A Maratona e outros acontecimentos

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"Finding Clues in the Sky
A new blend of astronomy and history is revealing the past:
The Olympics are nearly upon us, and once again runners in Greece will take the approximate route followed by the lone runner who in 490 B.C. raced 26 miles from the battlefield at Marathon to Athens. There he brought word of the Greek victory over the Persians, and then collapsed and died. Why did a 26-mile run, routinely practiced by today’s long-distant athletes, prove fatal to the presumably fit and experienced Greek runner?
Astronomer Donald Olson and his colleagues at Texas State University think they know why. In a report to be published in the September issue of Sky & Telescope magazine, they provide convincing evidence that the Marathon run, widely accepted by historians to have taken place in mid-September, actually occurred in August, and more precisely, on August 12. That one-month difference explains a lot. While the average maximum temperature these days along the Marathon route is a bearable 83 degrees F. in September, it ranges from 88 to 91 degrees in August, and often rises as high as 102 degrees near Athens. Those temperatures might well prove fatal, even to superbly-conditioned athletes.
In reaching this conclusion, Olson and his team made use of “astroforensics,” a discipline of their own that combines knowledge of astronomy, historical accounts, and just plain sleuthing. From writings of the Greek historian Herodotus, they found precise descriptions of the phase of the Moon at the time of the Marathon. They also knew, from historical accounts, that when the Persians first landed at Marathon, the Athenians had pleaded for help from the Spartans, who were willing but, because of a religious festival, couldn’t dispatch their army until the next full Moon, which was six days away.
Using this information and making some astronomical calculations, a 19th Century German scholar had established the date of the religious festival, and from it, the September 12 date of the Marathon run. But Olson found a fatal flaw in that reasoning. In dating the Marathon, the German had used the Athenian calendar. However, in 491-490 B.C., Olson determined, the Athenian calendar had run a month ahead of the Spartan calendar, which the Spartans, of course, had used to schedule their religious festival. That placed the Marathon in the steamy month of August. (...)"

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