I am vaguely recalling ancient scientists learning how to predict eclipses and using that as a weapon somehow. Like “threaten us and we shall darken the sun!” before it happened.

April 10, 2026 - 21:06 UTC

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The story is that Christopher Columbus used knowledge of an upcoming eclipse to intimidate locals in the Caribbean.
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That’s the one.
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Its a fiction trope I think it apeared first in the Mines of Kig Solomon but theres a Quiroga tale about one explorar that tried to prevent his execution by Aztecs but they laught at hil because they also predicted the eclipse
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That also showed up in one of the Tintin books. And as very typical for Tintin, it more or less portrayed indigenous people as “ignorant and gullible.”
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I believe Columbus used it with the natives
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Columbus wrote about doing this in his diary but it was a lunar eclipse. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_1504_lunar_eclipse
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Did that really happen? Or are you thinking of the plot point in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"?
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Not really, but it was prestigious to be able to afford an astrologer who could predict eclipses. And these people were also very superstitious so they would like to know when these things would happen .
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When are you talking about? After Gutenberg they started being published on almanacs
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