[SunkenCiv]

One of *those* topics.

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[Avoiding_Sulla]

"One of those topics."

So this is "about mid-eighth Century B.C."

IIRC -- verify please -- Dr. V did suggest a massive earthquake would explain how the Assyrians suddenly disappeared literally overnight at the height of their long siege of Jerusalem in 701 BC? All around the city wall but not the city itself is hard to (no pun intended at first) for a man to swallow.

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] The midrashim explain that on the memorable day of Hezekiah the sun retarded to set by the same amount, namely ten degrees (maaloth in Hebrew is preferrably “degrees” and more so when applied to the sundial) by which it speeded up to descend on the sundial built by Ahaz—and, further, that this phenomenon of acceleration of the sun reaching the horizon took place on the day Ahaz was brought to the grave. Since Sennacherib came toward all the fenced cities in Hezekiah’s domain in his (Hezekiah’s ) fourteenth year, and Sennacherib, according to his own descriptions and reliefs, was tarrying in Palestine, besieging Lachish and reducing many places one by one to his yoke, it is well thinkable that Jerusalem under the “proud Judean, Hezekiah” besieged like “a bird in a cage” submitted to pay tribute when nearly fifteen years of Hezekiah on the throne had passed... [/snip]

• The Reign of King Hezekiah