What was the silver 'wine bottle' shaped object that falls from the sky between two armies in Plutarchs Life of Lucullus?
In The Parallel Lives, The Life of Lucullus by Plutarch 8,5-7 it states
5 With these words, he led his army against Mithridates, having thirty thousand foot-soldiers, and twenty-five hundred horsemen. But when he had come within sight of the enemy and seen with amazement their multitude, he desired to refrain from battle and draw out the time. But Marius, whom Sertorius had sent to Mithridates from Spain with an army, came out to meet him, and challenged him to combat, and so he put his forces in array to fight the issue out. 6 But presently, as they were on the point of joining battle, with no apparent change of weather, but all on a sudden, the sky burst asunder, and a huge, flame-like body was seen to fall between the two armies. In shape, it was most like a wine-jar, and in colour, like molten silver. Both sides were astonished at the sight, and separated. 7 This marvel, as they say, occurred in Phrygia, at a place called Otryae.
what on earth is he describing here? that doesn't sound like anything i can imagine? hallucinations maybe?
I'm paging /u/KiwiHellenist for this, as he is a good hellenist, and I'll provide the Greek text of Plutarch:
ἀπαντήσαντος αὐτῷ καὶ προκαλουμένου, κατέστη μὲν εἰς τάξιν ὡς διαμαχούμενος, ἤδη δ´ ὅσον οὔπω συμφερομένων, ἀπ´ οὐδεμιᾶς ἐπιφανοῦς μεταβολῆς, ἀλλ´ ἐξαίφνης τοῦ ἀέρος ὑπορραγέντος, ὤφθη μέγα σῶμα φλογοειδὲς εἰς μέσον τῶν στρατοπέδων καταφερόμενον, τὸ μὲν σχῆμα πίθῳ μάλιστα, τὴν δὲ χρόαν ἀργύρῳ διαπύρῳ προσεοικός, ὥστε δείσαντας ἀμφοτέρους τὸ φάσμα διακριθῆναι. τοῦτο μὲν οὖν φασιν ἐν Φρυγίᾳ περὶ τὰς λεγομένας Ὀτρύας συμβῆναι τὸ πάθος
The French translation that I have on hand uses the word "tonneau", which can be translated as "cask" or "barrel". The Spanish versions use "tinaja", which would be a very large vessel made of clay, used for liquids or arids, think of it as an enormous amphora. I have an Italian translation as well, and the word used is "doglio", which is the same as the Spanish "tinaja". From all of this, I can figure the object to be of relatively cylindrical bloated shape, maybe even rounder than that. So, my own guess is that it would be some sort of meteorite or high ferric content