A fact from 526 Antioch earthquake appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 September 2011 ( check views). The text of the entry was as follows: Did you know... that the Great Church of Antioch was still standing after the earthquake of 526 AD, but was destroyed seven days later by the resulting fire? A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2011/September. The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/526 Antioch earthquake.

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OK, so I have found a list of several different dates for this earthquake. And I realise that different calendar systems exist for dating things, but on Wikipedia ALONE, there are three different dates listed, not to mention two different death tolls. In the interest of consistency, can anybody weigh in as to the actual date? Can anybody find a good source for this anywhere?

List of natural disasters by death toll lists it as 20 May with 250 000 deaths.

526 Antioch earthquake lists it as 31 May, also with 250 000 deaths.

526 lists it as 19 May with 300 000 deaths.

This website lists it as happening on 29 May, which does little to help the matter: http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/526/may_29_526_30347.html

The 526 Antioch earthquake page does list a footnote, but the footnote itself lists a range of dates from 20-29 May and a range of deaths from 250 000 to 300 000, though the majority of the original sources quoted tended toward the 250 000 bit.

I am inclined to change all the pages based on the footnote given in 526 Antioch earthquake, but this would result in a range of dates rather than a single one. How should this be handled?

Raoulduke25 ( talk) 13:51, 20 July 2009 (UTC) reply

It's a good question. Problems with calendars and the variety of contemporary sources make it difficult to land on a single date or death toll. I thought that I'd based the information in the article on the Sbeinati et al. reference, because it reviews many sources and appears thorough (I've used it extensively in the historical earthquakes page) but I'm not sure where the 31st May came from. I'll check and see if I can come up with anything more definitive. It may be necessary to describe this as an event in 'late May, probably 20th-29th' or similar. Mikenorton ( talk) 22:47, 9 August 2009 (UTC) reply

If you are OK with that phrasing, then I will go ahead and standardise all the Wikipedia articles across the board to show that this earthquake happened in 'late May, probably between the 20th and the 29th' and that the death toll was 250 000. Raoulduke25 ( talk) 19:49, 10 August 2009 (UTC) reply

That sounds fine, though I would keep the 'approximately' to qualify the death toll. Mikenorton ( talk) 20:01, 10 August 2009 (UTC) reply

Done. And the word approximately was kept in all cases except for the 526 page, where the heading of the table lists the numbers as being "estimates". Raoulduke25 ( talk) 20:41, 10 August 2009 (UTC) reply

This is about a major city that suffered the fourth deadliest earth-quake ever, and all we have is a weak stub! Isn't there any-one who can beef this up? Kdammers ( talk) 06:57, 22 September 2011 (UTC) reply

It's currently number 11 in my list of earthquake articles to expand, but perhaps I can move it to the top due to its importance. There aren't many good sources out there, but I'll see what I can do. Mikenorton ( talk) 09:43, 22 September 2011 (UTC) reply

OK, somewhat expanded. If I had access to more of what was written by John Malalas, it would be more complete. Mikenorton ( talk) 22:09, 22 September 2011 (UTC) reply

Now at DYK, entry here. Mikenorton ( talk) 14:01, 25 September 2011 (UTC) reply