I had a classics prof at uni - a Roman historian - who could argue quite convincingly that all bad things that happened, like the assassination of J. Caesar, the ultimate fall of the Roman Empire, were due to Sun spots. Really.

I'm reminded of good old Casaubon and his Key to World Mythologies. It sounds like a bunch of tommyrot. And I would have thought Brian Sibley knew better! But it's so much fun to make fun of scholars :-)