The Sun, the Moon, the World, and You

In 49 BC Julius Caesar made the fateful decision to cross the Rubicon, and thus began his political ascent to become the supreme ruler of Rome. In 50 BCE, Caesar had been witness to a lengthy solar eclipse, and the two events were linked together in his mind. He was a big believer in omens, and felt the solar eclipse of 50 BC was linked to his success in politics.

At the time he saw the eclipse, he was the Roman governor of Gaul. He had been instructed by Pompey, a general and the leader of the Senate, to return to Rome. Instead of obeying him Caesar, his former son-in-law, crossed the Rubicon and marched into Rome as the head of a large army, and a Civil War began, which Julius Caesar ultimately won. In 44 BC, Caesar was assassinated by a rogue group of Roman senators, and in 40 BC, coins were minted in honor of him showing his face on one side, and a solar eclipse on the other.

Eclipses have always been considered to herald major life events, and the intense interest in how to predict their occurrence inspired the astronomical observations that led to the origin of astrology. Each year there are four or five eclipses that include a mix of solar eclipses that occur around the time of a New Moon, and lunar eclipses that