Part 9

“Its splendour eclipsed that of the midday sun and occupied the fourth part of Heaven.”

The next Comet, burning through 72 nights again, preceded Mithridates’ accession to the throne of Pontus, 119 B. C.

Mithridates’ fourth Comet, now identified as Halley’s Comet, was seen over Asia Minor through the Winter months of 87-88 B. C., just before the horrible massacre of 150,000 Italians ordered by Mithridates.

Twenty-five years later, 63 B. C., Mithridates saw his Comet for the last time when his own son rose up in arms against him. The omen of the Comet so wrought on Mithridates that he first poisoned himself and then had one of his own soldiers despatch him with his sword.

No other Comet is recorded in ancient history during this century, except the one which was seen shining over Italy preceding the birth (July 11, 100 B. C.) of Julius Caesar, destined to become “The foremost man of all this world,” as Shakespeare calls him.

“Caesar’s Comet” as it came to be known (now identified as Halley’s Comet) appeared again over Italy during the great Civil War between Marius and Sylla, when Caesar was first entering into public affairs and earned his spurs as a warrior.

“Caesar’s Comet” shone again over Rome in the year 60 B. C., when Julius Caesar, together with Pompey and Crassus, took charge of the government of Rome and presently seized supreme power as Consul of Rome.

Ten years later “Caesar’s Comet” was seen once more in Italy in the Winter months of 49-50 B. C., when Caesar, returning from his conquest of Gaul, crossed the Rubicon and began the great Civil War against his rival for power, Pompey.

The last appearance of “Caesar’s Comet,” was in 44 B. C., on the death of Caesar. Its coming was foreseen in a dream by Caesar’s wife Calpurnia, who warned him of the omen, as immortalized in Shakespeare’s lines, put into the mouth of Caesar’s wife:

“When beggars die, there are no Comets seen, The Heavens themselves blaze forth the death of Princes”;

followed by Caesar’s famous answer, as culled from Plutarch by Shakespeare:

“What can be avoided, Whose end is purposed by the mighty gods? Yet Caesar shall go forth; for these predictions Are to the world in general as to Caesar.”

On the following morning Caesar was murdered at the foot of Pompey’s statue in the Curia.

Immediately after Caesar’s death, records the Roman historian Suetonius in his “Life of Caesar”: “A Comet blazed for seven nights together, rising always about eleven o’clock, visible to all in Rome. It was taken by all to be the soul of Caesar, now received into Heaven; for which reason, accordingly, Caesar is represented in his statue with a star on his brow.”

Only one more Comet is recorded in ancient history before the birth of Christ. This was the Comet, now identified as Halley’s Comet, which shone over the dense forests of Germany, eleven years before the birth of Christ, when Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, was warring against the ancient Germans and robbing them of their last vestige of liberty. At the same time fell the death of Agrippa, who ruled over the Roman Empire in the absence of Augustus.

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM

The coming of the Messia, according to the sacred legends of the Jews, was to be foretold by a flaming star.

Many sacred writers have held, and many still hold, as did the distinguished American astronomer R. A. Proctor, that the “Star of Bethlehem,” whose shining trail guided the Wise Men from The East, was a Comet. Lubienitius in his “History of Comets” expressly mentions the Star of Bethlehem as the most important Comet of history.

As a matter of fact our modern astronomical computations prove that a Comet appeared in that year so as to be visible to the naked eye over Arabia, Syria, and the Holy Land.

When this Comet appeared Herod was King of Judea. On the appearance of the Comet, Herod consulted the oracle of the Sibyl in Rome. She told him that the Comet shone in token of a boy destined to be far greater than he.

Herod grew so afraid at this that he caused to be murdered his own two infant sons, Aristobolus and Alexander, and after that his eldest son, the boy Antipater. Herod further ordered the massacre of all male infants born in Judea under this Comet, as told in the Gospel of Matthew (Chap. II., Verse 1). As the Comet kept on blazing in the sky, Herod, becoming desperate, tried to kill himself. Five days after this he died of a loathsome disease.

Christian painters and writers from olden times until now, accordingly have pictured the Star of Bethlehem as a Comet.

Take for instance this description of “The Light in the Sky” as given by Lew Wallace in his “Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ”:

“About midnight some one on the roof cried out: ‘What light is that in the sky? Awake, brethren, awake and see!’

The people, half asleep, sat up and looked; then they became wide awake, though wonder struck.... Soon the entire tenantry of the house and court and enclosure were out gazing at the sky.

And this is what they saw: A ray of light, beginning at a height immeasurably beyond the nearest stars, and dropping obliquely to the earth; at its top, a diminishing point; at its base, many furlongs in width; its sides blending softly with the darkness of night; its core a roseate electrical splendour. The apparition seemed to rest on the nearest mountain southeast of the town, making a pale corona along the line of the summit. The khan was touched luminously so that those upon the roof saw each others’ faces all filled with wonder.

Steadily the ray lingered....

‘Saw you ever the like?’ asked one.