100 Reasons to Believe New Testament History
76. Julius Africanus (A.D. 180 - 250) and Thallus
Julius Africanus was a probing researcher and careful historian who so impressed the emperor Alexander Severus (222-235) that he entrusted him with the building of his library at the Pantheon in Rome A. If anyone was privy to historical information, it would be Julius.
Around 220 AD He composed a "History of the World" in five volumes. In one of the surviving fragments, Africanus cites another historian, Thallus, as making mention of the three-hour darkness that occurred during Christ's crucifixion B. Although the exact identity of Thallus remains uncertain, Africanus makes it clear that he too was a trustworthy historian who lived at least a generation closer to the time of Christ than himself C.
76. Julius Africanus and Thallus - Notes and References
A. "At Rome he so impressed the Emperor Alexander Severus (222-235) by his erudition that the emperor entrusted him with the building of his library at the Pantheon in Rome" "The Early Church", Henry Chadwick, 1993 (2nd Rev.), p. 103
"(AD 180-250) - first Christian historian to produce a universal chronology. His life is not well documented, but evidence indicates that Africanus travelled considerably in Asia, Egypt, and Italy and later lived chiefly at Emmaus in Palestine…his work raised the prestige of early Christianity by placing it within a historical context." From Encyclopaedia Britannica (Micropedia), vol. 1, 1997, pp. 135-136
B. "One the whole world there pressed a most fearful darkness; and the rocks were rent by an earthquake, and many places in Judea and other districts were thrown down. This darkness Thallus, in the third book of his History , calls, as appears to me without reason, an eclipse of the sun. For the Hebrews celebrate Passover on the 14th day according to the moon, and the passion of our Savior falls on the day before the Passover; but an eclipse of the sun takes place only when the moon comes under the sun. And it cannot happen at any other time but in the interval between the first day of the new moon and the last of the old, that is, at their junction: How then should an eclipse be supposed to happen when the moon is almost diametrically opposite the sun? Let opinion pass however; let it carry the majority with it; and let this portent of the world be deemed an eclipse of the sun, like others a portent only to the eye. Phlegon records that, in the time of Tiberius Caesar, at full moon, there was a full eclipse of the sun from the sixth hour to the ninth-manifestly that one of which we speak. But what has an eclipse in common with an earthquake, the rending rocks, and the resurrection of the dead, and so great a perturbation throughout the universe? Surely no such event as this is recorded for a long period." Julius Africanus, 18.1.
C. Africanus Mentions Thallus Twice Before the Quote in Question: (XXIII.2): "And after the 70 years of captivity, Cyrus became king of the Persians at the time of the 55th Olympiad, as may be ascertained from the "Binliothecae" of Diodorus and the histories of Thallus and Castor, and also from Polybius and Phlegon, and others besides these, who have made the Olympiads a subject of study. For the date is a matter of agreement among them all."
(XIII.3): "For these things are also recorded by the Athenian historians Hellanicus and Philochorus, who record Attic affairs; and by Castor and Thallus, who record Syrian affairs; and by Diodorus, who writes a universal history in his Bibliothecae; and by Alexander Polyhistr, and by some of our own time, yet more carefully…" This quote makes it clear that Thallus comes from at least a generation before Africanus' own time. Note the other historians he mentioned alongside Thallus and their credentials. Given Africanus' own intellectual credentials, it is not at all unreasonable to suppose Thallus to have been a capable historian.
Hellanicus of Lesbos (From Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropedia), 1997): "[Hellanicaus was a] Greek historian whose work marks an advancement in the development of historiography."
Polybius (From Encyclopedia Britannica (Micropedia), 1997, pp.576-577): "In book II in which he attacks the Greek historian Phylarchus for practices that might be called unprofessional today, Polybius states:
"A historian should not try to astonish his readers by sensationalism, nor, like the tragic poets, seek after men's probable utterances and enumerate all the possible consequences of the events under consideration, but simply record what really happened and was said, however commonplace. For the object of history is the very opposite of that of tragedy. The tragic writer seeks, by the most plausible language to thrill and charm the audience temporarily; the historian by real facts and real speeches seeks to instruct and convince serious students for all time.'…Polybius defines the historians task as the study and collation of documents, acquaintance with relevant geographical features, and, finally, political experience (XII, 25e); of these the last two are the most essential. And he practiced what he preached, for possessed good political and military experience and had traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean and beyond. Nor did he neglect written sources; indeed for his introductory books, covering the period from 264 - 220, they were essential."
The Britannica article sums up regarding Polybius (p. 577): "To the scholar his style is, however, no great obstacle, and, though in his anxiety to improve his reader he moralizes and belabors the obvious, the perennial interest and importance of his theme will always ensure him a following among those who can enjoy a historian who is accurate, serious, and sensible, who understands the venets of which he writes, and, above all, who asks the right questions."
Castor of Rhodes -( Africanus links Thallus twice with him) Castor was responsible for setting the format for most of subsequent historical writing - the comparative columns format (later adapted by Africanus) - see "Historiography: Ancient, Medieval and Modern", by Ernst Breisach, 1944, 2nd ed.