to be that the object in question was a stony gray color; that it is said to have moved irregularly (volitare) leaves open the possibility that the object Livy describes was a bird or some kind of airborne debris.
Sporadic reports of similar objects continue to appear after this in the Roman prodigy lists.
The immediate sources are again Livy and his extractors Pliny, Plutarch, Obsequens and Orosius:
173 BCE ↟↟
* In 173 BCE "at Lanuvium a spectacle of a great fleet was said to have been seen in the sky" (Liv. 42.2.4). *
154 BCE ↟↟
In 154 BCE "at Compsa weapons (arma) appeared flying in the sky" (Obsequens 17). The term refers to defensive weapons, especially shields.
104 BCE ↟↟
* In 104 BCE "the people of Ameria and Tuder observed weapons in the sky rushing together from east and west, those from the west being routed."
Thus Pliny (Nat. 2.148) who uses the term arma; Obsequens' (43) version is essentially the same.
Plutarch (Mar. 17.4) calls the weapons "flaming spears and oblong shields," but may be merely glossing and expanding; since he noted the time as night, the phenomenon in question might be the streamers of an aurora bore alis.
100 BCE ↟↟
* In 100 BCE, probably at Rome, "a round shield (clipeus), burning and emitting sparks, ran across the sky from west to east, at sunset."
Thus Pliny (Nat. 2.100), although Obsequens (45) called the phenom enon "a circular object, like a round shield." The clipeus was a round shield similar to the parma, but bigger.
Seneca (Nat. 1.1.15; 7.20.2), quoting Posidonius (1st century BC), referred to a class of clipei flagrantes, saying that they persisted longer than shooting stars.12 12
Possibly related to these are the disceus comets, which displayed electrum colored disks surrounded by scattered rays; see Plin. Nat. 2.89; Avienus in Serv. Aen. ad 10.272; Campestris in Scholiast to Luc. ad 1.529 and in Lyd. Ost. 15; Apuleius in Lyd. Ost. 10; Mens. 4.71; Heph. Astr. 1.24. See also Fuhr (1982) on the Typhon comet, which was twisted like a red coil (Plin. Nat. 2.91).
Nothing in the ancient reports forbids that these were spectacular bolides (meteoric fireballs), which move across the sky more slowly than ordinary shooting stars, but enormously faster than genuine comets, which are seen for days or weeks.
43 BCE ↟↟
* In 43 BCE at Rome "a spectacle of defensive and offensive weapons (armorum telorumque species) was seen to rise from the earth to the sky with a clashing noise."
3129+2026It might be possible to visualize in this report a 
And then you have events like the
The book by Alan Bond and Mark Hempsell is called "A Sumerian Observation of the 
CE 65 ↟↟
* Historically, the most famous "sky army" appeared in the spring of ca. AD 65 over Judea.
The historian Josephus reports: On the 21st of the month Artemisium, there appeared a miraculous pheno menon, passing belief.
Indeed, what I am about to relate would, I imagine, have been deemed a fable, were it not for the narratives of eyewitnesses and the subsequent calamities which deserved to be so signalized.
For, before sunset throughout all parts of the country, chariots were seen in the air and armed battalions hurtling through the clouds and encompassing the cities."
Although Josephus probably viewed this phenomenon himself and apparently did research on it, he appeals to eyewitness accounts to bolster his credibility.
The phenomenon does not seem to have been an aurora, cloud patterns or meteors, but does resemble the "aerial fighting" of modern UFOs.
217 BCE ↟↟
Fiery Globes * The first cluster of reports of fiery globes falls during the Second Punic War. Livy reports that in 217 BCE "at Capena two moons rose in the daytime ... and at Capua a kind of moon fell during a rainstorm."
The Capuan "moon" may have been a manifestation of ball lightning, but the "two moons" at Capena most likely were not.
Mock moons are seen only at night when the real moon is very bright, but a bolide seen together with the real moon in the daytime, or a bolide split in two, is a possibility.
For modern bolides, see Nininger (1952). Obsequens 69; D.C. 47.2.3; possibly also Verg. Aen. 8.527-9. 15 J. BJ 6.5.3 (translation by H. Thackeray); Tac. Hist. 5.13.2. Silverman (1998) discountenances a rare daytime aurora, which would be quite faint.
Compare the military imagery with that in 2 Kings 2:11; Zechariah 6:1-8; Verg. Aen. 8.528-9.
Other ancient reports ↟↟
Other ancient reports of celestial armies seem too vague, illusionary or likely apocryphal to merit discussion: Jason of Cyrene in 2 Maccabees 5:1-4 (cf. 2:21); App. Mith. 12.27; Obsequens 56; D.C. 51.17.4; 56.24.3-4; Hdn. 8.3.8-9; Nazarius 10.14. 16 Liv. 22.1.10-12; Orosius 4.15.
223 BCE and 122 BCE ↟↟
Three moons appeared simultaneously in 223 BCE and in 122 BCE, and probably consisted of two mock moons on either side of the real moon, although the time is not explicitly stated to have been night: Plin. Nat. 2.99; Plu. Marc. 4.1; Orosius 4.13; Obsequens 32; Apuleius in Lyd. Ost. 4; Zonaras 8.20.
168 BCE ↟↟
* Seneca (Nat. 1.1.2; 7.15.1) gives two examples from the eastern Mediterranean.
In 168 BCE, when L. Aemilius Paullus was waging war against King Perseus of Macedon, "a ball ... was the form of a fire that appeared, as large as the moon." This could have been a bolide.
151 BCE and 146 BCE ↟↟
* A more complicated object made its appearance sometime between 151 BCE and 146 BCE:
After the death of King Demetrius of Syria, ... a little before the Achaean War, a comet blazed out, not inferior to the sun.
At first it was a fiery red disk,emitting a light so bright that it dissipated the night. Then, little by little, its size dwindled and its brightness faded; at last the light died completely.
Since the object was seen for more than a moment (as indicated by its designation as a cometes), it was probably not ball lightning or a bolide; it also seems to have been too bright to have been the former, and too stationary to have been the latter.
Nor could it have been an instance of "night sun" (sol noctu), defined by Pliny as creating diffuse light in the nighttime sky and interpreted today as an aurora.
91 BCE ↟↟
* Two parallel records of 91 BCE preserved by Livy's extractors Orosius and Obsequens refer to central Italy.
Over the city of Rome "about sunrise a ball of fire shone forth from the northern region with a loud noise in the sky." The sonic boom indicates that this was prob ably a bolide, rather than ball lightning as Bicknell suggested.
91 BCE + ↟↟
* The same year, a much stranger object was noticed near Spoletium: Furthermore, several Romans on a journey saw a gold-colored ball roll down from the sky to the earth; after growing larger, it was seen to rise upward again from the earth toward the rising sun and to block the sun itself by its size.
Bicknell proposed that this was ball lightning.
But outside of high altitude storm clouds, ball lightning averages only 23 cm. in diameter, and the description suggests something much larger than this.
Although the reported vertical motion, drawn-out duration and prevailing sunny weather are not unheard-of in ball lightning obser vations, the combination of improbable characteristics makes this explanation unattractive.
The object's apparent trajectory appears more consistent with the approach, overhead passage and retreat of a bolide. On the other hand, an actual landing on or near the ground is strongly indicated.
Contrary to Ramsey (2006) 79-81, the color indicates that it was not a genuine, white comet; see also Sen. Nat. 1.15.2. 18 Plin. Nat. 2.100; Stothers (1979a) 94-5. 19 Orosius 5.18; Obsequens 54. See also Bicknell (1971) 13-16 and (1975) 286-8. Ball lightning is described by Smirnov (1993).
76 BCE ↟↟
* Pliny (Nat. 2.100) also reports an incident that at first glance looks like the preceding one, but occurred at night: A spark was seen to fall from a star and to grow as it approached the earth; after it had become as large as the moon, light was diffused all around as if on a cloudy day; then, retreating to the sky, the object changed into a torch.
This is recorded to have occurred only once: Silanus the proconsul with his retinue saw it, in the consulship of Gnaeus Octavius and Gaius Scribonius. M. Junius Silanus was governor of the province of Asia in 76 BCE, and the incident probably took place there.
Silanus' testimony receives indirect support from an allusion by Lydus (Ost. 6) to several later occurrences of the same phenomenon, although without reference to a torch.
The size, brightness and transience of the object at its maxi mum seem to rule out a comet or a new star (nova), interpretations suggested by Barrett and Hertzog, respectively.
But Bicknell's pro posal of ball lightning also founders on the object's change into a torch. Wittmann has postulated a complex UFO encounter, but this explanation seems unnecessary.
Since no landing of the object was reported, it is simplest and most natural to interpret the event as the overhead passage of a bolide leaving a luminous train.
AD 334 ↟↟
* It is not until four centuries later that the next report in this category is found: At Antioch, in the daytime, a star was seen toward the eastern part of the sky, emitting smoke copiously as if from a furnace, from the third hour to the fifth hour.
This occurred ca. AD 334, and was recorded by a Byzantine annalist, Theophanes Confessor, writing five centuries after the event and using unknown sources.
The one-day, two-hour duration of the phe nomenon is much too short for a comet, despite the suggestions of Barrett, Mango and Scott, and Ramsey, while the smoking trail of a bolide would have appeared most unstarlike, being elongated, irregular, and gradually dissipative.
Wittmann (1968) 225; Bicknell (1971) 14-15 and (1987) 163-4; Barrett (1978) 93-4; Hertzog (1986) 114-15; Huang (1987) 216; Stothers (1987) 211-13. 21 Theophanes Confessor AM 5826; Barrett (1978) 103; Mango and Scott (1997) 49-50; Ramsey (2006) 173-5. Cf. Revelation 9:1-2.
This aster may be the same object as the comet mentioned by Eutropius 10.8 and Aurelius Victor 41 as having appeared before the death of Constantine.
323 BCE ↟↟
Two other dated reports of mysterious fiery globes are not sufficiently reliable to be worth discussing here: one in 323 BCE, Ps.-Callisth. 3.33 (cf. Julius Valerius 3.90);
AD 363 ↟↟
and the other in AD 363, Epitome De Caesaribus 43 (cf. Amm. Marc. 25.2.4-8).
404 BCE ↟↟
A fiery pillar appeared near Athens in 404 BCE on a moonless, stormy night and was possibly a
Close Encounters of the First Kind Hynek defined a Close Encounter of the First Kind as an obser vation at close range of a UFO that fails to interact with the observer and does not leave a physical trace.
150 BCE ↟↟
By this definition, the "fiery red disk" of ca. 150 BCE and the "gold-colored ball" of 91 BCE might be considered borderline examples.
74 BCE ↟↟
* A more characteristic example occurred in 74 BCE, when a Roman army under L. Licinius Lucullus was about to engage the forces of King Mithridates VI of Pontus.
According to Plutarch: But presently, ... with no apparent change of weather, but all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies.
In shape, it was most like a wine-jar (pithoi), and in color, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated. This marvel, as they say, occurred in Phrygia, at a place called Otryae.
The presence of thousands of witnesses, including Lucullus and Mithridates, vouches for the incident's occurrence.
The term pithos was routinely applied by ancient meteorologists to any large barrel shaped, smoky celestial fire, according to Posidonius.
Could the object of 74 BCE have been a meteorite?
The bright silvery color might describe the incandescence of the object while falling, but freshly fallen meteorites are black, and Plutarch makes no mention of any noise, let alone an impact.
The object must have measured much more than a meter across, since it was easily resolved at a distance greater than half the range of a bowshot.
If it had remained on the ground, a meteorite of such size would doubtless have become a cult object in Phrygia, with its long tradition of meteorite worship, yet later historical records referring to Phrygian meteorites are silent about it.
In modern experience, an episode like this would easily fall under the rubric of a classic UFO encounter. But we cannot rule out the fall of a bolide.
AD 285 ↟↟
* A fourth incident is known from a biography of St. Anthony, probably written by Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, following a personal interview with the witness years afterward.
The date was ca. AD 285, in or near the Fayiim in the Egyptian desert.
Anthony saw luminescent tornado: Clem. Al. Strom. 1.24 (cf. Exodus 13:21-2; 14:24). Other dated fiery pillars and beams were probably auroral displays: Stothers (1979a). 23Plu. Luc. 8.5-7 (trans. by B. Perrin). 24 [Arist.] Mu. 395b12; Man. 1.842-3; Sen. Nat. 1.14.1; 1.15.2-4; Plin. Nat. 2.90; Ptol. Tetr. 2.9; Alex. Aphr. in Mete. ad 344a5; Origenes Cels. 1.58; Arrianus Meteorologicus in Stob. 1.28.2; Phlp. in Mete. ad 344'16; Apuleius in Lyd. Ost. 10a; Mens. 3.41; 4.71. 25 Cults were associated with several reputed falls of stones in this part of the world, including Troy, Pessinus, Cyzicus, Abydus, Ephesus and Aegospotami.
on the desert floor a large silver disk that suddenly vanished like smoke.
Although the encounter is introduced into the biography in a straightforward, factual way, the biography is noted for its reli gious visions, and even if authentic, the apparition may have been a desert mirage. C. Close Encounters of the Second Kind In Hynek's system, a Close Encounter of the Second Kind leaves a physical trace.
Ancient literature contains no record of a UFO-like object pressing an imprint into the ground or depositing a material residue.
On the other hand, rains of strange material were occasion ally reported, and since analogous reports in modern UFO research are accepted when sufficiently well-documented and verified, ancient examples are cited here in the absence of more direct evidence.
In modern reports, a whitish gossamer substance dubbed "angel hair" is said on rare occasions to have dropped from a UFO and some times to have vanished quickly on contact with the ground.
In other reports, glassy fibers are left by a UFO after takeoff from the ground, or a chalky substance remains.
AD 196 ↟↟
* An ancient sample of "angel hair" was perhaps picked up at Rome in AD 196 by the historian Cassius Dio, who writes: A fine rain resembling silver descended from a clear sky upon the Forum of Augustus.
I did not, it is true, see it as it was falling, but noticed it after it had fallen, and by means of it I plated some bronze coins with silver; they retained the same appearance for three days, but by the fourth day all the substance rubbed on them had disappeared.
Cales 214 BCE and Rome 98 BCE ↟↟
Other falls in which a solid whitish substance was involved include two "rains of chalk," one at Cales in 214 BCE and another at Rome in 98 BCE.
No other information is offered about the physical nature of this chalk.
[Athanasius] Vita Antonii 11. Mirages were a familiar phenomenon to those living in the North African deserts: D.S. 3.50.4-51.5; Tert. Adversus Marcionem 3.24. A desert-dweller like Anthony would certainly have been aware of such an effect. 27 See the books by the Vallees (1965), (1966) and (1990). 28 D.C. 75.4.7.
The "rain of silver" during Aurelian's reign (AD 270-5), mentioned by Georgius Monachus 3.168, probably alluded to that emperor's reform of the imperial silver coinage, although later annalists interpreted the rain literally.
Liv. 24.10.7; Obsequens 47; August. C.D. 3.31. Rains of "wool" were also reported: Liv. 42.2.4; Plin. Nat. 2.147; Obsequens 12, 52; Orosius 7.32; Jerome Chronica AA 2383; Lyd. Ost. 6.
Close Encounters of the Third Kind ↟↟
A Close Encounter of the Third Kind involves a UFO seen in asso ciation with an occupant, usually described as human or humanoid.
214 BCE ↟↟
* According to Livy, in 214 BCE "at Hadria an altar was seen in the sky; around it were forms of men dressed in shining white." The nature of the altar (ara) is not specified.
But four years earlier, "in the district of Amiternum, in many places, forms of men dressed in shining white were seen at a distance; they did not approach any one."
Except for this report, entities unassociated with a UFO will not be a subject of investigation here, as problems of identification and verification present insurmountable obstacles even in modern cases, as Hynek and others have shown.
214 BCE ↟↟
The incident of 214 BCE nonetheless strikingly recalls the classic observation of UFO occupants on a hovering, overhead craft seen by Father Gill and his companions in 1959 off Papua New Guinea (PNG).
AD 150 ↟↟
* The last encounter is again from the early Christian hagiographical literature and took place near the Via Campana between Rome and Capua ca. AD 150.
On a sunny day, a "beast" like a piece of pottery (ceramos) about 100 feet in size, multicolored on top and shooting out fiery rays, landed in a dust cloud, accompanied by a "maiden" clad in white.
There was only one witness to the event, probably Her mas the brother of Pope Pius I.
Conclusions This collection of what might be termed ancient UFO reports has been culled from a much larger number of reports of aerial objects, most of whose identifications with known phenomena are either cer tain or at least highly probable.
Embedded in the mass of relatively explicable ancient reports, however, is a small set of unexplained (or at least not wholly explained) reports from presumably credible wit nesses.
If these reports are examined statistically, essential features of what I will, for argument's sake, call the ancient UFO phenomenon can be extracted: * shape-discoidal or spheroidal; * color-silvery, golden or red; * texture-metallic or, occasionally, glowing or cloudy; 30 Liv. 21.62.5; 24.10.10. See also n. 10, above. 31 Vallee (1965) 145-8; Hynek (1972) 167-72; Herbison-Evans (1977). 32 [Hermas] Shepherd of Hermas, Vision 4.1-3. Cf. Exodus 3:2-6; Job 41:19-21; Jeremiah 1:13; Ezekiel 1:1-28; 3:12-14; 10:1-22; 11:22-4. Hermas' experience resembles the Miracle of Fatima incident in 1917, which Vallee (1965) 148-51 regarded as a classic occupant case.
* size-a meter to well over a meter; * sound-usually none reported; * type of motion-hovering, erratic or smooth flight, with a rapid disappearance.
In at least one instance, the presence of "occupants" covered in shiny white clothing is reported.
Encounters range from distant views to possibly actual contact; the preferred place and time of observation seem to be rural areas in the daytime.
Physical evidence is generally lacking. Greek and Roman scientific thinkers, who were never at a loss for theories, usually regarded these types of aerial phenomena as stars, clouds, atmospheric fires, light reflections or moving material bodies.
Since most of the original theories hark back to Aristotle and his predecessors, with none being later than Posidonius, they generally predate the reports collected here, none of which is earlier than 218 BC.
It is accordingly impossible to know whether the later observers (mostly practical Romans) interpreted the phenomena literally as they described them or were simply using the best descriptive language they were capable of, while holding back on theoretical speculation.
But any viable theory must reckon with the extraordinary persistence and consistency of the phenomena dis cussed here over many centuries.
Whether one prefers to think in terms of universal recurrent visions from the collective unconscious, misperceptions of ordinary objects, unusual atmospheric effects, unknown physical phenomena or extraterrestrial visitations, what we today would call UFOs possess an intrinsic interest that has tran scended the passage of time and the increase of human knowledge.
A Brazillian Other Sightings
Yes, I know that "Brazillian" is not a real number.
There have been too many UFO sightings to list here or you would never leave your computer.
From the WWII Fu-Fighters, the 1968 Bundaberg (Australia) UFO sighting, the 1973 Hakodate (Japan) MinMin UFO sighting, to the deadly Colares (Brazil) UFO incident to hundreds of other "yearly" sightings across the USA, Europe and Africa, it is hard to dismiss all of this evidence as concocted.
Japan has so many sightings around Fukushima, they actually call the area the "UFO Village" (UFO no Sato).
And then there is this... you decide.
The
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