Missing Xerxes eclipse explained

Astronomy is an absolute science (most of the time) but history is not.
Thus the history experts will always have the final word on dating and
chronology. Having said that, sometimes history does affect some
astronomical references. Case in point the eclipse mentioned by Herodotus
that occurred the year that Xerxes invaded Greece. The popular date for
that event is 480 BCE. The eclipse was supposed to have occurred in the
spring of that year, but no eclipse seen in Persia occurred that year. So
why did Herodotus mention it?

The answer to that is because there was an eclipse in the original timeline
Herodotus was using. We know enough about the revisions of the Persians to
their history, including influencing the revision of Greek history via
Xenophon to know that the distortions occurred in two phases. The first
phase was to add 30 years to the rule of Darius I (who only ruled for 6
years) and to adjust this with some of the years of the Neo-Babylonian
kings, but only 26 years were removed. Even so, by the time of Darius'
death the timeline was synchronized again. The original timeline for the
Battle of Marathon was 434BCE and for the invasion by Xerxes in 424BCE. So,
of course, there was an eclipse sen in Persia in 424BCE.

But when the second phase of the revisions occurred by Xenophon who redacted
Thucycides, another 56 years were added to the timeline. The original plan
was to add another 30 years which was placed in the 20-year interval between
the two wars, making it 50 years. But because of an eclipse event
occurring the first year of the Peloponnesian War needing to be reset, it
was reset from 403BCE to 431BCE and this added an additional offset of 28
years, making the total offset between the two wars now 50 years. But
this was problematic since Herodotus reported that the invasion occurred
during an Olympic year. The original event had been pushed back from
424BCE to 482BCE. So chronologists adjusted this by 2 years to have the
event occur in 480BCE. Of course, Herodotus had already written his
history and so the Xerxes eclipse reference became completely spurious.

So bottom line why there is no eclipse in the year of Xerxes' invasion as
reported by Herodotus is simply because Herodotus was using a different
timeline when he wrote his history than the one we have now. There was
some distortion of the chronology during the time of Herodotus but not after
the death of Darius.

Of course some who are not historical experts will be at a loss regarding
the redating, but simply as a reference to historical eclipses, this is why
the Xerxes eclipse has no reference. Herodotus wasn't simply imaginging it
or inventing it, he was dealing with a different timeline.

So, for those who truly want to be informed, now you know! :

Larry