It is commonly known as the "Eclipse of Agathocles," and is
recorded by two historians of antiquity in the words following. Diodorus
Siculus[53] says:--

"Agathocles also, though closely pursued by the enemy, by the advantage
of the night coming on (beyond all hope), got safe off from them. The
next day there was such an eclipse of the Sun, that the stars appeared
everywhere in the firmament, and the day was turned into night, upon
which Agathocles's soldiers (conceiving that God thereby did foretell
their destruction) fell into great perplexities and discontents
concerning what was like to befall them."

Justin says[54]:--

"By the harangue the hearts of the soldiers were somewhat elevated, but
an eclipse of the Sun that had happened during their voyage still
possessed them with superstitious fears of a bad omen. The king was at
no less pain to satisfy them about this affair than about the war, and
therefore he told them that he should have thought this sign an ill
presage for them, if it had happened before they set out, but having
happened afterwards he could not but think it presaged ill to those
against whom they marched. Besides, eclipses of the luminaries always
signify a change of affairs, and therefore some change was certainly
signified, either to Carthage, which was in such a flourishing
condition, or to them whose affairs were in a very ruinous state."

The substance of these statements is that in the year 310 B.C.
Agathocles, Tyrant of Syracuse, while conducting his fleet from Syracuse
to the Coast of Africa, found himself enveloped in the shadow of an
eclipse, which evidently, from the accounts, was total. His fleet had
been chased by the Carthaginians on leaving Syracuse the preceding day,
but got away under the cover of night. On the following morning about 8
or 9 a.m. a sudden darkness came on which greatly alarmed the sailors.
So considerable was the darkness, that numerous stars appeared. It is
not at the first easy to localise the position of the fleet, except that
we may infer that it could hardly have got more than 80 or at the most
100 miles away from the harbour of Syracuse where it had been closely
blockaded by a Carthaginian fleet. Agathocles would not have got away at
all but for the fact that a relieving fleet was expected, and the
Carthaginians were obliged to relax their blockade in order to go in
search of the relieving fleet. Thus it came about not only that
Agathocles set himself fre