Pliny's Natural History, reads:

"A terrible comet was seen by the people of Ethiopia and Egypt, to which Typhon, the king of that period, gave his name; it had a fiery appearance and was twisted like a coil, and it was very grim to behold; it was not really a star so much as what it might be called a ball of fire." A time no more distant perhaps than 3,500 years ago.