En su historia de la iglesia, Filostorigio describió un
cometa, sin
cola, observado durante el eclipse del 19 de julio de 418 d.C., que luego seguía visible durante 4
meses.
Extraído de «La
Historia Eclesiástica» de Filistorigio (nacido c. 364 d.C):
“When Theodosius had entered the years of
boyhood,218 on the 19th of July, a little after noon-day,
the sun was so completely eclipsed that the stars appeared; and so great a
drought followed on this
eclipse that a sudden mortality carried off great multitudes both of men and
of beasts in all parts.
Moreover, at the time that the sun
was eclipsed, a bright meteor appeared in the sky, in shape like a cone, which some persons in their
ignorance called a comet, for there
was nothing like a comet in
the phenomena of this meteor as it appeared. For its light did not end in a tail, nor had it any of the characteristics of a star,
but it seemed like the flame of a huge lamp, subsisting by itself, with no star below it to answer to
the appearance of a lamp.219 Its track, too, was far different from that of comets. For it arose first in the east, just where the sun
rises at the
equinox, and then passing across the lowest star in the constellation of the
Bear, crossed gradually
over to the west. After measuring the whole expanse of the heavens, it at
length disappeared,
after it had continued its course for more than four months.”