Plutarch’s flame-like pithos account

Record summary

What happened Plutarch wrote that before a battle involving Lucullus and Mithridates, the sky opened and a huge flame-like body descended between the armies. He compared its shape to a pithos, a large wine jar, and said the armies separated. Modern writers sometimes treat the jar-like form as a craft description; classical historians read it within a portent narrative written generations later. Evidence The account survives in Plutarch’s Life of Lucullus, composed well after the campaign. Explanations considered A bright meteor or bolide, literary portent and retrospective embellishment are the main possibilities. What remains uncertain There is no contemporary witness record, trajectory data or independent description. Primary source Plutarch’s flame-like pithos account — Wikipedia