ASTROLOGY IN ROMAN LAW

AND POLITICS

FREDERICK H. CRAMER
Professor of History
M ount Holyoke College

T H E A M E R IC A N P H I L O S O P H I C A L S O C IE T Y
IN D E P E N D E N C E SQ U A R E
P H IL A D E L P H IA

195 4
Copyright 1954 by the American Philosophical Society

Library of Congress Catalog

Card No. 54-6119

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 TO

T H O S E W H O A R E NO M O R E

BUT

W IL L A L W A Y S B E W IT H M E
ASTROLOGY IN ROME UNTIL THE END OF THE PRINCIPATE

Is perhaps the historians’ travail more profitable ? They lost more time
and oil. The thousandth page, indeed, tops the preceding ones, and the
expensive paper pile is still growing. The enormous amount of subject
matter and the rules of the profession insist on that. What, however,
have they to show for it, what fruits of the wide world? Who would pay
a historian even the trifle paid to a mere reader reciting the daily
newspaper!
Juvenal, S a tires, 7, vv. 98-104.
 CO N TEN TS
PAGE

P art I. T h e R ise and T riu m ph of A strology in t h e L atin W o r l d ................................ 1

P r e f a c e ................................................................................................................................................... 1

I. The rise of astrology in the hellenistic w o r l d ....................................................................... 3

1. T he meaning of “ scientific” a s t r o l o g y ............................................................................. 3
2. T he origins of horoscopal a s t r o l o g y ................................................................................... 4
3. The rise of Hellenistic a s tr o lo g y .......................................................................................... 9
4. Some tenets and techniques of “ scientific ” a stro lo g y .................................................... 19

II. The conversion of republican Rome to astrology (250-44 b.c. ) ............................................. 44

1. The arrival of astrology in the Latin world (250-170 b.c. ) ............................................. 44
2. An age of reason ( ca. 170-139 B . C . ) ................................................................................... 50
3. The trium ph of astrology in republican Rome (139-44 b.c . ) ....................................... 58
4. The last great sceptics of the Roman r e p u b l i c ................................................................ 69

II I. Astrologers— the power behind the throne, from Augustus to D o m i t i a n .......................... 81

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 81
2. The age of transition: 44 b.c.- a.d. 2 ................................................................................... 82
3. The decay of Augustan s c e p t i c i s m ................................................................................... 90
4. Thrasyllus and A u g u s t u s ...................................................................................................... 92
5. Thrasyllus and Tiberius ( a .d. 1 4 - 2 2 ) ................................................................................... 99
6. Thrasyllus at the zenith of his power ( a .d. 2 3 - 3 6 ) .......................................................... 104
7. Ennia T h r a s y l l a .........................................................................................................................108
8. Balbillus and C l a u d i u s .............................................................................................................112
9. Balbillus and N e r o ...................................................................................................................115'
10. Balbillus and his house under the Flavian r u l e r s ................................................................ 131
11. C o n c l u s i o n ...................................... ..........................................................................................144

IV . Astrology in Rome from N erva to the death of Severus A lexander (96-235) . . . 146
1. I n t r o d u c t i o n ................................................................................................................................146
2. Astrology in the reigns of N erva and T rajan ( 9 6 - 1 1 7 ) ............................................. 149
3. Astrology in Latin literature at the turn of the first c e n t u r y ....................................... 154
4. H ad rian : another astrologer on the throne ( 1 1 7 - 1 3 8 ) ....................................................162
5. The retreat of the champions of astrology in the second c e n t u r y .................................178
6. T he astrological literature of the later p r i n c i p a t e .......................................................... 184
7. Foes of astrology in the later p r i n c i p a t e .......................................................................195
8. T h e. twilight of “ scientific” a s t r o l o g y ................................................................ 208
9. The decline of rationalism and the rise of star w o r s h i p .................................................... 217
10. C6nclusion: Friends and foes of the sun-cult at the end of the principate . . . 224

IX
 PAGE
P a rt II. A s tro lo g y in R om an L aw u n til th e E nd of th e P rin c ip a te

P r e f a c e ............................................................................................................................................ 232
PART I.
V. Expulsion of astrologers from Rome and I t a l y ................................................................... 233
THE RISE AND TRIUMPH OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LATIN WORLD
1. I n tro d u c tio n ..........................................................................................................................233
2. Republican forms: Expulsion by praetorian edict and city ordinance . . . . 234
3. Imperial methods ( a . d . 16-52) : Expulsion by senatus c o n s u l t a ............................... 237
4. Imperial methods ( a . d . 66 ?-176?) : Expulsion by imperial e d i c t s ............................... 241 PREFA CE1
5. C o n c l u s i o n ..........................................................................................................................247
It is not often realized to what extent symbolism and astrological literature there remained enough compilers
languages have preserved concepts and terms of Graeco- to preserve much of the work of their predecessors.
VI. Empire wide legal restrictions of astrology and other divination during the principate . 248 Roman astrology. Astronomers speak of “ conjunction ” Men like Hephaestion of Thebes, the Anonymus of 379,
1. The Augustan edict of a . d . 1 1 ........................................................................................... 248 and “ opposition ” of planets; one freely discusses the Julianus, Palchus, or Rhetorius were largely responsible
2. The evolution of the Augustan edict in legal practice ( 1 1 - 4 9 ) ..................................... ......251 " aspects ” of a given problem. People thank their for the preservation of the bulk of our extant Greek
3. Violations of the Augustan edict during the later principate (52-205) . . . . 261 " lucky stars ” for escaping from a danger. An unsuc­ astrological texts. W riting as they did in the twilight
4. Astrologers in court for violations of the Augustan e d i c t ............................................270 cessful venture is “ ill starred.” The “ stars ” of the period of pagan culture, in the fourth and fifth centuries,
5. Legal restrictions of divination during the p r in c ip a te ..................................................276 realm of arts, or that of sports are those who rose to they saved for us not only a wealth of ancient materials,
prominence in their respective field of endeavor. The
but also a great deal of information of astronomical,
flag of many a nation reflects astrological symbolism.
C o n c lu s io n ............................................................................................................................................ 281 sociological, and historical value. Owing to the diffi­
The “ rising sun ” of Japan, the Crescent and Star of
the Ottoman empire, as well as our own flag, in which culty of gaining access to much of this wealth and to the
In d ex .................................................................................................................................................. 284 each state of the Union is symbolized by a bright star, natural tendency to concentrate on the classical authors
all of which in turn are set into a blue field, encompass­ of Greece and Rome, few philologists have hitherto
ing them as heaven does the stars—these are but a few availed themselves of these sources of information.
instances chosen almost at random from the numerous In 1933 Ernst Riess, in an address entitled “ The
national flags bearing witness to the continued popu­ influence of astrology on life and literature at Rome,”
larity of astral symbolism. The possibility of the eleva­ exhorted American scholars:
t
tion of a human soul and its transformation into an
eternally shining star was a belief which left a profound The labors of investigators during the last forty-five
impact on artistic style. Roman rulers beginning with years, among whom it may suffice to name Franz Bo!l,a
Franz Curnont,* and Wilhelm Kroll,4 have served to place
Julius Caesar were ceremoniously “ catasterized,” i.e. in sharp relief the many relations of the influence of astrol­
the soul of the departed officially reported as having ogy in all spheres of ancient life and literature. Yet our
ascended skywards. His effigy thus became the first of editions of classical authors are strangely silent about this
any Roman to bear a star-shaped halo, a symbol trans­ influence. . . . This paper intends to arouse, if possible,
a renewed interest in the subject.5
formed into the haloes of the images of countless saints.
To the development and to the theories of ancient
’ A complete bibliography of F. Boll’s numerous and widely
astrology the Romans contributed next to nothing, but dispersed writings was compiled by K. Meister and published in
were it not for the long and enthusiastic belief of Roman Neue Jahrbuccher fuer W issenschajt and 1 ugendbildung, 1, 1925:
devotees, the Renaissance would hardly have been capa­ 329 f .; see also F . Boll, Kleine Schrijten sur Sternkunde des
ble of using in its art so many astrological elements. The A lte rtu m s: xxv ff., Leipzig, Koehler & Amelang, 1950.
names of the days of the western week are those of the . .a F. Cumont’s publications prior to 1936 are listed in Melanges
. , Cumont, ed. A. and L. Delatte, Annuaire de philologie
Latin star-gods. We still speak of “ jovial,” “ saturnine,” orientate, 4 : vii-xxxi, Brussels, Secretariat de 1’Institut, 1936.
or “ mercurial ” temperaments. Moreover the bulk of Among his subsequent important writings are L ’Egypte des
our extant Greek astrological literature stems from the astrologues, Brussels, Fondation ejyptologique reine Elisabeth,
first five centuries of our era, when Roman emperors 1937, and, together with J. Bidez, L es mages hellenises, 2v.,
Paris, Societe d’editions Les Belles Lettres, 1938; L u x perpetua,
controlled the Mediterranean world. Without the stead­ Paris, Librairie orient^liste Paul Geuthner, 1949.
fast interest of the Roman upper class, especially during 4 Among K roll’s important contributions are numerous articles
the first three centuries, these Greek writers of the in the R E , his joint edition with Skutsch of Firm icus M aternus’
Roman empire would hardly have found enough patrons Mathesis, 2 v , Leipzig, Teubner, 1897 and 1912, the first edition
to encourage and propagate such literary efforts. And of the Anthologiae of V ettius Valens, Berlin, Weidmann, 1908,
the edition of volumes 5 (2) and 6 of the Cat., as well as’ many
even when originality and zest began to fade from articles widely distributed in scholarly periodicals.
0 Translated by Charles Knapp in Classical W eekly 27 (10),
1 The two works always quoted in abbreviation are RE, i. e. Dec. 1933:73-78. The above quotation is from 73 f. Compare
Pauly-W issowa, Realenzyklopaedie des klassischen Altertums, also an American contribution in this field, L. Thorndike. A
2nd ed., S tuttgart, 1894 ff., and Cat., i. e. Catalogus codicum Roman astrologer as a historical source: Julius Firmicus Ma­
astrologorum graecorum, Brussels, 1898 ff. ternus, Jour. Class. Philol. 8, 1913: 415-435.

x
2 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN -WORLD
This appeal by and large fell upon deaf ears in this
country until recent years. Not even a popular classic
like Boll-Bezold-Gundel’s Sternglaube und Sterndeu-
tung (4th ed., Leipzig, Teubner, 1931) has appeared
in an English translation. The unsurpassed handbook
of A. Bouche-Leclercq, entitled L ’astrologie grecque
(Paris, Ernest Leroux, 1899) is equally inaccessible to
the English or American reading public. It also con­
tains the best available summary of the role of astrology
in the Roman world (ch. x v i: 543-627). The late R.
Eisler’s book on The royal art of astrology (London,
Joseph, 1946) was an attempt to fill the gap, but unfortu­
nately the work cannot be considered as reliable. In­
stead the slender volume of lectures by F. Cumont,
Astrology and religion among the Greeks and Romans
(London and New York, G. B. Putnam’s Sons, 1912)
still remains the only commendable popular publication
on this subject in English. A valuable treatment of the
scientific background, i. e. of mathematics and astron­
omy, in Egypt and Mesopotamia (whence Hellenistic
astrologers imported the roots of their craft) has just
been published in O. Neugebauer’s The exact sciences
in antiquity (Copenhagen, 1951).° Meanwhile the pro­
tracted labors of a number of scholars have brought to
completion the monumental Catalogus codicum astro-
logorum Graecorum (abbreviated Cat.)7 It revealed
for example some second-century horoscopes, includ­
ing that of the emperor Hadrian, as well as numerous
fragments from the works of Greek astrologers, many
hitherto wholly unknown. The fragments also con­
tained synopses and texts by two historically important
astrologers, Thrasyllus, friend and adviser of Tiberius,
and Balbillus, son of Thrasyllus, who in turn served
Claudius, Nero, and Vespasian as court astrologer and
confidential consultant. Some of this recently revealed
knowledge prompted F. Cumont to present a new ap­
praisal of Hellenistic and Roman Egypt in his L ’Egypt
des astrologues. A vast amount of work remains to be
done. At last the Latin astrological manuscripts are the
target of an effort, paralleling the one now so happily
terminated in the completion of the Cat. A compre­
hensive catalogue of astrological Latin illustrated manu­
scripts is, under the auspices of the Warburg Institute,
now in the process of publication.
For the philologist the mass of materials thus made
accessible will be of great importance, although but few
"V ol. 9 of the A cta Historica Scientiarum Naturalium ct
Medicinalium. Of special importance is Neugebauer’s demonstra­
tion of the relatively late origin of horoscopal astrology which
antedated the hellenistic era only by less than a century. On
the value of the investigation of pseudo-scientific texts, see his
The study of wretched subjects, Isis, 42, 1951: 111.
1 Brussels, Lamertin, 1898 ff. Only vol. 9 (2 ), the last of the
series, was published in 1953.
of them seem to be availing themselves as yet of this
new opportunity. Historians in turn may be called upon
to reappraise certain aspects of Roman history. The
present study does not presume to delve into the prob­
lem of astrological influences in Graeco-Roman litera­
ture. It confines itself mainly to the impact of astrology
on Roman upper-class society, an impact not without
consequence at times upon the course of political or
military events. Since fatalist astrology required of
its devotees a fatalist Weltanschauung, attention must
needs be given to the ceaseless struggle between the
champions of fatalism and those of free will.
A separate bibliography has been omitted, since it
would practically have to include the historical litera­
ture devoted to more than four centuries of Roman
history. On the other hand, it seemed advisable to pre­
sent much of our material unadorned, in the form of
direct quotation. In many instances the English version
as given in the Loeb Classics series has been used, but
never uncritically.
The study will be continued in order to deal with the
role of astrology in the later Roman empire, in particular
in the period from the fall of Severus Alexander to the
death of Justinian I (235-565). It is for this reason
that the present volume has the subtitle “ I. Astrology
in Rome until the end of the Principate.”
The author’s gratitude is expressed to the Social
Science Research Council and to the American Philo­
sophical Society which made the research possible by
several grants-in-aid, and to the Society for its decision
to publish this study. Mr. Robert Haynes of Widener
Library at all times did everything in his power to
facilitate the research without which this book could
not have been completed. Professor George Sarton of
Harvard on several occasions opened to me most gen­
erously the sesame of his private library. To Professor
Alice Farnsworth of Mount Holyoke College the author
is indebted for the computation of some Greek horo­
scopes. Professor A. J. Sachs, and, more than anyone
else, Professor O. Neugebauer of Brown University
were indefatigable in their competent and vitally helpful
advice, in particular for the first chapter. Finally it is
due to Elizabeth Cramer’s unflagging zeal in keeping
the mountainous files of notes and in retyping with
infinite patience page after page that this ridiculus mus
could be bom at all. Even if the excuse in magnis
magna voluisse sat should not be pleaded, the author is
painfully aware of many chinks in his armor. Yet if
American scholars begin to take a greater interest than
hitherto in an important and still largely neglected field
of studies, our labor will not have been in vain.
F. H. C.
October 1, 1953
I. T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD
1. T H E M E A N IN G O F “ S C IE N T IF IC ” ASTROLOGY
Scientific astrology has rightly been called “ the
product of a marriage of religion and science.” 1 Bom
and slowly developed in Mesopotamia—the first extant
horoscope dates only from 410 b . c.—it reached its ulti­
mate development in the Hellenistic era.2 Then Egypt,
especially Alexandria, became a renowned center of such
studies. This led both Greek and Roman authors to the
mistaken concept, still encountered in many a modern
treatment of the subject, that Egyptian astrology was
either older, or at least coeval with Mesopotamian
astrology and developed parallel with but independent
from it. Scientific astrology — in contrast to omina,
omen-astrology and the like—was based on the investi­
gation of planetary positions at the time of birth (or
conception). It was founded on a fatalistic concept of
the cosmos. Side by side with it flourished catarchic
astrology which merely assumed non-fatalistic astral
influence on mundane enterprises like travel, marriage,
or business decisions.3 There was obviously a logical
contradiction between the one type of astrology and
the other. For either stars and constellations exercised
an immutable, or merely an avoidable, influence on
earthly affairs. To the ancients, however, this distinc­
tion usually was by no means clearly apparent. In
any case fatalist astrology was the youngest of several
similar forms of divination of which for example
astro-meteorology4 was a wide-spread, by no means
exclusively Mesopotamian forerunner.
For many centuries astrology was considered as a
legitimate branch of applied astronomy. The terms
astronomy and astrology were actually used synonym­
ously. It has even been suggested that astronomy
originally merely denoted the connecting of astro-
meteorological phenomena with the risings and settings
of certain stars and constellations. An astronomer thus
would be a meteorologist who “ assigned ” (from the
Greek vt/mu) either individual stars or entire constella­
tions their “ weather-making ” roles, presumably of
course on the basis of accumulated observational data.5
It can therefore not be surprising that for instance
1 Riess, toe. cit.
2 Compare the nine-page summary by M. P . Nilsson, The rise
of astrology in the Hellenistic age, Historical notes and, papers,
18, Lund Observatory, 1943.
3 About Egyptian iatromathematics see for example the resume
of Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 1, 3, 15 f . ; also 3, 1, 103 if.
4 F or a survey see R. Eisler, op. cit., ch. x ix : 154-161.
" See on the subj ect P. Tannery, Recherches sur I’histoire de
I'astronomie ancienne, ch. i : 1-25; ch. i i : 26-55, Paris, Gauthier-
V illars et Fils, 1893; more recently E. Laroche, Les noms grecs
de I’astronomie, Revue de Philologie 73, 3rd ser., 20, 1946:118-
123.
already Hesiod was credited with an Astronomy * which
was still known in the days of Augustus.7 Thales was
said to have fallen into a well while “ astronomizing.” *
In the fifth century b. c., however, a more profound
meaning was given to this term. Socrates, according
to Plato, defined astronomy as the discipline devoted to
investigating the movements of the fixed stars, the sun
and the moon, and the relation of their respective speeds
with each other.9 H e did, nevertheless, according to
Xenophon, reject purely theoretical astronomical specu­
lations and research.10 Plato, on the other hand, had
Socrates pronounce himself in favor of the most abstract
kind of astronomical studies against the pragmatic atti­
tude of Glaucon.11
The old term did not find favor with the generation
of Aristotle. The founder of the Peripatetic school
himself steadfastly used the word astrology where his
predecessors had spoken of astronomy.12 H e did
distinguish applied astrology — for example navigation
by the use of stars’ positions—from the type of purely
theoretical and mathematical investigations by which
the preceding century had added so much to the scope
of earlier Greek “ astronomy.” 13 Aristotle’s astrology
paid special attention, indeed, to those very geometrical
hypotheses by which his contemporaries were trying to
explain the movements of the stars. The influence of
the Stagirite was great enough to lend a long life-span
to this usage of the term astrology. The rapid develop­
ment of Hellenistic astrology (in our sense of the word)
eventually led to the adoption of a separate term for
astronomy. The terminus technicus for it now became
mathematics. But soon this term in turn was usurped
by the Hellenistic star-redes and thus lost its original
meaning. Finally towards the end of antiquity the circle
0 Athenaeus, 11, f. 491; compare Philip (of Opus ?), Epinomis,
f. 990a: “ I shall pronounce one word . . . astronomy. The true
astronomer must not—like Hesiod and others like him—confine
his observations only to the risings and settings of the sun.”
On the degree to which oriental ideas may be reflected in Plato’s
Laivs, esp. ff. 893 B ff., compare the rabidly pro-Hellenist W . J.
W . Koster, Le m ythe de Platon, de Zarathoustra et des Chal-
deens, Mnemosyne, suppl. 3, 1951: 59 ff.
1 Hyginus still knew it; see Pliny, N at. H ist., 7, 48, 153.
! Plato, Theaetetus, f. 174 A.
0 Plato, Gorgias, f. 451 C.
10 Xenophon, Memorabilia, 4, 7, 4.
11 Plato, Republic, 7, ff. 527 D ff.
1! M ore than a thousand years later Suidas still defined
astronomy as avrpuv Stavoti-q.
13 Hipparchus (cn. 160 b. c.) called astronomers mathematicians.
Three hundred years later the great astronomical work of
Ptolemy was entitled c6vt*$is. Both scientists did,
however, include astrology as a scientific application of as­
tronomy.
4 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD T H E R ISE OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD 5
was completed: Once again astronomy came to denote14 in Greek literature and learning began to stir in Rome. Mesopotamia the extravagant claims of ancient and centuries separates this horoscope from the next one,
—as it still does—man’s purely scientific endeavors to As the century drew to its close, not only Greek plays, modern sources about the antiquity of Mesopotamian which stems from the year 263 b . c . , 2S it can hardly be
find a rational explanation for the nature and motions epics, and lyrical poetry came to be appreciated by a scientific astrology, claims already occasionally suspected doubted that Mesopotamian astrology continued its
of the stars. Not until the age of Newton, however, small but growing number of aristocratic Roman in ancient times, have had to be modified considerably. steady development during the interval. No parallel
did this readopted term definitely exclude irrational humanists, but also scholarly works, especially in the Prezodiacal astrology, i. e. astrology practiced prior to phenomenon took place in Egypt during this era, so far
offshoots like “ scientific astrology.” field of historiography, found enthusiastic Roman as we know at present. In view of the relatively late date
the introduction of the zodiacal system of constellations,
In Hellenistic and Roman times astrology in the readers. Simultaneously, however, a wave of eastern cannot be regarded as “ horoscopal astrology,” but only at which zodiacal astrology became possible—during the
minds of scholars and laymen alike tended to be accepted cults inundated Italy, some of them star cults. Their as a form of star omen technique, whose predictions time of the Peloponnesian war in Greece—a long-stand­
by a growing number of people as the scientific, the chief appeal at first was with the lower Roman strata. had the primitive character illustrated in the following ing dispute about the time when the Hellenic world first
rational method of divination. The arguments in its There too astrologers found their first devoted clientele. sample of Mesopotamian hemerology: became aware of oriental astrology is reduced to the
favor looked impressive, indeed. The vital effect of the Not until the last century of the republic did they suc­ question to what extent Greek intellectuals familiarized
sun upon terrestrial life was obvious and was constantly ceed in winning over Rome’s upper class. In the end, When on the first of the month of Nisan the rising sun themselves with this recent Mesopotamian development
cited as incontrovertible evidence of astral influence however, not “ scientific ” astrology but a star cult, sun- appears red like a torch, white clouds rise from it. and the
wind blows from the east, then there will be a solar eclipse during the century preceding the death of Alexander
across space. Painstaking and prolonged observations worship, became (in the third century a . d . ) the domi­ the Great (d. 323 b . c . ) Prior to the recent computa­
on the 28th or 29th day of the month, the king will die that
had, astrologers asserted, obtained corresponding proof nant official creed, paving the road for the ultimate very month, and his son will ascend the throne.10 tion of the above-mentioned dates the division of opinion
of the influence of lesser stars upon all life on earth. triumph of Judaeo-Christian monotheism. So strong had greater leeway. An earlier view assigned the in­
In essence the principles on which these theories rested was the belief in the Invincible Sun (Sol I n v ic tu s y Omens of this type were common, but, after the evolu­ vasion of the Greek world by astrology to the time of
were scientifically valid.15 Manilius in his magnificent that for example Constantine I (d. 337), himself at first tion of horoscopal astrology, came to be frowned upon Alexander.24 More recently, on the other hand, it was
Astronomica (early first century a . d . ) stressed this a devotee of the sun cult, found it, indeed perfectly com­ by scientific Chaldaean astrologers.20 The era whence suggested that Greek scholars acquired at least a smat­
aspect of astrology time and again. His famous patible with his pro-Christian sympathies to authorize the above-quoted example stemmed, probably the seventh tering of Mesopotamian astrology centuries before.26
his own portrayal as Helios. And in 354 the ascendant century b . c . , has also furnished us with the names of Such knowledge, however, as we no\y know, could until
Fata regunt orbeni, certa stant omnia lege! 16 Christian church in the reign of his pious but unsavory some court “ astrologers ” like Asharidu, Bullutu, Balasi, the time of Socrates and Plato be confined at best to
(Fate rules the universe,—on immutable law everything son, Constantius II, found it prudent to change the cele­ Ishtar-shumerish, Nabuachiriba, Nabu-shumishku, and
rests.) omen-astrology, hemerology, astromagic, or astrometeor-
bration of the birth of Jesus from the traditional date Nergaletir. They had no known Egyptian predeces­ ology only. Fatalistic horoscopal astrology developed
formulated the basic axioms of all science. Fatalistic (January 6) to December 25, in order to combat the sors or contemporaries. Mesopotamian astronomy did even in Mesopotamia only after the establishment of the
astrology thus two thousand years ago preached the pagan Sun god’s popularity — his “ birthday” being not arrive at a firmly established zodiacal system until zodiacal system, towards the end of the fifth century b . c.,
mechanistic creed that cause-and-effect relations alone December 25. the middle of the fifth century b . c . , when Mesopotamia the oldest extant horoscope (as noted above) dating
determined organic, as well as anorganic processes com­ The story of star worship in the Roman empire has was part of the Persian empire and Athens enjoyed from 410 b . c. (when Socrates was about sixty and Plato
pletely, and beyond that sphere also all human thought been competently dealt with by a number of modern the Periclean era. On the other hand, for a long time about seventeen years old). The infiltration of some
and action. In spite of such Simon-pure rationalism scholars, especially F. Cumont,18 but the all-pervading astronomical observations had been made in Babylonia, knowledge of Mesopotamian developments towards horo­
Hellenistic astrology from the very beginning was per­ influence of “ scientific ” astrology during the era of for instance about the appearance of Venus and the scopal astrology is quite probable. It would merely con­
meated with religious elements too. Greek astrologers the late Roman republic, and particularly under the positions of this and certain other planets in relation to stitute part of the natural contact between Greek and
for example were responsible for the eventual identifi­ principate, does not yet seem to have attracted the de­ each other. Sun and moon were of course included oriental civilizations. Taken in this general sense the
cation of all planets with specific deities, while in pre- tailed attention it deserves. It therefore became the among the planets. Eventually the technique of de­ claims of later authors of antiquity may contain a grain
Hellenistic Mesopotamia only some, but by no means object of this study. Inevitably related activities, in­ scribing a planet’s position by means of the particular of truth, although of course assertions like the one which
all, planets had been associated with divinities. The volving the use of magic and witchcraft, will have to be zodiacal sign “ in ” which it was at the time could not insisted that Pythagoras was a disciple of the Chaldaean
Greeks labeled planets with a variety of names, among touched upon on occasion, but the history of secular, but further the evolution of horoscopal astrology.21 Zaratas (Zoroaster),26 or that he himself was the author
which lesser divinities like Heracles were also repre­ “ rational,” i. e. “ scientific,” astrology in the Roman The earliest zodiacal horoscope known so far is a
sented. Eventually, however, a standardized system empire will form our main topic of discussion. cuneiform text in the Bodleian Library at Oxford.2- 53 A pril 4 ( ? ) ; no. 1870, M organ Libr. Coll. A. J. Sachs has
evolved in which the planets were uniformly referred It dates, according to a recent computation, worked out computed this day by means of the lunar longitude. Another
2. T H E O R IG IN S O F H O R O S C O P A L A STR O LO G Y on the basis of the planetary longitudes, from April 29, cuneiform horoscope contains both the conception and the birth
to as, for example, “ the star of Kronos,” “ the star of horoscopes, dating from March 17 and December 15, 258 b. c . ;
Aphrodite,” “ the star of Zeus,” and so forth. Ulti­ Ancient and modern literature on this topic has 410 b . c. Inasmuch as the zodiacal system had been Brit. M us. Rm. IV 224; published by F . Kugler, Sternkunde
mately one simply identified each planet with its par­ wavered between accepting Chaldaean, i. e. Mesopo­ established- only a short time before, this horoscope und Sterndicnst in Babel, 2 : 558-562, Muenster, 1924; J. Schaum-
ticular divinity, for example, Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, tamian, or Egyptian priority claims on behalf of the clearly belongs to the earliest period of horoscopal berger, ibid., E rg. 3: pi. 7, no. 14. Another cuneiform horoscope,
Zeus, and Kronos. The Latin terminology of this invention of astrology. If, however, the term is used astrology. Although a gap of almost one and a half dating from June 3, 235 B. c., is found in no. 2190, Morgan Libr.
Coll. N ot yet printed is Brit. Mus. Rm. IV 299, dating from
nomenclature, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and in the strictest sense of the word, i. e. applying to horo- July 3 ( ? ) 230 b. c., while Sp. I l l 22, dated M arch 1, 142 b. c.,
Saturn, became that of western astronomy until the scopal techniques, thus excluding hemerology, omens, 10 Boll-Bezold-Gundel: 14.
was published by F . Kugler, op. cit., 2 : 554-558.
astro-magic, etc., the evidence now available is in favor !0 Strabo, 16, 1, 6 (f. 7 3 9 ): “ In Babylon a settlement is set
present day. apart by the local philosophers, the Chaldaeans, as they are s‘ F o r this opinion see for example Riess in R E 2 : c. 1802 ff.,
The third century b . c . was the one in which an almost of Mesopotamian priority in this field. But even for called, who are concerned mostly with astronom y; but some of 1896; Jessen, ibid., 8: c. 62 ff.; v. Oefele, Sun, moon, and stars,
explosive development of Hellenistic astrology took place. these, who are not approved by the others, profess to be geneth- H astings' Encyclopaedia of religion and ethics, 12, 1921; F.
17 Compare H . Usener, Sol invictus, Rheinisches Museum, 60, lialogists ” This passage was written in the Augustan era. Cumont, Babylon und die griechische Astronomie, N eue Jahrb.
It was the very time at which the first serious interest 1905 : 465-491; F. Cumont, La celebration du N atalis Invicti en f. d. klass. A lt., 27, 1911:1-10; cf. Boll-Bezold-Gundel, 8 5 f.
S1 On the subject see the important articles of A. J. Sachs,
Orient, R ev. hist. ret. 82, 1920: 229-240, L a theologie solaire du Babylonian mathematical texts, 1-3, Jour, cuneiform studies 1, 23 W . Capelle, Aelteste Spuren der Astrologie bei den Griechen,
14 F o r instance in the writings of the Alexandrian Pappus paganisme romain, Ac. des Inscr., 12, 1909:447-479. Herm es 10, 1925: 373-395; H . Gressmann, Die hellenistische
1947:219-240 ; 6, 1952:151-156, and his Babylonian horoscopes,
(fourth century a . d.). 18 See n. 15; also his A strology and religion among the Greeks Gestirnreligion, D er alte Orient, Beihefte, 1925.
15 On the interrelationship between science and religion, see and Romans, London and New York, G. B. Putnam ’s Sons, ibid., 49-75.
JS Inventory no. AB 251. R. Campbell Thompson suggested s0 Hippolytus, Elenclius 1, 2, 12; Diodorus, 1, 98 (about
F . Cumont, Les religion's orientates dans le paganisme romain, 1912; Le mysticisme astral dans 1’antiquite, Bull. A c. Belg., Egyptian influence on Pythagoras) ; cf. Th. Heath, Aristarchus
th at the text was “ an astronomical note." H e published it in
4th e d .: 151 ff., Paris, Librairie orientaliste, Paul Geuthner, 1929. 1909 : 256-286; L u x perpetua, Paris, Librairie orientaliste, Paul of Santos, the ancient Copernicus, Oxford, Clarendon Press,
Late Babylonian tablets in the Bodl. Library Oxford, pi. 2,
16 4 : v. 14, ed. T h. Breiter, Leipzig, Th. W eicher, 1907. Geuthner, 1949. 1913; on the alleged contacts of Pythagoras with the Orient,
London, 1927.
 r

6 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W ORLD

T H E R IS E O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 7

Fro. 1 AB 251: Horoscope of April 29, 410 B .C .; BM 33667 (Rm. IV 224) : Horoscope of December 15, 258 B .C .; BM 35516
(Sp. I l l 22) : Horoscope of March 1, 142 B .C .; BM 34567 (Sp. I I 39) : Horoscopes (? ) of three persons (July 3, 114 d. c., January
30, 116, B.C., December 27, 154 B .C .). From A. Sachs, Babylonian Horoscopes, Jour, of Cuneiform Studies 6, 2 (1952) : 50-57.
F ig . 2. M L C : Horoscope of April 4, 263 B .C .; M LC 2190: Horoscope of June 3 (m orning), 235 B .C .; BM 33741 (Rm. IV
299) : Horoscope of July 3, 230 b . c . The tablets shown in figs. 12 and 13 were computed, translated, and commented upon by A. J.
Sachs of Brown University. These illustrations and texts were published in his Babylonian Horoscopes, Jour, of Cuneiform
Studies 6, 2 (1952) : 50-75.
8 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W O RLD
T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 9
of astrological handbooks,27 must be dismissed as fables. with other pursuits of the new intelligentsia of Athens.34
circles than among political orators and social scientists Eudoxus the above passage cannot be quoted. Simi­
Nor should one make too much of the intensification At the head of the movement Aristophanes placed
of Greek cultural relations with the Orient during the Socrates (to whom legend subsequently ascribed the of antiquity. larly the Epinomis, added by the editor of Plato’s Laws,
era of the Persian wars. Even if “ Chaldaean priests,” receiving of a Chaldaean’s prediction of his future Even without personal contact with eastern scholars, probably Philip of Opus,48 does not contain any passage
including the renowned magus O sthanes28 did accom­ fate).35 If Plato can be trusted, Socrates not only however, the Platonic circle would have had ample which would allow us to assume with certainty that
pany the Persian host to Greece in 480 — a Chaldaean resented the charge of scientific atheism,30 but on occa­ opportunity of familiarizing itself with oriental develop­ Plato and his circle had been made familiar with horo­
sage at that time was said to have accurately predicted sion even worshipped the sun,87 a far cry from the ments in the realms of astronomy, astrology, and cos­ scopal astrology. Nor can any conclusions to that effect
to Euripides’ father the glory of the new-born child28 “ scientific materialism ” of Anaxagoras. During the mology. Fanatical philhellenes most recently have of be drawn from the fact that another disciple of Plato,
—we may safely assume that only small groups like the life-time of Plato (427-347 b . c . ) it would no longer course denied any serious influence of this kind upon Heraclides of Pontus, was familiar with the arrange­
Pythagoraeans80 or similar circles of scholars would have been necessary to undertake prolonged voyages to the Academic group or other contemporary Greek ment of the planets based on their revolutions.
readily benefit from such opportunities of cultural con­ the Orient in order to acquaint oneself with the evolu­ scholars. They have stressed the Greek contempt of Aristotle, the most illustrious heir of the Platonic
tacts.81 But the pre-Socratic Greek physicists of the tion of the sciences in that part of the world. Plato “ barbarian ” wisdom, characteristic for the declining legacy, expressed in his early writings the cosmological
fifth century, among them Democritus (the founder of might for example have learned about Chaldaean and era of Greek intellectual development. They are firm mysticism which characterized the late Academy. His
the atomic theory of matter) and Anaxagoras, a close Indian ideas on the immortality of the soul38 without in their ridiculing the tradition ascribing the infiltration subsequent drift towards rationalism can be clearly dis­
friend of Pericles and the formulator of the theory that necessarily ever leaving Greece.80 Long voyages were of oriental learning into the Greek world of the fourth cerned by a comparison of his fragmentary early dia­
stars were merely glowing pieces of matter, and that it of course ascribed to both Plato and Eudoxus 40 as they century (and before) through extended travel of Greek logue On philosophy with his later treatise On heaven.*'
was “ not possible for matter to be annihilated by divi­ had been to Herodotus or Pythagoras, but it is difficult scholars in the near east.45 Whether or not, for ex­ Aristotelian empiricism was not likely to take kindly to
sion ” 32 — men of this type were intellectually at least to prove actual journeys and their duration. ample, Eudoxus of Cnidus ( ca. 408-355 B . C . ) , the the revelatory character on which much of Mesopo­
as closely related to the earlier Greek natural philoso­ greatest mathematician of his time and author of an astro- tamian pre-zodiacal or even of the more recent “ scien­
The whole problem in recent years has undergone a
phers as they were to their own oriental contemporaries. reappraisal, sometimes from purely extraneous motives. meteorological handbook entitled Phaenomena, owed tific” astrology was probably based. Assuredly, how­
But at any rate, in the age of Democritus and Anax­ Simultaneously no fewer than four authors, most of his scientific erudition to travel or other contacts with ever, he did contribute to some extent to the evolution
agoras, Mesopotamian scholars established the fixed them unaware of each other’s activities, have reinvesti­ the O rien t46 is immaterial in view of the fact that this of some astrological concepts of the future. His em­
arrangement of constellations which we call the zodiac, gated Plato’s alleged oriental voyages. Of these writers influential member of the Academy (which he joined phasis for example on the importance of the sphere of
whose earliest known appearance occurred in a cunei­ J. Bidez tended to accept the tradition of Plato’s travels after 370 b . c . ) was definitely aware of Mesopotamian the fixed stars would lend some support to subsequent
form text of 419 b. c.33 hemerology, probably also of omen-astrology, and per­ astrological tenets.50 His acceptance of the geocentric
in the Orient.41 A. Festugiere showed himself more
haps already of fatalistic astrology. Said Cicero (from system may not have necessarily strengthened the scien­
The rapidly rising Greek interest in astronomy pre­ sceptical on this point,42 while J. Kerschensteiner in her
Greek sources) : tific astrological theory of Hellenistic days, but at least
pared the ground for the future development of Hellen­ doctoral dissertation43 and more recently W. J. W.
psychologically, if not scientifically, it helped support it
istic astrology. Already towards the end of the fifth Koster have completely denied not only the taking place L e t us now a rriv e a t th e perform ances of th e Chaldaeans.
O n them E u d o x u s, a stu d en t of P lato, who according to by asserting our planet’s singularly important central
century the study of astronomy had become an integral of any such travels, but (particularly in the case of
part of “ higher studies ” to such an extent that Aris­ Koster) any oriental influence at all on Plato’s phi­ th e ju d g m e n t of th e m ost learned m en w as by fa r th e m ost position in the universe. Thus it became easier for
tophanes in the Clouds (427 B.C.) ridiculed it along losophy.44 This shrill protest of enraged philhellenes
em in en t sch o lar in the field of astrologia, has left his opinion astrologers to insist that the fixed stars, as well as the
in w r itin g : “ O n e m u st least of all believe the C haldaeans planets had as one of their chief functions the control
against the “ contamination ” of Platonic thought by w ith re g a rd to th eir detailed prediction of a person’s life
compare J. Bidez, Eos oil Platon et I'Orient, ch. ii, Brussels, oriental ideas was in itself a reaction to more than two of mundane affairs. Aristotelian teleology and his ac­
on th e b asis of th e day of his b irth .” 47
Imprim. de VAc. Royale Belg., 1945. ceptance of the prevailing theories on comets also were
” F or examples of “ Pythagorean ” tracts, see Cat. 8 (4) : 13; decades of increasing emphasis of the indebtedness of Cicero, in using this passage as an introduction to his subsequently used to give weight to astrological claims.51
7:21. One author (Cat. 1:128, 5-6) considered Pythagoras’ fifth and fourth century Greeks to oriental religious and scathing attack on astrology as a technique of divina­ Altogether it can hardly be doubted that by the middle
reputation as an astrologer equal to that of Petosiris or H erm es; cosmological views. The historical truth undoubtedly
cf. Orphicorum fragmenta, ed. O. K ern: 267-296, 1922. On tion, probably overlooked the fact that in the days of of the fourth century b . c . elements of pre-zodiacal and
Pythagoras’ “ familiarity ’’ with oriental cosmology, see P.
lies somewhere between the two extremes. At any rate Eudoxus the word “ Chaldaean ” did not—as in Cicero’s even of horoscopal astrology had become known to at
Duhem, Le systdme du monde 1: 5-27, esp. 5 f., Paris, A. H er­ Greek conceit concerning the inferiority of “ barbarian ” day—connote astrologer only, but also the priestly class least a number of Greek scholars.
mann et Fils, 1913; also E. Frank, Plato und die sogenannten cultures may have been less pronounced in scientific of Babylon, or even the population of the area in gen­
Pythagoraeer, Halle, M. Niemeyer, 1923. F rank’s thesis that
the Pythagorean Philolaus taught a complete astrological system
eral. From the very text itself it is clear that, while
31 Aristophanes, Clouds, esp. vv. 180 ff. 3. T H E R IS E O F H E L L E N IS T IC A STR O LO G Y
as early as the fifth century B. c. was rightly rejected by Boll- paying due respect to other achievements of the Chal­
35Aristotle is the alleged source of this story; Diogenes-
Bezold-Gundel: 90. Laertius, 2, 5, 24; F . Cumont, Cat. 8 (4) : 199, n. 1. daeans, Eudoxus took exception only to their predic­ The invasion and destruction of the Persian empire
28 Pliny, Nat. H ist. 30, 2, 8 ; on Osthanes, see F. Cumont and 311 Plato, Apology, 5; 14. tions based on the day of birth. Such predictions may by Alexander the Great (336-323 B.C.) intensified but
J. Bidez, Les mages Hellenists. Zoroastre, O stanh, et Hystaspe, 37 Plato, Symposion, 36. therefore have been merely the age-old omen astro­ did not inaugurate the cultural exchange between east
2v., Paris, 1938; also K. Preisendanz in R E 18, 2, 1, 1942: c. 33 Pausanias, 4, 32,'4.
1610-1642. logical ones of hemerology. Whether or not Eudoxus and west. Later legend actually went so far as to insist
30 The Persian M ithridates, for example, may have been meant to refer to the then new development of horo-
20 Aulus Gellius, 15, 20, 2 has transm itted this legend. among the companions of Plato. H e did, indeed, commission a 43 Diogenes Laertius, 3,37, stated that Philip finished the Laws.
30 Compare A- Delatte, Etudes sur la litterature pythagori- statue of the great philosopher. Silanion sculpted it; Diogenes scopal astrology cannot be decided on the basis of this H is authorship of the Epinomis, asserted by Suidas, is not
cienne, 217, Pnbl. Bibl. d. Hautes Etudes, Paris, 1915. About the Laertius, 3, 25; compare on the m atter A. Festugiere, Platon et isolated passage. The almost universal assertion there­ uncontested. Philip of Opus was perhaps identical with Philip
relations between Pythagorean and Orphic circles, see K. Ziegler, of Medma, “ a disciple of Plato and by him diverted to mathe­
R E 18, 2, 1, 1942: c. 1400-1404.
POrient, Rev. de Philologie, 73, third series, 21, 1947 : 9. Until fore that Eudoxus knew and opposed astrology as such
1939 a copy of this bust was in Berlin. could safely apply only when the broadest possible m atics” ; Proclus, in Euclid . . . I, ed. Friedlein: 67; cf. I.
31 Compare P. Schnabel, Berossos, 224; on the problem in *“ F or example Strabo, 17, 1, 29 (f. 806) ; Diogenes Laertius, Thomas, Selections illustrating the history of Greek mathematics,
general, see F. Boll, Die Erforschung der antiken Astrologie, 8, 87. The length of the alleged journeys varied from sixteen
definition of astrology is used. As evidence for a spe­ 1: 155.
Jahrb. f. d. klass. A ltertum , 21, 1908: 103-126. months to thirteen years. cific knowledge of horoscopal astrology on the part of 43 W. Jaeger, Aristoteles, esp.: 136ff.; 156ff.; 158f., Berlin,
32 Hippolytus, Elenchus, 1, 8, 6; compare H . Diels, Die Frag- 41 J. Bidez, Eos . . . , esp. ch. iii : 21 ff. Weidmann, 1923.
mente der Vorsokratiker, 1 :314; 316; 321, and 384; also 29 ff. " A. Festugiere, op. c it.: 5-45, esp. 44 f. 43 See above, ch. i, n. 34. 33 Boll-Bezold-Gundel: 21; compare also Cumont-Bidez, Les
33 O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences . . .: 97; cf. A. Rehm, 41 J. Kerschensteiner, Platon nnd der O rient: 44 ff.; 192 ff., Compare Aristotle, de caelo 2, 12 (f. 292 A, 7; Strabo, 17, mages hellcniscs, 2 : 247, f. 19, n. 1; of ancient authors, see
Parapegmastudien, Abh. d. Bayer. A h., Phil.-Hist. Abt., N. F. Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 1945. 1, 29 (f. 8 0 6 ); Bidez, Eos . . ., ch. iv; Festugiere, op. cit.. 17: Pliny, N a t. H ist. 30, 2, 3; Diogenes Laertius, 1, pr., 8.
19, 1919:22 f. 44 W. J. W . Koster, Le m y the de P laton . . ., esp .: 82 ff. 44; Koster, op. cit. : 25 ff. 31 Aristotle, de meteor. 1, 6 ; W . Gundel, R E , 11, 1922: c.
47 Cicero, de divinatione, 2, 87. 1143 ff.
 10 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
that Philip of Macedon and Olympias, the parents of
Alexander, had employed an Egyptian [jic/J astrologer,
Nectanebos, as early as 356 b . c . when their son was
about to be boin, a practice not infrequent in subsequent
times with well-to-do parents. Nectanebos at the bed­
side of queen Olympias advised her to protract the birth
'so that' her child would be born at the precise moment-
when the most auspicious constellation possible* would
prevail, thus assuring the new-born infant a splendid
future.52 Olympias bravely retarded the birth, hence
guaranteeing the glory which was to be Alexander’s.
When he invaded the Persian realm, the Persian
king's diviners were of course hard put to explain
the conqueror’s successes. The Chaldaeans for instance
shrewdly warned Darius III that “ the Persian empire
would fall to those whose arms he had copied.” 58
Inasmuch as Darius had tried to imitate Greek methods
of warfare his fall could now be satisfactorily accounted
for. W ith the successful conquest of the Persian em­
pire the relations between the Chaldaeans and their new
ruler, Alexander, were soon established on a friendly
basis. True to his cosmopolitan ideals, Alexander went
out of his way to woo and cajole the influential priestly
groups throughout his realm. In turn, the Chaldaeans,
at least according to Hellenistic tradition, were willing
to put their divinatory prowess at Alexander’s disposal.54
The common source (from which Diodorus, Pomponius
Mela (middle of the first century a . d . ) , and Arrian
(second century a . d . ) excerpted what apparently had
become by then a standard illustration of Chaldaean
astrological warnings to Alexander)55 emphasized, on
F o r an English translation of the Syriac version of Pseudo-
Callisthenes whence the figure of the astrologer Nectanebos
stems, see A. W . Budge, The history of Alexander the G reat;
Cambridge, 1889; compare also Ryssel, A rchiv fiter die neueren
Sprachen 90, 1893; A. Hilka, Der Zauberer Neptanebus nach
einem bisher unbekannten E rfurter Text, Festschrift zur Jahr-
Imndertfeier der koenigliclien Universitaet zu Breslau : 197 and
elsewhere, Breslau, 1911; O. W einreich, Der Trug des N e k -
tanebos; Berlin and Leipzig, 1911; F. Boll, Sulla quarta ecloga
di Virgilio, M emorie delte sciense dell Istituto di Bologna, Cl.
di scienze morali, second series, 5-7,1920-1923: 1 ff.; Boll-Bezold-
Gundel : 153; 196 f .; W . Kroll, Alexanders Geburt im Roman.
Hermes 59, 1924: 474-477. T he historical romance of Alexander
is variously ascribed to the late Ptolemaic period or to the first tation became so formidable that the emperor Septimius
century of our era. Alexander is blamed for the death of the
astrologer whom the young prince—at the age of twelve—is said
to have pushed off a wall in order to demonstrate to the scholar
the futility of his astrological craft which had not “ forewarned ” to be enclosed in Alexander’s tomb which he had
him of such a fate; compare on this episode A. H . Krapp:,
Tiberius and Thrasyllus, A m er. Jonr. Phil. 48, 1927:359-366,
esp. 363.
6* Q. Curtius Rufus, 3, 3, 4.
54 They were often referred to as m agi; see for example Ju s­ Alexandergeschichte des Koenigs Ptolemaeus von Aegypten,
tinus, 12, 13; Appian, 11, 9, 58; compare E. Tavenner, Studies
in magic from Latin literature : 1 ff., New York, Columbia Univ.
Press, 1916.
“ Justinus, loc. cit.; Diodorus, 2, 31, 2; 17, 112, 2 ff.; Arrian, 51 Loc. cit.
7, 16 f .; Q. Curtius Rufus, 5, 1, 19 and 22. For the friendly
relations between Alexander the Great and oriental priests, see
for instance Arrian, 3, 16, 5; 7, 11, 8; cf. E. Kornemann, Die
the other hand, the conflict between Greek rationalism,
represented by the philosopher Anaxarchus and his
colleagues in Alexander’s entourage, and the Babylonian
priests, who maintained in the very face of the victor
the superiority of their “ age-old ” divinatory tech­
niques. Diodorus described the scene, probably fol­
lowing Ptolemy I’s or Aristobulus’ account, in great
flourish:
W hen [A lexander] w as 300 stadies from Babylon the
so-called Chaldaeans— w ho have obtained the hig h est rep u ­
tation in astrology being accustom ed to predict th e future
on the basis of age-old observations— chose from th e ir m idst
the oldest and m ost experienced men, because they knew
through the prediction of the sta rs ( r w aartptov jttavreuis)
th at the k in g ’s death would occur in B abylon, an d instructed
[those m en] to reveal to the k in g th e d an g er an d to u rg e
him to en ter the city n ot a t all, no m a tte r from w h at d ire c ­
tion. H e m ight, how ever, escape the d an g er, if he w ould
rebuild the tomb of B elus w hich had been destroyed by the
P ersian s if he then approached the city on the planned
route.50
Alexander, however, suspected that this was merely
a ruse to prevent him from interfering with their ac­
tivities in Babylon.57 Nevertheless he seems to have
changed his route of approach and actually entered the
city from the west.58 More important still, he left the
town without any harm soon afterwards “ having thus
proved the falsity of the prophecy of the Chaldaeans.” 59
Hellenistic romanticism was not satisfied with this. It
dramatized the episode in typical fashion. Thus the
head of the Chaldaean embassy, not daring to speak to
Alexander directly, imparted his warning to the king’s
trusted friend, Nearchus, who in turn informed Alex­
ander. The Macedonian, greatly perturbed, was unde­
cided what to do. Thereupon, Anaxarchus and some
other Greek philosophers successfully prevailed upon
him to shake off this weak-kneed faith in prophecies,
especially Chaldaean ones, observing that “ if things
were fixed by Fate, they were unknown to mortals, and
if they were dependent upon the course of nature, were
unchangeable.” 00 Nor can it be surprising that ro­
mance and legend endowed Alexander himself eventu­
ally with divine, or at least magical powers. This repu­
Severus ( a. d. 193-211), himself a fervent believer in
astrology, ordered a large collection of magical writings
opened.01 Meanwhile for centuries Alexander’s scepti­
cism concerning the warnings about his entry into
Leipzig and Berlin, Teubner, 1935.
00 Diodorus, 17, 112, 2 ff.
57 Arrian. 7, 17, 1 ff.
s* Ibid., 7, 22, 1.
00 Justinus, 12, 13; in greater detail Diodorus, 17, 112, 3 ff.
“ Cassius Dio, ep. 76 (75), 13, 2.
T H E R ISE OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD
Babylon remained the topic of a standard classroom
recitation.02
At any rate there can be little doubt that Alexander
and his political heirs received their full share of prophe­
cies,0" many of which undoubtedly were made by astrol­
ogers.04 Antigonus for example in his incipient struggle
with his rival, Seleucus, rejoiced when in 316 b . c.
Seleucus fled to Ptolemy:
E u t then th e C haldaeans cam e to him and foretold th at
if he ev er let Seleucus escape from his hands, the conse­
quence w ould be th a t all A sia w ould becom e subject to
Seleucus, and th a t A ntig o n u s him self would lose h is life
in a battle a g ain st him . . . . A lthough A ntigonus w as a c ­
custom ed to despise prophecies of this kind on other o cca­
sions, he w as not a little troubled a t th is tim e, b eing d is­
turbed by th e rep u tatio n of the men. F o r they are reputed
to possess a g re a t deal of experience and to m ake th e m ost
ex act o b serv atio n s from the sta rs.05
It may be noted that the source of Diodorus mentioned
the general scepticism of Antigonus in order to con­
trast it with his worried acceptance of the astrological
warning.
Similarly Antigonus’ foe, the most successful of the
late Alexander’s commanders, Seleucus Nicanor (321-
281 B . C . ) , must have pondered whether or not Chal­
daean astrologers possessed some strangely accurate
fore-knowledge derived from their observation of the
skies, when he saw the body of his opponent, Antigonus,
prostrate on the battlefield in 301 b . c . 08 Seleucus,
moreover, was reported to have consulted Babylonian
astrologers (called magi by our late source of informa­
tion in the second century a . d . ) when founding his new
city Seleuceia not far from Babylon. The Chaldaeans
may have feared — and rightly — that Seleuceia would
eventually eclipse Babylon—a development which led to
the complete abandonment of the ancient metropolis in
the first century.07 Seleucus asked the magi to name
an auspicious hour for the official founding ceremonies.
He thus evinced his belief in at least catarchic (from
the Greek ripxv = beginning) astrology, which did not
consider the influence of constellations as irrevokable,
but merely as favorable or unfavorable to the success
of specific human undertakings under a particular astral
configuration.08
The magi decided to trick the king. They gave him
an unlucky hour as the time to lay the corner-stone.
Had Seleuceia been founded according to their advice
03 Seneca, Suasoriae, 4, dealt with it in detail.
11:1A rrian, 7, 18; Diodorus, 2, 31, 2.
G4 Diodorus, 17, 112, 2 ff.
05 Ibid. 19, 55, 6 ff.
ac Compare for example Diodorus, frgm. 21, 1*, l 'f f .; Plutarch,
Eumenes, 19, 2.
47 Strabo, 16, 1, 6 (f. 739) ; Cassius Dio, ep., 68, 30, 1.
“’ A poem KaTapx&v by Maximus (of Ephesus( ? ), fourth
century a . d . ) survives. It gives a good idea of the astrological
characteristics of this superstition. The author ascribed a deci­
sive catarchic influence to the m oon; compare F. Boll, R E .10,
1921, s. v. Karapxal, c. 2484; Bouche-Leclercq: 458-511.
11
it would — at least according to astrological opinion —
never have developed into the long-lived and flourishing
city as which we know it. Fatalistic astrology as op­
posed to its catarchic sister was, however, in this in­
stance, brilliantly vindicated.00 Inexplicably, inspired by
a contagious enthusiasm, the workmen suddenly began
building operations prior to the appointed hour:
. . . The heralds who tried to stop them were not able
to do so. . . . Seleucus, being troubled in his mind, again
made inquiry of the magi concerning his city, and they,
having first secured a promise of impunity, replied, “ That
which is fated, o king, . . . neither man nor city can change,
for there is a fate for cities, as well as for men I ” 70
The concept that cities like kings and empires had
a predictable future was a logical development of earlier
Mesopotamian omen astrology and hemerology. The
introduction of horoscopal astrology would necessarily
add to those traditional techniques an emphasis on “ the
constellation of the decisive moment,” be it the moment
of conception or birth for human beings, or the official
founding of a new city. Even if the Seleucus incident
were a later legend, the casting of city-horoscopes at
the end of the Hellenistic era had become a recognized
astrological technique. This was attested by Cicero and
subsequently by - Plutarch. They recorded the “ suc­
cessful ” attempt of L. Tarutius Firmanus, a friend of
both Cicero and Varro, to reconstruct (!) from the
glorious history of Rome the constellation which must
have prevailed at its official establishment.71 To what
extent the growing interest in stars and constellations
in Hellenistic times became responsible for the coining
of money, bearing planetary or zodiacal symbols, may
be conjectural, but the coinage of Syrian cities72 and
Hellenistic mints, especially the one at Alexandria73 did
produce numerous examples of this type of emblem.
Even the most confirmed sceptic should allow that
purely scientific enthusiasm for astronomy alone would
hardly account for this phenomenon although the direct
connection, if any, between astrology and this numis­
matic development still remains to be ascertained.74
00 Seleucus was “ destined ” to found a city which would
prosper.
70 Appian, 11, 9, 58; compare Diodorus, 2, 31, 2; Bouche-
Leclercq : 368, n. 1 doubts with good reason the authenticity of
this story. F o r another foundation of Seleucus, the city of
Antioch, we do possess a, much later, natal constellation; com­
pare Cat. 9, 2 (1953) : 178. The city was allegedly officially
founded on May 22, 300 B.C.; Malalas (3d. Bonn) 8:200.
71 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 98; Plutarch, Romulus, 12, 3.
F o r a sample of natal horoscopes of cities, see the horoscopes
pf Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Gaza, Caesarea, Nepolis
(in Palestine) in Cat. 9, 2: 177-179. See also note 74.
72 Compare F. Cumont, A strology and religion: 81.
73 Cf. L. Anson, N um ism ata. Graeca 6 : 1 ff.; nos. 126 ff.,
London, 1916; Saglio-Potter, s. v. sodiacus: 1048; J. Vogt, Die
alexandrinischen Mucnsen, 1: 118 ff., Stuttgart, W. Kohlhammer,
1924, dealt with such coinage in the reign of Antoninus Pius
( a . d. 138-161). The gradual ascendancy of the sun cult was
reflected also in the coinage of the later Roman empire.
74 The founders of Bagdad, Omar el Tabari and Ibrahim el
 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W ORLD T H E R IS E OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD
Architecture and painting too began to pay tribute
VI P A R T — S C IE N C E AND THE A R T S— A stronom y. PI. II.
to the intensified interest in the heavens. The Ptolemies,
.Sun. Zodiac. Aquarius. Aries.. Cancer. Gemini. Lea Places. Sagittarius.' Scorpio. Taurus. Constellation; )'
in temples like the one at Esna, or the one at Denderah,
reproduced what may be the earliest surviving examples
S ag ittariu s, sign of Egyptian starmaps, definitely emphasizing the zodi­
acal constellations.75 Ptolemy III (246-221 B . C . ) , who
may have been the first Ptolemaic ruler responsible for
the reconstruction of the Denderah temple, was in
another instance also credited with setting a fine ex­
ample of official Hellenistic gullibility in matters astral.78
He had married Berenice, a first cousin and a young
lady of uncommon energy. She had at first been be­
trothed to him by her father. After his death her mother
preferred a match between Berenice and Demetrius, son
of Demetrius Poliorcetes. When the fiance arrived at
Cyrene, however, he soon transferred his affections
to his prospective mother-in-law. Berenice thereupon
seems to have been an active participant in the plot
which culminated in the assassination of Demetrius.
This happy event at last enabled her to marry Ptolemy
III in 246 b . c. Soon afterwards her husband went off
on a Syrian campaign. The disconsolate bride vowed
to sacrifice her far famed hair if he would only return
safely. He did, but was furious to find his wife sans
cheveux. Upon hearing her story he called the priests,
who were involved, to account, but they succeeded in
calming the irate monarch. They persuaded him that
the curls had mysteriously vanished from the shrine,
whereupon the astronomer, Conon, quickly chimed in
by announcing to the king that he had discovered in the
skies a “ new ” constellation, “ The hair of Berenice,”
which, he claimed, had just appeared between Virgo,
Leo, the Big Dipper, and Arcturus.77 And there every
star-catalogue of our own day still lists this constellation.
A contemporary of Ptolemy III, Attalus I, had among
his most influential advisers a Chaldaean by the name
of Sudines.” He was “ a Chaldaean diviner ” (xoASatos
IiAvtk) and participated with his royal master in the
war against the Galatians (240 b . c.). It is hardly de­
niable that Sudines must have mastered astrology as
at least one of his divinatory techniques.73 The lesser
Hellenistic princes followed the example of the great
Habib, the earliest A rabic writer on astrology, may have
followed Graeco-Roman custom when founding Bagdad at an
“ auspicious " m om ent; Suter, Die M athematiker und A stro -
nomen der A ra b e r: 3, n. 1; 7, Leipzig, Teubner, 1900.
” See Bertha P o rter and Rosalind Moss, Topical bibliography
of ancient E gyptian hieroglyphic texts . . . , 6 : 1181, Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1939; O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences . . .:
82 ff.; esp. 84 f.
’“ A L atin version of Callimachus’ work was composed by
Catullus (66). F o r an excellent modern presentation of the
famous story, see U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Reden und
Vortraege 1: 197 ff., Berlin, Weidmann, 1925.
77 Justinus, 26, 3 ff.
■' '■>' '.V,' $. ■*.. ............ «!»' '' j ' ■•■rlt: 7! See W . Kroll, R E , 2. Reihe, 4, 1, 1931: c. 563.
78 H is astronomical prowess was widely and lastingly acclaimed.
Almost four hundred years later Vettius Valens still used his
taa to . 136 . V \ »7- ^ t a i ^ r t s ^ p h i ^ ) ‘U ij to i 3 i . r A , e x a n d r l a (EgyptJ. . * V i
«•*»•>.. ,«JJ Ate*an<lrlaiKt , p);. EucwpW a .P hry#*.) J lunar tab les; Anthologiae, 9, 11; ed. K ro ll: 35, 4.
& 1 - A ■ \ ■ »»'»'■*» A I « ;r tr t« .M .p .. ‘ _ J
Fig. 3. Coins decorated with the sun and various constellations. From L. Anson, Num ism ata Graeca, pt. 6, pi. ii
13
rulers. Not only the Seleucids, Lagids, Attalids sur­
rounded themselves with court astrologers, but for ex­
ample the dynasty of a small state like Commagene also
gave ample proof of its belief in astrology. Although
our earliest evidence to that effect belongs to the very
end of the Hellenistic era, i. e. to the first century b . c.,
the penchant for astrology seems to have been a family
tradition. A relief found in Samosata portrays a con­
junction of planets (though without the moon) in Leo.
For a long time this constellation was thought to repre­
sent the conception horoscope of King Antiochus I
Epiphanes of Commagene (July 17, 97 B . C . ) . 80 More
recently, however, it has been convincingly shown that
the date depicted was July 6 or 7, 62 b . c . , the corona­
tion date of Antiochus I whom Pompey at that time
had reinstated.81 A descendant of Antiochus I, A ka(?)
of Commagene, married the far-famed Alexandrinian
astrologer, Thrasyllus, about sixty years later.82 A
grand-daughter of this couple was to marry the son of
Antiochus IV, the last king of Commagene, probably
during the last years of Nero’s reign.83
The interpenetration of east and west which had been
so greatly intensified through Alexander the Great’s
conquests was not confined to Macedonian and Greek
kings, officers, soldiers, and settlers who sought their
fortune in Asia and Egypt. In smaller numbers, but
not insignificantly, orientals also migrated, choosing the
Aegean and mainland Greek world as their new domi­
cile. The infiltration of eastern ideas, already so notice­
able in the age of Plato and Aristotle, was of course not
carried on solely through newcomers from the Orient.
The founder of Stoicism, Zeno, coming to Athens from
Cyprus on the very frontier of the two worlds, incor­
porated in his philosophy important oriental ideas,
including for example the fundamental belief in pre­
destination. Not only man, but the universe and every­
thing in it were assumed to move according to the
preconceived and immutable laws of Fate (alias N ature).
The rise of Stoicism in the Greek world greatly facili­
tated the growth of Hellenistic faith in the science of
fatalist astrology. The first oriental apostle according
to Graeco-Roman tradition was a Babylonian priest,
who left Mesopotamia to settle on the Greek island of
Cos, long famous for its school of medicine. His name
was Berossus.
He was credited with revealing to the Greek world
the hitherto secret priestly astrology of Babylonia.84
He was further said to have established a veritable
school of astrology at Cos,85 whence this craft then
80 Cf. Bouche-Leclercq: 439.
810 . Neugebauer and H. B. van Hoesen, no (-61) of their
forthcoming edition of Greek horoscopes.
82 E . Honigmann, Zu CIG 4730, H erm es 59, 1924 : 477 f.
" Sec below, the family trees, pp. 95 and 136.
84 Josephus, contra Apionem, 1, 129.
85 Vitruvius, de architectura, 9 , 6. Schwarz, R E 3, 1899: c.
309, no. 4, is unduly sceptical about th is ; compare P . Schnabel,
14 T H E R ISE AND TR IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
spread to the far comers of the Graeco-Roman world.
Berossus unquestionably was a man of considerable
intelligence and learning. One may discard the legend
which made him the father of the prophetic Sibyl, yet
Pliny the Elder could report that Athens had honored
Berossus with a golden-tongued statue “ on account of
his divine prophecies.” 80 On more substantial grounds,
however, rests his reputation as a historian. True to
what he seems to have considered his mission—to impart
to the Greeks the wisdom of his ancient homeland —
he wrote about 280 b . c . a tripartite history of his
country, the Babyloniaka. Often mistakenly referred to
as the Chaldaika, the work was dedicated to the Seleucid
Antiochus I, son of Seleucus Nicator. The ancients
seem to have considered this a thorough and scholarly
work on Mesopotamian history. The elder Pliny,
Flavius Josephus, Alexander Polyhistor, as well as
Christian fathers like Tatian and Eusebius, were among
the grateful perusers of the Babyloniaka.
About a generation later another Babylonian, the al­
ready mentioned Chaldaean diviner Sudines, spent much
of his time in Pergamum, capital of Attalus I, and not
far from Cos. Inasmuch as we have ample testimony
to the astronomical achievements of Sudines—his lunar
tables survived for centuries87 — there can be little
doubt that his reputation as a diviner (/«£ms) was
largely due to his use of astronomical knowledge for
astrological purposes. Like Berossus he too was far
from being narrowly specialized. His commentary of
Aratus’ Phaenomena88 would still belong to the general
sphere of astronomical philology. But more than three
hundred years later the elder Pliny included Sudines
also among his authorities for the nature and properties
of pearls and precious stones like onyx, crystals, amber,
chrysophal, and astolos.S0 H e must, therefore, also have
written a lapidary. An interest in the natural and super­
natural properties of precious stones was not infrequent
among astrologers. Thus, Tiberius’ friend, the astrolo­
ger Thrasyllus, for example, has also been credited with
a lapidary.90
Men of such calibre would cast long shadows across
the Greek world. Even if Berossus was neither the
first nor the only Babylonian to reveal the details of
his priestly knowledge of horoscopal astrology to his
Berossos, 1923; F. X. Kugler, Sternkundc und Sterndienst in
Babel, 2, 2 : 603-630, Muenster, 1924.
s" Pliny, N at. Hist. 7, 37, 123.
" S e e Vettius Valens (ca. a . d . 150), Anthologiae, 9, 11.
88 E. Maass, Aratea : 140 and 143.
•"Pliny, N at. Hist. 9, 56, 115; 36, 7, 59; 37, 2, 25; 2, 34;
6, 90; 8, 114. W . Kroll, R E , 2. Reihe, 4, 1, 1931: c. 563, rightly
suggested that probably a good deal more of Sudines might be
discovered in Pliny’s w o rk ; cf. Schnabel, B erossos: 130 and 132;
Oder in Susemihl, Gcsch. d. alex. Litt., 1:861.
80 Compare H. M artin, Recherches sur les quatre personnages
appeles Thrasyllus, A nnali di sciense mathematiche, 8, 1857:
458 ff. W . Gundel, R E , 2. Reihe, 6, 1, 1936: c. 581, no. 7, esp.
c. 583.
Greek contemporaries, his name was the first one
associated with such a trend. Two of his disciples in
astrology were, according to Vitruvius, Antipatrus and
Achinapolus.91 No trace of their writings seems to have
survived, but we know at least one of the astrological
tenets which they advocated: the moment usually con­
sidered decisive by horoscopal astrologers was the one
of birth. Scientific logic, however, began to insist that
the moment of conception was the truly decisive one,
although, of course, in practice it could be determined
only hypothetically. Practical difficulties, however, did
not faze the two disciples of Berossus. For they were
ardent champions of the conceptionist theory. That on
occasion during that era astrological practice actually
used this method also is shown by a cuneiform horo­
scope now in the British Museum. Compiled at the
very time when Antipatrus and Achinapolus joined the
conceptionist faction, it represents a compromise, using
both March 17, 258 b . c . , the hypothetical date of con­
ception, as well as December 15, 258 b . c . , the actual
time of birth.92
Not only horoscopal astrology, but also its older
sister, hemerology, may have been taught at Cos.93 and
a number of Greek tenets on the subject have survived.94
The earliest Greek astrologer of whose writings at least
fragments have come down to us was Critodemus, who
was said to have derived his knowledge directly from
Mesopotamian sources,05 perhaps from Berossus him­
self. He may therefore have been a contemporary of
Antipatrus and Achinapolus, flourishing approximately
between 290 and 250 b . c . H e was definitely believed
to have been one of the pioneers of astrology in the
Hellenistic world. For Vettius Valens ( ca. a . d . 150)
blamed him for being, like other pioneers, too cryptic.00
Fimiicus Maternus (ca. a . d . 335) included him with
a wildly assorted group of legendary fathers of astrol­
ogy, for example Hermes, Orpheus, Abraham, Peto-
siris, and Nechepso.97 But the caution necessary with
regard to the assigning of passages to early astrologers
by later Greek compilers was again demonstrated re­
cently in the case of a fragment ascribed to Critodemus
by Vettius Valens (second century a . d . ) or a copying
scribe. It contained a number of horoscopes which, if
81 Vitruvius, de architectura, 9, 6, 2. V. Rose suggested that
Achinapolos should read Athenodoros, a Stoic, but our three
best mss. clearly say Achinapolos; Riese, R E , 1, 1894 : c. 245.
“s Brit. Mus. Rm. IV 224, publ. by F. X. Kugler, op. cit., 2,
2:558-562, Muenster, 1924; J. Schaumberger, ibid., 3rd Erg.,
pi. 7, no. 14; the dates recomputed by A. J. Sachs of Brown
University.
83 Herondas, 3, 54; cf. Boll-Bezold-Gundel: 96.
* F or example, P apyri graecae inagicae, ed. and tr, Preisen-
danz, 1928.
“ Pliny, Nat. Hist., 7, 57, 193; cf. Boll, R E , 11, 1922: c. 1928,
no. 4, c. 1930.
80 Vettius Valens, Anthologiae, ed. K roll: 301, 27; compare
150, 22. In this text the name of Critodemus occurs first on 142.
87 Firmicus Maternus, Mathcsis, 4. <,r .
T H E R ISE OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 15
actually from the pen of Critodemus, would be the to have studied directly under the Chaldaeans 107 and
earliest Greek horoscopes extant. They have, however, has, therefore, been considered by some as a disciple
been computed by O. Neugebauer and stem from the of Berossus himself.108 More recently a somewhat later
years a . d . 87-115!08 period, approximately 200 b . c . , 109 has been suggested
Two of Critodemus’ astrological treatises are known for him. This date has been arrived at largely on evi­
by name and partly by content. One, the Horasis dence that he was apparently a younger contemporary
(Vision), was composed in the popular form of this of Apollonius of Myndus.110
type of hellenistic literature. Like most hermetic writ­ The writings of these early Hellenistic astrologers
ings the Horasis purported to reveal a divine visionary were largely theoretical and speculative. They did not
message.99 Since its synopsis has been found,190 it has normally lend themselves to popular usage with suffi­
become clear that, among others, Vettius Valens (ca. cient ease to survive in other but fragmentary form.
a . d . 150) and the astrologer, Rhetorius (who wrote Other important fragments of early Greek texts have
ca. a . d . 500), both knew that treatise and borrowed reached us without the name of their authors. Works
heavily from it.101 The other known work of Crito­ of this kind included for example the most popular
demus was entitled Pinax. It was mentioned as late astrological handbooks of antiquity. The fictitious, usu­
as the fourth century a . d . by the astrologer, Hephaes- ally Egyptian, names of their “ authors,” assigned to a
tion of Thebes.102 hoary past, fanned the dispute about the priority of
Another important figure that might well belong to Mesopotamia or Egypt as the cradle of scientific as­
the same generation of Hellenistic pioneers of astrology trology. An educated layman like Pliny bypassed the
was Apollonius of Myndus (fl. 225 b . c. ?) ,103 His views question by simply recording that some considered Atlas,
on comets were said to be derived from oriental con­ others Mesopotamian, still others Egyptian sages as the
cepts and in any case exercised an important influence inventors of astrologta,111 but scholars would never be
upon Greek and Roman tradition.104 The time to which satisfied with such a pragmatic approach. The priority
he belonged is uncertain. An earlier suggestion that he of Mesopotamia, once unchallenged, came to be con­
was a contemporary of Seneca and thus lived in the age tested in Hellenistic times, and especially in the Roman
of Nero ( a. d. 54-68)105 has been seriously questioned era, largely because Hellenistic astrology in its almost
in the light of recently found evidence which tends to explosive evolution found in Egypt a far more sympa­
support the belief that Apollonius of Myndus flourished thetic atmosphere and a more fertile climate than in
Mesopotamia.
in the third century B. c., not long after Berossus.100
The hermetic literature pouring out of Egypt after
Similarly uncertain is the date of another hellenistic
the beginning of the third century b . c . strengthened the
astrologer, Epigenes of Byzantium. H e also claimed
arguments of those who ascribed to Egypt, if not the
08 The horoscopes, ascribed to Critodemus in another manu­ priority, at least an evolution of astrology parallel with
script of Vettius Valens’ work (Cat., 5 (2) : 120 f.), are also that which had taken place in Mesopotamia. There
found in K roll’s edition of the Anthologiae. The ascription may may still be surprises ahead of us in regard to the dis­
be of long standing. F o r an extant synkephalaiosis of a work of covery of such early Hellenistic texts,112 but funda­
Critodemus lists a chapter on horoscopes which presumably
would be the source of Vettius Valens' Critodemian horoscopes;
mentally the Mesopotamian priority claim seems even
Cat. 8 (3) : 102. Unfortunately, however, the horoscopes in the more definitely established today than in antiquity. That
Anthologiae, supposedly taken from Critodemus’ work, have
shown themselves—on computation by O. Neugebauer—to refer 107 Seneca, quaest. natur. 7, 4, 1.
to constellations which occurred only about three hundred years 108 Bouche-Leclercq: 575.
atfer the time of Critodemus. 100 Rehm, R E , 1909,6: c. 65 f. H e sees in Epigenes V arro’s
e£t Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 3, 12 : 150, ed. Kroll, and 9, p r .: source for Pliny the Elder and Censorinus (de die natali, 17, 4).
329, 18, ed. Kroll. On the mystic tendencies of the work, com­ Rehm also ascribes the spreading of Epigenes’ teachings to
pare F. Cumont, Le mysticisme astral dans l’antiquite, Bullet. Posidonius (ca. 100 B.C.), through whom Aetius obtained his
Ac. Belg., 1909 : 256-286. reference to Epigenes; Doxographi graeci, ed. D iels: 2241,
100 Printed from cod. Paris, gr. 2425 in Cat., 8 (3) : 102. Berlin, Reimer, 1879.
101 Vettius Valens, 4, 17: 189-200, ed. K roll; for Rhetorius see 110 This is to be inferred from Seneca, qu. nat. 7, 4, 1.
Cat. 8 (1) : 257 ff.; 8 (4 ) : 162, n. 1; 199 and n. 1; 270 (index). 111 Pliny, N at. H ist. 7, 57, 203. Pliny speaks of Atlaws.
102 Hephaestion, 2, 10; see Cat., 8, 2: 64, n. ad lineam 24. On 112 W. Gundel, for example, found in the Bodleian Library a
various aspects of Critodemus’ theories, see F. Boll, R E 7, 1912, Latin translation of a Greek hermetic work dating back perhaps
s .v . hebdomas, 1912; 11, 1922: c. 1928, no. 4; Zur babylonischen to the third century B.C.; see his Neue astrologische Texte des
Planetenforschung, Zeitschrift fuer Assyriologie, 25, 1911:372 ; Hermes Trismegistus, Abhandl. d. Bayer. A k . d. Wiss., Phil.-
28, 1913: 340 f. hist. Abt., N. F., 12, Muenchen, 1936. O. Neugebauer, The exact
103 O. Neugebauer, T he exact sciences: 183, suggests “ about sciences: 68-70, discusses its star-catalogue. On hermetic astrol­
200 b . c.” ogy in general compare Scott, H erm es Trismegistos, esp. 3: 177,
104 Seneca, quaestiones naturales 7, 17, 1; also 4, 1; Cat., 1: 80, 225, 363-368, 518 ff., 1926; also A.-J. Festugiere, La revelation
8; 113, n. 1; compare F. Cumont, R E , 2, 1896: c. I l l , no. 114; d’Hertnds Trismegiste, 1: L'astrologie et les sciences occultes,
W . Gundel, R E , 11, 1922: c. 1143-1193. Paris, Librairie Lecoffre, J. Gabalda et Cie., editeurs, 1944; and
108 F. Boll, Sphaera: 368, Leipzig, Teubner, 1903. together with A. Nock his French translation of philosophical
100 W . Kroll, R E , suppl. 5, 1931: c. 115. hermetic texts (2 v., P aris, 1945).
16 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 17
cuneiform writing died out about a. d. 75 may have other matters than affairs of state or events of nation­ The Lord of Flame. His image is an upright statue of the Hellenistic historian M anetho128 listed among the
contributed in later Roman times to the obscuring of wide economic importance, and this long after cuneiform a man with the face of a . . , towards the back, however, that rulers of the twenty-sixth dynasty (663-522 B . C . ) .
Mesopotamia’s importance, while, on the other hand, astrological writings had already begun to develop of a piglet having a snout in front of its face. Having There is no shred of real evidence,120 however, that this
swords in his hands, four, and a knife. His tongue and
Egyptian demotic horoscopes (side by side with Greek “ personalized ” astrology. the face of fire. He indicates that this period makes many king, Nechepso, ever dabbled in astrology or that in
ones) at that very time reached the peak of their short­ Altogether, in spite of some recent agitation to the find their livelihood as advocates, others as wizards, many his reign Babylonian astrology had permeated Egypt.
lived popularity, which was apparently confined mainly contrary,118 the pendulum of prevailing opinion has as singers of gods and kings, and many as translators of Nevertheless it has been suggested1®0 that the fictitious
to the first half of the principate, i. e. from Augustus firmly swung back to the recognition of Mesopotamian languages and many in- . . . ed and from place to place priest Petosiris may have actually used some sixth
(d. a. d. 14) to Hadrian (d. a. d. 138).113 Unless this priority in the development of horoscopal astrology.117 migrating and men earning much without labor nor worry century b . c . Egyptian manuscripts!
how it was earned . . . are eaten up. Many, however, also
evidence is misleading, it would show that it took Egyp­ The large number of pre-zodiacal astrological tablets in consume the substance of others. He makes many passive The search for the real author of the manual which
tians a long time after introduction of the Graeco- the possession of the British Museum alone has no homosexuals and many cohabiting with their aunts and became so popular with Greek and Roman astrologers
Babylonian zodiac into the Nile valley to apply it to known counterpart for that or even a later Egyptian stepmothers so as to debauch them. . . . may still produce some surprising results. In 1920 for
horoscopal astrology. Moreover these demotic papyri period. There can be no denying, on the other hand, instance the tomb of a high priest of Toth (whom the
relied on computation from tables, not on actual observa­ The hermetic character of the Salmeschniaka was Greeks identified with Hermes) was discovered near
that in Hellenistic times the importance of Egypt as a
tions.11* A recently published translation115 of a demo­ widely imitated by subsequent writers on astrology .ias Hermopolis, “ City of Hermes.” The high priest’s
center of astrological studies far exceeded that of Meso­
tic astrological papyrus stemming from Roman times potamia. The raging debate whether for example one The Horasis of Critodemus has already been mentioned. name was Petosiris. H e lived in the fourth century,
may illustrate the nature of such material: Revelations of Hermes to august listeners seem to have prior to the Hellenistic era.181 Inevitably the opinion
of the most influential astrological manuals of Hellenistic
been among the most popular type of pseudoscientific was advanced that he might have been the author of
times was of Mesopotamian or Egyptian origin, may
(1) The influences of Sothis [i.e. Sirius] If it rises illustrate the controversy. The text in question is a and philosophical literature.12* Asclepius himself on the famous astrological work.182 W as he not associated
when the moon is in Sagittarius; . . . grain in the field . . . occasion was named as one of those who had received with the very divinity whose “ prophecies ” and alleged
(2) in the country of the Syrian. . . . death will occur . . . work, variously entitled Salmeschoiniaka, Salmesch- divine revelations of this kind, the same Asclepius, who revelations formed the bulk of the vast “ hermetic ”
will abound in weakness by night and day . . . will (3) niaka, or Salmesachanaka,118 W eird hypotheses have was the first formally imported foreign deity of Rome.125 literature of Hellenistic times? Indeed, some hymns to
go . . . and he [it] will be filled. tried to assign this book, surviving only in Greek frag­
If it [Sothis] rises when Saturn is in Sagittarius: The ments, to Mesopotamian sources.118 Philologically, how­ In the realm of astrological manuals the most popular the Sun were found on the walls of his tomb.188 Yet a
king [will] fight . . . of his and he will . . . (4) prince in ever, there can be very little doubt about the Egyptian of all of them was couched in hermetic form. Writing more cautious view has come to prevail.18* The dead
Egypt. Pharaoh . . . will go to . . . The inundation will between 200 and 150 b. c., its anonymous author bor­ high priest demonstrably enjoyed a. considerable post­
come to Egypt . . . (5) will occur in the country of the origins of this work, although the date of its earliest rowed from the Salmeschniaka, a fact well known to humous reputation as a worker of miracles. Many
Parthian. version,120 which Gundel suggested, cannot possibly be
ancient authors in this field.128 The work went under flocked to his tomb. Some left their graffiti. That may
If it [Sothis] rises when Jupiter is in Sagittarius: The correct.
king of Egypt will rule over his (6) country. An enemy the author’s nom de plume, Petosiris. He claimed as a have been the reason why in the second century b . c .
A longish fragment possibly related to the Salmesch-
will be [his and] he will escape from them again. Many niaka (and perhaps a second one of this type) was priest to have received the contents through a revela­ the astrologer “ Petosiris ” intentionally utilized the
men will rebel against the king. An inundation which is found about half a century ago.121 Its Greek text con­ tion from Nechepso, an Egyptian, who in turn allegedly popularity of the old high priest to boost the sales of
proper is that which comes to (7) Egypt. Seed (and) had been the beneficiary of divine revelations on the his new book.135
grain will be high as to price (in) money, which is . . . . tained certain definitely Egyptian elements. The primi­ subject. A king named Nechepso127 was, indeed, by
The burial of a god will occupy in Egypt. (8) . . . [will tive character of this type of literature122 is shown by The extant fragments—and they are amazingly numer­
come] up to Egypt and they will go away again. an excerpt chosen at random: ous—of the Nechepso-Petosiris treatise in any case do
If it [Sothis] rises when Mars is in Gemini: (9) Some 123 A n interesting example of this kind of astrological litera­ not antedate the second century b . c . According to the
men will rebel [against the king of] Egypt in the country 110 W . Gundel in particular was a valiant champion of Egypt ture is a letter, supposedly addressed by Harpocration to the astrologer Antiochus, who lived in the second century
of the Syrian. The king will proceed to them (10) with in this “ battle.” emperor, Augustus, but more probably written half a century
later and addressed to Claudius or N ero; see F. Cumont, E crits a . d . , the mathematicns Timaeus (ca. first century a . d . ) ,
his army. He will fight. The sky abundant with rain will 117 O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences: 95.
not be able to [occur] in the country of the Syrian . (11) 118 The problematic nature of this work is debated in several hermetiques, I I : Le medecin Thessalus et les plantes astrales, considered “ Nechepso ” together with Hermes as one
. . . distress for five months. writings of F. Boll, for instance in his Salmeschoiniaka Revue de Philologie 42, 1918 : 85-108; also his Lettre de Thes­ of the earliest astrological authors186 (of the Hellenistic
If it [Sothis] rises when Venus is in Gemini: . . . (13) (A nfrage), Zcitschrift fuer aegyptische Sprache 39, 1901: 152 f . ; salus (P seudo-H arpocration), Comptes rendus de VAcademie
The king will do a good thing for Egypt. . . . come at the Sphaera: 378; and together with C. Bezold in Eine neue des Inscriptions 1918 : 225 f .; compare Cat. 8 ( 3 ) : 135 f.; 8 (4) :
235 f . ; S. Reinach, H erm es 2 5 , 1900: 367; compare Pietschmann- 131 Ed. A. Koechly, Leipzig, 1858; compare F. Boll, Carminis
end of this year . . . judgment (14) of Sachmet will babylonisch-griechische Parallele (zu Berossos), Aufsaetse zur astrologi Manethoniani fragm enta nova—Operis astrologici de
occur after . . . months. . . . Kultur- und Sprachgeschichte vornehmlich des Orients, E rnst Pagel, Handbuch der Geschichte der Medizin 1: 335.
111 Cat. 5 (1 ) : 118; 5 (3 ) : 140; 7: 87; Bouche-Leclercq: 556; planetis fragmentum, Papiri della Societa Italiana 3: Iff.,
[If it [Sothis] rises when] Mercury is in Gemini. The Kuhn geividtnet: 226-235, Breslau, 1916; compare Pieper in Florence.
whole earth will . . . (18) Grain will be high as to price Orientalische Literaturzeitung, 1927: c. 1048, and ibid., 1928: 576-578; F . Boll, Aus der Offenbarung Johannis, Stoicheia 1:
c. 187; R. Eisler, The royal art of astrology: 128 f .; W . Kroll, 4 ff., Leipzig und Berlin, 1914; R. Reitzenstein, Hellenistische 138Manetho, Apotelesmata 6 : v. 738; dated by R. G arnett;
[(in) money . . . ] . . . . see Garnett and Downing, On the date of the 'AiroreXrajwrutd
If it [Sothis] rises [when the sun] is in Sagittarius. R E , suppl. 5, 1931: c. 843-846; W . Gundel, D ekane: 86 and n. 1, Mysterienreligiojien, 3rd ed., Leipzig, Teubner, 1927; also his
1936; compare F. Cumont, L 'E gypte des astrologues, 1937:14, Poimandres, Leipzig, Teubner, 1904; cf. B o ll-B e z o ld -G u n d e l : of Manetho, Jour. Philol. 23, 1894 : 238-240; W . Kroll, R E 14, 1,
(19) The king of Egypt will do . . . in . . . 97; and especially A .-J. Festugiere, L a revelation d’H erm es 1928: c. 1102, no. 2, c. 1106; compare ibid., 14, 2, 1942: c. 2582.
n. 1.
110 F or a specimen see R. Eisler, op. c it.: 128 f. Trismegiste 1: L ’astrologie et les sciences occultes, Paris, 1944, Kroll erred i n believing the period of about a . d . 100 to be too
The character of these post-zodiacal astrological tenets 1-0 W. Gundel, D ekane: 27. The date suggested on page 92 esp. ch. i-iv for hermetic literature, and ch. v ff. for astrological early. One of Manetho’s chief sources was Nechepso; see Cat.,
is strongly reminiscent of the much earlier prezodiacal in a stemma is conjectural and apparently much too early. hermetic texts. F o r a list of some of these writings, compare 7: 178; 5 (2) : 143; 8 ( 4 ) : 131 f. and index: 271.
Mesopotamian hemerological or star-omen forecasts. 131 Pap. Oxyrh., ed. Grenfell and H unt, 3, 1912: 126ff.; see L. Thorndike and P . Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits, 1937: c. 850 f. 110 W . Gundel, D ekane: 92.
Much work remains to be done in this field. 181 On the date, see W reszinski, Schriften der Koenigsberger
The above demotic text, although written during the also the partial ed. and tr. by F . Boll in A. Laudien, Griechische
gelehrten Gesellschaft 4, 1927 : 2. About the discovery itself,
principate, still was wholly devoid of any reference to Papyri aus Oxyrhynchus, 1912: 44; Sudhoff, Iatromathematisches 138 See below, p. 45.
auf Papyrusblaettern, A rchiv fuer die Geschichte der N atur- Hephaestion of Thebes (quoting the physician-astrologer G. Lefebure, Annales du service d’antiquites de I'Egypte 2 0 : 41
zvissenschaften 11, 1909 : 471 ff.; a German tr. in W . Gundel, A ntigonus), 2, 18 ( Cat. 8 (2) : 86, 34-87, 12; compare 8 (1 ) : and 207.
113 O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences: 85. Dekane: 413f .; compare his Individualschiksal, Menschentypen 16f . ) ; German tr. in W . Gundel, Dekane: 412. 133 Spiegelberg, Eine neue Spur des Astrologen Petrosiris,
114 Luc. cit. ; for literature on demotic papyri, especially on und Berufe in der antiken Astrologie, Jahrbuch der Charakter- 137 Manetho, Aegyptiaca, ed. and tr. W . G. Waddell, frgm. 68 Sitzungsberichte der Akademie Heidelberg, no. 3, 1922: 1 ff.
astrological ones, see G. R. Hughes, A demotic astrological text, ologie, ed. E. Utitz, 4 , 1927: 135-193, esp. 176 ff. (from Syncellus) named Nechepso as the second ruler of that l " G. Lefebure, Le tombean de Petosiris 1: 95 ff., Paris, 1924.
Jour. N ear Eastern Studies 10 (4) Oct. 1951: 256 ff., esp. n. 1-12. 133 The lack of many of the later hermetic trimmings in the dynasty and allotted to him a reign of six years. In frgm. 69a 1S* Ib id : 9.
110 Hughes, op. c it.: 253 f. The papyrus is in the Egyptian and 69fr an Ethiopian king, Ammeris, heads the list, consequently 135Compare Pieper, R E 16, 2, 192j : c. 2160-2167.
Salmeschoiniaka was already criticized by Jamblichus in the
museum at Cairo (pap. Cairo 31222), but is very badly pre­ fourth century of our e r a ; de mysteriis Aegypt., 8. 4. ed. relegating Nechepso to the third place in the sequence of rulers Cat. 8 (3) : 116, 9-11; compare Kroll, R E , suppl. 4, 1924:
served. Hence the many lacunae. H opfner: 342. of the twenty-sixth dynasty. c. 32, no. 68, c. 33; suppl. 5, 1931: c. 2 ; F . Cumont, Antiochus
18 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W ORLD
period). Riess published magical and astrological frag­
ments of “ Nechepso-Petosiris ” about fifty years ago.137
Meanwhile, numerous additional excerpts by later astrol­
ogers have come to light, making a new edition highly
desirable. Among others, Vettius Valens and Antiochus
(both second century a . d . ) , as well as Thessalus (first
century a . d . ) used the work extensively.188 So great
was the fame of the mysterious author that he was
often simply referred to as “ Nechepso ” or “ Petosiris ”
(or “ Petosiris and Nechepso” ). Frequently the two
were simply called the “ ancients ” or “ the Egyptians.”
The gradual transformation of astrology from a quasi­
religious to a quasi-scientific discipline in hellenistic
times raised inevitably the question on what basis the
alleged physical influence of the stars and constellations
had been established. Revelation satisfied the religious
as it had appealed to astrology’s earliest devotees. For
rationalists, however, scientific observations over ex­
tended periods now were claimed to have furnished the
“ proof ” for the particular influence of each star or
constellation. Fantastic figures were quoted. Berossus,
for example, was said to have spoken of 432,000139
or even 468,000 years,140 a figure close to the round
number of 470,000 years mentioned by Cicero,141 or
the 473,000 years reported by Diodorus.142 Epigenes
of Byzantium insisted that the Babylonians had tablets
for 730,000 years of astronomical observations against
the more modest 490,000-year period apparently sug­
gested by his contemporary, Critodemus.143 Finally,
towards the end of antiquity, Simplicius calmly stated
that Chaldaean observations had extended over more
than 1,440,000 years.144 These fantastic figures con­
trasted sharply with the report of the luckless Calli-
sthenes, a relative of Aristotle, executed for Iese majeste
d’Athenes et Porphyre, Melanges . . . J. Bidez, Annuaire de tistic complex of astrological literature, hermetic as
Philologie orientate 2, 1934: 135-156; compare Cat, 8 (3) : 111, well as “ scientific,” now widened immeasurably the
n. 2.
137 Nechepsonis fragmenta magica, diss., Bonn, 1890; Nechep- field of human endeavor. Not only the individual human
sonis et Petosiridis fragmenta magica, Philologus, suppl. 6, being, but also the separate parts of the body were now
1894: 325-394.
133 See F. Boll, Sphaera: 372 f .; 144, n .; 146, n .; Boll-Bezold- “ scientifically ” connected with astral influences. Stones,
G undel: 23 f .; Darmstadt, de Nechepsonis-Petosiridis isagoge
quaestiones, diss., Breslau, 1916; W . Kroll, Aus der Geschichte
der Astrologie, N eue Jahrbuecher fuer das klassischc Altertum,
7, 1907: 559-583; F . Cumont, Babylon und die griechische
Astronomie, ibid. 27, 1911: 1-10. On Thessalus see above, n. 123.
Boll came to the conclusion that the latest date at which the
compilation of "N echepso-P etosiris” could have been written
was prior to 146 B.C. T he more recent suggestion of Eisler
(op. cit.: 193 f.) that in view of the risings of Sirius listed in
the work for the month of Epiphi a date after 132 B. c. was more
likely cannot convince.
” * Fragm. graec. hist. 2 : 499.
140 Ibid. : 510.
141 Cicero, de divinatione 1, 19, 36.
Diodorus, 2, 31, 9.
1,3 Pliny, Nat. H ist. 7, 57, 193 (also 160) ; Censorinus, de die
natali, 17, 4.
144 in A rist. de caelo comment. 1, 3, ed. I. L. Heiberg, Berlin,
Prussian Academy, 1894: 117, 26 f. , 117, 25 f.
by Alexander the Great. Possibly 31,000 years,145 but
more reasonably “ 1900 years before Alexander ” were
mentioned as the figures which Callisthenes had received
from Mesopotamian scholars.140
Nevertheless, Egyptian astrologers in Hellenistic days
were, of course, not willing to concede priority in mat­
ters astrological to their Mesopotamian rivals. They
claimed for the Nile valley equally impressive periods
of scientific observation of astral influences on human
affairs. From a relatively modest 48,863 years147 up
to 400,000 years148 or even 630,000 years140 did Egyp­
tian “ tradition ” ascribe to such activities. Lay folk
thus were assured by both Egyptian, as well as Meso­
potamian astrologers of a supposedly solid rational
basis of the extravagant claims made by these pseudo­
scientists. It may seem incredible today, but must be
accepted on the basis of historical evidence, that even
the most profound scientists of antiquity, men like
Hipparchus and Ptolemy, as well as Galen, were firmly
convinced of the scientific validity of astrology, although
they might well doubt some of its tenets.
It can be said with reasonable certainty that Greek
contacts with oriental hemerology and rudimentary as­
trology (including astrometeorology) dated back at
least to the sixth century b . c . Thereafter the fifth and
fourth centuries witnessed a slow increase of Greek
familiarity with oriental developments in this field.
Towards the middle of the fourth century, however,
Greek intellectuals rapidly acquired a more profound
knowledge of astrological theory and practice. Between
300 and 150 b . c . Hellenistic scholars finally gave horo­
scopal astrology its ultimate refinement. The emergence
of Egypt as the most important center of astrological
activities in the Hellenistic era obscured the preceding
long and solid Mesopotamian contributions. A svncre-
possibilities of applying astrological techniques to every
plants, and animals, as well as any human undertaking
were credited with astral affinities. The mass of devo­
tees, however, always preferred the mystical revelatory
explanation of astrology, given in writings like the
’■"Ibid. 2, 12, ed. H eiberg: 506, 13-15. Simplicius quotes
Porphyry as his source. Proclus, in Plat. Titnaeum comment.,
ed. Diehl, 1: 100, 29 f. (f. 31), Leipzig, Teubner, 1903, quotes
Hipparchus (ca. 160 b, c.) to the effect that such observations
had been continued for 270,000 years, and adds that Jamblichus
moreover credited the Chaldaeans with having acquired during
this period a complete knowledge concerning the seven “ lords
of the universe” (KoafioKparopes).
" " Simplicius, in A rist. de caelo comment. 2 : f. 123.
117 Diogenes Laertius, 1, pr., 2.
143 Martianus Capella, 8 : f. 812.
143 Simplicius, in A rist. de caelo comment. 1, 3, ed. H eibere •
6'
T H E R ISE OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD
Salmcschnictka or a manual like that of “ Nechepso-
Petosiris.” Nevertheless, there also developed a dif­
ferent kind of astrological literature, trying to base its
systems on astronomical and mathematical foundations.
Men like Hipparchus (second century b . c . ) or Ptolemy
(second century a . d . ) represented the best prototypes
of this group. But they lived long after the age of
Hellenistic pioneers of astrology.150
4. S O M E T E N E T S A N D T E C H N IQ U E S OF
“ S C IE N T IF IC ” ASTROLO GY
W ithout going into the almost innumerable ramifica­
tions of Hellenistic astrology one can distinguish two
essentially different approaches. They expressed them­
selves in fatalistic and catarchic astrology. The one
F ig . 4. . The aspects and triangles of the Zodiac. From Boll-Bezold-Gundel: 63.
assumed that the constellation prevailing at birth (or
at conception) inexorably determined the character and
the future destiny of each human being. The other,
starting from the same axiom of astral influences on
mundane life, merely assigned to individual planets,
fixed stars, or entire constellations a strong but not
inescapable power over the course of events. By ascer­
taining the preponderant influence for specific days,
hours, or even minutes catarchic astrologers thus be-
130 A tentative chronological sequence of the founders of probable, but certain, that just as the temperature of the
hellenistic astrology would read as follows:
Berossus ca. 280 b . c.
Sudines, Antipatrus,
ca, 250 b . c.
Achinapolus, Critodemus
Salmeschniaka ca. 250 b . c .
Apollonius of Myndus,
Epigenes of Byzantium ca. 220 b. c.
“ Nechepso-Petosiris ” ca. 150 b . c.
19
lieved themselves able to advise their clients to plan or
avoid specific undertakings at certain times. Human
nature being what it is, the harsh principle of fatalistic
astrology was appealing to a sober scientific-minded
minority only. Most of those believing in astrology at
all preferred the catarchic doctrine permitting man to
“ outsmart ” the heavens. As for the masses, star-
worship and catarchic astrology with them remained
popular at all times from the Hellenistic era to the end
of paganism in the Roman empire.
An educated Roman layman’s summary of fatalistic
astrology contains its basic axiom and some mention of
its techniques:
In the starry belt which the Greeks call the Zodiac there
is a certain force of such a nature that every part of that
J
belt affects ancl changes the heavens in a different way,
according to the stars that are in this or in an adjoining
locality at a given time. This force is variously affected
by those stars which are called “ planets ” or “ wandering ”
stars. But when they have come into that sign of the zodiac
under which someone is born, or into, a sign having some
connection or accord with the natal sign, they form what is
called a “ triangle ” or “ square.” Now since through
the procession and retrogression of the stars the great
variety and change of the seasons and of temperature take
place, and since the power of the sun produces such results
as are before our eyes, they believe that it is not merely
air is regulated by this celestial force, so also children at
their birth are influenced in soul and body and by this force
their minds, manners, disposition, physical condition, career
in life and destinies are determined.152
151 An obvious m isinterpretation of the astrological theory of
the aspects.
103 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 42, 89; compare almost a century
20 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
In Cicero’s resume the traditional Hellenistic pattern
of fatalistic astrology was thus summarized as follows:
(1) Only the twelve zodiacal constellations and the
planets were normally being taken into account. Cicero
oversimplified matters, however. For non-zodiacal con­
stellations and single stars, the so-called paranatel-
lonta,153 were often also reckoned with, although perhaps
not yet in the days of Cicero.164
(2) Cicero paid no attention to the conceptionist
theory but quoted only the more generally accepted
one, in which the zodiacal sign rising in the east at the
F ig . 5. H e p ta g r a m o f th e w e e k d a y go d s.
From Boll-Bezold-Gundel: 67.
time of birth was the “ natal ” sign in which the Horo­
scopal Point lay. This was the most important con­
stellation for the entire horoscope. (1) The 360 degrees of the zodiacal circle were sub­
(3) Other zodiacal signs, arrayed in geometrical divided into twelve 30-degree sectors, each allotted to
patterns with each other and the horoscopal constella­ one of the twelve signs of the zodiac.
tion, were next in importance. Of their mutual aspects (2) Each of these 30-degree sectors was subdivided
those in which they—or the planets, respectively—would into ten-degree sectors, called decani, and each decanus
be in diametrical, hexagonal, trigonal, or quadratic pat­ was considered " master ” of his own 10-degree sector.169
terns (or planets grouped together in the same zodiacal
later, Seneca rhetor, Suasoriae 2, 2 : “A t birth to all the day
of death is set.” O r on a tom bstone: “ This house [the tomb]
the Fates gave you at b irth ” ; Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
( C / i ) , 12: 671, no. 5271.
188 See below, ch. i, n. 167.
1B* Teucrus of Babylon (first century b . c . or a . d ? ) did much
to develop and transm it the system of the paranatellonta, a
further refinement of hellenistic astrology. P. Nigidius Figulus
(praetor in 58 b . c . ) already quoted a treatise which listed for
each degree of the zodiac the corresponding paranatellonta.
W hether or not Nigidius’ close friend Cicero knew them cannot
be determined.
constellation), were looked upon as astrologically of
great importance. In each horoscope two sets of “ car­
dinal ” points were vital. They were about ninety degrees
from each other and were called Horoscopus (or Horo­
scopal Point), Mesuranema, Dysis, Anti-Mesuranema
or Hypogaeum (imum caeli).
(4) Cicero defined—his use of fingere (“ weave ” )
also showed it — fatalistic astrology only, the decisive
pattern being “ woven ” unchangeably at the moment
of birth.
Himself a disciple of the New Academy, Cicero pro­
fessed great scepticism about astrology,156 but he was
fair enough to include the basic argument of hellenistic
scientists on behalf of astrology: the sun was a star
whose paramount influence on earth and all its creatures
was undeniable. Beyond that astrometeorology every­
where ascribed weather-making powers to certain indi­
vidual stars or constellations. O ur modern reference
to “ dog-days” of July heat, for instance, goes back to
the time when Sirius, called “ dog-star ” by the ancients,
was believed responsible for Mediterranean summer
heat. It has already been shown to what fantastic fig­
ures the claim of scientific verification of the theory of
general astral influence on human life had led hellenistic
astrologers.150 In his brief treatise “ On divination ”
Cicero neither intended nor was able to present astro­
logical techniques in detail. Nor did he dwell on the
attempt of astrologers to explain away the premature
death of children and young people (to whom they had
promised long life) by the assertion that the souls of
these “ biothanatoi ” would find no rest, until the
astrally “ appointed tim e” of their death would have
arrived.167
The refinement of celestial subdivisions in Hellenistic
astrology provided an almost inexhaustible number of
possibilities. Having reconciled the Egyptian decani
with the Babylonian zodiacal system,168 astrologers
arrived at the following arrangem ent:
105 See below, p. 71 f .; on the anti-fatalism of the New Aca­
demy, compare D. Amand, Fatahsme et liberte dans l!antiquitc
grecque 19, Recueil de travaux d’histoire et de philologie, 3rd
ser., Louvain, 1945.
106 See above, p. 18.
187 On this subject, see F . Cumont, L u x perpetua, ch. v ii:
L ’astrologie et les morts prem atures: 302-342 ; 417 f.
188 A pictorial record has survived, the so-called Bianchini
tablet, discovered in 1705 on the Aventine hill in Rome. I t shows
a correlation of the Babylonian dodckahoros, i. e. the division of
the zodiac into twelve loci, with the decani; compare 0 . Neuge­
bauer, The exact sciences: 81 f.
: '1W. Gundel’s Dekane represents the most im portant recent
T H E R IS E O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 21
® Q Y 19 ° SL I 9 0
]> o H 3° H 3°
T> . 7 *» & 21° r 2 i°
n X G 15 ° sr 150
c? ”1 Y 7 28° 0 28°
? SL « X 27° ny 270
5 nr u np 15 0 X 15 °
F ig . 6. Table of houses, exaltations, and depressions according to Boll-Bezold-Gundel: 59.
(3) Each 10-degree sector was in turn subdivided TABLE 1
into smaller sectors, “ ruled ” by subdecani. A system A S a m p i -e o f N u m e r o l o g ic a l I a t r o m a t h e m a t i c s *
of minute subdivisions—covering only fractions of one (ascribed to T hrasyllus)1’
degree—was called myriogenesis.ta°
A tried method of calculation concerning patients
MC and other problems.
Put down the day, when the patient went to bed ill, or when
the child was born, or the fugitive escaped, or someone departed,
in short of anything about which you want certainty. Count then
from May 18 until th at particular day. Divide that number as
often as possible by 36. Take into your hand the final rest and
address yourself to the table. If you find the number in the first
line, then announce that the patient will live . . ., the traveler
will have a good journey, the fugitive will be captured, the new­
born will live long, etc. If the number is found in the second line,
then the patient will long be ill but in no peril of death, the
fugitive will be recaptured eventually, the traveler will encounter
bad weather etc. If the number occurs in the third line, then
death carries off the patients, the fugitive will never be recap­
tured etc.
Life 1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25 28 31 34 happy end
Medium 2 5 8 11 14 17 20 23 26 29 32 35 long end
Death 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 bad end
“ F rom cod. Paris, gr. 2419 (ed. P. Tannery, Notices et e x ­
traits des manuscrits, 31, 2 (1886: 240-250) ; cf. W . Gundel,
D ekane: 405. A similar table for prophecies is found in cod.
Paris, gr. 2327: see Berthelot, Collection des alch£mistes grecs,
F ig . 7. The squared circle of the twelve loci in relation to introd. (P aris, 1887): 87; for an Egyptian method see cod.
the four cardinal points (Horoscopal Point, Mesuranema, Dysis, Neapol. gr. I I C 3 3 (15th century) f . 311T (Cat. 4 : 5 6 ); com­
Hypogaeum) ; loc. cit. pare Gundel, D ekane: 405.
b Gundel, loc. cit., refused like Tannery to believe that a scholar
In all, therefore, the single zodiacal circle without any of the rank of Thrasyllus wrote such a crude numerological work,
consideration of the paranatellonta or the individual but his scepticism has been challenged recently by St. W einstock;
planets offered anywhere from 360 to 21,600 (perhaps see Cat., 9, 1: 14.
even more) different sectors to be used by the astrologer.
The nomenclature of Hellenistic astrology was at first
monograph on the subject. The author errs, however, in variegated.161 Eventually, however, the divinities still
ascribing to prehellenistic Egypt a zodiacal or ecliptical arrange­ used today (in their Latin equivalent) by astronomer
ment of the decani. and astrologer alike were identified with the respective
100 The smaller figure of 21,600 is based on a corrected reading
by O. Neugebauer of pap. Lond. 130 which must replace the
planets. Babylonian traditions assigned divinity to some
earlier reading on which Bouche-Leclercq: 291, n. 1, based his planets but not to all. Hellenistic terminology wavered.162
figure of 21,600,000 subdecanal sectors. F or “ practical ” astrol­
ogy the m atter was irrelevant, although Firmicus Maternus in 101F . Boll, Sphaera: 60 f f.; 472 ff., reconstructed—chiefly from
the fourth century of our era was so much interested in the Vettius Valens—w hat he believed to be Eudoxus’ list of Greek
subject that he hoped to write a monograph on the topic of no divinities equated with the twelve signs of the zodiac.
less than twelve books; M athesis 5, 1, 38; S', 1, 10; also 6, 2, 8; aoaA .-J. Festugiere, Platon et l’Orient, Rev. de Phil. 73, 1947:
8, 18 about myriogenesis and single minutes. 18, suggests that Eudoxus was responsible for introducing the
 22 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O RLD
T H E R IS E O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD

T e x t* der saitischen Zeit

U t t b e k a n n t e N e b e n q u e lle
n b e k a n n te N e b c n q u e lle
Salmeschoiniaka Corpus Hermeticum
3. Jahrh. v. Chr. 3. Jahrh. v . Chr.
Synkretiatiache D elu n liite Tierkreis- Lateinische Liste de* Paulua Alexandria us
Archetypus dea I Tetrabiblos II cap. 3
dea Zoroaater D ekankatalogei im ^ ^ H a n d b t t c h e r dea ' Archetypi der griechlachen seichen Hermes Triamegiatos
und aelner Sohne Testaraentum Salomonis / Nechepao und Petoairia und lateiniachen Dekanliatcn
(a. Jahrh. v. Chr. ?) (1. Jahrh. v. C h i .) '' (j. Jahrh. v. Chr.) I Oiean Britannien
(a. Jahrh. v . Chr.)
/ 1 2 Vactricani (Baktrer ?) Galatien
.— s ' Sphaera barbarica Widder Peraien
(I. Jahrh. v. Chr.) / Germanien und
A ftits 3 Lydien
Bastanien
Papyrustext der Salmeschoiniaka/ Teukros von Babylon Chairemon
(j. Jahrh. n. Chr.) j' Jahrh. n. Chr.) (Mitte d. I . Jahrh. n. Chr.) I Meder Kykladen
Aphroditosemaioa (1.— j . Jahrh. n. Chr. A Antiochos Celaus>Origene« 2 Amazonen Seektlste Kleinaaiens
Stier Babylon
/ \(a. Jahrh.' (3. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
j S atya (4. Jahrh. n. C h r . ) ' ' ' ^ 3 Semiramiden Baby­ Kypern
/ \ n. Chr.) Zosimos von Panopolia lon ?)
(3 — 4. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
/ / Siddhinta''^ 1 Teukrer (Troas) Hyrkanien
j y 1. HaJfte dea 3. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
R h e to riu s \ Zwillinge 2 Persia Armenien Kappadokien
Varahamihira ^ von Alexandria
(6. Jahrh. n. Chr.) (6. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
Om h A ,; 3 Parthien Mantiane
I Syrien Pbrygien
Kosmaa von Jerusalem Kanaka^^
(8. Jahrh. n. Chr.) (Mitte des 8..Jahrh/nTXhr.), Krebs 2 Assyrien Bithynien Armenien
Mohammed I bn MOsl

Achm et der Peraer

(9. oder 10. Jahrh. a. Chr.)
I
I
\ A
I bn W a b ilja (?)
(1. HaJfte des 10. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
(1. HaUte des
9 Jahrh. n. Chr.)
\
\
9

LOwe
3 Athiopien
I Iodien
2 unbekanntes Land
Kolchike
Italien
Gallien Kleinaaien
Ps. Ptolemaeus liber de imaginibua '" " p ic a tr ix Abenragel
(10.— 12. Jahrh. n. Chr.) ( n . Jahrh. n. Chr.) (11. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
L Q- 0 3 unbekanntes Land Apulien und Sizilien
I Arabien Babylonien
Jungfrau 2 Armenien Mesopotamien Hellas und Ionien

0
3 Elephantine Aasyrien
I Agypten Baktrianien
ttbersetzungen *)
Steinbuch
dea Keniga AKom X . 2 Trachonitrum (Tracho- Kaspien
Hermannus Dalm ata (lateiniach) Waage Libyen und Kyrene
( 13 - Jahrh. n. Chr.) nitis?)
(1. H tlfte dea u . Jahrh. n. Chr.)
t-ib r * 3 Libyen Serike
i Pallstina, PbOnikien Syrien
Mittelgriechiache Johannes Hiapalenais Ibn Eara \ s '
Zothorus Zaparus Fendulua1 Obersetzung (Lateiniach) Skorpioo 2 Kilikien Kommagene Italien
(Avenariua, Hebraisch Leopold yon Osterreich
( it . Jahrh. n. Chr.) |( I I — 11. Jahrh. n.Chr.) ( i t . Jahrh. n. Chr.) 3 Kappadokien, Galatien,
i t . Jahrh. n. Chr.) (13. Jahrh. n. Chr.) St-OYpfO Kappadokien
Obersetter unbekannt Phrygien

Hagin von Mecheln t Achaia, Pamphylien Etrurien

(FrantOalach. Schiitze 2 Meer von Nikere Kelten Kilikien, Kreta
i» 7 t n. Chr.)
3 Afrika Spanien
Astrolabium Planum I Mauretanien Makedonien od. Indien
Martin d'Osca (Katahnlach. Petrus von Abano
14. Oder i j . Jahrh. n.Chr.)
dea Petrus von Abano Steinbock 2 Pannomen Trakien Oder Ariane Syrien
(Lateiniach 1193 n. Chr.) (13. Jahrh. n. Chr.)
, 3 Galatien IUyrien Oder Gedrosien
Giovanni Fontana Ludovicus de Angulo
(Mitte des i j . Jahrh. n C h r ) i Syrien Sauromatien
(Lateiniach. i j . Jahrh. n. Chr.)
2 Germanien Oxiane Agypten

Jean de Beauvais A y iW m 3 Sarmatien Sogdiane

Agrippa von Nettesheim
(FranzSaiach. i j . Jahrh. n .C h r ) (IJ — 16. Jahrh. n. Chr.) I Britan nitn Lydien
2 Dakien Kilikien
Fiscbe Rotes Ueer
3 Chaululikaonien,
Etrurien, Italien und Pamphylien
Scaliger
Kampanien
(Lateiniach, 16 jahrh. n. Chr.)
Fig. 9. Allocation of the decani to particular geographical areas.
Athanaalua Klrcher
(17. Jahrh. n. Chr.) From W . Gundel, D ekane: 312.
Uh«r*et«ungen des arabiachen Apomasartextes orientiert D y r o f f bei B o l l , Sphaera 484, Raphael L e v y ,

3V n ‘..™ . E t r * T h e J o h “ H op,‘i" , s,u<u” ,n Rom*“ “ * "d V II (> W » n * 3

F ig . 8. A stemma of W . Gundel ( Dekane 92 f.) of the historical transmission of the Egyptian-Hellenistic descriptions of the decani.
T H E R IS E AND TR IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
T H E R IS E O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD 25
Finally, however, the crude and obvious method of when Cancer was in the Horoscopal Point.166 As Hel­
simply identifying the divinity with its particular planet lenistic astrology developed, it added another set of
TABLE 2
prevailed. It had from the astrologer’s point of view astral powers to those already mentioned: signs outside
the obvious advantage of allowing him to define the the zodiac. They were integrated into the earlier pattern
T a b u l a A r is t o b u l i ■
planet’s influence in terms of the powers which tradi­ by assigning them to the particular zodiacal signs in
(A sample of the use of oracles through decani)
tionally had been ascribed to the Greek divinity involved. whose sector they rose. In this manner the paranatel-
If someone will enjoy a love-affair ju st begun 1 1 Bendonc 1
Thus Kronos (Saturn) was baleful, Zeus (Jupiter) lonta167 (simultaneously rising signs) became another
If lovers love each other or are feigning love 2 2 Mensour 5 lordly, Venus determined one’s love-life and so on. To astronomical factor to be considered by astrologers.
If someone should get m arried this year 3 3 Carexon 9 each planet was furthermore assigned at least one Few practicing astrologers, however, actually concerned
If someone in marriage will gain what he seeks 4 4 Gisan 2 zodiacal sector in which its influence was considered themselves with them.168
Which one, husband or wife, will survive the other 5 5 Tourtour 6
W ho of a married couple loves more faithfully 6 6
“ dominant.” Since there were only seven planets to Hand in hand with the development of theoretical
Ballat 10
If a pregnant woman will give birth to a boy or to a girl 7 7 Farsan 3 distribute among the twelve zodiacal constellations, a refinements of this kind went an effort of equal import­
If a divorced wife is pregnant or not 8 8 Vaspan 7 planet would normally be “ Lord ” (Scanrcmjs, dominus) ance to astronomy and astrology alike: 169 the estab­
If a girl is a virgin or not 9 9 Parquia 11 in more than one zodiacal sector. To this somewhat lishment of a universal nomenclature for the major
If he is jealous o r not 10 10 Panem 4 unsatisfactory, but arithmetically unavoidable, arrange­
If a young man will be prudent or a fool 11 11
visible stars and constellations. This was not too diffi­
Catarno 8
If a young man will be rich or poor 12 12 H etlors 12 ment another element was added: the concept of cosmic cult for the few planets and the most brilliant fixed
If someone will find bis advantage in a business transaction 13 13 Jarea 13 cycles. In Stoic philosophy this theory took the form stars. For many constellations and individual stars,
If someone will carry out his plan 14 14 E ffraa 18 of an eternal sequence of fiery deaths (cKmpwoas) and however, ancient Mesopotamian or Egyptian groupings
If a dream bodes good or ill 15 15 Hayas 23 rebirths (mXiyycvyat^) of the entire cosmos. The in­ differed from those of the Greeks, or—even when they
If the stolen property will be recovered or not 16 16 Angaf 28
If a change of domicile is advantageous 17 17
terval between a palingenesis and the next ekpyrosis did agree with each other in the case of constellations—
Bethaphen 14
If it is good to continue the voyage 18 18 Baroche 19 was often called “ great year.” used different mythological or animal names. The result
If someone will return from abroad or not 19 19 Zercuris 24 This term in Hellenistic times was, however, used for of the homogenization process is by and large our
If a m essenger(?) will fulfill his mission 20 20 Baham 29 other spans of time also.163 It might for example apply present nomenclature of astronomy, which is descended
If someone will make a good end or not 21 21 Pieret 15 occasionally to the periodicity of a given planetary con­
If someone will live long or not
from the sphaera graecanica, the “ (heavenly) sphere
22 22 Haziza 20
In what field someone will prosper most 23 23 Nacy 25
stellation. Such spans of time would have potential of the Greeks.” In Hellenistic times, however, non-
If a tie is faithfully kept or not 24 24 Alleinac 30 astronomical and certainly astrological importance, but Greek constellations were still well known. A t least
If someone will have faithful friends 25 25 Ortusa 16 would not necessarily have anything to do with the one sphaera barbarica existed side by side with its
If someone has someone pregnant by him 26 26 Daha 21 rebirth and death of the universe. One specific hypo­ Greek sister.
If he has big gains from his property
W hich one of the boxers will win
thetical planetary constellation, however, was eventually Actually there were in all probability at least two
27 27 Satan 26
If a patient will recover or not 28 28
defined in astrological literature as the thema mundi,104 “ barbaric spheres,” a Mesopotamian and an Egyptian
E racto (E ro ) 31
If a prisoner will be liberated or not 29 29 Salac 17 the constellation which had prevailed at the beginning one, both known in some degree to the Greeks in Hel­
If someone will be able to pay his debts or not 30 30 Seros 22 of the present cosmos, and when recurring would bring lenistic times. Berossus and some of his Chaldaean
If someone will get back what was owed him 31 31 T onghel 27 about the next ekpyrosis. Firmicus Maternus for ex­
If someone will win his law-suit in court
contemporaries may have familiarized their Greek audi­
32 32 Anafa 32 ample related that Mesopotamian cosmologists dated
If a priest will be moved or not 33 33
ence with the one, the Hellenistic scholars, engaged in
Simos 33
If a priest stolis perficiet vel non 34 34 Achaf 35
the beginning of the present era 473,000 years prior to early Ptolemaic days with a mass-translation of Egyp­
If a planned journey will be profitable or not 35 35 Larvata 34 Alexander the Great.165 The constellation said to have tian texts into Greek,1,6 would have encountered the
If rumors someone heard are true or not 36 36 A jaras 35 .prevailed at that palingenesis was Mercury in Virgo, other. The burial of “ barbaric spheres ” in oblivion
Venus in Pisces, Jupiter in Cancer, and Saturn in Libra. did not progress rapidly. As late as the first century
F rom cod. Pal. lat. 1367, ff. 1497-152 published in German translation by W . Gundel
D ekane: 407. The date of the beginning of the “ great year” of this b . c. a widely-read Roman aristocrat — himself a prac­
The consecutive thirty-six numbers in two columns and the names of the decani which follow type was assigned by Nechepso-Petosiris to the time ticing astrologer—still knew what seems to have been a
them present no problem. They indicate the childishness of this kind of numerological-astro- composite of the Mesopotamian and Egyptian “ spheres.”
logical superstition, but also the kind of questions most likely to be asked by the gullible public. religious element into the Greek nomenclature of the zodiac.
On Eudoxus’ knowledge of Zoroastrian theories a violent dis­
To this Roman senator Nigidius Figulus,171 praetor in
The numbers in the last column remain the unknown author’s secret; compare W . Gundel
op. c it.: 406. agreement prevails. In favor of assuming it, see for instance, 58 b . c., we owe a great deal of our knowledge about
Reitzenstein, Vortraege . . 3 0 ff.; firmly against his view non-Greek constellations and star-names. From extant
W. J. W . Koster, Le m ythe de P la to n : 25 ff. fragments of his Latin work on the subject he seems to
lca Compare for example P . Tannery, Memoires scientifiques,
ed. J.-L . H eiberg and H . G. Zenthen, 2 ( 2 ) , no. 60 : 502 ff., have dealt methodically with both the “ Greek ” and the
P aris, 1883-1898.
104 Firm icus M aternus, Mathesis 3, 1; compare also 2, 2. 100 Pictorially shown in the Denderah pattern.
Firm icus himself did not believe in this theory which predicted 101 F o r a detailed study of them, see W . Gundel, R E , 18, 1949,
an end of the world when the constellation allegedly existing at 2, 3: c. 1214-1275.
the.m om ent of its creation would recur; see Bouche-Leclercq: 108A ratus knew them ( Phaenomena: vv. 559 ff.). Ptolemy,
187. T his concept has been triumphantly revived by modern however, in his Tetrabiblos, 2, 3, referred only very briefly to
cosmologists who now are telling us that “ our ” universe began them. Astronomers in any case were familiar with the parana-
about two billion years ago and is likely to end at some time tellonta.
in the distant future; compare on the thema mundi Weinstock’s 108 Compare on this point O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences:
statement (Cat. 9, 2 (1953) : 177, n. 7) that Egyptian astrologers 164: “ The fundamental doctrines of astrology are pure science.”
repeatedly transm itted the thema mundi since the second century 1,0 On this project see Ritschl, Die alexandrinischen Biblio-
b. c.—T he thema mundi itself ibid.: 177. theken: 34; also Opuscula 1: 30; cf. F. Boll, Sphaera: 370.
105 Diodorus, 2, 31, 9. 171 See below, p. 63 f.
26 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O RLD
“ barbaric ” spheres, expounding also their mythological
and astrological peculiarities.172 Additional information
about this syncretist “ barbaric ” sphere is still en­
countered in Greek astrological texts, especially those
of the first and second centuries of our own era. Extant
fragments of Teucrus the Babylonian173 (first century
a .d .? ), Antiochus,174 and Vettius Valens175 (both sec­
ond century a .d .) contain references to that sphere,
proof that it had not yet been wholly superseded by its
Greek rival. Firmicus Maternus (fourth century a .d .)
still knew the sphaera barbarica. Of surviving horo­
scopes, however, only a few contain data pertaining to
it, among them a papyrus dating from a.d . 81 in which
an astrologer by the name of Titos Pitenios drew up
the horoscope of a certain Hermon.17*
The ultimate victory of the sphaera graecanica, i. e.
its complete acceptance by the Greek and later the
Roman world, was due in no small measure to two
pioneers: Eudoxus of Cnidus (fourth century b. c.)
and Aratus of Soli (third century B.C.). Eudoxus,
the greatest mathematician of his time and an out­
standing cosmologist177 in the days of Plato, did much
to lay the foundations for the glorious rise of Greek
mathematics and astronomy.178 His impact on the
Academy (which he joined about 367 B.C.) has already
been mentioned.170 Although it is doubtful whether or
not he was also the actual author of Euclid’s fifth book
or the inventor of the terrestrial globe,180 his authorship
of two works, the Enoptron and the Phaenomena, can
hardly be questioned. These two dealt with celestial
phenomena, including the signs and planets. According
to Hipparchus (second century B.C.), himself an out­
standing astronomer and mathematician, “ it is on the
latter that Aratus bases his poem.” 181 Without this
173 F . Boll, op. cit. : 357 ff ; 411 f. is a locus dassicus on this
subject.
173 Boll, sphaera: 16-21; 41-52; 416, n. 2; 380 ff.; 545; Cat. 7 :
194-213; compare W . Gundel, R E , 2. Reihe, 5, 1, 1934: c. 1132-
1134.
174 Substantial fragments of his writings have been published
in the C a t.; see below, ch. iv, n. 330, Riess, R E 1, 1894: c. 2494,
no. 68; F. Cumont, ibid., suppl. 1, 1903: c. 92; W . Kroll, ibid.,
suppl. 4 , 1924: c. 32; suppl. 5, 1931: c. 2f.
175 H is very popular compilation, which he himself called
modestly Anthologiae, was published by W . Kroll, Berlin, Weid-
mann, 1908; see also Cat. 5 (2) : 27-129 ; 5 ( 3 ) : 110-112; 113,
8 ff.; 117, 7 ff.; 8 (3) : 203 ff. and elsewhere; compare W . Christ,
Handbuch des klassischen A ltertum s 7, 2, 2; 906, 6th ed.,
Muenchen, 1924.
170 Cf. F. Boll, Sphaera: 388.
177 Ib id .: 472 ff.
178 Cicero, de republica 1, 14, 22.
1T* See above, p. 9.
180 A very doubtful claim ; see F. Gisinger, Nachtraege in
A. Schlachter, Der Globus. Seine Entstehung und Vcrwendung
in der A ntike, Stoicheia 8 : 107 ff. with reference to 11, Leipzig
and Berlin, 1927.
181 Hipparchus, 1, 2, 2. According to an old tradition the
calendar of Eudoxus—like the Roman peasant calendar—dated
the beginning of summer from May 18; W. Gundel, Dekane:
313.
popularizer the scholarly prose-work of Eudoxus might
never have exerted the lasting influence which it achieved
in the Greek and Roman world.
Aratus of Soli was a younger contemporary of Euclid
and Berossus. He received his early education at
Ephesus. It is quite likely that from there he also
visited Cos, then the center of Berossus’ newly estab­
lished astrological circle. About 291 b . c . he went to
Athens, the unmatched seat of higher learning of that
era. At first he frequented the Peripatetic school of
Aristotle’s disciples, but soon transferred his academic
allegiance to Zeno’s new Stoic teachings. Inevitably he
must have encountered there the fanatical faith in Fate
which characterized this creed and made it so staunch
a supporter of fatalistic astrology. From Athens, Aratus
eventually went forth to join the court of Antigonus,
the Macedonian king. He may have owed this patronage
to the influence of his teacher Zeno. It was for this
royal patron at any rate that Aratus undertook to versify
the Phaenomena of Eudoxus, perhaps about 276 b . c . 182
The poem became an instant success with the Greek
reading public. Time did not affect the popularity of
Aratus’ work which provided for generation after
generation of Greek and later also Latin readers a pleas­
urable introduction to the nomenclature and the phe­
nomena to be observed in the skies. Although never
intended for that purpose the book became a standard
text in Greek and Roman classrooms. Latin transla­
tions made it accessible to those unable to read it in
Greek. Cicero for instance began such a translation in
his youth and completed it in 60 b . c . , proof of the dura­
bility of his youthful enthusiasm for this poem.183 Of
his translation about 670 verses survive. Cicero’s con­
temporary, P. Terentius Varro Atacinus (82-37 b . c.),
also produced a Latin translation of A ratus’ Pliae-
nomena.lst Ovid patterned his own Phaenomena after
the Greek classic.185 The de astris of Julius Caesar
also had been inspired by A ratus’ poem. Germanicus
(cl. a . d . 19) was so ardent a “ fan ” of the Greek poet
that during the last years of his brief life he not only
wrote a Latin version of the work, but actually went
beyond the original text and paraphrased it.180 A t about
the same time the mysterious so-called Manilius wrote
his poetic torso, the Astronomica, which clearly showed
his indebtedness to Aratus. Towards the end of the
182 Suidas, j. v. “Aparos, and the four A ratus vitae, ed. A.
W estermann, Biographoi: 52 ff., Braunschweig, 1845, are our
most important sources for the life of Aratus. E . Maass gave
us the most recent scholarly edition of the poem and of its
commentaries in his Aratea, Berlin, 1892, and his Commen-
tariorum in Aratum reliquiae : 77, 19 ff.; 146 13 ff and else­
where, Berlin, 1898.
183 Cicero (de republica 1, 14, 22; episl. ad A tticum , 2, 1, 11
(June, 60 B.C.)) refers to this undertaking; see also his de
natura deorum 2, 41, 104.
Servius, ad Verg. georg. 1, 375 and 397.
39i*ff^Vi(*’ ^ ^ amat VV 15 f' ' compare RE 2- 1896: c-
188 About 857 lines survive; ed. A. Breysig, Leipzig, 1899.
T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD
first century a . d . the rhetorician, Quintilian, still had
to admit that the work of Aratus was indispensable
reading for anyone aspiring to a higher education,
although he criticized the poem for its dry subject-
matter.187 As late as the fourth century a . d . Firmicus
Maternus in his astrological handbook, Mathesis, re­
ferred to Aratus with great respect. According to
Firmicus, Aratus was a poeta disertissimus.1"* Within
the rising Christian church, the apostle Paul was thor­
oughly familiar with the Phaenomena,189 and after him
a number of church fathers, including Jerome and
Augustine. At the very time when Christianity tri­
umphed, Festus Avienus, proconsular governor of Africa
in a . d . 366, paraphrased the poem, then more than six
hundred years old, in no fewer than 1878 Latin lines.100
Aratus began his versification of Eudoxus’ treatise
with a description of the polar axis and an account of
the zodiacal and other constellations, listing first those
north of the ecliptic, then those south of it. Instead of
following this section with an account of the planets,
however, he preferred to discuss next in considerable
detail heavenly circles like the Milky Way, the tropics
of Cancer and Capricorn, the equator, and finally the
zodiac, in whose vicinity his seven planets (Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, as well as Sun and
Moon) did move. In the concluding part of his poem
the author dealt with the paranatellonta whose astro­
logical significance has already been mentioned.101 Be­
sides mythological and astronomical material the Phae­
nomena contained some astrometeorology, an ancient
precursor of “ scientific ” astrology. For instance:
W h en th ro u g h the d a rk n ig h t shooting sta rs fly thick and
leave behind w hite track s expect a w ind from th at d irection
too. If o th er shoo tin g sta rs m ove from the opposite d irec­
tion, o th ers still from d ifferen t angles d a rt be on thy g u ard
fo r w inds fro m every q u a r te r ! 102
This passage was clearly based on the primitive as­
sumption that the meteors were blown along the skies
by winds prevailing at high altitudes which subsequently
would reach down to the level of the earth. Less obvious
is the scientific reason (if any) for the following:
I f the M an g er d ark en an d both sta rs [n ex t to it, i. e. the
A sses] rem ain u nchanged, they herald rain .103
Smacking of fears of comets was Aratus’ warning:
M any com ets h erald a season of d ro u g h t.104
187 Quintilian, de instil, oratoria 10, 1, 55.
188 Firmicus, Maternus, M athesis 8, 5, 3.
588 Socrates, hist. eccl. 3, 16 (end) from Acta, 17, 28.
100 Ed. A. Breysig, Leipzig, 1899.
1,1 See above, p. 25.
188 vv, 925 ff. (193 ff.). The long-standing controversy
whether or not the last section of the poem was originally a
separate work need not concern us here. Both sides are presented
by E. Maass, A ra tea : xxv, and G. Kaibel, Aratea, Hermes 29,
1894: 82-123.
1,3 Phaenomena, vv. 903 ff. (171 ff.).
181 Ibid., vv. 1090 f. (359 f.).
27
Finally his faith in astrometeorology culminated in
the advice to meteorologists, based on truly scientific
principles:
S tudy all the signs to gether th ro u g h o u t the y ear and never
shall thy fo recast of the w eath er be a random g u e s s ! 195
More than two thousand years later our meteorologists
though following Aratus’ admonition diligently are still
far from the goal which Aratus, or probably already
Eudoxus, promised them : flawlessly accurate weather
forecasts.
The immediate popularity of Aratus’ Phaenomena
greatly contributed to the rapid fixation of a generally
accepted Greek nomenclature of stars and constellations.
The poem also inspired numerous Greek and Roman
commentators and translators, eventually blossoming
forth even in Arabic.106 Among the most important
early Greek commentators were Attains of Rhodes
(third century b . c.), Hipparchus (second century b . c.),
and Geminus of Rhodes (first century b . c . ) . 107 When
the Roman world adopted Aratus, the Greeks did not
forget him and continued- to produce new commentators
of his work.108 While Aratus’ fame spread, mathe­
matical and astronomical progress in the hellenistic
world added methodological underpinnings to the grow­
ing structure of horoscopal astrology. The most im­
portant contribution to this “ founding period,” approxi­
mately 300-150 b.c., was the evolution of highly spe­
cialized astrological techniques which permitted the
casting of individual horoscopes in the most democratic
fashion for every Tom, Dick, and H arry.100 Actually
it may even be said that, while Mesopotamian astrology
on the eve of the fourth century b . c . had crossed the
threshold towards individual horoscopes,200 it was left
to Hellenistic astrologers to develop this pseudo-science
to a perfection which—at least in the realm of western
civilization—it has never surpassed.
Plato’s Timaetts contains what may have been the first
European allusion to Chaldaean horoscopal astrology:
. . . a t certain tim es such a plan et cam e to place itself
betw een such an o th er s ta r an d us, an d . . . th e eclipses
1,3 Ibid., vv. 1152 f. (421 f.).
1M Definitely established by E. Honigmann, Isis 41, 1950 : 30 f.
187 On A ttaius, see E. Maass, Comment, in Arat. re l.: 1 ff. In
his Comment, in Arati et Eudoxi Phaen. 1, 1, 3 Hipparchus
praised Attaius as the best among the earlier commentators.
On Geminus, compare E. Maass, op. cit., proleg.: xxv-xxviii,
lxix, n.
188 Among them Achilles ( a. d. 200), Theon (fourth century
a .d ) , and Leontius (ca. a.d . 600?) ; see Maass, op. cit.: 25 ff.;
146-151; 555, n.; proleg.: x x x i; 561 ff.
188 If a quotation of Proclus from Theophrastus could be
trusted (see below, ch. i, n. 202), Chaldaean astrologers already
before 300 b. c. made predictions to ordinary individuals; see
also Diodorus, 2, 30, 5; cf. F . Cumont, Les religions orientales
4th e d .: 153 ff.
308 Recently proven by A. J. Sachs of Brown University, who
computed the oldest hitherto known cuneiform horoscope to date
from 410 B. c.
28 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD T H E R IS E O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 29
and the reappearances which follow them caused terror and What else is the belief in inevitable effects of natural
gave to those incapable of computing them an indication phenomena other than the first groping approach to the
of events which were to follow such phaenomena. . . ,201 concept of scientific laws of nature ? The axiom, “ no
This passage, however, showed at best Plato’s knowl­ effect in nature without a natural cause,” has become
the core of all scientific creeds.
edge of Mesopotamian astrology in general. This sup­
In accepting this final contribution of ancient Meso­ CRESCENT
position is strengthened by the fact that no cuneiform
text prior to 410 b . c . has as yet been found to contain potamia, Hellenistic Greece went forward to conquer
an individual horoscope. Since we now know such a new ground. Astrology seemed to those generations
horoscope dating from 410, there would of course be one of the most impressive manifestations of cosmic
the chronological possibility of Plato’s learning also rationalism. Modern conceit has claimed for our own Metal W t.
No. Place Obverse Reverse Size Denom. Date Plate Refebenci
about the latest development of Babylonian astrology, age the establishment of this proud concept. But
but neither the above-quoted passage, nor any other already Zeno, the founder of the Stoic creed, insisted
section of Plato’s writings can be interpreted as reveal­ about 300 b . c. that immutable Fate controlled the uni­ 1 Veslini. Bull's head, facing; VEV Crescent. /£ . 1147 Sextans. B. M. Italy, p. 43,
verse inexorably. The link of cause and effect could, Piccnum. above, • *. I6* 74.32 No 1.
ing unequivocally such knowledge on his part. At any 39
rate, henceforth there can be no doubt that the tradi­ according to these harsh tenets, never be broken, just AZ. 1' 254
2 Uncertain. Crescent. Crescent. ,, p. 60, No 46.
tional ascription of this type of astrological technique as, indeed, a “ law ” of physics cannot brook exceptions. Aes Grave. 27.5 16.45
to the hoary Mesopotamian (or Egyptian) past has This was a philosophy fit for a scientific era. It can, Cent Italy.
been an error plaguing historians of science until the therefore, evoke no particular surprise that Stoicism • •
embraced wholeheartedly the principles of astrology 3 •• Crescent ? /f..75 139 Triens. ,, p. 61, No 47.
very present. " 19 9.00
I t is idle to speculate how far Mesopotamian astrol­ and saw in their assumed manifestations convincing
“ proof” for the validity of the belief in Fate. The hol­ 4 Luceria. Thyrsos with fillet, on Crescent, 011 raised field. /C.95 493 Semiun- ,, p. 138, No 20.
ogers would have developed the democratization of raised field. 24 31.94 cia.
lowness of astrological tenets, on the other hand, was Apulia.
their craft. That they did at least initiate this process,
however, cannot be denied. The measure of their recognized only by a minority, but this minority through­ 5 Half thyrsos with fillet; Crescent, on raised field. * . 7 5 115 ,, p. 140, No 53.
out antiquity could not shake the adamant faith of the
»*
beneath, l>; on raised 19 7.45
’■
“ progress ” in this direction can perhaps be gleaned field.
from a passage penned about eight hundred years later fatalists, who denied free will to men as they denied it
by the neoplatonic philosopher Proclus. In quoting the to all other pieces of matter. Not until Christianity 6 Crescent, horns upwards Crescent, horns upwards, ,€ .7 5 118 , , p. 150, No 10.
Venusia.
greatest disciple of Aristotle, Proclus asserted: finally conquered the Roman empire did the belief in Apulia. within 19 7.G4 Curelli. N. I. V.,
man’s free will become dominant once more. T. I.XXXIX-14.
Theophrastus tells us that his Chaldaean contemporaries The great battle between Stoic fatalists and their
possessed an admirable theory about this subject. This 7 Thespiae. Boeotian shield. OEV Crescent, horns up­ /R. 4 13s Obol. n. c. B. M. Cent. Or.,
opponents was firmly joined by 200 b . c . at the latest, Docotia. wards. 10 0.80 :W7- p. 90, No 5.
theory predicted every event, the life and the death of see-sawed for four hundred years, and ended about 374
every human being. It did not merely foresee general
a . d . 200 in a hopeless deadlock. While Greek intel­
effects as for example good and bad weather.202 8 Similar. Similar. /R.25 3 Tetarte- ,, No 8.
lectuals in the second century b . c . introduced a grow­ »i ••
6 .19 morion.
Embedded in theological or magical disguise Baby­ ing number of Roman noblemen to this battle of the
lonian astrology thus pioneered a formidable new W elt­ minds, eastern religions inundated Italy, many of them 8* »» Half Boeotian shield. Similar. /R.25 5 .7 Hemi- •• Prokesh-0slen,/4 rch
6 .35 obol. Z e il., 1849, taf. IX-
anschauung which to the Greeks of the fourth century bringing with them mystical elements of star worship 1.1 .
was a revelation, opening the gates of a new world, and oracular revelations. The new cults soon became
hitherto concealed in priestly precincts or within eso­ popular with the lower strata of Roman society, and as 9 Athens. Head of Athena r. (eye A 0E ‘ Incuse square, with­ jfi.15 2’ Telaric- u. c. PI. 1 B. M. Attica, p. 19,
early as 200 b . c . some, like the Bacchanalia, already Attica. in profile) in crested in which crescent, horns 2 .15 morion. 430- il No 199.
teric sects. It was the world of scientific rationalism. 322
helmet adorned with upwards.
penetrated the ranks of the nobility also, which on the three upright olivc-
201 Plato, Timaeus, I. 40 C -D : . . . <p6f)ovs xai t &v neri whole still looked upon astrology with the scepticism Icnves.
rau ra 'yevyao/j.evuv t o Is oh dvvaidvois \oyl$cadai irifirovat . . . ; inspired by the New Academy and other philosophical
10 Zacyntlius. Head of Dionysiac XA- Crescent: below ,tri­ 32* Hemi- B. C. PI. 1 B. M. Peloponnesus
compare on the relation between the Timaeus and the tenth book standard-bearers in the fight against Stoic fatalism. The 2.09 drachm. 250- 10 p. 99, No 60.
of the Laivs, J. Kerschensteiner, Platon und der Orient : 77 ff.; I’rloponnc- Nymph r., crowned dent. 14
older Cato, staunch Roman of the old school and still *11*. with vine. 191
183 ff., Stuttgart, Kohlhammer, 1945; J. Bidez, Eos . . . , ch. x :
78 ff.; P. Duhem, Le systeme du monde, 2, 1:274, Paris, 1914;
violently anti-Greek, was in 196 b . c . elected consul.
One-hundred-and-fifty years later Julius Caesar’s new 11 Head of Helios r., ra­ I . Crescent. X .. 4 t* PI. I ,, p. 101, No 76
A. Festugiere, Platon et 1’Orient, R ev. de Philol., 73, 3rd series, ” 10 11
calendar, the “ Julian ” calendar, went into effect for diate.
21, 1947: 31 ff.; W . J. W . Koster, L e m ythe de Platon: 4 8 ff.
(ch. viii: a polemic against Reitzenstein). the entire Roman empire, an event representing the P a ««t . V I .
303 Proclus, in Plat. Timaeum comment., ed. E. D ieh l: 3, 151, symbolical climax of the gradual conquest of Rome in
Leipzig, Teubner, 1906; P. Duhem, op. cit., 2, 1:275. The
treatise of Theophrastus from which Proclus quoted was entitled this interval by eastern astronomy, accompanied inevi­ Fig. 10. L ist of Hellenistic and Roman coins with stars and constellations (L. Anson, Num ism ata Graeca 6, 1916: I f f .) .
repl aijfuluv. tably by its illegitimate daughter, Hellenistic astrology. Although of course since the publication of this table additional coins of this kind have been found, it constitutes a good sample
of such Greek and Roman coinage.
30 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD T H E R IS E OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W O RLD 31

CRESCENT AND LEAF CRESCENT AND STAR

No. M etai Me tai .

Pl.ACE OnvcRsc R e v e r se W t. 1H :\om . 1>ATK Pl.ATB ItErEREXCE No. P lace O bverse K f.v eiise W t. D e ko m . Date Pl.ATE R e fer e n c e
S ize Suns

12 Z a c y n tliu s . Tri|K>d; in incuse square. Crescent. M .45 25 Triobol. Ilcfore PI. 1 B. M. Peloponnesus,
PelvjH inhe- II I.G2 u. c . 12 p. 94, No V. C rescent and Stai
*ii i». 431
21 Populonia. Head of Pallas, full face, Y41. Crescent, horns up­ /fi.8 5 129* B. M. Italy, p. 396,
13 •• Similar. IA Crescent. A . 55 25 Babelon, T . M . G . R . , Etruria. towards 1., wearing wards , enclosing star 2I 8.38 No 1.
••
14 1.62 p. 905, No 1265. earring, nccklacc, and of four rays. Ihe whole
Athenian helmet with within a border of dots
14 Cydonia. Head of young Dionysos K Y Crescent. /E.65 H. C. B. M. Crete, p. 31, three crests; hair half olT the coin ; to the
C rete. r., wearing ivy-wreath. a n 16 200.07 No :to. loose ; l>ordcr of dots. I., outside of this border,
are traces of the obverse-
type and border of ano­
15 Sigeum. Head of Athena r., < 1 Crescent. JE. 4 4*1* PI. 1 B. M. Troas, p. 88, ther specimen, incuse,
Troaa. wearing crested hel­ r e 10 ce n t. 15 No 21. also half olT the coin ; Ihe
met. B. c . two borders form tangent
semicircles.
16 Alexandria. Head of Gaius r . ; in r a i Crescent, horns /C.45 Xe- B. M. Alexandria,
plicw
Egyi>l. front, f . OY upwatds. 11 of p. 5, No 34. 22 Aes Grave. W heel of eiglil spokes, Crescent;above which,star At. 1789 Triens ,, p. 57, No 13.
Au­ Central each terminating in of eight rays ; beneath, I»* Ili.SS
gustus Mali/. double hook. • • • #. 49
A. D.
4 23 Venusia. Bust of llelio<, full-face, Crescent, horns upwards; j£ . 7 38 Sexun- ,; p. 153, No 28.
•4/ ii i I m . radiate; border of within, star of sixteen 17.5 2.46 cia.
dols. rays; beneath, • S \£ i
plain border.

C rescent upon Globe 24 Marciano- A MANTONTOPAI MARXIAN OTlpAI N- jE.65 Gor- B. M. Thrace, p. 38,
polis. ANO- Head of (»or- Crescenl, within which 16 dia- No 83.
Monia Inf. diauus p., laur. star. nus
n Carrhac. ••-KAI- AOYK- AVHOVH KAPHNCON4MAOPOOM : <42.65 L. Ve­ H u n te r ia n C o ll. Pius.
Meiopota- ROC- Bust of L. ■CON.Crescent with horns 16 rus. p. 301, No I.
mie. Verus r., laur., in cui­ upwards placed upon a 25 Nicopolis. AVKAI CEVHPOC NIK ITH N nPO CICTP yC.65 Sepl. ,, p. 43, No 17.
rass and palud. globe which rests on a Moetia In f. Head of Sepl. Severus Crescent and star. 16 Seve-
basis of tw o stages. r., laur. rus.

26 Byzantium. Head of Arlemis r., in BVZAN TION. Star above /E .75 Uo- Mionnel.volj 1, p.378,
Thrace. front, bow ; behind a crescent; beneath, pellet. 19 man No 95.
C rescent and Labyrinth quiver. domi­ B. M. Thrace, p. 97,
nion. No 43.
Cnossus. Head of Demeter or Labyrinth of Maeandef pat­ y fi. 9 160* Stater. B. C. B. M. Crete, p. 19,
Persephone r., wear­ 27 Similar. Similar; no pellet. jE .lb Mionnel, vol. 11, .S.,
Crete. tern; in centre, crescent. 22.5 10.39 500- No 7. " ••
ing earring and neck­ 19 p. 243, No 231.
431
lace; hair rolled and
bound with corn- 28 Similar; without bow. Similar. K .. a ••
B. M. Thrace, p. 96,
"
wreath. 20 No 40.

29 MAMAIA AVr- Hnsl " f BVZANTIflN- Crescent, K .. 7 Julia ,, p. 105, No 99.

I * Similar (countermark- Labyrinth of Maeander pat­ M . 156* *» ,, ,, No 8. ••
** Julia Mamaea i .drap­ and star above it. 17.5 Ma-
ed). tern ; in centre, star; 1“ 10.14
outside each limb of La­ 26 ed. mnea.
byrinth, crescent.
30 Hadriano- ...fnTETACK i«V). AAPIAN O I'AITH N ^ .6 5 ('■eta. H u n ter ia n C o ll.,
potis. Bust of Geta r., laur.. Crescenl, within which 16 p. 441, No 6.
Thrace. in cuirass and palud. slar.
C rescent and L eaf 31 (Jrauopolis OTPANIAHN Star on a crescenl. yfi.5 r. Head, Hi$l. N u m .,
.Vim/uinr. nO AEO t t ’ranm 12.5 :iot* p. 183.
20 Zacynthus. Tripod; in incuse square. IA - Crescent, out of which 5 29* Diobol. s. c. PI. 1 B. M. Peloponnesus, in “ Stola ” sealed on
Pelo/fonut- grows an ivy-leaf. 12.5 1.89 431 20 p. 94, No 8. a globe 1., in the r.
u i. hand sceptre; wearing
cap.
32 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W O RLD T H E R ISE OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD 33

CRESCENT AND STAR CRESCENT AND TWO STARS I

M etal I ral
No. P lace O b v er se R ev e r se W t. D ekom . D a te P la te R efer e n c e No. P lacb Obverse Reverse W r. D emon. Date P lati R im a iic s
S i /.e S ize

32 Pharcadon. Horse r., feeding. <t>APKA Crescent, invert- /£ .6 5 b. r. PI. 1 B. M. Thessaly, p. 42, 44 ’hraates V Bust of Phraalacea l.,| Star within crescent. iE .5 B. C. PI. 1 B.M . Parthia, p. 139,
Theuahj. A0NION ed : beneath, 16 400- 32 No 9. king of with pointed beard, 12.5 3 /2 44 No 21.
star of eight points. 344 Parthia. • wears diadem and spi­ A. D.
ral necklace; on each 4
aide of head, Nike
33 Leucas. Slog standing r .; above AEYKAAION Crescent and /E. 5 After PI. 1 ,, p. 182, No 118. flying to crown k in g;
Acar/lania S . star. 12.5 B. c . 33 border of dots.
168
45 Artabanus Bust o f Artabanus III 1., Star within crescent. £ .5 5 A. D. PI. 1 ,, p. 152, No 5 .
34 Cydonia. flA Z inN - Head of K Y Star within cres- & .9 B. C. B. M. Crete, p. 31, HI w ilh pointed beard 14 10/11- 45
Crete. Apollo r., laur. ; bol ­ A f l c en t ; border of 22.5 200- No 23. king of and flowing hair re­ 40
der of dots. doU. 67 Parthi*. presented by wavy
lines; wears diadem
35 •• A 11 ('?)• r- '■border Similar: no border of dots. /£ . 6 •> ,. ., No 24. spiral necklace and
of dots. 15 cuirass; border of dots.

46 Go la rres Bust of Oolaracs 1., wilh Crescent, within which, jE . 5 A. D. PI. 1 ,, p. 177, No 165.
36 Magnesia AYTK M AN rOPAIA MATNHTON With stars -€.85 Gor- B. M. Ionia, p. 172, king of long heard, and flow­ sta r; on r., ft : whole in 12.5 40/41- 46
ad NOC- Bust of Gor- between lettei-s of inscr.: 21 dia- No 96. Parthi». ing h a ir; wears dia­ wreath. 51
Maean- dian r., laur., wear­ crescent with star bet­ nus dem, earring, spiral
drum. ing cuirass and palud. ween horns. Pius. necklace and cuirass;
Ionia. border of dols.

37 Magydus. Bust of Athena wear­ MArY- Star in crosconC. -6 . 1* Imlioof, Mon. Gr., 47 Carrhae. AVTKAI. tOYHPOC AOVKIA A -K APPA- /E. 8 Sept. PI. I H u n te r ia n C o l l . ,
Pamphylia. ing Aegis. 37.5 p. 333. No 51. Mesopota­ Bust of Septimus Se- Crescent upwards, upon 20 Seve- 47 p. 301, No 3,
mia. verus r., laur., wear­ a cushion; between the TUS.
38 Carrhae. A K M A Y P . ANTON- K A K O MH nOA-A- Star jE. Ela- PI. Viiillant, vol. II,p. 78. ing cuirass and palu- horns, star of six rays.
Mesopota­ Head of Elngabalus within crescent. gaha- Sunp. damentuin.
mia. laur. lus. XXI
38 48 AVKMA-NTCONt- KAPKOAMHTPOnOAIC- i£ . 8 Ela­ PI. I ,, p. 302, No 14.
t•
Bust of Elagabalus r., Crescent upwards, rest­ 20 gaba­ 48
39 »» AYTO K AN TTETAC KO A M H T PO nO A IC /L. Cara- 1*1. ,, vol. 1. No 30. rad., wearing cuirass ing, on globe, and having lus.
KAI- Heads of Cara- KAPPHNON Star within calla. and palud. eight-rayed star between
calla laur. and (>cU crescent. sx£'.’- horns; the whole placed
bare; back to back. 39 on pedestal; two fillets
bang down over globe
40 Orodes I Bust of Orodes 1 1.; B A C IA EO C BA C IAEflN r. /E.45 a. c. PI. 1 B. M. Parthia, p. 78, and pedestal.
king of close beard; wears APCAKOV. in ex.. EYP- II 57- 40 No 83.
Parthin. diadema, spiral neck­ T ET O V AIKAIOV. 1. 38/37 49 Ptolemaeus REX PTOLEMAEVS. Crescent upwards, contain­ iE. 7 45 A. D. ., p. 617, No 9.
lace, and cuiraM: bor­ E n iO A N O V C <t»lAEA- king of Head of Ptolemaeus ing star of six ra y s; 17 5 23-40
der of dots. AHNOC- Star, within Mauretania. 1., diademed; border border of dols.
crescent: in f. r., JR- of dots.
p. 79, No 90. B. M. Alexandria,
41 *• Similar. Similar. /£ . 4 •* PI. 1 50 Alexandria. KAI ZAP- Head of Au- ZEBAZT*Z- Crescent and /E.55 Au­
10 41 gust us p., laur. star. 14 gus­ p. 2, No 8.
Egypt- tus.

42 Similar. Similar. >E.45 PI. 1 ,, No 91. »»

•• Crescent and “ tw o stars
II 42

43 PhraatesIV Bust of Pliraales IV 1., Same inscr. : with J ins­ /E. 4 B. C. PI. 1 ,, p. 121. No 177. W IDYXI- Crescent bet- Crescent two stars and yE. As. Mionnet, vol. 11,
51 Iguvium. 2<»
king of with pointed beard: tead of C- Crescent and 10 38/37 43 ween four stars, and spear-head and three pel­ p. 209, No 84.
Umbria.
Parthia. wears diudem, neck­ star; in f. r., TH. 3 /2 countermark |. lets. 61
lace and cuirass; beh­
ind head, eagle 1., wilh CIAAN AOC- Bust of ClAANACnN- Star of six JE. 6 Sept. PI. I B. M. Lydia, p. 280,
52 Silandus.
wreath in beak crown­ City-goddcss r., turre- rays within crescent; 15 Seve- 52 No 14.
Lydia. rusor
ing king's head ; bor­ te d ; border of dots. above, another star of six
der of dots. rays; border of dols. Cara-
calla.
34 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W ORLD T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 35

CRESCENTS TWO BACK CRESCENTS TWO AND STARS

Metal VIht.w.
No. P lace O bverse R e veiise W t. D e no m . D a te P late R ekkrencb No. I*lm:k OavciiM: IIeveiise W t. D enom. 1) \TK l*i.ati: IttniiENCt:
S ize S i/ i:

53 Stectorium. Bust of Helios r., drap­ CT6KTO PHNflN- /£ . 6 Imp. P I. I H u n te r ia n C o ll., 01 Iceni. ^ 9 (beneath; first 1110- Similar, degradation of lau­ M .4 A. I». 1*1. 1 H u n te r ia n C o ll.,
Phrygia. ed and radiate; in Crescent, with horns 15 Time. 53 p. 493, No 3. Britain. nogr. partly formed of rel wreath. 10 .54 111 p. 729, No 15.
front, blazing torch. upwards; above, two B. M. Phrygia,p.383, 1. hindleg of horse).
stars, one over the other ; No 4 (var.). Similar.
beneath, bucratiium.
62 Ingots. Two crescents, back to Similar to obverse. * .4 '» 9445 B. M. Italv, p. 66,
Cent, Italy. back. 2 .3 610.01 No 4. '
C rescent and •• Three Stars
63 Tarentum. Two crescents, back to Similar to obverse. jtt.25 3 fourth Hunterian Coll.,p.84,
back; above and ben­ 6 .19 and No 177.
54 Marciano* M O n E A A I O C A N T n e E l MAPKIANOrTOAEITON- * .7 L)iadu- B. M. Thrace, p. 33, Calabria. third
m onin- eath, a d o t; plain bor­ cent.
polis. NOC- Bust of Diadu- Crescent, within which 1 7 .5 ntm. No 41.
Moetia Inf. menianus r., in cui­ three stars. der. B. c.
rass and palud; head
bare. 64 Thespiae. Boeotian shield. 11*30. Two crescents, M . 4 10. Obol. B. c. PI. 1 B. M. Cent. Gr., p.90,
lioeoti;i. back, to back in incuse 10 .64 367- 64 No 3.
55 Philippo- AVKAI C€VHPOC o iA in n o n o M T U N . * .7 5 Scpii- p. 165, No 32. circle. 374
polis. Ci'escenl, horns upwards; llltlH
Head of Severus r., 19 Scw-
Thrace. laur. above, three stars. rus. C rescents, tw o back to back a n d “ D o ts ”
56 Nicomedia. AVTKAICAP A N Tfl M H T K H A in P O T * . 7 Anl.i- H u n te r ia n C o ll., 65 Hubi. Bust of Helios full face PY on either side of two jft.35 5* B. C. PI. 1 Evans, Coins of Ta­
iiinu* p. 253, No 6.
Bithynia. NINOC Head of An­ NIKO Crescent, with 1 7 .5
Pius. Apulia. radiate and wearing crescents, horns out­ 9 .36 334 65 rentum, M um .
toninus Pius r., laur. horns upwards; within it. chlamys. wards ; above AA i bet­ Citron., 1889, pi. V,
three stars. ween crescents, two dots. 8. p. 84, No 111.
B. M. Italy, p. 143.
No 4.
C rescent and • Stars
66 Tarentum. Two crescents, back to Two crescents, back to A . 3 3* B. C. ,, p. 216, No457.
57 Pautalia. AV KAC C€VH- Head OVAniAC nAVTAAIAC * 7 5 Septi­ B. M. Thrace, p. I4>1, Calabria. back; around, four back; within horns, KA ; 7.5 .21 400-
Thrace. of Sept. Severus r.. Crescent. within wliicli, 19 m us No 19. dots. above and beneath, a del. 272
laur. four Mars. Sw e-
ru s. 67 Same type; within cres­ Same type ; in 1. crescent, jft.3 3s
-• ,, p. 217, N o46l.
cents, A P ; above and K ; above and beneath, a 7.5 .22
58 Philippo- AVKAC C€VHPOC <t>iAinnonoAEiTnN. *. 7 •• p. I65,N o 33. beneath, a dot. dot.
polis. Head of Severus r., C rescent : above which 1 7 .5
Thrace. laur. are nine stars, anil ben­ 68 Head of Pallas r., wear­ Two crescents, back to * . 4 5 B. C. ,, p. 2l9,N o 486.
eath, two. ing crested helm et; back; around, four dots. II 300-
border of dots. 212
C rescent in laurel-wreath
C rescents tw o and “ Stars ”
59 Uncertain. Female head I., wearing Laurel-wreatli, containing * . 7 455 PI. 1 H u n ter ia n C oll. 09 Aes Grave Two naked ligures, dan­ Two crescents, horns out­ * . IJ 625 Semis. ,, p. 61, No 48.
/*. between slephane, earring and crescent d o w n w a r d s, 17.5 2.92 :>o p. 607, No 6. Central cing, that on r. with wards, in each of which a 32.5 40.50
Africa and necklace, with pen­ with small disk between Hal;/, drapery over 1. arm ; star of ei(?ht rays, with
Sicily. dants; in front, thymia- horns ; border of dots. dots bclvyecn rays : ben­
terion; border of dots. in field, r. t eath, • • • • • •
I
C rescents tw o back{ to bac k Qua- No 49.
"0 Same type; in tield,!., £ Same type, but no dots bet­ *.!»» 345
" ween rays; beneath, • • • . 26 22.34 drans.
60 Iceni. Horse prancing r . ; abo­ Two crescents IkicIc In N . 75 8J3 A. D. i *i . I p. 727, No I.
Britain. v e, three groups of back, with groups of 19 5.32 50 60 71 Tarentum. Two crescents, back to Same as obverse. Jft. 3 3' B. C.
triangularly arranged pellets round them : all Calabria. back; around, four 7.5 .19 400- ,, p. 217, No 462.
p ellets; each group on a sunk part of livid. stars of eight rays. 272
contains three jpellets,
and the central one is '2 *i Same type, but around, Similar, around, TTOAY- R 3 3 *1
surrounded by a ring; four small crosses, in 7.5 .19 ,, ,, No 463.
beneath, star of six the angles of which
rays ; in front, annulet are dots.
containing a pellet.
 36 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W ORLD T H E R IS E O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IST IC W ORLD 37

CRESCENTS THREE AND STARS STAR

No. ItTAI. Metal

P lace O bvbr.sk R everse Wr. D ekom. D ate P latk llE rsaaaca No. P lac e O bverse R ev er se W t. D enom . D a te P la te R e f er e n c e
S ize S ize

•
C rescents three C rescents three united

73 Caelia. Head of Pallas, r., wear­ K Al A IN O N - Three £ .5 5 a. c. B. M. Ita ly , p. 134, 84 Thebe. Female head r., wearing 0HB Three crescents uni­ £ . 4 411. Millingen's Syllo
Apulia. ing crested Corinthian crescents, horns out­ 14 268- No 7. Uytia. sakkos. ted. 10 cent. p. 68, pi.IV , N<H
helmet, necklace. wards, within each • ; 200 a. c. Dumersan’s Descript,
plain border. Allier de Haule-
roche, p. 80, pi.
731 ** Head of Pallas, • • • Similar. £ .5 5 Qua- t» Head, H itl. A s m ., XII1-19.
14 drans. p. 38. B. M. Mysia, p. 179,
No 1 .
74 Venusia. Cockle-shell. Three crescents, horns out­ £ . 579 B. C. B. M. Italy, p. ISO,
Apulia. wards ; within upper­ 37.51 292- No 8.
most, n o n . >£. 34 250 C rescents three form ing T riskcles
(See Triskeies of Crescents)
75 Croton. Head of Persephone r., K PO - Each letter within £ . 8 5 a. c. ., p. 356, No 116.
Bmttii! wearing wreath of a crescent, horns out­ 21 420-
com . wards. 300 C rescents three w ithin W h eel
76 Cydonia. Youthful head r.; hair K ; arouqd, three crescent; A . 4 20‘ Trihemi- s. c. B. M. Crete, p. 29,
Crete. short (aomewhat bar­ border of dots. 10 1.31 obol. 400- No 10. 85 Uncertain. Archaic wheel, having Wheel wilh axle, but with­ £. 884 Semis. B. M. Italy, p. 17,
barous). 300 Aes Grave. long straight bar,cros­ out spokes; within it, I” 57.28 No I.
Etruria. sed by two bars,curv­ three crescents, horns 49
77 Similar 1., ivy-wreathed. Similar. ^ .4 5 14* »» »• ,, N o ll. ing outwards. outwards;around,»««««»
•• 11 .92

78 •* Young head r., wreath­ Three crescents, back to A . 45 7* Hemi- PI. 1 H u n te r ia n C o ll ., C rcsccnts lour
ed; border of dots. back, in centre a dot. II .49 obol. 78 p. 179, No 5.
86 Athens. Head of Athena r. (eye AGE- Incuse square, within £ . 3 8* Obolo. II. c. PI. 1 B. M. Attica, p. 17,
79 Tanus. Head of young Dionysos TAN- Pellet between throe £ . 5 17 Obol. B. C. PI. 1 Head, H itl. Worn., AUica. . in profile) wearing which four crescents 7.5 .55 430- 86 No 180.
Crete. crescents. 12.5 1.10 400- 79 p. 406. crested helmet; the back to back. 322
300 front adorned wilh
three upright olive-
80 Athens. Head of Athena r., in g A q - Three crescents, A . 3 8 Trilarle- a. c. PI. 1 B. M. Attica, p. 18, leavcs.
Attica. close fitting crested 7.5 .51 moria. 430- 80 No 187.
horns inwards. 322
helmet, adorned with
floral ornament. C rescents four and D ots

87 I Heraclea. I EH- Club and strung;I Four crescents, back to JR.35 51 Hemi- I H. c. | 1 B. M. Italy, p. 226.
I Lucanfo. I bow, both upwards, back: in Ihc coil Ire and 9 .33 obol. 380- No II.
| crossed. I williin each, a dot. | 300 1 1
C rescents three and “ Stars "

Head of Hera 1., wear­ Three crescents, horns out­ £ .9 5 178 Qua- B. M. Italy, p. 152, C rescents five
81 Venusia
Apulia. ing stephane and veil; wards ; in each, star ol 24 11.53 drans No 24.
in front, monogr. >£ sixteen rays ; plain bor­ 38 Megara. Head of Apollo I., laur. MErA a»<l H •’ (between M |£ . 5 5 fto* h. PI. 1 B. M. Attica, p. 118,
behind, J ; border ol der. Megari*. and E) in the intervals 14 3.25 400- 88 No 2.
dots. belween live crescents; 338
plain border.
82 »» Similar. Similar; but stars of twelve £ .. 1 84 •« ,, No 25.
rays. 25 5.44
Star
83 Head of Zeus, 1., lau r.; Three crescents, horns out­ /F..95 264 t» ,, p. 150. No 12.
1*
behind, | . wards ; wilhin each, star 24 17.10 Semis. Second p i. i H u n te r ia n C o ll.,
Malaca. yyO C - Bust of He- Star of eight rays enclosed £ .& 5 90 or
of twelve rays; plain bor­ 21 89 p. 658, No 5.
Ilbpania phaislos draped, within wreath. first
der. wears Hat cap; border cent.
ulterior.
o f dots.
P art. VI.
38 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W O RLD T H E R IS E OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD 39

STAR STAR

No. P lace Metal No. P la c e I e t a i.

O b v e r se R ev e r se W t. D enom. D a te P late R efer enc e O bv er se R everse W t. D eno m . D a te P la te R eference
S ize S iz e

90 Uncertain. Crescent radiated or in­ Star, in the middle of con­ N . 6 M ionnel,!, S ., p. 168, 103 I’ranopolis. OYPANIAEHN TTO Star. /E.55 T im e Mionnet, III, S .,
Call it. side of a shell. cave field. No 144. Maeethmi.1 . AEftX- 1- rania in 14 of p . 174, No 1126.
C y­
“ stola " sealed on a linder
91 Iguvium. Barley corn : in field, r., Star of sixteen rays. iE. 15.98 Qua- B. M. Italy, p. 31, globe 1., in Ihe r.,
Umbria. • 1.8 103.5* d rails. No 7. hand sceptre and wear­
45 ing cap.

92 •* •TNISVHI. Crescent bet­ Star. IE. Aes Mionnel, 1, S ., p. 209, 104 Plicrae. Man uudc retaining <t>EPA- Star in the middle JR.. 7 11 ,, p. 305, No 250.
ween four stars and 2.7 Grave. No 82. Thcssahj. horse which is running of incuse square. 17.5
the countermark |. 70
93 1* Same inscr. Crescent. Similar. JE. f» ,, ,, No 83. 105 Issa. IZ2A- Female head. I2IA . Star. JE. 9 411. Head, H it!. N u m .,
1.65 h . Illyria. 22.5 cent. p . 268.
42 B. c.

94 Luceria. Dolphin, 1.; beneath, Star of six ravs, on raised JE. 1475 Qua­ B. M. Italv, p. 137. 106 Similar inscr. Head of Star with eight rays; in iC.85 t * Mionnet, III, S .,
"
Apulia. • • • on raised field. field. 1.85 95.57 dra ns. No 10. ‘ Artemis r. field ? 21 p . 358, No 13.
46
107 In gen. Caps of the Dioscuri A m iP flT A N written bet­ IE. 7 ,, p. 361, No 20.
95 *i Dolphin, r . ; above, • • • ; Similar. JE. 369 »i ,, p. 139, No 40. Epirus. surniounlcd by stars. ween the rays of the star. 17.5
beneath, ; on raised 1.1 23.90
field. 27.5 108 Corey ra. Kantliaros to r., Star, the alternate rays /E .6 B. C. Part. I B.M . Thessaly, p . 128,
Is. Epirut. pedum. longer. 15 300- PI. VII No 225.
96 Syracuse. Female head 1., wearing Incuse square of four quar­ /E.65 b.c. PI. I B. M. Sicily, p. 182, 229 433
Sicily. earring and sphen- ters in diHererit planes, in 16 412- 96 No 241.
d one. ornamented the centre of which is an 345 109 Locri- Xc Amphora ; an Circle of d o ts ; within of 4 \.4 5 12* OboL B. C. Part. I B. M. Centr. Gr.,
behind with star of incuse circle containinga Opunli. OO star of sixteen rays; bor­ 11 .79 387- PI. 1 p . 1, No 3.
eight rays, and having star of sixteen rays. L o cris. ivy-leaf on either side der of dots. 369 80
in front <J>PV indis­ of Amphora.
tinct ; plain border.
(10 OP ON bunch of O within star of sixteen M . 4 8* Hemi- B. C. Part. 1 ,, p. 5, No 35.
*•
97 Uncertain. X . Bull 1., butting; Star of sixteen rays, Ihe /E. B. C. ,, p. 237, No 2. grapes on either side rays; border of dots. 10 .54 obol. 369- PI. V
Sicily. plain border. alternate ones longer; 1.3 345- of Amphora. 338 284
plain border. 32.5 275
111 «» AO KP- Amphora to Similar. -1V.45 I01 B. C. Part. 1 ,, p. 6, No 48.
••
98 Pantica- Tripod-lebes. TIANTIKAn. Star of eight /E. 6 A fte r B. M. Thrace, p. 10, 1. grapes, to r., ivy- 11 .66 338- PI. V
paeum. rays; letters of inscr. 15 Alex. No 48. leaf. 300 281
th e
Tauric. between rays. G re a t.
Chersonese. 112 Orchome- Boeotian shield, along EPXO m the alternate /E.55 B. C. PI. I ,, p. 56. No36.
nus. which ear of corn. spaces of a star of eight 14 387- 113
Boeolia. rays. 374
99 ** Head of Pan 1., behind Similar: in field bow and >£.95 Mionnet, II,S .,p . 11,
113 Asteria. Beardless head r. A between the rays of a /E.43 PI. Harwood, N a m ii
A. <t> 24 No 65.
(between star. 11 Supj). U r., p . 7.
100 Olbia. OABIO- Dolphin. Star. S .. 5 ,, p. 22, No 83. Ithaca and
Sarmatia. 12.5 Cephalo-
ntum.)
101 Achillea. AXIA between the spo­ Similar. /E. 7 ,, p. 32, No 138. 11 o f Elis.
It o f kes of a wheel. 17.5
114 Itanus. Head o f Pallas 1., in Star of sixteen rays. /R .4 7* B. C. PI. 1 H u n te r ia n C o ll.
Sarmalia. 10 .46
••
400- 114 p. 190, No 8.
Crete. crested helmet.
Time 300
102 Uranopolis. O TPAN IAX nO A EO Z- Star as a sun of eight rays ; ,€ .6 5 of
P I. 1 Mionnel, III, S .,
Macedonia. Female figure Artemis border of dots (see sun 16 C.6- 102 p. 174, No 1125. B. M. Mysia, 62
115 Gambrium Head of Apollo r., laur. TAM- Star. jE.65 B. C. PI. I p.
seated on a globe 1., as a star of eight rays). iiicr 115 No 2.
M yna. 16 3rd
holdind in T., hand cent.
spear.
116 Similar; border of dots. Similar. jE .5 »» PI. 1 .. N o ll.
»»
12.5 116
40 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O RLD T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD 41

SUN ZODIACS

Ml'.TAL Mi :t ai .
No. P la c e O bverse R ev er se
S ize
W t. D enom . D ate P late R efer e n c e No. P lace O bverse R i . vkrkk
S ize
W t. D en o m . D ate P late R efer en c e

117 Colone. Head of Athena r., wear­ K O A flN A flN - Star of Ai. 115 n. c. P I. 1 B. M. Troas, p. 47,
Troas. ing crested helmet. eight rays. 16 400- 117 No 2. Sun and Moon as star w ithin C rescent
310
125 I Uranopolis.l Similar. The suu and Moon, (a star * . 5 Time |B . M. Macedonia,
118 »» Similar 1. Similar. * . 4
10
•• P I. I
118
,, ,, No 5. I Macedonia. of eight r.iys within cres­ 12.5
cent) ; border of dots. I or
Cas-
sa n d er
p. 134, No 5.

00
119 Sa lamia. Head of Athena 1. in Star of eight rays. /B.:t5 Obol. E uhko- B. M. Cyprus, p. 60,
Cyprus. crested Athenian hel­ ras 11 No 68.
9
c irc a Sun surrounded by C rescents and five stars
met. 361-
351 126 t, OYPANIAnN- Similar; Radiated sun, crescent A . 1' 212 1 Tetra- 300 1 PI. 11 Imhoof, Mon. G r.,
B. C.
in field 1., A beneath. above, and surrounded 1drachm. b. c. I 126 p. ‘J6, No 135.
lighted torch. by live stars. 1 1
Stars
Zodiac, S ig n s of
120 Tomi. Rude head of Zeus r., TOMI- Two stars of live /B .6 5 Before B. M. Thrace, p. 54,
Ho-
Moesia Inf. laur.; border of dots. points, below which, 0 - 16
m an
No 3.
d o m i­ 127 Amastris. IOVAIAN MAICAN AMA CT PIANftN- J. PI. II B. M. Ponthus, p. 89,
nion Paphlago- CEBAC Bust of Julia Hera (?) and Zeus, hold­ 1.25 Mae­ 127 No 34.
n il. Maesa r. (as Demeler); ing sceptres standing fac­ 31 sa.
in r. hand, ear of corn; ing one another; around,
S tars w ith Ears o f Corn and bunch of Grapes in I., corn and poppy the signs of the Zodiac;
121 Populonia. Mask-bearded facing. Two stars; another star i4£.75 Eckel had attributed (countermark, TO. in ex., H
Etruria. between a bunch and 19 these to Populonia Bust of Gordian III r.)
Camarina. ear of corn. (Ktruria)anu Mion-
Sicily. net followed him Zodiac surrounding head o f M eduse
correcting himself
in his recueil des
la nc lies page 62 as 128 Aegeae. A Y K A in ......Head of Va­ AIT A lO N N E flK N A Y E T • * . I3 Vale­ PI. Mionnet, VI], S..
C
elonging to Cama­ Cilicia. lerian. TT ( = 303 year). Head 30
of Meduse surrounded by
ria-
nus.
Supp.
128
167, No 78.
rina.
the signs of Zodiac. I
Sun as Globe
Zodiac w ithin w hich eponym ous g o d s o f days o f w eek
122 Uranopoiis. OYPANIAflN. Aphro­ The Sun as a globe encir­ lAI.8 107* Time PI. II B. M. Macedonia,
nf
Macedonia. dite Urania, clad in cled by rays; border of 20 6.95 sunder 122 p. 133, No 1.
129 Alexandria. AYTKTAIAAAP Zodiac, within which, circle * . 1’ Anto­ PI. II B. M. Alexandria,
chiton and peplos fas­ dots. 129 p. 127, No 1079.
Egypt. ANTCONCINOC C6 of the eponxmous gods of 32.5 ninus
tened on r. shoulder,
B€VC- Head of Anto­ the days of the week; Pius.
seated, facing, on
globe; on her head a ninus Pius r.. laur. busts of Saturn r.. Sun
spike surmounted by r.. Moon r.. Mars I., Mer­
star; she holds in r. cury I..Jupiter 1., Venus
long sceptre, ending I .; in upper part of circle.
above in circle (of the LH; in inmost circle. Bust
universe?i,from which of Sarapis 1., v/ears mo-
hang two fillets; in dius.
field 1., a pyramidal
object surmounted
by star.
Zodiacs tw o , one w ithin the other en closin g busts of Sarapis and Isis

123 Similar; in Held I., star, Similar. /R. 8 120 PI. 11 Imhoof, Hon. Gr.. 130 Similar. Two Zodiacs, one within JE. I3 ,, PI. II ,f p. 126, No 1078.
/ C?J. 20 7.70 123 p. 96, No 136. the other, each sign coin­ 32.5 130
ciding ; within, busts of
Sun as a star o f eight Rays Sarapis wearing niodius,
and Isis, wearing globe
124 OYPANIAflN The sun as a star of eight * .6 5 1 B. M. Macedonia, and horns, jugate I. (com-
P O A E fll Similar rays; border of dots (sec 16 p. 134, No 2. nicnccmcnl of Sotliiae
ty p e ; no symbol. also star). Cycle).
42 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD T H E R ISE O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E H E L L E N IS T IC W ORLD 43

CANCER TAURUS

N o. M etal
P l ac e O b v er se R ever$ e M" t a l | W t .
w)IZE
D exo m . D a te P i.ATE R eference No, Pl.ACE O b v erse R ev e r s e S ize
W t. D e*o m . D a te P la te R e f er e n c e

G em ini sign of
Aqu of
136 Eucarpeia. tVKAPTK ON- Bust tn in tA IA C C€KOYNA jfi.65 Time PI. 11 B.M . Phrygia, p. 204,
Phrygia. of Hermes r ., bare­ HC- Bucranium surmoun­ 16 of 136 No 4.
131 Alexandria. AYTKTAIAAAP Bust of Kronos 1., wearing IE. I5 Anto­ PI. II H u n te r ia n C o ll., headed, shoulder, dra­ ted by large crescent; Ha­
Egypt. ANTCONINOC C€B€Y- veil and globe on head, 32.5 ninus 131 p. 469, No 467. ped, caduceus behind above which are two drian.
Bust ol Antoninus at 1.. s h o u l d e r Calx; in Pius. B. M. Alexandria, neck; border of dots. stars, one over the other,
Pius r., laur., in cui­ front star; beneath youth p. 128, No 1088. connected by vertical line
rass and palud. swimming 1., looking (the Gemini?); border of
back and holding inver­ dots.
ted jar on his hands ben­
eath date LH (144-145
a . d .) (Saturn in Aqua­ L eo sig n of
rius).
137 Alexandria. AYTKAIAAAP Bust of Helios radiate, r .; M . Is Anto­ PI. 11 B. M. Alexandria,
Egypt. ANTCONEINOCCt beneath, Lion rushing r .; 32.5 ninus 137 p. 127, No 1084.
BtYC- Bust r., laur., of above head, star beneath, Pias.
Antoninus Pius. LH (The Sun in Leo).
A ries sign of

132 Antioch Head of Zens r., laur. ANTIOXEflN M H TPono /fi.75 119 Au­ H u n te r ia n C o ll. P isces sign of
Seleucit and A E H I- H a m leaping; r . , 19 7.71 gus­ p. 150, No 64.
Pier it. tv ith h e a d lu r r ie d b ac k *, tus 138 AYTKTAIAAAP AN Bust of Zeus r., laur.; K . 1J t t PI. II p. 128, No 1090.
a b o v e , s la r o f e ig h t r a y > ; TOONINOCCtB «YC across r. shoulder, scep­ 3 2 . 5 138
b e n e a th , d a le BM ( i 1-12 Head of Antoninus tre ; in front,star; beneatn,
a. n). Pius r., laur. fishes r., and I. ( Jupiter
in Pisces); in field, LH*
133 ANTIOXEflN. Head of EniKOYAAPATOY. Ram yE.65 981 Ndro. PI. II „ p. 155, No 96.
Tyche r., veiled and leaping r., with head 16 6.37 133
turreted. turned back ; above, slar Sagittarius sig n o f
of six rays; beneath, d ale:
AP ( = 55 a . d.).
139 AYTKTAIAAAP Bust of Zeus r., laur.; ben­ IE. 1» tl PI. II ,, ,, No 1087
ANTCONINOCCCB €YC eath, Centaur galopping 3 2 .5 139
134 Nisibis. AVTOKKM ANTOPAIA CCTIKOA ON€CIBIMH ft. Gor- ,, p. 310, No 3. Similar. r., drawing bow ; above
Metopolt- NONCABTPANK• TP- Busl of Tyche of ,SS dia- head, star (Jupiter in Sa­
mit. NAC€B- Bust, face to cily r., draped, veiled 31 nus gittarius) ; beneath, LH*
face, of Gordiiin III r., and turreled; above her Pius.
laur., Wearing cuirass head, sign of constellation
and palud., and of Aries r . ; before and Scorpio sign o f
Tranquillina I., drap­ behind her, a slar.
ed and wearing ste-
phane. 140 Similar. Ilelmeted bust of Ares I.; & . 1* 413s »1 PI. 11 H u o te r ia n C o ll.
in front, star; beneath 35 26.90 140 p. 468, No 462.
Scorpio I. (Mars in Scor­
pio) ; infield, LH (■= 144-
145 A . D.).

Canccr sig n of
Taurus sign o f

135 Alexandria. AYTKTAIAAAP AN Bust of Selene r . ; in front. M . Is Anto­ PI. II B. M. Alexandria, 141 AVTKTAIAAAP Bust of Aphrodite I., wears A i. 1* PI. 11 B. M. Alexandria
sta r; beneath, crescent 32.5 ninus slephanc; beneath. Bull 32.5 141 P- 127, No 1080.
Egypt. TC0N INOCCt B tY C 135 p. 127, Nol082. ANTG)N€INOC CEB
Head of Antoninus m oon; beneath all. Crab Pius c v e Head of Antoni­ bulling I., above, slar
Pius r., laur., in cui­ (the moon in Canccr); in nus Pius r., laur. (Venus in Taurus); in ex.,
rass and paluilam. field, LH. LH
44 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY 45
portation of Asclepius and the Great M other; i. e. these The drugs concocted from such plants were expected
were formally invited to come to Rome, transported to give the patient the direct benefit of the astral influ­
from their eastern homes to the banks of the Tiber and ence needed to combat the particular disease. How
No. M etal given official status with a state-supported college of much, however, of this Hellenistic astrologization of
P lace O b v er se R ev er se W t. D en o m . D ate P late R e f er e n c e
S ize priests. Asclepius was actually transmitted to his priests in
This kind of " adoption ” was not a peculiar Roman Rome, after his establishment on an isle in the Tiber
custom, but one common to ancient city-states. When­ during the third century, cannot be determined. From
C onstellation o f th e Ploughm an ever in a crisis the traditional local divinities seemed the humbler role of recipient, Asclepius eventually rose
unable or unwilling to grant relief, foreign oracles or to that of divine dispenser of astrological revelations.
141' Alexandria. AVTKAIAAAP Ploughman ploughing with JE. IJ Anto­ PI. II B. M. Alexandria, domestic ones were consulted. In many cases they ad­ For example in an astro-botanical treatise ascribed to
Egypt. ANTCONINOC C«B yoke of oxen 1.; he wears 3 2 .5 ninus 141* p. 128, No 1091.
€VC- Head of Antoni­ conical cap, chlatnys and Pius.
vised the importation of some specific deity to allay the Harpocration, but actually written by the physician
nus Pius r., laur. short kirtle, with r., current troubles. In the case of Asclepius a plague, Thessalus and addressed either to Claudius ( a . d . 41-
goads farther ox, with 1. which about 300 b . c . harassed Rome, caused the gov­ 54) or his successor Nero ( a . d . 54-68),° the author,
guide plough; the ground, ernment, after consultation of the Sybilline books, to when asked from whom he would like to receive divine
a ploughed field (the
Constellation of Ihe establish the first sanctuary of Asclepius in Rome (291 revelations, at once named Asclepius.10
Ploughman): in ex., L€- b . c.?), a most appropriate gesture, indeed.2 For Ascle­ Although the first Roman contacts with hellenistic
pius was the great healer among the Hellenistic gods. astrology remain shrouded in the inevitable twilight of
H e was, however, on? of the latest arrivals on Mount hieratic and obscure secular contacts, a word like con­
C onstellation of the Reaper Olympus,3 his medical knowledge ascribed on occasion siderate (possibly of astrological origin)11 was already
not even to divine inspiration but to the teachings of in common usage by the middle of the third century.
142 Similar. Reaper r„ wearing short /E. I3 PI. II No 1092. the legendary Centaur Chiron,4 a sort of pre-historic Nor did the Roman comedy-writer Plautus (ca. 253-
kirtle, with r. cuts three 3 2 .5 142 school-master in Greek mythology.5 When installed in 184 b . c.) feel any scruples in introducing to his Roman
corn stalks with sickle,
holding them with his ).; Rome, Asclepius had not yet added to his reputation audience a star as speaker of the prologue in his Rudens.
on I., tree, which rises the role of a fountainhead of astrological revelation. In adapting a Greek comedy for Roman use he opened
over Reaper's head (the This he acquired soon afterwards during the third cen­ the play with the appearance of the star, Arcturus,
constellation of the Reap­
er) ; in f., LE- tury b . c. in the Hellenistic east. Thereafter in many whose words may in part be quoted, because they indi­
an astrological treatise he appeared as the recipient of cate what the Roman public was then expected to
astrological wisdom imparted to him by Hermes who understand and be impressed by. Said A rcturus:
in Greek mythology was usually equated with the I am a fellow co untrym an of him in the realm of heaven
Egyptian god Toth.6 w ho m oves all the lands an d the seas. A b rillian t sta r am I,
II. T H E CO N V ERSIO N O F REPUBLICAN ROME TO ASTROLOGY Inevitably, therefore, Asclepius became the patron as you see m e, a sign w hich alw ays p rom ptly rises a t' its due
saint of iatromathematics, a system of medicin.e which tim e both h ere an d in the heavens. A rc tu ru s is my nam e.
(250-44 B. C.) applied astrological theories to medical treatment. The A t n ig h t I shine in th e sky am id st the ho st of gods, a t day­
tim e I w an d er about o n e arth am ong m ortals. O th er sta rs
individual parts of the body, its organs and their dis­ too descend to earth .
1. T H E A R R IV A L O F A STR O LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN The small band of Roman " humanists ” — for reasons eases were brought into definite relation with the influ­ Jove, L o rd of gods and m en, sends u s th ro u g h o u t the
W O R LD (250-170 B. C.) to be discussed later — at first received " scientific ” ence of certain stars or constellations. Hand in hand w orld, one this w ay , one elsew here so th a t w e m ig h t espy
astrology with considerable scepticism. Its apostles were, with this development went the ascription of " critical the deeds of m en, th eir conduct, piety, and loyalty, and w hat
Early Rome was primarily a nation of farmers. Like
however, more warmly welcomed by the lower strata days” to individual patients or specific diseases7 and use they m ake of riches.
all peasant societies it possessed an ancient and primi­ T h e n am es of those w ho p e rju re them selves before the
of Roman society. Meanwhile, in the realm of religion the creation of pharmaceutical prescriptions based on
tive system of astrometeorology. Beyond this, however, ju d g e pro fessin g innocence o r falsely testify to claim w hat
high and low alike joined in the enthusiastic worship astrological botany—the use of herbs believed to “ repre­ is n o t th eirs,— such nam es w e lay before Jove.12
Roman knowledge of and interest in celestial affairs
of newly imported eastern cults, some of which included sent” and contain the powers of individual planets.8
remained steeped in religious lore and oracular disci­
star worship. Among the eastern deities who between The finesse with which Arcturus was described as
plines until the third century b . c . Roman contacts with
300 and 150 B. c. arrived in Rome and acquired a sub­ not himself divine but dwelling in the company of the
three surrounding Mediterranean cultures, Etruscan, a Livy, 2 9 , 11, 1; Orosius, 3 , 22.
stantial following there were Asclepius, the Great 3 Originally merely—like Heracles—a semidivine heros. gods and serving the all-highest as a spy on earth
Carthaginian,, and Greek, did not arouse in Rome a
noticeable scientific interest. Even after the aristocracy Mother Cybele of Pessinus, Bacchus, Isis, and Mithras, * Schol. ad Germanici Phaenomem , 291.
to name only the most important imported divinities. ’ Loc. cit. C hiron was also credited with teaching Heracles also 279-284; F. E. Robbins, A new astrological treatise, Michi­
finally began to acquire a taste for Hellenistic civiliza­ the art of astrologia. According to another tradition, however, gan Papyrus, no. 1, Jour. Class. Philol. 22, 1927: 1-45; Housman,
Jehovah too reached Rome apparently in that era.1 Of
tion, no marked enthusiasm developed in the Latin west H eracles owed his knowledge of it to A tlas; Festus, epit., s.v .: The Michigan astrological papyrus, ibid. : 257-263; Cat. 8 (3) :
these arrivals a few were official, for example the im- Hercules astrologus dictus, quod eo die se flammis injecit, quo 153-165.
for those abstract rational pursuits which had fascinated
futura erat obscuratio solis; cf. Bouche-Leclercq: 576, n. 1. • Compare Cat. 8 (3) : 134-151; 8 ( 4 ) : 254 ff.
the best Greek minds since the days of the Ionian phi­ 10 Ibid. 8 ( 3 ) : 136, 31; 8 ( 4 ) : 257, 1. On the temple of
1 On the subject compare for instance W . Hoffmann, Rom “ Sometimes also with Eshmun. A typical tract of this kind,
losophers. The awakening interest of a relatively small for example, was entitled rod 'Ep/ioO 'AGK\T]nLov \eya/Umi Asclepius in Thebes, see W . Otto, Priester und Tempel im
und die griechische W elt im vierten Jahrhundert, Philologus,
group of Roman noblemen since the middle of the third suppl. 27, Heft 1, 1934; W . Kroll, Die K ultur der ciceronischen Itfia /3/pXos; ed. P itra, Analecta sacra 5 (2) : 284-290; a better liellenistischen A egypten 1: 135 f., Leipzig, Teubner, 1905; about
century b . c . remained confined to Greek literature and Zeit., ch. v : Religion und Religiositaet, 2 : 1-2S, 27, Das Erbe edition by Ruelle in Revne de Philologie 35, 1909 : 250ff.; the appearances of Asclepius before mortals, O. Weinreich,
the finished formulae of Greek philosophy. The same der Alten, 2. Reihe, ed. O. Immisch, Leipzig, 1933; F . Cumont, German transl. by W , Gundel, D ekane: 374-379. A n like Heilungswunder: 1, n. 3, Giessen, 1909; cf. Cat. 8 (4) :
Les religions orientates dans Vempire rotnain, 4th ed., Paris, 7 Cf. Bouche-Leclercq: 516 ff.; P. Duhem, Le systhne du 181, 20; 257, n. 1.
receptive rather than creative attitude prevailed in the monde 2 ( 1 ) : 366-369. F o r a typical treatise of this sort, see II Plautus, Trinum m us: v. 404; on the astrological roots of
realm of religion. Eastern cults inundated Italy, while 1929; Astrology and religion among the Greeks and Romans,
Galen’s tract O n critical days. this word, see E. Riess, Classical W eekly 27 (10), Dec. 18, 1933:
London and New York, G. B. Putnam ’s Sons, 1912; H . H.
Roman religion failed to develop any new strength of Scullard, Roman politics, 220-150 B .C ., Oxford, Clarendon * F o r example 'Epfiov roO TpLtrfieyttrrou irpbt 'AakK^rtov irepl 74, and Knapp in n. 21.
its own. Press, 1951. ftoravuv rOy ^ i/x r ip w , ed. P itra, Analecta sacra 5 ( 2 ) : 291 ff.; 14 Plautus, R u d en s: vv. 1 ff.
46 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
smacked of Greek subtlety rather than of Roman re­
ligious concepts. It did, however, obviously not seem
out of place to Plautus for Roman audiences, a sign of
the rapid progress of the penetration of third-century
Rome by Greek star-lore.
The Roman generation to which Plautus belonged
was the first one which showed definite signs of the
impact of Hellenistic culture upon Rome. This influence
manifested itself most noticeably in the realm of dra­
matic or epic literature in which Plautus and Livius
Andronicus pioneered by introducing interested Romans
to adapted or translated Latin versions of Greek epics
and plays. It may well be that Plutarch’s assertion
that Rome’s first school accessible to all who would pay
the modest fee of its teacher was opened in 235-234 b . c . 18
is not trustworthy. But the spirit of that era at least
would favor the transplanting to Rome of the Greek
prototype of elementary schools. With Naevius the
indigenous Latin epic was born. Simultaneously the
first Roman historians appeared on the scene at the end
of the third century b . c . They were not annalists of the
old school, but men discovering for themselves the ap­
proach and the methods of Greek historians. These
Roman pioneers, among whom Q. Fabius Pictor, L.
Cincius Alimentus (both Hannibal’s contemporaries),
A. Postumius Albinus (consul 151 b . c.), and C. Acilius
(fl. 155 b . c . ) were the most renowned ones, felt inca­
pable of expressing themselves adequately in Latin,
and hence wrote their accounts of Roman history in
Greek.1* Those who dared write in Latin might be
praised by men like the older Cato (234-149),15 but
more competent later critics condemned all earlier Latin
historians in general, a verdict reaffirmed authoritatively
by Cicero.10
The infiltration of philhellenism into Roman aristo­
cratic circles inevitably aroused a measure of opposition
of which tradition (though not quite accurately) made
the older Cato the living symbol. Among the most
enthusiastic families adopting the new outlook was the
Scipionic branch of the Cornelian gens. The conqueror
of the great Hannibal, the older Scipio Africanus, was
himself among the leaders of the movement. The degree
” Plutarch, quaest. Rom., 59: “ I t was a long time before they
began to teach for pay, and the first to open an elementary
school for pay was Spurius Carvilius, a freedman of the Car-
vilius who was the first to divorce his w ife” (for barrenness,
ibid., 14). It does seem incredible, however, that no divorce of
this kind should have occurred in Rome prior to that date, i. e.
235 b . c.
“ F o r example Aulus Postumius A lbinus; Cicero, Brutus,
20, 81.
3K Polybius, frgm. 39, 1 ff. related Cato’s violent criticism of
Albinus for his apologetic statement that he lacked the complete
m astery of the Greek language (in which he.w rote his history)
and the rigorous Greek training necessary for the writing of the
history. F o r an incident, characteristic of the philhellenism of
Postumius during his praetorship in 155, see Cicero, Acad., 2,
45, 137.
" Cicero, dc legibus, 1, 2, 5-6.
of his philhellenism can be gauged from the shocking
story circulated about him in Rome on the eve of his
invasion of North Africa (which won the Second Punic
W ar for Rome). While preparing the expedition from
his Sicilian headquarters Scipio was “ reliably reported ”
to have succumbed to the Greek milieu to the extent of
actually donning Greek dress and moving about in it
in public, a daring feat, indeed, for a Roman commander-
in-chief of the third century b . c.*r Yet in the very
same year (204 b . c . ) his future political opponent, the
older Cato himself, showed his good judgment of liter­
ary promise by bringing home with him from Sardinia
(where Cato had landed on his return from Africa
en route to Rome during his quaestorship) a South
Italian soldier named Ennius.18 Although a later legend
to the effect that Cato actually during his stay in
Tarentum had been imbued with Pythagorean wisdom
must not be taken seriously, there is no doubt that as
he became older his robust anti-Hellenism mellowed,
perhaps to such an extent that at the end of his long
life he actually began to learn Greek himself. This
triumph of the old spirit of the era over the staunchest
defender of old Roman ways was also reflected in Cato’s
own efforts as a writer. He might deny to his own son
the benefit of the learning of his Greek slave Chilo, but
he had no scruples to hire the man out to other Romans
who were eager to have Chilo instruct their children.
In his surviving treatise On agriculture and in his
written speeches Cato presented an excellent example
of the influence of the new humanism on the evolution
of Latin writing.10
Parallel with this secular Hellenization of the Roman
nobility ran the tide of religious penetration of Roman
society by eastern cults. During the darkest time of
the Second Punic W ar a sudden fervor to worship
Saturn broke out in 217 b . c . 20 Was it, as has been
suggested,21 due perhaps to the astrological identification
of the baleful planet, Saturn, with this divinity which
inspired the frantic attempts to propitiate him at this
time? Towards the end of the long war the official
importation of another eastern deity took place, almost
a century after the advent of Asclepius in Rome. This
newcomer was the Great Mother Cybele of Pessinus
in Asia without whom, according to the Sybilline books,
the dreaded Hannibal could not be made to leave Italy.22
The black stone, symbol of this divinity, had, it was
said, fallen from the skies, a tradition commemorating
perhaps its meteoric origin.
" Valerius Maximus, 3, 6, I f . ; compare H . H . S cullard:
Roman politics, 113.
” Cornelius Nepos, Cato, 1, 4; Jerom e, Chron., Abr. 1777.
“ Compare in particular, Cicero, Brutus, 17, 68-18, 69; P lu­
tarch, Cato maior, 4, 1; 25, 1; 24 8.
so Livy, 22, 1, 19 f .; for prodigies also 1, 8 ff.
11 Bouche-Leclercq: 546, n. 1.
, “S J - G- W 'ssowa, Religion und K ultus der Rocmer, 2nd ed,
1: 317 ff., Muenchen, Beck, 1912.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
Less than twenty years after this official introduction
of another eastern divinity to Rome, a scandal exposed
the extent to which oriental cults had taken hold in
Rome. In 186 b . c . unspeakable orgies connected with
the exotic cult of Bacchus caused the senate to impose
by a lengthy Senatus Consultum {SC) not only on
Roman or Latin citizens, but even on Rome’s allies
stringent regulations concerning such rites.23 Fortu­
nately a large section of the text of this decree itself
has been discovered as part of an official letter in which
the two consuls of 186 b . c . notified the people of the
Teuranian district in South Italian Bruttium of the new
S C which also was to apply to all allies of Rome. Since
this unique document characterizes the still overwhelm­
ingly conservative outlook of Rome’s upper strata at
the time, it may in part be quoted:
In the m atter of the org ies of Bacchus they passed a
resolution th at the follow ing proclam ation should be issued
to th e fo e d e r a ti:
“ L e t none of them be m inded to keep a Bacchanal.
S hould th ere be som e w ho insist th a t they m ust neces­
sa rily have one, they m u st com e to the praetor urbanus in
Rom e, an d w hen they have had a h earin g the Senate shall
m ake th e decision provided th at a t least 100 senators be
p resen t w hen th e m atter com es up fo r discussion. L et no
m an, be h e a R om an o r a L a tin citizen, or one of the allies
be m inded to atte n d a m eeting of B acchant women unless
they have first ap p ro ach ed th e praetor urbanus an d h e have
au th o rized them by a vote of the S en ate to do so, provided
th at a t least 100 S e n a to rs be p resen t w hen the m atter com es
up fo r d iscussion.” P assed .24
The ambiguity of the Latin text lies in the use of the
word Bacanal which might denote a shrine of Bacchus,
as well as the rites connected with the cult. In view of
the last passage quoted above it seems more likely that
the SC was directed against excesses rather than against
the cult itself. This was even more clearly shown by
the detailed instructions which followed. They were of
the same pattern, making all exceptions conditional
upon the twofold approval of the praetor urbanus and
a meeting of the Senate with a quorum of 100:
L et no one be m inded to hold cerem onies in secret
w h eth er in public capacity o r in p riv ate, o r be m inded to
hold cerem onies o u tsid e th e city, unless (e tc .). . . .
L et no sin g le person in a com pany beyond five in all,
m en an d w om en, be m inded to hold cerem onies, an d let
m en n o t m ore th an tw o, an d n o t m ore than th ree wom en
be m inded to a tte n d th ere, unless ( e tc .). . . .2IS
’* Livy, 39, 8-18; cf. Remains of Old Latin 4 : 254, n. 5.
“ C IL 1, 1; 43 f., no. 196; 1, 2, 2 : 723, no. 581; cf. Remains
of Old Latin 4 : 256 f.
15 Ib id .: 258 f. T o actual shrines of Bacchus special exemp­ see H . H. Scullard, R om an politics: 154 f .; 171 f. A part from
tions were granted; besides the text of the inscription itself, the revival of objectionable Bacchanalian rites in Apulia (Livy,
compare also Livy, 39, 8 ff., esp. 18, 7 ; 41, 6; 40, 19, 9; Valerius
Maximus, 1, 3, 1; cf. F . Cumont, Les mystercs de Bacchus a
Rome, L es religions orientates . . . . 4th e d .: 195 ff., Paris, 1929;
compare also E. Fraenkel, Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus,
H erm es 67, 1932: 369-396; W . Krause, Zum Aufbau der Baccha-
nalien-Inschrift, H erm es 71, 1936 : 214-220; M. Gelzer, Die
U nterdrueckung der Bacchanalien bei Livius, Hermes 71, 1936:
47
The importance attached to these regulations by the
Roman government was apparent from the punishment
to be imposed upon violators of this decree:
. . . T h ey resolved th a t “ should th e re be an y persons
w ho act c o n tra ry to the p u rp o rt of th e proclam ation as
reco rd ed above, proceedings for capital offence m ust be
taken ag ain st them . . . 20
This was not a mere passing mood.27 For at least two
more centuries Rome’s conservatives fought a valiant
rearguard action against the avalanche of eastern cults,
one of which, Christianity, was eventually to triumph
over all its rivals in the Roman empire. Cicero, almost
one and a half centuries after the decree of 186 b . c „
restated the traditional conservative Roman point of
view. In his Laivs he laid down the following basic
regulations for an ideal society:
“ N o one shall have gods to him self, e ith er new gods or
alien gods unless recognized by the S tate. . . . N o sacrifices
shall be perform ed by w om en a t n ig h t ex cep t those offered
fo r th e people in pro p er form . . . .” T h e w o rsh ip o f p riv ate
gods w hether new o r alien b rin g s confusion into religion
and introduces cerem onies unknow n to o u r p riests.28
In this connection Cicero well remembered the decree
of 186 b . c . whose spirit he incorporated into his own
ideal legislation.29 But he too admitted to official wor­
ship in his ideal state Liber (Bacchus) and Asclepius
among other deities which originally had been adopted
into Rome’s official divine hierarchy.30
The SC of 186 might succeed in curbing some of the
most flagrant and objectionable symptoms of the inva­
sion from the east, but it could not stem the tide itself.
In its wake came itinerant astrologers who cast primi­
tive and highly suspect horoscopes for small compensa­
tion. They found an eager clientele, not only among
the curious urban mob gathering for fairs or festivals,
but even in the Italian countryside, where at least the
newly arrived hosts of slaves from the east not only
nostalgically welcomed those oriental soothsayers, but
may also have helped to introduce Italian estate mana­
gers to the awe-inspiring “ infallible ” astrological pre­
dictions of such traveling astrologers.
Their oriental origin was clearly indicated by the
older Cato, who (by warning a good overseer (vilicus)
275-287; A. H. McDonald, Rome and the Italian Confederation
(200-186 b . c .), Jour. Roman Studies 34, 1944: 11-33, esp. 26 ff.;
cf. H . H . Scullard, Roman politics: 147, n. 2.
** Loc. cit.
17 F o r years continued investigations were deemed necessary;
40, 19, 1-10), an official autodafe was ordered of certain oracular
writings, the so-called * Books of Numa ’ (Livy, 40, 29, 3-14).
!* Cicero, de legibus 2, 8, 19 ff.
*• Ibid. 2, 15, 37.
Ibid. 2, 8, 19. Also included were Hercules, Castor and
Pollux, Quirinus, and the four cardinal v irtues: Intelligence,
Virtue, Piety, Loyalty.
48 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
against consulting Chaldaeans) 31 implied that to patro­
nize such foreign divination, while permissible for slaves
and lowly folk, was definitely not to be indulged in by
more responsible people; interest in astrology (in the
eyes of Cato) would discredit them. The same outlook
is found in some fragments from the writings of Ennius,
apparently the first Latin poet to use the term astrol­
oger in its present meaning (borrowing it in all likeli­
hood from Greek sources of course). Ennius numbered
amongst his friends the aristocratic humanists of his
day, almost all of whom frowned on the abstract scien­
tific and philosophical endeavors of the Greeks as
unworthy of being pursued by Roman gentlemen. This
attitude lingered in the Latin orbit until the end of
antiquity (a few exceptions merely proved the rule)
and may account for the survival of some passages from
Ennius, approvingly quoted by Cicero, in which the
ex-soldier from Rudiae expressed his own, or at least
his noble friends’, sentiments about astronomy and
astrology. For, as. has been mentioned before, the term
astrologus from the days of Aristotle to those of Ennius
(239-169 b. c.) and beyond was generally used to de­
scribe both fields.32 There is sufficient evidence, how­
ever, for the personal independence and integrity of
Ennius — friend of Rome’s great he refused to accept
more than the minimum of the financial support which
they offered him and died in the most humble circum­
stances—to take his attacks at astronomers and astrol­
ogers at face value. His friend, Aelius Sextus, often
used to quote his verses ridiculing the star gazer:
He observes the signs of the astrologi what happens in
the sky, when the goat or the scorpion or the name of some
other animal of Jove rises. Not one of them pays attention
to what lies before his feet. Raptly they gaze at the realms
of heaven.33
This jibe rang the same note as the earlier attacks
in the Clouds of Aristophanes (fifth century b . c . )
against the astronomical observations of the Athenian
intellectuals of his time. Perhaps the mood of Ennius
was inspired by Greek writers of this school of thought.
On the other hand, the role of the constellations was
described in almost identical terms with those used by
Plautus for Arcturus’ prologue in the Rudens. The
animal-named constellations were called Jove’s animals.
W ithout being divine in their own right they were thus
intimately connected with the supreme ruler of the
world. The ambiguity of the text which might poke
fun at astronomers and astrologers alike was absent,
however, from another passage, possibly also from the
pen of Ennius:
In fine, I say, I do not care a fig for a Marsian augur,
31 Cato, de re rustica 1, 5, 4.
32 See above, p. 3 1.
33 Cicero, de republics, 1,18,30; cf. Plato, Theaetetus, f. 174 A ;
the Latin verses quoted by Cicero may stem from Ennius'
lphigenia.
village haruspices, astrologers of the circus, Isis prophets,
or dream-interpreters.34
Here the typical low class astrologer was unmis­
takably the kind alluded to by Cato also. Moreover,
in this sequence of quacks, a neat historical order was
maintained. Marsian augurs and village haruspices
were traditional Italian institutions, while astrologers,
Isis priests, and professional dream interpreters, on the
other hand, were just as clearly oriental arrivals of
more recent vintage.
The Roman sense of humor was particularly aroused
by the contrast between the grandiloquent manner of
such prophesying folk and the very modest fees for
which they were willing to w ork;
But superstitious bards, soothsaying quacks, averse to
work, or mad, or ruled by want, directing others how to go,
and yet what road to take they do not know themselves;
from those to whom they promised wealth they beg a
drachme.35 From what they promised let them take their
drachme as toll and pass the balance on.30
Not all Roman contemporaries of Cato and Ennius,
however, identified Greek scientific achievements with
the activities of such mercenary quacks. Marcellus,
the conqueror of Syracuse in the Second Punic W ar
(212 b . c.) refused to take from the enormous booty
anything except the magnificent model of the celestial
spheres which had been found in the house of Archi­
medes, who himself was slain when the city fell.37 This
model (together with an even more perfect one later
exhibited publicly in Rom e)38 he brought home where
it was admired, and apparently actually used later on
at least one occasion. The learned C. Sulpicius Gallus
demonstrated on it to his friend Marcellus, a grandson
of the conqueror of Syracuse, the astronomical causes
of eclipses.39
Whether or not Cicero’s account stretched historical
truth somewhat in favor of his utopian discussion in
the Republic may be argued. But that the generation
of Roman noblemen, born between the First and Second
Punic Wars, produced at least some men seriously
interested in Greek scientific achievements can hardly
be doubted. L. Aemilius Paulus, son of the consul
who fell in the battle of Cannae (216 b . c . ) against
Hannibal, was one of the leading figures in the small
circle of Roman humanists after 200 b . c . 40 His greatest
“ Cicero, de divinationc 1, 58, 132.
36 On the small value of the drachme at the time, see Ch.
Knapp, Classical W eekly 27 (10), Dec. 18, 1933; 74, n. 25a.
” Probably also from E n n iu s; Cicero, de divinalione 1, 58,132.
37 Polybius, 8, 37; Livy, 25, 23 ff.; Plutarch, Marcellus, 19,
4-6; and especially Cicero, de republica 1, 14, 21-22.
18 Cicero, loc. cit.
3" Cicero may have stretched somewhat the fabric of reality ;
for the reputation of Sulpicius Gallus, however, see Cicero,
Brutus, 19, 77: Gallus . . . maxime omnium Graecis litteris
studuit.
Cf., for example, Cicero, Brutus, 20, 80; Plutarch, Aem ilius
Paulus, 17, 5.
T H E CONVERSION OF REPU BLIC A N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
military triumph, the victory of Pydna over King
Perseus of Macedon 41 actually was due to a combina­
tion of Roman military and psychological leadership.
On the eve of the battle (June 21, 168),
. . . when night had come, and the soldiers, after supper,
were betaking themselves to rest and sleep, on a sudden
the moon, which was full and high in the heavens, grew
dark, lost its light, took on all sorts of colors in succession,
and finally disappeared.42
This phenomenon was of course equally visible to
both armies. That the Roman host should be frightened
and resort to traditional techniques of propitiating the
apparently irate deities of heaven was hardly surprising:
The Romans, according to their custom, tried to call her
light back by the clashing of bronze utensils and by holding
up many blazing fire-brands and torches towards the
heavens. . . .4*
This ritual remained, indeed, standard Roman prac­
tice long after the scientific explanation of eclipses had
become common knowledge amongst Rome’s educated.
Cicero referred to these practices, and Tacitus described
in detail a similar incident at the beginning of the reign
of Tiberius ( a . d . 14).44 Evidently the scientific ex­
planation never became generally known to the ordinary
people of the Latin west. Yet the Greek east did not
demonstrate a more enlightened populace at large either.
One should have expected for example that the eclipse
on the eve of the battle of Pydna would be easily ex­
plained to the Macedonian host, or might even have
been scientifically predicted to occur. Far from i t !
. . . the Macedonians . . . did nothing of the sort, but
amazement and terror possessed their camp, and a rumor
quietly spread among many of them that the portent sig­
nified the eclipse of a king.46
This crude astrological superstition seems to have
been unknown to the Roman soldiers. For Rome being
a republic, they would in all likelihood not have worried,
but would interpret the moon’s disappearance as an
omen of the impending fall of their enemy, King Perseus.
But they could also—and did—consider the eclipse as a
bad omen for themselves in general. In contrast, how­
ever, the leaders of the Roman army were apparently
better informed than their Macedonian counterpart on
the scientific reason for the lunar eclipse of June 21,
168 b . c. They took steps to impart this rational ex­
planation to their soldiers. According to one version
the commander-in-chief himself, L. Aemilius Paulus
was not altogether without knowledge and experience of
the irregularities of eclipses, which at fixed periods carry
the moon in her course into the shadow of the earth and
41 Livy, 44, 40 ff.
43 Plutarch, A em ilius Paulus, 17, 3.
41 Ibid., 17,4.
44 Tacitus, A nnals 1, 28.
*• Plutarch, A em ilius Paulus 17, 4.
49
conceal her from sight. . . . However, since he was very
devout and given to sacrifices and divination, as soon as
he saw the moon emerge from the shadow, he sacrificed
eleven heifers to her.40
His behavior typified the reluctance of this Roman
generation to accept completely the wholly rationalistic
Greek explanation of natural phenomena. He thus con­
tinued to offer traditional sacrifices to appease the
heavenly powers, although he was already familiar with
the mechanical theory of lunar eclipses. Among younger
officers in his camp the scientific approach to this prob­
lem seems to have carried greater conviction. If Cicero’s
fictitious dialogue in the Republic can be relied upon
to contain a real historical account of this episode, the
Roman legate, Sulpicius Gallus, already mentioned, not
only would have gone far beyond his superior, Aemilius
Paulus, in understanding the scientific cause of the
eclipse, but would also—assuredly with the consent of
his commander—have used his knowledge to allay the
fears of the legions. The hero of Cicero’s Republic,
the younger Scipio Africanus, himself a son of Aemilius
Paulus, regaled his audience with the following recol­
lection of the Macedonian campaign in which he, about
nineteen years at the time, had personally participated:
I myself loved the man [Sulpicius Gallus], and . . . he
was also greatly esteemed by my father Paulus. For in
my early youth, when my father, then consul, was in
Macedonia, and I was in camp with him, I recollect that
our army was on one occasion disturbed by superstitious
fears because, on a cloudless night, a bright full moon was
suddenly darkened. Gallus was at that time our leg a tu s . . . ,
and on the next day he unhesitatingly made a public state­
ment in the camp that this was no miracle, but that it had
happened at that time, and would always happen at fixed
times in the future, when the sun was in such a position
that its light could not reach the moon.47
It may be noted that no mention was made of the
fact that the battle of Pydna was fought on the day
following the eclipse. Gallus would thus have addressed
the legions immediately before the battle itself, provided
Cicero’s story is true. In that case the action of Gallus
would demonstrate the progress of Roman humanism
since the Second Punic W ar. This progress was still
confined to a small circle of Rome’s nobility. The com­
mon man remained as superstitious as ever. Yet the
scientific explanation proffered by Gallus to the Roman
soldiers was at least an attempt to bridge this gap.
Normally the aristocratic Roman contempt for the
misera plebs did not believe in the wisdom, or even the
possibility of such efforts. Educational snobbery was
being added to the traditional social one. This mood
was clearly brought out by Cicero in the somewhat
incredulous question, addressed to the raconteur, Scipio,
by Quintus Aelius Tubero, nephew of the main speaker
44 Ibid., 17, 5. The Roman commander ordered moreover
special sacrifices and rites before the battle of Pydna.
47 Cicero, de republica, 1, 15, 23; compare on the astronomical
interests of Gallus, Pliny, N at. H ist. 2, 53, 83.
50 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O RLD
of the Republic, grandson of Aemilius Paulus, and
himself an expert in the field of Greek learning:
D o you really m ean to say th a t he could convince m en
w ho w ere little m ore th an simple peasants of such a thing,
or th a t he dared even to state it b e fo re 'th e ig n o ra n t? 48
The timeless contrast between the aristocratic and
the democratic concept of man was thus succinctly
stated. Of Scipio’s answer all but the beginning and
the end is lost, but its tenor is clearly discernible from
the fragments which have survived: .
H e certainly did, an d w ith g re a t success. . . . H is speech
show ed n eith er a conceited desire to display h is know ledge
( insolens ostentatio) nor w as it unsuitable to the ch aracter
of a m an of very g re a t dignity ( hom inis g ra v issim i) ; in
fact h e accom plished a very im p o rtan t resu lt in relieving
the troubled m inds of the soldiers from foolish superstitious
fear.48
This attitude — se non e vero e ben trovato — always
remained a minority view. The gap between well
educated upper class Romans and the uneducated masses
of the west was never deemed worth closing. The whole
episode, at any rate, was in keeping with what might
be expected from at least some of the most enlightened
minds of second-century Rome. Soon after the above
dialogue, ascribed to 129 b . c . by Cicero, a comet ap­
peared, later said to have heralded the death, probably
by assassination, of Scipio Aemilianus, Rome’s first
citizen at that tim e."
The lunar eclipse prior to the battle of Pydna and
the scientific explanation of it by Sulpicius Gallus were
long remembered. The incident symbolized the rapid
growth of Hellenistic culture grafted onto the branches
of more and more Roman aristocratic families. In a
sense it also marked the end of an era and the arrival
of another. The flow of prisoners-of-war, now enslaved
in Italy, filled the country with large numbers of often
well educated Greeks and orientals since the beginning
of the eastern wars of Rome,” i. e. after the turn of
the third century. This sorry tide after Pydna con­
tinued to flow westward unabated. To it were added
those Greek social and political leaders, whom Rome in
167 claimed as hostages for the future good behavior
of the restless Greek dwarf-states. Among these arrivals
in Italy was Polybius, the first great historian to record
Rome’s rise to power in the Meliterranean world. The
lot of those hostages was far superior to that of their
enslaved fellow-Greeks. For not only did they remain
free men, but in many instances they also succeeded in
joining the households of humanist noblemen as honored
** Cicero, de republica, 1, 15, 23.
48 Ibid. 1, 15, 23-24.
80 Cicero, de natura deorum 2, 5, 14; cf. 3, 23, 80. Papirius
Carbo was strongly suspected of having instigated the deed,
perhaps even to have perpetrated it himself, but the event was were said to have been in at the creation of the present cosmos.
never cleared up.
“ Among them was a learned oriental slave, Antiochus, to
whom Pliny ascribed, although erroneously, the introduction of
astrology to Italy ; N at. Hist. 35, 17, 199.
guests, and sometimes even as personal friends. That
Greek culture was appreciated by the Latin barbarians,
was welcome news to the Hellenistic states which rapidly
sank to the level of Roman satellites. Whenever there
was need for an embassy to treat with the senate, hellen-
istic governments now selected their most renowned
scholars to plead the particular business at hand.
Inevitably therefore the Roman humanists were thus
introduced to the great debate then waged in the ea st:
Was man the captain of his soul, free to make his own
decisions, or was he, as the hellenistic astrologers
claimed, merely Fate’s puppet?
2. AN AGE O F R E A S O N (ca. 170-139 B. C.)
The era which began with the campaign of L.
Aemilius Paulus in Greece and ended with the consu­
late of Laelius (140 b. c.) was the first period during
which the aristocratic humanists of Rome became aware
of the fact that Hellenistic astrology was not merely a
fraud practiced by unscrupulous foreigners from the
east on the credulous amongst the lowest strata of the
population. The main reason for this change of atti­
tude was the participation of the best contemporary
Greek scholars in the then raging battle between
Stoicism, the potent philosophical ally of fatalistic as­
trology, and the revived scepticism, whose fountainhead
now was the New Academy of Athens. A resume of
the great Greek debate for and against the axiom of
free will may help to explain its impact upon Rome’s
intellectuals in the middle of the second century.52
Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, not only had defended
on principle divination of every k in d ; he had also pro­
fessed a very definite interest in astronomy58 and cos­
mology. The Stoics accepted among other theories
those of the spherical shape of the stars and the earth,
but in contrast to the Aristotelian concept of the infinity
of time and space they professed the belief in ekpyrosis
and palingenesis, i. e. in the periodical fiery death of
the universe following its rebirth and that of all living
species.54 This dreary concept of an endless sequence
of worlds bom only to be destroyed55 in order to recom­
mence another cycle of the same kind stood in stark
contrast to the Aristotelian theory of the infinity of
matter, space, and time (which might admit an occa­
sional cosmic catastrophe, but not an unending series
of them).5'
" A summary of the problem and its history in antiquity is
given by D. Amand, Fatalisme et liberte dans Vantiquite grecque.
Louvain, 1945.
F or instance in his treatise O n the IV hole; Diogenes L aer­
tius, 7, 145 f.
The end of the world was to occur when the seven planets
would again occupy the (hypothetical) positions which they
This is not too different from the more recent views of
modern cosmologists.
**As Einstein puts i t : “ I cannot believe that God plays dice
with the world.”
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N ROM E TO ASTROLOGY
Of the successors of Zenon,57 Chrysippus (ca. 282-
206 B.C.)—a native, incidentally, of Soli, the very town
where his older contemporary, Aratus, was born—not
only reorganized the Stoic school successfully, but also
gave Stoicism a more sceptical slant on divination, in­
cluding astrology. His attitude for example was ex­
pressed in a repartee to the Academic philosophers of
his time in which Chrysippus, himself a writer on
dreams and their interpretation, admitted at least that
“ appearances seen when we are awake are much more
distinct and trustworthy than those seen in dreams.” 58
A note of caution about divination thereafter became an
accepted Stoic “ deviation ” for about a century, until
Posidonius successfully preached a return to the uncom­
promising views of the early Stoics on matters like
fatalism, ekpyroseis, and palingeneseis.
The ultimate issue inherent in Stoicism — the belief
in Fate (ei/iap/mT;),68 or its rejection — was skirted
neatly by Chrysippus. He could not abandon the scien­
tific Stoic creed of an immutable cosmic Fate governing
by the law of cause and effect every single action, in­
cluding of course those taken by man. Desirous of
allowing for some leeway of human decision, Chrysippus
established a distinction between Fate and Necessity.
For him the human conscience became a factor to be
reckoned with. W ithout admitting a minimum of free­
dom of choice, one could not account for the existence
of man’s inner “ voice.” Chrysippus, therefore, created
what might be called the concept of a “ conditional
Fate,” itself a contradiction in terms. Fate thus became
the totality of all effects, allowing also for those which
would only occur conditionally upon the occurrence of
some other cause.00 Primary and secondary causes
together would shape the course of human events. Man’s
own free decision in many cases thus was the necessary
secondary cause to be added to the primary one of Fate
in order to produce the occurrence of a specific effect.81
Cleanthes, Zeno’s successor as the head of the Stoic
school, coined the immortal phrase for the Chrysippean
concept, a phrase better known in its Latin version
which Seneca quoted from Cicero: “ Ducunt volentem
fata, nolentem trah u n t” 62 (Fate guides the willing,
drags along him who resists).
37 Cf. Diogenes Laertius, 7, 1-202, where he deals w ith the
Stoic philosophers from Zeno to Chrysippus; on the relation
between these two Stoics, see M. Pohlenz, Zenon und Chrysipp,
Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften su Goettin­
gen, Phil.-H ist. Klasse, Neue Folge, Fachgruppe I (Altertum s-
wissenschaft), 2, 1938: 173-210.
68 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 61, 126.
“ Compare W . Gundel, R E 7, 1912: c. 2622-2645.
30 On the extant texts, see A. Gercke, Chrysippea, Jahrbuecher
fuer klassische Philologie, suppl. 14, 1885: 699 f., and ed. H . v.
Arnim, Stoicorum veterum fragm enta; cf. F. Barth and A.
Goedeckemeyer, Die Stoa, 5th ed., esp.: 77-83, Stuttgart, F.
From ann, 1941; D. Amand, Fatalisme et liberte: 6-12; L.
Robin, L a morale antique: 64 ff., Paris, Alcan, 1938.
81 Compare Cicero, de fato, 19, 44 f .; also 20, 7-11.
•'S en eca, epist., 107, 10; for the Greek quotation compare
51
Even before Chrysippus Cleanthes saw in the stars
the interpreters of cosmic rationalism. He
. . . gave four reasons to account fo r the form ation in
m en ’s m inds of th eir ideas of the gods. . . . A n d the fo u rth
an d m ost potent cause of the belief . . . w as the uniform
m otion and revo lu tio n of the heavens, an d the varied
gro u p in g s and o rd ered beau ty of the sun, m oon, and stars,
the v ery sig h t of w h ich w as in itself enough to p ro v e that
these th in g s a re n o t the m ere effect of chance.68
From this point of view, which undoubtedly was in
harmony with the still existing Chaldaean centers of
priestly learning,84 Chrysippus had taken his cue. Be­
fore, however, condemning his futile efforts to square
cosmic slavery with human liberty, we should take heed.
The Newtonian mechanistic concept of nature and its
modern substitute, the cosmic field-theory, allow equally
little room for the concept of free will. Similarly our
totalitarian states have applied the paradoxical precept
of Cleanthes to society. Man according to them has
only the choice of submitting willingly to the red, black,
brown, green, or yellow dictates—the only “ freedom ”
left a totalitarian subject — or to be dragged along ac­
cording to the inscrutable designs of a despotic govern­
ment. This is, indeed, a much more ignoble rule to
submit to than the one the Stoics asked their followers
to acknowledge. For their supreme divinity, Fate, was
conceived as rational and impartial towards men and
matter, something no human government, least of all a
totalitarian one, can lay claim to.
The man who eventually succeeded Chrysippus as
head of the Stoa was Diogenes of Babylon.85 Himself
satisfied with treading faithfully in the smooth path
laid out by Chrysippus, Diogenes became an important
interpreter for second-century Rome in the great Greek
debate concerning the compatibility of fatalism with
the doctrine of human free will, a dispute of decisive
importance for the acceptance or rejection of Hellenistic
astrology by Roman humanists. The arena was trans­
ferred to Rome, whenever one of the numerous Greek
scholars came to Rome privately or to transact political
business at the Italian capital. Naturally Roman con­
servatives did not relish this “ invasion.” As early as
173 two Epicureans were ordered to leave the city, and
in 161 b . c . an SC forbade all (foreign!) philosophers
and rhetoricians to remain in Rome.88 It was, however,
less easy to get rid of official Greek embassies composed
Epictetus, Discourses 2, 8, 4 ; cf. M. Pohlenz, Kleanthes’ Zeus-
hymnus, Hermes 75, 1940: 117-123.
83 Cicero, de natura deorum 2, 5, 13-15; de fato, 12, 28-13, 30;
for the somewhat different attitude of Chrysippus see Chalcidius,
in Tim . comment., 160-161, Leipzig, 1876.
84 Details in J . Bidez, Les ecoles chaldeennes sous Alexandre
et les Seleucides, M elanges . . . C apart: 41-89, Brussels, 1935.
35 The Index stoic. H ercul. : c. 48, lists him as a student of
Chrysippus; cf. M. Wellmann, R E 5, 1905: c. 773, no. 45,-c. 776.
Diogenes of Babylon—his native town was the cradle of ancient
astrology—was frequently referred to in Greek and Roman
literature.
88 Suetonius, de rhetoribus, 1; Gellius, 15, 11, 1.
52 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
of scholars. Of such emissaries five Greeks between 170
arid 140 b . c . were chiefly responsible for introducing
Roman audiences to the current Greek philosophical
views.67 The five w ere: (1) Crates of Mallos, eclectic,
often tending towards Stoicism, (2) Diogenes the Baby­
lonian, Stoic, (3) Cameades of Cyrene, Academic,
(4 ) Critolaus of Phaselis, Peripatetic, (5) Panaetius
of Lindus on the island of Rhodes, Stoic. Of these men,
Crates and Cameades, as well as Panaetius, had at one
time or another been enrolled as students under Diogenes
the Babylonian68 who may therefore be said to have
influenced directly the whole group except Critolaus.
Diogenes himself had accepted the modified fatalism
of Chrysippus and did impart it to his students in turn.
Crates, although himself not a full-fledged Stoic,65 re­
tained strong Stoic tendencies. Panaetius definitely
denied the validity of astrological fatalism.70 Cameades,
however, became the outstanding champion of free will.
H is ringing voice—like Socrates he left no writings to
posterity — formulated both old and new arguments
against fatalism and fatalist astrology with such acid
vehemence that ever after pagan and Christian writers
were unable to add much if any new arguments to his
onslaught on the doctrine of an all-governing Fate.71
Critolaus finally was a clear-thinking, unemotional Aris­
totelian,72 quietly but firmly opposed to fatalism.
One could hardly have selected a more representative
group of Greek thinkers in the second century b . c . for
the introduction of Roman intellectuals to the burning
philosophical problem of those days. In chronological
sequence not Diogenes of Babylon, but his erstwhile
student, the grammarian Crates, was the first of the
five to appear upon the Roman scene. Destined to go
down in history as the inventor of the “ Homeric ”
globe, a stylized sphere, divided into four continents by
two circular bands representing the Ocean,73 Crates
had become the head of the Pergamenic school, the
47 Compare H . H . Scullard, Roman politics: 223t.
*“ F o r Crates see the vita in Suidas, s. v. ; cf. W . Kroll, R E directly acquainted with that Hellenistic branch of studies
11, 1921: c. 1634, no. 16, c. 1642; on Carneades, Cicero, Acad.,
2, 98; Index Stoic. H ercu l.: c. S I ; Pohlenz, R E 18, 2, 2, 1949: pursued by the so-called grammarians, it can hardly be
c. 418, no. S,—c. 440.
•* Zeller’s opinion—he saw in Crates a S to ic; 3, 1: 49—has marian of such calibre had held forth in Rome. In that
been challenged by W . Kroll, R E 11, 1921; c. 1634, no. 16, ff.
70 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 42, 88; compare 47, 97; on Panae­
tius’ scepticism tow ards’ divination in general, see Acad., 2,
33, 107.
71 D. Amand, op. cit., ch. ii, made a great effort to reconstruct
the anti-fatalistic arguments of Carneades, a task which due to
its very nature could at best be only partly successful.
” Cf. v. Arnim, R E 11, 1921; c. 1930, no. 3,—c. 1932.
78 Strabo, 2, 5, 10 (f. 116) ; also 3, 4, 4 (f. 157). By means
of allegorical interpretation Crates tried to impute to Homer
a Stoic concept of geography; Macrobius, somn. Scip., 2, 9, 7;
compare A. Schlachter, D er Globus. Seine Entstehung und
Verwendung in der A ntike, Stoicheia 8 : I l f ., Leipzig and
Berlin, 1927; see however, ibid., F. G isinger: 107 ff.; H . J.
Mette, Sphairopoiia. Untersuchungen zur Kosmologie des Krates
von Pergamon, Muenchen, Beck, 1936, also contains all known
fragm ents of Crates’ writings.
“ university ” of Pergamum,74 in relatively young
years.75 He thus became a distinguished figure in the
capital of the Attalid kingdom. In this capacity he was
entrusted with a diplomatic mission to Rome. The date
of his sojourn cannot be fixed with certainty. On one
hand, he was said to have come as ambassador for
King Attalus II, who did not begin to reign until 159
b . c .; on the other hand his presence in Rome has been
suggested as early as 169 b . c.76 Since Attalus himself
was sent to Rome about 167 b . c . to represent his reign­
ing brother, Eumenes, at that crucial period in the Latin
capital, it may be that Crates either went to Rome prior
to the arrival of Attalus, or was sent to Rome after
Attalus’ return to Pergamum.
His reputation as an outstanding philologist, espe­
cially as a commentator of Homer, probably preceded
Crates to Rome. While he lacked originality, he had
a great deal of interest in cosmological and geographical
problems,77 including of course astronomical and — in
line with his Stoic training— unquestionably astrological
tenets. It was therefore no accident that later on Posi­
donius, the future reviver of strict Stoic fatalism, pre­
served the cosmology of Crates thus making it possible
for writers like Strabo, Plutarch, or Geminus to refer
to it. The tendency of Crates to read into earlier Greek
literature suitable astronomical or geographical allusions
was of course not always successful. In his commen­
tary on Euripides’ Rhesus, for example, Crates excused
the author’s ignorance of elementary astronomical facts
with the youthful age of the poet at the tim e! / and thus, at the time of his arrival in Rome in the
This consummate Hellenistic philologist seems to have
met with an accident on the primitive streets of Rome
after his diplomatic mission was completed. He broke
his leg in a fall and was laid up for some time. Far
from sympathizing with his misadventure, however,
Rome’s philhellenes crowded his sickroom, eager to
listen to his discourse. Although Suetonius in record­
ing this episode78 probably exaggerated in asserting
that thus for the first time did educated Romans become
doubted that, prior to the advent of Crates, no gram­
sense at least the statement of Suetonius contained an
element of truth. To what extent he discussed astro­
nomical and possibly astrological subject matter cannot
74 Strabo, 14, 5, 16 (f. 676) about C rates' birthplace and his
being Panaetius’ teacher.
70 According to Suidas, -f. v., Crates lived from about 200 to
140 b . c. ( ? ) ; compare Strabo, 13, 1, 54 (f. 609) on Pergamon.
" Cf. W. Kroll, R E 11, 1921: c. 1634, no. 16, ff.
77 See for example, Doxographi graeci, ed. Diels, 345, 9 and
383, 22, Berlin, Reimer, 1879; compare Macrobius, somn. Scip.,
2, 9, 3 for Crates’ views on the relation between the stars and
the tides.
78 Suetonius, de grammat., 2. It took apparently at least forty
more years for a Roman “ public ” school for such studies to
make its appearance.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N ROM E TO ASTROLOGY
be ascertained, but it was perhaps due to the generally
favorable impression which Crates created amongst
Rome’s ruling group that the senatorial decree of 161
b . c. which expelled philosophers and rhetoricians79
did not include grammarians also.
The Crates episode, however, was merely the Roman
introduction to the serious philosophical debate con­
ducted soon afterwards amongst the most renowned
Greek philosophers of the time before Roman audiences.
The decadence of Greece in the political sphere ludi­
crously contrasted on this occasion with the impressive,
intellectual levels preserved in her great philosophical
schools. Athens had pillaged Oropus and then refused
an arbitration of the damage by a panel of Sicyonians.
Rome, the policeman on the Greek “ beat,” promptly
imposed upon the culprit a fine of about 500 talents.80
Thereupon the Athenian government selected three
ambassadors to plead with the senate that the fine be
remitted. In recognition of the humanist susceptibilities
of influential Roman noblemen, a truly formidable trio
was chosen in 156 b . c . to go to Rome: Diogenes the
Babylonian, head of the Stoic school in Athens, Car­
neades, head of the Academy and founder of the so-
called New Academy, and Critolaus, head of the
Peripatetic school.81 The senior member of the group
was undoubtedly Diogenes the Babylonian. Six years
later, in 150 b . c . , he apparently was no longer among
the living,82 having reached an age of eighty-eight.88
Consequently, he would have been bom about 240 b . c .
consulate of P. Scipio and M. Metellus, well above
eighty years old.
Critolaus, scholarch of the Peripatetic school at
Athens, belonged to the younger generation, being ap­
proximately of the same age as Carneades (ca. 214/13-
129 b . c . ) . In contrast to the fiery Academician, how­
ever, Aristotle’s disciple was a cool dialectical speaker,
as befitted a Peripatetic.84 None of the three am­
bassadors apparently was able to converse in Latin.
The senate, on the other hand, would not treat in any
other language. The problem was eventually solved
when the senator Gaius Acilius volunteered to act as
interpreter. Even before the case could be heard
officially, however,
70 Suetonius, de rhetor., 1; Aulus Gellius, 15, 1, 1. Gellius errs,
however, in beliving that the decree was directed against Latin
philosophers and rhetoricians. In 161 b . c . too few of these if
any would be found in Rome to w arrant senatorial action.
Plutarch, Cato maior, 22, 1; Polybius, 33, 2, 8*9; Gellius,
6, 14, 8.
81 Cicero, Acad. 2, 45, 137; de oratore 2, 37, 155; epist. ad A tt. talents, see Cicero, de oratore, 2, 38, 161; 3, 18, 68; de finibus,
12, 23; Tuscul. disp. 4, 3, 5; Pliny, N at. H ist. 7, 30, 18; Gellius, 3, 12, 41. ■
17, 21, 48.
“ Cicero’s (fictitious) dialogue with the older Cato as the
chief speaker was supposed to have taken place in 150. b. c. In
it Diogenes is already referred to as deceased, de senectute, 23. he were a barbarian, was a common policy applied by Greek
83 Ps.-Lucian, macrobii, 20.
84 On his views compare Philo, de aeternitate mundi, 11, 55 ff.; Greeks, including the Romans. Therefore Cato warned his son
14, 70 ff.; 15, 74ff. '
53
each of them had spoken before huge crowds to exhibit
his skill. . . . Carneades . . . spoke with vehemence and
power, Critolaus with art and polish, Diogenes with res­
traint and sobriety.85
We know little of the personal appearance of the three
philosophers, except that Carneades apparently was so
deeply imbued in his studies that he forgot to trim his
hair and clip his nails.86 His supreme power as a speaker
was attested by the rare fact that Athenian professors
of oratory would close their own classes on occasion
in order to attend the lectures of their philosopher-
colleague.87 It is hardly surprising therefore that of
the three scholarly ambassadors Cameades attracted the
most enthusiastic Roman audiences:
All the most studious youth immediately waited on the
three philosophers,88 and frequently with admiration heard
them speak. But the gracefulness of Carneades’ oratory,
whose ability was really greatest, and his reputation equal
to it, gathered large and favorable audiences, and ere long
filled, like a wind, all the city with the sound of it.88
The conquest of her conqueror by Greece was so mani­
fest on this occasion that the enthusiasm of the Greek
author to whom we owe this account may be forgiven
for stretching the limits of credibility somewhat:
So that it soon began to be told that a Greek famous even
to admiration, winning and carrying all before him, had
impressed so strange a love upon the young men, that
quitting all their pleasures and pastimes, they ran, mad as
it were, after philosophy.90
While obviously Cameades was the most enthusi­
astically acclaimed of the group, his colleagues were no
less intent upon addressing the Roman humanists.
Obviously these Roman audiences were not only familiar
with the Greek language, but had mastered it even to
such an extent that the philosophical terminology, inevi­
tably used by the Greek scholars, was familiar to the
young “ barbarians ” (all Romans were considered
“ barbarians” by the Greeks).91 The Roman respect
for impressive old men must have expressed itself par­
ticularly in their contacts with Diogenes of Babylon,
the venerable octogenarian, a mood perhaps reflected
85 Gellius, 6, 14, 9-10; Polybius, 33, 2, 9-10.
88 Diogenes Laertius, 4, 62.
87 Loc. cit.
88 Laelius, described as a student of Diogenes the Babylonian
(Cicero, de finibus, 2, 24, 87), may have encountered the vener­
able Stoic for the first time on this occasion.
80 Plutarch, Cato maior, 22, 2; cf. on Carneades, Strabo, 17,
3, 22 (f. 838).
00 Plutarch, Cato maior, 22, 3; on his oratorical and other
' S1 This rankled the Romans considerably. Cato in complete
ignorance of the “ Hippocratic oath ” believed for example that
Hippocrates’ alleged refusal to treat the Persian king, because
physicians in their dealings with all “ barbarians,” i. e. non-
never to trust a Greek physician; Plutarch, Cato maior, 23, 3-4.
54 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
in Cicero's respectful praise of the Stoic philosopher.02
Critolaus seems to have made the least impression upon
the Roman humanists, perhaps because his measured
and careful Aristotelian approach was less spectacular
than the apodictic and polemical manner of his fellow-
scholars.93 The sudden rage for Greek philosophy in
Roman aristocratic circles — which alone possessed an
adequate knowledge of Greek at the time — was senti­
mentally exaggerated by later Greek authors one of
whom insisted that this phenomenon
indeed much pleased the Romans in general; nor could they
but with much pleasure see the youth receive so welcomely
the Greek literature, and frequent the company of learned
men.94
For the republican Rome of 156-155 n. c., a Rome whose
senate had expelled philosophers and rhetoricians only
a few years earlier, this was certainly a gross exaggera­
tion, to say the least. Greek philosophy in particular
remained always somewhat suspect even to educated
Romans as a useless hair-splitting pastime of the grae-
culi, admissible for Romans only in times of enforced
retirement from worthier activities, especially from
political or military careers. This attitude, aptlv ex­
pressed by Cicero in the discussion of the ideal state in
the Republic as that of educated Roman leaders like
the younger Scipio and Laelius, was shared by Cicero
himself who desperately busied himself during the last
years of his life with philosophical studies, when his
political ambitions had been shattered. If a Roman
gentleman of Cicero’s stature had to defend his pursuit
of philosophical studies as late as the ’forties of the
first century b . c ., admitting that they were at Ijest a
pastime for idle hours, it cannot possibly be assumed
that the Roman gentry of 155 viewed (as Plutarch sug­
gested) overwhelmingly with enthusiasm the stampede
of its sons to the lodgings of Greek ambassadorial
philosophers.
Of the topics discussed we know nothing, but one
incident may illustrate the easy give and take between
the Greek ambassadors and Roman officialdom:
When Carneades and the Stoic Diogenes were on the
Capitol attending on the senate, Aulus Albinus [the phil-
hellene Roman historian criticized by Cato] who was prae­
tor at the time . . . said to Carneades in j est: “ In your
view, Carneades, I am not a real praetor . . . , nor is this
a real city. . . .” “ In the opinion of our Stoic friend here
you are not,” replied Carneades.95
This joke about the then fashionable tendency to ques­
tion the validity of everything implied that even Diogenes
’“ Cicero, de officiis 3, 51: (Diogenes) magnus et gravis
Stoicus. Grnvitas was a virtue highly esteemed in republican
Rome.
0:1 Nevertheless he was long remembered by Roman philhellencs
also; Gellius, 11. 9, 1-2; 10, 1.
Plutarch, Cato maior, 22, 3.
85 Cicero. Acad. 2, 45, 137.
the Stoic had been infected with the spirit of his time.
He would have been the natural champion of fatalism
and fatalist astrology before Roman audiences, but ob­
viously he had been straying from the path of his Stoic
predecessors in the direction of scepticism. This trend
can be traced and apparently was intensified during these
last years of his long life. Earlier he had computed a
“ great year,” demonstrating his acceptance of the doc­
trine of ekpyroseis and palingeneseis.“6 He also had
paid tribute to Cleanthes’ astral pantheism and identi­
fied, for instance, Apollo with the sun, and Artemis
with the moon.97 On the favorite Stoic topic of divina­
tion Chrysippus and Antipater had each written two
books, and Posidonius subsequently compiled no fewer
than five; Diogenes, however, deemed a single book on
the subject sufficient.98 Towards the end of his life he
seems to have developed even some doubts about the
validity of the traditional Stoic theory of ekpyroseis
and palingeneseis.99 A note of cautious scepticism was
also sounded in his attitude towards astrology, an atti­
tude which, however, still remained too favorable to
please Cicero, when he “ demolished ” divination:
Diogenes the Stoic makes some concession to the Chal­
daeans. He says that they have the power of prophecy to
the extent of being able to tell the disposition of any child
and the calling for which he is best fitted. All their other
claims he absolutely denies. He says, for example, that
twins are alike in appearance, but that they are generally
unlike in career and in fortune. Procles and Eurysthenes,
kings of the Lacedaemonians, were twin brothers. But they
did not live the same number of years, for the life of Procles
was shorter by a year than that of his brother and his deeds
were far more glorious.100
The “ twins argument ” was a stock piece of anti-
astrological warfare. It is, therefore, significant to find
it used by the very head of the Stoic school to refute
astrological fatalism. Assuming that the trend towards
a more sceptical attitude took place towards the end of
Diogenes’ long life, one may suspect that during his
sojourn in Rome, only a few years prior to his death,
his outlook on astrology may have been presented to
Roman audiences in about the manner shown in the
above fragment, stemming probably from his essay On
Divination.
With ehpyrosis and palingenesis, as well as the tenet
of astrological fatalism being abandoned, albeit reluct­
antly, by the titular leader of Stoicism himself, Diogenes’
peripatetic fellow-ambassador, Critolaus, surely could
“* Aetius in Doxoyraphi yraeci, ed. Diels, 345b, 7, Reimer,
Berlin, 1879.
Philodemus, ibid., 549b.
88 Cicero, de divinatione, 1, 3, 6.
80 Philo, de aeternitate mundi, 15, 77.
^ Cicero, de divinatione 2, 43, 90-91. Cicero commented:
But for my part I say that even this concession which our
excellent friend Diogenes makes to the Chaldaeans in a sort of
collusive way ( quasi quadam praevaricatiane) is in itself
incomprehensible.”
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLICA N ROM E TO ASTROLOGY
not be expected to carry the torch for astrology to
Roman audiences. We know that, in any case, he op­
posed both ekpyrosis and palingenesis and defended the
Aristotelian concept of the eternity of the universe.101
Altogether, however, Critolaus was not averse to ac­
cepting certain other Stoic and Academic doctrines.
A middle-of-the-road scholar of his type was in any
case unlikely to excite any audience, be it Greek or
Roman. Nor was he likely to carry the torch on behalf
of Hellenistic astrology. Carneades, finally, could be
relied upon to bring his great influence fully to bear
against it. It was Carneades, the arch foe of all divina­
tion, whom (perhaps via Panaetius) Cicero, a follower
C&meades-CUtomacbua
C a e a a r i u a t^uaest.
Georg H a m a rto lu a
Fig. 11. From F. Boll; compare D. Amand. Fatalisme et liberte dans
I’antiquite grecque: 1-28.
of the Academy, chose a century later probably as his
chief source of arguments against divination in general
when in his own essay on the subject he left tfie defense
of it to his brother, Quintus, reserving for himself the
presentation of the — essentially Carneadic102 — refuta­
101 Philo, de aeternitate mundi, I l f .
102 P. Wendland, Philos Schrift ueber die Vorsehung: 37, n. 2,
Berlin, 1892; compare the review by F. Cumont in Bullet, crit.,
1893 : 64-66. Although Cicero himself said (de divinatione 2,
47, 97) that he was following the argumentation of Panaetius
rather than that of Carneades, he probably meant merely the
Panaetian version of Carneades’ views, since Carneades himself
left no writings.
10:1 D. Amand, Fatalisme et liberte: 49-68, reconstructs in
detail what he considers as the anti-astrological arguments of
Carneades.
104 Repeated by Favorinus; Gellius, 14, 1, 26; in more detail providentia 1, 87; Gregory of Nyssa, de fato, ed. Migne,
by Sextus Empiricus, adv. mathematicos, 5, 50-87; Firmicus
M aternus, M athesis, 1, 3, 2. Philo, de providentia, l f 87, seems,
however, to go loo far in insisting that even if the exact moment
55
tion of its validity. Since the anti-astrological argu­
mentation of Carneades not only was destined to become
the standard system of attacking astrology in pagan
and Christian times, but also in all likelihood may
have been presented at least in part to his Roman
hearers in 155 b . c . , it deserves some attention.103 Car­
neades apparently maintained: (1) It is impossible to
make precise observations of the heavens at the moment
of birth (or conception).104 (2) People born at the
same moment under the same constellation have dif­
ferent destinies.105 (3) People born neither at the
same moment nor under the same constellation die at the
same time.100 (4) Animals too would be subject to
F » ? o rin u i R e x tu a [S to ia c h e
(b a i G e llia a V e rte i-
XIV 1) d ig u n g
d e r A a tro -
lo g ie )J
H lp p o ly tu a J a l.
re f. o m o . F ir m lo u t
h a e re e . M a te r n a l
IV I f f . I 3 ff.
Origene a
I>io<lnrua tod
Ta rsus
A m b ro iiu i G ro g o riu a P rokopiu*
hexaemeron Njaaenua, *. Gasa
niQl tlpaQ pirrit
the same fate as human beings born at the identical
moment.107 (5) The diversity of races, customs, and
of conception were known, no astrologer could compute the
constellation which had then existed. Actually the astronomical
tables available at the time would have made this task quite
easy ; cf. Amand, op. c it.: 50, n. 1. The impact of pagan anti-
fatalistic arguments upon the Christian fathers will be dealt with
in my forthcoming study of A strology in the later Roman
empire, from Diocletian to Justinian I.
105 This anti-astrological barb obviously antedated Carneades;
see Augustinus, de civitate del 5, 1 ( e n d ) ; L. C. P. J. de Vreese,
Augustinus en de astrologie: 23-47, Maastricht, 1933; compare
Gellius, 14, 1, 29 (F a v o rin u s); Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 97;
Sextus Empiricus, adv. mathematicos 5, 88-89; cf. Amand,
op. cit. : 52 f.
loa Cicero, de div. 2, 47, 97; Sextus Empiricus, adv. math. 5,
91-93; compare Gellius, 14, 1, 27 (F a v o rin u s); Philo, de
Patrologia Graeca, 45: c. 165, 2-37.
10T Sextus Empiricus, adv. math. 5, 94; compare Cicero, de
divinatione 2, 47, 98; Augustinus, de civitate dei 5, 7 ; cf. Gellius,
56 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
creeds regardless of whether or not people were bom
at the same moment under the same constellation, is
incompatible with astrological tenets.108
Astrologers at all times tried with varying success
to answer these arguments, often with very ingenious
reasoning,109 but never fully succeeded in overcoming
the resistance of an intellectual minority of sceptics
who continued the basic opposition developed in the
second 'century b . c . %* CaTtKades; “Ironically'"enongh,
however, even this great foe of astrology did not escape
its taint completely. His death was said to have coin­
cided with a lunar eclipse " and one might well say ”
(added Diogenes Laertius) “ that the brightest lumi­
nary in heaven next to the sun thereby gave token of
her sympathy.” 110 Why the moon in 129 b . c. should
grieve so deeply over the death of the belittler of
her powers, Diogenes Laertius preferred to leave
unexplained.
The strong impression created by the three ambassa­
dors from Athens amongst the young nobles of Rome
finally roused the champion of conservatism, Marcus
Porcius Cato, to energetic action; Cameades in par­
ticular was said to be his target:
S eein g the passion for w ords flow ing into the city, from
th e b e g in n in g he took it ill, fe a rin g lest the youth should
be d iv erted th at w ay, and so should prefer the glory of
speaking w ell before th a t of arm s an d d oing well. A nd
w hen the fam e of the philosophers increased in the city
. . . C ato resolved to have all philosophers cleared out of
th e c i t y ; an d com ing into the senate, blam ed the m agistrates
fo r lettin g these am bassadors stay so long a tim e w ithout
b ein g dispatched, though they w ere persons th a t could easily
p ersu ad e the people to w hat they pleased; th a t therefore
in all h aste som ething should be determ ined about th eir
p etitio n , so th a t they m ig h t go hom e again to th eir own
schools, and declaim to the youth of G reece, a n d leave th a t
o f R om e to be obedient, as hitherto, to th eir ow n law s and
g o v ern o rs.111
But when Cato had his wish — we still do not know
for that matter whether or not Athens finally had to
pay the fine of 500 talents — it was too late. Roman
humanism had received another great boost. In so far,
however, as acceptance of Hellenistic astrology by the
14, 1, 31 (F a v o rin u s); Diodorus of Tarsus in Photius, Bibl.,
cod. 223, ed. Migne, Patr. Gr., 103: c. 853 C-857 B ; Amand,
op. c it.: 61, n. 1.
1<’8 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 46, 96-97; Sextus Empiricus, adv.
math. 5, 102; Firmicus M aternus, M athesis 1, 2, 1-4; compare
Philo, de providentia 1, 84-86; P. Wendland, Philos Schrift
ueber die Vorsehung: 35 £.; F. Boll, Studien ueber Claudius
Ptolemaeus: 181-188; Amand, op. cit. : 55-60.
1M Astrological geography, for example, was developed speci­
fically to explain the differences between races, nations, and
customs; compare Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 1, 2, ed. K roll:
614 ff., Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 2, 3; Paulus of Alexandria, f. A,
2 f f .; Hephaestion of Thebes, 1, ed. Engelbrecht: 47, 20; cf.
F . Cumont in Cat. 2: 85, and La plus ancienne geographie
astrologique, Klio 9, 1909 : 263-273.
110 Diogenes Laertius, 4, 64.
111 Plutarch, Cato maior, 22.
Roman intelligentsia was concerned, the famous visit of
the three wise men from the east, had certainly not
helped. The general note was one of scepticism, vary­
ing from the dignified doubts of Diogenes to the shrill
blasts of Cameades. It could not but confirm with
Roman audiences the misgivings, already prevalent,
about the validity of astrology. Hitherto, however, the
contempt of astrologers had contained a large element
of social snobbism,-but -from-now on- Roman -humanists
also possessed potent philosophical arguments against
the claims of fatalistic astrology. This frame of mind
received its strongest support, not long after the de­
parture of the Athenian embassy, with the arrival in
Rome of an eclectic Stoic from Rhodes, Panaetius, the
first important Greek philosopher to acquire complete
mastery of Latin,112 thereby widening considerably the
scope of his influence upon the Roman humanists.
Apart from the copious references to him in the
writings of Cicero, two sources more recently discovered
have added considerably to our understanding of his
background and our knowledge of his activities: the
badly damaged Index of Greek philosophers found on
a damaged scroll in Herculanum,118 having survived
almost two thousand years under the layers poured on
the luckless town in a . d . 79 by Mount Vesuvius, and
the thorough excavations conducted at his native town
of Lindus on the island of Rhodes.111 Descended from
a wealthy family (a monument in whose honor has
been unearthed) he was with an annual income of five
talents115 (ca. $6,000 — pre-1933) completely inde­
pendent. Like many a well-to-do Greek before and
after him, he preferred philosophical studies to a politi­
cal or military career in his native state. At one time
or another Panaetius was enrolled among the students
of Crates of Mallos,116 already mentioned as one of the
pioneers of Hellenistic philology in Rome. Inevitably,
however, Panaetius gravitated to Athens. Born proba­
bly between 190 and 180 b . c., Panaetius may have first
arrived there in the 'sixties, and was well received.117
He later studied under Diogenes of Babylon,118 and
finally under Antipater, the Stoic successor of Dioge­
nes.110 For almost twenty years he divided his time
113 Compare Cicero, Tuscitl. disput. 4, 4: Panaetius was con­
sidered competent enough to judge L atin literary style. Else­
where Cicero referred to him as well-nigh the greatest of the
Stoics (princeps prope . . . Stoicorum ) ; Acad. 2, 33, 107.
Col. 55-77 (badly dam aged). The text is derived from
Stratocles’ history of the S toa; cf. M. Pohlenz, R E 18, 2, 2,
1949: c. 418, no. 5, -c. 440, for a recent treatm ent of Panaetius.
114 Strabo, 14, 2, 11 (f. 655) and elsewhere; compare Blinken-
berg-Kinch, Lindos, fouilles et recherches, 1902-1914 2, 1 and 2:
46, Copenhagen and Berlin, 1941, for a family tree and a bio­
graphical sketch of Panaetius by Blinkenberg.
115 Index stoic. H ercul. : c. 63.
“ ’ Strabo, 14, 5, 16 (f. 676).
117 Index stoic. H ercul.: c. 68.
118 Index stoic. H ercul.: 51.
"•C icero, de divin. 1, 3, 6 ; de officiis 3, 12, 51; Index stoic.
Hercul. : 60.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N ROM E TO ASTROLOGY
between his studies at Athens and travels to his native
tow n120 or other places.
It can be assumed with certainty that in Athens the
returning philosophers in 155 b . c . dwelt proudly on
their Roman triumphs. If not before, Panaetius must
then have received the impression of a Roman aris­
tocracy, in which a number of young and middle-aged
noblemen professed an enthusiasm for philosophy, simi­
lar to that which had brought to Athens the young
patrician from Lindus himself. An opportunity to visit
the new capital of the Mediterranean world offered itself
when the Greek statesman and historian, Polybius, after
many years of exile in Rome, finally had received per­
mission to return to Greece.121 Polybius, on a visit to
Athens, recognized in Panaetius a Stoic of calibre and
a social equal of his great Roman friends in Italy.
Apparently at the instigation of Polybius, Panaetius
went to Rome, perhaps in 146 or shortly afterwards.
He soon became one of the most intimate friends of the
conqueror of Carthage and was as warmly received into
the Scipionic circle of humanists as Polybius had
been.122 Until about 130 Panaetius seems to have spent
most of his time in Rome, but undertook a number of
voyages to Athens and, on one occasion (140-139 b . c.),
a journey to Asia Minor as Scipio’s personal companion
on an official mission.123
The Achaean hostages of 167-166 for the most part
had been well educated men, some of them brilliant,
but Panaetius seems to have been the first important
Greek philosopher who voluntarily chose to spend a
considerable part of his life in Rome among that strange
Latin race whose leaders, victorious on every battlefield
over the armies of Hellenistic states, listened humbly to
words of wisdom addressed to them by a leading scholar
of the politically declining east. Among the numerous
friends Panaetius made amongst the Roman humanists
were Scipio’s friend Laelius124 and his sons-in-law,
Fannius and Q. Mucius Scaevola,125 and also of the
younger generation, Q. Aelius Tubero, an enthusiastic
disciple of Panaetius (who dedicated some writings to
his favorite Roman “ student”).126 Lucilius, Rome’s
I!° Blinkenberg-Kinch, op. cit., inscr. no. 223, 17, names Panae­
tius ca. 149 B. c. among the local iepoOvrat.
131 See Polybius, 35, 6; Plutarch, Cato maior, 9, 2-3, on the
final granting of permission to the Achaean hostages to return
to G reece; compare F . W . W albank, Classica et Mediaevalia 9.
1948: 172, n. 2; cf. H . H . Scullard, Roman politics : 239.
153 Cicero, de republica 1, 21, 34: (Panaetius and Polybius are
called) “ two Greeks, who were perhaps the best versed of
them all in politics ” ; Index stoic. H e re .: c. 56; compare
Velleius Paterculus, 1, 13, 3; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 5, 1, 9; cf.
Cichorius, Panaetius und die attische Stoikerinschrift, Rhein.
M us. 63, 1908: 197-223, esp. 220 ff.
” • F o r the close ties between both men, see Cicero, pro
M urena. 31, 66; Tusc. disp. 1, 33, 81; epist. ad A tt. 9, 12, 2;
de officiis 1, 26, 90; Velleius Paterculus,"lj 13,. 3, and tht-cntire
beginning of Cicero’s de republica.
134 Cicero, de finibus 4, 9, 23; cf. 2, 8, 24.
” • Cicero, B rutus, 26, 101; cf. 31, 118.
13< Cicero, de oratore 1, 45; cf. 43 and 75; Acad. 2, 44, 135.
57
first major “ satirist,” also came under the Rhodian
Stoic’s influence. If Cicero’s idealized Scipio spoke
truly in the Republic, it was Panaetius’ “ habit to make
careful investigation of . . . celestial phenomena,” 127
an interest in which Tubero was to take after his
master.128 Consequently, in the Republic Tubero was
entrusted with the defense of astronomical research
which Scipio—like Socrates according to Xenophon128
—-tended to question.
Towards fatalist astrology Panaetius’ attitude was
even more sceptical than that of his teacher, Diogenes
the Babylonian. In the trend away from the strict
fatalism of Zeno and the early Stoics, Panaetius repre­
sented the climax. W ith his eminent pupil, Posidonius,
the pendulum was to swing back to the full acceptance
of fatalism. Meanwhile, in his rejection of astrological
claims, Panaetius was influenced by a close friend, an
astronomer named Scylax:
Scylax of Halicarnassus, an intimate friend of Panaetius,
and eminent in astrologia (excellens in astrologia) . . .
utterly repudiated the Chaldaean method of foretelling the
future.180 . . . [Consequently] Panaetius . . . was the only
one of the Stoics to reject the prophecies of the astro-
logi. . .
Scylax was not the only astronomer of this era who
refused to recognize astrology as a legitimate branch of
applied astronomy. H is colleagues, Anchialus and Cas-
sander132 (in contrast to their renowned contemporary,
Hipparchus), shared his views. Panaetius, however,
seems to have borrowed most of his arguments against
astrology not from astronomers, but from Cameades183
who himself left no writings. Cicero, to whom we owe
our only knowledge of these astronomers, used the
term astrologia comprehensively for both astronomy
and astrology.184
Panaetius, himself a Stoic, questioned not only the
traditional Stoic faith in astrology, but also abandoned
the Stoic tenets of ekpyrosis and palingenesis.185 He
favored instead the Aristotelian incolumitas mundi.13°
Another dogma, which the eclectic Stoic from Rhodes
questioned, was at least indirectly connected with as­
trology : the Stoic axiom that all men were created
equal. The corresponding astrological tenet was the
157 Cicero, de republica 1, 10, 15.
1M Ibid. 1, 10, 16.
ia’ Perhaps in an attem pt to erase the unfavorable impression
created by Aristophanes’ presentation (in the Clouds) of Socrates
as the head of a subversive school, indulging in astronomical
studies. Xenophon repeatedly (Memorabilia 1, 1, 11-12; 1, 1, 16;
4, 7, 2-4) tried to minimize Socrates’ interest in the stars.
1,0 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 42, 88.
131 Loc. cit.
131 No other reference to any of the three astronomers has
survived.
1M"P:'Wfeildlahd, Philos' SchrifTueber die^V.arsehun^: .37,jn. 2.
131 See above, p. 3 f.
13s Cicero, de natura deorum 2, 46, 118; Philo, de aet. mundi,
15,76.
13‘ Philo, de aetemitate mundi, 15, 76.
58 T H E R IS E AND TR IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W ORLD
assertion (attacked by Carneades and others) that man’s
destiny depended solely on the constellation of the
moment of his conception, or birth respectively, i. e.
before the stars all men were equal. Wealth or poverty
of one’s parents, race or religious traditions were at the
most considered to be secondary factors in the shaping
of a man’s character and his success or failure in life.
In denying the validity of such theories Panaetius, the
patrician, undoubtedly touched a harmonious chord
within the members of the Scipionic circle. While not
blind to the growing social tensions in Rome, most of
these humanists still opposed the nascent reform move­
ment. Panaetius’ friend Laelius, for example, in 140
b . c. cautiously withdrew his land reform bill, when
conservative opposition to it became violent.187 A year
later by praetorian edict astrologers were expelled from
Rome for the first time in history.138 The tenor of this
edict breathed the traditional contempt of astrology
already manifest in the earlier fragments of Ennius and
in the Catonic warning. The devastating attacks of
Carneades, and more recently of Panaetius, however,
assuredly fortified this long standing Roman upper-class
scepticism.
Conversely one may suspect an alliance between
astrologers and the reform-party in Rome. The edict
of 139 expelling troublesome foreigners gave, at least
as the official reason, the Carneades-Panaetius-inspired
argument that the astrologers were merely exploiting
gullible Romans by a fraudulent craft. The simul­
taneous expulsion, however, of the devotees of Jupiter
Sabazios from the capital131 tends to strengthen the
feeling that the ruling conservatives tried to remove
potential foreign troublemakers from the already restive
city. Nor was Rome the only part of the Roman domain
in which the smouldering fire of social discontent threat­
ened to break into open flame. Whatever the hopes of
the aristocratic government were in 139 to escape the
gathering storm, they were futile. The ensuing cen­
tury of revolution, which in 133 began with the Gracchi
and ended with the death of Antony and Cleopatra in
30 b. c., not only destroyed the old Roman order. It also
brought about the triumph of Hellenistic astrology which
finally conquered the very citadel of its western foes:
the Roman nobility.
3. T H E T R IU M P H O F A STR O LO G Y IN R E P U B L IC A N
R O M E (139-44 B .C .)
The ninety-six years from the consulate of Scipio s restiveness at home nor could it in any way soothe
humanist friend Laelius (140 B .C . ) to the death of elsewhere the mounting revolutionary mood of the non-
Julius Caesar were filled with revolutionary wars and Latin poor and the new hosts of slaves.'4-' Although it
in7 Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus, 8, 4.
138 Valerius Maximus, 1, 3, 3; compare F. H. Cramer,
Expulsion of astrologers from ancient Rome, Class, et Med. 12 600 ff., esp. 627; cf. W. v. Christ, Gesch. der griech. Lilt., 6th ed.
(1-2), 1951: 14-17.
130 See F. Cumont, A propos de Sabazios et du Judaism :,
M^usee Beige 14, 1910: 55-60.
culminated in the destruction of the ancient aristocratic
republic. Its most intelligent defenders persistently urged
a series of badly needed reforms, but these farseeing
noblemen were invariably lynched by their die-hard
blue-blooded fellow-aristocrats, unless — like Laelius —
they wisely abandoned their reform plans. Hand in
hand with the decline of the old political institutions
went the growing indifference to the ancient state cults
in whose place oriental creeds attracted increasing hosts
of devotees. The Roman intelligentsia remained to some
extent immune at first to the lure of these eastern re­
ligions. It preferred the Greek philosophical systems
of which Stoicism, having gained a head-start thanks
to the influence of Panaetius and being most congenial
to the Roman mind, became the favorite creed of upper-
class Romans during this era. A small but important
minority chose Epicureanism, another selected the Aca­
demic school of thought as its Weltanschauung. Men
like Julius Caesar, Lucretius, Vergil, and Horace,140
as well as Tibullus,141 were strongly impressed bv
Epicure’s teachings, while, for example, Cicero became
the ranking champion of neo-Academic views in Rome.
Rarely, however, did a Roman intellectual subscribe
fully to the tenets of any single Greek school of phi­
losophy. On the whole a good deal of eclecticism char­
acterized the philosophical attitude of Roman humanists
at all times, and especially during this hectic century.
Those few who, tike the pedantic younger Cato, ac­
cepted a single philosophical creed were exceptions.
The attitude towards astrology was usually deter­
mined by the intensity with which a Roman humanist
adhered to Stoicism. The closer to it he moved, the
more unquestionably would he in this era accept fatal­
istic astrology. The more he tended towards Epicurean
or neo-Academic views, the more sceptical would his
outlook become. Stoicism itself had undergone a pro­
found change in its attitude towards divination in gen-
eraj, and astrology in particular since the days of
Diogenes the Babylonian and his even more sceptical
Stoic disciple, Panaetius. It had returned to the origi­
nal Stoic views of Zeno and his immediate successors,
largely through the efforts of Panaetius’ pupil Posi­
donius of Apamea (ca. 131-51 B . C . ) . Before his in­
fluence was fully felt, however, a twilight period of
anti-astrological scepticism prevailed in Rome during
the concluding decades of the second century b . c .
The expulsion of astrologers from the Latin center
of the Roman empire in 139 b . c . neither quelled the
110 E. Zeller, Philosophic der Griechcn 3, 1, 4th e d .: 387 f.
1,1 F . Jacoby, Tibuli’s erste Elegie, Rhein. Mus. 64, 1909:
W. Schmid and others, 2, 1: 313, Muenchen, 192).
142 A useful, though strongly biased, work on the subject is
R. v. Poehlmann, Geschichtc der sosialen Prage und des Sosia-
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N ROM E TO ASTROLOGY 59
took sixty more years for a formidable slave rebellion " divinely inspired ” prophet. Personally anything but
to break out in Italy itself, adjacent Sicily for example warlike, Eunus defeated the Roman levies time and
produced two very serious slave wars within the last again so that the Roman government finally for three
four decades of the second century. The humanist successive years (134, 133, 132 b . c.) sent consular
nobility of Rome, still inspired by the Hellenistic scepti­ armies against him. The last of the three consuls com­
cism of the second century, so ably represented by manding these forces, P. Rupilius, finally quenched the
Panaetius in Rome, might frown on astrology and rebellion. The followers of Eunus killed each other
coarse forms of eastern superstitions, but the lowly rather than fall into Roman hands. Eunus with four
knew no such scruples. Although our chief source of servants, however, surrendered. He was kept in cap­
information is the fragmentary account of Diodorus tivity and died soon afterwards, either at Murgentium
who in turn probably leaned heavily on Posidonius’ or on the way to Rome, of a skin disease.141 It seems
history of these events,143 the facts speak for themselves. that even the Roman victors were to some extent
The two most important leaders of the two Sicilian impressed with the reputation of the Syrian miracle-
slave-wars were men who owed their position largely working diviner.
to reputed prophetic powers, the Syrian Eunus, and Astrology, at least according to our scanty sources,
the Cilician Athenio. As effective examples of the can at best have played a minor role in the repertoire
exploitation of lower-class credulity their careers may of Eunus. H is successor, Athenio,150 the leader of the
briefly be recorded. second Sicilian slave rebellion, however, was actually
Eunus, apparently already at least middle-aged, was a an astrologer of sorts. This Cilician worked as a shep­
slave of Antigenes of Enna. A Syrian from Apamea,144 herd slave for two very wealthy brothers and was not
he was credited with having gained his master’s favor only a fearless fighter, but also an "expert astrolo­
by demonstrations of prophetic gifts and certain magical ger.” 151 Apparently he used his reputation as a star­
tricks.145 As his source of prophetic inspiration Eunus gazer to persuade his fellow slaves of “ inevitable ”
named a Syrian goddess. His reputation as a prophet success if they rebelled. For himself
(with or without the use of some popular astrology)
he insisted that the gods through the stars had revealed to
became so great that some slaves smarting under a him that he would become the king of all of Sicily.151
Simon Legree master by the name of Damophilus asked
him to predict whether a rebellion they were planning For a while this astrological prediction did not seem
might meet with success. According to the rhetorical likely to be fulfilled. For another slave leader by the
report of Florus: name of Salvius, self-styled King Trypho, was so much
more powerful that Athenio found it prudent to bow
E u n u s . . . co u n terfe itin g an inspired frenzy and w av in g
his dishevelled h a ir in h onor of the S y rian goddess, incited
to his authority.158 From 104 until 102 Salvius Trypho
the slaves to arm s a n d lib erty on the p reten ce of a com m and retained his commanding position, while Roman armies
fro m th e gods. In o rd e r to prove th a t he w as actin g u n d er were unable to quell the rebellion. Then he died, and
divine in sp iratio n , he secreted in his m outh a n u t w hich Athenio became the sole leader of the slave army. His
he had filled w ith su lp h u r and fire, an d by b reath in g gently, bands roamed through Sicily at will and almost suc­
sent fo rth a flam e as he spoke.146
ceeded in capturing Messina. Finally, however, the
Prophesying success to the rebellion he placed himself consul Manius Aquillius restored Roman authority.
at its head, probably in 136 b . c . 147 Styling himself In personal combat he killed Athenio, receiving himself
Antiochus, King of the Syrians, he raised his concubine a severe wound 154 (101 or 100 b. c.).
to the rank of queen. The fact that two relatively severe disturbances close
Scores of freemen joined his band which rapidly to the heart of the Roman empire were led by men
grew from an initial strength of 2,000 to over 60.000.148 whose claim to leadership was largely if not exclusively
Local leaders, among them a certain Cleon in western based on their reputation as prophets illustrates the
Sicily, voluntarily submitted to the leadership of this
140 Diodorus, frgm. 34, 2, 22-23.
list,ms in der antiken W elt, 2 v., Muenchen, 1912; for this period 150 Cf. Klebs, R E 2, 1896: c. 2039-2041.
151 Diodorus, frgm. 36, 5, 1, ed. Dindorf. 5: 129-130: rijj
in particular, compare ibid. 2, 2, ch. i v : 493 ff.
1.3 Eunus and Posidonius were both natives of Apamea in d<rrpo/J.avTiKijs iro W ijp $ x ul/ i p m p i a M .
Syria. T his may explain Posidonius’ special interest in the 158 Ibid. 36, 5, 3. One of his predictions, revealed to him by
the gods and the stars, was for example that within five days
career of Eunus.
1.4 F o r the proud history of the town, see Strabo, 16, 2, 10 the number of his followers would grow from two hundred to
(f. 753). more than a thousand (which proved tru e). Similarly he
113 Diodorus, frgm. 34, 2, 5 ff., ed. Dind., 5: 86. claimed that the gods (o r stars) had advised him to break off
" “ Florus, 2, 7 (1 9 ), 4. the siege of Lilybaeum. Again events justified this course of
117 F o r an intelligent discussion of the date, see Muenzer, R b action; Diodorus, 36, 5, 1 and 3-4.
6. 1909: c. 1143-1145. 163 Ibid. 36, 7, 1-2.
l<* Livy. epil. 56; Orosius, 5, 6, 4, speaks of 70,000. Diodorus, 154 Ibid. 36, 10;■ cf. the brief reference in Florus, 2, 7 (1 9 ),
frgm. 34, 5, 16. and Florus, 2, 7 (19). 6, agree on “ more than 9-12. According to Florus, however, Athenio was torn to
60,000.” pieces by his captors.
60 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W O R LD
hold which divinely inspired seers and astrologers had
obtained on the lower classes composed of impoverished
freemen and slaves. In Rome and Italy in all likelihood
similar prophets also flourished among these strata at
this time, although they did not succeed in fomenting
a general rising.
The connection between the oppositional social ele­
ments in Rome and those of the outer empire was
demonstrated on more than one occasion during the
last half of the second century b . c . In 133 Kincr Attaius
I II of Pergamum, dying without legitimate heirs, 1>e-
queathed his wealthy country to the Romans. Not
unnaturally his subjects disliked the prospect of Roman
exploitation and rose in rebellion. Their leader in the
fight for independence was Aristonicus, an illegitimate
son of the late king. For almost four years he held
the Romans at bay before his movement collapsed.
One of his chief advisers was a South Italian intellec­
tual by the name of Blossius, a former fellow student
of Panaetius.1' 0 Eventually both men had gone to Rome.
There Panaetius became the intellectual center of a
group of conservative leaders, while Blossius joined the
“ radicals ” and became one of the “ brain-trusters ” of
the ill-starred Tiberius Gracchus. The close personal
friendship between the Roman reformer and Blossius
was widely known. Even after Tiberius had been
lynched in 133 b . c . Blossius. at a time when the Greek
advisers of his late friend were executed in droves,
proudly refused to deny his close association with his
fallen friend.156 His loyalty and courage apparently
were respected to the extent that his life was spared.
He fled and joined the nascent movement of Aristonicus
in Asia Minor. Whether or not it was due to his radical
influence that this Greek leader finally proclaimed the
emancipation of slaves157 and enrolled them in the
citizen-lists of a fictitious Sun-City (Heliopolis) canno'
be ascertained. Utopian states, sometimes of communist
vintage, had become a popular literary topic in Hellen­
istic times.158 Jambulus for example had emphasized
the special astral interests of his slaveless utopia150
whose patron-saint and ruler was the Sun.180 But
Aristonicus’ revolutionary undertaking alienated most
of his other supporters. His movement finally col­
lapsed (129 B .C . ) and Blossius perished with it.
165 Both were among the disciples of the Stoic Antipater, who
had succeeded Diogenes the Babylonian as head of the Stoic
school at Athens. Panaetius favored the sanctity of private
property, while Blossius wanted the assets of the nation to be
used “ for the greatest good of the greatest number.”
188 Cicero, Laclius, 11,37; Plutarch, Tiberius Gracchus, 20, 3-4.
' “ 'Diodorus, frgm. 34, 26.
188 Euhemerus wrote one of the most popular utopias of this
kind. Ennius’ Latin translation made it easily accessible to the
Roman reading public early in the second century B. c. Its popu­
larity endured until the end of antiquity.
Diodorus accepted Jam bulus’ “ travelogue” as straight
history and thereby preserved substantial elements of it fox
posterity; see 2, 57, 3 on the astral interests in that “ sun-state.’
100 Ibid. 2, 59, 2.
While waves of social unrest slowly undermined the
foundations of the old Roman order, the penetration
of Rome’s ruling class with Greek ideas continued
unabated. Among the friends of Panaetius in Rome
one of the most devoted ones was Q. Aelius Tubero.161
As a grandson of the victor of Pydna, L. Aemilius
Paulus,162 he was a nephew of the younger Scipio,1*5
and at the same time thereby related to the two
Gracchi,164 Scipio’s first cousins (by adoption). Tubero’s
political career was not sensational, but befitting the
scion of a great Roman family. H e was prior to 129
b . c. a tribune of the plebs, and then competed without
success for a praetorship.165 On a later occasion he'
may have met with better luck at the polls, for he was
said eventually to have reached the consulate.16" He was
at any rate an independent-minded man. For he did
not hesitate on occasion to oppose Scipio, as well as
fiberius Gracchus (who directed a special oration
against Tubero).10* A man of studiously simple living
habits168 he met in the Scioionic circle Panaetius who
henceforth became his intellectual mentor.
If not before, Tubero now became a confirmed Stoic
under the influence of the Greek scholar.169 in whose
company he spent “ whole days and nights.” 110 Among
the books which Panaetius advised his disciple to learn
by heart was Crantor’s On grief.171 After Panaetius left
Rome, at the latest shortly before the death of Scipio
in 129 b . c., he continued an intimate correspondence
with Tubero and sent him some of his essays, for ex­
ample a treatise on H ow to suffer pain.172 The scholarly
contacts were extended to other disciples of Panaetius
too, men who may well have been younger than
the Roman humanist. Hecato of Rhodes for instance
dedicated to Tubero a work in several books entitled
On moral duty (de officio).173 At least one essay from
the pen of Panaetius’ greatest disciple Posidonius was
1,1 Cf. Klebs, R E 1. 1894: c. 535-537; W . Kroll, R E , suppl. 6 ,
1935: c. 1-2.
Cicero, Brutus, 31, 117.
I,13 Loc. cit., compare de oratore 2, 84, 341.
104 Cornelia, a sister of Scipio Aemilianus1 adoptive father,
was the mother of Tiberius and Caius Gracchus.
II,5 Cicero, pro Murena, 36, 75.
100 Digests 1, 2, 2, 40. Pomponius, however, cannot be con­
sidered as a reliable authority in this instance.
107 On one ocacsion Tubero refused to render judgm ent
according to Scipio’s evidence given in court. H e broke with
the Gracchi on political grounds and attacked one of them in a
speech; Cicero, Brutus, 31, 117; Laclius, 11, 37.
108 Cicero, pro Murena, 36, 76; Valerius M aximus 7, 5 1 •
Seneca, epist., 95, 72 f.; 98, 13; 104, 20; 120, 19; Athenaeus, 6,
108; Seneca rhetor; Controv. 2, 1, 8.
Tacitus, Annals 15, 22; Digests 1, 2, 2, 40 where one should
read Panaeti in lieu of Pansae.
1.0 Cicero, de oratore 3, 23, 87.
P ' T 0’ ^ cad- 2' 135. C rantor was a follower of the
Uld Academy, not a Stoic.
1.1 Cicero, de finibus 4 , 9, 2 3 ; Tuscul. disp. 4, 2 , 4 where
Panaetius recommended to Tubero a Pythagorean poem.
Cicero, de officiis 3, 15, 63.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU B LIC A N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
also addressed to Tubero.174 The profound influence
of these Greek Stoics on the Roman gentleman “ of con­
summate excellence and sagacity ” 176 was also manifest
in the disdain in which Tubero held the then fashionable
art of public speaking.176 According to Cicero Laelius
had to write for Tubero the funeral oration in honor of
Scipio Aemilianus when this special occasion called for
an effective public speech.177
In the light of this evidence the conclusion seems
inescapable that Tubero in contrast to the humanist
dilettantes of the Scipionic circle178 took a deep inter­
est in the intellectual offering of the Hellenistic east.
He certainly emerges as the most serious-minded of
the group, and the role assigned to him by Cicero in
the Republic conforms to that picture. There Tubero
acts in the absence of Panaetius as the authoritative
advocate of Greek astronomical views. Actually it is
he who, before the other partners in the discussion
arrive, suggests as its topic a recent phenomenon in the
heavens: the appearance of a second sun. A brief duel
ensues in which Scipio criticizes and Tubero defends
the great intensity with which Panaetius—and Tubero
—devote themselves to the study of astronomical prob­
lems.179 The suggestion that Tubero himself composed
an astrometeorological work cannot be definitely proven
or disproven,180 but a reference in Pliny’s Natural
H istory181 and possibly another one by Alexander of
Aphrodisias182 may be construed as an indication that
Tubero, perhaps the first Roman to do so, compiled a
parapegma,18S i. e. weather calendar relating meteoro­
logical phenomena to certain planets, fixed stars and
constellations, respectively.
In themselves these “ peasant-calendars ” were far
removed from the esoteric circle of Hellenistic scientific
astrology. 'Nevertheless by listing in great detail the
real or apparent connection between the stars and the
seasons—the Dog-Star (Sirius), for example, ushering
in the “ dog-days ” of midsummer — these almanacs
strengthened the general belief in sidereal influence on
mundane affairs. This attitude received a considerable
174 Ps.-P lutarch, dc nobilitate . . . , 18, 3.
176 Cicero, de oratore 3, 23, 87.
170 Cicero, Brutus. 31, 117 f.
1,7 Cicero, dc oratore 2, 84, 341; the scliol. B o b .: 283 ascribe
the delivery of the speech written by Laelius to Q. Fabius
Maximus.
178 F o r the contrast, see Crassus in Cicero, de oratore 3, 23, 87.
176 Cicero, de republica 1, 9, 14-10, 16.
180 Ingeniously suggested by O. Cuntz, Strom ateis: 49, Graz,
1909; see, however, W . Kroll, R E , suppl. 6, 1935: c. If.
18' Pliny, N a t. H ist. 18, 66, 235; V III Kal. (Febr.) stella
regia appellata Tuberoni in pectore Leonis occidit matutina;
but compare ibid. 18, 68, 271. Pliny may have taken both
passages from Julius Caesar’s de ostris, or had read the reference
to Tubero’s w ork elsewhere.
181 In A ristot. meteorol. comment. : 152, 10, where Geminus
and Aelius are cited.
188 Cf. A. Rehm. R E 18, 2, 3, 1949: c. 1295-1366; suppl. 7,
1950: c. 175-198.
61
emotional boost through the magnetic personality of the
Stoic Posidonius, probably the most universal thinker
the Greek world produced since the days of Aristotle.184
A disciple of Panaetius this great Stoic chose Rhodes
to establish his own school after the death of his Rhodian
master, perhaps about 97 b . c .,186 whose own academic
establishment in Rhodes he may have inherited. He fol­
lowed the example of his predecessor also by making
extensive voyages throughout the Mediterranean world
sometime between 100 and 70 b . c.,186 using these ven­
tures also for scientific observations of geographical and
astronomical phenomena, including the tides and their
astral causes. Like most outstanding Greek scholars
of this era, Posidonius did not escape an appointment
as (Rhodian) ambassador to Rome, proof of his high
standing at Rhodes, which had been attested also by
the fact that he was made a Rhodian citizen and even
elected to the highest office, that of a prytane.187
When Posidonius (together with a fellow-scholar
Molo)188 reached Rome the city was in the throes of
a violent revolution. The conservatives had been over­
thrown, the consul Octavius being slain when Cinna and
Marius took Rome by force in 8 6 b . c . Octavius him­
self seems to have been among the first Roman aristo­
crats to have relied whole heartedly on astrological pre­
dictions (which had promised him that all would be
well). Consequently he had remained in the capital
and was slain. On his dead body was found the astro­
logical diagram that had lured him to his death.18"
Posidonius now encountered the new masters of Rome,
of whom the old Marius was unquestionably the most
colorful figure.100 His well established contempt of
higher learning cannot have made the task of the two
Rhodian ambassadors any easier, but undoubtedly they
also met Roman humanists while staying in Rome,
among them perhaps young Julius Caesar and Cicero.10’
18‘ Strabo, 16, 2, 10 (f. 753); Galen, de Hippocr. et Plat. 8, 1;
K. Reinhardt’s Posidonius, Muenchen, 1921, is a warning
example of a German school, which carries the worship of
Posidonius to indefensible extremes. A sober appraisal of
Posidonius’ scientific contributions is found in J. L. Heiberg,
Naturwissenschaften und M athematik itn klassischen A ltertum ,
Leipzig, 1912.
183 Panaetius seems to have died after 99 B.C.; Cicero, de
officiis 3, 2, 7-8.
188 Strabo, 13, 1, 67 (f. 614) ; 1, 17 (f. 4) ; 2, 21 (f. 2 9 ); 3.
9 (f. 53) and 12 (f. 55) ; 2, 1, 1 ff. (ff. 94-96); compare the vita
in Suidas, s. v.
187 Strabo, 14, 2, 13 (f. 665) ; cf. Christ, op. c it.: 347 f.
188 Cf. Schmid, R E 2, 1896: c. 141, no. 85-c. 144. Molo was
opposed to philosophy and was also an antisemite. F o r his
influence compare Suetonius, Caesar, 4, 1; Plutarch, Caesar, 3;
Cicero, 4; Quintilian, de instit. orat. 3, 1, 16.
188 Plutarch, M arius, 42, 1-5.
Posidonius visited him on official business, when the old
w arrior, in the throes of alcohol and pleurisy, was approaching
his en d ; Plutarch, Marius, 45, 4.
181 On the influence of Posidonius on Roman intellectuals of
that period, especially on Cicero, Julius Caesar, Va.~ro, Sallus-
tius, and Lucretius, see F. Ueberweg, Grundriss der Geschichte
der Philosophic 1, 10th e d .: 104.
62 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W ORLD
Since the days of Panaetius Rhodes had been a popular
place with young Romans “ going east ” to complete
their education, or to use the pretext of such studies as
a politic excuse for leaving Rome for a while when
one risked trouble with the rapidly changing political
authorities of these turbulent times.
After the Marian and Sullan tempests had run their
course, the eastward migration of Romans in search of
their final intellectual polish continued. Cicero in 78
b . c. enlisted as one of Posidonius’ students at Rhodes
and thereafter continued to hold the Greek scholar in
high esteem. Not only did he subsequently ask Posi­
donius in 60 b . c. to write the history of the dramatic
consulate of 63,182 a task for which Posidonius’ H is­
tory 193 may have seemed sufficient qualification, but
Cicero also referred frequently to the opinions and
writings of the great Stoic in the philosophical treatises
with whose composition the Roman humanist occupied
himself during the last years of his life. Posidonius thus
became in Roman literary tradition one of the most
popular Greek thinkers after Panaetius, in spite of the
fact that his views in important points were diametric­
ally opposed to those of Panaetius. Politically Posi­
donius like Panaetius was a staunch adherent of Rome’s
conservative faction (eventually also of Pompey). Per­
haps his personal experiences in Marian Rome had
strengthened his natural antipathy against “ leftists.”
Intellectually Roman humanists joined him in the philo­
sophical opposition to his more sceptical Stoic prede­
cessors, Diogenes of Babylon and Panaetius.
Posidonius was about a generation older than Cicero
and Julius Caesar, and the turning of the tide in favor
of fatalistic astrology both in Greek philosophical circles
and in the Latin west coincided remarkably with his
own emergence as the most renowned scholar of his
time. The fatuous faith of the consul Octavius (born
prior to 126 b . c . ) in Chaldaean (and other) divinatory
wisdom has already been mentioned. His contempo­
rary Sulla, generally known as a sceptic rather than a
believer, was another example of the first generation of
Roman aristocrats persuaded of the truth of astrological
claims. Whether he acquired this faith prior to his
expedition to the east, or during his sojourn in the
Orient in the war against Mithradates, cannot be deter­
mined. But on his return he was certainly in possession
of his horoscope. It contained the prediction of his
death date, and so firmly did Sulla apparently trust in
the infallibility of fatalistic astrology that he concluded
his Memoirs when that date approached.104 The im­
plication that he actually died at the precise time fore­
told by the Chaldaeans must, however, be dismissed as
103 Cicero, epist. ad Attic. 2, 1, 2.
These lampion in fifty-two books continued the history of
the Mediterranean world from where Polybius had ended his
own account (144 B .C .) until 86 B.C., the year of the first suc­
cessful anti-senatorial revolution in Rome.
Plutarch. Sulla, 37, 1.
one of the many similar fabrications tending to “ prove ”
the accuracy of astrological methods of divination.19*
While men like Octavius and Sulla were among the
first aristocratic exceptions to the previous rule of
scepticism regarding astrology, the generation which
followed them came under the full impact of the changed
attitude of Stoicism concerning astrology. That politi­
cal leaders like Julius Caesar, Crassus, or Pompey re­
ceived the most flattering (though inaccurate) horo­
scopes from obsequious astrologers198 was merely a
symptom of the new era. More truly indicative of the
influence of Posidonius, that “ staunch advocate of fate-
making stars,” 197 upon Roman minds of this period
was the emergence of the first major Roman authority
on divination in general and astrology in particular:
Publius Nigidius Figulus. He represented the new
cosmic emotionalism of Posidonius who envisaged the
universe linked in all its parts large and minute b y one
all-embracing power, the so-called sympatheia. For the
sage from Apamea ekpyrosis and palingenesis had again
become accepted scientific dogma. His observations
on the influence of the moon and the sun on the daily
tides were linked by him with the general doctrine of
astrology. For him astrology was a valid branch of
applied astronomy, in which he was interested to an
extent which caused posterity to refer to Posidonius
as a “ philosopher-astrologer ” or “ a great astrologus
and philosopher also.” 108 The fixed stars in the manner
of Cleanthes’ hymn were once more raised to the rank
of gods and therefore endowed with the power of pro-
noia. This view made them rulers of the sub-lunar
realm, not mere “ signs ” revealing the future (as
Panaetius had at the most conceded), and saw in them
the makers of the destinies of men and nations.190
Posidonius seems to have added an astrological clima­
tology to the arsenal of the “ Chaldaeans,” 200 i. e. a
counter-attack against the anti-astrological argument
that under the same constellation men and customs in
different regions varied greatly in spite of the identity
of their respective horoscopes. Of the enormous liter­
ary output of the Stoic master his famous treatise on
Plato’s Timaeus may largely be responsible for the
subsequent overemphasis of this single cosmological
essay of Plato and the growing neglect of Plato’s other
works.201
1M F or some later instances of such literary technique in favor
of making out astrological forecasts as accurate, while they
demonstrably had been false at the time, see p. 134, n. 492.
100 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 99.
Augustinus, de civitatc dei 5, 2: multum astrologiae deditus.
. . . fatalium siderum assertor . . . philosophus astrologus . . . .
18 Ibid. 5, 5: magnus astrologus id;mque philosophus.
100 Compare E. Pfeiffer, Studien sum antikcn Sternglauben:
63 ff.; 77 ff., Berlin, 1916.
•“ See F. Boll, Studien ueber Claudius Ptolentaeus: 211 f. (in
Jahrb. f. class. Philol., suppl. 21, 1894). Boll considered P osi­
donius as a main source of Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos-
1 Other cosmological writings included a work rtpl k6<tiiov,
and one <Pv&ik6i \6yot.
T H E CONVERSION OF REPU BLICA N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
In paving the way for the Roman surrender to the
faith in astrology Posidonius placed great importance
on the theory of an all-pervading “ cosmic sympathy.”
He therefore also contributed much to the rise of
Graeco-Roman mysticism, which looked towards magic
and mystery cults as redeemers from the inexorable
fatalism reimposed by the great Stoic. In contesting—
correctly—the possibility of comprehending the cosmos
through reason alone, Posidonius thus opened the flood­
gates to the torrent of anti-rationalism which in the end
was to triumph over the age of reason in antiquity.
From the days of Posidonius onward the anti-astro­
logical majority of Roman humanists began to shrink
until it became a minority of very small proportions.
The sceptics fought their rearguard battle magnificently
during the first half of the first century b . c . Fighters
against astrology of the calibre of a Lucretius or Cicero
(as well as the smilingly sceptical Julius Caesar) made
a fine but losing stand against the swelling hosts of
educated Roman believers in fatalistic astrology. With
the death of these champions of free will, however, an
era began which from Augustus to Domitian displayed
only a small current of anti-astrological sentiment. Not
until the second century a . d . occurred a final and
shortlived revival of the earlier scepticism.
The juxtaposition of the trends in Roman intel­
lectual life was for the first time represented with
striking clarity by two contemporaries, both flourishing
in the first half of the first century b . c., both ranking
members of Roman society, both intellectuals of wide
horizons, both deeply devoted to the cultural values of
the east; Publius Nigidius Figulus (ca. 99-45 b . c.),202
and Marcus Tullius Cicero (Jan. 3, 106-December, 43
b . c.). They were not merely contemporaries, but also
personal friends and political allies. During Cicero’s
consulate for example Figulus was already a senator
and one of Cicero’s closest advisers during the crisis of
the conspiracy of Catiline in 63 b . c . :
W h ile C icero w as in this perplexity, a sig n w as given to
the wom en w ho w ere sacrificing. . . . T h e sacred v irg in s
bade T e re n tia the w ife of C icero . . . to tell him to c arry
o u t his reso lu tio n s in behalf of the country. . . . So T er-
en tia . . . g av e him th is m essage and incited him a g ain st
the c o n sp ira to rs; so likew ise d id his b ro th er Q uintus, and
P ublius N ig id iu s, one of his philosophical com panions, of
whom he m ade the m ost and g reatest use in his political
u n d ertak in g s.203
During those hectic days Nigidius Figulus was also
officially in charge of the minutes of the senate when
the revelation of the innermost secrets of the plotters
was laid before this body.204 So great was the renown
202 F or the date of his death, see Jerome, Citron., Abr. 1972;
N. Figulus Pythagoricus et magus in exsilio m oritur; cf. R.
Helm, Philologus, suppl. 21, 2, 1929 : 54; W. Kroll, R E 17, 1,
1936: c. 200, no. 3,-c. 212.
202 Plutarch, Cicero, 20, 1-2; compare A n s e n i. . . ,2 7 \ Cicero,
epist. ad famil., 4, 13, 2, 7.
201 Cicero, pro Sulla, 14, 42.
63
of his astrological prowess that (falsely!) he was
credited with having prophesied the future grandeur
of Octavius Octavianus, born on September 23 of that
fateful year. The child’s father, arriving late at a senate
meeting, was said to have excused his belated apoear-
ance because of the birth of a son. Thereupon Nigidius
Figulus arose and predicted to the astonished Octavius
“ when he learned the reason of the delay and the hour
of the birth that in that hour the ruler of the world had
been born.” 205 In more detail a later historian related:
Hardly had the child been born when Nigidius Figulus,
a senator, straightway prophesied for him absolute power
This man could distinguish most accurately of his con­
temporaries the order of the firmament and the differences
between the stars, what they accomplish when by them­
selves and when together, by their conjunctions and by the
intervals, and for this reason had incurred the charge of
practising some forbidden art. He, then, on this occasion
met Octavius, who, on account of the birth of the child,
was somewhat late in reaching the senate-house . . . and
upon asking him why he was late and learning the cause,
he cried out, “ You have begotten a master over us.” At
this Octavius was alarmed and wished to destroy the infant,
but Nigidius restrained him, saying that it was impossible
for it to suffer any such fate.206
This story is at variance with the facts. For on Sep­
tember 23 neither was the Catilinian conspiracy on the
agenda nor would a regular meeting of the senate (as
Dio implied) fall on that date of the Julian calendar.207
We are, therefore, apparently confronted with another208
falsification of fact by Dio for the greater glory of
astrological “ accuracy.”
In contrast to the brilliant political career of Cicero,
that of Nigidius Figulus was slow. He became an
aedile, probably after Cicero’s consulate,209 and finally
praetor (58 b . c.).210 He never reached the consulate.
His strongly conservative political convictions kept him
inevitably attached to the senatorial faction during the
first triumvirate. His last major official task seems to
have been an embassy to the east on which Cicero
encountered him in Ephesus when he himself was en
route to his post as governor of Cilicia.211 During the
great civil war Nigidius exposed himself politically to
a greater'extent than his more pliant friend, Cicero.212
20r>' Suetonius, Augustus, 94, 5.
!0<l Cassius Dio, 45, 1, 3-5; cf. Cat. 8 (4) : 99.
207 Drumann-Groebe, 3: 785; compare W . Kroll, R E 17, 1,
1936: c. 200, no. 3,-c. 212.
2°s F or another example, see p. 134, n. 492.
" “ Perhaps in 60 B.C. In that year (December ?) Cicero
wrote—in connection with the trial of C. Antonius—to A tticu s:
“ In a public meeting Nigidius threatens to serve a summons on
a ju ro r who does not atten d ” ; epist. ad A lt. 2, 2, 3.
314 In a letter written between October 25 and December 10.
59 Cicero mentioned Nigidius among the praetors designated
for the following year, whom he considered most friendly
( amicissimos) inclined towards himself; epist. ad Q. fratrem i,
2 , 66 .
211 Cicero Timaeus, 1, 2.
212 Compare Ci:ero, epist. ad A lt. 7, 24 (Febr. 10, 49 b. c.) ;
Luc^nus, Pharsalia 1: v. 639.
64 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
In consequence he payed a heavier penalty. Julius
Caesar ordered him into exile. Apparently Nigidius
Figulus asked his luckier friend to intercede with the
dictator on his behalf. Thereupon in August or Sep­
tember, 46 b . c., Cicero wrote him a long letter, perhaps
the swan-song of the correspondence between the two
old friends.213 The letter itself is a curious mixture of
heartfelt expressions of sympathy, diplomatic attempts
at consolation, and vague promises of continued efforts
on behalf of the exiled humanist.
That Caesar would eventually have pardoned a man
of Nigidius’ scholarly reputation (as he did pardon
V arro) can hardly be doubted. Meanwhile, Cicero
concluded his letter with a few sentences whose pro­
phetic overtones proved accurate :
1 have been asking m yself for some tim e past w hat I had slaughtered boys. A scholiast explained this Ciceronian
best w rite to you. . . . I have no prom ise to m ake, for,
hum iliated as I am by a m isfortune like yo ur own, it is
only by extraneous assistance th at I b ear the w eight of
m y afflictions. . . . B ut lately I was richly blessed in
popularity, influence, and fam e, of all th at there is nothing
left me. I do continue to enjoy C a esar’s extrem e courtesy
to m e ; b ut th at cannot counterbalance violence and revolu­
tion in every other relation of life an d in the tim es them ­
selves . . . I am not only a nuisance to others, . . . but
even to myself.
A n d while h ith erto 1 have been ill a position to offer
my assistance to obscure o r even guilty men, I am now
n o t in a position to make even a prom ise of kindness to
P. N igidius, incom parably the m ost learned an d m ost
v irtu o u s of m en, a t one tim e a universal favorite, and to
me assuredly the best of friends. . . .
W h a t conduct is w orthy of a brave and wise man, w hat
is im peratively dem anded of you by your dignity, your
loftiness of m ind, your past history, the researches and
accom plishm ents for w hich you have been distinguished
from y o u r boyhood— all th a t you w ill see for yourself. I t
only rem ains to me to com fort you. . . . T h e very m an
who h as m ost to say in the m a tte r is decidedly disposed to
sanction your restoration.
My last w ord is th i s : I beg and beseech you to be of
good courage, and to bethink you n o t only of the discoveries
fo r w hich you are indebted to o ther g re a t m en of science,
but also of those you yourself m ade by your own genius
and research . If you m ake a list of them , it will give you
every good hope. . . .
The two friends never saw each other again. Before
Caesar’s well known mercy had time to extend itself to
Nigidius the exile died. As was fitting, Cicero wrote
his epitaph into the very beginning of the Timaeus, the
cosmological treatise in which he endeavored to explain
Pythagorean and Platonic cosmology to the Latin world.
M uch has been w ritten ag ain st the physici in our
A cadem ica, an d m uch has often been discussed w ith P .
N ig id iu s: F o r th at m an w as at the sam e tim e graced
w ith all o th er a rts w hich befit a free m an, as well as
him self an eag er an d diligent in v estig ato r of those m atters
w hich seem by n a tu re cry p tic ; in all I hold th at after
those lofty P ythagoreans, w hose sect, having flourished
fo r sev eral centuries in Italy and S icily, som ehow becam e
ex tin ct, he arose, w ho w as to revive it.214
“ ■Cicero, episl. ad famil., 4,13 (August or September, 46
114 Cicero, Timaeus, 1, 1.
Of all Roman humanists, Nigidius Figulus was the
first to spread into the Latin world the newly revived
cosmic mysticism preached so eloquently by Posidonius,
although the Greek Stoic does not seem to have influ­
enced him directly. Under the name of Pythagoreanism
a veritable school arose in Rome at whose center was
the universalist Nigidius. His connection with magic
was naturally suspected. A Roman Dr. Faustus, he
was apparently accused finally of magic practices.21*
Cicero, who staunchly defended Carneadic and Panae-
tian scepticism, did not hesitate to attack these aspects
of his friend’s new sect at Rome. He accused, for ex­
ample, in an oration Vatinius, a self-styled Pythago­
rean,210 of contacts with those who evoked the spirits
of the dead, or, raising their hands to the gods,
passage by adding:
There lived in those days a certain Nigidius, a man out­
standing in knowledge and scholarly learning. Very many
sought him out. This group by his detractors was criticized
as an objectionable faction, although they themselves wanted
to be considered as Pythagoreans.211
A pseudo-Ciceronian accusation reproached the young
Sallustius, the future historian, of having been tried
twice for joining the "brotherhood of Nigidian sacri­
lege” (sodalicum sacrilegii Nigidiani) ,218 The super­
stitious masses did not, like Cicero, comprehend the
spiritual quality of neo-Pythagoreanism. Legend, for
example, ascribed to Varro, an older contemporary and
a fellow-Pythagorean, an account of a sucessful Nigi­
dian treasure hunt which through magic chants of a
boys’ choir revealed to a certain Fabius where a sum of
500 denarii (which he had lost) were buried.210
Of the numerous writings of the Roman scholar220
one work, On the Gods, combined the Persian doctrine
of the magi about the different eras of the world with
with the Stoic tenets of ekpyrosis and palingenesis,221
thus giving young Vergil an opportunity of acquiring
these ideas which he so poetically expressed some years
after Nigidius' death in the famous fourth eclogue. On
divination Figulus wrote copiously.222 Meteorology also
evoked a treatise of four books from the busy pen of
3,5 Cassius Dio, 45, 1. 3 f.
2:0 Cicero, in Vatinium, 14.
317 Schol. ad Ciccr. in Vat., 14.
,l* Ps.-Cicero, in Sallust, controv., 5, 14.
sl° Apuleius, Apologia, 42. A weird tale!
330 Fragments ed. A. Swoboda, Vienna, 1889; compare M.
H ertz, de Nigidii studiis atque operibtis, Berlin, 1845; J. Klein,
qmestiones Nigidianae, Bonn, 1861. The users of Nigidius'
writings were especially investigated by A. Roehrig, de Nigidic
Figulo, Leipzig, 1887.
”' 1 Compare Geffcken, Die H irten auf dem Felde, H erm es 49,
1914: 321 ff., esp.: 327-337; J. Kroll, Posidonius und V ergils 4.
Ekloge, Hermes 50, 1915: 137-143.
~32 A t least two books on the augurium priva tu m ; Gellius, 7,
6, 10, as well as a work de e x tis ; ibid. 16, 6, 12, and one or two
b. c.). treatises on brontoscopy; John Lydus, de ostentis : 99, 17; com­
pare, however, Bezold-Boll, Sitz.-Ber. A k. Heidelberg 7,1911:11.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLICA N ROME TO ASTROLOGY
the Roman senator. Geography seems to have been
covered by a work On countries, while zoology was
dealt with in a book On animals.22a By far the most
lasting and important contribution made to posterity by
this Roman scholar, however, were two works on the
heavenly sphere, one devoted to the oriental sphaera
barbarica, the other to the Greek sphaera graecanica.224
Astronomers no less than astrologers were indebted to
Nigidius who, at a time when the ultimate triumph of
the sphaera graecanica (the Hellenistic terminology for
stars and constellations) was close at hand, preserved
in his sphaera barbarica a then still well known com*
posite oriental nomenclature.225 Together with M.
Terentius Varro (116-27 B.C.228) P. Nigidius Figulus
represented the first generation of Roman research
scholarship. Both men were universalists in the scope
of their interests and were to live jointly in the memory
of posterity as the greatest Latin scholars.227 The basic
difference between them was one of accent, but the
vagaries, which preserved some works only and con­
signed others to oblivion, did not facilitate a valid
comparison between the two men. Said Servius for
example:
N ig id iu s, how ever, is a fte r V a rro unique. W hile V a rro
excels in theology,2-8 th e other is an o u tstanding u n i­
versalist.'--"
Evidently V arro’s magnum opus, the Antiquities,
human and divine, by then had already completely
eclipsed the earlier and more modest treatise of Nigidius
On the Gods. In so far as astrology was concerned
Varro’s attitude changed as he grew older. At first he
shot an occasional barb at astrological superstition,230
but eventually shared Nigidius’ profound faith in as­
trology which was characteristic of this generation of
Roman humanists. When it came to technical knowl­
edge of this art, however, Varro was unable to cast
actual horoscopes and, in contrast to Nigidius, had to
rely on the technical skill of others. He asked for
example a reputed expert in astrology, L. Tarutius
Firmanus,2"1 to compute for him the horoscope of
Romulus and of the city of Rome which Varro wanted
to include in either his magnum opus or one of his
lesser works.
*“ Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1 in the list of authors for 7-11; compare
Servius, ad Verg. Aen. 11,715.
”s‘ See above, p. 25 f.
325 F o r an excellent evaluation of both works, see F . Boll,
Sphaera : 349 ff.
226 Compare H. Dahlmann, R E , suppl. 6, 1935: c. 1172-1277.
3,7 C/. Gellius, 19, 14, I f . : " T h e time of M. Cicero and C.
Caesar . . . in encyclopaedic learning and in the varied sciences
by which humanity is ennobled . . . possesses two towering
figures in M. V arro and P. Nigidius.”
3!* A somewhat lopsided v erd ict!
329 Servius. ad Verg. Aen. 10, 175.
F o r example in the Sat. Menipp., Lex Maenia, 6, 1, ed.
Riese: 154.
831 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 98.
65
This problem posed a peculiar question. Catarchic
astrology would furnish auspicious dates for the found­
ing of cities, but the claims of fatalistic astrology now
had gone far beyond that. It maintained that from the
very history of a man or a city the constellation could
be computed which must have existed at the moment
of his conception or birth, or at the time of the formal
founding of the city. This absurd hypothesis was ac­
cepted by many, including Varro and Firmanus:
In the time of Varro the philosopher . . . there lived
Tarutius, a friend of his, who besides being a philosopher
and mathematician, had applied himself to the art of casting
nativities, in order to indulge a speculative turn of mind,
and was thought to excel in it.232
According to Cicero who knew him well
. . . our good friend Lucius Tarutius of Firmum, who
was steeped in Chaldaic lore, made a calculation, based
on the assumption that our city’s birthday was on the
Feast of Pales [April 21] (at which tradition says it was
founded by Romulus), and from that calculation Tarutius
even went so far as to assert that Rome was born when
the moon was in the sign of Libra and from that fact
unhesitatingly prophesied our destiny.238
Plutarch recorded a tradition which maintained that
Romulus founded the city on the thirtieth of the month,
and that
on that day there was a conjunction of the sun and the
moon, with an eclipse. . . . To this man Varro gave the
problem of fixing the day and hour of the birth of Romulus,
making his deduction from the conjunctions of events
reported in the man’s life, just as the solutions of geo­
metrical problems are derived; for the same science, he said,
must be capable not only of foretelling a man’s life when
the time of his birth is known, but also from the given facts
of his life, of hunting out the time of his birth.234
The application of the mathematical principle of the
reversibility of functions to the realm of astrology bore
even more miraculous fruit than Varro had bargained
for when asking for the horoscope of Romulus:
. . . Tarutius . . . when he had taken a survey of the man’s
experiences and achievements, and had brought together
the time of his life, the manner of his death, and all such
details, . . . very courageously and bravely declared that
Romulus was conceived in his mother’s womb in the first
year of the second Olympiad [772-771 b . c.] in the month
Choeac of the Egyptian calendar, on the twenty-third day,
and in the third hour, when the sun was totally eclipsed;
and that he was born in the month Thoth, on the twenty-
first day, at sun-rise; and that Rome was founded by him
on the ninth day of the month Pharmuthi, between the
second and third hour.235
Although Plutarch dutifully cited the astrological theory
which “ thought that a city’s fortune, as well as that of
a man, has a decisive time, which may be known by the
333 Plutarch, Romulus, 12, 3 ff.
3,3 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 98.
334 Plutarch, Romulus. 12, 4.
335 Ibid., 12, 5-6.
66 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O RLD
position of the stars at its very origin,” he concluded
his account of Tarutius’ astrological feats on an even
more sceptical note than the one in which he had
reported them:
T h ese an d sim ilar speculations will perhaps a ttra c t readers
by th eir novelty and extravagance, rath er th an offend them
by th eir fabulous ch a ra c te r.238
One hundred and fifty years earlier Cicero, a good
friend of Tarutius, had commented even more acidly:
W h a t stupendous pow er delusion h a s ! A nd w as the city’s
n atal d ay also subj ect to the influence of the sta rs ? 237
Although obviously respected as an astrological ex­
pert by Varro, Tarutius seems to have been an extremist
in his theories, although a measure of them was recog­
nized by more temperate astrologers also. His use of
the Egyptian names for the months 238 was in line with
the syncretistic practice of his time.
The so-called neo-Pythagorean movement whose most
renowned Roman leader, if not founder, was Nigidius
Figulus had gained greatly in strength through the
conversion of Rome’s (next to Cicero) most influential
scholar, Terentius Varro. Men like Nigidius Figulus
and Terentius Varro, who specialized in the rational
historical explanation of religious cults and their divini­
ties, ironically enough themselves became captives of a
new mystique which blended in the manner of Posi­
donius rational and irrational elements in its strange
doctrines. Young Varro had joked, “ Are not astrologi
those men who scribble away depicting the heavens? ” 239
But as he grew older, Varro moved from a youthful
scepticism more and more deeply into the realm of
Nigidian mysticism. His final wish was to be buried
according to Pythagorean ritual,240 and when he died,
almost ninety years old, it was probably fulfilled.
Inevitably his later writings were affected by such senti­
ments. In his Hebdomades he celebrated the mystic
number Seven241 for whose astronomical and astro­
logical values Varro seems to have relied on informa­
tion supplied by his friend Nigidius.242 Numerological
concepts ascriljed to Chaldaeans led to the fear of cli­
macteric years, i. e. all multiples of seven (and nine).243
In his main work, the Antiquities, six books (14-
233 Loc. cit.
237 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 99.
33’ The triumph of the “ Egyptian ” astrological manual of
“ Nechepso-Petosiris ” over its rivals may have been a main
cause of such usage.
330 V arro, Sat. Menipp., Marcipor, 12 (19), ed. Riese: 163.
3,0 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 35, 12, 160: M. V arro Pythagorio modo ■iS L. Aelius Tubero, a friend of both Cicero and Varro.
in mysti et oleae atque populi nigrae foliis (condi maluit) :
quoted perhaps from V arro’s lost autobiography; compare
Charisius, ed. Grammatici Latini 1: 29, 28.
2X1 A synopsis in Gellius, 3, 10; on hebdotnas, especially its
astrological connotations, see F. Boll, R E 7, 1912: c. 2547-2578.
243 Gellius, 3, 10, 2.
Ibid. 3. 10, 9.
19) of the forty-one books 244 were devoted to units of
time (de temporibus). Three of these six books were
entitled On days, On months, On years,245 These writ­
ings (which undoubtedly contained a large measure of
numerological mystique and probably also astrological
applications of it) became, like the rest of the A nti­
quities, for centuries a standard source for other writers.
Pliny the Elder, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Suetonius,
Gellius, Festus, Censorinus, Nonius, and Macrobius
have preserved most of what is known of the entire
work today.
Astrological references permeated V arro’s oeuvre in
general. For example in his de gente populi Romani
he restated the ancient Pythagorean doctrine of rein­
carnation, a theory maintained by certain genethliaci,
that the rebirth of human beings followed a cycle of
440 years for each individual palingenesis. Varro may
have been led by his neo-Pythagorean faith towards at
least quoting without disapproval such an astrological
hypothesis. For which of his works Varro commis­
sioned L. Tarutius Firmanus to compute his strange
horoscopes remains uncertain. The most likely treatises
would seem to be the Antiquities, the Life of the Roman
nation, or the Origins of the Roman people.2** V arro’s
first weather calendar, the Ephemeris navalis, was
written in 77 b . c. It was either revised or followed by
another such work after 46. Undoubtedly it included
a good deal of astro-meteorology. Whether another
essay, the de gradibus, confined itself to degrees of
family-relationship only, or also dealt with numero­
logical or astro-numerological subject matter is being
disputed,247 but it is certain that of the numerous Logis-
torici at least the five books entitled Tubero 248 de origine
humana dealt with Pythagorean topics.240
Inevitably Varro payed his tribute to Pythagorean
doctrine by writing nine books de principiis numerorum,
a subject on which in almost every work he liked to
dwell.280 A special chapter de astrologia was included
in his de disciplinis which was so completely absorbed
by a host of later writers that of its original text next
to nothing remains. Its intention, to be a compendium
2,4 Augustinus, de civitate dei 6, 3 (p art of a section based on
V arro’s writings).
243 Cf. L. Hahn, de Censorial fontibus : 17 ff., Jena, 1905.
243 No work of V arro published after 43 b. c. could be the one
for which Tarutius F irm anus’ horoscope m ight have been
requested. F or Cicero, who died in December, 43, knew it,
referring to this astrological feat more than a year earlier.
2,7 A limited scope is suggested by Dahlmann, R E , suppl. 6,
1935: c. 1255, a wider one by M. Schanz, Beitraege zur ro-
mischen Literaturgeschichte, Rhein. Mus. 54, 1899 : 23 ff.
■4* Censorinus, de die natali, 4-8, dealt with the topic of birth.
Ibid., 9 begins w ith : H ac Chaldaeorum sententia explicata tran-
seo as opinionem Pythagoricam V arroni tractatam in libro qui
vocatur Tubero.
The fragments of V arro, referring to Pythagoreanism, have
been collected by A. Schmekel, de Ovid. Pythagor. doclrinae
adumbratione: 76 ff.; cf. Dahlmann, R E , suppl. 6, 1935: c. 1261.
T H E CONVERSION OF REPUBLICAN ROM E TO ASTROLOGY 67
of the knowledge then considered necessary for an edu­ This author has only recently been identified with some
cated Roman, may have been an outgrowth of that plausibility as a well known figure of the end of the
humanist view, so aptly expressed by Cicero a number Roman republic. Lydus had called him a contempo­
of years earlier: rary of Sallustius and Varro.258 If the new conjecture
is correct, C. Fonteius Capito, a spiritual member of
. . . the w hole co n ten t of these liberal an d hum ane arts the Nigidian circle, to which also men like Varro or
( in g en u a ru m et hum anarum a rtiu m ) is encom passed by a
L. Tarutius Firmanus belonged, was the one who when
single bond of unio n .251
about thirty-six years old became a pontifex, perhaps
The most important users of the work included the at the time when after Julius Caesar’s assassination
elder Pliny, Suetonius, Gellius, and especially Mar- the triumvir M. Lepidus was made pontifex maximus.
tianus Capella, Cassiodorus, Augustinus, and Isidorus Capito seems to have been a keen partisan of Antony.
of Seville. Like Cicero, Varro used astrologia to denote For the triumvir obtained another post for him, possibly
the entire field of astronomy which in his opinion of the tribunate, and Capito was in Antony’s entourage
course also included astrology. This was clearly indi­ when the triumvir went east. Again, in 37 b . c . , Capito
cated by Cassiodorus (sixth century a . d . ) . In the may have played an important role in the short-lived
seventh chapter of his brief de artibus ac disciplinis reconciliation of Antony and Octavianus. Immediately
liberalium litterarum, inscribed de astronomia, he men­ afterwards he returned to Egypt and subsequently ac­
tioned the following pagan authors: Seneca’s de forma companied Cleopatra to Syria.257 In 33 Capito reached
mundi, Ptolemy’s Minor et major astronomus, while the summit of his career: he became consul suffectus.258
“ the most investigative Varro ” (curiosissimus Varro)
The surviving fragments of his writings dealt, as
was referred to twice, both times in regard to the de could be expected from the context in which they ap­
disciplinis, once to book IV (de geometria), and once peared, chiefly with divinatory lore, but also with some
to book VI (de astrologia) It does seem probable calendary matters. Like other members of the Nigidian
that from the.latter stemmed the detailed list of the dif­ and Varronic circles, Fonteius Capito was obviously
ferent subdivisions of what Cassiodorus called astro­ interested in supposedly archaic religious wisdom. Fol­
nomia: None of these was astrological, but with an lowing perhaps the version developed earlier in the
almost audible sigh, Cassiodorus at the end of his first century b . c . by the renowned specialist in Etruscan
discussion of these branches continued:
antiquities, Tarquitius Priscus,250 Capito ascribed the
T h e rem ain in g su b je ct m atter, how ever, w hich is con­ origins of haruspicial techniques to a revelation received
nected w ith the know ledge of the sta rs ( cognitio sid e ru m ), by Tarchon, while ploughing, from Tages who before
is unquestionably c o n tra ry to our [C h ristian ] religion and him arose from the earth to instruct him in these mat­
m ust th erefo re be so com pletely unknow n th at it should ters. Revelatory wisdom was of course a stock item in
seem as if n o th in g on this topic had been w ritte n a t all.253
most divinatory writings, including hermetic literature
He thus omitted what was probably the astrological an d —-in the realm of astrology — for example the far-
part of V arro’s de astrologia, and quoted from Basilius’ famed manual of “ Nechepso-Petosiris.” Of Capito’s
Hexameron ( homilia 6) and Augustinus’ de doctrina astrological writings a mutilated fragment has been pre­
Christiana (2) the condemnation of any interest in or served by Lydus. It begins th u s:
knowledge of astrology. Cassiodorus then concluded his
T h e M oon [probably the S u n ] in C ap rico rn . If it th u n ­
chapter on astronomy resignedly. Having stated from ders in daytim e, a ty ra n t will arise in the co u n tries from
book IV (de geometria) of Varro’s de disciplinis the the N a rro w [R ed ?] S ea to th e N ile b u t will fail in his
theory on the egg-shape of the earth, he added quickly: u n d ertak in g . T h e re w ill be a shortage, especially in pro­
visions. T h e N ile w ill subside, children will d isag ree w ith
B u t fo r us it suffices to know only as m uch as can be th eir p arents, an d th ere will be trouble in som e d istricts
read in th e holy sc rip tu re s.254 w ith the ru lers. T h e P ersian s and the n atio n s of w estern
E u ro p e w ill lead a careless life. If it th u n d ers a t night,
A younger contemporary of Cassiodorus, John Lydus, b arb aria n races will attack one another, and those [o r the
preserved in the middle of the sixth century a . d . some foundations] of the R om an peace w ill be shaken because of
fragments, including at least one astrological passage, some doctrines [o r d e c r e e s ] ; the enem ies will occupy some
districts of the state fo r a sh o rt period. R u lers will appear
from the oeuvre of another Roman adept of divinatory
mysticism and astrological lore: C. Fonteius Capita.255 repeatedly by John Lydus, were one and the same person.
Lydus similarly referred to P. Nigidius Figulus sometimes as
Nigidius, elsewhere as Figulus. Tacitus too called what seems
251 Cicero, de oratore 3, 6, 21.
352 Cassiodorus, de artibus ac disciplinis liberalium litterarum, to have been the same astrologer in one passage Ptolemy, in
another Seleucus; Histories 1, 22; 2, 78.
7 in Migne, Patr. Lat. 70, c. 1217 D ; c. 1218 D.
330 St. Weinstock, op. c it.: 44 and notes.
233 Ibid., c. 1218 C-D.
254 Ibid., c. 1218 D-c. 1219 A. 337 Plutarch, Antony, 36, 1.
233 C IL 1, 2nd ed., Fasti Venusini : 66.
336 St. W einstock, C. Fonteius Capito and the Libri Tagetici.
233 Compare W . Kroll, RE, 2. Reihe, 4, 2, 1932: c. 2392, no. 7,-
Papers of the B ritish School at Rome, 18, N. S., 5, 1950 : 44-49,
c. 2394.
suggests that two authors, Capito and Fonteius, both quoted
68 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
from the West and conduct the public affairs in a lawless
way. Most people will be unhappy, the storms of the winter
severe, and there will be shipwrecks and perilous tossing
of the sea.260
The crude form of these prophecies and the Egyptian
setting of the whole passage do not evoke great respect
for Capito as a writer on such topics. The whole sec­
tion of Capito’s Tonitruale, may, however, in its general
mood of impending doom, have constituted his adapta­
tion of standard texts of this kind to the historical
crisis of the time at which it may have been written—
perhaps about 32 b . c ., when the final war between
Antony and Octavianus had become inevitable and
Egypt might well tremble before the possible collapse
of the fa x Romana and the occupation of Egypt by a
ruler from the west.
A Greek contemporary of Nigidius Figulus, Varro,
and Fonteius Capito was Diodorus the Sicilian. In his
voluminous Universal History he accepted indiscrimi­
nately many items, including travelogues about fictitious
countries, as historical fact. Nevertheless his account
of the origins and nature of astrology in the Mediter­
ranean world reflected the generally held views of his
era, i. e. the very opinions which the Roman writers on
astrology were then exposed to and probably accepted
in most cases. Diodorus was already aware of the
Egyptian claim to priority in matters astrological:
And according to them [i. e. the Egyptians] the Chal­
daeans of Babylon, being colonists from Egypt [sic !] enjoy
the fame which they have for their astrology because they
learned that science from the priests of Egypt.261
But Diodorus realized the dubiousness of such asser­
tions. Speaking of the Chaldaeans, he said (obviously
quoting a different author) :
. . . They [the Chaldaeans] spend their entire life in
study, their greatest renown being the field of astrologia
. . . [and a great many other divinatory disciplines also].
. . . And since they have observed the stars over a long
period of time and have noted both the movements and the
influences of each of them with greater precision than any
other men, they foretell to mankind many things that will
take place in the future.202
In spite of his extravagant claims of having travelled
widely in Asia and Europe, it seems most doubtful that
Diodorus ever penetrated further than Egypt. Meso­
potamia and Athens remained apparently beyond his
ken, but he insisted on having spent a good deal of time
in Rome, and he was certainly fully conversant with
Latin. W hat contacts if any he had in Rome—where
he may have lived between 60 and 40 b. c.—we do not
know. But his very mediocrity would make him prone
to confine himself to the more generally accepted works.
200 John Lydus, de ostentis, ed. W achsmuth : 88, 13 ff.; transl.
and emendations by St. Weinstock, op. c it.: 46 f.
2fll Diodorus. 1, 81, 6.
208 Ibid. 2, 29, 2; 30, 2-3.
For that reason his garbled account of Chaldaean as­
trology, written perhaps not long before Cicero penned
his anti-astrological On divination,™* probably tried to
present the quintessence of the major Hellenistic tra ­
dition on this subject:
B ut above all in im portance, they say, is the study of the
influence of the five sta rs know n a s planets, w hich they call
“ In te rp re te rs ” when speaking of them as a group, but, if
refe rrin g to them singly, the one nam ed K ronos by the
G reeks [i.e . S a tu rn ], w hich is the m ost conspicuous ( ?)
and presages m ore events and such a s a r e of g re a te r im por­
tance than the others, they call th e sta r of H elios, w hereas
the o ther four they designate as the sta rs of A res, A phrodite,
H erm es, and Zeus as do o u r a stro lo g ia *
The source on which Diodorus drew was not, how­
ever, another Stoic one. For
T hese (p lan ets) alone . . . point o ut fu tu re events, thus
in terp retin g to m ankind the design of the gods. . . . T hey
. . . w ork both benefits an d harm , n ot only to w hole peoples
o r regions, but also to k ings an d to persons of priv ate
station. . . . T hese sta rs . . . e x e rt the g re a te st influence
for both good and evil upon the n a tiv ity of m en ; an d it is
chiefly from a study of them th a t they know w h a t is in
store for m ankind. . . . N ow , as the C haldaeans say, the
w orld is by its n atu re etern al, and n e ith e r had a first
beginning no r will a t la te r tim e suffer d estru ctio n , . . .
and . . . w hatever takes place in the heavens is in every
instance brought to 'p ass, n ot a h ap h aza rd , . . . b u t by some
fixed and firmly determ ined divine decision.269
These views did not allow for the appeasement of divine
wrath by proper ritual, but expressed the tenets of fatal­
istic rather than catarchic astrology. In form, but not
in substance, orthodox Jewish and later Christian
opinion, as well as the views of Plotinus’ neo-Platonism
(third century a . d . ) were not dissimilar. They also
considered stars as “ signs ” from which to read divine
plans, but did not believe that those plans were inexor­
able and immutable, nor did they accept the idea that
the stars themselves were destiny-making. Definitely
non-Stoic was the concept of an imperishable universe
(quoted by Diodorus) governed without ekpyroseis
and palingeneseis by divine providence. It is obvious
that, whatever the ancient Chaldaeans actually believed
or did not believe, the Hellenistic writer from whom
Diodorus clipped his disjointed passages on Chaldaean
astrology was in sympathy with the modified views of
the New Academy or even the Panaetian era of Stoicism.
Astral influence was acknowledged as was the revela­
tory function of the heavenly bodies. Denied, at least
by implication, was, however, the concept of the unbreak-
-”a Cicero’s much briefer summary of Chaldaean astrological
theory has been quoted above: 58; see de divinatione 2, 42, 89.
tv ^ '° ^ orus’ ^ 30, 3. In calling Saturn “ most conspicuous"
Diodorus seems to have confused some passage in his source.
t H ere the garbled syncretism -
o Diodorus appears a t its worst in the confused account of the
decani and subdecani, and in the description of the lords of the
twelve houses; ibid. 2. 30. 6-7; 31, 4.ff.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLICA N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
able chain of cause and effect to the exclusion of
free will on both the divine and the human level.
That Diodorus accepted this point of view was in a
sense a sign of the lingering scepticism in both Greek
and Latin intellectual circles. Nevertheless, Diodorus’
source mentioned “ accurate ” astrological prophecies
made to Alexander the Great, Antigonus, and Seleucus
Nicator. Diodorus (i. e. his source) also stressed re­
peatedly 260 that not only the captains and the kings
were deemed worthy of astral attention, but also private
citizens of ordinary station:
M oreover they [the C haldaeans] also foretell to m en in
p riv ate sta tio n w h at will befall them , and w ith such accu ­
racy th a t those w ho have m ade tria l of them m arvel a t the
feat an d believe th a t it tran scen d s the pow er of m an. . . .
T h is p oint, how ever, a m an m ay fittingly m aintain, th at
the C haldaeans have of all m en the g re a te st g rasp of
astrologia.-07
4. T H E L A S T G R E A T S C E P T IC S O F T H E ROM AN
, in 87. Cicero looking back upon those remote years of
R E P U B L IC
The cause of astrology, championed by men of the
calibre of Nigidius Figulus and M. Terentius Varro.
made rapid progress amongst the Roman humanists of
the first century b . c . Shrouded in Pythagorean or
quasi-Pythagorean mysticism, astrology combined the
attractiveness of rationalism with that of religious
conviction. But the adversaries of fatalist astrology,
although fighting a losing battle, were not yet ready to
abandon the struggle. At the end of Rome’s republican
era two men stood out in opposing the claims of scien­
tists and quasi-scientists who asserted that astrology,
as an ^established branch of applied astronomy, rested
on rationally unshakable foundations. The two men
who led the dwindling chorus of sceptics in Rome were
Cicero and Lucretius. It was significant that neither
of them was a “ scholar ” like Nigidius or Varro. Cicero
was a successful lawyer turned politician who harbored
a deep affection for philosophy, Lucretius, on the other
hand, while also an upper-class Roman, seems to have
shunned public life, devoting himself fervently to Epicu­
rean philosophical doctrines which eventually he pro­
claimed in immortal Latin verse. In the battle against
astrology (which for both men was but a part of their
general attack on divination as a whole) Cicero em­
ployed the armament of his favorite school, the New
Academy, Lucretius that of the Epicureans. The chief
difference between them was that the scepticism of the
New Academy was basically nihilistic, while that of
Epicureanism possessed a constructive value in trying
to free men from fear by advocating a materialistic
concept of nature.
The attitude of Cicero towards religion in general,
and divination in particular, was molded by his own
innate reaction to his age and the external intellectual
200 Ibid. 2, 30, 5; compare above, p. 10 f.
2,7 Ibid. 2, 30, 3 and 8.
69
influences to which he was exposed. As a young man
he encountered in Rome the rhetorician Apollonius
Molo 268 who in 87-86 had been sent there as ambassa­
dor from Rhodes. Since Posidonius was the other
Rhodian ambassador on this occasion,269 it is most
likely that young Cicero at this time also made the
acquaintance of the great Stoic. Subsequently Molo
once more went to Rome on an embassy, this time not
to the revolutionary rulers of Rome, but to their counter­
revolutionary conqueror Sulla with whom he dealt in
81 b . c . 270 Meanwhile, however, Cicero had already
found that the philosophical sect most congenial to his
temperament was the New Academy. The Mithridatic
W ar had raged in Greece some years before, involving
Athens deeply and leading to the final ruin of Greece
at the hands of Sulla. Among the scholars who fled
from the scenes of carnage and devastation was the
head of the Academy, Philo, who sought refuge in
Rome while Athens was forced to side with Mithridates
his youth still remembered that in 87 b . c . “ filled with
enthusiasm for the study of philosophy I gave .mvself
up wholly to his instruction.” 2,1
Thus in the same year 87-86 the main representatives
of Stoicism and Platonism, Posidonius and Philo, as
well as the outstanding Greek rhetorician, Molo. were
in Rome, accessible to the twenty-year-old Cicero. To
what extent the enthusiasm then kindled in the breast
of Cicero influenced his decision to prepare a L a t i n
translation of A ratus’ Phaenomena'-7- must needs re­
main conjectural, but that the project aroused his
interest again and again mirrored the growing interest
of educated Romans in the popular astronomical litera­
ture of the Greek east. At a time when his friend,
Nigidius, delved ever more deeply into the lore of
eastern astrology, Cicero remained content with trans­
lating this popular Greek work on astral nomenclature
and related meteorological topics. Nevertheless, Cicero
too must have become familiar at least with the philo­
sophical debate of fatalism versus free will, and possibly
also with the astrological defence of fatalism. For be­
tween 87 and 81 Cicero recalled:
D u rin g all this tim e I spent m y days and n ig h ts w ith
studies of ev ery kind. I w orked w ith D iodotus the Stoic,
who m ade his residence in m y house, and a fter a life of
long intim acy died th ere only a sh o rt w hile ago [59 B. c .].27S
!0! Cicero, Brutus, 89, 307. The suspicion, arising from his
failure to mention Posidonius, Molo’s fellow ambassador, that
Cicero only met Molo when the rhetorician came to Rome alone
in 81 b. c., cannot be proven.
2“" See above, p. 61.
270 Cicero, Brutus, 90, 312.
271 Ibid., 90, 306; Tuscut. disp. 2, 3, 9; 11; 26; Acad. 1, 4, 13;
2, 4, 11; 6, 17; de natura deorum 1, 7, 17.
272 Frgm . ed. Baiter-Kayser, 11:101 ff.; B. Tauchnitz, Leipzig.
1869.
272 Cicero, Brutus, 90, 309; on Diodotus, see also Acad. 2, 36.
115; de natura deorum 1, 36; epist. ad A ttic. 2, 20, 6 (July, 59
B.C.) : “ Diodotus is dead. H e left me about $440,000.” [!]
 70 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W O R LD
But Diodotus, who in the age of Posidonius in all likeli­
hood defended astrology against its Academic enemies,
did not convert Cicero. Dreaming of an active career
in the law courts and eventually in politics he must
have found the concept of man being the maker and in
large measure the master of his own life far more attrac­
tive than the one of dreary submission to an inexorable
immutable Fate.
Political reasons and his apparent inability to sus­
tain the strain which his forensic oratory imposed upon
him persuaded Cicero to leave Rome and, like other
Latin humanists of his kind, betake himself to the
eastern fountainheads of oratorical and philosophical
learning.2' 4 On this voyage which lasted from 79 to 77
b . c. he first spent about six months in Athens. There
he attended the lectures and discussions of the new
head of the Academy, Antiochus of Ascalon,275 but was
open-minded enough to frequent also the auditoria of
Epicureans like Phaedrus and Zeno.276 Demetrius the
Syrian was his favorite professor of rhetoric.277 In the
philosophical center of the Greek world Cicero’s passion
for philosophy apparently reached such height that he
was on the point of devoting himself henceforth mainly
to its pursuit, a decision from which Antiochus of
Ascalon was said to have dissuaded him.278 It reflected
the spirit of Rome’s young humanists that Cicero’s
fellow-students at Athens included, beside his own
brother Quintus, a cousin Lucius, M. Pupius Piso,
and Cicero’s life long friend, the future banker, Titus
Pomponius Atticus,-70 who already then was an ardent
Epicurean and vainly tried to transfer Cicero’s alle­
giance from the Academy to his own school. It should
be noted that these Roman students were mature men,
Cicero himself (having been born on January 3, 106
b . c.) being twenty-seven years old when he set out for
Athens.
From Athens Cicero proceeded to Asia Minor after
a journey through the Peloponnesus, and there devoted
himself chiefly to the study of rhetoric,2S0 but his voyage
reached its educational peak upon his arrival at Rhodes.
There he found the most profound gratification of his
two great loves: the art of rhetoric and the realm of
philosophy. The one was represented by Apollonius
' 7‘ Cicero, Brutus, 91, 313 f .; cf, Plutarch, Cicero, 3, 6; 4, 4.
27s Cicero, Brutus, 91, 315; Acad. 2, 31, 98; 35, 118; cf. 1, 4,
13; Tusciil. (lisp. 5, 8, 21 f . ; de tiatura dcorutn 1, 3, 6 ; Plutarch,
Cicero, 4, 1-4; Cassius Dio, 46, 7, 21.
278 Cicero, de finibus 1, 5, 16; Tusciil. disp. 3, 17, 38; Acad. 1,
12, 46.
577 Cicero, Brutus, 91, 315.
278 Plutarch, Cicero, 4, 3.
2,8 Cicero, de finibus, 5, 1, I f f .; A cad. 1, 4, 14; de legibus 1,
20-21; 54; Sallustius, in Cicer. 1, 2.
280 Cicero, Brutus, 91, 315 f .; 95, 325 f .; pro Platicio, 34, 84;
cf. pro Clueutio, 11, 32; Plutarch, Cicero, 4, 4-7; Caesar, 3, 1;
compare U. v. Wilamowitz-Moellendorf, Der Glaubc der H el­
lene,,, 2 : 436; cf. M. Gelzer, R E , 2. Reihe, 7, 1, 1929: c. 287,
no. 29 ff.
Molo with whose teachings Cicero had already come in
touch at Rome and who now cured him of his youthful
oratorical exuberance; 281 the other’s interpreter was
Posidonius the Stoic. If Cicero had also met him in
87-86 b . c. in Rome, they now renewed their acquaint­
ance. Otherwise, they met for the first time. Cicero
was greatly attracted by the philosopher’s magnetism,282
but even Posidonius was unable to persuade him to his
own way of thinking. The apodictic certainty with
which the Stoic insisted on his concepts of the universe,
on the all-pervading cosmic “ sympathy,” the fated
course linking original causes with ultimate effects, and
hence upon the validity of fatalistic astrology, antago­
nized the Roman sceptic, already fortified wjth the
teachings of the New Academy.
For Cicero’s final stand in the realm of the sp irit283
one must look to the philosophical treatises which he
composed in the last three years of his life, especially
the Tusculan Disputations, On Duties, On Divination,
and Oil Fate. 1. he Nature of the Gods and some earlier
works, for example the Republic, also shed some light
on this point. But real caution is needed in an attempt
to identify Cicero with specific views proclaimed in
his writings, even in passages where he himself is the
speaker in his dialogues. Altogether, however, there
can be no doubt about his fundamental attitude that no
definitive truth about anything could ever be incontro-
vertibly established by man. His didactic aim of familiar­
izing Latin readers with the gist of the major trends in
Greek philosophy caused Cicero to draw freely on the
writings of men whose intellectual importance he
fully appreciated without, however, agreeing with their
Weltanschauung. At all times men like Cicero, and his
philosophical antipodes, Varro and Nigidius Figulus,
considered a fanatical insistence on their own brand of
philosophy as unworthy of a Roman gentleman. Nigi­
dius, the mystic, thus remained to the end of his life
an intimate friend of Cicero, the rationalist. V arro’s
Pythagorean speculations and his faith in astrology and
numerology did not bar close contact with Cicero either,
who made Varro one of the main figures in the Aca-
demica and dedicated it to Rome’s greatest schotar in
return for the promised dedication of V arro’s On the
Latin Language to Cicero. In short, these Romans
were gentlemen before everything else, devoted as
humanists to the pursuit of the best in Hellenistic civili­
zation as they saw it. Their philosophical preferences
remained their personal affair and did not interfere
with their mutual political or scholarly relations. Being
receptive rather than creative they wore their Greek-
inspired creeds gracefully if not lightly.
581 Cicero, Brutus, 91, 316.
’" C ic ero Tusc Disp. 2, 25, 61; cf. de fin. 1, 2, 6 ; de nat.
dear I, 2, 6; dc dwm. 1, 3, 6; 2, 21, 47; de fato, 3, 5 (where
rosidomus is called m agister) .
j n M 7 o ' T ar,y p cero’s philosophical views, see Philipp-
son, R E , 2. Reihe, 7, 1, 1939: c. 1180 ff.
T H E CONVERSION OF REPU BLIC A N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
Acknowledging his allegiance to the Academy,28’1
Cicero joined Philo in assuming the “ probability of
things” against the certainties of Stoicism, the genial
nonchalance of the Epicureans, and the belief of the
Peripatetics in empirical verification, while the nihilism
of the Cynics was too apodictic for the Roman sceptic.
One wonders, however, whether Cicero did not at
an earlier stage in his development feel more friendly
towards astrology than in his de divinatione which he
wrote at the very end of his life. In the years follow­
ing his consulate he wrote a poem On my consulate—
he had held that office in 63 b . c . — and in the second
book of this poem had the Muse, Urania, address him,
the ex-consul, as follows;
A n d w hen you should w ish to learn the motions and
s tra y in g o rb its of th e p lanets (stellarum), w hich are located
in the seat of th e constellations [of the zodiac], sta rs w hich
acco rd in g to th eir nam e and to the false voices of the G reeks
are vagabonds, b u t in tru th are m oved along by fixed
distance an d speed— th en you w ill alread y behold everything
revealed by a d ivine sp irit ( divina mente notata).
F o r you too also first d id st see, w hen you w ere consul,
the sw ift m ovem ents an d the g rav e and in th eir glow co n ­
flicting co n ju n ctio n s o f the sta rs, when you ascended the
snow y top of M ount A lb a and didst sacrifice w ith joyous
m ilk a t the L a tin festival. [T h en also did st you see] the
com ets trem ulous w ith th e ir b rig h t glow .235
After enumerating countless portents of the approach­
ing Catiline peril, the Muse Urania concluded her
addess to Cicero as follows:
Y ou have devoted th e tim e w hich w as free from official
business ( patriae vacat) to studies an d to us [i.e . to the
study of the h e av en s].286
Did Cicero perhaps turn from a Saul who had wor­
shipped at the shrine of astrology into a Paul who later
attacked it? Any reproach, however, that Cicero did
not develop a consistent system of philosophy mistakes
both Cicero’s intentions in writing his philosophical
treatises and the Roman humanist approach to phi­
losophy which was eclectic and by nature opposed to
systematizing. So far as Cicero’s final attitude towards
astrology and other forms of divination is concerned,
we may confine our appraisal to two essays, one On
Fate, and the other On Divination, although references
to fatalism and divination abound in other works of
Cicero also.
Inasmuch as fatalistic astrology was based on the
axiom that an immutable Fate governed the destinies
of nature, and that the stars were responsible for forg­
ing each man’s lot at the moment of his conception or
birth, On Fate gives an unmistakable clue to Cicero’s
=‘* Cicero, de Tusciil. disp. 5, 29, 83, lets the speaker M. reply
to A.—their identities remain uncertain: “ Let me then use the
freedom allowed to my school of philosophic thought [i. e. the
Academy] alone.”
288 Cicero, de divinatione 1, 11, 17-18.
*” Ibid. 1, 13, 22.
71
attitude on this basic point of Stoicism and fatalistic
astrology. The essay itself has survived only in frag­
mentary form. It was written after the two other works
related to it, On the Nature of the Gods, and On Divi­
nation,287 The time of its composition was the spring
after the assassination of Julius Caesar,288 although an
outline or a draft may well have existed before then.
In abandoning the Platonic form of the dialogue Cicero
himself became the sole speaker.289 He promptly attacked
(although respectfully) Posidonius’ defence of omens
and other forms of divination, exclaiming:
If th ere w ere no such w o rd a t all as fate, no such thing,
no such force, an d if e ith e r m ost th in g s o r all th in g s took
place by m ere casual accident, w ould th e co u rse of events
be d ifferen t from w h at it is now ? 290
Cicero apparently drew most of his philosophical am­
munition from Carneades.291 It is wrong to assume—
the lacunae in the extant version being what they are—
that Cicero, writing uncomprehendingly on this difficult
topic, had presented a garbled mixture of arguments.
For not for the first time did he tackle in 44 b . c . the
question of free will versus fate. A letter addressed to
Varro in 46 b . c . revealed that he had discussed this
problem with his Stoic friend the philosopher Diodotus
(who had died in 59 B.C.),292 at least fifteen years
before the composition of On Fate. In reference to
fatalistic astrology, already refuted in the earlier On
Divination, Cicero had this to say:
. . . T h e condition of the heavenly bodies m ay, if you
will, influence som e thin g s, but it certain ly will n o t influence
ev ery th in g .293
This statement was not at variance with his expressed
denial of the validity of fatalistic astrology which it
again ruled out. Catarchic astrology might, however,
pass, and certainly the effect of the sun on the growth of
plants and that of the moon on the tides was so well
known that no general objection to sidereal influences
was tenable.
With Chrysippus as his (or better Carneades’) main
target Cicero reiterated his opinion that all divination,
and especially fatalistic astrology, presupposed an inevi­
table sequence of events, a thesis which he rejected:
I do n o t believe th at those w ho p ractice d iv in atio n d is­
pense en tirely w ith the use of observation in foretelling
287 Cicero, de fato, 1; compare de divinatione 2, 1, 3; cf. 1, 56,
127; 2, 7, 19.
588 Cicero, de fato, 1, 2 ; also epist. ad A ttic. 14, 12, 2 (A pril 23
44 b . c .) ; 11, 2 (A pril 21, 44 b . c .) ; 22, 1 (M ay 14, 44 B. c ) .
288 Cicero, de fato, 1, 1-2, explains his reason for abandoning
his usual dialogue pattern.
‘"•Ibid., 3, 6. '
281 A. Loercher, de compositione et fonte libri Ciceronis qui
est de fato, esp.: 375-384, Diss., Halle, 1907; cf, D. Amand,
Fatalisme . . .: 78-80.
282 Cicero, epist. ad famil. 9, 4, 1.
883 Cicero, de fato, 4, 8.
 72 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD T H E CONVERSION OF REPU BLICA N ROM E TO ASTROLOGY 73
fu tu re events, any m ore than do the p ractitio n e rs of all the astrological astronomers in on era when even a man In Cicero the scepticism of Carneades and Panaetius for her oriental prototype, the goddess of fertility, than
o th er sciences in p u rsu in g th eir own function. W ell then, like Hipparchus considered astrology as a legitimate
h ere is a specim en of the observations of the astro lo g ers: shone brightly for the last time in Rome at the end of for the Graeco-Roman Aphrodite-Venus. “ Thou alone
“ If (fo r instance) a m an was born a t the risin g of the clog- branch of astronomy (de div., 2, 42, 87 f.). Of these the republican era. Except for a short-lived renaissance guidest the cosmos (naturam rerum ),” the poet pro­
s ta r [S iriu s ], he will n ot die a t sea.” 284 crown witnesses Eudoxus, at least in the quotation of of anti-astrological sentiment in the second century a . d . claims. For this reason she is asked to become Lucre­
Cicero, did not specifically refer to horoscopal astrology paganism thereafter overwhelmingly on all levels of. tius’ partner in the enterprise, a rather strange con­
Thereupon this assertion was “ demolished” in the at all. His words seem directed against hemerology cession to convention, considering the fact that the
society accepted to a greater or lesser degree the dogma
next paragraphs. With ice-cold logic the fallacy be­ and star omens. Cicero, however, may have reworded of fatalistic astrology, or, on the lower social levels, whole work is to be devoted to an annihilating blast
tween the " if ” and an immutable fate is exposed,295 Eudoxus’ original statement loosely.802 The fundamental against the gods and religion in general. The remainder
religious concepts of star worship. The most profound
and another blow struck at such “ Chaldaean ” methods. theory of fatalistic astrology (de div., 2, 42, 89) that the of book I is largely filled with Epicurean cosmology
and moving expression of late republican scepticism,
The Epicurean compromise, that atoms by swerving constellations prevailing at the time of birth determined which in itself opposed the gloomy Stoic tenet of
however, did not come from Cicero, but was formulated
,.,unpredic-tat»ly- £rom<-.their .appointed ^downward .motion, •every ■child’s future was snortm gly-rejected: * "W h at for posterity by someone else. periodical ekpyroseis and palingeneseis. Not only mat­
queered fate by the exercise of free will, was deemed inconceivable madness! ” 303 And again: “ W hat utter ter, composed of atoms—no distinction is made between
M. Tullius Cicero’s brother Quintus, the ardent
superfluous,206 in line with Carneades’ trend of thinking madness in these astrologers. . . 304 them and molecules — but also energy is imperishable
defender of divination in the first book of the de divi­
of which Cicero gave the g ist: The arguments borrowed by Cicero from his Greek (vv. 483-634). Nothing is bom from nothing, and
natione, received (some ten years before the treatise
C arneades refused to accept this class of things entirely. sources (but spiced with additional examples of the was written) from a friend 807 a manuscript. Its author, nothing vanishes into nothingness (vv, 164-328). The
. . . H is arg u m en t ran like th is: “ If ev ery th in g takes place futility of fatalistic astrology taken from Roman history a melancholy poet, had killed himself in a fit of insanity book concludes with a triumphant presentation of the
in a closely k n it web of natu ral in terco n n ectio n ; if this is or Roman conditions) were the following: at the age of forty-three.308 The manuscript itself was Aristotelian concept approved by Epicure that the uni­
so, all th in g s are caused by a n e c e ssity ; if th is is tru e
n o th in g is in our pow er. B ut som ething is in our pow er.(1) Twins have different destinies although bom a torso. Furthermore, Quintus found numerous repe­ verse is infinite and eternal (vv. 921-1109).
under the same constellation (de div., 2, 43, 9 0 f.).
Y et if all events take place by fate, th ere a re antecedent titions and other indications that even the finished parts In logical progression book II unfolds the argument
causes of all events. T h erefo re it is n ot the cause th at
(2) The sense of sight needed by the astrologers were not readied for publication. Nevertheless he re­ in favor of free will as against fatalism. The law of
w h atev er events take place take place by fate.29’ ceived a strong impression of the poem and sent the nature governing the motion of all atoms, i. e. of all
for observations of the heavens is fallible (2, 43, 91).
In siding heartily with this argument Cicero took manuscript to his brother, Marcus, whom rightly he con­ matter, is not completely dominant (as the Stoics and
(3) Contrary to the tenets of fatalistic astrology, astrologers maintained), but atoms unaccountably and
his definite stand with the New Academy in rejecting not all people born on earth under the same constella­ sidered a real connoisseur of Latin literature. Cicero’s
both the belief in fate and the faith in divination.298 tion have identical fates (2, 44, 9 2 f .; 45, 9 5).805 extant verdict was pronounced in his reply to his brother. unpredictably do swerve at will from their appointed
The attempt of Chrysippus to arrive at a compromise On February 10 or 11, 54 B.C., almost four months paths:
(4) If the stars, then surely winds and the weather after the author’s death, Marcus Tullius Cicero wrote;
between strict Stoic fatalism and the doctrine of free in general also may influence a child at b irth ; 806 i. e. A gain, if all m otions are co-linked, an d fro m the old
will was deemed a failure. ever arise the new in fixed o rd er, and p rim o rd ial seeds
not the stars alone (2, 45, 94). T h e poem s of L u cretiu s a re ju st as you w rite— w ith
produce n o t by th eir sw erv in g some new sta rt of motion
In his essay On Divination299 whose publication freq u en t flashes of gen iu s, an d yet exceedingly artistic.
(5) “ The parental seed ” also is an important fac­ B u t w hen you com e . . . [w e can discuss the m atter
to su n d er the covenants of F ate, th a t cause succeed n o t cause
immediately preceded On Fate, Cicero, although pro­ from ev erlasting, w hence this free will fo r creatu res over
tor in the future looks, habits, gifts, and outlook of a f u rth e r ] .809
fessing to rely on Panaetius800 rather than on Car­ th e lands, w hence is it w rested fro m the fates— th is will
child (2, 45, 94). Hence the stars alone cannot deter­
neades, pressed his attack against astrology in greater whereby w e step rig h t fo rw a rd w h ere d esire leads each
mine such characteristics. There is little doubt that Lucretius’ de rerum natura m an on, w hereby the sam e w e sw erv e in m otions, n o t as at
detail. Beginning with a general statement, “ My con­
6) Man’s own exertion, or medical prowess often owed its survival to this Ciceronian appraisal. W ith some fixed tim e, n o r a t som e fixed line in space, but w here
tention is that there is no divination,” 801 Cicero, taking the m ind itself has u rg ed ? F o r out of doubt in these affairs
great tact the two brothers entrusted the publication of
up one kind of divination after another, arrived at as­ cure “ natural defects ” with which a child is born (2, ’tis each m an ’s w ill itself th a t g ives th e sta rt, an d hence
the torso to Atticus, himself like Lucretius a disciple
trology (de div., 2, 42, 87, 3, 47, 99). In general he 46, 96). th ro u g h o u t o u r lim bs incipient m otions are diffused (2 , vv.
(7) Milieu and local traditions make men different, of the Epicureans.819 251-262).
used in this discussion the ancient term Chaldaean for
astrologers and their craft. Occasionally, however, he whether or not they are born under the same constella­ Lucretius’ presentation of the Epicurean attitude
towards fatalistic astrology centered on a discussion of It is easy to dismiss this reasoning in the light of
included " Chaldaean ” prophetic claims among those tion (2, 46, 96 f.). our modem scientific knowledge of biochemical and
made by astrologi, i. e. astronomers. As his chief sup­ (8) The assertion of age old observations providing the nature of the cosmos and the question of free will.
The tragedy of the poet was that, after convincing him­ hereditary material influences which physically “ con­
porters in his stand against astrology Cicero named the the scientific proof of astrological claims is fraudulent dition ” man. Yet ultimately what drearier aspect of
great mathematician, Eudoxus (fourth century B.C.), (2,46, 97). self and his readers time and again of the satisfactory
solution of man’s fundamental problems by means of a the human species and the world at large is there than
the Stoic Panaetius (second century b. c.), and Panae­ As an epilogue of his own Cicero added as examples to view everything as a gigantic clockwork or as the
tius' contemporaries, the astronomers, Anchialus, Cas- the fate of the Romans who on one and the same day serene Epicurean rationalism—quite different from the
somersaulting scepticism of the followers of Carneades! puppet-show of a supreme puppeteer or clockmaker?
sander, and Scylax — apparently a minority of anti- died at Cannae, the ridiculous astrological labors of Fortunately the very atoms of Democritus and Epicure
—in the end he could not overcome his own gnawing
Tarutius Firmanus, and the demonstrably false astro­ pesssimism about the ultimate validity of mundane now help to dispel such notions by their weirdly inex­
281 Cicero, de jato, 8, 15.
S,J Ibid., 8, 15-16; for example: "T h e re are many ways of logical forecasts of a happy end for Pompey, Crassus, things. plicable, and seemingly wholly irrational behavior. Yet
stating a proposition, and none is more twisted around than this and Julius Caesar each of whom perished by unex­ fatalism in the guise of scientific conceit struts as dan­
The poem opens with an invocation of Venus, the
one, which Chrysippus hopes that the Chaldaeans will accom­ pected violence (2, 47, 97-99). gerously today as it did when cloaked behind the
modate the Stoics by accepting. Yet none of the Chaldaeans legendary ancestress of Rome through Aeneas the
venerable facade of supposedly age-old " scientific ”
really use that [Stoic] language, for it is a bigger task to 302 See above, p. 9. Trojan. She is described in glowing terms more fitting
familiarize oneself with these contorted modes of expression JM Cicero, de divinatione 2, 43, 90.
astrology in the time of Lucretius.
than with the risings and settings of the constellations.” 304 Ibid. 2, 45, 94. 307 See F. Muenzer, E in roemischer Epikureer, Rhein. Mus. 69, Linked with the question whether’ or not the h’uman
Cicero, de fato, 10, 22 ff. ”88 Astrologers countered this challenge by developing an 1914 : 625-629. Saufeius may have been the man who gave the body was a mere machine, a point of view again ex­
’" Ib id .. 14, 31. astrological geography of their ow n; for instance Ptolemy, poem to Q. Cicero. pressed for example in Lamettrie’s L ’homme machine
8,8 Ibid., 14, 32 ff. Telrabiblos 2, 1 and for details, 2-5; compare F . Cumont, La 308 O n the age and other dates of Lucretius (97-55 b . c .) , see in the eighteenth century and often repeated since, was
390 Compare Philippson, R E , 2. Reihe, 7, 1, 1939: c. 1156-1161. p lM«anC‘®nne seographie astrologique, K lio 9, 1909: 263-273. Mewaldt, R E 13, 1927: c. 1659 ff.
808 Panaetius’ On providence was probably the source referred to. ’ “ Again the astrologers countered such objections; see for ““ Cicero, epist. ad Quint, jratrem 2, 11 (9 ), 3. to Lucretius the problem of the freedom of man’s mind.
801 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 20, 45. example Ptolemy, Telrabiblos 1, 10; 2, 2. 810 Mewaldt, loc. cit. In ringing verses which in our own age of rampant
74 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
statism have a particularly melancholy sound, the poet
hoped:
. . . seest thou not, how though ex tern al force drive m en
before, an d often m ake them m ove o nw ard ag ain st desire,
an d headlong snatched, yet th ere is som ething in these
b reasts of ours stro n g to com bat, stro n g to w ithstand the
sam e— w herefore no less w ithin th e prim al seeds thou m ust
adm it, besides all blows and w eight, some other cause of
m otion, w hence derives this pow er in us inborn, of some
free act. S ince nau g h t from nothing can become, we see.
. . . B ut . . . m an’s m ind itself in all it does hath not a
fixed necessity w ithin, no r is it like a conquered thing,
com pelled to b ear an d suffer. . . . (2, vv. 277-291).
W hat with Chrysippus had been a feeble attempt of
distinguishing between inexorable laws of nature and a
small separate sphere of free will, was systematically
developed by the Epicurean concept of a twofold nature
of each atom and thence all their combinations. Subject
to the cosmic law of motion each particle of matter
nevertheless contained within itself a measure of free
will, a view apparently confirmed by the behavior of
our mesons, protons, neutrons, neutrinos and their kin.
Lucretius’ rejection of fatalism and astrology did not
blind his sensitive soul to the wonders in the heavens:
Look u pw ard yonder a t the b rig h t clear sky and w hat it
holds— the sta rs th at w ander over, the moon, th e radiance
o f the splendor— su n : Y et all, if now they first of m ortals
w ere, . . . w hat m ight th ere be m ore w onderful to tell,
w h at th at the nations w ould before have dared less to
believe m ight be?— I fancy, nau g h t— so stra n g e had been
the m arvel of th a t sight (2, vv. 1023 ff.).
Astronomical problems like lunar or solar eclipses
were dealt with in an undogmatic manner, a Chaldaean
(wrong) theory of the moon’s surface, for example,
peacefully juxtaposed with the (correct) Greek hypothe­
sis (5, vv. 509-768 are devoted to astronomy, vv. 720 ff.
dealing with the Chaldaean and Greek opinions on the
surface of the moon). Mundane phenomena like light­
ning, meteors, and earthquakes were discussed in the
last extant book, the sixth, but nowhere was the slightest
concession made to fatalist astrology. Astrometeorology
at best might be accepted by Lucretius as it was by
Cicero, the translator of Aratus’ P h a e n o m e n a .
Lucretian Epicureanism denied basic popular con­
cepts. It frowned on all religion, believed the very soul
of man to Ije as mortal as his body. Such views would
never hold with a majority among Rome’s humanists,
not to mention the h o i polloi. Neither society at large,
nor the Roman government could prosper or even func­
tion without religious institutions of some sort. No one
realized this more clearly than the man, confronted
with the enormous task of reorganizing the Roman
empire after the cataclysm of the revolution, which had
begun with the Gracchi in 133 b . c . and now had finally
destroyed the foundations of the old aristocratic order.
In Julius Caesar crystallized an attitude which was
typical of the best gentlemanly traditions of the late
Roman republic in so far as acceptance or rejection of
astrology was involved. That Caesar believed “ in his
star,” or better in Fortuna’s favoring him, may have
inspired the anecdote, according to which he encouraged
a timid skipper (who wanted to turn back to port
during a tempest) to press on, since with Caesar and his
Fortuna ( T y c h e ) 311 on board no harm could possibly
befall him.
The disdain of omens and divination Caesar shared
with men like Cicero and Lucretius. The horoscopes
which astrologers cast for him, promising him a peace­
ful death at the zenith of good fo rtu n e/18 did not im­
press him. For on the last evening of his life he hoped
for an unexpected death, i. e. obviously not for one
forecast to the hour by astrologers. The fearful dreams
of his wife, Calpurnia, and the (probably astrological)
warning of the h a r u s p e x S purinna818 to beware of the
Ides of March did not change his decision to attend
the fateful senate meeting. His hesitation to do so was
caused by his regard for Calpurnia, not by fear of
omens, dreams, or horoscopes. Nevertheless, it would
be a mistake to assume that Caesar remained wholly
unaffected by the tidal wave of faith in Hellenistic as­
trology which swept across his generation. He seems
for example to have applied astrological principles in
the selection of Taurus, the “ house ” of Venus (the
legendary ancestress of the Julian family), as the
standard for his legions, thus setting a precedent for
subsequent choices of sig n a for the military forces of
the empire.614 Yet Caesar’s character was of so well-
balanced a nature that one should not read into this
action more than what was perhaps a skillful exploita­
tion of his soldiers’ faith in astrology rather than a proof
of his own unquestioning belief in the lucky stars of a
constellation especially assigned to Venus.
The epochal contribution of Julius Caesar in the his­
tory of calendar-refornis was, however, a definite indi­
cation of his interest in astronomical matters. The solar
year had long been known in Egypt. It had been
adapted by Hellenistic astronomers who established a
solar-lunar calendar.315 It is possible, although it cannot
be proven, that Caesar became aware of its merits during
his prolonged sojourn in E g y p t210 after the battle of
Pharsalus. At any rate he decided in 47 b . c . that the
old Roman calendar had become so inaccurate that it
31t On Fortuna, sec Otto, R E 7, 1912: c. 12-42; on Tyche G.
Herzog-Hauser, ibid., 2. Reihe, 7, 2, 1943: c. 1643 ff.
31! Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 99.
Compare Muenzer, R E , 2. Reihe, 3, 1929: c. 1888.
This theory, developed by A. v. Domaszewski, Die T ier-
bilder der signa, A rchiv f. epigr. M ilteil. IS, 1892: 182-193; 17,
1, 1894 : 34, has been seriously questioned—and with good
reason—by Bouche-Leclercq: 554, n. 2.
311 O. Neugebauer, The exact sciences : 80 ff.
“ * Cassius Dio, 43, 26, 2 ; Appian, bell. civ. 2, 21, 154; Macro-
bius, Saturn. 1, 14, 2 : [Caesar] post hoc imitatus Aegyptios . . .;
16, 39: Julius Caesar ut siderum motus, de quibus non indoctos
libros reliquit, ab Aegyptiis disciplinis hausit; compare Lucanus,
Pharsalia 10: vv. 185 ff.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLIC A N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
should be replaced by an empire-wide calendar, based
on the best available astronomical data. This calendar
was to include the transition from the luni-solar to the
purely solar year. Accordingly
. . . C aesar laid th e problem before the best philosophers
an d m ath em atician s, and o u t of the m ethods of co rrectio n
w hich w ere alread y a t hand com pounded one of h is ow n
w hich w as m o re accu rate than any.317
It would have seemed superfluous to call upon a com­
mittee if Caesar already knew how to compound’existing
methods into a working new calendar. Perhaps Pliny,
who injected one passage on the calendar reform into
his N a tu r a l H is to r y , supplied an explanation:
. T h e re w ere th ree m ain schools, the Chaldaean, the
E g y p tian , and the G r e e k ; and to these a fo u rth was added
in o u r co u n try by C a esar d u rin g his dictatorship, w ho w ith
the assistan ce o f th e learn ed astronom er Sosigenes ( S o s i-
gene p c n to scien tia e eitts adhibito) b ro u g h t the se p ara te
years back into co n fo rm ity w ith the course of the sun.3' 8
If the committee, described by Plutarch, was actually
convened — and there is little doubt that it was — its
recommendations were probably sifted by Sosigenes
and then submitted to Caesar.
Some details were added by Cassius Dio who,
however, failed to mention either the commission or
Sosigenes in connection with the calendar reform.
According to Dio:
. . . C aesar also established in th eir p resen t fashion the
days of the y ear, w h ich had g o t som ew hat out of ord er,
since th ey [th e R o m an s] still at th at tim e m easured th eir
m onths by th e m oon’s rev o lu tio n s; he did this by adding
sixty-seven days, th e num ber necessary to b rin g the y ear
out even. H e got th is im provem ent from his stay in A lex ­
an d ria, save in so fa r as the people there reckon th eir
m onths a s of th irty days each, and afterw ard s add th e five
days to th e y e a r a s a w hole, w h ereas C aesar distrib u ted
am ong seven m onths these five along w ith tw o o th er days
w hich he took aw ay fro m one m onth [F e b ru a ry ], T h e one
day, how ever, w hich resu lts fro m the fo u rth s he introduced
into ev ery fo u rth y e a r [as F e b ru a ry 29]. . . .3l°
The reason for Caesar’s deviation from the simple
Alexandrinian scheme must have been a desire to pre­
serve as much conformity as possible with the traditional
Roman pattern of the months and their well established
dates for festivals and memorial dates. The results, for
example the fact that December and January, as well
as July and August, are two consecutive months of
thirty-one days each, are still with us today.
As p o n tife x m a x i m u s Caesar was directly responsible
317 Plutarch, Caesar, 59, 3.
318 Pliny, Nat. H ist. 18, 57, 210 f. It has been suggested that
Sosigenes had nothing to do with the calendar reform, but was
employed by Julius Caesar only as collaborator for the de astris,
a Latin parapegm a; A. Rehni, R E, 2. Reihe, 3, 1929: c. 1153,
no. 6-c. 1157. It seems incredible, however, that Caesar should
not have submitted the committee’s recommendations also to a
specialist of his own choosing.
310 Cassius Dio, 43, 26, 1-3.
75
for the maintenance of an accurate calendar. His prede­
cessors out of ignorance or lack of interest had allowed
the Roman calendar to disintegrate to such an extent
that, for example, the F lo ra lia , the great spring festival,
now had to be celebrated in the summer.320 A less
courageous reformer might have been satisfied with
the correction of the sixty-seven day error then exist­
ing, but Julius Caesar once and for all decided that the
best scientific calendar available should be adopted,
allowing only for modifications which did not alter the
basic astronomical span of the solar year in which twelve
—originally lunar—months were retained for the sake
of tradition and convenience.321 No educated Roman
could deny that a radical calendar reform was overdue.
In his L a w s (begun probably in 52, but not completed
until the time of Caesar’s reform) Cicero, no political
friend of Caesar, admitted the gross laxity of previous
p o n tific e s in permitting the Roman calendar to become
“ now obsolete.” 322 Nevertheless, it was a bitter pill
for him, and even more so for Rome’s more violent
anti-Caesareans, that the hated dictator was now reap­
ing the glory of so important an achievement.323 The
resentment, whether aimed at the new calendar or at
the treatise d e a str is of Caesar, found an expression in
Cicero’s well known joke transmitted by Plutarch:
. . . W h en som e one rem ark ed th at L y ra would rise on
the m orrow , [C icero ] sa id : “ Y es, by decree,” im plying
th a t men w ere com pelled to accept even this dispensation.324
The key role of Sosigenes, although Caesar, working
with only one scribe, M. Flavius, was credited with the
final drawing up of the great scheme,325 was of a dual
nature. In working out the details of the transition on
the basis of a committee report, he not only was instru­
mental in assuring the final success of Caesar’s great
enterprise,320 but also provided the dictator with the
materials for the d e a stris, a new Latin p a ra p e g m a . An
earlier attempt on the part of Ptolemy Euergetes in 239
b . c. to introduce a “ fixed ” year in Egypt had come
to naught, but now the new Julian calendar at the end
of 46 b . c. began its triumphal march across the entire
world. White the preparation of this project undoubtedly
added to Caesar’s astronomical knowledge, he remained
the layman whose political power was merely used to
impose the improved calendar on the Roman world.
Yet at this very time was also published a treatise de
a str is whose authorship from the very first was attri­
buted to Caesar. It was a new version of the old Roman
820 Suetonius, Caesar, 40, 1-2.
381 The legendary king Numa was credited with having estab­
lished the year of twelve m onths; Livy, 1, 19; Plutarch, Caesar,
59, 2; Cicero, de legibus 2, 12, 29.
828 Cicero, toe. cit.
38:1 Plutarch, Caesar, 59, 3.
324 Plutarch, toe. cit.
38,1 Macrobius, Saturn. 1, 14, 2.
380 Macrobius, toe. cit. ; cf. Censorinus, de die natali, 20. Both
authors may have relied on Suetonius’ de anno Rotnanorum.
76 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W ORLD
" Farm er’s Almanac ” which provided its readers with
what was considered reliable information on the con­
nection between the stars’ movements and the seasons,
as well as the weather to be expected.327
That Caesar himself engaged in astronomical observa­
tions for the purpose of composing his de astris may
be considered as a pious myth. More probably he had
read as a young man the Phaenomena of Aratus, and
when deciding upon his new astronomical calendar
undertook at the same time to prepare a parallel weather-
calendar. The materials for this almanac were proba­
bly gathered from hellenistic models by Sosigenes.328
Among the users of the long-lived de astris were Colu­
mella (middle of the first century a . d . ) , his contempo­
rary, the elder Pliny, and subsequently Ptolemy, perhaps
also Firmicus Maternus, and definitely, as late as the
sixth century a . d ., John Lydus in his de ostentis,320
It seems that Sosigenes soon after the publication of
the de astris suggested in three successive treatises
improvements of the almanac.330 While the Alexan-
drinian scholar had supplied the original data (which
the already mentioned scribe M. Flavius may have put
together into a Latin d r a f t) /31 Caesar himself took the
responsibility for the final official Latin version which
he probably wrote himself. This would be sufficient
reason for the publication of the de astris under his
own name.
If Mommsen’s suggestion is correct, the Julian calen­
dar and Caesar’s de astris were officially introduced at
the same time. The calendar reform thus would have
consisted of two parts, the one astronomical, the other
astro-meteorological. It bespeaks the reputation which
the de astris still enjoyed more than a century after
Caesar’s death that Pliny chose to follow it in prefer­
ence to any other parapegma when presenting (Nat.
Hist., 8, 56, 201 ff.) his own condensed almanac. Said
he ( 1 8 , 57, 214) : “ We follow mostly the observation
of Caesar.” Some samples may best illustrate the
nature of Caesar's de astris. For instance:
W e w ill s ta rt from the sow ing-tim e of w heat, th a t is
fro m the m o rn in g se ttin g of the P le ia d s; an d we need not
in te rru p t ou r explanation an d increase the difficulty of the
su b ject by m entioning the m inor sta rs, inasm uch as it is a t
the sam e date th at the storm y constellation of O rio n sets
357 F or a Greek parallel, compare the section on weather signs
in A ratus’ Phaenomena (vv. 733 1154, or 1-422 if counted as a
separate w ork). Theophrastus too wrote a work 7r«pi annular.
H is authorship has been questioned, however.
ass ■■Research » (jy Sosigenes, as well as Cidenas about the
limit of M ercury’s elongation may have been incorporated in a
book on planets, but did not affect the calendar and the de astris;
Pliny, N at. Hist. 2, 6, 39.
325 Ptolemy, phaseis (ipdffeu &T\dvivv affripuv (cai avpaywyij
eTiaritiaiwv), ed. Halma, P a r is : 67, 9; cf. John Lydus de ostentis,
ed. W achsm uth: 155, 7; 191; see Groebe, R E 10, 1919: c. 259,
no. 131, ff., esp. c. 266.
330 Pliny, N at. H ist. 18, 57, 212; cf. A. Rehm, R E , 2. Reihe,
3 : c. 1154, 1929.
381 Compare Th. Mommsen, Roemisclie Geschichte 3: 550, n. 1.
after its extensive course. . . . F o r nine days a fter the
risin g of the Crow n th e re is an alm ost certain expectation
of rain. . . ,83-
J o what extent the weather making propensities of
some constellations influenced the economic activities in
Rome was amusingly illustrated by an example involv­
ing the setting of the Pleiads on November 10:
Even clothes dealers go by th at constellation, an d it is
very easy to identify in the sk y ; consequently d ealers out
to make money, who are carefu l to w atch fo r chances, m ake
forecasts as to the w inter from its s e ttin g : th u s by a cloudy
settin g it foretells a w et w in te r, an d they a t once raise
the prices for cloaks, w h ereas by a fine w eath er se ttin g it
foretells a h ard w inter, an d they screw up the prices of
all other clothes.333
A simple countryman “ not learned in astronomy ”
(indocilis caeli) would, however, have to rely on sim­
pler prognostics. Again and again Pliny referred to
“ Caesar’s observations,” "34 especially for the weather-
calendar after mid-winter. Another example may be
quoted:
Betw een the period of vyest w in d and the sp rin g equinox,
F e b ru a ry 16 for Caesar m ark s th ree days of changeable
w eather, as also does F e b ru a ry 22 by the ap p earan ce of the
Sw allow and on the n e x t day the risin g of A rc tu ru s in the
evening, and the sam e on M arch 5— Caesar noticed th a t this
bad w eather took place a t the risin g of the C rab, b u t the
m ajo rity of authorities p ut it a t the se ttin g of th e V in ­
tag er— on M arch 8 a t the risin g of the n o rth e rn p a rt of the
F ish, and on the next day on the ris in g of O rio n . . .
Caesar also noted M arch 15— the day th a t w as to be fatal
to him— as m arked by th e se ttin g of th e Scorpion, but stated
th a t on M arch 18 the K ite becom es visible in Ita ly an d on
M arch 21 the H o rse sets in the m o rn in g .335
The de astris inevitably must be used as one of our
chief sources of information on Caesar’s attitude towards
astrology. Assuming that he did not promulgate this
weather calendar for political reasons only, but also
because he believed in the scientific theories of astro-
meteorology, one may perhaps find in Pliny’s almanac
a reflection of Caesar’s beliefs. For example in the
Natural History (18, 68, 268-271) the text referred to
the de astris as follows:
Between the solstice and the se ttin g of the L y re, on Jun e
26 by C aesar’s reckoning, O rio n rises, an d O rio n ’s B elt on
Ju ly 4. . . . O n Ju ly 14 O rio n ceases risin g fo r the
Egyptians, and July 17 P rocyon rises fo r A ssy ria, and then
three days later the g re a t constellation . . . w hich w e call
the risin g of the D o g sta r . . . th is occurs on the 2 3 rd day
after m idsum m er. I ts risin g influences both the sea and
the lands . . . n o r is th is constellation less reverenced than
the stars that are assigned to va rio u s gods [i. e. the p lan ets].
. . . O n Ju ly 20 the E a g le sets in the m o rn in g fo r E gypt,
333 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 18, 223,-60, 224.
333Ibid. 18, 60, 225-226. The passage’s authenticity has been
suspected.
334 F or instance, ibid. 18, 64; 234; 63, 237; 66, 246 f.; 248;
67, 255 f .; 68, 268.
333 Ibid. 18, 65, 237.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLICA N RO M E TO ASTROLOGY
and th e breezes th at h erald the seasonal w inds begin to blow,
w hich in C a esar’s opinion is perceived in Italy on Ju ly 23.
. . . A n d th e R oyal S ta r in the b reast of the L ion rises,
acco rd in g to C aesar, on the m o rn in g of Ju ly 30. . . . O n
A u g u st 11 the se ttin g of the L y re b rin g s the beginning of
autum n, acco rd in g to C aesar’s note, b u t a tru e calculation
h as discovered th a t the date of this is really A u g u st 8.
W ith Caesar referred to time and again in the above
passage Pliny may well have taken the italicized pas­
sage out of the very text of the de astris, and even if he
did not, but merely interjected it as his own remark,
he could not but express the opinion stated in the
almanac of Sosigenes-Caesar. Immediately afterwards
(N . H„ 1 8 , 272) Pliny wrote:
In th is in terv al the crisis for the vines occurs, the c o n ­
stellation w hich we have called the L ittle D og deciding the
fate of the grapes.
The constellation is referred to as decretorio sidere,
allowing for no doubt of its supposedly decisive power
over the vineyards. Elaborating on the topic of sinister
astral powers over certain crops, Pliny divided it into
two sections ( N . H . , 1 8 , 69, 278f.)
. . . T h e re a re tw o k inds of dam age done by the heavens.
O ne w e en title tem pests, a term understood to include h ail­
storm s, h u rrican e s, an d the o th er thin g s of a sim ilar n atu re,
the occu rren ce of w h ich is term ed exceptionally violent
w e a th e r; these tak e th eir o rig in from certain noxious con­
stellations, . . . fo r in stance A rctu ru s, O rio n , the K ids. T h e
o th er is [due] [to ] those [phenom ena] w hich occur w hen
the sky is quiet.
By emphasizing that he, Pliny, was the first one to treat
the second category he made it plain that the first type
had been the subject of earlier treatises, including
undoubtedly the de astris, Pliny’s favorite source on
astrometeorology.336
Altogether the de astris was apparently not imbued
with a belief in fatalistic astral powers — Nature re­
peatedly was called merciful—but with the assumption
of a strong and occasionally decisive influence exerted
by stars and constellations upon the plant-life on earth
by means of the weather; i. e. the astral influence was
indirect, but it was causally acknowledged. Intrinsically
a certain astral influence on human affairs was also
admitted. For, as in the example of the textile mer­
chants, the character of a season might influence human
behavior as well, a fact which the seasonal incidence of
certain diseases would demonstrate even to the layman.
In the absence of any conclusive evidence to the con­
trary, one can only admit a belief on the part of Caesar
in the weather-making propensities of the stars. Even
this power was not held to be absolute, because different
constellations might cancel each other’s influence, or at
least weaken it. If Caesar, therefore, believed in any
kind of astrology, he could at the most tend towards
333 During the latter part of this section Pliny quotes chiefly
from V arro, but beginning with N at. Hist. 18, 74, 309 ff.,
Caesar’s de astris again becomes Pliny’s m ajor source.
77
catarchic astrology. He was not like his noble but
dreary opponent, the younger Cato, a Stoic. Nor would
he feel like a mere puppet of fate. H is.entire career
belied such an interpretation of life. Only by the exer­
tion of his own ingenuity, courage, and worldly wisdom
had he arrived at the supreme power. He might assume
that benevolent Fortuna stood invisibly by his side, but
not that he was a pawn on Fate’s chess-board.
Julius Caesar thus was one of the last humanists of
the kind which a hundred years earlier men like Q.
Aelius Tubero and the members of the Scipionic circle
had represented. Welcoming the scientific achievements
of the hellenistic world, he nevertheless retained a salu­
tary dosis of Roman scepticism towards the extravagant
claims of diviners, including astrologers. There can
hardly be a doubt that the already mentioned celebrated
haruspex Spurinna arrived at his famous prophecy by
means of astrology. He may have been the same sum-
nius haruspex who warned Caesar in 46 b . c . “ not to
cross over to Africa before the winter solstice.” 337
Caesar had then disregarded his prophecy and won the
campaign. Cicero, who knew Spurinna personally quite
well,338 vented his scepticism about all divination when
referring to him. In any case it is not likely that a
prophecy like the one of 46 was arrived at solely, ,or
even chiefly through haruspicial techniques. Astrology,
or at least astrometeorology was the likelier source of
such a prediction. Even more definitely must this be
assumed with regard to Spurinna’s warning that Caesar
should beware of the Ides of March. Catarchic astrol­
ogy, not haruspicial arts,839 would lead to this kind of
a prophecy:
He should beware of a danger which would not threaten
him beyond the Ides of March. . . .34° [Spurinna] had
foretold C. Caesar to beware of the next thirty days whose
last one was March 15 as deadly dangerous ones (quasi
fa ta le s).3*1
Plutarch too reported this prophecy without, how­
ever, naming Spurinna.342 When the Ides of March
had arrived, Caesar, remembering countless similar pre­
dictions which he had disregarded without evil conse­
quences, happened to see Spurinna on the morning of
the fateful day. He chided him, only to receive the
well-known reply that the Ides were not yet over.843
Posterity, as usual, chose to remember one of the few
accurate prophecies and forgot the false ones which
had preceded it. The inconvenient memory of men
337 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 24, 52.
338Cicero, epist. ad fantil. 9, 24, 2.
333 Suetonius, Caesar, 81, 2.
3.0 On an earlier occasion Spurinna had given Caesar anoth:r
haruspicial w arning; Cicero, de divinatione 1, 52, 119; 2, 16, 37;
Pliny, N at. H ist. 11, 71, 186 f . ; V alerius Maximus, 1, 6, 13.
3.1 Valerius Maximus, toe. cit.
342 Plutarch, Caesar, 63, 3; cf. Appian, bell. civ. 2, 16, 116;
21, 153.
343 Plutarch, loc. c it.; Suetonius, Caesar, 81, 4 ; Valerius
Maximus, 8, 11, 2-3.
78 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W ORLD
like Cicero was the exception, not the rule. A fervent
believer in all kinds of divination, Cassius Dio eventually
provided a triumphant explanation of Caesar’s reckless
disregard for omens and other predictions as being due
to Caesar’s fatalist concept of life:
B ut since it was fated th at he should die at th at time,
he n o t only paid no attention . . . , but would not even
listen to some one who w as offering him inform ation on
the plot.344
This allusion to the scroll, on which the Greek pro­
fessor, Artemidorus, had written a warning and given
the names of some of the conspirators — a last minute
chance offered to Caesar to uncover the plot—provided
the natural climax to Dio’s fatalist version of Caesar’s
death. Taking his special seat in the senate chamber a
few minutes after encountering Spurinna and Artemi­
dorus, the dictator was trapped. A few minutes later
he lay dead at the feet of a statue of Pompey.
The death of Caesar led to that of Cicero. With these
two men an important era in the history of astrology
in the Latin West came to an end. No longer did great
sceptics raise powerful voices against the champions of
astral fatalism. The disciples of Nigidius Figulus and
Varro, men of the type of Tarutius Firmanus for ex­
ample, began a long reign. Caesar’s death, however,
did not revive the ancient republic. The new monarchy,
often piously referred to as a dyarchy, which Caesar’s
grand-nephew, Octavius, launched on the road to
success, ushered in an era of almost universal accept­
ance of astrology by the Roman upper class. Octavius
himself inaugurated this period fittingly, and his suc­
cessors were devoid of even the remnant of gentlemanly
scepticism which Octavius had still possessed. Noth­
ing perhaps could indicate his attitude at the age of
eighteen more clearly than an event which symbolically
commenced a new era of general faith in astrology in
the w est: His utilization of the comet of a . d . 44:
[C aesar] w as b ro u g h t into the num ber of the gods, not
by m eans of the fiat of those in pow er, but by the conviction
of the com m on people. F o r w hen d u rin g the gam es w hich
his h e ir A ugustus first consecrated to him and gave to the
public a com et shone for seven consecutive days, risin g
to w ards the eleventh hour, it w as believed th at this w as the
soul of C aesar being received into heaven.345
An interesting trace of conflicting opinions about the
meaning of the comet’s appearance has been preserved
by Cassius Dio:
. . . A certain sta r appeared in the n o rth tow ards evening,
w hich some called a comet, claim ing th at it foretold the
usual occurrences, w hile the m ajo rity , instead of believing
this, ascribed it to C aesar, in terp retin g it to m ean th at he
had becom e im m ortal an d had been received into the num ber
of sta rs .846
314 Cassius Dio, 45, 18, 3; compare for a similar mood P lu­
tarch, Caesar, 63, 1.
343 Suetonius, Caesar, 88.
*46 Cassius Dio, 45, 7, 1. A brief description of the comet is
The traditional interpretation of the significance of
comets was overwhelmingly unfavorable. W ar, drought,
or pestilence, or the death of kings and other great
men of state, was believed to be heralded by comets.
For the first time in Roman history there was now a
wide-spread mood which saw in a comet the physical
proof of a catasterism, i. e. of the elevation of a mortal
to become a star among stars.347 In Greek myths those
favored by the gods in such a manner were usually at
least demi-gods. Gradually, however, mortals too were
held capable of such elevation. The Roman rulers ap­
parently were the first men thus honored, at least by
their flatterers,34S and Julius Caesar would thus be the
first Roman to be elevated in this manner. A poetic
description of the process was subsequently supplied by
O v id :310 Venus, the ancestral divinity of the gens
Julia, lifted the soul of Caesar from his assassinated
body to bear it upwards towards the eternal stars.
During her flight she became aware of the soul’s be­
ginning luminosity. Escaping from the arms of Venus
the soul of Caesar soared on above the moon and shone
as a bright star with brilliant hair traversing the heavenly
orb. Religious sects and popular belief extended such
views, until eventually epitaphs and literary texts not
infrequently also transposed the souls of the lowlier
dead as stars into the heavens. The sceptical Pliny
might scoff: “ Plague take i t ! W hat is this mad idea
that life is renewed by death! ” 350 But the future be­
longed to a faith which expressly believed in that very
thing. The popular view during the imperial era was
a simpler one. The greater one’s status on earth, the
brighter a star did the soul become in the heavens.
Great men were destined to become bright stars, lesser
folk could at test hope to be transposed as a small star
shining inconspicuously in the skies, as they had been
inconspicuous during life. Even a good Christian like
Pope Gregory I ( a . d . 590-604) assumed that at least
virtuous men would live on as stars.851
The catasterism of Julius Caesar was technically a
feat belonging to the realm of religious, not scientific
astrology. Nevertheless, it provided an opportunity for
the exploitation of a natural phenomenon, the comet’s
appearance, by the unscrupulous, but highly intelligent,
eighteen-year-old Octavius. Reported Pliny the Elder
more than a century later :
found in Plutarch, Caesar, 69, 3 : “ . . . There was the great
comet which showed itself for seven nights in great splendor
after Caesar’s murder and then disappeared.”
347 W. Gundel, Sterne und StcrnbUder im Glauben des A ltcr-
titms und der Ncuseit, ch. v : 104-126, Bonn and Leipzig. K.
Schroeder, 1922.
348 Ib id .: 109 ff.
3411 Ovid, Metamorph. 15: vv. 843-851.
850 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 7, 55, 189.
351 Gregory, Moralia 17, 16 (M igne, Patrologia Latina 76:
c. 21-22). Similar ideas are found in Plutarch’s Moralia;
Gregory professed, however, to derive his views from th e
gospels.
T H E CONVERSION O F REPU BLICA N ROME TO ASTROLOGY
T h e only place in the whole w orld w h ere a com et is the
object of w o rsh ip is a tem ple a t Rome. H is late M ajesty
A u g u stu s had deem ed th is com et very propitious to h im se lf:
as it had ap p eared a t the b eg inning of his rule [sic!], at
some gam es w hich n o t long after the decease of his [adop­
tive] fath er C aesar, as a m em ber of the college founded by
him , he w as celeb ratin g in honor of M other Venus. In fact
he m ade public the jo y th at it gave him in these w o rd s :
“ O n th e v ery day of m y G am es a com et w as visible for
seven days in the n o rth ern p a rt of the sky. I t was risin g
about an h o u r before sunset, an d w as a b rig h t star, visible
from all lands. T h e com m on people believed th a t th is sta r
signified the soul of C aesar received am ong the sp irits of
the im m ortal gods.” . . . T h is w as his public u tterance,
but p riv ately he rejo iced because he in terp reted the com et
as h av in g been b o rn fo r his ow n sake and as containing
his ow n b irth w ith in i t ; and to confess the tru th , it did
have a h ealth -g iv in g influence over the w orld.352
The star of Bethlehem, believed by some also to have
been a comet, shone less than fifty years later. To what
extent the earlier episode, so skillfully exploited by
Octavius, was responsible for the account of the star
of Bethlehem, must remain conjectural. Certainly,
however, the comet of 44 b . c . and, if it was a comet,
the one at the birth of Christ were among the few to
be remembered as omens of good rather than bad for­
tune. It may be noted that in his own proclamation
Octavius carefully limited himself to saying that the
comet “ signified ” the soul of Caesar, while the common
herd took the matter more literally. At any rate it could
not be expected that the political foes of Caesar and his
house would accept the popular interpretation unchal­
lenged. According to Baebius Macer a certain h a r u s p c x
by the name of Vulcatius went before a popular assem­
bly proclaiming that the new comet indicated the end of
the s a e c u lu m ,353 This was always a major event, but
especially in this case, because according to official
reckoning the sa e c u lu m , now pronounced ended, had
been the ninth, and many looked forward with super­
stitious dread to the tenth. It did, indeed, bear out
Etruscan prophets whose divinatory wisdom underlay
the haruspicial prophecy of doom. For it was, for the
Etruscans at least, a disastrous era. For in this tenth
saeculum, whose beginning Vulcatius proclaimed, the
Etruscan language became extinct. The gods, however,
apparently took issue with Vulcatius’ unfavorable pre­
diction and sided with Octavius, for the luckless h a ru -
s p e x collapsed and died in that very assembly.354
That settled in the minds of the people the meaning
of the comet, leaving Octavius in the enviable position
of having only to agree with the popular opinion:
A u g u stu s C aesar, w hen celebrating the funeral gam es
fo r his fa th e r, confirm ed upon the appearance of a sta r in
the m iddle of th e day th a t it w as the one of his father.
[H e ] him self insisted ( v o lu it) th a t it w as th e soul of his
fath er and erected in his h onor on the Capitol a statue above
"* Pliny, N at. H ist. 2, 23, 93-94.
353 See on this topic, Nilsson, R E , 2. Reihe, 1, 1914: c. 1643 ff.
334 Servius, ad Verg. eel. 9, 46 f.
79
whose head he placed a golden sta r, w hile on the base the
follow ing inscrip tio n w as e n g ra v e n : “ T o the dem igod
C aesar.” 155
At the time Octavius seemed among the contenders
for the political power the least significant. Few would
have suspected that this youth of eighteen was to win
the race for political supremacy. The appearance of the
comet of 44, however, marked the turning point. From
that time on the position of Octavius began to im­
prove steadily. This was perceived and clearly stated
by Cassius D io:
A nd w hen th is act also w as allow ed, no one try in g to
p rev en t it th ro u g h fear of the populace, then a t last some
of the o th er decrees alread y passed in h onor of C aesar
w ere p u t into effect. T h u s they called one of the m onths
Ju ly a fter him . . . . F o r these sam e reaso n s the soldiers
also . . . read ily took the side of C aesar.850
The potency of popular astral beliefs, so evident on
this occasion, marked probably the first time in Roman
history when a major political change was inaugurated
by popular superstition of this kind. Octavius had—
with a grain of scepticism—used the mass psychosis for
his own advantage. He did not himself succumb, how­
ever, to religious hysteria or folk myths about the
stars, but the Augustan poets subsequently unequivocally
accepted the official version. Said V ergil:
. . . W h y scannest the risin g s of the an cien t sta rs ?
N ow peereth D io n aean C a esar’s sta r,
T h e sta r th a t com es to bless the field w ith fru its
A nd flush on sunny hills the red d en in g g ra p e .357
Horace might tease the old witch Canidia that she
“ would eventually move amongst the stars, herself a
golden star,” 358 but he took great pains to attest his
own faith in the officially proclaimed catasterism of
Julius Caesar. In a poem dedicated to Augustus him­
self he flattered the p r in c e p s:
. . . T h e Ju lian sta r com petes am ongst the sta rs, as L una
does am ong the lesser lights. F a th e r of the hum an race and
g u ard ian set o v er S atu rn . U pon you has been bestow ed by
F ate the protection of the g re a t C aesar [A u g u stu s], May
you reign, C aesar [A u g u stu s], ced in g th e first place to him
alone.85”
How coldly and cleverly the catasterism of Julius
Caesar was politically exploited — “ that star was be­
lieved to be Caesar’s, Augustus having done the per­
suading ” 300 — has been convincingly transmitted by
our sources. It was not long, however, until court
133 Baebius Macer in Servius, ad Verg. eel. 9, 47. On the star,
placed behind the head of Caesar’s statue, see also Suetonius.
Caesar, 88; Pliny, N at. H ist. 2, 23, 94; Cassius Dio, 45, 7, 1.
Cassius Dio, 45, 7, 2.
337 Vergil, eel. 9: vv. 56 ff.
3r,s Horace, Epodes, 17 : v. 40 f.
a3“ Horace, Odes 1, 12: vv. 46 ff.; compare also vv. 13 ff.
333 Servius, ad Verg. Aen., 681: quod sidus putatum est
Augusto persuadente.
 80 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O R LD
poets and other flatterers began to address emperors
and the members of their families even while alive as
“ sun,” and “ star ” ; in our own era we speak of “ stars ”
of stage, screen, television, and the major sports. The
sidus Julium has much to answer for. Far more touch­
ing than such an official catasterism was the firm faith
in a stellar life after death which we encounter in a
small number of inscriptions. For example:
M other, do not weep, w hat use are thy te a rs? M arvel
an d a d m ir e ! F o r I have become a sta r am ongst the gods.861
This Attic inscription found its counterpart in the
epitaph of an eight-year-old child:
T h o u h ast reached an age of e ig h t years and hast been
p rivileged to see the ether and now a r t sh in in g am ongst
the etern al sta rs.882
In another inscription — it dates from the reign of
Augustus — the deceased reappeared to tell his grand­
father that he did not descend into Hades, but had been
carried by Venus [as Julius Caesar had been!] towards
the luminous heights of heaven.303
The ninety-six years from the consulate of Laelius
(140 b . c . ) to he death of Julius Caesar encompassed
the crucial period in the history of astrology in the
Roman republic. In 139 b . c . astrologers had been
summarily expelled as undesirable and highly suspect
foreigners. Their craft was considered as a fraud prac­
ticed on the gullible masses. The overwhelming majority
of educated Romans, and that meant then the aristo­
cratic humanists, would have none of astrology. Neither
its religious nor its “ scientific ” variant appealed to
them. Their scepticism had been reenforced by Greek
philosophers of that time. With even the leaders of
Stoicism in the second century b . c . abandoning the
strict fatalist arguments, Roman philhellenes, only re­
cently introduced to higher learning, were manifestly
unable to set themselves against their overwhelmingly
anti-fatalist Greek teachers.
With Posidonius, however, Stoicism returned to a
rigid belief in fatalism and fatalist astrology. The time
was now ripe for a breach in the hitherto solid phalanx
of Rome’s sceptical humanists. The battle royal be­
tween Roman believers and disbelievers in astrology
began in the first half of the first century b . c . Cham­
pioned by the first generation of major Roman scholars,
men like Nigidius Figulus or Terentius Varro, the popu­
larity of astrology among educated Romans increased
3ftl W . Gundel, de stcllarum appellatione: 222, Giessen, 1907;
compare B. Haussoulier, aarijp iyev6ixijv, Rev. de Phil. 35, 1909:
333: 1 ff.
302 W . Gundel, loc. cit.; also his Sterne . . .: 116.
863 C IL 6, 3 : 2244, no. 21521.
rapidly. By the time of Julius Caesar’s death the
majority of Rome’s upper class had been converted.
This triumph of astrology in the last century of the
Roman republic was largely the result of its two-faced
appeal. To the humanist who believed in rationalism,
in the governance of nature by immutable laws linking
cause and effect, “ scientific ” astrology presented the
link between mundane causality and the cosmic laws
which regulated the movements of the stars and ruled
the universe. That the “ observational” basis of as­
trology was more than shaky, was overlooked in the
burning desire of Roman intellectuals to find an all-
encompassing unity, embracing the mundane micro­
cosm, as well as the celestial macrocosm. Like all
rationalism, however, this Roman attitude in the last
analysis also rested on faith.
.The longing for a holist interpretation, however, was
not confined to Roman rationalists. The mystic con­
nection between the realm of the spirit and that of
matter lent credence to the claims of astrologers even
in the minds of those Romans who were not attracted
by the purely mechanical concept of fatalistic astrology.
Many Hermetic writings, hand-books like that of
“ Petosiris-Nechepso,” some Orphic and a torrent of
similar revelatory literature emphasized not the ration­
alist but the religious character of astrological revela­
tions. Eternal verities, not proven by fantastic periods
of scientific observations, but directly imparted by the
gods to privileged listeners, exercised a magnetic attrac­
tion upon Roman minds, impervious to the rationalist
appeal of “ scientific” astrology. On this emotional
basis contact was established between the more primi­
tive views of the lower classes, which cheerfully accepted
the most diverse varieties of star-cults and revelatory
astrology, and the attitude of those upper-class Romans
who—reviving what they believed to be ancient Pythago-
reanism—accepted a welter of numerological and quasi­
religious tenets, including those of astrology.
Roman rationalists and mystics thus came to accept
astrology in its scientific or revelatory form. This con­
version of Rome’s leading humanists spearheaded the
almost general acceptance of astrology by Rome’s upper
class. The last outstanding defenders of the lost bas­
tion of scepticism made a valiant stand, but they were
fighting a losing battle: Cicero, Lucretius, and Julius
Caesar were the last major representatives of the earlier
humanist traditions of republican Rome. The eager
bowing of Octavius in 44 b . c . to popular superstition
was a symbolical end of the era of Roman scepticism.
A new era was now at hand, an age of almost boundless
reliance on astrology. This new faith was to reach' its-
zenith with the rulers of the Julian-Claudian house and
the Flavian emperors.
III. A STROLO G ERS — T H E POW ER BE H IN D T H E T H R O N E FROM A UGUSTUS TO
D O M ITIA N
1. IN T R O D U C T IO N
From the death of Julius Caesar to that of Domitian
one hundred and forty years elapsed. In the long his­
tory of the Roman empire one may look upon this era
as the one in which the transition from republican to
monarchic forms was completed. Transition it was in
the sense that in the beginning the forces of republi­
canism among the senatorial aristocracy still strongly
hoped for a return to their previous power, while at the
end of this period monarchy had come to be generally
accepted, albeit grudgingly, even by the ranking clans
of Rome. During the first half of this span a restora­
tion of the republic seemed not only desirable but even
possible to a substantial number of senators. At the end
for most of" them the only question was who would
assume the imperial purple. Two instances may illus­
trate this change: In a . d . 41 Caligula was assassinated.
The senate, caught by surprise, rallied in an ephemeral
attempt to revive the defunct republic. In a . d . 96,
however, the assassination of Domitian brought a sena­
tor, Nerva, to the throne. Whatever his own inten­
tions may have been of reestablishing the power of the
senate, the dangerous grumbling of the military forced
him at once to select a successor able and willing to
continue the imperial monarchy: Trajan.
Even then, however, nostalgic dreams of restoring
the aristocratic libertas of the long dead republic were
not entirely relinquished. More than a century later
on occasion feeble efforts were made to assert the sena­
torial authority over that of the army and its imperial
leaders. But in normal times the average Roman noble­
man after a . d . 96 resigned himself to the principate.
Since the days of Philippi (42 b . c . ) the senate had
failed consistently of winning over the praetorian guards,
or any large section of the regular army.1 The civil
wars of the first three centuries of our era were there­
fore fought between rival contenders for the throne
only, not between champions of monarchic or republican
forms of government, respectively. Before, however,
the hopelessness of a restoration of the ancient republic
was generally admitted, plotting for its restoration was
still a favorite pastime and often a serious preoccupation
of the Roman senatorial nobility. The statistical record
surely was not discouraging. Julius Caesar had been
successfully despatched. Of his successors, Caligula
and Domitian also owed their violent end in large
measure to senatorial opposition. Claudius, Nero, Galba,
Otho, and Vitellius came to grief before their time
(although not by senatorial efforts), while persistent
gossip had it that even Augustus, Tiberius, and Titus
had gone to heaven or Hades by outside assistance.
Vespasian alone seems to have been generally credited
with having died of purely natural causes.
1 Tacitus, Annals 1, 2, gave this melancholy resume.
81
The welter of poisonous passions, intrigues, murder,
and violence within the imperial circle was assiduously
enlarged by Rome’s ever-wagging senatorial tongues.
High ranking families throughout the first century pro­
vided a well-nigh endless number of plotters, traitors,
and innocent victims of imperial suspicions as well.
Yet beyond this maelstrom of turgid activity the mil­
lions of the empire lived for the most part peaceful,
hard-working, and decent lives. To govern Italians and
provincials alike as equitably and fairly as possible was
a fundamental imperial policy laid down by Julius Caesar
and faithfully observed by his successors. Admittedly
even the very worst rulers of the principate provided
an imperial administration far superior to the ruthless
colonial exploitation of the late republic. Another im­
perial policy was the steadfast encouragement of the
gradual leveling process which slowly eliminated the
barrier separating the privileged Roman citizen from
the provincial. The average Italian might helplessly
resent this gradual change; the haughty nobility of
Rome, however, was powerful enough to oppose the
new order openly. The chief credit for firmly estab­
lishing this leveling policy of Julius Caesar unques­
tionably belonged to Octavianus, the future Augustus
and founder of the principate, who bequeathed this
tradition to his successors.
After the successful coup of catasterizing' in 44 b . c .
his late adoptive father, Octavianus emerged from the
whirlpool of civil wars after Caesar’s death as a member
of the second triumvirate which besides him included
Mark Antony, a staunch Caesarian, and the insignificant
Lepidus, now pontifex maximus. W ith the end of major
military republican resistance at Philippi the three men
divided the empire amongst themselves, Lepidus receiv­
ing the meagre reward of controlling Africa, while the
lion’s share fell to his two partners. Antony inherited
the eastern half of the empire and Qeopatra, Octavianus
the remainder, including Rome and Italy. Circum­
stances forced Octavianus into the not unwelcome role
of a champion of Latinity against the Orient. The more
Antony succumbed to the lure of the east with its
traditional preference for divine despotism, the more
was Octavianus able to pose as the defender of the old
Roman way of life which abhorred divine monarchy.
At the same time the ruler of the west (who soon de­
prived Lepidus of Africa and added the territory to his
realm) professed some o'f the traditional aristocratic
scepticism concerning eastern cults and forms o'f divina­
tion. During most of his reign he combined the by now
fashionable belief in Hellenistic scientific astrology with
a certain dose of scepticism, thus continuing the attitude
of the average Roman gentleman of the middle of the
first century b . c .
The last decade of his long reign, however, witnessed
82 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A TIN W O RLD
a profound change. From then on until the death of
Domitian in 96 the faith in astrology acquired a strong
hold over every ruler, a hold so firm that during this
era the influence of court astrologers rose to an unprece­
dented peak. The first empire wide legal curb of astro­
logical (and other divinatory) practices was introduced
by Augustus himself in a . d . 1 1 . His successor Tiberius
(14-37) was a practicing astrologer and adamant be­
liever in this pseudo-science. Caligula, Claudius, and
Nero, as well as Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian, and
his sons, Titus and Domitian, all of them maintained
close ties with astrologers. Vespasian alone seems to
have tempered his faith in the stars with an occasional
grain of scepticism,2 while Vitellius revealed his super­
stitious fear of the accuracy of unfavorable astrological
predictions by a merciless persecution of astrologers.3
Although it is usually difficult to appraise the full meas­
ure of the court astrologers’ influence in a given case,
there can be little doubt that often the very life of
members of the imperial family, or of influential Roman
noblemen depended upon the interpretation of their
horoscopes by the emperor and his trusted astrological
advisers. For the most part the names of these gentle­
men are buried in oblivion, and those known by name
remain shadowy figures at best.
Two men, father and son, however, emerge from the
host of nameless or little known court astrologers of
the first century. Their influence began in the reign of
Augustus and extended into that of Vespasian, and pos­
sibly even that of Titus ( d . a . d . 81) : Tiberius Claudius
Thrasyllus (d. a . d . 36) was the father, Tiberius Claudius
Balbillus the son (d. ca. a . d . 81?). Thrasyllus was a
Greek scholar who owed his Roman citizenship to
Tiberius whose friendship was not only instrumental
in gaining for the Alexandrinian grammarian the still
coveted boon of Roman citizenship, but also for the
introduction—in a . d . 2 —of this outstanding astrologer
into the innermost circle of the aging Augustus wherein
the newcomer soon began to exercise a profound influ­
ence upon the Roman ruler and his court. Thrasyllus’
daughter was to marry a Roman knight, as did his
granddaughter Ennia Thrasylla, who gambled for the
position of an emperor’s wife. Thrasyllus’ son, Bal­
billus, inherited the father’s potent role at court. An
intimate personal friend of the emperor Claudius he
also became a trusted adviser of Nero, and finally court -
astrologer of Vespasian.- The fortunes of this family
continued to flourish. A daughter of Balbillus, Claudia
Capitolina, first married a royal heir designate, Anti­
ochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus IV of Commagene,
and later it seems a Roman knight Junius Rufus who
became prefect of Egypt. Of the children of Claudia
and Antiochus two reached high station. A son, C.
* Suetonius, Vespasian, 14.
' Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4; cf. Cassius Dio, ep. 64(65), 1, 4;
Zonaras, 11, 16.
Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus, became con­
sul in 109—a sign of T rajan’s favor—a daughter, Julia
Balbilla was lady-in-waiting of Hadrian’s wife, Sabina,
in 130.*
Less durable but at times very important was the
influence of men like Chaeremon, an Egyptian Greek,
whose scholarly reputation earned him a place as one
of the tutors of young Nero. An expert on astrology,
this savant flourished for some years at the Roman
court. Meanwhile, a fellow Egyptian, by the name of
Pammenes, at about the same time (or a few years
later) acquired an impressive clientele among the lead­
ing men of Rome in the reign of Nero. Seleucus and
Ptolemy, two names probably belonging to one and the
same astrologer of that era, figured prominently among
the chief advisers of the emperor Otho before and
during his brief reign. The reputation of Ptolemy
Seleucus survived the fall of Otho and earned him a
court role under Vespasian. The counterpart of such
astrological advisers to Roman rulers were astrologers
who like Pammenes and Ptolemy Seleucus under Nero,
or Asclation under Domitian used their craft to en­
courage the oppositional nobility. They therefore risked
their freedom and often their lives in the pursuit of their
profession. Vitellius, for example, executed a number
of them for their oppositional activities in a . d . 69.
The phenomenon of astrological influence upon the
conduct of the most important affairs of state was a
peculiarity of the early principate. Beginning in a . d . 2
with an initial period of transition, the unquestioning
acceptance of astrological dicta by the rulers and the
leaders of Roman society continued at least until the
end of the first century, and with somewhat diminished
intensity until the end of the principate.5
2. T H E AGE O F T R A N S IT IO N : 44 B. C.-A. D. 2
From the catasterism of Julius Caesar to the arrival
of Thrasyllus in Rome almost half a century elapsed.
It was an era which produced the definitive trans­
formation of the Roman government from republican
to monarchic — some call them dyarchic — institutions.
From a series of civil wars arose Octavianus who —
mindful of the deep-rooted Roman opposition to the
oriental pattern of divine despotism—finally camouflaged
his supreme power with a quasi-republican facade, the
so-called principate, inaugurated in 27-26 b . c . His
attitude towards astrology, as has been said, during the
greater part of his life still bore the stamp of the
gentlemanly acceptance of this pseudoscience by the
Roman humanists of the late republic, an acceptance
mingled with a modicum of-scepticism. His horoscope,
* CJG, no. 4730; compare Peek in M itteilungen des Jnstituts
fuer acgyptische Altertum skunde 5, 1934 : 96 f. On her relation
to Thrasyllus see the family trees, below, pp. 95 and 136.
5 F or the era after the principate a detailed study by the
author is in preparation.
T H E PO W ER O F ASTROLOGERS FROM A U GU STU S TO D O M ITIA N 83
as was becoming the rule with new-born Roman noble­ gentleman of his day. He had, however, had ample
men of that time, had been cast at his birth on Sep­ opportunity to observe the mass addiction to astral lore
tember 23, 63 b . c. by no less an astrological authority during the hysterical popular reaction to a comet’s ap­
than the senator, Nigidius Figulus.0 Subsequently pearance in 44 b . c. Such sentiments on occasion
Octavianus had received a reaffirmation of his splendid might boomerang against him, while at that time they
nativity during his student days at Apollonia where he had fortuitously helped his political fortunes.
was to await Julius Caesar’s expedition against the A situation of this kind arose in 33 b . c . The final
Parthians. Together with his faithful friend, the young showdown between Octavianus, master of the west,
Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, Octavianus visited Theo- and Mark Antony, lord of the east, was close at hand.
genes (or Theagenes), a renowned astrologer in the It may safely lie assumed that the great majority of
tow n: orientals in Rome favored the cause of their champion
Antony. The bulk of ordinary astrologers, soothsayers,
Agrippa was the first to try his fortune, and when a
great and almost incredible career was predicted for him, and sorcerers in Rome at this time would still consist
[Octavianus] persisted in concealing the time of his birth of eastern elements. Their influence upon the Roman
and in refusing to disclose it, through diffidence and fear masses would now be overwhelmingly exercised in favor
that he might be found to be less eminent. When he at of Antony, i. e. against Octavianus. Roman credulity
last gave it unwillingly and hesitatingly, and only after being what it was, Octavianus had good reason to con­
many urgent requests, Theagenes sprang up and threw him­
self at his feet.7 template drastic action against such disturbing elements.
To woo back the Roman population and to curb the
This episode must have been characteristic of many general restiveness he adopted an extraordinary meas­
similar ones enacted by young Romans studying in the ure. He made his most reliable friend, Agrippa, aedile,
Greek east. Undoubtedly most astrologers ran little although Agrippa had already held the higher office of
risk in prophesying to such aristocratic Roman clients praetor. The new aedile, certainly in concert with
a brilliant future, but only truly faithful Roman devotees Octavianus, expelled from the capital both astrologers
of astrology would accept such predictions as infallible. and sorcerers,10 a left-handed tribute of the govern­
Nevertheless, with the belief in astrology waxing ever ment’s respect for their hold on the population. Some
stronger amongst upper-class Romans in the middle of years later Agrippa built the Pantheon which was
the first century b . c ., few young men would have com­ formally dedicated in 25 b . c . Whether or not its seven
pletely disbelieved such flattering forecasts. It was, niches were meant to harbor the seven planetary divini­
however, an error on the part of Suetonius to ascribe ties—Mars and Venus at least were among the deities
to this episode an immediate and decisive influence included — cannot be determined with certainty. The
upon Octavianus’ attitude towards astrology. Said he: present roof and perhaps most of the walls stem from
the reign of Hadrian. The circular central opening
From that time on Augustus had.- such faith in his and the decorations of the vault therefore would reflect
destiny, that he made his horoscope public and issued a not the ideas of Agrippa or his architects, but those of
silver coin stamped with the sign of the constellation Capri­
corn under which he was born.8 Hadrian, himself a passionate practitioner of astrology.
Cassius Dio at least, always eager for astrological inter­
The issuing of coins of this kind could clearly take pretations, explained the name of the Pantheon (which
place only years after the visit at Apollonia which he knew of course only in the Hadrianic restoration)
occurred in the winter of 45-44 b . c . , while Cassius as follows: “ . . . But my own opinion of the name
Dio,“ always keen on astrological subject-matter, far is that, because of its vaulted roof, it resembles the
more convincingly assigned the publication of the heavens.” 11
Augustan horoscope to the year a . d . 11, when rumors The professional opinion of the Augustan era cer­
of the immediately impending demise of the emperor tainly demanded of Roman (and Greek) architects at
created such unrest at Rome that the aged ruler decided least a smattering of astronomical knowledge. While
to publish his horoscope, in order to “ prove” — a real the walls of the Pantheon began to rise, an engineer in
measure of his complete faith in astrology at this date— the employ of Augustus12 by the name of Vitruvius
that he was not destined to die quite yet. During the wrote his famous treatise On Architecture. Like Cicero
first four decades of his ascendancy, however, the first and Varro he used the term astrologia for both astron­
princeps was no more credulous in matters of divina­ omy proper and its improper application in astrology.
tion, including astrology, than the average Roman In the ninth book of his manual he prefaced the instruc-
" Suetonius, A ugust us, 94, 5; Cassius Dio, 45, 1, 3-5. 10 Ibid. 49, 43, 4 ; compare F. H . Cramer, Expulsion of astrol­
7 Suetonius, A ugustus, 94, 12. ogers from ancient Rome, Class, el Med. 12, 1-2, 1951: 17-21.
s Loc. c it.; compare W . v. Voigt, U nter welchen Gestirnen 11 Cassius Dio, 53, 27, 2-3.
wurden Caesar, A grippa und Tiberius geboren? Philologus 58 13 Vitruvius referred to the victory of Octavianus over Mark
( N .F . 12), 1899: 170-204. Antony (1, de archttectura, pr.), but never used the term
” Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5. Augustus. Hence he probably wrote between 31 and 27-26 b . c .
84 T H E R ISE AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O RLD
tions for the building of dials and clocks with a longish
survey exalting the historical contributions of the great
scientists and thinkers of Greece from Pythagoras and
Democritus to Archimedes and Eratosthenes. Acknowl­
edging his indebtedness to Lucretius, Cicero, and Varro,
Vitruvius addressed again Octavianus13 in presenting
the topic of his ninth book:
In the present volume I will expound the methods of
Dialing; how they were discovered from the rays of the
sun in the universe. . . .li The ideas of scientific writers
who are absent in the body, old and yet ever new, come to
our counsels and investigations. . . ,15
Vitruvius then dealt first with the universe, the con­
stellations and the planets. His approach was animated
by an intensity of feeling reminiscent of Lucretius and
anticipating Manilius. Having already spoken of the
magnificence of the universe and its stars (mundi et
astrorum magnificentia) ,16 he seemed to express Posi-
donian views in referring to a “ divine spirit ” ( divina
m ens) evoking the admiration of mortal onlookers at
the cosmic organism.17 There was nothing astrological
in his terse discussion of the zodiac and the planets, nor
any unbecoming conceit. Vitruvius humbly admitted
“ the causes and numerical relations by which they pass
from sign to sign, and their revolutions . . . I have
learned from my masters.” 18 But when proceeding to
the explanation of the phases of the moon Vitruvius
at once revealed his reliance upon Chaldaean sources,
especially Berossus.19 But he also used Greek authors
including Aristarchus of Samos (whom Heath in our
time has aptly called a Greek Copernicus). Continuing
his astronomical survey, Vitruvius described the course
of the sun through the signs of the zodiac and then
briefly listed constellations to the north and to the south
of the zodiac. He concluded this long introduction to
the mechanical section of book IX on dials and dialing
with a brief chapter on astrology proper. His unques­
tioning acceptance of what purportedly was Chaldaean
astrological theory was stated in the following term s:
As for the remainder of astrologia [i. e. astronomy and
astrology], to wit the effects pproduced by the twelve signs
on the human course of life, the five planets, the sun and
moon, we must accept the calculations (ratiocinationes)
of the Chaldaeans, because the science of astrology (ratio
genethlialogiae) is their specialty so that they can explain
the past and the future from astronomical calculations
13 Vitruvius, de architectura 9, pr., 18.
14 Loc. cit.
14 Ibid. 9, pr., 17.
14 Ibid. 2, 1, 2.
17 Ibid. 9, 1, 1; similarly later Manilius, Astronomica 1, vv.
247 ff.
18 Vitruvius, de architectura 9, 1, 16.
11 Ibid. 9, 2, 1. Vitruvius quoted the same erroneous "B ab y ­
lonian ” hypothesis about the moon which Lucretius (de natura
rerum 5, w . 720 ff.) had also cited. The Epicurean poet, how­
ever, did not take sides when stating this, as well as the (correct) 1919: c. 628, no. 278,-c. 651; V errius Flaccus—after a . d . 10—
Greek view ; compare also Stobaeus, Eclogues 1, 26, 12.
(raticcinationibus a stro ru m ). T h o se w ho have sp ru n g
from the C haldaean nation have handed on th eir discoveries
about m atters in w hich they have approved them selves of
great skill and subtlety.20
Two things appear from this passage. Vitruvius
unhesitatingly followed the older Hellenistic tradition
which assigned the origins of astrology to Mesopotamia,
not to Egypt. Furthermore he was absolutely convinced
of the rational, scientific character of this branch of
astronomy. The factual and sober approach of this
Roman engineer and architect to the vast subject with
which he was dealing not only was evident in his out­
look on astrology, but may also be taken as a sample
of the prevailing attitude towards astrology among
Roman architects and other men of science, the majority
of whom may be assumed to have considered astrology
as a perfectly legitimate branch of applied astronomy.
Not many, however, would perhaps use Greek sources
as thoroughly as Vitruvius who, for example, was the
only ancient writer to transmit to us the names of two.
otherwise, wholly forgotten early Hellenistic astrologers,
Antipatrus and Achinapolus, and their theory that
conception, not birth, was the decisive moment whose
constellation determined the fate of the human being
involved.21
The degree to which astronomy and astrology were
becoming part of a general educational background
could be gauged from the fact that no longer specialists
alone laid a claim to writing on such subjects. Roman
grammarians, i. e. professors of literature and philology,
began to interest themselves also in at least the rudi­
ments of astral lore and astronomical facts. Among this
group C. Julius Hyginus, a freedman of Augustus,22
was one of the most universalist writers. He came to
Rome as a boy about 47 b . c., approximately the same
time at which his fellow-countryman Seneca rhetor was
sent from Spain to the capital. Succeeding probably
Pompeius Macer who seems to have been the first direc­
tor of the new Palatine Library in Rome,23 Hyginus held
this post for many years, possibly as late as a . d . 10,2*
when Ovid apparently appealed to him against the ban
of his works from the public libraries. If Hyginus was,
indeed, the one to whom Ovid addressed himself, it
would be a sign of his influence in the literary world,
and probably also with the emperor. The grammarian
was then already an old man, possibly close to seventy,
but in spite of his reputation he was very poor. Thus he
probably continued his teaching activities until his
death.25
20 Vitruvius, de architectura 9, 6, 2.
21 Loc. cit.
22 Suetonius, de grammalicis, 20.
21 Suetonius, Caesar, 56.
24 Ovid, Tristia 3, 14, vv. 1 and 7.
25 Suetonius, de gramm., 20; cf. Diehl and Tolkiehn, R E 10,
was the first author known to us who quoted from Hyginus;
T H E PO W E R O F ASTROLOGERS FROM A UGUSTUS T O D O M ITIA N
The versatility of the prolific grammarian was greater
than his scholarly depth, but Vergil, who was one of
his students,2* probably owed much of his knowledge
on agriculture and horticulture, as well as apiculture—
Hyginus was the first Latin writer on bees — to this
widely informed teacher. Needless to say, Hyginus
wrote such works not from practical experience, as for
example the older Cato had done, but at the book-
covered desk of his study. Similarly his lengthy treatise
On astronomy — the title varies in the manuscripts,
where it occurs for example as de astrologia, or de
astronomia, or de signis caelestibus—was not based on
his own observations. H e dedicated the work, which
in modem editions is usually divided into four books,
to a M. Fabius. The introductory section27 laid down
the table of contents: Hyginus intended to give an
exposition of the basic subject-matter by means of a
description of forty-two constellations and their myths,
dealing (1) with an explanation of the cosmos and the
celestial sphere and its sections (Introduction and eight
chapters) ; (2) with the stories of the heavenly con­
stellations (forty-three chapters); (3) with the forms
of the constellations (forty chapters) ; (4) with the
rotation of the five circles amidst the heavenly bodies
and with the planets (the end is missing).28
It seems established that Hyginus knew and used the
Phaenomena of Aratus, the most popular work on astral
mythology.28 He also had access to commentaries of
the poem, as well as to other authors, possibly Eratos­
thenes.80 H e furthermore availed himself of a celestial
globe. Unfortunately, as a grammarian Hyginus was
too much interested in mythology and too little in
astronomy. H e was also handicapped by the limita­
tions of his knowledge of Greek. Moreover, as might
be expected from so prolific a writer, his accuracy left
much to be desired. Small wonder that his work was
long neglected.81 Isidorus of Seville (early seventh
century) was the first later scholar to quote it, inaugu­
rating perhaps thereby its popularity, for our manu­
scripts date from the eighth to the fifteenth century.
Like the work of his contemporary Vitruvius, that of
Hyginus too was evidence of the mounting interest in
the heavens which characterized the late republic and
the Augustan era.
The belief in astrology in particular was now so firm
that Octavianus himself felt it necessary to continue the
policy of watching carefully the activities of astrologers
Columella, de re rustica 1, 1, 13, referred to Hyginus as deceased
for a quite long time.
24 Columella, de r. r., loc. cit.
27 Ed. B u n te: 19, 3-10.
24 Ibid., p r .: 21 and 27.
20 See above, p. 26 f.
40 Compare A. Rehm, Mythographische Untersuchungen uebcr
Sternsagen: 6; Muenchen, 1896.
41 Tolkiehn, R E 10, 1919: c. 644; ibid., c. 649-651 on other
works of this kind, possibly also from the pen of Hyginus.
85
and other diviners in Rome. Following the general
ban of astrologers from the capital in 33 b . c . , the next
expulsion order of this kind which we know of was
directed against a renowned mystagogue, Anaxilaus of
Larissa. The date of the blow against him is not alto­
gether certain. Jerome did record it as of 29-28 b . c . , 82
but one may wonder whether perhaps he was not already
banned with the sorcerers, expelled, along with the
astrologers, from Rome by Agrippa’s ordinance of 33
b . c.8* Anaxilaus whose native Thessaly was rightly
or wrongly renowned for its inhabitants’ proficiency in
magic arts was certainly no ordinary charlatan. A lead­
ing neo-Pythagorean he was even credited (though on
dubious authority) with having been something like
the grandmaster of an Alexandrinian order of neo-
Pythagoreans: A treatise On philosophers was also
ascribed to him.84
W hat did arouse the Roman government perhaps
more than his esoteric neo-Pythagoreanism was his
proficiency in alchemy and its related disciplines,
astrology and magic. We have for example reason to
believe that Anaxilaus was suspected of possessing a
method of “ making ” silver, a recipe borrowed from the
notorious Bolos of Mendes (second century b .c.? ).85
For more than a century after his expulsion from Rome
he was remembered as an authority in the realm of
science. His reputation was great enough to induce,
for example, the older Pliny to have recourse to Anaxi­
laus as one of his sources in a number of books of his
Natural History.1* About a century later the Thes­
salian was still remembered, but was less highly regarded
by both pagan and Christian authors.87 Even towards
the end of the fourth century a . d . Jerome deemed him
worthy of mention in his adaptation of Eusebius’
Chronica. Following perhaps Suetonius the great Chris­
tian humanist referred to Anaxilaus as “ a Pythagorean
and a magus." 88
44 Jerome, Chron., 01.188 (A br. 1989) : Anaxilaus Larissaeus
Pythagoricus et magus ab Augusto urbe Italiaque pellitur. The
information may stem from Suetonius.
44 This is suggested by R. Helm , Philologus, Suppl. 21: 62,
but if Jerome’s urbe Italiaque pellitur is literally correct, then
Anaxilaus cannot have been banished by Agrippa’s aedilian
ordinance of 33 b. c ., because such a decree would have been
valid only for Rome, but not for Italy as a whole.
44 Diogenes Laertius, 3, 2, and possibly 1, 107.
44 Papyrus Holm , 3, 13 Lag., prefaced a recipy with tls l i
A?ifxoKptTov ’Ayet^Xaos dva<pipti Kai. rile. M. W ellmann, Die
<pv<riK& des Bolos-Demokritos, A bh. A k . Berlin, 7, 1928 : 40 ; 48;
esp. 52-54, assigns three works to A naxilaus: Qvami, Banned,
Hatyi'ia. W . Kroll, R E , suppi. 6, 1935: c. 5-7, is less enthu­
siastic about Anaxilaus.
34 Pliny cited Anaxilaus among his sources very frequently;
see N at. H ist. 19; 21-26; 28-31. H e also quoted him ibid. 19,
1, 20; 25, 13, 154 ; 28, 11, 181; 30, 8, 74 ; 32, 10, 141; 35, 15, 175.
37 Irenaeus, 1, 13: Anaxilai ludicra cum nequitia eorum qui
dicentur magi commiscens [M arcu s]; cf. Ps.-Cyprianus, 3, 184;
compare Sextus Empiricus, Pyrrhon. hypothes. 1, 46, as well as
Pliny. N at. H ist. 32, 10, 141.
34 Jerome, Chron., Abr. 1989 (01.188).
86 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O RLD
A man who cast such a long shadow across almost
half a millennium cannot have been an insignificant
figure in his own day. It may also safely be assumed
that Anaxilaus like the earlier Roman “ Pythagorean ”
Nigidius Figulus was deeply versed in astrology, whose
tenets were so widely accepted by the neo-Pythagoreans
that astrological writings were actually ascribed to
Pythagoras himself.39 If the Thessalian philosopher
and wizard was actually the special target of an indi­
vidual expulsion order emanating from Augustus in
28 b . c., the reason in all probability must have been
that in the uneasy years preceding the establishment
of the principate in 27 b . c . the Larissan had encour­
aged oppositional elements by his predictions of political
developments to come.
The general unrest was certainly not lessened by the
fact that Octavianus had no sons and only a single
daughter, Julia. When in 27 he was proclaimed Augus­
tus by the senate, the new p rin c e p s was still beset with
the knotty problem of the succession. Julia was twelve
years old, barely marriageable according to Roman law.
Although Augustus himself was only in his mid-thirties,
he had no way of knowing whether or not his life would
be suddenly terminated by political assassination, the
fate of his predecessor Julius Caesar. The ruler’s
divorce from Julia’s mother, Scribonia, and his hasty
marriage with Livia added two step-sons, Tiberius and
Drusus, to the imperial family, but both of them—Livia
was only eighteen at the time of her marriage into the
Julian house — were in their ’teens during the mid­
twenties. Nor would Augustus prefer these scions of
the Claudian g e n s to direct descendants of the Julian
line whom young Julia might eventually produce. -
The most important thing therefore was to have Julia
suitably married. Vipsanius Agrippa already was linked
to the Julian g e n s through marriage with Marcella, a
niece of the emperor. Moreover, he was a generation
older than Julia. At any rate, Augustus selected as the
first husband for his only child young Marcellus, a con­
sumptive lad and her first cousin. He was seventeen
years old when he married Julia. The bride was sixteen.
Two years later she was a widow. No children had
resulted from the short-lived match. To what extent
astrological advice contributed to the choice of Mar­
cellus as Julia’s husband we have no way of knowing.
It seems, however, very likely that favorable astrological
predictions were obtained and, at least to a certain de­
gree, helped to encourage Augustus in arranging this
ill-starred marriage.
The death of Marcellus apparently overrode all other
considerations with regard to the succession. In the
very year in which Julia had lost her husband Marcellus,
Agrippa, the most trusted friend of the emperor, was
persuaded to divorce his wife Marcella, and marry
aB See for example Cat. 1: 128, 5-6; 5, 3: 114, 9-13; 8, 4 : 13;
7 21 • 5, 1: 3 (f. 328v) ; 8, 1: 26 (f. 32) ; 64 (f. 21) ; 65 (f. 43) ;
70 (f. 163'; 166) ; 71 (f. 9 0 ); 131, 4.
Julia, a lively bride of eighteen for a staid statesman
of forty-two. This marriage lasted for almost eleven
years and produced a number of children, including the
older Agrippina and the younger Julia, as well as Caius,
Lucius, and the younger Agrippa (the last one bom
after his father’s death and therefore called Postumus).
This promising crop was not destined, however, to
bring forth a successor to A ugustus: Caius and Lucius
died as young men long before their grandfather, while
Agrippa Postumus proved to be hopelessly deranged.
Moreover, at the time of M. Vipsanius Agrippa’s death
in 1 2 b . c. his children in any case were far too young
for the imperial succession. For many years to come,
therefore, Augustus again had to wrestle with the
thorny problem of the imperial succession.
His friends and foes alike were only too well aware
of this difficulty, and it is hardly surprising that the
year 1 2 b . c . was again one of particular restlessness in
Rome. Soothsayers and prophets as usual capitalized
on this psychological state. That the government did
not remain impervious to the tide of rumors, predic­
tions, and oracular revelations became clear from a
drastic action which Augustus took in that year to curb
the flood of spurious divinatory literature purporting
to offer to high and low alike “ infallible ” predictions.
He had at last (after the death of Lepidus, his erstwhile
colleague in the triumvirate) obtained the office of
p o n tife x m a x im u s in that very year. Among his first
measures was an order to collect and scrutinize all
writings of this kind. Thousands of works were duly
surrendered and promptly sentenced to a fiery death.
The Sibylline books alone were exempted from this
general autodafe.40
That certain astrological texts were among those thus
destroyed can hardly be doubted. For not only obscure
writings of this era, but also its very finest were per­
meated in varying degrees with divinatory lore, and
especially with astrological references. The great poets
of the Augustan era alone furnished conclusive evidence
to that effect. Their oldest and most renowned repre­
sentative was Vergil (born 70 b . c . ) . Of him Suetonius
reported that “ among other studies he gave attention
also to medicine and in particular to mathematics
( m a t h e m a t i c a e ) 41 Inasmuch as the term m a th e -
m a tic u s in the days of Suetonius had become the usual
one for a stro lo g e r (and was thus often used by Sue­
tonius himself in his L i v e s o f th e C a e sa rs ), it might
well have been that not only ordinary geometry and
elementary algebra, but also astrology was seriously
studied by young Vergil. H e surely also received the
general education of his day which included at least a
smattering of astronomy and astral mythology. In his
writings, however, there was but little evidence of astro­
logical lore. He did, indeed, bow to the official Augus-
10 Suetonius, Augustus, 31, 1.
41 Suetonius, vita Verg., 15.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FROM AUGUSTUS TO D O M ITIA N
tan version of the catasterism of Julius Caesar,42 and
he also made, for example, magnificent poetic use of
the traditional Stoic belief in p a lin g en esis, as well as
of the hallowed theory of successive s a e c u la 43
For the moment in our own day Einstein’s concept
of a finite space seems to prevail, having successfully
replaced the earlier “ Euclidean ” assumption of an
infinite void filled with an infinite number of stars,
comets, and nebulae. At the same time this modern
finite universe appears to expand into nothingness at a
rate defying rational understanding. Whether or not
this cosmic catastrophe will affect our small planet
within the brief span allotted to the human race we do
not know, but the prospect of an all-encompassing catas­
trophe in space is today perhaps less incredible than it
was to the sceptics of antiquity. Vergil’s pious dream
of a new era following such a disaster was not original
with him, but found lasting poetic expression in his
fourth eclogue in which a better age was to be launched
by a child redeemer.
Yet withal Vergil refused to accept blindly the astro­
logical belief in an inexorable fate. He did no more
than pay lip service to the fashionable interest in natal
constellations and planetary influences: Aeneas flattered
Helenus as a man who knew the stars,44 while elsewhere
the natal sign of Augustus, Libra, was referred to by
the poet,45 an indication of his being at least conversant
with the more common terminology of astrology.
Of the Augustan circle, Horace and his patron
Maecenas shared the gentlemanly attitude combining
astrological consultations with at least some grains of
scepticism, an outlook characteristic for the upper
Roman society of the late republic and the early
principate.
In an ode written in 26 b . c . , when Agrippa was
building the Pantheon in Rome, Horace made full use
of the astrological terminology of that era. He empha­
sized that both Maecenas and he had the same chrono-
crato r40 in their respective horoscopes. Their fate was
thus linked.41 The almost miraculous escape of Mae­
cenas from death on a certain occasion was blandly
ascribed by the poet to the fact that in his patron’s
horoscope Jupiter’s benign influence had been stronger
than the baleful one of Saturn. Yet the earthy common
sense of the poet was not to be entirely befogged by
such astrological claims. Jokingly he ascribed his own
escape from recent peril not to any zodiacal sign, be it
Libra, Scorpio, or Capricorn, or any other that might
JS See above, p. 78 ff.
*■’ See above, pp. 25, 27, 50 ff.
“ Acncid 3, v. 360: qui sidera sentis.
“ Georgies 1, vv. 33 f f.; compare W . v. Voigt, Unter welchen
Gestirnen wurden Caesar, Agrippa und Tiberius geboren,
Philotogus 58 ( N .F . 12), 1899: 170-204.
The chronocrator is the “ dom inant” planet in the natal
constellation; see Bouche-Leclercq: 491, n. 1; 491 ff.
*' Odes 2, 17, vv. 21 f . ; compare F. Boll, Zu H oraz’ Oden, 2,
17, Zeitschrijt fuer das Gymnasia!schulwesen 65, 1911: 765.
87
have been dominant at the hour of his birth, but to the
good old god Faunus.48 His unwillingness to accept
the dreary creed of fatalistic astrology led Horace to
prefer a quasi-religious type of catarchic astrology. He
expressed his belief in a divine g e n iu s capable of modi­
fying astral power.49 He thus was still far from accept­
ing the iron clad mechanistic concept which, a genera­
tion later, so eloquently emerged from the A s tr o n o m ic a
of Manilius, a concept shared by a number of rulers of
the first century a . d . Horace’s friend Maecenas simi­
larly questioned the accuracy of astrological predictions.
Instead of accepting Horace’s interpretation of their
common “ fatal ” star which would mean the death of
one to occur closely after that of the other, Maecenas
on his deathbed in the fall of 8 b . c . recommended his
friend, Horace, to the emperor Augustus. But less than
two months later, on November 27, Horace also died.
Ever afterwards readers of Horace’s ode of 26 b . c . must
inevitably have been impressed with the “ accuracy ” of
his astrological interpretation of the horoscopes of both
men.
Far more firmly convinced than Horace had been of
star-fated human destiny was his younger contemporary
Propertius. Although he seems to have died earlier
than Vergil and Horace—there is no record of his sur­
viving the year 16 b . c . — -his faith in fatalistic astrology
was already much stronger than that of his two older
fellow-poets. He expressed his contempt for the legend­
ary seer Calchas, since that Greek prophet had been
ignorant of astrology.50 The most detailed revelation
of Propertius’ attitude towards astrology itself was
written into an elegy, published towards the end of his
life, probably about 16 b . c . In the second half of this
poem appears an oriental astrologer, Horos of Babylon,
said to be the son of a great sage Horops of fabulous
ancestry.51 Propertius himself seems to admit having
dabbled in making astrological predictions (d ie e r e f a ta ) ,
apparently without too much success. For Horos, with
the grandiloquence characteristic for his calling, chided
Propertius for these attempts. He himself, on the other
hand, insisted (as might be expected) that he himself
of course had written nothing but the precise truth in
his own (presumably astrological) works. The priestly
art of the ancient Orient he said was, indeed, nowadays
grossly abused by unworthy men eager to gain filthy
lucre. The slanting signs52 of the zodiac together with
‘“ Horace, Odes 2, 17, vv. 17-20; 2 7 f . : utrumque nostrum
incredibili modo consentit astrum, stresses the astral parallelism
which (the poet believes) exists between his own life and that
of his patron Maecenas.
“ Horace, epist. 2, 2, v. 187; compare on his scepticism con­
cerning numerology Odes 1, 11, v. 2. A n astrological interpre­
tation of Odes 1, 28, v. 5, however, is too far fetched; see
Bouche-Leclercq: 551, n. 4.
“ Propertius, 4, 1, v. 109.
51 Ibid., vv. 77 ff.; compare F. Boll, Zu Propertius IV , 1,
Rhein. Mus. 55, 1900: 219 f.
” Propertius 4, 1, v. 82: obliqua signa iterata rotae.
88 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R LD
benign Jupiter, predatory Mars, and baleful Saturn,
Pisces, Leo, and Capricorn, all of them, alas, were used
as money-making assets by such charlatans.
The terminology used by Propertius was so techni­
cal in this instance that it presupposed an astounding
familiarity with astrology among his readers.53 The poet
himself apparently even knew enough about astrology
to be capable of practicing it on occasion. His astrologer
Horos at least — speaking perhaps for Propertius him­
self— claimed to have prophesied to a certain Arria —
a friend of the poet—that her twins would never attain
full manhood, but were destined to die a violent death
before reaching it, a prediction which apparently came
sadly true. Furthermore, deriding the ancient methods
of oracular divination which in the time of Propertius
had suffered a great eclipse of popularity, the poet’s
spokesman cast ridicule on the Libyan Jupiter’s cave,
on the priests’ prophecies from entrails, on the flight of
birds, and even on necromancy which with magic waters
raised the spirits of the dead. None of these traditional
methods of divination could compare with the scientific
accuracy and the wisdom of the astrologer: “ The path
of heaven is to be studied and the true road amidst the
stars. Confidence must be sought from the five zones.” 54
The palm of course belonged to the astrologer’s own
writings.55 After a renewed attack on Greek prophets,58
Propertius turned to his own horoscope now analyzed
by H oros: “ I now shall deal with your own stars. Be
bravely ready for new tears,” a reference to the poet’s
own unhappiness. There followed a brief autobiography
of the poet. In his native Umbrian Assisi his family,
empoverished by wholesale confiscations, led a harassed
life after his father’s early death. It was his fate that
the girl dearest to his heart would betray him, her
cupidity being a birth mark of people bom under the
sign of Cancer.57 Apparently the luckless and exploited
lover had also investigated the horoscope of his mistress.
Ovid, youngest of the great poets of the Augustan
age, became familiar with astrology in his school-days,
but not necessarily enamored of it. One of his pro­
fessors of oratory, for instance, was the sceptical Arellius
Fuscus, a Greek who had migrated from Asia Minor
to the lusher professional fields of the capital. A modern­
ist, he introduced the new works of Roman writers like
Vergil into the classroom,58 although he himself pre­
ferred to discourse in his native Greek. Personally he
was a sceptic of the Carneadic tradition, but he, never­
theless, was well versed in the astrological terminology
of his time. There was in those days among the standard
classroom topics one which called for a speech on Alex-
“* Compare Bouche-Leciercq: 552, n. 1.
“ P ropertius 4, 1, w . 107 f . : aspicienda via est caeli verusque
per astra trames, et ab zonis quinque petenda fides.
" Ibid., v. 102: libris est data palma meis.
" Ib id ., w . 109 ff.
"7 Loc. cit.
*' Seneca rhetor, Suasoriae 4, 5.
ander the Great’s deliberation whether or not to heed
the warning of a Babylonian augur (whom everyone
now took for an astrologer) not to enter Babylon.59
According to the doctrine of fatalistic astrology Alex­
ander should have had no choice in the matter, accord­
ing to the tenets of catarchic astrology, on the other
hand, he should merely avoid an unauspicious moment
and select a favorable time for his entry into the Chal­
daean capital.
In dealing with this popular topic Arellius Fuscus
ridiculed--nhe "blind "faith in astrology, alluding even
ironically to the catasterism of Julius Caesar by the
present ruler:
W ho is he w ho claim s a know ledge of th e fu tu re ? . . .
H e m ay set his sires am id the sta rs an d claim descent
from heaven. . .. . N o n a rro w span of y e a rs can be h i s :
h is soul m ust be exem pt from fate w ho proclaim s th e
fu tu re’s secret to th e w orld. Tf these au g u rie s a re tru e,
why then do we n ot devote all o u r days to the pu su it of
this lore . . . since the sta rs a r e a n open book to us, and
w e m ay hold converse w ith d iv in itie s? If th is is so, then
w hy do we thus labor in th e p u rsu it of an eloquence w hich
is useless . . . ? S u re ly genius w ill th riv e b est on th is
know ledge of the fu tu re. C an th e re be a b etter g u aran tee
of its gro w th ? 60
To this ironic evaluation of astrology young Ovid
may well have listened, happily unaware of the sad lot
which in days to come Augustus would bestow on him.
One wonders, indeed, whether or not such foreknowl­
edge of the future would have benefited the young poet
at all. Nor would the older Seneca, to whom we owe
the preservation of the arguments of Arellius Fuscus,
have relished any insight into the tragic destiny await­
ing his own brilliant sons.
The inherent presumptiousness of astrology’s axiom
that the celestial bodies were concerned with individual
mortals was exposed by Arellius Fuscus also:
T hose w ho as they a sse rt h ave probed th e secrets of fate
enquire into the days of o u r b ir th a n d count the first ho u r
of our life the index of all th e y e a rs to c o m e : they calculate
the m otions of th e sta rs a t th a t h o u r, the d irectio n of th eir
v arious paths, decide if the sun stood steadily adverse, o r
shone calm ly upon u s : if the m oon w as full, o r its lig h t
only w axing, o r if it h id its h ead in th e gloom of n ig h t;
w hether S atu rn w elcom ed us a t b ir th to th e life of a fa n n e r,
o r M ars as w a rrio rs to a life of arm s, o r M e rcu ry to th e
busy p u rsu it of w ealth, w h eth er w ith sw eet sm ile V enus
beckoned to us, o r Ju p ite r ra ise d us from low to h ig h
estate— all these gods th ro n g in g a n d cro w d in g round on
single h e a d ! 41
It may be noted that Fuscus simply identified the
stars with their name-giving divinities. H e also in this
passage subscribed to the crude custom of merely im­
puting to the particular planet the “ influence ” charac­
teristic of its deity. He concluded this discussion of
astrology with a scathing stock argument of the Car-
•• Ib id , 4.
" Ib id ., 1.
“ Ibid., 2.
T H E PO W E R O F A STROLOGERS FROM A U GU STU S TO D O M ITIA N
neadic school of thought, the same one which Cicero
(ascribing it to Panaetius) in his On divination6a had
also applied:
T o m any these seers have foretold long life : and w hile
they th o u g h t of no d a n g er the day of doom overw helm ed
th e m : to som e they have announced th a t death was n ear,
y et these h av e long su rv iv ed to useless d a y s : to others they
h av e p rom ised happy y ears, y et every form of m isfortune
fell sw iftly upon th eir heads. O ur life's destiny is u n ­
kn o w n — T h ese p red ictio n s a re b u t a rb itra ry fictions of th e
seers, no tre a su re s fro m th e m ine of tru e know ledge.63
Like Vergil and Horace, Ovid too seems at least to
have retained a certain reserve. His teacher’s words
apparently did not leave him entirely unimpressed, and
his familiarity with astrology—without a fanatical belief
in fate, however—was demonstrated in his Ibis. In this
poem Ovid showed his acquaintance with the jargon
of astrologers and the weather-omen interpreters. Re­
ferring to an enemy’s horoscope he proclaimed:
Y o u a re b o rn to be u nfortunate. N o t a single s ta r w as
p ro p itio u s an d g en tle a t y o u r b irth . V enus d id not shine
a t th at h o u r n o r Ju p ite r. N eith er S un n o r M oon w as in a
favorable p osition, and w h at the resplendent M a ja received
from g re a t J u p ite r h as n o t m ade h er fires helpful to you.
Y ou a re w eighted dow n by the sta r of M ars, w hich p re ­
sages b ru ta l th in g s only an d n ev er an y th in g peaceful, and
by th e one of th e old m an w ith the scythe [S a tu rn ]. T o
m ake ev ery th in g doleful th e day of y o u r b irth began w ith
bad w eath er an d w as d ark en ed by a bed of clouds.54
Only the degrees of the planetary positions were
lacking to make this part of a “ professional” horo­
scope.85 It may also be noted that—perhaps owing to
poetic license — some planets were identified with the
particular divinities, while others were referred to only
as the stars of their respective divinities. The identifi­
cation of the influence of the planet Mars with the
powers attributed to the god Mars again typified the
simplicity with which ancient astrologers transferred
divine powers to the planets without even the pretext
of a scientific explanation.
When Augustus lost his step-son, Drusus, in 9 B. c.,
an unknown poet addressed a consolation to the be­
reaved mother, Livia, wife of the emperor. In glowing
terms he reminded her that even the skies were mourn­
ing with her. Bright Lucifer had abandoned his cus­
tomary course, refusing to rise on the day preceding
the death of Drusus. Venus, ancestral divinity of the
Julian family, was also in mourning.68 All in all, during
the greater part of the reign of Augustus the late re­
publican attitude towards astrology thus persisted. A
gentleman had to be familiar with the names and the
myths.oL stars and constellations, as well as with the
Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 97 ff.
03 Seneca rhetor, Suasoriae 4, 3.
°* Ovid, Ibis, vv. 207-216.
"5 Bouche-Leciercq: 552.
*’ Poetae Latini minores, ed. Baehrens, 1: 104-121, esp. w .
405 ff.
89
basic astrological terminology. Poets writing for the
educated upper class of Rome could presuppose such
knowledge amongst their clients.*7 Yet there still
lingered a final reserve, a remnant of scepticism about
astrology among Rome’s intelligentsia.
This spirit was shared by a Greek author, Strabo,
whose popularity was great enough to assure the sur­
vival of the bulk of his substantial Geography. A con­
temporary of Augustus he lived from about 66 b . c .
to about a . d . 24 and expressed the modified acceptance
of astrology by the “ middle of the road ” intellectuals
of the Augustan era. For example his repeated state­
ment that Egyptian priests were greatly devoted to
philosophy and astronomia (a term which could include
astrology as well)®8 and that they ascribed to Hermes
the revelation of such wisdom69 was presented without
comment. That Strabo definitely also meant astro­
nomical activities, not merely astrological ones, was
attested by his ascription of the 36SJ-day calendar to
Egyptian inventiveness.70 A note of scepticism again
was injected into Strabo’s report, dutifully rendered,
that the Phoenicians of Sidon in particular had trans­
mitted to the Greeks the first knowledge of astronomia
and arithmetic.71 Strabo, hailing as he did from the
southern shores of the Black Sea, tended to side with
the tradition which assigned to Mesopotamia the priority
of astronomical and astrological pursuits. Said h e :
T h e g re a te r p a rt of B abylon is . . . deserted. . . . In
B abylonia a settlem ent is set a p a rt fo r th e local philosophers,
the C haldaeans, a s they are called, w h o a r e m ostly con­
cern ed w ith astronomia. B u t some o f them , w ho a re
n o t approved by th e o th ers, p ro fess to be astro lo g ers
(yevedXiaXoyeh/ ) . T h e re is also a trib e of the Chaldaeans,
an d a te rrito ry in h ab ited by them , in th e neighborhood of
the A rab ian s. . . . T h e re a r e also sev eral trib e s of th e
C haldaean astro n o m ers. F o r exam ple, some a re called
*7 F . H arder, Astrognostische Bemerkungen zu den roemischen
Dichtem , Progr., Berlin, 1893, while excluding “ obvious ” Latin
works like translations or adaptations of A ratus’ Phaenomena,
Ovid’s Fasti, or Manilius’ Astronomica, counted from Plautus
to Claudianus, i. e. over a period of about six and a half cen­
turies, for example no fewer than 132 references to the planet
Venus and 270 to the Big and L ittle Dipper. '
°* Compare P . Tannery, Recherches sur I’histoire de I’astro-
nomie ancienne: 1-55; P aris, 1893.
“ Strabo, 17, 1, 3 (f. 787) ; 1. 29 (f. 806). In the mid-twenties
b. c. Strabo accompanied the Roman governor of Egypt, Aelius
Gallus, on a voyage up the Nile. A Chaeremon who also belonged
to the group of travelers cannot possibly have been the same
scholar who in a . d . 49 was appointed tutor to Nero.
70 Ibid. 17, 1, 46 (f. 816). Speaking of the priests at the shrine
near the Memnon colossus Strabo sa id : “ T he priests there are
said to have been, for the most part, astronomers ( irrponiiui)
and philosophers; and it is due to these priests also th at people
reckon the days, not by the moon, but. by-the sun,, adding to. the
twelve months of thirty days each five days each y e a r; and, for
the filling out of the whole year, since a fraction of the day
runs over and above, they form a period of time from enough
whole days, o r whole years, to make the fraction that run over
and above, when added together, amount to a day ’’ ; cf. also
17, 1, 29.
71 Ibid. 16, 2, 24 (f. 757).
90 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M PH O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA TIN W O R LD
Orcheni, others Borsippeni [obviously those residing at
the town of Borsippa] and several others by different names,
as though divided into different sects which hold various
different dogmas about the same subjects. And the mathe-
matici make mention of some of these men; as for example
Cidenas and Naburianos and Sudines. Seleucus of Seleucia
is also a Chaldaean, as are also several other noteworthy
men.72
This passage illustrates the hopeless confusion pre­
vailing in the Augustan age about the meaning of the
term “ Chaldaeans.” Already the word mathematici
once chosen to denote the difference between astronomy
and astrology came to acquire the meaning of astrology
also. That this combined sense was the one which
Strabo used it is clear from his mentioning Sudines
among the mathematici. While the other names, espe­
cially those of Cidenas (Kidinnu) and Seleucus, re­
ferred to renowned astronomers, Sudines, a contempo­
rary of king Attaius I (ca. 240 b . c.), was definitely an
astronomer, as well as a “ Chaldaean diviner” (fidvt w ) ,
i. e. in all likelihood an astrologer.7* The acknowledg­
ment of astronomy as a fundamental part of geography
was expressed by Strabo on numerous occasions. In
particular the astronomical subdivision of the heavens
into climata he considered applicable to the surface of
our planet,74 a theory of long standing and treated
occasionally in poetic form.75 That Strabo wrote pri­
marily for laymen who were interested in acquiring a
general knowledge rather than for scholarly specialists
was admitted by the author himself:
. . . Even in the case of the parts of the inhabited world
the man of affairs ( 4 »oXi n t i s ) need not be taught the
nature and number of these things [i. e. the nature and
number of the different aspects of the celestial bodies]. For
that is dry reading.7*
Men in public life, to whom Strabo referred, were,
indeed, not only his Greek readers, but especially that
circle of Romans to which men like Cicero, Julius
Caesar, and subsequently Augustus and the Augustan
poets belonged: educated Roman gentlemen whose ac­
ceptance of astrology remained tempered with scepticism.
3. T H E DECA Y O F A U G U S T A N S C E P T IC IS M
The decade frorn the death of Agrippa (12 b . c . ) to
the ruin of Augustus’ only child, Julia, saw the emperor
at the zenith of his good fortune. Thereafter the scandal
which destroyed Julia and the successive deaths of
Augustus’ two grandsons and prospective heirs, Caius
and Lucius, dealt the emperor shattering blows. Finally
he had to realize also that his last surviving grandson,
" Ib id . 16, 1, 6 (f. 739).
” W . Kroll, R E , 2. Reihe, 4,. 1, 1931; c. 563. T hat he like
Hipparchus combined astronomy with astrology may be assumed
from Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 11, 11 (ed. W . K roll: 35, 4).
74 Strabo, 2. 5, 2 ff. (ff. 110-112).
"Ibid. 14, 1, 25 (f. 642).
’• Ibid. 2, 5, 34 (f. 132).
Agrippa Postumus, would never be fit to succeed to
the empire. Under such circumstances the balanced
appraisal of life which had been so conspicuous during
the preceding decades of the Augustan era was under­
mined. The old Roman values to which the ruler
seemed or at least professed to be so firmly attached,
values which in the realm of Roman family life he had
tried to maintain by extensive legislation, were openly
flaunted by his daughter, Julia, and her daughter of
the same name. Also the ever present doubt whether
or not the delicately balanced regime instituted in 26
b . c . would survive its founder gnawed day and night
at the restive mind of the emperor. Years in which
optimism seemed warranted time and again were fol­
lowed by years of renewed anxiety. The death of
Agrippa, for example, had made it necessary in 12 b . c .
to seek a temporary solution of the succession question,
until Agrippa’s young sons would come of age. The
unfortunate expedient to which Augustus now resorted
had important consequences for Roman history in gen­
eral. In particular, however, it was to affect the role
played by astrologers in Roman political affairs.
In 12 b . c . the “ obvious ” choice of a potential regent
was the ruler’s oldest step-son Tiberius,77 an experi­
enced general and proven administrator, who at the
time was thirty years old. From every point of view
he seemed a suitable third husband for the twice-
widowed, twenty-eight-year-old Julia. That Tiberius
had to divorce his present wife in order to marry Julia
seemed of little importance. For Roman marriages were,
at least in high society, merely a legal convention to
which many payed only scanty attention. In this case,
however, the exceptional had happened: Tiberius was
deeply attached to his wife, a daughter of Agrippa by
an earlier marriage, and therefore very unwilling to
divorce her for the sake of Julia, whose immoral con­
duct he knew far better than did her wholly deceived
father.78 The dazzling prospect of becoming his im­
perial step-father’s son-in-law did not greatly attract
him. He was, however, too much of a man of the world
not to realize that to refuse the hand of Julia would be
politically suicidal, and even personally dangerous. He
therefore reluctantly divorced his wife, Vipsania, and
married Julia.
From the very first his position was an unhappy one.
He longed for a pretext to leave Rome. In 9 b . c . his
brother, Drusus, died during a German campaign. Now
Tiberius went forth to complete the pacification of the
77 See Velleius Paterculus, 2, 96, 1 ; Suetonius, A ugustus, 63,
2 ; Cassius Dio, 54, 31, 1-2. clearly suggests that the match
was merely meant as a political provisorium, until the
young sons of Agrippa and Julia, the grandsons of Augustus,
would grow up. The betrothal took place in the year 12, the
m arriage in 11 B. c.; Cassius Dio, 54, 35, 4.
78 Julia apparently had already made advances to Tiberius
when both of them were still m arried to other spouses. Tiberius,
although no Joseph, had spurned this Roman Potiphar, only to
find himself now forced into m arriage with her.
T H E PO W ER O F ASTROLOGERS FROM AUGUSTUS TO D O M ITIA N 91
German tribes between the Rhine and Elbe and to fetch depths of his despair.82 For a time he pondered whether
his brother’s body for burial in Rome. Meanwhile Julia’s or not to execute his only child, then banished her forever
escapades continued to keep Rome’s ever-busy tongues to an island, where — many years later — the aging
awagging. When Tiberius returned to Rome, he was Julia, despairing of her fate, killed herself.88 During
highly honored by the grateful emperor. He was made these dark months Augustus seems to have begun the
consul (7 b . c.) and granted a triumph. But life with composition of the official record of his stewardship of
Julia had become intolerable. Divorce was unthinkable. the empire, the so-called Monumentum Ancyranum, or
It would have mortally affronted Augustus had Tiberius better the res gestae divi Augusti. Moreover, he proba­
opened the doting father’s eyes to the conduct of Julia. bly changed his will by making a new one sometime
Tiberius was a Roman gentleman. He chose a curious after February 5, 2 b. c .84
way out of his dilemma. A laughing stock of Rome’s On September 23, 1 b. c . Augustus entered his sixty-
gay blades he asked formally for Augustus’ permission third year, the most dreaded one of the so-called
to withdraw to Rhodes, ostensibly for the purpose of climacteric years to which numerology and especially
“ resuming his studies.” 78 The strange request was the neo-Pythagoreanism of those days ascribed a “ cli­
granted with ill grace.80 All that Livia could obtain mactic ” role in the life of each human being.85 Under
for her son from the irate emperor was a face-saving the existing circumstances it can cause no surprise that
appointment which made him a Roman “ ambassador ” Augustus was deeply worried about the impending year.
(legatus) to Rhodes.81 His long-standing scepticism about such superstitions
When Tiberius with a very small retinue left for the was weakening. It no longer fortified him sufficiently
Greek island in 6 b . c., he was still the most logical to stave off a sentiment of foreboding. In order to as­
successor to Augustus whose grandsons were far too sure a secure hold of his family on the administrative
young to be seriously considered for the throne in case machinery in case something happened to him, he se­
Augustus should die during the next decade. The open lected the consuls for the year a . d . 1 with special care.
estrangement between the emperor and Tiberius, on the One was to be young Caius, his grandson and heir-
other hand, encouraged malcontents who still hoped to designate, the other his granddaughter Julia’s husband,
restore the old senatorial regime of the late republic. L. Aemilius Paulus.
Fully aware of the serious weakening of the dynastic L. Aemilius Paulus (and perhaps his wife also)86
position the ruler did what he could to bolster it. He were eventually involved in a plot against Augustus.
adopted both Caius and Lucius and pursued tenaciously A recent conjecture, although admittedly a tenuous one,
his policy of arranging intra-family marriages. Of these has tried to assign this abortive conspiracy to the cli-
the match between Tiberius’ nephew Germanicus, son
of the late Drusus, and Julia’s daughter Agrippina (the 82 Suetonius, A ugustus, 63 f., on the intra-family m arriages;
ibid., 65 on the series of disasters w ithin the imperial house;
elder) proved fateful for the future fortunes of the beginning in 2 b . c., and on Augustus’ reaction to th em ; com­
dynasty. For from it descended the emperor C. Caligula, pare the comment of Seneca, ad Polyb. consol., 15, 3 : Nemo
his sister, the younger Agrippina, and through her the magis ex omnibus mortalibus hominem esse se dum inter homines
emperor Nero. Also married by Augustan arrange­ erat sensit.
ment during these years was Julia’s other daughter, 83 Augustus’ divorced wife Scribonia, the mother of Julia, vol­
untarily accompanied her into exile; compare Velleius P ater­
the younger Julia. The husband selected for her was culus, 2, 100, 5; Suetonius, A ugustus, 65, 2-3; Tiberius, 11, 4;
L. Aemilius Paulus, whose mother, Cornelia, had been 50, 1; Tacitus, A nnals 3, 24; cf. 1, 53; Cassius Dio, 55, 10, 14 f . ;
immortalized by Propertius, and who herself was a half- 13, 1; 56, 32, 4 ; 40, 6 ; 57, 18, la.
sister of Augustus. W ith the imperial family thus Compare W . Ensslin, Zu den res gestae divi Augusti, Rh.
Mus., 81, 1932 : 334-365, esp. 359; E. Kornemann, Gnomon 14,
cemented by all conceivable kinds of marital ties, the 1938 : 499; E. Hohl, Zu den Testamenten des Augustus, Klio 30
princeps reached the zenith of his political career when (N . F. 12), 1937: 323-342; Der Leistungsbericht des Augustus,
on February 5, 2 b . c . he was solemnly voted the highest N eue Jahrbuecher fuer A n tike und deutsche Bildunq 3, 1940,
honor which could be bestowed upon a Rom an: the title H eft 4: 136-146, esp. 142 f.
of pater patriae. At the zenith of his fortunes fate struck 86 On the entire subject, see the classical w ork of Salmasius,
de annis climactericis, 1648. Ancient authors dealing with this
him down. topic were for example V arro, quoted by Gellius, 3, 10, 9;
His eyes were suddenly opened to the true character Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 3, 8 and 11; 5, 12 (where Crito­
of his beloved daughter, Julia, and the life she was demus and Nechepso are cited as au th o rities); ed. W . K roll:
leading. Even the hard-boiled and anti-imperial his­ 143, 5 f f .; 147; 234, 31 ff.; Censorinus, de die natali, 14, 13-15;
torians of the first century admitted the King Lear Firm icus M aternus, M athesis 4, 20, 3 ; cf. Bouche-Leclercq - 526-
529; F. Boll, R E 11, 1921: c. 843 f.
86 H er m arriage apparently took place in 4 b. c. In A. d . 8 she
7* O ur sources more or less agree on the real reasons; see was relegated—or perhaps transferred from a previous place of
Velleius Paterculus, 2 , 99, 1 -3 ; Suetonius, Tiberius, 1 0 -1 1 ; banishment—to the island of Trim erus, where she died twenty
Tacitus, A nnals 6, 51 ( 5 7 ) ; cf. 1, 5 3 ; Cassius Dio, 55, 9, 5 -8 ; years later; compare Tacitus, Annals 4, 71; cf. 3, 24. Irre­
for the pretext of “ further studies,” ibid. 55, 9, 5.
spective of whether the plot of her husband Paulus took place
80 Suetonius, Tiberius, 10 f. in a . d . 1 or 14. it is hardly likely that Julia was ignorant of
81 Ibid., 12, 1. his conspiratorial activities.
92 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F A ST RO LO G Y IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
macteric year, while traditionally a much later date has
been assumed. That Paulus left his office on July 1—
he was replaced by Herennius Picens 87 — is shown by
the fasti consulates. This change from a member of
the ruling family to an “ outsider ” in the middle of the
climacteric year would seem almost inexplicable except
for the gravest reasons of state. It may have been the
very belief that this climacteric year would be fatal for
Augustus which helped to stir the ambitions of Paulus.
Was not Tiberius safely away in semi-exile? Were not
Caius and Lucius two immature boys to be pushed
aside with relative ease? If the plot which cost Paulus
his life 8* actually occurred in a . d . 1 and not in a . d . 14
one could understand all the better the deep feeling of
relief with which Augustus celebrated his birthday at
the end of the perilous year. On that day (September
23, a . d . 1) he wrote to his grandson, Caius, a letter
reflecting perhaps the relief about his escape from a
concrete, not merely a general danger during the cli­
macteric year:
Greeting, my dear Caius, my dearest little donkey
( asellus), so help me! I constantly miss you whenever
you are away from me. But especially on such days as
today my eyes are eager for my Caius, and wherever you
have been today, I hope you have celebrated my sixty-
fourth birthday in health and happiness. For as you see,
1 have passed the climateric (*\inaKTTjpa) common to all
old men, the sixty-third year. And I pray that whatever
time is left to me I may pass with you safe and well, with
our country in a flourishing condition, while you are
playing the man and preparing to succeed to my position
(di/Spaya$o(>vTwv iifiuv kat SiaSexofievtav stationem meam),89
The note of seriousness in the second part of this
letter is in stark contrast to the jocose beginning. The
emperor’s hope to live long enough to see his grandson
groomed for the succession was strengthened by his
having survived the climacteric year and its perils. Yet
with his daughter’s disgrace still fresh in his mind and
perhaps a recent plot within his inner family circle as
added evidence of lurking perils Augustus had lost
much of his earlier confidence in his good fortune. Had
not Julius Caesar, his predecessor, experienced an even
more incredible amount of good fortune only to be
hurled to a violent death from the very summit of
power? In this somber mood, his faith in his family
and friends severely shaken, the aging ruler met the
greatest astrologer of his time, Thrasyllus.
87Fasti consulates imperii Romani, ed. W. Liebenam: 409;
compare Fasti Capitolini, CIL 1, 2nd ed.: 164 and 340.
88 Suetonius, Augustus, 19, 1; cf. Cassius Dio, 55, 27, 1-2.
The Plautius Rufus mentioned by Suetonius would not, according
to Hohl, the advocate of the hypothesis that the plot belongs to
a . d . 1, be the rabble rouser of a . d . 6 , but the M. Egnatius Rufus,
whose conspiracy was discovered in 19 B. c.
88Aulus Gellius, 15, 7, 3.
4. THRASYLLUS AN D AUGUSTUS
The towering figure of Thrasyllus has hardly received
the attention it merits. Encyclopaedias and scholarly
accounts of this period, especially when dealing with
the reign of Tiberius, invariably mention ,him as a close
friend of this ruler. Every study of the era refers to
him more or less briefly, but the full scope of his politi­
cal influence has apparently never been fully probed.
Tacitus, Suetonius, and Cassius Dio agree in assigning
to Thrasyllus considerable personal power, based chiefly
on his intimate friendship with Tiberius whose astro­
logical adviser Thrasyllus became while Tiberius lived
in self-imposed exile on Rhodes. Actually, astrology
was but one of many fields in which this Alexandrinian
scholar, a grammarian by profession, proved himself.
His interest in astrology (and numerology) in no way
contradicted the seriousness of his intellectual pursuits.
From Hipparchus (second century b . c.) and Ptolemy
(second century a . d . ) to Johannes Kepler (d. a . d .
1630) scientific brilliance was very often coupled with
deep-rooted faith in astrology.
That a man of Thrasyllus’ calibre selected Rhodes in
which to pursue his academic career was undoubtedly
because of the high reputation which Rhodes enjoyed
in both the Greek and Roman orbit as a center of learned
studies.90 Ever since the days of Panaetius a steady
stream of Romans had visited the island in pursuit of
learning. Cicero claimed to have received there his
decisive training in oratory. Julius Caesar too had
followed the path to the auditoria of Rhodes. Both had
gone there attracted, at least in part, by the fame of
Panaetius’ successor, the renowned Stoic Posidonius
of Apamea. The reputation of Rhodes for scholarly
pursuits drew, perhaps about half a century after the
death of Posidonius, the Alexandrinian grammarian,
Thrasyllus. On the other hand, the tradition (dating
back to the days of the Sullan terror) of Rhodes as an
honorable voluntary retreat for Romans, who at the
time were politically personae non gratae in the capital,
may have induced Tiberius to chose this retreat when
life with Julia in Rome had become intolerable.
After his arrival on the island in 6 b . c. Tiberius at
once began to frequent the auditoria of the local scholars.
It is most probable that in this academic atmosphere
he first encountered Thrasyllus, then already a well-
known figure in learned circles. The scope of his intel­
lectual interests was well-nigh universal, and his own
publications covered an amazingly wide range. As an
author of astrological writings he also cast a long
shadow. More than a century later Vettius Valens
(second century a . d . ) used them.81 Again a century
later Porphyry in his Isagoge mentioned a controversy
which Apollinarius and Ptolemy had waged against
00 Compare on Rhodes in antiquity the monograph by Hiller
von Gantringen, RE, suppl. 5, 1931: c. 731-840.
" Anthologiae 9, 11; ed. W. K roll: 352, 24.
T H E P O W E R O F ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 93
their predecessors in the realm of astrological literature, syllus was also responsible for a similar arrangement
of the writings of Democritus is less certain.101 While
Thrasyllus and Petosiris.92 Surely to be ranked along­
side the most renowned albeit mythical astrological the New Academy, claiming spiritual descent from
author of Ptolemaic times was a token of the reputation Plato, had since the days of Carneades become a center
which the Alexandrinian grammarian still enjoyed long of Greek scepticism, being therefore firmly opposed to
after his death. Finally Hephaestion of Thebes (late all divination including, of course, astrology, this Platon­
fourth century a . d . ) still knew Thrasyllus.98 Of his ist tried to revive the mysticism which had been part
writings long believed wholly lost the epitome of one of the early Platonic tradition. In that respect Thra­
astrological treatise has been rediscovered in a single syllus may be looked upon as a forerunner of Plotinus
manuscript, filled with a collection of synopses of an­ who two hundred years later founded neo-Platonism
cient astrological texts.94 This pinax of Thrasyllus along similar lines.
was dedicated to a certain Hierocles, perhaps a fellow- Apart from his labors in preparing what came to be
astrologer.95 Among the authors cited by Thrasyllus the standard edition of Plato’s and perhaps also of
were such legendary figures as the inevitable Petosiris, Democritus’ works Thrasyllus in his own right earned
Nechepso, and Hermes Trismegistos.96 a considerable reputation by his writings on the princi­
In the other pseudo-sciences so popular in this era ples of Pythagorean and Platonic philosophy. In the
of renascent “ Pythagoreanism ” Thrasyllus also pub­ third century a . d . Porphyry still considered him among
lished some writings of which his treatise on numerology the important authors who had written on this subject.102
was still a widely used handbook on the subject a hun­ One Thrasyllan treatise entitled On the seven tones
dred years after his death.97 There has also been more ( Trot rmv cura ro vm ) was occasionally referred to by
recently the suggestion that he, not the Thrasyllus of later authors,103 but no fragment of this (or any other
Mendes, may have been the author to whom an essay philosophical writings of Thrasyllus) seems to have
on the properties of stones, a so-called lapidary, should survived. The title, however, indicated the deep pre­
be ascribed.98 Those lapidaries were more than mere occupation of its author with a topic dear to Pythago­
lexicographical discourses on the properties of rare reans and Platonists alike. Viewed in this perspective
stones. Very frequently they also listed the astrological Thrasyllus’ interest in astrology and numerology seems
but a natural consequence of his Weltanschauung.
affinities of each stone with zodiacal signs or planets.99
Magic medical powers of such stones were thus coordi­ Surely Thrasyllus the Alexandrian must be considered
nated with those ascribed by astrology to specific con­ not only as one of the most versatile, but also one of
stellations or planets. Often each stone was assigned a the most profound scholars of his era. His universalist,
intellectual pursuits were based on serious philosophical
particular day of each month.
Far more important, however, than his contribution convictions, and his preoccupation with what today are
in those marginal fields of ancient science were Thra­ recognized as pseudo-scientific subjects was based on a
quite generally accepted view that these were truly
syllus’ efforts in his particular sphere, philology. A de­
voted Platonist, Thrasyllus (together with Derkyllides) scientific disciplines.
The private life of Thrasyllus prior to his meeting
published an edition of Plato’s works which became
with Tiberius at Rhodes is virtually unknown beyond
the standard edition for the future. He arranged the
the fact that he hailed from Alexandria. If he had
Platonic dialogues in tetralogical order, the one in which
previously been married, he must have lost his wife by
they have come down to us.100 Whether or not Thra-
divorce or death. Nor is there any record of children
of Thrasyllus before his sojourn at Rhodes. In spite
“ Ed. E. Boer and St. Weinstock, Cat. 5, 4, 1940: 185-228.
of his growing reputation the Greek scholar was not
Thrasyllus is referred to twice: 203, 4, and 212, 15.
’ ’ Cat. 6: 100, 11; cf. 8, 2: 49, n. 1. yet a Roman citizen at that time. One must assume,
•4Ibid. 8, 2: 99-101. however, that at Rhodes he was recognized as one of
”5Ibid. 8, 2: 99, n. 1. the outstanding academic figures, although no direct
"Ib id .: 100, 19; 101, 16-7. reference to his teaching or lecturing activities at Rhodes
87Juvenal, 6, v. 576.
has come down to us. It is well known, on the other
88 Compare H. Martin, Recherches sur les quatre personnages
appeles Thrasyllus, Annali di sciense matematiche e fisiche di hand, that Tiberius as soon as he had arrived at Rhodes
Tortolini 8, 1857 : 428 ff.; W. Gundel, RE, 2. Reihe, U, 1936: began to frequent the lectures of the local professors.104
c. 581, no. 7,-c. £84, esp. 582 f.
88 No astrological lapidaries are included in Les lapidaires 195; 3 (4th ed.) : 633, n.; W. Gundel, RE, 2. Reihe, 11, 1936:
grecs; ed. F. de Mely and Em. Ruelle, Paris, 1898. See, how­ c. 581, no. 7,-c. 584.
ever, A. Delatte, Traite des plantes planetaires d’un manuscrit 101 Diogenes Laertius, 9, 38; 41; 45-49; cf. W. Christ, op. cit. :
de Leningrad, Melanges . . . Henri Gtegoire, 1949: 145-177, 344; W. Gundel, loc. cit.
and elsewhere. 101 Porphyry, vita Plotini, 20.
100 Albinus, Isagoge, 6; Diogenes Laertius, 3, 56 ff.; 9, 37; loa p ragmt Hist. Graec. 3: 501, ed. C. Mueller; Achilleus, 16;
schol. Juven. 6, v. 576; W. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen 19, ed. E. Maass: 43,9; 46,30; Porphyry, ad Ptolemaei harmon.,
Literatur (Handbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft) 7, 266.
2, 1-2, 1920/1924 : 668; Zeller, philosophie der Griechen 2, 1: 104 Suetonius, Tiberius, 11, 1-3.
94 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FROM AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 95

His political fortunes were then at such low ebb that men cultivated astrology seems to have been the one Antiochus I I I (?) (d . A. D. 17)
a lampoon openly called him an exile,105 while Diogenes, in which Tiberius took the liveliest interest. Although Ti. Claudius Thrasyllus of Alexandria---- m. (ca. A. D. 2)---- Aka (? ), princess of Commagene
one of the renowned professors at Rhodes, went so far his parents had of course obtained his horoscope soon
as to refuse the Roman access to his weekly Saturday after his birth,111 no evidence has come down to us
lecture, an impudence which Tiberius repaid with inter­ attesting to a previous personal interest in astrology on Ti. Claudius Balbillus— m. (ca. 50?)— (wife) (Claudia)------ m. (ca. 15)—L. Ennius,
(d. ca. 81 ?) | Roman knight
est many years later.106 It is surely most probable that the part of Tiberius. Now, however, the disillusioned,
Tiberius met Thrasyllus in an academic setting. Soon somber, and embittered Roman and the Greek mystic C. Julius Antiochus--- m. (1) (ca. 64)-C!audia-m. (2) (ca 85?) (M. Mettius?) Ennia Thrasylla-m. (30?) C. Naevius
the two men became friends. who searched the skies in quest of the eternal verities Epiphanes of Commagene] Capitolina Junius Rufus, (d. 38) I Sertorius Macro
Roman knight | (d. 38)
One may dismiss as fable the story according to of Fate spent much time in astrological studies. Tiberius several children
which Tiberius, deeply worried about his own future, did not remain a passive recipient of such knowledge, C. Julius Antiochus Julia Balbilla (d. 38)
began to consult astrologers, but, fearful of their reveal­ but learned from Thrasyllus the technique of casting Epiphanes Philopappus (d. after 130)
ing such consultations, had them hurled to their death horoscopes himself, an art which he continued to prac­ (consul 109, d. ca. 114)
immediately afterwards. Thrasyllus, according to this tice during the rest of his life.118 When finally Thra­
version, surprised Tiberius by discovering from the syllus predicted accurately the impending arrival of the minimum age for a girl’s legal marriage according That the Alexandrian sage viewed the Roman ruler
stars his own imminent danger and thus convinced momentous good news to be brought by an approaching to Roman law. less emotionally than Tiberius attached himself to Thra­
the Roman of his superior astrological prowess.107 He ship, he was sustained by the facts. Tiberius was recalled This family tree expresses. the majority opinion118 syllus seems borne out by some of the extant records.
thus saved his own life and, it is said, created a lasting to Rome ( a . d . 2) . 118 Lucius Caesar was dead, and which identified the Roman knight, who was a friend Thrasyllus’ prediction of A . d . 36, for instance, of ten
impression upon Tiberius. Actually the sensational Caius Caesar died in a . d . 3. Whether he liked it or of Seneca and prefect of Egypt under Nero, as well as more years of life for the ailing Tiberius a few months
story must be discounted. For neither would Tiberius not Augustus now had no choice but to adopt Tiberius, Claudius’ companion on the expedition to Britain, with before his very death was said to have been made for
have dared under the circumstances to engage in a thus formally designating him as his heir ( a . d . 4 ) .114 the Balbillus known to have been the son of Thrasyllus political reasons and against the astrologer’s better
massacre of astrologers at Rhodes, nor would a man of As soon as he was able to do so, i. e. at the latest and a favorite court astrologer of Nero and Vespasian, " knowledge.” 122
Thrasyllus’ stature have accepted an invitation whose after his return to Rome in a . d . 2, Tiberius rewarded as well as an astrological consultant to the younger Meanwhile a new chapter in the history of astro­
dangers he would have been fully aware of. A far more his faithful friend by obtaining for him the still impor­ Agrippina. A stubbornly defended minority view 119 logical influence in high places began with Thrasyllus’
natural explanation of the growing friendship between tant boon of Roman citizenship. The Greek scholar which refuses to agree to the identification seems un­ arrival in Rome in a . d . 2. The gentlemanly accept­
the two men would be the friendlessness of Tiberius henceforth became known as Tiberius Claudius Thra­ tenable. The female line of the house of Thrasyllus, ance, mixed with some grains of sound scepticism,
who “ in the seclusion of Rhodes had habituated him­ syllus.115 Perhaps Tiberius was also instrumental in so far as we know, terminated in 38 with his great­ which had been the aristocratic attitude during the late
self to shun society.” 108 Many travelers in turn did winning for Thrasyllus the hand of princess Aka (?) grandchildren, born to Ennia Thrasylla and her husband republic and was still adhered to by Augustus, now
not think it prudent to visit the fallen magnate. When of Commagene.110 This minor dynasty was long known Macro, a Roman knight. The male line, on the other gave way to an unquestioning faith in the irrevokable
an officer like Quirinus stopped to see him, Tiberius for its interest in things astrological,117 but it hardly hand, continued through Balbillus and— after a break- fate of men and institutions. A lofty scientific concept
remembered this gesture for long years to come.109 seems likely that it would have agreed to the marriage resumed with his grandson Philopappus. It still existed of the inexorable laws of nature emanated from the
Nor did he forget those who had avoided him at of one of its female members to a Greek scholar, had in the second century of our era, but we have no evidence Alexandrinian Greek and soon pervaded the Augustan
Rhodes.110 he not possessed very influential connections to recom­ of its further fate beyond the generation of Philopappus circle. Within hardly more than a decade the new spirit
In the solitude of his voluntary exile Tiberius must mend him. Since we definitely know a son and a and his sister Julia Balbilla. manifested itself in two works written by members of
have been particularly attracted by the brilliant Greek daughter of Thrasyllus (see the family tree on p. 95)' It is difficult to appraise the inner reaction of Thra­ this group, the Astronomica of Manilius and the Latin
whose company helped to while away many hours and furthermore that this daughter must have been syllus to his good fortune. Although the friendship version of Aratus’ Phaenomena from the pen of Tiberius’
which might otherwise have been empty. Thrasyllus married not later than about a . d . 15, it would appear between him and Tiberius endured until the very end nephew (and adopted son), Germanicus.123 Of these
gradually not only became the friend of Tiberius but that (if both children were borne by Aka ( ?)) the mar­ of their lives and became a classroom example of a two the Astronomica was by far the more original effort.
also his teacher. Among the subjects which the two riage between Aka (? ) and Thrasyllus dated at the “ famous friendship,” 120 there may have been some The author’s name, tentatively given as Manilius, is not
very latest from the year a . d . 2 , twelve years being writings in which Thrasyllus dissociated himself from certain, but his proximity to the circle of Augustus and
Ibid., 59, 1. Tiberius. For the emperor Julian (d. 363) contra­
Ibid., 32, 2. Tiberius can hardly be questioned. Thus he certainly
111 Suetonius, Tiberius, 14, 2. dicted the popular tradition of this friendship between
107 Tacitus, Annals 6, 21; Suetonius, Tiberius, 14, 4; Cassius ” * Tacitus, Annals 6, 21; Cassius Dio, 55, 11, 1. came in frequent contact with Thrasyllus, and one might
Dio, 55, 11, 2-3; Anonymus Byzant., cod. Paris, gr. suppl. 607 A, 113 Tacitus, loc. cit.; Cassius Dio, 55, 11, 3. prince and scholar: expect that some of Thrasyllus’ fairly novel astrological
f. 44', ed Cat. 8, 4; 99 f.; compare A. H. Krappe, Tiberius and 114 Suetonius, Augustus, 65, 1; Velleius Paterculus, 2, 103. theories like the thema mundi, the heptazonos, the doc­
Thrasyllus, Amer. Jour. Philol. 48, 1927 : 359-366; C. Cichorius, Thrasyllus by becoming intimate with the harsh and
115 Corpus Inscriptionum Graecarum ( CIG ) 3, no. 7107, con­
Rocmische Studien: 390 ff., Leipzig and Berlin, Teubner, 1922. naturally cruel tyrant Tiberius would have incurred indeli­ trine of the twelve places and the “ physis ” of zodiacal
firms—according to C. Cichorius, Roemische Studien: 396, and ble disgrace for all time, had he not cleared himself in the
10’ Tacitus, Annals 4, 57; compare 1, 4. Rhein. Mus. 76, 1927: 103—Hirschfeld’s suggestion that Tiberius signs and planets—all of them formerly believed to be
: 00Ibid. 3, 48, and especially 4, 15. Suetonius, Tiberius, 12, 2, writings that he left behind him and so shown his true
may already have been able to obtain the Roman citizenship
character. . . .121
of much later origin than the time of Thrasyllus124 —
states that at first all Romans of importance made a point of for Thrasyllus even before both men left Rhodes.
calling on Tiberius when passing through Rhodes, but ceased 110This name has been reconstructed by E. Honigmann, Zu ,1B E. Honigmann, RE, suppl. 4, 1924: c. 986; W . Kroll, RE, 155 See below, p. 105 ff. Compare with Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 3
to do so after the succession of C. and L. Caesar seemed assured, CIG 4730, Hermes 59, 1924 ; 477 f., while Peek (op. cit. above, suppl. 5, 1931: c. 59 f.; Stein in P IR 2, 2nd ed.; 1936, no. 1086: also the very similar passage of an Anonymous Byzant. in Cat.
i. e. after 2 B. c.; see ibid., 12, 3; 13, 1. ch. iii, n. 4) prefers to assume that the missing letters added
262. 8, 4: 100, as well as Suetonius, Tiberius, 62, 3.
Tacitus, Annals 2, 42. On one occasion, however, Tiberius up to al/ia, not ”A/ca.
119 Mainly led by Stein; see P IR 1, 2nd ed., 1933, no. 38 : 349, 133 Ed. Breysig, Leipzig, 1899. Of the many editions of Mani­
had forgotten the name of an old Rhodian friend—with tragic Compare a first century b . c . relief, showing Antiochus I and 2, 2nd ed.; 1936, no. 813 (xxi, no. 813); 184 f.; also lius’ Astronomica the unpretentious but reliable edition (and
results; ibid. 6, 10. On the episode involving Archelaus, compare °f Commagene and the Sun-god Mithras; F. Cumont, Les commentary) of Th. Breiter, Dieterichsche Verlagsbuchhand-
also Suetonius, Tiberius, 56; Cassius Dio, 57, 17, 3ff. Velleius Aegyptus 13, 1933: 123-136 ; 331 f.
religions . . .: 133. The tomb of the king was decorated with 1MThemisius (fourth century a . d .) refers to it a number of lung, Leipzig, 1908, surpasses many more ambitious efforts.
Paterculus 2, 99, 3-4: 100, 1; cf. 103, 1. for obvious reasons his coronation horoscope of July 6 or 7, 62 b . c. when Pompey
times; or. 5; 8; 11; 34, ed. Dindorf: 76, 1; 129, 15; 173, 6; 13‘ His familiarity with them is revealed in a summary of one
referre! only to the first years of Tiberius’ sojourn at Rhodes; had reinstated him. For astrological epitaphs in Syria and Asia of his works; see Cat. 8, 3: 99-101; compare F. Boll, Die
compare on Archelaus’ fall W. E. Gwatkin, Cappadocia as a minor, compare for example F. Cumont, Inscriptions du Pont. 451, 7.
Julian, epist. ad Themistium, I. 265 C-D. But Julian may Lebensalter, Neue lahrbuecher fuer das klassische Altertum 31,
Roman procuratorial province, Univ. of Missouri Studies, 5 (4), no. 33; F. Boll, Akrostische Inschrift von Sinope, Archiv fuer
merely have meant the general excellence of Thrasyllus’ ceuvre. 1913 : 89-146, esp. 114 and 130, n. 1.
1930 : 7-16. Religionswissenschaft 13, 1910 : 475-478.
96 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
made their way into Manilius’ poem. On the whole,
however, Manilius seems to have spumed the mysticism
of Thrasyllus. The degree of Thrasyllus’ influence upon
Manilius’ astrological concepts remains uncertain,126
but its existence can hardly be doubted.
The poem itself, a landmark in scientific Latin poetry
hardly inferior to Lucretius’ de natura rerum, was dedi­
cated to an emperor, probably Tiberius. Its proud
opening lines were no wholly empty boast:
In this poem I undertake to reveal to the world the
heavenly arts and the stars which know and vary the mani­
fold lives of men,126 a work of celestial- reason (rationis).
I am the first to move the Helicon with new songs . . .
bringing with me sacred offerings unknown to any of an
earlier generation.127
The Astronomica, however, was not only dedicated
to an emperor (as Valerius Maximus dedicated his
Varia to Tiberius) , 128 but apparently directly com­
missioned by him :
Courage for this undertaking you give me, and the
strength to sing of things so great you arouse, O Caesar,
ruler arid father of the country (patriae princeps paterque),
you who rule an obedient world and a universe, granted
to your father, with august laws and deserve yourself the
rank of god.129
Hot controversy has arisen over whether these lines
were addressed to Augustus or Tiberius. The strongest
argument in assuming that Augustus was the Caesar
referred to is the accurate mention of his two titles,
princeps and paler patriae. Augustus was voted the
latter in 2 b . c., Tiberius, however, throughout his own
reign steadfastly refused to accept it. Nevertheless,
since the events alluded to in the poem, extend as far
as a . d . 22 or 23, i. e. into the middle of the reign of
Tiberius, it seems unlikely that a work, not even finished
then, would be dedicated to a ruler long since deceased.
While, indeed, parts of the work may have been recited
in the presence of Augustus, it seems perhaps more
reasonable to assume that “ pater patriae,” applied to
Tiberius, was a flattering figure of speech rather than
a statement of fact. The allusion that the ruler’s father
(or better adoptive father) reigned in the universe
would fit both Augustus (who had his adoptive father,
Julius Caesar, elevated to the rank of a god) and
Tiberius, whose adoptive father, Augustus, was declared
divns in a . d . 14. Again and again Manilius wove
references to the imperial family into the fabric of his
poem. Towards the end of the first book, for instance,
135 F. Boll, Zur hippokratischen Schrift von der Siebenzahl,
W ochcnschrift fuer klassische Philologie 30, 1913, c. 929 f.,
remained sceptical, but more recently v. Wageningen, RE, 14, 1,
1928: c. 11IS, no. 6,-c. 1133, left the question open.
134 Astronomica 1, v. 59, intensifies this statement: reddita
certis fatorum ordinibus sua cuique potentia formae.
13' Ibid., 1, w . 1-6.
1!* Valerius Maximus, pr.
134 Astronomica 1, vv. 7-10.
which was chiefly devoted to topics of a historical and
astronomical character, appears a long list of heroes
who after death were elevated to the heavens.130 In this
catalogue of catasterisms a somewhat mixed Greek
group included Lycurgus, Solon, Socrates, and Plato,
as well as Themistocles. These were followed by a large
number of thoroughly unintellectual Roman men of
action. The crowning glory, however, was reserved
for the Julian and Claudian families:
From ancestral Venus descended the Julian house from
heaven, and it has in turn filled heaven which Augustus
rules together with his colleague [Julius Caesar] who thun­
ders across the constellations. . . ,131
In spite of his adulation of the reigning house, how­
ever, Manilius paid some tribute to the wide spread
republican sentiment still alive in niany of Rome’s
ranking families. He included for example Caesar’s
adversary Pompey among the Roman “ saints ” together
with Julius Caesar himself:
Pompey, conqueror of the world, went to heaven. So did
he who reigned after threefold triumphs before he became
a god [i.e. Julius Caesar].182
A passage of this kind, if written under Tiberius,
contradicts the Tacitean view that the Tiberian era no
longer showed the same degree of imperial leniency in
the realm of free speech which had prevailed under
Augustus, who on account of the historian’s political
views called, for example, Livy “ a Pompeian,” but did
not break off their friendly relations.133 Although the
reins of literary censorship were gradually tightened
during the last years of the reign of Augustus and the
first decade of Tiberius, Manilius during that period
apparently still felt free to express his admiration of
Pompey in a poem written probably for the very inner
circle of the court itself.134
To Tiberius personally Manilius addressed a magnifi­
cent “ appeal to reason ” to which the imperial disciple
of Thrasyllus might well be expected to respond:
Do not seek the quantity of matter, but look for the forces.
Reason, not weight, controls them. Reason conquers all.
Do not hesitate to ascribe divine perspicacy to man. Already
you yourself create gods and send a soul (numen) to the
stars, and under the rule of [the deified] Augustus heaven
will expand.186
134Ibid. 1, vv. 771 ff.
131Ibid. 1, vv. 798 ff. The comet of 44 b. c.—officially identified
with the genius of Julius Caesar—was noted as the only one to
have in its course traversed the constellations.
131 Ibid. 1, w . 793 f.
1,3 Tacitus, Annals 4, 34.
' “ Astronomica 1, v. 799, seems to indicate that this passage
was written after the death of Augustus. In a . d . 25 Cremutius
Cordus modern attempts to whitewash Tiberius to the contrary
notwithstanding—was ruined, chiefly it seems for his pro-
republican historical writings in which for example he called
Lassius and Brutus the last Romans.
1,5 Manilius, Astronomica 4, vv. 931-935.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTRO LO G ERS FRO M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
The spirit of this passage is akin to that of Lucretius,
and the proud “ ratio omnia vincit ” would hardly be
considered a contradiction to the neo-pythagorean and
platonic mysticism espoused by Thrasyllus. For reason
was thought to be the foundation of their concepts also.
The assumption that Augustus, having greatly expanded
the territory of the Roman empire during his lifetime,
would similarly after his death expand the heavenly
realm also, was of course a piece of gross flattery, but
it was in keeping with the rhetorical ecstasies of the
period.
In the same vein Manilius after describing the civil
wars against Brutus and Cassius, and against Mark
Antony arid Sextus Pompeius, as well as the shattering
defeat of Roman armies under Varus in Germany ( a . d .
9), exclaimed:
But this will have been enough for the Fates. Now the
wars will quieten down, and Discord, chained with adamant
fetters, is eternally leashed in her prison. Be there an
invincible father of the country (pater invictus patriae),
and be Rome [invincible] under him: Since he gave a god
to heaven, she need not seek one on earth.” 6
Since Augustus had been suffering the defeat of
A. d .9 which Manilius mentioned, he could hardly be
called “ invincible.” Tiberius, however, ordered the
termination of the German campaigns after some tactical
victories, and while not pater patriae as yet, might soon
be voted this title. The god he gave to heaven was
thus the deified Augustus, and the advice to Rome not
to seek a living god would correspond to the adverse
feelings of Tiberius on the subject of "divine” mon­
archy, as well as to the sentiment of the majority of
Romans.
The horoscope of Augustus was of course public
knowledge. For the emperor himself had definitely
published it in a . d . I I .137 It is therefore hardly sur­
prising that Manilius referred to the zodiacal sign under
which Augustus was conceived and to the one under
which he was born, i. e. to Capricorn and Libra ,188
respectively:
Capricorn . . . what, indeed, is it more remarkable for
than that it was blessed (felix) by shining when Augustus
was conceived. . . .18“ But when the autumnal chelae begin
to rise, the blessed (felix) birth occurred under the weight
of Libra. As judge he will wield (sistet) power over life
and death. He will lay his yoke upon the countries and
will proclaim the laws. Before him cities and kingdoms
will bow (trement) and be ruled by the nod of a single man,
and after [his life on] earth [his] will remain the rule of
heaven.140
133Ibid. 1, vv. 922-926.
137 Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5.
131 Compare W. v. Voigt, Unter welchen Gestirnen wurden
Caesar, Agrippa und Tiberius geboren?, Philologus 58, N. F.
12, 1899 : 170-204; A. E. Housman, Manilius, Augustus, Tiberius,
Capricornus and Libra, Class. Qttar. 7, 1913: 109-114.
134 Manilius, Astronomica 2, w . 507-509.
140 Ibid. 4, w . 547-552.
97
The place where Thrasyllus and Tiberius had met
was praised as a blessed isle. Manilius had no qualms
about referring to Rhodes in glowing terms:
Under the chaste Virgo, blessed (felix) on land and sea,
lies hospitable Rhodes, domicile (hospitium) of the future
ruler (recturi principis), and in those days truly “ the house
of the sun,” 141 to whom the whole island became dedicated
(sacrata), when it received the shining light [i. e. Tiberius]
under the ruler (Caesare) of the whole world [i.e.
Augustus].142
As an astrological handbook the Astronomica was
useless, although after an astronomical introduction in
book I Manilius began to deal with the power which
linked men’s fate with the stars. Book II treated the
twelve signs of the zodiac in their general astrological
importance, while Manilius in book I I I settled down
to astrological detail. Having already (at the end of
book I I ) described the twelve “ houses” of the ecliptic,
he now demanded the utmost scientific accuracy in the
determination of the risings and settings of stars to the
very minute and discussed the arrangement of the place
of Fortuna and the “ Horoscopal Point ” within a horo­
scope. Connected with Pythagorean numerology was the
arithmetical value assigned to individual planets from
which the life span of the infant could be “ exactly
calculated.143 Popular practice, however, inevitably
caused grievous disappointments, attested by funeral
inscriptions cursing the mendacious (or fallible) as­
trologer who had promised a much longer life to the
deceased.144
The fourth book of the Astronomica treated the
decani146 and the special features of each zodiacal sign,
as well as astrological geography. The fifth (and last)
book remained a fragment. Perhaps the whole work
was never completed. The extant section of book V
described the power of some fixed stars and— at con­
siderable length — the paranatellonta,140 It did not,
however, deal with the simultaneous settings of con-
1,1 The term “ house ” is also an astrological one. The phrase
thus is a word-play, possessing both an astrological, as well as a
literal meaning.
1,4 Astronomica 4, vv. 763-766.
143 Cf. Astronomica 4, v. 16; Seneca rhetor, Suasoriae 2, 2:
Statuta nascentibus in finem vitae dies est. The wide spread of
such beliefs is attested by numerous inscriptions; see for example
CIL 6: 1643, no. 13782 ; 3 : 437, no. 3397; Carmina epigr., ed.
Buecheler, nos. 1092; 1536; 1021; and supplem., ed. Lommatzsch,
nos. 1968; 1992 ; 2013; Dessau, Inscr. sel., nos. 9093 ; 9094; cf.
F. Cumont, Les religions orientates . . ., 4th ed.: 286, n. 16-18.
144 A gladiator, for instance, complained, CIL 5 : 354, no. 3466:
Planetam suum properare vos moneo; in Nemesi ne fidem ha-
beatis; sic sum deceptus; or CIL 6 : 2743, no. 28044: L. Valerio
infanti. Raptus est subito, quo fato non scitur. Natus noctis
hora V I, vixit diebus L X X I, abit noctis ab hora V I . . . ; CIL.
6, 4: 2675, no. 27140: Decepit utrosque maxima mendacis fama
mathematici (who had promised a great future to a child that
died at the age of four). Astrologers tried of course to fend off
such accusations; see F. Cumont, Lux perpetua: 303 ff.; 318 f.
1,3 See above, p. 21, esp. n. 159.
140 See above, p. 25, esp. n. 167.
98 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R O F A STRO LO G ERS F R O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 99
stellations (dyseis) and broke off after a discussion of Thrasyllus, Tiberius, Manilius, and their intimates tory elements in the manner in which Agrippa in 33 The little episode revealed the sharpness of the Greek
the varying brilliance of different stars. The most glar­ were fully aware of the unpopularity of their esoteric b . c. on behalf of the government had purged from Rome scholar’s mind and showed him in the role of an accepted
ing omission, of course, was that of a section describing views. Again Manilius may well have spoken for all astrologers and sorcerers. But during the restive years member of the Augustan court during the last years of
the astrological powers of the planets. Without it the members of this group in avowing: which followed the Augustan vow of a . d . 7 no measure the reign.
poem remained useless for practical astrological pur­ of this kind was recorded. The end came in a . d . 14, heralded by the traditional
This I want to raise with divine breath to the stars, but
poses— if, indeed, it was ever meant to be so used. This I shall not write hymns ( carmina) amidst the crowd (in Instead in a . d . 11 a wholly novel type of restriction omens, at least according to our extant sources. A total
incompleteness might also account for the fact that only turba) nor for it.151 was imposed upon diviners, a restriction particularly eclipse of the sun, fire and glowing embers falling from
one ancient writer, Firmicus Matemus, is known to applicable to the practitioners of astrology. Augustus in the sky, and comets of ill omen foretold the death of
have used the Astronomica. This attitude corresponded with the Horatian odi pro- Augustus.158 His reign marked a turning point in the
an edict proscribed on an empire wide basis, not merely
The lofty level of this magnificent torso was indica­ janum vulgns et arceo and was shared by almost the legal treatment of astrology by the government. It also
in Rome and Italy, all consultations on certain topics.
tive of the spirit prevailing in the inner circle around entire Roman aristocracy (and any other aristocracy inaugurated the ascendancy of a new and austere faith
The death of any person should never again be the
Tiberius and Thrasyllus. Manilius lent winged words anywhere at any time). In strange contrast to such in the imperial circle, a short-lived faith which, however,
subject of divinatory curiosity. Nor should, to assure
to the deep-rooted faith in a rational universe where no caste feelings, however, Manilius’ poem was permeated inspired men like Tiberius, Germanicus, and Manilius
observance of this ruling, any seance take place d deux,
Epicurean-Lucretian atoms “ swerved at will,” but one with certain manifestations of the Stoic spirit, revital­ among others. The apostle of this syncretist scientific
i. e. between the diviner and his client alone.154 One
in which scientific natural laws reigned supreme and ized by Posidonius, especially the belief in a cosmic mysticism appears to have been Thrasyllus.
may well wonder to what extent Thrasyllus, by now a
Fate merely signified the immutable application of such sympatheia, an all-pervading harmony.152 The deeply
friend of long standing of both Augustus and the heir
laws. Tiberius fully shared these views: religious longing for an orderly universe expressed the
designate, Tiberius, was responsible for inaugurating 5. T HRASYLLUS AND T IBERIU S (A. D. 14-22)
very essence of what seems to have been Thrasyllus’
He was neglectful of the gods and their cults, being an this novel legal policy of the imperial government. The
Weltanschauung, which he so successfully imparted to The accession of Tiberius in a . d . 14 raised his in­
addict of astrology (addictus mathematicae) and firmly immediate reason for the edict of a . d . 11 may easily
convinced that everything was in the hand of Fate ( cuncta the Augustan inner circle. be guessed: a persistent and wide spread rumor, fanned separable friend, Thrasyllus, to an even higher level of
fato a g i).147 This influence must have begun soon after his arrival influence and power. The first to benefit from this
by diviners to please their clients, that the aged ruler was
Yet in his close association with men like Thrasyllus in Rome (presumably together with Tiberius) in a . d . 2. about to die and great changes might be impending.165 good fortune was apparently his daughter. Although
and Manilius the emperor may well have gone further, It cannot have been long before Tiberius introduced Augustus after issuing his edict challenged his foes Thrasyllus was but a naturalized Roman and his wife
beyond the cut and dried traditional fatalism of the his teacher and friend to the emperor himself. The directly in their own arena. He himself published his an oriental princess whose family seems also to have
Stoics. Reason might, indeed, rule the universe, but in somewhat paradoxical attitude of these men who, on horoscope to “ prove ” that his demise was not immi­ been endowed with Roman citizenship in the reign of
the unfathomable depth of cosmic infinity a still greater one side, became increasingly sceptical about the old- nent. The familiarity of Augustus and Thrasyllus Augustus,159 the Roman aristocracy of either the sena­
power might be hidden : fashioned methods of divination and, on the other, were torial or the equestrian rank would hardly have been
during the last years of the reign was shown by an
with increasing firmness addicted to the “ infallible” willing to have one of its sons marry into the family of
But what use is it to gaze at the universe with feeble incident from the very end of the Augustan era. The
scientific revelations of astrology was of course not con­ Thrasyllus, had it not been for his extraordinary posi­
reason, when everyone’s mind is at variance with itself, scene was Capri, the island destined to become Tiberius’
and fear grasps hope and from the dome of heaven destroys fined to the imperial court. It was to a growing degree refuge in years to come. Augustus, Tiberius, and Thra­
tion at the court of Tiberius. A marriage was now
it? Something by nature dwells, indeed, in vast space shared by educated men throughout the Roman empire. arranged between Thrasyllus’ daughter, the only one of
( vasto recessu) and escapes our mortal vision and our The common people, however, continued simply to add
syllus were at dinner. Torches were seen burning in
the distance near the tomb of Masgabas, a former whom we know, and a Roman knight named L. Ennius.
mortal senses. Nor can it [the unknown power] help us.
new methods of divination to the long familiar Latin or The match may have been concluded in or about a . d . 15,
For all is governed by the Fates, while Fate remains hidden favorite of the emperor. Jokingly Augustus
no matter what method is tried.148 Etruscan ones. Until the end of pagan antiquity they for a daughter resulting from it, Ennia Thrasylla, was
patronized devotedly the diviners of both the older and . . . recited with a loud voice the following Greek verse married approximately fifteen years later.160 This means
Manilius thus drew a line between the Fates which which he was improvising:
the more recent techniques. So strong was the popular that her parents’ wedding must have taken place during
merely executed the laws of nature and a supreme “ The founder’s tomb I see revealed by torches bright.”
faith in seers and prophets, for example, that Augustus the first years of the reign of Tiberius, i. e. shortly after
power remaining forever inaccessible to the searching
in a . d . 7 found it prudent to feign belief in some crude Thereupon he turned to Thrasyllus, a Greek belonging to a . d . 14.
heart or mind. The mysterious force was Fate itself: Tiberius’ entourage, who was unaware of the fact [that
superstition for the benefit of the restive populace of Of L. Ennius little is known. In a . d . 22, i. e. some
“ The Fates rule the world, all is based on fixed the verse was improvised] and asked him from what poet years after his marriage to Thrasyllus’ daughter, he
Rome:
law.” 149 But in transmundane space Fate ruled the in his opinion the verse was taken. Since the man was
Fates in turn. The amor jati, the humble but joyous He made a vow with reference to the Megalenian games, unable to guess, he quickly added another one: “ Do you not was haled before the senate on a charge of maiestas.
see, ’t is Masgabas who thus is honored ? ” 156 The specific indictment alleged that he had melted down
acceptance of this supreme power, was the creed preached because some woman had cut some letter on her arm and
a statue of Tiberius and used the material for household
so eloquently by Manilius. It did in all probability practiced some sort of divination. He knew well to be sure This gave Thrasyllus the needed clue. For he now purposes. Today a similar accusation might still be
that she had not been possessed by a divine power but had
represent the sentiment of the Thrasyllan circle. At the done this thing deliberately; but inasmuch as the populace remembered the link between the late favorite and the deadly in totalitarian countries, and even in the non-
very end of the poem Manilius drew a parallel between was terribly wrought up over both the wars and the famine, imperial poet and said: totalitarian Roman principate grave consequences could
the Roman and the heavenly community: . . . he, too, affected to believe the common report and pro­
ceeded to do anything that would make the crowd more “ No matter who the author might be, the verses are result from acts of this kind.161 Ennius, however, was
And as the people are distributed amongst large cities, cheerful, regarding such measures as necessary.153 excellent.” Augustus laughed loudly and went on with saved by the direct intervention of Tiberius himself who
and the senate retains the uppermost rank and the equestrian good-humored banter.157
order the next highest, the swarm of the knights,— and as This attitude was reminiscent of his cold-blooded stopped the proceedings and quashed the indictment.
you might behold below this group the inert mass and the exploitation of the popular hysteria concerning the
host already nameless, thus there exists a kind of republic 1S* Loc. cit.; compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the 158Cassius Dio, 56, 29, 2-6.
catasterism of Julius Caesar in 44 b . c. One might also stars, Seminar 9, 1951: 1 ff. 168E. Honigmann, RE, suppl. 4, 1924; c. 986, suggests that
also in the universe, a republic of great dignity. Nature
has created it, she who has founded the heavenly city. . . -150 have expected a repetition of the expulsion of inflamma- l“ Cassius Dio, 56, 24, 4. The comets whose appearance Dio Aka ( II ) may have been a daughter of Antiochus I I (d. 29 B. c.),
reports obviously contributed to the popular restiveness. W. and a granddaughter of Antiochus I of Commagene who died
1.7 Suetonius, Tiberius, 69, 1. 151 Ibid. 2, vv. 136 f. Gundel assigns them to a . d . 11, i.e. the very year in which after 38 b . c. But chronologically—assuming she did not marry
1.8 Manilius, Astronomica 4, vv. 866-872. Nevertheless there was, according to Manilius, a nice Augustus circumscribed the activities of all diviners, including Thrasyllus much earlier than A. i>. 2— Antiochus III, who died in
**• [bid. 4, v. 1 4 : Fata regunt orbem, certa stant omnia lege. gradation of “ social strata ” throughout the universe also: astrologers; see Gundel, R E 11, 1921: c. 1187f. a . D. 17, may have been her father with greater probability.

180 Ibid. S, vv. 734-739 ; 740 ff. describe an elaborate celestial Astronomica 5, vv. 734 ff. 1,8 Suetonius, Augustus, 98, 4. 100 See below, p. 105.
hierarchy paralleling that of Rome; compare also 2, vv. 466-469. 168 Cassius Dio, SS, 31, 2-3. 187 Loc. cit. 181 Compare R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 70.
 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF AST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
100
The son-in-law of Thrasyllus probably had to thank his
fortuitous marriage for this escape. A servile warning
from Ateius Capito that such clemency might encourage
other malcontents fell on deaf imperial ears.162 Perhaps
the proceedings against Ennius were begun in the hope
Fic. 12. Tiberius (14-37). From A. Hekler, Greek and
Roman portraits: 179. London. W. Heinemann, and New
York, G. Putnam’s Sons, 1912.
of thereby shaking Tiberius’ confidence in Thrasyllus,
but if that was the goal it certainly was not reached.
The hold of the Greek astrologer on the emperor re­
mained as strong as before.
The abyss which separated the two friends and their
inner circle (which included men like Manilius) from
the raw Roman levies enrolled in the armies of that era
was illustrated drastically by an incident which occurred
Tacitus, Annals 3, 70.
soon after Tiberius’ accession. The legions stationed
in Pannonia were in an ugly mood and ready to mutiny.
The situation was so serious that the new emperor sent
his only son, Drusus, to quell the incipient rebellion.
But all danger of an open outbreak suddenly vanished
owing to a lunar eclipse:
An accident quieted the menace of the night, ripe with
the foreboding of impending crime: For on a suddenly
clearing sky the moon seemed to languish. This the average
soldier, ignorant of the true cause, took for an omen con­
cerning the present troubles; ascribing the eclipse of the
celestial body to his troubles, he believed that his plans
would prosper, if the splendor and light of the goddess ( ! )
could be restored. Therefore, there arose a great noise
from the clanging of brass, the simultaneous blowing of
tubae and horns. In proportion to the brightening and
darkening of her light, they rejoiced or saddened. And
when at last clouds came up and obscured the vision, giving
rise to the belief that the goddess had disappeared in com­
plete darkness, they began— with the suddenness peculiar
to minds once permeated with superstition— to bewail the
fact that this were a portent of their being condemned to
endless labors, and that the gods had turned away with
horror from their crimes.1**
Almost two centuries earlier— on the eve of the battle
of Pydna— some educated Roman officers had prevented
a similar panic by warning their troops in advance of
the impending eclipse and had furnished the men with a
scientifically accurate explanation of the lunar eclipse.1**
Yet Roman soldiers even now were still as ignorantly
superstitious as they had then been. And this was the
kind of army commanded by Germanicus, translator
and adaptor of Aratus’ Phaenomena, and himself of
course a member of the Thrasyllan group. Germanicus’
intellectual fiber, however, was hardly comparable te
that of Thrasyllus or Manilius with whom he probably
shared a firm belief in magic and witchcraft. During his
final disease in a . d . 19 Germanicus— and his wife, the
older Agrippina—became convinced
that he was poisoned by Piso. And there was found under­
neath the floor and inside the walls diverse relics of human
bodies, charms and spells, and the name of Germanicus
engraven upon sheets of lead,165 as well as half-burnt cinders
covered with filth and other magical objects ( maleficia) by
which it is believed that souls are dedicated to the divinities
of death. . . . These things were received by Gemanicus
with ire no less than with fear. . . ,1S8
Tacitus, fervent partisan of Germanicus, did not hesi­
tate to ascribe superstitious fear of magic to his hero,
105 Tacitus, Annals 1, 28.
*“ See above, p. 48 ff.
1"‘ Tabellae defixionum on which the names of the prospective
victims of magic are inscribed have survived. A summary of
the most important literature on the subject, prior to 1929, is
found in F. Cumont, Les religions . . ., 4th ed.: 292 f., n. 74-75.
100 Tacitus, Annals 2, 69. It is an established fact that some­
times firm believers in magic and witchcraft die for no other
ostensible reason than that they believe themselves bewitched.
The death of Germanicus, although in all probability due to
purely .physical, causes, may at least have been hastened by his
superstitious fears.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FROM AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
a fear generally felt by high and low alike. Not only did
Tacitus in the above passage indicate his own acceptance
of these popular views, but the emperor Tiberius also
had been possessed by anxieties of this kind. Thrasyllus,
possibly himself the author of a lapidary,1*7 seems to
have strengthened rather than discouraged this belief.
This was not at all strange, for magic, like astrology,
was looked upon as an accurate science. The precise
combination of physical ingredients and the repetition
of exactly the same formulae were held to bring about
the same results in every instance and at any time.168
Anyone possessing the proper formula would thus be
able to produce infallibly the desired magical result.
A scientific mind like that of Thrasyllus therefore had
no reason to disbelieve in magic or to inculcate scepti­
cism concerning it in the minds of disciples like Tiberius
and Germanicus. That Tiberius himself acquired some
knowledge of magic and its techniques is well estab­
lished. Who else but Thrasyllus could have been his
instructor in this “ dangerous ” craft ? Astrology and
magic were sister “ sciences.” Thrasyllus had certainly
taught Tiberius the one, and most probably the other
as well. That both men practiced these two arts jointly,
was asserted by Cassius D io :
Tiberius . . . was forever in the company of Thrasyllus
and made some use of the art of divination (jjayrelf) every
day(1 ), becoming so proficient in the subject himself, that
when he was once bidden in a dream ( ! ) to give money to
a certain man, he realized that a spirit ( S a l / i m ) had been
called up before him by deceit, and so put the man to
death.1™
Obviously Tiberius assumed that magic had been
practiced on him to persuade him to pay a sum of money
to the practitioner. If he would “ permit ” the sorcerer
to continue this practice, he might find himself forced
to do someone else’s bidding on a more important occa­
sion. The sorcerer’s death would not only prevent future
dangers of this kind, but also, according to ancient belief,
terminate the particular demon’s power over the victim
of his magic. Thrasyllus’ advice in this instance seems
to have strengthened the emperor’s opinion and fortified
the fatal decision.
How closely astrology and magic were linked in the
minds of that age was shown by an abortive plot to
overthrow Tiberius in a . d . 16. Marcus Scribonius
Libo Drusus, the chief instigator of the conspiracy, was
described by writers hostile to Tiberius as an empty-
headed young fool without enough support to make him
really dangerous. Actually, however, Tiberius had
thought well enough of him to make him praetor in
a . d . IS. Libo, unaware of course of his hopeless
mediocrity, could, indeed, point with pride to the fact
that Pompey was his great-grandfather while Caius and
107 See above, ch. ii, n. 98.
1,8 Cf. F. Cumont, Les religions . . . , 4th ed.: 170 ff.
“ • Cassius Dio, 57, IS, 7-9.
101
Lucius Caesar (whose death had paved the way for
Tiberius’ accession to the throne) had also been his
relatives.170 Whether or not Firmius Catus (as Taci­
tus asserted) acted as Tiberius’ agent provocateur and
“ drove the young and light-headed man into a web of
Chaldaean promises, sacred rites of the magi, and inter­
preters of dreams ” 171 is immaterial. There is no doubt
that Libo Drusus consulted such men about his pros-
spects and received from astrologers, magi, and inter­
preters of dreams alike reassurances and promises of
future wealth and glory.172 He also consulted a cer­
tain Junius, a necromancer, claiming to be able to evoke
the spirits of the dead.173 There seems to have been
no mode of divination which Libo left untried. In doing
this and probing into the political future Libo Drusus
clearly violated the Augustan edict of a . d . I I . 17* A note­
book with mysterious, perhaps magical, ciphers helped
to seal his doom. The pleas of his powerful relatives
were in vain. No sign of imperial mercy was forth­
coming, and the defendant’s guilt clear enough. About
to be arrested the luckless conspirator committed suicide
on September 13, a . d . 16. The date was made by the
senate a day of public thanksgiving.175
The traitor’s estate was divided among three men
who had jointly undertaken the prosecution in the
senate: Fulcinius Trio, Fonteius Agrippa, and Gaius
Vibius.176 Firmius Catus too reaped his reward. After­
wards Tiberius asserted that he would have spared
Libo’s life.177 But the trial at any rate was continued
even after his suicide and the awards made to the prose­
cutors following a formal verdict of guilty.178 The firm
stand of the emperor in this case may have been due—
at least in part— to the warning of Thrasyllus that ex­
cessive imperial leniency in the matter of forbidden
divinatory activities, including of course consultations
with astrologers on topics banned by the Augustan
edict of a . d . I I ,170 would encourage malcontents to seek
assurance from the stars and other more fallible sources
of revelation that their subversive projects were “ des­
tined ” to be crowned with success. In accordance with
such suggestions from his astrological adviser the em-
170 Compare R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: I3-f.
1,1 Tacitus, Annals 2, 27'.
172 Libo actually had inquired from the diviners if he were
going to be wealthy enough to pave the road from Rome to
Brindisi with gold; Tacitus, Annals 2, 30; cf. F. H. Cramer,
The Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9, 1951: 15 ff.
173 This wizard, a certain Junius, turned state’s evidence
against Libo; Tacitus, Annals 2, 28.
174 See above, p. 99; F. H. Cramer, op. cit. : 1-6.
l,s Cf. Fasti Amiternini, CIL 1, 2nd ed.: 244; Tacitus, Annals
2, 32.
170 Tacitus, loc. cit.
177 Ibid. 2, 31.
1,8 Compare on the legal aspects R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials:
12 ff.
l7“ Thrasyllus was perhaps also in sympathy with Tiberius’
renewal of the technical restrictions imposed on haruspices;
Suetonius, Tiberius, 63, 1.
102 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
peror may have pressed for at least temporary curbs of
astrological activities in the disturbed capital. At any
rate within less than four months after the death of
Libo Tiberius, certainly not without previous consulta­
tions with Thrasyllus, instigated two senatus consulta
expelling astrologers and other diviners from Rome.180
Two men, perhaps diviners who had been more actively
participating in Libo’s plot than merely by inflamma­
tory predictions, were executed: L. Pituanius and P.
Marcius, Roman citizens both.181 Their death appar­
ently occurred soon after the trial and the senate’s ban
of astrological practice in Rome and Italy. On the other
hand, it may have been due in part to the influence of
Thrasyllus also that Tiberius expressly permitted astrol­
ogers who gave up their profession to remain in Rome,182
a clear indication that the purely scholarly pursuit of
astrology was not to be curbed.
The limits of the influence of Thrasyllus over his
imperial patron and friend were, however, indicated
by his inability to prevent the fall of the kingdom of
Commagene. This little realm, important as a buffer-
state on the upper Euphrates between the Parthian
kingdom and the Roman empire, was in a . d . 17-18
incorporated into the Roman province of Syria upon
the death of its king Antiochus I I I (d. 17). It was not
a special blow aimed at Commagene in particular. For
already Augustus had— as early as 25 b . c.— embarked
on a policy aimed at eliminating Roman satellite kings
in Asia Minor and to establish a firm Roman border
against the Parthian kingdom. In a . d . 17 Tiberius
resumed this policy, perhaps because of the faltering
Roman prestige in the east. For example, the aged
king Archelaus of Cappadocia was brusquely ordered
to Rome, only to be informed that he had ceased to
rule.188 In Commagene the death of Antiochus I I I in
the same year made things even easier. If Thrasyllus
could do anything to soften the blow it may have been
his suggestion made to Tiberius to await at least the
death of the king before annexing Commagene. The
personal interest of Thrasyllus in the matter was of
course due to the fact that Antiochus I I I was by mar­
riage related to him, being perhaps his father-in-law.184
In Rome itself the vigorous action of the government
in a . d . 16 seems to have curbed for some years at least
the activities of astrologers and their colleagues. But
in a . d . 19 another wave of unrest swept the capital,
evoking from Tiberius a counter-measure, reminiscent
of the great autodafe of oracular literature which Augus­
tus had held in 12 b . c.: The people of Rome
180 Compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from flatly rejected by the virtuous Paulina.
ancient Rome, Classico et Mediaevalia, 12, 1-2, Copenhagen,
1951: 21-28, for a detailed analysis of these SC.
181 Tactius, Annals 2, 32.
188 Suetonius, Tiberius, 36. e .
583 Compare for a summary of imperial policies in Asia during
this period, Th. Mommsen, Roemische Geschichte 5, 10th ed.:
372 ff., Berlin, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, 1927.
18‘ See the family tree above, p. 95.
. . . were . . . disturbed by an utterance of the Sibyl, which
although it did not fit this period of the city’s history at all,
was nevertheless applied to the situation then existing.
It ran
“ When thricc three hundred years have run their course,
Civil strife upon Rome destruction shall bring, and the folly,
too, O f Sybaris. . .
Tiberius, now, denounced these verses as spurious and
made an investigation of all the books that contained any
prophecies, rejecting some as worthless and retaining
others as genuine.185
Who could doubt that in this scrutiny Thrasyllus
had a leading part? While less radical than the great
purge of Augustus in 12 b . c ., Tiberius’ action proved
the ever-recurring need of curbing the violent faith in
divinatory revelations, however unwarranted.
In the same year, the one in which (as has been said)
Germanicus died believing himself the victim of witch­
craft, Tiberius also proceeded severely against at least
two oriental cults and their adherents in Rome. Once
more the Jews were expelled, apparently for too suc­
cessful missionarizing amongst the Romans.180 Young
Jews, four thousand of them, were conscripted and sent
to Sardinia, known for its murderous climate, to work
in the quarries. Some kindly senators expressed the
prevailing feeling that even if all of them fell victim to
the climate it would be no great loss. Those Jews,
however, who foreswore their religion, received the
same lenient treatment granted to penitent astrologers
in a . d . 16: They could remain in Rome.187
At about the same time, certainly in the same year
a . d . 19, the temple of Isis, the divinity by some con­
sidered more powerful than Fate itself, was razed, the
priests executed, and the idol itself thrown into the
Tiber. Although a scandalous incident provided the
immediate reason for the government’s action, intrinsic­
ally the motive was similar to the one prompting the
expulsion of the Jews: the success of the priests of Isis
in missionarizing amongst the great of Rome. It also
added, if further proof were needed, another example
to those attesting the limitless credulity of even Rome’s
best educated society. Saturninus, a Roman knight,
and his young and fair wife, Paulina, were known as
one of those rare couples who though married were
devoted to each other. Both had joined the cult of
Isis. Another Roman knight, young Dicius Mundus,
was strongly attracted to Paulina, but his advances
were so firmly repulsed that he determined to end his
life by starving himself to death— after an outright offer
of 200,000 drachmae for her favors (a fine sidelight on
Roman social mores in the Tiberian age!) had been
The old nurse of Mundus saw his plight and asked
about its cause. Being told she promised the melan­
choly Mundus that for only 50,000 drachmae she would
“ 5Cassius Dio, 57, 18, 4-5.
Josephus, ant. Jud. 18, 3, 5.
1,7 Suetonius, Tiberius, 36; Cassius Dio, 57, 18, 5a.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FROM AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
obtain for him what he desired. Having little to lose
Mundus gave her the sum. The wily woman went
forthwith to the temple of Isis and persuaded the some­
what reluctant high priest to cooperate in a scheme
based on his greed and Paulina’s religious devotion.
A down payment of 25,000 drachmae with the promise
of another 25,000 if the plan succeeded pacified the
none too tender conscience of the priest.
Paulina was duly informed, with considerable cere­
mony no doubt, that none other than god Anubis
himself had fallen in love with her and desired her
company at midnight in the temple. Being a dutiful
and loyal wife, Paulina reported the proposition to her
husband. He, too, felt highly honored by the divine
interest in his spouse and not only permitted, but urged
her to accept the invitation. The wife of a Roman
knight wept to the temple at midnight. The mistress
of a god returned to boast before her friends about the
glory that was hers. Unfortunately, however, Dicius
Mundus met Paulina a few days later. Unable to hide
his triumphant mood any longer he jokingly informed
her that for a mere 50,000 drachmae he had obtained
what he had been willing to pay 200,000 drachmae for.
A completely crestfallen Paulina at once confessed to
her husband the impudent fraud whose victim she had
been. The irate Saturninus hurried to Tiberius to
invoke imperial vengeance against the guilty. It was
forthcoming. The nurse was crucified. So were the
priests. The temple, as has been said, was destroyed,
and Dicius Mundus barely escaped with his life. He
was banished.188
A year later one of the highest-ranking matrons of
Rome, Aemilia Lepida, was haled into court in another
trial, meant perhaps to intimidate the Roman nobility,
many of whose members were only too eager to over­
throw the ruling Julio-Claudian family.180 She was
indicted for high treason, committed by astrological
consultations.190 Tiberius as in the case of Libo was
firmly set on her not undeserved ruin. Not to add to
the pent up fury of the large following of the defendant,
however, he forbade his son, Drusus, to make the
formal motion for a verdict of guilty, perhaps to avoid
increasing Drusus’ already established reputation for
harshness.101 Aemilia was convicted. Once more a
violation of the Augustan edict of a . d . 11 had proven
exceedingly costly.
The year a . d . 20 was pregnant, however, with a far
more important development: the emergence of Sejanus
as imperial favorite. He now was given the office of
praetor, a definite sign of imperial favor. The rise of
the new favorite had been bitterly resented before
168Josephus, ant. Jud. 18, 3, 4.
Compare R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 51 ff.
ibo Annals 3, 22.
101R. S. Rogers, op. cit.: 55; see also his Drusus Julius
Caesar, Studies in the reign of Tiberius: 151.
103
the trial of Aemilia Lepida by Tiberius’ son, Drusus.
Actually, the two men exchanged blows on one occa­
sion,192 and, although an outward reconciliation was
effected, Drusus remained hostile to Sejanus. His
jealous nature may have reacted in a similar manner
to Tiberius’ preferment of Thrasyllus in whom the
haughty Drusus probably saw nothing but a noxious
Greek parasite. Little was needed, therefore, to bring
about a political alliance between Sejanus and Thra­
syllus. Indeed, one may wonder whether at least in
part the rise of Sejanus had not been due to support
received from Thrasyllus who possessed a unique posi­
tion of vantage for influencing Tiberius’ decisions.
Elevated to the position of praetorian prefect Sejanus,
an energetic, hard-working man, carried through —
with imperial consent, of course —-an innovation • of
far-reaching political consequence: the concentration of
the praetorian guards in a single camp outside the gates
of Rome.193
In dealing with Sejanus, Thrasyllus found himself
in a dilemma. His chief interest lay of course in main­
taining Tiberius in power as long as possible. There­
fore, he would hardly ever support any projected coup
by Sejanus. The hostility of Drusus, on the other hand
augured ill for the future of Thrasyllus and his house!
Tiberius, already an old man by Roman standards,
might die in the foreseeable future, leaving Thrasyllus
exposed to the antagonism of Drusus. Nevertheless,
Thrasyllus must have been far too prudent to assume
a part in the tragedy developing between a. d. 20 and 23;
Sejanus seduced the wife of Drusus, Livilla. She be­
came so madly infatuated with him that, with the help
of two members of her household, she poisoned her
husband in a . d . 23.19‘ Twin boys (one of whom died
in that very year) inherited their father’s claims, but
the surviving child, Tiberius Gemellus, was barely four
years old at the time and clearly incapable of assuming
the heavy responsibilities of the throne for many years
to come.
Altogether the first nine years of Tiberius’ reign
witnessed the rise of Thrasyllus to the summit of influ­
ence. In a sense he had come to be the power behind
the throne. For his astrological predictions, his intimate
converse with the emperor day after day, and his shrewd
advice based on his own keen appraisal of men and
things could not but carry great weight with Tiberius.
Moreover, the imperial family, Drusus alone excepted,
seem to have been on friendly terms with the powerful
astrologer. He had succeeded in marrying off his
daughter to a Roman knight. A granddaughter, Ennia,
had been born to the couple and was named after him
1,2 Tacitus, Annals 4, 3; Cassius Dio, 57, 14, 9; 22, 1.
1M Tacitus, Annals 4, 2. Hitherto some praetorian units had
been stationed in the capital itself, but the majority of the
guards had been distributed throughout the adjacent communities
Tacitus, Annals 4, 7 f.
104 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF AST RO LO G Y IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
Thrasylla. The crisis created by the death of Drusus,
however, became a turning point. No longer was Thra­
syllus able to balance Sejanus against Drusus. Although
the political alliance between the astrologer and the
praetorian prefect survived for the time being, the wary
Greek would sooner or later have to come to a decision
whether or not to back Sejanus against Tiberius. When
the time came, Thrasyllus, swayed by personal loyalty
and self-interest, refused to betray his imperial friend
and, apparently, became instrumental in weaving the
rttf'iti-whbse- meshes 'S'ejamis~was eventually trapped
in a . d . 3 1 .195
6. THRASYLLUS AT THE ZEN IT H OF H IS POW ER
(23-36 A. D.)
The roots of the disasters which overtook the Julio-
Claudian dynasty during the latter part of the reign of
Tiberius went back to the year 23, i. e. to the death
of the emperor’s only son and heir designate, the
younger Drusus. The young man— he has been called
a prototype of the absolutistic ruler later represented
by Domitian 196 — was murdered at the instigation of
his own wife (and first cousin), Livilla, and her power­
ful paramour, Sejanus, then the favorite of Tiberius.197
Of the twin sons whom the habitually adulterous Livilla
had borne one died in infancy, the other, Tiberius
Gemellus, was still in his teens when the old emperor
died in 37 and was perhaps not without reason sus­
pected of being a bastard.198 Of other family candidates
for the imperial succession only the sons of the late
Germanicus (a nephew and adopted son of Tiberius)
were serious contenders: Nero, Drusus, and Caius
nicknamed Caligula. The year 23 therefore inaugurated
a quiet but deadly struggle between Sejanus, Livilla.
and Tiberius Gemellus on the one side, and the widowed
older Agrippina on the other, on behalf of her own
sons.199
In this contest the extreme youth of Tiberius Gemel­
lus— he was barely four years old in a . d . 23— was a
handicap which favored the cause of Agrippina’s sons
who were by many years Gemellus’ seniors, and— owing
to their descent from Germanicus— enjoyed a popularity
in Rome which the young son of the haughty Drusus
could never match. Sejanus, paramour of Gemellus’
mother Livilla, owed his important part in the struggle
for the succession to Tiberius’ growing affection for
1,s See below, p. 105.
100 R. S. Rogers, Studies in the reign of Tiberius: 89 ff., esp. more and more, and Sejanus used this to poison the
146 ff.; 153; Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, 1943.
1.7 Ibid. : 137-145 a good evaluation; cf. Rogers, Criminal
trials: 119 ff.
1.8 Born A. D. 19, he lost his twin-brother in A. d . 23, shortly
after his father’s death. Thus in A . D. 37 he was only about
eighteen years old. On the old emperor's doubts about his
grandson’s paternity, see Cassius Dio, 58, 23, 2.
189 Compare the reasoned account by F. B. Marsh, The reign
of Tiberius: 160-199, London, Oxford Univ. Press, 1931.
him and to Livilla’s steadfast infatuation. A marriage
which the guilty couple hoped for was, however, rejected
by Tiberius, although the emperor couched his refusal
in most diplomatic and flattering terms in a letter ad­
dressed to Sejanus.200 Thus thwarted, at least for the
time being, the imperial favorite bided his time. His
political position was clearly on the side of Tiberius
Gemellus. Consequently, he was committed to work
against Agrippina and her sons.
In this deadly underground struggle Thrasyllus would
of course be a very valuable ally for either side. With
the stakes being as high as they were the wily Greek
was bound to hesitate before committing himself irre-
vokably. Prior to 23 he probably supported Sejanus
against the hostility of Drusus. One may well wonder
whether the astrologer had not even been privy to the
machinations against the life of the heir designate. At
any rate after the deed his excellent sources of informa­
tion must soon have provided the court astrologer with
fairly accurate accounts of what had really happened.
The political realignment after the death of Drusus
forced Thrasyllus to continue, even to intensify his
alliance with Sejanus. For the praetorian prefect might
be expected to remain a staunch supporter of Thra­
syllus’ patron Tiberius, while Agrippina and her sons
bore the old i‘uler a deepening grudge and were less
likely to promote the fortunes of the Alexandrian
favorite of the emperor. One important bit of circum­
stantial evidence, dating from the years immediately
following the death of Drusus, supports the assumption
of a working alliance between Sejanus and Thrasyllus:
the unshakable resolve of Tiberius arrived at in a . d . 26,
to leave Rome and never to set foot in the capital again
as long as he lived (although he ventured within sight
of Rome on several occasions). Such an important
decision could not possibly have been reached without
previous astrological consultations in which inevitably
Thrasyllus must have played a vital part. Whether or
not he warned Tiberius from honest astrological con­
viction, the chief beneficiary of the self-imposed im­
perial absence from Rome was clearly Sejanus who
during the years which followed assumed well-nigh
complete control of affairs in the capital.
The “ balance of power ” which in the mid-twenties
prevailed in the struggle for the succession between
the Sejanus-Livilla-Tiberius Gemellus-Thrasyllus fac­
tion and the camp favoring the cause of the sons of
Germanicus proved unstable as could be expected. The
older Agrippina’s reckless temper alienated Tiberius
emperor’s mind increasingly against her and her sons.
When her shrill complaints were ineffective, and her
Tacitus, Annals 4, 39-41. When the emperor finally allowed
an official engagement between Sejanus and Livilla or her
daughter Julia in 31, he may have merely done so to lull his
erstwhile favorite into a false sense of security; cf. Cassius Dio.
58, 3, 9; Zonaras, 11, 2.
T H E P O W E R OF A STRO LO G ERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
intimate friend and second cousin, Claudia Pulchra,
was tried and probably convicted of maiestas,201 Agrip­
pina’s wrath exploded so venomously that Tiberius
caustically asked her: “ Do you think you are wronged
if you do not rule?” 202 From then on one may sus­
pect the scheming and plotting of her camp intensified
to an extent which made it possible for Sejanus to force
a showdown in 29. He engineered a state trial for high
treason against Agrippina and her oldest son Nero.203
Tiberius remained ominously silent. This a trembling
senate interpreted as an imperial refusal to intercede
for his kin and convicted both defendants, sentencing
them to deportation to islands. Agrippina was sent to
Pandataria, Nero to Pontia.204 Her second son Drusus
remained unmolested at the time, but was subsequently
imprisoned, and finally, perhaps in an understandable
fear of being killed by his keeper, starved himself to
death.20" Nero’s wife, Julia, and his mother-in-law
Livilla, Sejanus’ mistress, survived him. His youngest
brother, Caius, continued to live at Tiberius’ Caprean
court together with his young rival, Tiberius Gemellus.
The inevitable and immediate result of the catas­
trophe which all but destroyed the house of Germanicus
was not the ascendancy of the still very young Gemellus
but the rise of Sejanus’ power to such heights that
many began to consider him the logical successor of the
old emperor. Whether or not Sejanus himself was now
turning traitor is still a matter of debate,200 but that he,
a Roman knight, might be sufficiently dazzled by his
prospects to attempt the throne by a coup prior to
Tiberius’ demise is not unlikely. Moreover, Livilla
would prefer the role of an emperor’s wife to that of
an heir designate’s mother. Besides, the more time
elapsed until Tiberius would die a natural death, the
less likelihood there would be that Sejanus would marry
a fading beauty. Meanwhile the house of Thrasyllus
by another advantageous marriage became even more
firmly anchored in Roman society. At about this time,
perhaps in a . d . 29 or 30, Ennia Thrasylla, a daughter
of L. Ennius and Thrasyllus’ own daughter, was mar­
ried to an ‘‘ up and coming” Roman knight, Naevius
!01R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials : 92 f.
*os Tacitus, Annals 4, 52 f.; Suetonius, Tiberius, 53, 1.
s“ R. S. Rogers, op- cit.: 98 ff., rightly assumes that the official
charges which were preferred against her were not pressed home
with the utmost vigor because of the government’s fear of an
open outbreak in the capital in favor of the defendants. The
fundamental issue was of course the struggle between the two
factions about the imperial succession.
30< Cf. Philo, in Flaccum, 3, 9; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 8, 61, 145;
Suetonius, Tiberius, 53 f-; 64; Caligula, 15; Tacitus, Annals 5,
3-ft. Nera was starxed to deaths, .
s“5 See Suetonius, Tiberius, 54; cf. Tacitus, Annals 6, 23-25";
Suetonius, Tiberius, 53 f.; Cassius Dio, 58, 23, 6; cf. 22, 4.
SOOF. B. Marsh, The reign of Tiberius: 304 ff., defends the
minority view that Sejanus was guiltless of the charge to have
plotted a coup. The stronger counter-argument, however, is
effectively presented by R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 111 ff.
105
Sertorius Macro. Thus Thrasyllus now acquired a
Roman knight as a grandson-in-law after already having
had an equestrian son-in-law for perhaps fifteen years.
That Thrasyllus himself was consulted about the choice
of a husband for a granddaughter named after him is
highly probable. He may even have selected the bride­
groom. For through his close association with the em­
peror he was undoubtedly the most illustrious figure in
the whole family. The bride herself — if our earlier
conjecture that her parents married during the first
years of Tiberius’ reign is correct— was about fourteen
years old at the time, an age not unusual for Roman
marriages.
As head of his family Thrasyllus must have been
eager to promote the career of his new grandson-in-law.
He found an opportunity when the ambitions of Sejanus
began to reach out for the imperial power itself. Since
the great astrologer’s fortunes were firmly linked with
those of the Tiberian family a successful coup by Sejanus
seemed a threat to the continued prosperity of the Thra-
syllan clan. Consequently Thrasyllus would have had
ample reason for discontinuing his long-standing politi­
cal alliance with the now over-ambitious praetorian
prefect. At the same time the imperial favorite was so
firmly entrenched that his overthrow — short of civil
war— could only be achieved by the most skillful tactics.
The deft hand of Thrasyllus may have been active
behind the scenes in launching the amazingly successful
imperial counter-coup which destroyed Sejanus. At the
same time Thrasyllus grasped the opportunity of further­
ing the rise of his grandson-in-law, Macro. He might
suggest to Tiberius that this man, linked as he was to
the loyal house of Thrasyllus, would make an excellent
and safe replacement for Sejanus in the vital post of
praetorian prefect.207 At any rate when Macro left
Capri with the secret instructions which brought about
the fall of Sejanus he also carried with him already the
appointment to that coveted post. His clever handling
of the crisis at Rome may—at least in part— have been
due to the sound advice received from Thrasyllus.
Thereafter Macro’s position in Rome during the last
five and a half years of Tiberius’ reign resembled that
of Sejanus at the height of his career and made Ennia
Thrasylla, a Greek astrologer’s granddaughter, one of
Rome’s most influential ladies.
The one warning, however, which Thrasyllus seems
indelibly to have impressed upon Macro, a warning
somberly underscored by the fate of Sejanus, was to
beware of the obvious temptation, to beware of aspira­
tions towards the imperial throne. There is every indi­
cation that Macro heeded the advice.. The emperor,,
on the other hand,. after his experience with Sejanus,
would be doubly distrustful of any show of ambition on
Compare on Macro’s role at this time Josephus, ant Jud
18, 6, 6.
106 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F A STROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
the part of Macro, although the prefect’s tie with the
family of Thrasyllus would at least somewhat allay
imperial fears of disloyalty. Meanwhile, Thrasyllus now
openly backed the candidacy of Agrippina’s youngest
son, Caius, for the imperial succession. The young man
lived within the small court circle at Capri, desperately
anxious not to give offense. The dreadful fate of his
two older brothers and of his mother— Agrippina de­
spairing of the future had starved herself to death in
her island exile in 33 208 — must have been vivid before
his eyes. The support of so powerful a man as Thra­
syllus was therefore undoubtedly most welcome to him.
One may well believe that he assured the old Greek
scholar of his own good will towards the members of
his family, promising perhaps to remember Thrasyllus’
good services when it came to rewarding Macro and
Ennia Thrasylla in days to come.
The undiminished intimacy between Tiberius and
Thrasyllus during the last years of their lives was
demonstrated by their discussion of the question of the
imperial succession on more than one occasion. When
for instance Tiberius pondered whether or not to ex­
clude the last son of Germanicus from the succession
altogether Thrasyllus succeeded in persuading him that
he need have no fear of Caius, apparently because the
stars were against him:
. . Once upon a time, when Tiberius, worried about
the succession, was almost ready to appoint his grandson
[Tiberius Gemellus] to succeed him, the astrologer Thra­
syllus assured him that Caius had as much chance of
becoming emperor as he had to drive the horses of his
racing chariot across the bay of Baiae.200
This incident was reported to Caius. He seems to have
been determined if ever he would mount the throne to
demonstrate the ambiguity of this prediction by actually
driving his chariot across the bay of Baiae.210 Even if
Thrasyllus on the basis of his astrological calculations
was honestly convinced at the time of the improbability
of Caius’ succession, he did at least help to prevent
Caius’ exclusion from the succession. For Tiberius
abandoned the scheme. There is no date transmitted
for this episode. One might be inclined to ascribe it
perhaps to the year 33 or 34, when, after the death of
the older Agrippina and her sons Nero and Drusus,
Tiberius may have seriously thought of eliminating the
weak and unstable Caius Caligula from the imperial'suc­
cession.
Definitely attested for this period is another incident
which showed the close collaboration in astrological
matters between Tiberius and Thrasyllus. In a . d . 33
*“ Tacitus, Annals 6, 31; compare Cassius Dio, 58, 22, 4;
Suetonius, Tiberius, 53.
” ■Suetonius, Caligula, 19, 3. His source was his grandfather
who in turn had heard the story from “ the best informed men
at court.”
510 See below, p. .111.
Servius Galba was consul.211 He owed this honor of
course to Tiberius. It is reasonable to assume that the
emperor, long in the habit of investigating the horo­
scopes of prominent people,212 had not only himself
checked Galba’s horoscope, but had also confirmed his
own conclusions by having Thrasyllus cross-check his
own astrological calculations. The results agreed. They
revealed that Galba was destined to become emperor,
but only at a ripe old age.213 The emperor therefore
was convinced that he himself had nothing to fear, and
not only nominated Galba for the consulship, but also
informed him of his glorious future. For when Galba
at this time became engaged, Tiberius congratulated
him saying in Greek: “ You too shall one day taste of
sovereignty! ” 2,4 The incident is well authenticated,
both Tacitus and Cassius Dio referring to it. Tacitus
moreover assigned the episode to a . d . 33.
It was not the first time that Galba had received such
favorable predictions. If Suetonius be trusted, Augus­
tus had known Galba’s auspicious horoscope:
It is well known that when he was still a boy and called
to pay his respects to Augustus with others of his age.
the emperor pinched his cheek and said in Greek: “ Thou
too, child, wilt have a nibble at this power of mine.” 215
Since Galba was born on December 24, 5 b . c . , his
visit— he was distantly related to Augustus’ wife, Livia
— could hardly have occurred before a . d . 3 or 4, when
Thrasyllus was already ensconced at the court and on
intimate terms with the ruler. If, therefore, both
Augustus and Tiberius should have made the same
prophecy to Galba, it seems likely that Thrasyllus’
authoritative interpretation of Galba's horoscope pro­
vided the basis for both predictions.
A year after Galba’s consulate, i. e. in a . d. 34, the
fabulous phoenix was said to have shown itself in
Egypt.210 The event was widely considered as an omen
of the impending death of the emperor. Uneasily
Tiberius himself must have looked for reassurance (or
confirmation of his end) in his horoscope. This moment
would thus seem to have been the psychological time at
which Thrasyllus may have uttered his false promise
of ten more years of life for his imperial friend. Our
sources are in accord in so far as they link the phoenix
““ Tacitus, Annals 6, 20; Cassius Dio, 58, 20, 5.
=Cassius Dio, 57, 19, 4.
Tacitus, Annals 6, 20, attests that Thrasyllus, as well as
Tiberius participated in the scrutiny of Galba’s horoscope; com­
pare Cassius Dio, loc. cit.; Suetonius, Galba, 4, 1.
21< Suetonius, Tacitus, Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
115 Suetonius, Galba, 4, 1; compare Augustus, 98, 3 ; Cassius
Dio, 57, 19, 4 ; Zonaras, 11, 2; Cat. 8, 4 : 100, 6-8.
210 Tacitus, Annals 6, 28, assigns the phoenix episode to A. d . 34.
Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 1, less reliably to a . d. 36, probably because,
staunch believer in divination, the Greek historian preferred to
emphasize the truth of the popular superstition that such an
appearance presaged the death of a mighty prince, and Tiberius
died early in A. d . 37 only—which would have been too late to
-jnake the phoenix of 34 properly a harbinger of such an event.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FROM AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
episode with the court astrologer’s prophecy.21’ Whether
or not he did so on honest astrological grounds is a
different matter. At any rate he possessed good political
reasons for a deceptive prediction: his own opposition
to the torrent of maiestas trials which were character­
istic for that year 34, a caedes perpetua according to
Tacitus.218
The growing senatorial antagonism to his imperial
patron and to his own family could not but be a source
of great anxiety to Thrasyllus. Accordingly, he decided
to lull the emperor into a false sense of security:
And had not . . . Thrasyllus, purposely it is said, induced
him to put off some things through hope of a longer life,
it is believed that still more would have perished. . . -210
The tradition that the court astrologer intentionally
gave the emperor a false prediction was eventually
unquestioningly accepted:
Though in his own case he stated very accurately both
the day and the hour in which he should die, he falsely
declared that the emperor should live ten years longer;
this was in order that Tiberius, feeling he had a fairly
long time to live, should be in no haste to put the accused
men to death. And thus it came to pass.220
It was even suggested that Tiberius probably “ would
not even have spared the rest of his grandsons; for
he had his suspicions of Caius and detested Tiberius
[Gemellus] as the fruit of adultery,” had he not relied
on the false prophecy of Thrasyllus.221 Such action on
the part of the renowned astrologer would not only
imply a rift between him and his grandson-in-law Macro,
who was chiefly responsible for the current prosecutions
in Rome, but would also contribute towards securing
the throne for Caius eventually.222
The emphasis of both Suetonius and Dio that Thra­
syllus for political reasons gave his trusting friend and
disciple, Tiberius, knowingly a false prediction casts a
revealing light upon 'the character of the Greek scholar
and the nature of his relations with Tiberius at least
towards the end of his life. If the court astrologer
used his prestige to delude Tiberius on such an occasion,
would he not have acted in similar fashion on previous
occasions also? The immediate reason for his parting
prophecy, irrespective of whether it was uttered in 34
or 36, was not far to seek. Thrasyllus had good reason
to fear that Macro’s vigilant reign of terror in Rome
would arouse senatorial wrath to such a pitch that
Tiberius’ eventual successor might wish to sacrifice
317 Tacitus, lac. cit.; Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 3.
218 Compare R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 144-155; cf. Taci­
tus, Annals 6, 29.
219 Suetonius, Tiberius, 62, 3.
230 Casius Dio, 58, 27, 3.
221 Suetonius, loc. cit.; the suggestion made by A. H. Krappe
(Amer. Jour. Philo!. 48, 1927 : 361) that Thrasyllus survived
Tiberius is not tenable.
222 See below, p. 109.
107
Ennia Thrasylla’s husband in order to win favor with
the still influential Roman aristocracy. To mitigate
the harshness of Tiberian prosecutions for maiestas
was therefore a good enough reason for Thrasyllus’
deceit.223 Meanwhile, the aged astrologer had ample
reason to worry over his own granddaughter also. The
young matron, mother of several children, was a fre­
quent visitor to Capri, the imperial retreat which Thra­
syllus shared with his patron. On one of these visits
she began an affair with Caius Caligula. This last male
survivor of the house of Germanicus had in a . d . 33
been married to Junia Claudilla, but marital fidelity
with ranking Romans of that day was an almost unheard
of aberration. Moreover, the young wife soon died in
childbirth.22*
Familiar as Thrasyllus must have been with the lax
standards of the Roman upper class he probably looked
upon the liaison of the two young people at Capri as a
mere passing fancy. At first his vanity may even have
been flattered by the attention paid to his granddaughter
by the heir presumptive. For although the will which
Tiberius made in 35 divided his estate equally between
Caius Caligula and Tiberius Gemellus 225 (thus implying
his hope that they might be accepted as joint rulers),
there was little question that the older Caius would
succeed in obtaining sole control of the empire. Never­
theless, an uncertainty remained, since Tiberius wavered
to the very end between his ever-recurrent doubts about
the paternity of Gemellus on one side, and his distrust
in the qualifications for the imperial office on the part
of the cringing Caligula on the other.528
In this precarious position Caius owed much, perhaps
everything, to the continued support of Thrasyllus and
the praetorian prefect, Macro. These two time and
again interceded with Tiberius in his favor. Under such
circumstances we cannot but ascribe political motives
to his liaison with Ennia Thrasylla. We have two
diametrically opposed versions about Macro’s part in
the triangle, the one insisting that Macro (in order
to gain a firmer hold over Caius) persuaded his wife to
seduce the young man, the other that unbeknownst to
her husband Ennia Thrasylla engaged in this affair in
hopes of eventually marrying Caius and thus becoming
an emperor’s wife.227 It would not be in keeping with
the known caution of Thrasyllus to encourage such wild
hopes. If he knew about them they could not but fill
‘"'l Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 2: “. . . Macro had plotted against
Domitius and numerous others, and had manufactured com­
plaints and testimony taken under torture against them; yet not
all the accused were put to death thanks to Thrasyllus tcilio
handled Tiberius very cleverly."
=3' Suetonius, Caligula, 12, 1-2.
225 Suetonius, Tiberius, 76; Cassius Dio, 58, 23, 2.
22“ See for example Josephus, antiqu. Jud, 18, 6, 8 ff.; Tacitus,
Annals 6 46; Suetonius, Caligula, 19, 3; Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
22' The first version is supported by the contemporary Philo
and by Suetonius, the second one by Cassius Dio; compare
below, p. 109 f.
108 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
him with grave foreboding. Approaching the end of his
own life—he is said to have forecast accurately the very
day and hour of his death in a . d . 36 228 — he saw Macro,
his grandson by marriage, becoming as hated amongst
the nobility as Sejanus had been, while his grand­
daughter’s ambitious scheme seemed destined to involve
herself and her family in utter ruin.
In his last days Thrasyllus must have been a man
sorely perplexed. Looking back upon his long life he
had every reason to be satisfied with a career which
had made him a scholar of lasting fame, had earned
him the friendship of the ruler of the Mediterranean
world, the hand of a princess, and finally a position of
power behind the throne unequalled by any non-Roman
before him. Yet his dimming eyes beheld the impru­
dent harshness of his grandson-in-law, Macro, in Rome,
beheld the reckless folly of Ennia Thrasylla’s aspira­
tions. When death at last closed the eyes of the old
Alexandrinian the fortunes of his house were at their
zenith. Even if Ennia Thrasylla’s ambition should drag
her branch of the family to destruction there was still his
quiet, unassuming, and somewhat pedestrian son to be
reckoned with, an expert astrologer and, like his father,
a gentlemanly scholar: Tiberius Claudius Balbillus.
7. E N N IA THRASYLLA
The death of Thrasyllus was undoubtedly a hard blow
to Tiberius. The ailing emperor must have greatly
missed his friend of forty years’ standing. Meanwhile,
he faithfully accepted the dead astrologer’s prophecy of
ten more years of life and took his fatal illness too
lightly. He was, therefore, in no hurry to terminate a
mass trial of conspirators arraigned by Macro. Among
this group was Domitius Ahenobarbus, the reckless
husband of the younger Agrippina.220 An indictment
for adultery and a charge of incest with his sister,
Domitia Lepida, were brought against him. Some of
his co-defendants committed suicide 230 or made at least
preparations for it.231 Ahenobarbus, truly brazen, was
made of sterner stuff and worked diligently on his
defense, denying all accusations. The senate in the
absence of definite word from the emperor procrasti­
nated, unwilling to please the over-zealous praetorian
prefect Macro.232
While Domitius and some of his co-defendants perse­
vered in violent protestations of their innocence, Tiberius
died on March 16, 37. In the general uncertainty of
the days which followed Ahenobarbus was permitted to
return to his home. Almost exactly nine months later,
on December 15, his wife, Agrippina, gave birth to a
228 Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 3.
220 Tacitus, Annals 4, 75; Suetonius, Nero, 5; Cassius Dio, 58, below, p. 113 f.
20, 1.
280 Suetonius, loc. cit.
281 Tacitus, Annals 6, 47.
282 Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 2; see above, ch. iii, n. 196.
boy whom Domitius acknowledged as his child. This
was the future emperor Nero. Had it not been for
Tiberius’ faith in the false prediction of his late friend
Thrasyllus, Domitius Ahenobarbus might well have
been doomed to death or exile, and (as he actually died
a few years later) no Nero would ever have been born.
Thus history to some extent is indebted to Thrasyllus
for the existence of a Nero in its annals. The infant’s
horoscope was of course cast at once according to estab­
lished custom. If Suetonius can be trusted, it revealed
such terrifying prospects that the embarrassed Domitius
tried to shrug them off with a wry joke. There was no
reason to be surprised. For after all what kind of a
son was to be expected from parents like Agrippina
and himself! 233
For the house of Thrasyllus the death of Tiberius
was fateful also. Balbillus, son and astrological heir
of Thrasyllus, apparently withdrew from Rome seeking
safety in his ancestral home, Alexandria.234 It seems
unlikely that he left Rome before the death of his father.
He probably acted in Thrasyllus’ place as the chief
court astrologer of Tiberius until March, 37, and only
betook himself to Egypt after the old emperor’s death.
In any case he appears to have lived the quiet life of a
scholarly gentleman of leisure at Alexandria during the
hectic reign of Caligula ( a . d . 37-41). His sister, the
wife of L. Ennius, on the other hand, remained in the
capital. Neither she nor her husband are listed among
the victims of Caligula. They may have escaped his
attention and died eventually a natural death. Their
daughter, Ennia Thrasylla, however, was too highly
placed to vanish into safe obscurity. Our extant sources
agree on her vital role in securing the throne for her
paramour Caligula. To play so important a part in
Roman politics was unusual for any woman. For the
granddaughter of a Greek astrologer it was a truly
extraordinary feat. It indicates that Ennia inherited
at least a good deal of her grandfather’s energy if not
his prudence. She used her influence with her husband,
Macro, to achieve Caligula’s proclamation as sole ruler
which meant disregarding the meaning of Tiberius’ will
which made both Tiberius Gemellus and Caligula joint
heirs of the emperor.235
Of our sources the most important one is the con­
temporary account of Philo, a fellow-Alexandrian of
Balbillus. Philo visited Italy in the winter of 39 as a
member of a Jewish delegation sent from Alexandria to
obtain an audience with Caligula. The Jewish ambassa­
dors arrived in Italy not long after the catastrophe to
2” Suetonius, Nero, 6.
14He returned to Rome in A. D. 41, it seems, probably as one
of the leaders of an Alexandrinian embassy to Claudius; see
Suetonius, Tiberius, 76. It is hardly surprising that Tiberius
had grave misgivings about both young men. Perhaps Thra­
syllus had made some ominous predictions about them also;
compare Cat. 8, 4:109, 9 ff.; Cassius Dio, 58, 23, 2.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
which Macro and Ennia Thrasylla had fallen victim in
a. d . 38. Having had an opportunity to discuss their
sensational case with a number of eyewitnesses, Philo
summarized his impressions as follows:
Macro . . . was . . . said to have contributed more than
anyone to . . . [Caius’] gaining the principate and still
more to his preservation. For Tiberius had often been
minded to get Caius out of the way as a person ill-disposed
and devoid of natural gifts for rulership. . . ,236 For
Tiberius . . . often looked upon Caius as a foe of the entire
Claudian house, attached only to his mother’s family [the
Julian line], and he feared for his grandson that the
youngster might be taken and killed. . . . This opinion
Macro combatted on every occasion with all his strength.
. . . saying, “ I am worthy of confidence. I have given
sufficient proof of being pro-Caesarian and pro-Tiberian
by carrying out the attack upon Sejanus and his destruc­
tion.” And at the same time he was vociferous in his
praise of Caius. . . .2ST
. . . Deceived by these representations Tiberius unwit­
tingly left behind him an implacable foe to . . . his house,
to Macro the . . . intercessor, and to all mankind. . . ,238
One reason for this was not only Macro’s being in high
favor with him [Tiberius] and being all-powerful or at
least a full partner in the government, but also his
[Macro’s] wife [Ennia Thrasylla] for an unspeakable
reason. Day in day out she urged her husband persis­
tently not to be lacking in his efforts and succor on behalf
of the young man [Caius]. Effectively to. soften and lead
astray her husband’s mind, especially from a suspicion of
[her] adultery, she behaved all the more affectionately
towards him for the benefit of her fellow-culprit [Caius].
But he [Macro], ignorant of the betrayal of himself as
husband and of his house and believing her friendliness
to be purest affection, was deceived. Unaware of her
stratagems he mistook his greatest enemies for his very
dearest friends.238
This testimony from the pen of one of the most in­
telligent contemporary observers must be considered as
valid. From it Ennia Thrasylla emerges as an ambitious
adulteress whose duped husband became the tool of her
own and Caius’ schemes during the last years of the
reign of Tiberius. The affair in all probability began
at Capri, while Macro spent most of his time at his post
in Rome. That Thrasyllus knew about it can hardly be
doubted. For little escaped him that was going on in
the small inner circle at Capri. For Caius it had of
course been of supreme importance at the time to gain
the support of the powerful praetorian prefect, and he
did not hesitate to give Ennia Thrasylla a sworn promise
in writing that if he ever ascended the throne he would
marry her:
. . . After Sejanus had been . . . put out of the way
338 Philo, in rtaccnm, 3, 11-12. Caligula favored the an' i-
Jewish Alexandrian spokesman Apion and gave Philo and his
Jewish fellow-ambassadors a rough reception; see also Josephus,
antiqu. Jud. 18, 10. The above judgment of Philo on Caligula’s
“ qualities ” must therefore have been penned with a certain
gusto.
28’ Philo, legatio ad Caium, 6, 33-38.
238 Philo, in Flaccum, 3, 13.
28,1Philo, legatio ad Caium, 6, 39-40.
109
[Caius] was little by little encouraged to look forward to
the succession. To have a better chance of realizing this,
after losing Junia [Claudilla] in childbirth, he seduced
Ennia N aevia(?) [Thrasylla], wife of Macro, who at the
time commanded the praetorian guard, even promising to
marry her if he became emperor, and guaranteeing this
promise by an oath and a written contract. Through her
he insinuated himself into Macro’s favor.240
Although Suetonius wrote this passage more than
eighty years after the accession of Caligula, his habit
of using primary sources accounted probably for the
additional information revealing the existence of a mar­
riage “ contract ” between Ennia and Caius. With Philo,
Suetonius ascribed to the erring wife the vital role of
winning over Macro to supporting the succession of
Caius. Her own motive was obviously ambition rather
than infatuation. The cold-blooded insistence on the
sworn marriage pledge seems sufficient proof of this.
Dazzled by the brilliant prospect of becoming an em­
peror’s wife, the Greek astrologer’s granddaughter failed
to realize that this written pledge sealed her own doom
once Caius had succeeded in winning the throne. Her
important share in gaining it for him was fully recog­
nized by Suetonius who referred to her and Macro as
adiutores imperii,241 i. e. as joint helpers of Caius’ rise
to the supreme power. Tiberius himself during the last
months of his life recognized Macro’s alliance with
Caius. “ He taunted Macro, in no obscure terms, with
forsaking the setting and looking to the rising sun.” 242
The dying emperor, however, was apparently unaware
of the liaison between Ennia and Caius.
A century after Suetonius, Cassius Dio penned a
somewhat different version of the triangle. According
to him “ Macro . . . now that Tiberius was seriously
ill . . . had already succeeded in making . . . [Caius]
fall in love with his own wife, Ennia Thrasylla.” 243
In line with this version (which clearly stemmed from
an aristocratic source hostile to Macro) Cassius Dio
also recorded that subsequently Caius accused Macro of
having acted as pander.244 According to this tradition,
[Between January and March, 37] Macro’s power was
now excessive. Every day the man cultivated more assidu­
ously than ever the favor of Caius Caesar which, indeed,
he had never neglected, and . . . prompted his wife Ennia
to inveigle the young prince by a pretence of love, and to
bind him by an engagement of marriage. And the lad,
provided he could secure the throne, shrank from no con­
ditions. For though he was of an excitable temper, he had
thoroughly learnt the falsehoods of hypocrisy under the
loving care of his grandfather.245
The first part of this passage is almost identical with
5‘0Suetonius, Caligula, 12, 2.
241 Ibid., 26, 1.
242Tacitus, Annals 6, 46.
243 Cassius Dio, 58, 28, 4. This is a vitally important passage.
For it alone has preserved Ennia’s name Thrasylla.
244Ibid. 59, 10, 6.
248 Ibid. 58, 28, 4.
 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A ST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 111
110
friend of Macro. A former member of Tiberius’ suite Lollia Paulina,200 another woman of supreme ambition
the complaint voiced by Tiberius (in Tacitus’ Annals, even had he been the most tactful of men he could
hardly remain in Caius’ favor: he had been appointed to the Egyptian post in a . d . and great faith in the stars. She was as cruelly deceived
6 , 46). Ennia Thrasylla’s insistence on the fateful
31-32. As a staunch supporter of the Claudian house by them as Ennia had been. For, eleven years later,
formal marriage pledge was corroborated by Suetonius Knowing that many times he had saved Caius from the
he transferred his allegiance in 37 to the ill-starred Lollia too perished miserably. Officially her crime had
( Caligula, 12, 2). Although Roman society had long very brink of death, Macro gave him frank and unvarnished
Tiberius Gemellus.253 He was obviously unaware of been forbidden astrological consultations. In reality the
ceased to be squeamish about marital infidelity, the advice. . . .24° For when Macro saw him straying from
the right way and letting his impulses range unbridled the fact that his friend, Macro, had thrown in his lot younger Agrippina, then recently installed as the wife
marriage contract would seem to discredit the assertion anywhither and in any way he would admonish and exhort
with Caius and had prevented Tiberius Gemellus from of the emperor Claudius, feared Lollia’s unslaked am­
that Macro himself was the instigator of the intrigue him thinking that he was the same Caius who while Tiberius
claiming the imperial partnership envisaged by the late bition once more to share the imperial throne with a
between his wife and Caius. It was far more likely still lived was reasonably docile. . . .25° In such manner
Tiberius: As soon as Flaccus realized his deadly mistake princeps.201
that Ennia Thrasylla herself, carried away by ambition, did the hapless man beseech Caius in order to improve
him. . . . He, however, being contrary and quarrelsome he made every effort to obtain Macro’s intercession on From beyond the grave, however, Thrasyllus did
was at least a “ willing victim ” of Caligula’s wooing. turned his mind in the opposite direction . . . and said to
his behalf. Little did he realize that Macro too was much to avenge his granddaughter, Ennia. For one
Rumor had it even that the young man’s infatuation some who were near h im : “ There he is, the teacher of a
already doomed.2®4 prediction he had made long ago now drove mad Caius
was due to a love potion administered to him by man no longer benefiting from learning, the paedagogue
In appointing Macro to succeed Flaccus, Caius acted into a ruinous venture: the building of a pontoon-
Ennia ,240 but there is no need to accept what might of one who is no longer a child, the adviser of a man more
intelligent than he is himself, a man who believes that a very shrewdly. For the praetorian prefect could hardly bridge between Baiae and Puteoli. Dio gave a detailed
merely be a rhetorical flourish as historical fact.
prince deserves to be ruled like a subject, a man who writes decline the honor without making it appear that he description of this costly imperial folly. Suffice it to
Both Ennia and Caius, apart from any sexual attrac­ like one used to imperial power and to the role of an
sided with Flaccus whose frantic friendship already had say that a paved road was laid across the pontoons
tion they might have had for each other, had more than educator.” 251
become a grave liability for Macro. Caius, on the other with resting places and lodging rooms with running
sufficient political reasons for their liaison. Ennia, who
Caligula was not slow in convincing himself that hand, eased two men whom he wanted to destroy out water. Traversing the bridge twice, once in each direc­
had married Macro probably about a . d . 29 or 30, at an
Macro was belittling him: of key posts by playing one against the other. Actually tion, Caligula— resplendent in a breastplate said to have
age of perhaps fourteen years at the most, was Caius
neither Macro nor Ennia Thrasylla ever reached Egypt. belonged to Alexander the Great— led a parade of the
junior by several years, but that need not have made Thus in a short time he began to be estranged from
For while Flaccus still was waiting in Egypt to sur­ praetorian guards. Was it to gain their favor after the
her less calculating. The date at which the affair began Macro and invented false though plausible and successfully
render his office into Macro’s hands, he received the recent execution of their commander Macro? The em­
to prosper cannot lie ascertained. The likeliest time misleading reasons such as the following words which he
ascribed to Macro: " There is my Caius, the work of Macro. terrifying news that Macro had been put to death.205 peror on this occasion harangued the multitude, com­
would have been the years between 34 and 37, i. e. after 1 have created him more truly, or at least no less than his
In the words of Philo: paring himself with commendable modesty as vastly
she had borne Macro several children, and the imperial own parents. Not once but thrice would he have perished
superior to Darius who had bridged the Danube,-and
prospects of Caius, on the other hand, tegan to increase at the hands of Tiberius who was bent on slaying him, had Caius became his [Macro’s] and his wife’s evil demon, Xerxes, who had thrown a pontoon bridge across the
after the death of his mother, the younger Agrippina, it not been for me and my defense of him. But also when rewarding them in exchange for their good will with the
he [Tiberius] died, 1, having command over the soldiers, most severe penalties. . . . Although Macro had done
Hellespont.262
and his older brother Drusus ( a . d . 33). pledged them at once to allegiance for him [Caius], aware everything with outstanding zeal first to save Caius and If the gossip which Suetonius’ grandfather 263 picked
The deluded husband was obviously cultivated by of the need for a single ruler. Thus the government remains
then to transfer into his hands alone the imperial govern­ up at the time from court sources was correct, a certain
Caius with great care when the death of the ailing em­ healthy and complete.” Some were convinced that those ment, this was to be his reward. . . .260 Alas, poor wretch, prediction of the late Thrasyllus was chiefly responsible
peror approached during the first months of 37. Ennia words had actually been spoken— for they rang true-— for his excessive good will he paid the extreme penalty,
for this ruinously expensive undertaking which Dio
Thrasylla would no doubt support the young prince’s because they were ignorant of the deceitful character of being slain with his whole house, wife and children as a
him who reported them [i.e. Caius], For his evil and burden, a superfluity and a nuisance. . . .257 The pitiable merely described as one more demonstration of Caligula’s
cause with her husband. At the same time she could treacherous character had not yet been revealed.232
man is said to have been forced to kill himself with his madness:
promise the cuckold that she would do her best to in­ own hand. His wife shared this fate. There seems to be
fluence Caius in Macro’s favor. Consequently, the It was obvious that in order to overthrow Macro, no love potion that works forever.258 That bridge . . . proved the source of death to many;
praetorian prefect played his part loyally and was Caius had to ease him out of the command over the for inasmuch as Caius had exhausted his funds in con­
instrumental in overcoming all opposition to the sole praetorian guards. Had Thrasyllus still lieen alive he structing it, he fell to plotting against many more persons
Thus perished in a . d . 38 the granddaughter of
than ever because of their property.204
succession of Caius.247 The death of the luckless rival, might have advised Macro to put up a fight for his Thrasyllus, only two years after his death. With Ennia
Tiberius Gemellus, followed soon afterwards. Instead post or to throw himself — guiltless though he was of Thrasylla and her children the female line— in so far Insidiously the old prediction of Thrasyllus thus helped
of inspiring gratitude in the fickle breast of Caligula, any treason — on the emperor’s mercy. As it was, as we know it— of his house ended. Barely seven years to accelerate the decline of Caligula’s popularity. The
Macro, through the demonstration of his far-reaching however, any suspicion which Macro and Ennia might had elapsed since the time when Macro’s predecessor, more capricious his rule became, the wilder the vagaries
influence in Rome, alienated whatever affection Enma’s have had of Caligula’s intentions was apparently allayed the praetorian prefect, Sejanus, had been exterminated of his sick mind, the more inevitably the web of con­
lover might have entertained for the praetorian prefect. by the emperor’s offer of the most important adminis­ with his family. His wife, Apicata, had then died by spiracies fastened itself around the imperial madman.205
His political goal achieved, Caius also felt himself no trative position in the imperial service: the governor­ her own hand. So did apparently now Ennia Thrasylla. Believing himself to be a god Caligula seems to have
longer bound to his pledge to marry a Greek astrolo­ ship of Egypt. The incumbent, Flaccus Avillius, was It was an era in which not infrequently wives shared felt less and less respect for astrology and other forms
ger’s granddaughter: the man whom Philo of Alexandria attacked soon after­ voluntarily the fate of their doomed husbands.258 Ennia’s of divination. Nevertheless, he maintained the Augustan
wards in a venomous diatribe. He was also a warm erstwhile lover, the emperor Caius Caligula, showed no
When this first and greatest struggle had been won by edict of a . d . 11 which forbade predictions concerning
Caius there was no one left to share with him the supreme grief at her death. In the very year 38 he married the future of the ruler:
power, no man around whom some malcontents and ambi­ Ibid., 7, 41; compare also 42-51.
tious men might rally. He began at once the Struggle 230 Philo, in Flaccnm, 3, 14.
251 Philo, legatio ad Caium, 8, 51 ff. In a parallel passage 233 For details, see ibid., 4-5, 22-31. An Egyptian, Apollonius, foretold in his native land the
against Macro, a man who in all matters concerning his 2114On the dramatic arrest of Flaccus, his exile at Andros, and actual fate of Caius; for this he was sent to Rome and was
rule had fought on his side, not only after h » accession
(in Flaccnm, 3, 15) Philo reports what he must have heard in
Italy as follows: “. . . Whenever Caius caught sight of him at his eventual execution, compare Philo, in Flaccum, 12-21,107-191.
but also before he obtained the principate. 233 Ibid., 4, 16 and 22. s”“ Suetonius, Caligula, 25, 2; Cassius Dio, 59, 12, 1; 23, 7.
a distance he would talk in this strain to his companions, ‘ Let
Tact was perhaps not Macro’s strongest point, but us not smile, let us look downcast, for here comes the monitor, 230 Philo, leg. ad Caium, 8, 59-60. 201 Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Semi­
the disciplinarian, who has begun to take charge as a tutor of a 251 Philo, in Flaccum, 3, 14. nar 9, 1951: 31-35.
grown man and emperor, at this very time, when those who. 238 Philo, leg. ad Caium, 8, 61. =““ Cassius Dio, 59, 17, 1 ff.; cf. Suetonius, Caligula. 19.
5,0 Philo, legatio ad Caium, 8, 61. . Cf. H. Rost, Bibliographic des Selbstmords: 51 f.; Litera- 203 Suetonius, Caligula, 19, 3, quoted above, p. 104.
Suetonius, Caligula, 12; compare 23, 2; Cassius Dio, 59, have tutored him from the earliest years have been dismissed
and set aside.’ ” risches Institut von Haas & Grabherr, Abteilung Buchverlag, 20‘ Cassius Dio, 59, 18, 1.
-,1-3; 2, Iff. as* Philo, legatio ad Caium, 8, 57-59. Augsburg, 1927. 203 Suetonius, Caligula, 56, 1-2.
=*“ Philo, legatio ad Ca:nm, 6, 32.
112 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 113

brought before the emperor on the very day on which the Claudius was not likely to constitute a dangerous rival, topics attracted Claudius especially 270 — he must have Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus Impera-
latter was destined to die, but his punishment was post­ influenced Caius to grant at least a measure of belated been deeply impressed by the far-famed universalist tor, Pontifex Maximus, holder of the Tribunician Power,
poned until a little later, and in this way his life was consul designate, to the city of Alexandria greeting. Tiber­
public recognition to his uncle. scholar from Alexandria. The children of Thrasyllus ius Claudius Barbillus [«’c/], . . . Chaeremon, son of
saved.200 The assassination of Caligula sent the shivering were a good deal younger than Claudius, but this did Leonidas, . . . Tiberius Claudius Archibius . . . your
This account bears a suspicious resemblance to the Claudius into hiding behind a curtain in the palace. not prevent the lonesome and sickly young prince from ambassadors . . . discoursed at length concerning the
one about the astrologer, Ascletarius-Asclation, and the Soldiers discovered him, extracted him from this hiding forming a life long friendship with Thrasyllus’ son, city. . . . O f the two golden statues the one . . . . as my
most honored Barbillus [«'c/] suggested and entreated, . . .
doomed emperor Domitian.26’ Apparently after each place and proclaimed the trembling man emperor of the Balbillus. It was but natural that Balbillus should
shall be erected at Rome. . . .27°
sensational imperial demise stories about “ accurate ” Roman realm. By then his older brother Germanicus hasten from Alexandria (where he had prudently lived
predictions would always circulate freely throughout had been dead for more than twenty years, while one during the last years of Caligula’s reign) to join the Not even the influence of personal friends like Bal­
the empire. Therefore, although Dio’s story about the sister, the infamous Livilla, had met death for con­ court of the new ruler in Rome. He may even have billus or Archibius, however, swayed Claudius from
incident involving Apollonius may be untrustworthy, spiring with her paramour, Sejanus, in the successful preceded an embassy 271 sent by the Alexandrinians to the path of imperial justice. He sternly warned the
it can nevertheless be assumed with certainty that murder of her husband, Drusus, son of Tiberius. Claudius in 41,272 Their purpose was a twofold one: Alexandrinians to discontinue their lawless rioting
prophecies of this kind were common, not only during Claudius’ sister-in-law, the older Agrippina, had died to inform the emperor officially of the honors voted against the local Jews, promising, on the other hand,
the reign of Caligula, but throughout the principate. in exile, a suicide. So had her sons, the two nephews him on his accession to the throne, and, on the other to warn the Jews also not to demand more than their
Was it perhaps under the impact of the impression of Claudius: Nero in exile in a . d . 29, while Nero’s hand, to receive his support, or at least his toleration ancient privileges granted them. He concluded as
made upon Caligula by Apollonius that the emperor younger brother Drusus killed himself, probably in a of the Alexandrinian anti-Jewish trend which already follows:
consulted the astrologer Sulla ? 268 Sulla must have fit of madness, in a Roman dungeon in a . d . 33. Now had contributed to several sanguinary riots in the
I bear witness to my friend Barbillus [.sic/] of the
been a fearless man. For he assured Caligula that a the youngest brother, Caius Caligula, had been slain. Egyptian metropolis.273 solicitude which he has always shown for you in my
violent death was in store for him in the near future. Under such circumstances it is hardly surprising that About thirty years ago an Egyptian papyrus was presence and of the extreme zeal with which he has now
Both Apollonius and Sulla were proven right. On Claudius entered upon his reign with a distinct feeling found which revealed to us the emperor’s reply to these advocated your cause. . . . Farewell.277
January 24, a . d . 41 Caius Caligula, less than thirty of foreboding. ambassadors among whose leaders were Balbillus,
His marital life did not add to his tranquillity either. This was clearly an attempt to exonerate Balbillus,
years old, was assassinated. If Balbillus, after the Archibius,274 and Chaeremon: 270 his personal friend, from any blame which his fellow-
death of his niece Ennia in 38 had been under eclipse, He had divorced his first wife, Aelia Paetina, for trivial
Alexandrians might heap on him upon learning that
he was now being restored to power. For after some reasons, his second spouse, Plautia Urgulanilla, for !7o j j e wr0(g—jn 4 j b00ks—a history From the end of the civil
their embassy had failed in its political objective. At
hectic hours the praetorian guards proclaimed Caligula’s adultery and worse.269 Entering upon his third mar­ war, as well as an Etruscan history, a Carthaginian history in
any rate Balbillus evidently had returned to Rome in
uncle, Claudius, as emperor. The senate acquiesced riage he had foolishly chosen a girl less than half his eight books, a treatise On the Latin alphabet, and an Auto­
biography, on the scholarly antiquarian bent of the emperor, the very year of Claudius’ accession and was in close
grudgingly. With Claudius a life-long friend of the age, a cousin’s young and beautiful daughter, Valeria
compare Suetonius, Claudius, 41 f.; Tacitus, Annals 13, 3, 6; 43, touch with the emperor for many weeks prior to
house of Thrasyllus ascended the throne. The fortunes Messalina, niece of the younger Agrippina, and hence 4; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1, 5, 6, 12, 13; 6, 10, 27; 12, 31; 31, 128; November 10, 41.
of Balbillus therefore were bound to rise at once. first-cousin to Agrippina’s infant son, the future em­ 7, 3, 35; 12, 38, 78; Pliny, epist. 1, 13, 3; Cassius Dio, 60, 2, 1.
During the years which followed Balbillus seems to
peror Nero. The new bride was, on her mother’s side, 871 C. Cichorius, Der Astrologe Ti. Claudius Balbillus, Sohn
des Thrasyllus, Rhein. Mus. 76, 1927: 102 ff., insists (104) that have divided his time between the court and his ances­
a great-granddaughter of Augustus. Agreeing to the
8. BALBILLUS AND CLAUDIUS Balbillus was already in Rome when the Alexandrinian embassy tral Alexandria. That he did not shun an arduous task
marriage with the usual docility of well bred Roman
arrived there. in which his engineering and administrative abilities
In a . d . 41 Claudius was more than fifty years old. girls in such matters, she must nevertheless have held 378 Compare H. I. Bell, A new fragment of the acta Isidori, were likely to be thoroughly tested became apparent
Bom in 10 b . c ., the son of Tiberius’ brother Drusus, little affection for her loving but unappetizing husband Archiv f. Pap. 10; 5-16 (line 18 of the papyrus) ; Egypt from
in 43. In that year the Roman invasion which led to
he had lived an obscure and uneventful life until now. who in his turn pampered her with the blind folly of Alexander the Great to the Arab conquest: 77f.; 89; 145, n. 45;
Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1948. Compare also Pap. Oxyr., 1, 33, the conquest of Britain began. From the very start it
This had been due to his physical, and probably also an infatuated old boulevardier, especially after she had 3-7, 10: 1242, 52 ff. U. Wilcken, Zum alexandrinischen Anti- met with difficulties of one kind or another. Claudius
mental handicaps which had caused Augustus to keep borne him two children, a boy (the future Britannicus) semitismus, Abh. d. kgl. Saechs. Gesellsch. d. Wissensch. (Phil.- was therefore prevailed upon to come to Britain himself
this step-grandson out of the limelight. Tiberius had within three weeks after his accession, and a daughter, Hist. Kl.) 27 : 783-789; H. I. Bell, Antisemitism at Alexandria,
and did so. With him went Balbillus, not— as one might
shared this attitude and held his nephew, Claudius, so Octavia. His fourth and fatal choice was to be his Jour. Roman Studies 31, 1941; 1-18; A. v. Premerstein, Zu den
suspect—merely in his capacity as court astrologer or
much in the background that he was still a simple knight niece, the younger Agrippina. As the fourth and—as sogenannten alexandrinischen Maertyrerakten, Philologus, Suppl-
16, 1923, Heft 2; cf. H. I. Bell, Egypt . . .: 145, n. 46.
at the time of Caligula’s accession. The death of his she hoped — last wife, Agrippina did everything to 378This seems the earliest extant document listing Balbillus as 370 Claudius’ letter was dated November 10,41; see U. Wilcken
other close relatives, and perhaps a conviction that assure the succession of her own son, L. Domitius, to Barbillus. The spelling eventually crept into Greek inscriptions (on the dating technique), Griechische Ostraka aits Aegypten
the imperial throne and was in all probability responsi­ and became the usual one for the Byzantine scribes. und Nubicn 1: 809-812; Berlin and Leipzig, 1899.
380 Cassius Dio, 59, 29, 4. ble for the premature death of Claudius, usually ascribed 27‘ Ti. Claudius Archibius, who—like Balbillus—was again 377 Pap. Lond. 1912 was discovered in 1920 or 1921. Printed
307 Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2), to a poisonous mushroom smuggled into his favorite referred to at the end of the imperial letter as being a friend editions include H. I. Bell in Jews and Christians in Egypt: 1-37
Seminar 10, 1952. of Claudius also, according to Cichorius (op. cit.: 104), was (with extensive commentary), London, Oxford Univ. Press,
mushroom dish. already in Rome when the embassy arrived. Cichorius’ hypo­
288 Suetonius, Caligula, 57. Since this astrologer, Sulla, cast 1924; M. P. Charlesworth, Documents illustr. the reigns of
the horoscope at the .emperor’s own request, he cannot be iden­ The house of Thrasyllus apparently had been one of thesis in either case seems to be supported by little evidence. Claudius and Nero, nos. 1-2; Cambridge, 1939; Select Papyri, 2:
tical with the Apollonius who for having done the same thing the few places where young Claudius had been accepted 378 The other ambassadors were Apollonius, son of Artemi- 78 ff., ed. A. S. Hunt and C. C. Edgar in Loeb Classics, London,
was arrested in Egypt and sent to Italy. Nothing else is known without reservation. He was about twelve years old dorus, M. Julius Asclepiades, C. Julius Dionysius, Ti. Claudius W . Heinemann; New York, Putnam’s Sons, 1934; on the docu­
of Sulla. A faint possibility might at least be mentioned. Thra­ when Thrasyllus arrived in Rome. With his interest Phanias, Pasion, son of Potamon, Dionysius, son of Sabbion, ment itself see R. Laqueur, Der Brief- des Kaisers Claudius an
syllus’ son Balbillus has fared badly with scribes of antiquity Apollonius, son of Ariston, C. Julius Apollonius, Hermalacus, die Alexandriner, Klio 20, 1926 ; 86-106; M. Engers, same title,
and the middle ages. In Suetonius’ version his name appears in antiquarian subjects — philological and theological son of Apollonius, apparently three Roman citizens and five ibid.: 168-178; Th. Reinach, L’empereur Claudius et les Juifs,
as Babilus, in many a mediaeval Greek text as Brabil (/) os and non-citizens. Adding Balbillus and Archibius to this number Revue des Etudes Juives 79, 1924: 114; H. Gregoire, Juifs,
worse. Should Sulla perhaps be read Balbillus (or Thrasyllus) ? “"'From Aelia Paetina he had a daughter, Antonia, from would give Roman citizens parity; five non-citizens and five pai'ens et chretiens dans 1’Egypte romaine, Le Flambeau, July,
Death dates after all were a known speciality of Balbillus, and Urgulanilla a son, Drusus, who died in an accident during a citizens in all would have comprised the embassy of ten, an 1924 : 378-384; A. Cameron, The letter of Claudius to the
the fact that Caligula had despatched this astrologer s niece and childish game. From the same wife he had also a daughter, arithmetical fact which seems to point to the opposite conclusion Alexandrines, Class. Quart. 20, 1926 : 45; cf. V. Scramuzza,
her children would hardly prevent the imperial madman from Claudia, born less than five months after his divorce from from that of Cichorius; i. e. Balbillus and Archibius may well The emperor Claudius : 64-66; Harvard Univ. Press, Cambridge
consulting an astrological adviser of long established intimacy Urgulanilla; see for example Suetonius, Claudius, 27, for a have come with the other eight men all the way from Alexandria (Mass.), and Humphrey Milford, Oxford Univ. Press, London,
with the ruling house. summary of Claudius’ marital history. at that time. 1940.
114 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
personal friend of the emperor, but as an officer
( tribunus militum) attached to the XXth legion. His
special talents were put to use by his appointment as
head of the engineers’ corps (praefectus fabr.). He
must have acquitted himself well. For he participated
in the triumph which Claudius held after his return
from Britain. On this occasion the senate bestowed on
Claudius and his young son the title Britannicus,278
while Balbillus received from his sovereign the honor
of a crown (corona hasta pura) . 279
If not before the expedition to Britain then at least
soon afterwards he won even higher recognition from
the emperor, this time in the realm of Egyptian adminis­
tration. He was appointed high priest of the temple of
Hermes in Alexandria, as well as overseer of all im­
perial buildings and sacred groves in Alexandria and
throughout the rest of Egypt (aedium Divi Augusti et
lucorutn sacrorumque omnium quae sunt Alexandreae
et in tot'a Aegypto) .26° Although among the imperial
buildings in Egypt the state university was one of the
largest and most famous ones— the Serapeum at Alexan­
dria— the presidency of this institution, centered around
its world famous library, was apparently not automatic­
ally included in such an appointment. For Balbillus
was specifically named head of the university and of its
library (supra Museum et ab Alexandrine bybliothece) ,
one of the most ardently coveted posts in the Greek
academic world. Although inferior to his exceptional
father, the late Thrasyllus, Balbillus seems to have had
sufficient qualifications for this partly academic, partly
administrative office. As a token of his gratitude and
friendship he undoubtedly encouraged Claudius to es­
tablish a special Claudian Institute at the Museum of
Alexandria261 where henceforth the works of Claudius
were to be recited annually.282
The advice of Balbillus may well have been a strong,
perhaps a decisive factor for the issuing o'f a proclama­
tion by Claudius in a . d . 45. In this edict the emperor
tried to lay at rest finally the age-old Roman super­
stitions about the portentous meaning of eclipses. We
have already seen that whole armies were on occasion
swayed by such beliefs.283 Before the battle of Pydna
a lunar eclipse (June 21, 168 b . c . ) had been explained
rationally to a Roman army to prevent a panic. Never­
theless, after the death of Augustus a dangerous mutiny
among the Illyrian legions had collapsed chiefly because
of the fears aroused amongst the mutineers when a lunar
278For a detailed account, see Cassius Dio, 60, 19 ff.; compare
Suetonius, Claudius, 17, 1-3.
a7BThese biographical data stem from an Ephesian inscription;
Wiegand, Forschungen in Ephesus, 3, 128; cf. C. Cichorius,
op. cit. : 104.
J‘° It may be noted that the biographical Ephesian inscription
was dedicated to [Ba]/billus, not to Barbillus.
281 Athenaeus, 6, f. 240B.
282 Suetonius, Claudius, 42, 2.
58:1See above, pp. 48 ff., 100.
eclipse seemed to announce to them that the gods were
horrified at their rebellion. One may therefore under­
stand the reasons advanced by Balbillus and other ad­
visers to put an end to such panicky reactions forever:
Since there was to be an eclipse of the sun on his birth­
day, [Claudius] feared that there might be some disturbance
in consequence, inasmuch as some other portents had already
occurred; he therefore issued a proclamation in which he
not only stated the fact that there was to be an eclipse, and
when, and for how long, but also the reasons for which
this was bound to happen.284
Sometime during the reign of Claudius, Balbillus also
became an official member of the imperial “ cabinet.”
He was attached to the bureau in charge of dealing
with embassies and with issuing the official Greek text
of imperial responsa ( per epistulas ad legationes et
responsa graeca Caesaris Augusti divi Claudi). It is
possible but by no means certain that this was the first
honor bestowed upon Balbillus by Claudius upon his
accession. In that case Balbillus may already in his
official capacity have received, the Alexandrian em­
bassy of 41. But an argument which might strengthen
the assumption that his appointment was made after the
British campaign and prior to the Egyptian honors
would be the sequence in which the Ephesian inscription
to which we owe these biographical details listed them.
They appear in the following order; (1) the Egyptian
honors and offices; (2) the “ cabinet” post in Rome;
(3) the military appointments of 43 and the honors
bestowed upon Balbillus at the time of the triumph.
If this list were chronological, the honors given by
Claudius to his learned friend, listed as (2) and (3)
would follow those described in (1). Thus Balbillus
might have been appointed to the Egyptian posts already
prior to Claudius’ accession, then to the “ cabinet ” but
before the British campaign and triumph of a . d . 43.
His elevation to Roman knighthood also was in all
probability due to Claudius.
How long he continued as imperial “ receptionist ” of
embassies— surely not later than a . d . 54— is unknown,
but it seems likely that in this capacity he earned the
long-lived affection of the Ephesians.285 That Balbillus,
apart from his interest in Alexandria (which was but
natural for him and his family), bestowed favors on
other cities also is attested by an inscription discovered
in Pergamum. Claudia Capitolina, wife of (M . Met-
tius?) Junius Rufus,280 referred to a foundation estab­
lished in that city by her father, Balbillus. She was
284 Cassius Dio, 60, 26, 1.
285 The earlier inscriptions refer to him correctly as Bafbillus,
the later ones already call him Barbillus. Most of these were
set up in honor of victories at the games which Vespasian had
allowed the city to hold in honor of the famous astrologer; com­
pare F. Cumont, Astrologues romains et by2 antins, Melanges
d’archeologie et d’histoire publ. par I’Ecole franQaise de Rome
37, 1918-1919: 33-38, esp. 34, n. 3.
288 Stein, RE 10, 1919: c. 1083, no. 144.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS F R O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
following in his footsteps at the time, adding a donation
of her own to the paternal one.287 Inasmuch as Claudia’s
(second?) husband was prefect of Egypt around a . d .
90, one may tentatively ascribe her birth to the reign
of Claudius, perhaps to the very last years of it (after
a . d . 50?). For her marriage to C. Julius Antiochus
Epiphanes, son of Antiochus IV of Commagene,288
probably took place sometime during the last years of
Nero, or at least not later than a . d . 72.
Unless Balbillus had been married before he must
therefore have married (or remarried) in the reign of
Claudius, perhaps about a . d . 50. At that time he was
in his late forties, an age very suitable for a Roman
citizen of high rank to shoulder (or resume again)
what Roman law somewhat discourteously called “ the
burden of matrimony.” We know as yet nothing what­
ever about his wife, but can safely assume that her
family’s station matched that of Balbillus. Perhaps she
too belonged to a great Greek house which had found
favor at the imperial court. Thus, as the reign of
Claudius drew to a close, the son of Thrasyllus was a
well-established pater familias. He had not only re­
tained the friendship of Claudius, but managed also to
ingratiate himself with the rising sun, the younger
Agrippina. It is, therefore, quite possible that he was
among those astrologers who foretold (for once cor­
rectly) 280 the death of Claudius. For forecasts of this
kind were (although forbidden by law!) Balbillus’
specialty! 290
Nevertheless one must never forget that a social abyss
separated him from that host of professional astrologers
who earned their living solely by their craft. To them
only did Seneca refer when he had Mercury joke about
the struggle which the soul of dead Qaudius had in
ascending to the heavens. Addressing one of the three
Fates Mercury appealed to her:
Why, cruel woman, doest thou allow this poor man to be
thus tormented? He should not be tortured that long. For
he has already struggled with his soul for sixty-four years
[i.e. all his life]. Let for once the astrologers speak the
truth, they who have prophesied his death every year, nay
every month since he ascended the throne.29’
There was, indeed, truth to the joke of Seneca. For
in a . d . 52 Claudius by a senatorial decree had renewed
earlier expulsion orders banishing astrologers from the
capital and from Italy as well.292 Balbillus, of course,
287 For this inscription, compare Athenische Mitteilungen 32,
1907: 337 f.
288Ibid.: 37; the inscription from which this is known appears
in Kaibel, Epigr., no. 991; Peek, Mitteil d. Inst. f. alf Altertum-
skunde 5, 1934 : 96 f.
280 Compare Seneca, Apocolyntosis, 3.
-,wlie wrote a whole work on the subject. It is the only
treatise from his pen of which fragments have survived; see
below, p. 127.
201 Seneca, Apocolyntosis. 3.
‘"’ Tacitus, Annals 12, 52.
115
was as little affected by the ban as his father, Thrasyllus,
had been by similar decrees in a . d . 16.293 Roman
gentlemen-astrologers in general, and court-astrologers
in particular, never needed fear such measures. Nor
need one assume that even the rank and file took them
too seriously.
The reason for the senatus consultum of 52 was the
one customary in such cases: fear of the influence of
astrologers in stirring up public unrest. Prophecies
promising the impending demise of the emperor were
among the most inflammatory ones. The outlawing of
such predictions since a. d. 11 had only been an added
incentive for the curious. With Britannicus barely
eleven years old, and even Qaudius’ adopted stepson
Nero less than fifteen, the question of the imperial
succession remained unsolved. Astrologers would have
a field-day, for example, in promising aristocratic clients
a chance of ascending the throne if and when the ailing,
elderly monarch died. Balbillus was of course fully
aware of the precariousness of the political situation.
His father, Thrasyllus, in a similar period had reso­
lutely backed the more logical of two candidates, i. e.
he had lent his support to Caius Caligula rather than
to the younger and feebler Tiberius Gemellus. Simi­
larly Balbillus now banked on Agrippina, Seneca, and
Nero in preference to the ailing and unstable Britanni­
cus, by four years the junior of Nero. It is most likely
therefore that his astrological advice was at least partly
responsible for the dynastic marriage by which Claudius
in 53 joined in wedlock his ill-starred daughter, Octavia,
to young Nero.
9. BALBILLUS AND NERO
That the annals- of history were enriched by the
presence of a Nero on the Roman scene was, as said
before, due in some measure to Balbillus’ father, Thra-
syllus.204 Domitius Ahenobarbus and his wife, the
younger Agrippina, both of them tempestuous by nature
and burdened with a goodly dose of abnormal heredity,
could hardly be expected to produce entirely “ normal ”
offspring. Domitius, when acknowledging the paternity
of the infant born on December 15, 37, was said to have
remarked caustically to some friends that nothing good
could possibly come from such parents.298 The very
first years of young L. Domitius were passed under
the cloud of his mother’s exile. During those years_
father Domitius died before his son was four years
old — his aunt Domitia cared for him. She was as
unscrupulous a woman as the younger Agrippina and
seems to have striven to replace Agrippina in the boy’s
2"a Compare above, p. 102; for a detailed analysis of the
expulsion decrees of a . d . 16, see F . H. Cramer, Expulsion of
astrologers from ancient Rome, Classica et Medioevalia 12, 1-2
Copenhagen, 1951: 10 ff.
2.4 See above, p. 108.
2.5 Suetonius, Nero, 6, 1.
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
affections. Recalled from exile after Claudius’ acces­
sion, Agrippina regained custody of her son, but she
never ceased to accuse Domitia of having grossly mis-
educatecl the youngster.296 She also never forgot, as
probably behooved a daughter of the elder Agrippina,
that young L. Domitius was a grandson of Germanicus,
great-grandson of M. Vipsanius Agrippa and his wife
Julia, i. e. a great-great-grandson of Augustus. He was
also closely related to the Claudian line. For Germani­
cus’ father, Drusus, the brother of the emperor Tiberius,
had been a scion of the Claudian family.
Whatever proud dreams, however, Agrippina might
entertain for her son were dreamed under sinister
auspices. For she had received an astrological pre­
diction, perhaps from Balbillus himself in a . d . 41297
(when she was recalled from exile and Balbillus had
hurried from Alexandria to Rome)— a prediction which
promised the boy the imperial throne but also forecast
that he would murder his own mother..298 Domitia in
turn entertained great hopes of seeing on the imperial
throne her own grandson, Britannicus, whom her
daughter, Messalina, had borne to Claudius a few weeks
after his accession.200 Was not Britannicus, the only
living son of Claudius, the logical heir, if only Claudius
ruled long enough for the boy to reach manhood? A
deadly race for power was thus run during the ’forties
between the two sisters-in-law, Agrippina and Domitia.
The reckless ambition of Agrippina was perhaps accu­
rately reflected in her contemptuous exclamation:
“ May [my] son murder me, if only he will rule! ” 800
Her wish was to be granted.
The catastrophe which overtook Messalina in 47 cast
its shadow over her mother, Domitia, as well. The
doomed daughter at the last moment sought refuge
with her mother— in vain. Messalina’s very ruin paved
the way for the fourth marriage of the now widowed
Claudius. The match was engineered in the manner of
a horse race. Each of the three most powerful freed-
men at court presented his own candidate for the em­
peror’s marital couch. Tacitus has described the mad
race for power in unforgettable dramatic terms.301 Of
the three contesting women only the weakest one, Aelia
Paetina, was to escape the jealous fury of the ultimate
winner. Her much more dangerous rival, the fabulous
Lollia Paulina, ex-wife of the late emperor Caligula,
paid with her head for having dared to compete for the
•imperial couch.302 The victory finally fell to Agrippina.
206Compare ibid., 5 and 6, 3.
287 Suggested by Tactius, Annals 6, 22; compare C. Cichorms,
Der Astrologe Balbillus, Sohn des Thrasyllus, Rhein. Mus. 76,
1927: 103 f.
288Tacitus, Annals 14, 9.
200 Suetonius, Claudius, 27.
300 Tacitus, Annals 14, 9.
Ibid., 12, 1 ff. „ quoted by Eusebius, praepar. evang., 4, I f .; on a fragment in
gee p. H, Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9,
1951: 31-35.
To what extent she owed it to back-stage support from
Claudius’ friend and court astrologer, Balbillus, will
never be known. That he took her side, however, is
certain. For, as we know, he had prophesied the
eventual accession of her son to the throne.308
From the very moment of her wedding, made possible
only by the scrapping of the Roman law forbidding a
marriage between uncle and niece, Agrippina began to
prepare the way for her son’s future by providing him
with a set of excellent tutors. She persuaded Claudius
to grant at long last the return of Seneca from exile.
As soon as this was accomplished, she underlined her
opposition to her husband’s past treatment of the famous
Stoic by inviting Seneca to become the chief tutor of
young L. Domitius, then barely twelve years old.304
Seneca was joined by the Alexandrian Stoic, Chaere-
mon,305 perhaps the same one who in a . d . 41 had been
a member of the Alexandrian embassy to Claudius.800
A man of such stature must have been well known to
Balbillus who after all had long been the official head
of the Alexandrian Museion. It may therefore be
assumed that Balbillus was at least consulted, and per­
haps directly responsible for the selection of this re­
nowned scholar, who not only himself had mastered
Egyptian hieroglyphs, but also had written a book on
the venerable script,307 as well as a history of Egypt.306
A member of the Egyptian priesthood he too — like
Balbillus — presided at one time (perhaps in the reign
of Caligula?) over the Museion at Alexandria.
-Apart from being a philologist and a historian, Chaere-
mon was also a renowned writer on astronomical and
astrological topics.309 He had for example written a
redoubtable treatise on comets810 in which he expressed
the opinion that comets were not necessarily, as the
traditional astrological interpretation insisted, harbingers
of disaster, but could also announce glad tidings. Chaere-
803 Tacitus, Annals 6, 22; 14, 9.
3“* See for example Tacitus, Annals 12, 8. Piquantly enough
Seneca had been banished for adultery with Agrippina’s own
sister, Julia Livilla; Casius Dio, 60, 8, 5; compare Suetonius,
Claudius, 29, 1 on Julia's death. It was even said that Agrippina
herself had been Seneca’s mistress; Cassius Dio, ep. 61, 10, 1-6;
see also Tacitus, Annals 13, 42, 6; Seneca, ad Polyb. consol.,
13, 2.
30r' Origines, contra Celsum 1, 59; Porphyry, de abstin., 4, 6 ;
. . . o aroiiKos . . ., and 8: AvSpbt . . . ev rois (TTwiKots jrpay-
naTiKWTdTov; Apollonius, de conjunctione: 515, 5; Suidas, s.v.
’AX^avSpos Alyaros and Aiovutrios A\e^at>8pevs.
808 See above, p. 113.
307 Suidas, j. v. Xaipepur; Porphyry quoted by Eusebius,
praepar. evang. 5, 10, 5; Tzetzes, exeg. in Iliad. : 123, 11; histor.,
5, 395 f.; on Chaeremon’s romanticizing of Egyptian lore, see
Schwartz, RE 3, 1894: c. 2025, no. 7,-2027; compare Zeller, Die
Hieroglyphiker Chaeremon und Horapollo, Hermes 11, 1876:
430-433.
308Josephus, contra Apionem 1, 288. , historical events in chronological order. On the comet which
3““ Compare a letter from Porphyry addressed to Anubio.
Psellos, see Bulletin de corresp. hell. 1, 1879: 129.
810 irepl Kofiyruv trvyypafipa.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
mon thereby gave strong backing to the imperial policy
of catasterisms of which the one of Julius Caesar had
been the first and most famous example.311 The Egyp­
tian scholar thus also provided welcome support for the
later Christian interpretation of the star of Bethlehem
as a benign comet (although no major comet’s appear­
ance has been recorded for those years). The trio
composed of Seneca, Balbillus, and Chaeremon was,
indeed, so much interested in comets that young L.
Domitius, named Nero after Agrippina had persuaded
Claudius to adopt the boy, could not but be impressed
with the importance of the subject. For Seneca too
became the author of an essay on comets,312 the only
extant Latin treatise on the subject, while the renown
of Balbillus as an interpreter of the astrological im­
portance of comets was so great that at a crucial time
he became in 64 the emperor Nero’s decisive adviser
on the meaning of a comet’s appearance.813 Held
together by the common bond of stoicism, the creed
most firmly championing astrology, Seneca and Chaere­
mon were the men chiefly responsible for the education
of L. Domitius during the last years of Claudius’ reign.
Seneca retained his influence upon the prince when
Claudius finally adopted his stepson Domitius, there­
after called Nero. He even extended his hold after
Agrippina’s coup which raised Nero to the throne suc­
ceeded in a . d . 54. Seneca’s views on astrology there­
fore acquired exceptional political importance. His writ­
ings abounded with references on the subject. A few
passages may show the bent of Seneca’s mind. In his
treatise On Providence, a topic of perennial interest to
pagan and Christian writers until the end of antiquity,
he expressed himself in the spirit of Vergil and Manilius
(whom Seneca as a young man may have known
personally) :
Good men labor . . . and willingly (volentes). They
are not dragged along by fate (non trahuntur a for­
tuna). . . . Fate leads us (fata nos ducunt), and what
span of life remains has been firmly established at the
hour of one’s birth. Cause is linked with cause.814 One
must therefore bear everything bravely. For . . . nothing
happens by accident, everything by logical sequence.315
The general stoic tenet of scientific causality was even
more definitely linked with astrological concepts in a
consolatory letter addressed by Seneca to Marcia, daugh­
ter of the aristocratic historian, Cremutius Cordus, whom
long ago Tiberius had destroyed for anti-monarchic ten­
dencies. Marcia had lost her young son, and Seneca
wrote her a long letter trying to ease her grief:
811 See above, p. 78 ff.
818This treatise constitutes the seventh book of Seneca’s
guaestiones naturales, a vital document for historians of science,
but hard to come by in an English translation.
818 Suetonius, Nero, 36.
814 Manilius expressed i t : certa stant omnia lege; Astronomica
4, v. 14.
815 Seneca, de providentia, 5, 6 f .; compare for quotations from
other Roman authors Bouche-Leclercq: 551 ff., esp. footnotes.
117
Imagine I were coming to advise you at the moment of
your birth: “ You are about to enter a vast community,
jointly inhabited by gods and men, a community that
embraces the universe, that is bound by fixed and eternal
laws (certis legibus aeternisque) , that holds the celestial
bodies as they whirl through their unwearied rounds. You
will see there the gleaming of countless stars, you will see
one star flooding everything with its light—the sun. . . .
You will see the moon taking its place by night . . . bor­
rowing from it a pale reflected light. . . . You will see
the five planets pursuing their different courses and striving
to stem the headlong whirl of heaven; on even the slightest
motions of these hang the fortunes of nations, and the
greatest and smallest happenings are shaped to accord with
the progress of a kindly or unkindly star." 316
Cosmic “ sympathy ” was thus in orthodox stoic tra­
dition linked with the tenets of astrology. But nothing
was said of phenomena which (like the comets) seemed
to contradict the “ perfect mechanism ” theory of the
Stoics. At this very time comets had begun to attract
the special attention of astronomers and astrologers, as
we have already noted. A generation earlier Manilius
for example had held to the traditional interpretation
when ascribing the devastating plague which struck
Athens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War to
the influence of a comet.317 Cicero who himself men­
tioned comets in a number of passages818 was, accord­
ing to Dio, warned by a comet of his impending death819
(43 B.C.). Blood-red was the color 320 of the comet
of 44 which had inspired the official catasterism of
Julius Caesar.821 Comets had heralded the battle of
Philippi (42 B . C . ) , the battle of Actium (31 B . C . ) , as
well as the annihilation of three Roman legions under
Varus in Germany (a.d. 9 ) . 822 The death of M. Vip­
sanius Agrippa also was said to have been heralded
by a comet.828 Several comets appeared in a. d. 9
8,8 Seneca, consol, ad Marciam, 18, 1-3.
817 Manilius, Astronomica 1, vv. 880 ff. The whole section,
beginning with v. 874, dwells on the dire meaning of comets’
appearances; compare also Silius Italicus, 8, v. 638: non unus
crine corusco regnorum eversor rubuit letale cometes (in refer­
ence to the battle of Cannae).
818 For example in Catilinam 3, 18; de consulatu, 2 (in de
divinatione 1, 11, 18); compare Cassius Dio, 37, 25, 2.
818 Cassius Dio, 45, 17, 4.
880Calpurnius Siculus, Bucolica, 1, w . 82 f.
881 See above, p. 78 f.; compare W. Gundel in R E U, 1922:
c. 1143-1193, for a survey on comets in antiquity. A. Alfoeldi,
Studien ueber Caesars Monarchie, Bulletin de la Societe Royale
des lettres de Lund, 1953, no. 1: 80, and Tables V II and V III,
has shown that coins antedating Julius Caesar’s assassination
by some weeks had accustomed the Romans to seeing a star
behind the head of the living dictator. Hence the popular in­
sistence that the comet of July, 44 represented Caesar’s soul
mounting heavenwards was based on a certain amount of psycho­
logical preparedness.
B“ Manilius, Astronomica 1, vv. 897 ff. He does not list the
appeared prior to the battle of Actium in 31 b. c„ compare also
Cassius Dio. SO, 8, 2. On the one before the battle of Philippi.
ibid., 47, 40, 2; Manilius, Astronomica, 1, vv. 907 ff.; Vergil,
Georgies 1, v. 488.
8!8Cassius Dio, 54, 29, 8.
118 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
and l l ,324 and were believed by most people to signal
the impending death of Augustus, who therefore pub­
lished his horoscope to demonstrate that his demise was
not yet due.325 Finally, however, the comets proved
correct. When Augustus died in a . d . 14 a blood-red
comet was seen,326 perhaps the same one to which
Seneca referred when contesting the theory of the
periodicity of comets:
Let us not believe that the comet seen under Claudius
is the same which did appear under Augustus, nor that the
one which showed itself under Nero . . . has resembled
the one which arose after the murder of Julius Caesar
during the games of Venus Genetrix.327
The comet of 54 which Seneca mentioned was of
course considered as a portent of the emperor’s death,328
while the comet of a . d . 60 was flatteringly described as
a harbinger of good times, an opinion expressed by
other writers also.320 It may be noted that the majority
opinion, which saw in comets only heralds of major
catastrophes, was thus being contested by a valiant
minority.
We have already mentioned Chaeremon’s optimistic
attitude in his essay on comets,330 but his opinion was
not new. In part it went back to hellenistic times when
court flatterers tended to cheer their sovereigns when
prone to succumb to forebodings of disaster at the ap­
pearance of comets. On the other hand, the appearance
of a bright new light in the heavens might well be looked
upon as an indication of a bright future, or at the birth
of a brilliant person. Thus in 134 B .C . a herald of
good tidings had been seen in a comet at the birth of
Mithradates. Again a comet was said to have preceded
his accession to the throne.331 A copper coin of that
ruler actually showed an eight-rayed star, one of whose
rays was elongated into a tail.332 The catasterism of
Julius Caesar, on the other hand, was based on the
popular view that the souls of the departed, especially
those of great men, were transformed into stars, the
comet of 44 supposedly showing this transfer in the
very process. Some northern stars above which the
comet had been shining were thereafter named “ Caesar’s
as‘ Ibid. 56, 24, 3-4.
3is Ibid. 56, 25, 5; compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and
the stars (1), Seminar 9, 1951: 1 ff.
3=0Cassius Dio, 56, 29, 3.
337 Seneca, quaesl. nat. 7, 17, 2.
338 Suetonius, Claudius, 46; Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2, 23, 92; com­
pare Seneca, qu. nat. 7, 21, 3; 23, 1; 29, 3.
333 Seneca, qu. nat. 7, 6, 1; 17, 2; 21, 3; 23, 1; 28, 3; 29, 3;
Calpurnius Siculus, Bucolica 1: vv. 74 ff. That many did not
share in the optimistic interpretation of comets was to be
expected; see Tacitus, Annals 14, 22; Suetonius, Nero, 36;
Seneca, Octavia: v. 235.
330 See above, p. 116.
33tJustinus (Pomp. Trogus, Hist. phil. epit.), 38, 3, Iff.
333 Compare Imhof-Blumer, Giessener Anseiger, March 31,
1910.
throne.” 333 Hailey’s comet, which seems to have put
in an appearance in 11 b. c., has been acclaimed by
some as the star announcing the birth of Christ.334
In short, the era of Claudius and Nero did not intro­
duce the optimistic astrological interpretation of comets,
but it did, indeed, witness the zenith of this minority
view. Rome also was— since the days of Augustus—
“ the only place in the whole world where a comet is
the object of worship . . . [in] a temple.” 335 It was
a grim irony that Seneca’s own death was to some ex­
tent due to Balbillus’ traditionally pessimistic interpre­
tation of a comet which appeared in a . d . 64. Nero,
no longer persuaded of the benign meaning of such a
phenomenon, anxiously sought the advice of Balbillus.
The renowned astrologer consoled the monarch by ad­
vising him that, although the comet portended grave
events, Nero could deflect them from his own person
by executing a number of great men.336 In his astro­
logical reckoning the sum total of lesser victims would
prove a substitute acceptable to the Fates for the life of
a single prince. Among those slain upon this advice of
Balbillus in connection with the Pisonic conspiracy was
Seneca himself.337
There is, however, no evidence which would indicate
that Balbillus acted in a spirit of personal animosity
against Seneca. Nor did he directly accuse him of
complicity in the Pisonic plot. But when Seneca re­
signed his offices of state and retired into private life,
the prudent Balbillus undoubtedly permitted the ties to
dissolve which in the past, at least politically, must have
existed between him and Seneca. It was a standard
maxim in the house of Thrasyllus to maintain at all
costs — and Ennia Thrasylla had paid dearly for it —
the closest possible ties with the rulers of the Julio-
Claudian dynasty and their likely successors. Thus
Thrasyllus had abandoned Sejanus and in a . d . 31 had
aided Tiberius materially in the overthrow of his erst­
while favorite. Balbillus, his attachment to Claudius
notwithstanding, had not hesitated to link his fortunes
with the rising star of Agrippina and her- son. The well
connected and well informed gentleman-scholar might
be expected to have learned from reliable sources about
333 See F. Boll, Beitraege zur Ueberlieferungsgeschichte der
griechischen Astrologie und Astronomie, Sitsungsberichte der
kgl. Bayer. Akad., Muenchen, 1899: 122, n.
334 The date of the birth of Christ was in all probability
wrongly computed by the mediaeval monk to whom we owe our
present reckoning. The likeliest date—the Augustan census of
9 li. c. and the death date of Herod forming our chief clues—
appears to be at least five years earlier than the traditionally
accepted one; on the comet’s heralding Christ’s birth, see
Stentzel, Das Wall all 7: 113. Origenes ( contra Celsum 1, 58)
definitely believed that the star of Bethlehem was a comet, but
no comet is recorded for the years in question; compare F. Boll,
Der Stern der Weisen, Zeitschrijt fuer neutestoment. IVisscn-
schaft 18, 1917: 40-48, esp. 46 ff.
335 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2, 23, 93.
333 Suetonius, Nero, 36.
337 See below, p. 121.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
the progress of the Pisonic conspiracy. Nero was child­
less, his successor unknown. While Balbillus did not
actively promote the death of Seneca, he apparently did
nothing to save the greatest Stoic Rome was destined
to produce.
The Weltanschauung of this prolific Stoic was a
thoroughly scientific one. One of the best resumes of
it is found in Seneca’s unduly neglected quaestiones
naturales. Inasmuch as his views, especially with re­
gard to the principle of causality and the attitude about
the role of religion, were representative of the Manilian-
Thrasyllan tradition in a small but politically important
circle of Roman intellectuals of the first century of our
era, some passages from the above mentioned work may
be quoted;
“ What then! What is the use of expiations and prayers
( procurationes), if destinies are immutable ( inmutabilia
. . . fata) ? ” Permit me to contemplate that rigid sect of
men who take exception to those [rites] and consider them
as nothing but the consolations of an afflicted mind. The
Fates irrevocably fulfill their own law and are not swayed
by any prayer. They know neither pity for the downcast
nor gratitude. Anything that has a beginning flows by
predestination along its irrevocable course. Just as the
water of cascading torrents never returns upward nor
even stands still, because each particle is driven on by the
one behind it,338 thus does the eternal sequence (series)
of things follow the pattern laid down by Fate (ordinem
fati), the pattern whose primary law is this: to obey the
ordained.330
This train of reasoning allowed for no other deity
than Fate itself, but a monotheism of this kind was based
on a mechanistic concept of life. It therefore did not
admit of an individualistic relationship between man
and the ruler of the universe. Nevertheless, an attempt
had to be made to inspire an amor dei, if only in the
form of an amor fati, in the human heart. The idea of
a pitiless, purely mathematical deity was insupportable.
Seneca (like other Stoics before him) tried to soften
the harshness of his tenets by imputing to his supreme
divinity Fate a foreknowledge of the best course of
events in the long run. The humble biblical acknowl­
edgment that the Lord’s ways are not our ways (but
in the end the best ones) was also voiced by Seneca:
44 What then do you call Fate ? ” I believe it to be the
necessity (necessitatem) of all things and acts, which no
power whatever can break. If you think that this necessity
can be appeased by sacrifices, or the head of a snowy lamb,
you have never understood the [meaning of] divine. You
admit that a wise man’s verdict also cannot be changed—
how much less that of god! Yet the wise man only knows
what is best in a present contingency, but in the mind of
god all [eternity] is present.340
ment of the Stoic defenders of fatalism. The judge,
The strict theories of fatalist astrology would merely confronted with a smiling criminal who refused to
acknowledge responsibility for his acts, saying he was
338 Compare the poetic reexpression in Hoelderlin’s : “ Es fated to steal or murder, simply refuted this easy de-
sehwinden, es fallen die leidenden Menschen, wie Wasser von
Klippe zu Klippe geworfen, endlos ins Ungewisse hinab.”
333 Seneca, quaest. nat., 2, 35.
340 Ibid. 2, 36.
119
enable mortals to ascertain what destiny was in store
for them, but not allow them the slightest deviation
from their ordained course. Seneca’s attitude towards
the less stringent concepts of catarchic divination was
but the logical result of his unflinching faith in an
inexorable Fate:
I now want to take up the argument of those who believe
that one has to take into account bolts of lightning [as
oracles] and who have no doubts that expiations are of
some use in removing dangers, or at least alleviating or
postponing them to some extent. . . . We share with such
men the view that we too believe that vows can produce
something beneficial, but only by the strength and power
of Fate. For some things have been left in suspense by
the immortal gods so that they can be turned in a favorable
direction when prayers are proffered to the gods and when
vows (vota) are undertaken. Inasmuch as this too is
included within Fate, it does not happen contrary to Fate.
“ But the future,” he says, 44 is either foreordained or not.
If it is predestined it will happen whether or not you make
vows. If it is not predestined, it will not happpen whether
or not you make vows.” This is the wrong way to argue.
For you overlook the partial exception: that something is
bound to happen provided that vows are made.341
Seneca was, however, too honest and acute a thinker
not to realize the logical dilemma to which this argu­
ment might lead. He frankly recognized the difficulty:
44 This in itself,” he counters, 44 is necessarily contained
in Fate, i. e. whether or not you are going to make vows.”
Rest assured that I shall shake hands with you on that and
confess that this, indeed, is included in Fate, i. e. that and
what vows are made. They will be made in exact accord­
ance. It is fate that someone is a scholar, provided, however,
he has learned to read and to write. That means he will
necessarily be taught. Another one will be rich, if he sails
the seas. But in that sequence of Fate by which a great
fortune is promised him, this too is fated in addition: that
he sails the seas. Thus he will sail them. I say the same
about expiations ( expiationibus). . . . That too is part of
his Fate that he will expiate. Thus expiate he will. People
are in the habit of holding this up against us in order to
show that nothing [in our way of thinking] is left to our
own free will and all judgment (ius) is transferred to Fate
itself. When this matter will be discussed, I shall say to
what extent (without eliminating Fate) something is left
to the free will of man. For the time being, however, I have
explained in what way, even if the sequence of Fate is
fixed, sacrifices and the interpretation of omens avert perils;
because they do not fight Fate, but themselves happen
according to Fate. 41 What then," you say, 44can an haru­
spex do for me ? For it is fated that I make a sacrifice even
without his advising me to do so.” This is useful, since he
is the minister of Fate. Thus while good health is due to
Fate, it is also due to the physician, since the blessing of
Fate comes to us through his hands.342
Seneca might well have added another stock argu­
311 Ibid. 2, 37, 1-3.
343Ibid. 2, 38, 1-4; compare also 6, 1, 8.
 T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 121
120 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
is he who would mind dying when the whole world is occurs only in enormous intervals? Less than fifteen hun­
fense by asserting that he himself in turn was fated to sweep them even from the very citadels. One wave will dred [.sic!] years have elapsed since Greece “ gave names
rush in from the west, the other from the east. A single perishing with hini.” 851
sentence the criminal to death. Paradoxa of this kind and numbers to the stars.”
day will finish the human race. Whatever the long indul­ The scientific approach on which such views were Even today there are many nations which surely see the
actually made fatalism suspect, since in this way free gence of fortune has made flourish, whatever is lifted above based was not confined by Seneca to the astrological sky and yet do not know the cause of lunar eclipses, nor
will could be explained as operating unbeknownst to the rest, noble and ornate realms of great nations, it will
speculations of Berossus. The Roman Stoic frankly why the moon is obscured. W ith us also reason has only
itself according to the dictate of Fate, an argument of destroy.847 recently conclusively determined this matter.367 The time
admitted that the universe harbored many secrets of
doubtful validity. Astral influence upon terrestrial phe­ As a true Stoic Seneca did not exempt his own Roma will come when the diligent effort of a future age and a
which the problem of the comets was but one, a riddle [distant] day will bring to light what is now unknown. A
nomena was of course freely admitted by Nero’s chief aeterna from this dire fate. Modern man, gloating over whose solution would surely require a long period of single era does not suffice for research in matters so great,
tutor 343 and long standing prime minister. Quoting his technological achievements, may condescendingly continued observations. Not even the question whether even if that era were wholly devoted to astronomical
for example Berossus, in Graeco-Roman tradition the smile when the church warningly proclaims: “ Dies irae, or not all or any comets were planets had been settled. studies. . . . But through successive and prolonged investi­
proverbial founder of Hellenistic astrology,344 Seneca dies ilia. 5olvet .saeculum .in-favilla.” Seneca did not In the past the ancient Egyptians apparently had not gation problems will be solved. The time will come when
remarked: smile. In his vision of the ultimate flood he prophesied : future generations will marvel at our ignorance of things
interested themselves in comets at all. For had not so obvious. . . ,858
Berossus, a priest of Belus, assigns a time for [mur­ Thus there will be an end to human affairs at some time Eudoxus, reputedly a disciple of the sages of Egypt, One day a man will be born who will discover the orbits
derous] heat and one for the [deadly] floods. For he asserts when all continents must perish, and even the foundations of omitted all references to comets ? Nor had the Hellen­ of comets and the reason why their paths are so different
that all earth will burn when all planets which now are the universe will be destroyed, so that anew they may arise istic astronomer, Conon (whom we saw involved in the from those of other planets. Let us be satisfied with the
pursuing different courses will be together in [the sign of] in pristine innocence when no teacher of evil survives.848 discoveries already made, so that future generations may
pious fraud which led him to establish the constellation also add their mite to the [known] truth.859
Cancer and be placed in such a position under that sign
that a straight line will touch all of these orbs. A [deadly] But even this noble beginning would but lead to a named “ The lock of Berenice” ) , 352 broken the silence
flood will occur when the same swarm of stars will come repetition of the former cycle: about comets, he who was credited with having collected Did L. Annaeus Seneca remember these lines per­
together in Capricorn.845 the Egyptians’ records of solar eclipses.853 haps when Nero’s henchmen told him that death was
The ancient order will be reestablished. Reborn will be at hand? One might almost wish that he did not die
The ancient concept of recurring cosmic catastrophes every living creature. Man, ignorant of any crime, will The Mesopotamians, on the other hand, had long
once more be given to the world, born under better auspices. paid attention to comets, and Seneca was able to quote innocently, as Tacitus asserts,880 falsely accused by two
had long become an accepted stoic tenet. Seneca sided dubious witnesses 861 of participating in the Pisonic plot
firmly with Berossus, and continued (paraphrasing per­
But again his innocence will not outlast the infancy of the two Hellenistic scientists, Epigenes (of Byzantium) and
new world. Soon evil will raise its head. Virtue is difficult Apollonius of Myndos, in considerable detail on the of 65. For what better thing could Seneca do to expiate
haps the Chaldaean priest?) : to learn. It needs a guide and a preceptor. Vice needs no his responsibility for having helped to educate and put
subject. Both were considered as disciples of the Chal-
teacher.849 on the throne such a ruler ? But the well-known caution
And I have accepted these arguments— for not from a daeans.554 Unfortunately the two scholars disagreed on
An astrological apocalyptical mood also permeated
single star stems so great a peril— and I believe that the the Mesopotamian theories about comets. Epigenes of the renowned Stoic (who had also managed to become
same reason which we accept for assuming the [general]Seneca’s plays. Of those which have survived, Hercules flatly stated that the Babylonians had no understanding one of the wealthiest private citizens of the empire)
conflagration must also be applied to the other [i. e. the makes it probable that he steered clear of so dangerous
furiens, Hercules Oetaeus, and Thyestes may be cited
final flood] : Be it that the universe is a living soul, be it
of comets and believed them to be fiery clusters of
as examples. The raging Hercules has hallucinations whirling air. Apollonius, on the other hand, asserted an undertaking as the Pisonic plot even though, indeed,
that it is an inert body governable by nature like trees and
in which he sees the skies darken and the constellation
crops, it is included in its destiny that from its inception that the Babylonians had not only recognized comets he like Balbillus may well have had some inkling of the
to its end it does both act and is subjected to action. Just
Leo shake its tail (vv. 945 ff.). In a saner mood he as planets, but even computed their orbits.858 It speaks nascent conspiracy. If Seneca had received astrological
as in the seed the entire essence ( omnis ratio) of a future
wonders whether he is at the point where the sun rises, predictions of his own fate, they must have been wrong,
for Seneca that, after weighing both views, he accepted
human being is included and a male child yet unborn has or he had failed to heed them. For he had not even
or under the heart of the icy constellation Ursus (vv.
the law of a [future] beard and white hair, thus also are a modified version of the Apollonian hypothesis, hold­
1139f.). He even suspects that the stars on his account
the lines of every subsequent action of the body present in ing that comets were real stars, and some of them made his will when Nero’s soldiers came.
abandon their courses and roam at will (w . 1332 f.).
the small and hidden [seed]. The origin of the universe might well be planets of our solar system.858 Why then, The Pisonic conspiracy also proved fatal to Seneca’s
therefore contained no less the sun and moon and the mutual
Elsewhere Hercules insists on his own catasterism: opponents of such a theory might object, had none of young cousin, Lucanus. Born on November 3, 39 in
relations of the stars and the origins of living things than Cordoba (Spain), he arrived in Rome at the promising
it also contained whatever elements change terrestrial
“ I seek the skies which I myself have borne,” a request their orbits been computed like those of the traditional
which is somewhat strange. For he has just complained planets? Obviously the Babylonian computations of age of seven months. And he was only twenty-five
things.340
that the very monsters of which he purged the earth which Apollonius spoke had not reached the Roman years old when, given a choice of how to die, he opened
Nor was an apocalyptic vision of the watery end of have now filled the very heavens: world. But while admitting that no computations of his veins in his bath and died on April 30, 65 in Rome,
the world Seneca’s own invention, but he presented it the orbits of any comet had yet been accomplished. where his brief career had carried him too high.882
in the style of the Gilgamesh epic and its adaption: But what avails it to have freed the race of men from He left no children but his poetical works, which
fear? Now the gods have no peace. Up in the skies the Seneca rose to prophetic heights in proclaiming his
The soil will render all the waters, the highest mountains liberated earth sees all the creatures which she used to fear. firm faith in the irrepressible force of human progress
For there has Juno set all the monsters. . . . The cancer 357 In a. D. 45 Claudius in an edict had proclaimed the scientific
will vanish. No longer will there be the Adriatic, nor the towards a more profound understanding of nature in explanation of solar eclipses; Cassius Dio, 60, 26, 1.
which I slew goes round the torrid zone, it’s known as
bays ( fauces) of the Sicilian sea— neither Charybdis nor times to come: ,3“ Seneca, quaest. nat. 7, 25.
Scylla. A new sea will overrun all, and the ocean that Libya's constellation. . . . Leo to Astraea [i. e. Virgo] the
■" Ibid. 7, 26.
girdles the world will pour from its edge towards the center. flying year does give. . . . All beasts have gone to heaven.830 W hy then are we surprised that comets, those rare cosmic 300 Tacitus, Annals 15, 60 ff.
What happens then? Winter will keep strange months, phenomena, are not yet encompassed by known laws, nor ' 301 The two were Natalis, a freedman of Piso, and Sabrius
summer will be eliminated, and whatever star might dry up Nevertheless, Hercules will if necessary fight his way their origin and destination known, inasmuch as their return Flavius, who insisted that Piso was to be killed, when Nero’s
the lands will have its heat quenched. All names [of these] into these very heavens if he should be denied the ele­ overthrow was accomplished, so that Seneca might mount the
will vanish, the Caspian, as well as the Red Sea, the bays vation amongst those signs. In the Thyestes finally 851Ibid., vv. 82 f. imperial throne; Tacitus, Annals 15, 65; according to Cassius
of Ambracium and Crete, the Straits and the Black Sea. . . . Seneca again struck an apocalyptic note. When dooms­ 383 See above, p. 13. Dio, epit. 62, 24 f., Seneca was, indeed, a ringleader in the plot.
Nor will walls or towers protect anyone . Useless will be 853 Seneca, quaestmat. 7, 3. 308 He died ingloriously, having vainly, tried-to save. his-.Jife?
day comes — and in our age it may be closer at hand
the temples to the suppliants, useless the highest point of a *SiLoc. cit.; compare above, p. 15. by. turning state’s' evidence and accusing even his own mother
city. For the wave will intercept the fugitives and will than in the days of Seneca — “ Greedy indeed for life 353 Seneca, quaest. nat. 7, 3; a detailed discussion follows ibid., of complicity in the conspiracy. His widow, Polla Argentaria,
4 ff. treasured his memory, and never forgot to honor the anniversary
3“ Ibid. 3, 29, 1. Ibid. 3, 29, 7-9. “ • Here Seneca departed from the prevalent Stoic view. His of his birth. For one of these melancholy occasions Statius
**4 Compare above, ch. i, p. 3. “ ’ Loc. cit. independence of judgment appears to even better advantage in wrote his poem, Silvae 2, 7, vv. 1 ff.; compare Martial, epigr. 7,
*“ Seneca, quaest. nat. 3, 29, 1. '"Ibid. 7, 30 (end). quaest. nat. 7, 22 ff. 21 and 23.
*« Ibid. 3, 29, 2-3. Su0 Seneca, Hercules Oetaeus, vv. 61 ff.
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
already had won for him the high acclaim of his con­
temporaries.363 His writings are now lost except for
the torso of an epic poem, called the Pharsalia. In it
he attacked Julius Caesar so bitterly and, on the other
hand, glorified Caesar’s foe, Pompey, to such an extent
that Nero’s wrath— stirred perhaps by a bitter feeling
of artistic jealousy for his successful rival poet— would
also be politically understandable. In the Pharsalia
Lucanus showed not only his own familiarity with at
least the elements of astrology, but also that he could
expect such a knowledge among his readers.
Like his contemporary Lucanus, young Persius
( a . d . 34-62)364 also took it for granted that educated
people would know their horoscopes in some detail,
although not many would profess a deep seated astro­
logical Weltanschauung. Persius himself used on occa­
sion a stock anti-astrological argument: “ The same
horoscope will produce different characters in twins.” 305
But in his deeply felt fifth satire in which he paid tribute
to his friend and mentor, the Stoic Cornutus, Persius
knew of no better way to express their innate affinity
than by doing it in Horatian terms:
Do not, indeed, doubt that the lives of both of us are
linked by a firm bond and that they are guided by the same
star. Either a truth abiding Fate hangs our destinies on
the even-balanced Libra, or be it that the hour which
dawned upon faithful people has divided among Gemini the
joint fate of both of us, or that we break the influence of
baleful Saturn by our friend Jupiter, in any ease there is
nothing more certain than that a single star joins my fate
to yours.366
Poor Persius, alas, was wrong. For Cornutus survived
him by many years,367 busying himself among other
things with editing the poetic legacy of his dead young
friend.
The Pharsalia of Lucanus, on the other hand, seems
to have remained more or less in the unfinished con­
dition in which the author left his work. One may see
in this poem the application of Stoic rationalism to
Latin epic poetry. For no longer do we encounter the
traditional flock of gods and goddesses guiding or
antagonizing their human proteges. The poem has
dispensed with such supernatural elements. A futile
attempt was made to appease Nero by the gross flattery
3,3 The Iliaca, Saturnalia, Silvae, Epigrammata, and other In view of his profound belief in Fate and the whole
works of Lucanus are lost. For an evalution of his writings
from the point of view of a rhetorician, however—see Quintilian, rosis, there also seems little reason to doubt that
de instil, oratorio 10, 1, 90.
384 Had the young poet lived until the year 65, he might also
have been destroyed in the anti-Stoic purge, especially since his tific branch of astronomy.
poetic fame could easily arouse Nero’s jealousy.
388 Persius, Satires, 5, vv. 18 f.
Ibid. 5, vv. 45-51. The passage is reminiscent of Horace’s
proclamation of astrological affinity between his own fate and
that of his friend Maecenas; Horace, Odes 2, 17. ‘
337 He was exiled, probably in 65, as were Musonius and other
important Roman Stoics; compare Schanz-Hosius, 2, 4th ed.:
676-679, C. H. Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Muenchen, 1935.
of adding to a lengthy complaint about Rome’s suicidal
lust for civil wars in the days of Caesar the following
remark;
Still if Fate could find no other way for the advent of
Nero . . . then we complain no more against the gods:
even such crimes and such guilt [as those of the civil wars]
are not too high a price to pay. . . . Rome owes much to
civil war because what was done was done for you [Nero].
When your watch on earth is over and you seek the stars
at last . . . the sky will be glad . . . , and nature will leave
it to you to determine what deity you wish to be. . . . May
that region of the sky be bright and clear, and may no
clouds obstruct our view of you, Caesar [Nero], . . . But
to me you are divine already; and if my breast receives
you to inspire my verse, I would not care to trouble . . .
[Apollo]; you alone are sufficient to give strength to a
Roman bard.368
Lucanus proceeded to show how cause led to effect
which in turn became the cause of the next effect. Fate,
governing the universe inexorably until the end. would
bring about the day
when the framework of the world is dissolved and the final
hour, closing so many ages, reverts to primeval chaos. Then
all the constellations will clash in confusion, the fiery stars
will drop into the sea . . . the moon will move in opposition
to her brother [sun] . . . and the whole distracted fabric
of the shattered firmaments will overthrow its laws.309
Fate, Fate, Fate— again and again did this supreme
power appear as the primary cause in Lucanus’ poem.
And the course of events could be read in the stars.
Julius Caesar himself proudly proclaimed (according
to Lucanus) : “ In the midst of battles I have always
studied the heavenly zones of the stars and the sky.” 3,0
Whereupon not to be outdone the Egyptian priest
Acoreus reestablished the astrological prestige of his
own country by revealing to Julius Caesar the astro­
logical secrets of Egypt’s priests:
To me, Caesar, it is permitted to disclose the secrets
of our great ancestors— secrets hitherto unknown to the
herd. . . . All mankind should learn their sacred laws.
The primal ordinance of the universe assigned different
powers to those stars which alone rule the rapid movement
of the sky, and move in opposition to the heavens. . . .3Tl
There followed a long exposition of the astrological
propensities of the planets, proof that the author was
at least well versed in the " lingo ” of the astrologers.
fabric of Stoic tenets, including the axiom of the ekpy-
Lucanus himself considered astrology as a truly scien­
On a lesser level and with a slightly different approach
an attempt was made by a physician from the east,
3,8 Lucanus, Pharsalia 1, vv. 33 ff.
389 Ibid. 1, vv. 70 ff.
3.0 Ibid. 10, vv. 185 f.
5.1 Ibid. 10, vv. 193 ff.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTRO LO G ERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
Thessalus of Tralles, to ingratiate himself with either
Claudius or Nero by the dedication of a treatise setting
forth the astrological affinities of nineteen plants with the
twelve zodiacal constellations and the seven planets.372
The authorship of the tract (of which a Latin version373
as well as the Greek text survives) was ascribed in the
Greek text to Harpocration, a physician of the Augus­
tan era, but today the authorship of Thessalus has been
definitely established. That this physician of Tralles
was an excerptor of Nechepso 374 was typical of his com-
pilatory rather than original approach to astrology. Nor
was this instance unique. For Thessalus, whose pro­
fessional reputation was great, was in the habit of
addressing letters to emperors. Galen, for example,
quoted from another epistle of this physician to the
emperor Nero.375 The fantastic details which Thessalus
related in his botano-astrological tract rang true of the
homeland of Chaeremon. Having completed his gram­
marian studies (perhaps at his native Tralles) Thessalus
had gone to Alexandria, the medical citadel of Graeco-
Roman antiquity, to devote himself entirely to medicine
and the sciences.376 These studies included obviously
religious mysticism as well as clinical practice. For when
asked in a temple whether he preferred a discussion
with the spirit of a departed person or with a god, he
boldly chose Asclepius himself.377 The elder Pliny,
who must have often have passed the proud tomb which
the famous physician erected for himself on the Via
Appia, referred to him :
The same era through the reign of Nero led to Thessalus,
who destroyed all accepted theories and attacked as if in a
mad rage the physicians of any period. His prudence and
“ genius ” can be sized up by a single proof: On the monu­
ment which he built on the Appian Way, he engraved an
inscription, calling himself “ Victor over all physicians ”
(iatronicen) .3,s
Among the few known writers opposing fatalist
astrology in this era, Thessalus’ contemporary Colu­
mella was the chief Latin spokesman.379 His de re
rustica, written about a . d . 62, contains ( 1 1 , 2 ) the
most comprehensive Latin weather calendar which has
come down to us.380 In the chapter which precedes it
(11, 1, 31) Columella admitted that:
For every [agricultural] duty of each month an instruction
about the influence of the stars in the sky is necessary. . . ,381 astrologos composueram. Sed illis disputationibus exigebatur
a;a Printed in Cat. 8, 3: 134-151.
375 See Cat. 8, 4: 254 ff.—Only the first part of this essay stems disciplina non desideratur eiusmodi scrupulositas; similarly
from the treatise of Thessalus.
374 He referred repeatedly to Nechepso, patron saint of Helle­
nistic astrology; see Cat. 8, 3: 135, 14 and 15. A later Greek
scribe called Thessalus simply “ an astrologer ” ; Cat. 8, 3:134.
375 Galen, dc method, medend. 1, 2 (ed. Kuehn, 10: 7).
378 Cat. 8, 3: 135, 5 ff. and 20 ff.; compare also 136, 1 f.
*” Ibid. : 136, 27 ff.; compare 137, 1 ff.
3:3 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2 9 , 1, 9.
a7B See Kappelmacher, HE 10, 1919: c. 1054, no. 104-c. 1068.
3,3 Compare A. Rhem, RE 18, 2, 3, 1949: c. 1309 ff.
3,1 Columella interjected here a quotation from Vergil's would have another epigram against catarchic astrology.
Georgies.
123
Against such a practice, I cannot deny it, I have argued in
those books which I have written against the astrologers.
But in those discourses was only with many arguments
attacked what the Chaldaeans most fraudulently promise,
namely that [definite] weather changes occur on certain
days, as if by fate. But in agricultural science of this kind
such hair-splitting is superfluous.382
From this meagre evidence it would seem that Colu­
mella attacked primarily fatalistic astrometeorology.
This view is strengthened by a respectful reference
(9, 14, 2) of Columella about the antiquorum fastus
astrologorum.383
In a lighter vein the Greek poet, Lukillios (also writ­
ing in the reign of Nero) , 384 penned some epigrammatic
barbs against the blind faith in astrology. He chided
astrologers and their clients:
Aulus the astrologer, after making out his own nativity,
said that the fatal hour had come and that he had still four
hours to live. When the fifth hour arrived and he had to
go on living convicted of ignorance, he grew ashamed of
t’etosiris( !) and hanged himself, and there up in the air
he is dying, but he is dying ignorant.385
This sad lot of a believer in fatalistic astrology was
contrasted with the smartness of a catarchic astrologer:
Onesimus the boxer came to the prophet Olympus wishing
to learn if he were going to live to old age. And he said:
“ Yes, if you give up the ring now, but if you go on boxing,
Saturn is your horoscope.” 386
It may have been by bitter personal experience that
Lukillios turned against the astrologers. If the fol­
lowing epigram should be based on an incident in his
own life, that alone would account for his attitude:
All the astrologers as it were with one voice prophesied
to my father a ripe old age for his brother. Hermoclides
alone foretold his premature death, but he foretold it when
we were lamenting over his corpse in the house.387
If this episode had actually occurred in the poet’s
family his resentment would be very natural, indeed:
A ll those who take horoscopes from observing Mars and
382 Columella, dc re rustica 11, 1, 31: Quare necessaria est
menstrui cuiusque officii monitio ea, quae pendet ex ratione
siderum caeli. Contra quam observationem multis argumen-
tationibus disseruisse me non infitior in iis libris quos adversos
quod improbissime Chaldaei pollicentur, ut certis quasi terminis
ita diebus statis aeris mutationes respondeant: in hac autem ruris
Pliny, Nat. Hist. 18, 62, 231
383 Columella, de re rustica 11, 1, 31, implies the author’s
acceptance of catarchic astrology: Nam fatis providus erit etii
licebit ante multos dies cavere suspecta tempora.
384 See J. Geffcken, RE 13, 1927: c. 1777-1785. The suggestion
that he was the Lucilius to whom Seneca addressed the Epistulae
does not seem tenable.
383 Greek Anthology 11, no. 164,
388 Ibid., no. 161. The term used is h&vtis. If this Greek word
has the same meaning in no. 163, also written by Lukillios, we
387Ibid. 11, no. 159.
124 TH E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
Saturn are deserving of one cudgelling. I shall see them
perhaps at no distant date really learning what a bull can
do and how strong a lion is.*88
Irrespective of whether or not Lukillios’ poems re­
flected a mere whim or arose from lasting conviction,
their sentiments were expressed in many a Roman epi­
taph. A dying gladiator struck down “ before his time,"
parents bewailing the loss of children to whom astrol­
ogers had promised long lives — their bitter plaints
against misleading astrological predictions were elo­
quent and incontrovertible evidence of similar moods
among bitterly disappointed clients of astrologers.389
Lukillios had access to the court and knew Nero
probably personally:
. . . Now I have got to write a prooemium of some sort.
But what shall I write now that I am beginning to publish
this second book ? “ Olympian Muses, daughters of Zeus,
I should not have been saved unless Nero Caesar had given
me money.’1390
Apparently the poet had dedicated a book (of epi­
grams?) to the emperor and received from Nero lar­
gesse which enabled him to commence a second book
with a prooemium of which the above verses were a
part. One wonders if perhaps Nero enjoyed the spoof­
ing in which Lukillios made fun of Nero’s former tutor,
Chaeremon. Ridiculing the pedantic scholar wrapped
up in esoteric mysteries, Lukillios lampooned the Alex­
andrian (if indeed that was the Chaeremon of his
epigrams) as follows:
Chaeremon caught by a slight breeze was floating in the
air, much lighter than a straw. He would soon have been
swept away through the air, if he had not caught his feet
in a spider’s web and hung there on his back. Here he
hung for five days and nights, and on the sixth day came
down by a thread of the web.
Or
Chaeremon fell flat on his back, struck by a poplar leaf
carried by the wind, and he lies on the ground like Tityus
or rather like a caterpillar, stretching on the ground his
skeleton body.391
If he was the man referred to, the Egyptian gram-
marian-astrologer seems to have been tall and sparse.
An earthy satire, now generally ascribed to Petronius,
a member of the inner circle of Nero’s court, portrayed
the permeation of the lives of self-made men of eastern
origin with faith in astrology. Trimalchio, the “ hero”
of the extant fragment— a banqueting scene— has— with
dubious validity— been taken for a Petronian take-off of
Nero, but even if we accept this character at face value,
s“ Ibid. 11, no. 160; i. e. the astrologer should be sentenced to
fight the wild beasts in the arena of the circus.
s“ Some samples of such inscriptions were quoted above: ch.
iii, n. 122; cf. F, Cumont, Lux perpctita: 303 ff., Paris, Librairie
Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1949.
*t0 Greek Anthology 9, no. 572.
*•’ Ibid. 11, nos. 106 and 107.
the household of the ex-slave from Asia would furnish
an amusing example of the role of astrology in the well-
to-do parvenu strata of Italian business society of the
first century a . d . As a freedman (of a high-ranking
Roman) Trimalchio was of course a Roman citizen and
proud of it. His dining room was ornamented with an
inscription which read: “ Dedicated to C. Pompeius
Trimalchio, an Augustal Sevir. . . 392 In the colon­
nade leading towards the dining room a fresco showed
“ the three Fates twisting golden threads,” 398 while in
the dining room itself one could behold a “ post . . .
decorated with the path of the moon and with the seven
planets; and the lucky and unlucky days were dis­
tinguished by different colored knobs.” 394
Trimalchio may have been unusually intrigued by
astrology. For it influenced even the menu:
The course that followed . . . was so uncommon that it
attracted everyone’s attention. For a round-shaped tray was
brought in with the twelve signs of the Zodiac arranged
in a circle and the chef had placed over each of them
delicacies that were appropriate to the peculiar signs. Over
Aries he had put rams’ chickpeas, over Taurus a piece of
beef, over Gemini a pair of sweetbreads and kidneys, over
Cancer a garland, on Leo an African fig, on Virgo the
paunch of a sow that had not farrowed, on Libra a balance
with a tart in one pan and a cheesecake in the other, over
Scorpio a seafish, over Sagittarius a hare, over Capricorn
a lobster, over Aquarius a goose, over Pisces two mullets.
And in the middle lay a clod of turf which had been dug
up with the grass still on it, covered by a honeycomb. . . .
W e looked rather blank as we began to attack the coarse
fare, but Trimalcho urged us to fall to.395
This was the beginning of the dinner. Apparently
the refined author considered the idea of the zodiacal
arrangement original but the food allotted to the signs
too vulgar for the delicate palates of aristocratic Roman
gourmets. Trimalchio, the tight-fisted, hard-headed
business man, had risen, according to his own words,
from slave to freedman, and then from a merchant in
overseas goods and the shipping trade to the profession
of a cattle dealer. But he was eager to climb to the
pinnacle of the business world: banking. The final de­
cision to abandon his trading operations for those of
financing other freedmen’s business enterprises was a
risky one. Therefore, Trimalchio resorted to an astrol­
oger for advice on the matter:
I must admit, exactly when I was wanting to discontinue
my trading, I was urged to do so by an astrologer who had
just come to our town [probably the city of Cumae, north­
west of Naples], a Greek fellow called S e ra p a (l), clever
enough to sit in the councils of the gods. Well, tbis man
actually mentioned events which had slipped my own
memory he told me everything as pat as needle and thread;
he seemed to be able to see my very insides and told me
everything except what I ’d had for dinner the day before.
You'd have thought he’d lived with me always.
*“ Petronius, Satiricon, 30.
5,1 Ibid., 29.
’“ Ibid., 30.
™ Ibid., 35.
T H E P O W E R OF A STRO LO G ERS F R O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
I ask you, Habinnas, you were with us, I believe, when
he said: “ You used your wealth to get your wife: you are
unlucky in your friends: no one is ever half as grateful to
you as he ought to be: you own broad acres: you are
nourishing a snake in your bosom.” And, well, I really
don’t see why I shouldn’t tell you, I ’ve still got thirty years,
four months, and two days to live, and I shall soon have a
legacy left me. This tells me my fate ( fatus meus [sic/]).396
The momentary hesitancy which even the intoxicated
Trimalchio displayed before admitting the exact astro­
logical prophecy of his death date (to the very day!)
may well have been due to his awareness of admitting
a violation of the Augustan edict of 11 which had strictly
outlawed astrological predictions of this kind. Balbillus,
himself a specialist in this very field, may have chuckled
when he read the passage so typical of the bland
effrontery of astrologers at all times, including our own.
By a strange coincidence, it was at Cumae, the scene
of his gay Satyricon, that its author, Petronius, another
victim of Nero’s wrath after the discovery of the Pisonic
plot, opened his veins upon imperial orders that he die
( a . d . 6 6 ) .3
07 The brilliant group in which Balbillus
had moved for so long was now almost extinct, its
members dead or in exile.398 Gone too since many
years was a fellow Alexandrian whom Balbillus may
well have known personally, the Jewish philosopher,
Philo.
Piquantly enough the two men had “ crossed swords ”
in the political arena. For Philo together with four
other Jews from Alexandria headed in a . d . 39 an em­
bassy to Caligula to defend the Alexandrian Jews for
their refusal to allow the erection of an imperial statue
in their synagogue and to ask imperial relief for the
local pressure which had been the result. Simultane­
ously an anti-Jewish embassy, headed by Apion, arrived
in Italy. As might have been expected, the Jewish
ambassadors were sent packing by Caius, their mission
a failure, but after the emperor’s assassination (January
24, 41) Philo’s formal petition setting forth their case
was officially read in the senate — only a few months
before the arrival of another anti-Jewish embassy from
Alexandria, including, or at any rate zealously sup­
ported by Balbillus in their attempt to justify the anti-
Jewish riots which had taken place in the Egyptian
metropolis.399 It is therefore certain that both Philo
and Balbillus knew each other and had perhaps even
met personally. Philo was much the older of the two
(ca. 25 b . c.-ca. a . d . 45). Not only in religious poli­
tics, but also on the battlefield of fatalism versus free
will he opposed the son of Thrasyllus.
Ibid., 76 f.
*” Compare Tacitus, Annals 16, 18 f. He calls him Caius,
other authors Titus.
*•* The renowned Stoic Musonius Rufus, a knight, was ban­
ished to a barren island for his alleged connection with the
Pisonic plot; Tacitus, Annals 15, 71.
Philo himself reported on his mission in his legatio ad
Caium; compare H. Leisegang, RE 20, 1, 1941: c. 1, no. 41.
For the embassy of a . d . 41, see above, p. 113.
125
In another sphere, however, Thrasyllus’ and Philo’s
ideas were not incompatible. Apart from the Jewish
elements in his Weltanschauung Philo’s syncretistic
fusing of Platonism and Stoicism resembled that of his
older fellow-townsman and contemporary. Their think­
ing therefore may reflect a certain Alexandrinian trend
manifesting itself in the Augustan and Tiberian era.
General agreement seems to exist to the effect that,
prior to his attempt to blend Jewish and Greek thought,
Philo in his earlier years passed through a “ Greek
stage ” during which for example his essay On provi­
dence was written.400 Devoid of original thinking this
treatise reflected late hellenistic views about astrology
from the philosophical angle. On a more basic level
than the subsequent anti-astrological attacks of Colu­
mella, Lukillios, or Petronius, Philo took issue in
particular with the Stoic tenets which formed the
foundations of fatalistic astrology.401 He wanted to
close the mouths of the makers of horoscopes and open
the eyes of their gullible clients. In line with both
Carneadic and Jewish insistence on human free will,
Philo restated the sinister logical consequences of astral
fatalism when applied to ethical and moral values.402
Surviving only in an Armenian version of Philo’s tract,
his views on astrology may be quoted to illustrate the
continuity of the minority opposition to astrology, a
minority which from the days of Carneades and Panae­
tius persisted even in the reigns of Tiberius and
Claudius. It refused to bow to astrological fatalism:
First of all one must raise the question to what extent a
man can be considered delinquent when he goes astray, if,
denying the freedom of man, he ascribes everything as due
to astrological fate. . . . Should in particular the authorities
of the cities pass the death sentence upon wrongdoers who
have committed their crimes without any free will of their
own, but by evil positions of the stars have plunged into
crime and were thus unable to lead a blameless life of their
own, led astray forcibly by the tyrannical power of the
stars?
For would that be justice to inflict penalties on those
who have sinned against their own will, inasmuch as they
have not voluntarily committed their crimes, because they
had no control over their own conduct? W hat law can deter
a mind from following in action an evil choice of its will,
if it has no free will of its own? How can one resist Fate
which drags even the unwilling one dow n?403
. . . A defendant whose mind is wholly destitute of free­
dom might well address even a just judge in terms like
these: Unchain me, free me from the bonds of my
horoscope, and then give me whatever law you choose. . . .”
If, however, the natal constellation dominates the will of
everybody, who could reproach a man dragged forcibly
into evil by the heavenly stars? Not even god himself if
he should be the lawgiver. . . . W hat parricide or matricide
400The most important monograph on this work is still P.
Wendland, Philos Schrift ueber die Vorsehung ; Berlin, 1892.
For a summary treatment of Philo’s attitude towards fatalism,
see D. Amand, Fatalisme et liberte dans I’antiquity grecque:
81-95; Bibliotheque de l’Universite; Louvain, 1945.
401 Philo, de providentia 1, 77-88.
Ibid., 78-83.
Compare on the whole passage Cicero, de fato, 9. 20.
126 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D TH E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
could be justly subjected to the verdict of the court, when, Philo was part of astronomy, it was all the more signifi­ to Faenius Rufus, the direction of the games which the of Nero” 420 — but Balbillus was surely called upon to
forced by the stars, he was driven to the murder of his cant that he assigned to astronomy a position above the emperor was preparing to Arruntius Stella, and the prov­ give an astrological interpretation of the portent. His
parents ? 404 Or who would accuse a woman without free “ encyclical disciplines,” i.e. in the highest realm.408 ince of Egypt to C. [j »'c/] Balbillus. . . ,41-
will of adultery, when she had been driven to criminal advice on this occasion seems to have been in favor of
intercourse through the force of the stars? . . . All of these In short, Philo clashed with Balbillus not concerning As he was sailing towards Egypt Balbillus may have moderation. For Rubellius Blandus at the time was
criminals are excused by the horoscopal constellations whose the value of astrology as a whole, but about the validity remembered the tragic fate of his niece, Ennia Thra­ merely exiled to his large Asiatic estates.421 Apparently
domination for all human beings is inescapable. . . . of fatalistic astrology, Roman faith in which had raised sylla, and her husband Macro, who in 38 had been Balbillus saw no immediate menace in the comet’s ap­
If everything is run by birth horoscopes, virtue is not the house of Thrasyllus to the pinnacle of prosperity and
praiseworthy, nor crime blameworthy. . . . Why . . . should named to the same post, but never reached it, because pearance of a . d . 60. He may perhaps have spoken at
a death-sentence be pronounced against an unwilling delin­ political influence in the courts of Augustus, Tiberius, Caius Caligula destroyed them immediately after the court before eager listeners about the nature of comets
quent? . . . If judges could destroy the criminal intentions Claudius, and most recently Nero. appointment.413 The voyage of Balbillus, however, took in general and their astronomical behavior, thus inspir­
of evildoers by fear, there could not be any astrological The very proclamation of young Nero as emperor place under favorable auspices. For he arrived in Alex­ ing Seneca’s treatise on comets which was written not
fatalism. . . .*05 ( a . d . 54) had been planned by Agrippina in close
andria in the record-breaking time of six days after long afterwards.
consultation with astrologers. That Balbillus was one passing through the straits of Messina.414 It may also have been during these years that Bal­
It should be remembered, however, that the anti-
of her chief astrological advisers can hardly be doubted. Balbillus retained his post for a number of years, billus wrote the only treatise of which we possess a
astrological opposition of which Philo was perhaps the
The dramatic scene described so vividly by Tacitus was probably until a . d . 59 when he was succeeded by Julius synopsis, as well as fragments of some chapters, pre­
most important representative of his time, was intrinsic­
thus enacted with the active participation of the schol­ Vestinus.415 After his return to Italy, Balbillus seems served by the astrologer Palchus (ca. a . d . 500). The
ally hostile to fatalistic astrology only. To deny astral
arly friend of the late Claudius who now in lending his to have regaled Seneca with a tall story of an amazing title of the work was Astrologumena dedicated to Her-
influences in general, even to oppose on principle catar­
support to the rising sun came to the aid of those who scene he had witnessed in Egypt. Seneca, who con­ mogenes by Balbillus.*2- The bulk of the extant frag­
chic astrology was a different matter. The arguments
were generally believed to have poisoned the emperor: sidered him “ an excellent man of a most rare learning ments is found in three Greek manuscripts in Paris.
of the New Academy, restated by Cicero in his On
divination, or presented again by Philo were chiefly . . . The Senate was summoned . . ., while all was being in every branch of studies,” 416 did not hesitate to ac­ One manuscript in Rome has an entry, ch. 81, “ What
directed against the mechanical fatalism rather than prepared to establish Nero on the throne. At first Agrip­ cept the Balbillean yarn about a pitched battle between I found useful in the work of Balbillus” (spelled bra-
against the very concept of astral influence on mundane pina, seemingly overwhelmed by grief and seeking comfort, crocodiles and dolphins in one of the seven mouths of bilois\), but the scribe suddenly reconsidered and added
clasped Britannicus in her embraces, . . . and hindered him the Nile, a battle witnessed by Balbillus and won,
affairs. Similarly in the realm of weather calendars by every possible device from leaving the chamber. She disappointingly; “ This chapter was omitted as use­
Philo’s younger contemporary Columella had objected also detained his sisters, Antonia [borne by Aelia Paetina] surprisingly enough, by the dolphins. less.” 424 Fortunately not all scribes took such a dim
merely to the inevitable link between specific days and and Octavia [borne by Messalina] . . . until the auspicious The ex-prefect found the situation in Rome greatly view of Balbillus’ writings. The Parisian manuscript
certain definite kinds of weather. Non-fatalist astrology moment established by the astrologers did arrive.408 changed. Agrippina had been slain by her son, just as which has preserved the title also furnishes the synopsis
for Philo as it later did for Columella remained a legiti­ Balbillus had long ago predicted it from the stars.417 of the work which begins as follows:
Catarchic astrology thus ushered in the reign of Nero,
mate branch of astronomy, i. e. a real science.106 He if Tacitus’ account can be trusted. The story itself has One wonders, incidentally, how much Nero may have
did not object to astrological theories like those which a familiar ring. Had not according to legend Olympias been encouraged in that dreadful undertaking by the First he [Balbillus] deals with the spans of life, starting
his survey with the life-determining planets. He considers
ascribed to the Big Dipper an influence on sexual inter­ patiently protracted her labor so that her child, the soothing knowledge that this deed was foreordained by as life-determining stars Saturn, Mars, the Sun, and the
course or to the moon as well as to the sun an impor­ future Alexander the Great, would be born at the most the inexorable destiny of his natal constellation. If Nero Moon. He takes as the life-determining Lord the one in
tant influence on conception. In general he agreed that promising moment? 410 Or was not Seleucus Nicanor had forgotten the dire prediction, Balbillus himself may the Mesuranema, or when none is present there, he takes
the stars caused certain changes in the sublunar world, said to have awaited the most auspicious hour when have reminded him of it, if only to impress the emperor the life-determining star from the Horoscopal Point, or
Dysis, or Hypogaeum [Anti-Mesuranema].425
but believed that they were only secondary causes. formally founding Seleucia? 411 with his own astrological prowess.
If, however, several planets are in the same sector, then
Anticipating the later Christian argument, he based his A year after his return from Egypt, Balbillus received that one is held to be the only life-determining star which
The reward of Balbillus was not long in forthcoming.
views on the biblical verse according to which God had Agrippina and Seneca who had taken over the actual an opportunity to place his astrological skill once more is closest to the Mesuranema. And as death-star that one
created the stars “ as signs.” He asserted that not only reins of the government appointed him within the year at the emperor’s disposal. In a . d . 60, of the life-determining stars is reckoned that among them is
were they created to shed light on the earth, but also to the closest according to [Fate] towards the point called
to the highest post in the provincial administration of a comet meantime blazed in the sky, which in popular Tyche [Fortuna]. . . .42°
indicate future events. From their movements, eclipses, opinion always portends revolution to kingdoms. So people
the early principate: the praefecture of Egypt. Although
and configurations could man make conjectures about began to ask, as if Nero was already dethroned, who was 1 he synopsis continued along these lines and ended
in our extant text of Tacitus the new governor is named
things to come, especially about natural phenomena to be elected [emperor]. In every one’s mouth was the with the tantalizing words: “ Barbillus was bom___ ” 427
C(aius) Balbillus, this could well be a corruption of name of Rubellius Blandus. . . ,418
like the weather, crops, the birth or death of animals. Apparently the scribe wanted to add a brief biographical
the name Ti(berius) Balbillus. Tacitus left no doubt
All terrestrial events were foretold by the stars. Steady Court flatterers like Seneca (who must have written sketch to the synopsis but gave up the attempt either
about the direct influence of Agrippina in this appoint­
observations would eventually enable scholars to dis­ his quaestiones naturales after this comet’s appearance because he could not find the necessary data, or because
ment. For immediately after regaining her power over
cover in the heavens mundane events which were likely, and prior to that of the comet of 64)419 might take the he changed his mind and went on to the next topic.
young Nero, following a brief eclipse, she
but not fated to happen.407 Inasmuch as astrology for minority view and hail the star as a harbinger of good
obtained vengeance on her accusers and rewards for her 4-0 Seneca, quaest. nat. 7, 21,-3; similarly Calpurnius Siculus,
tidings— referring to it as the comet “ which we have
!0‘ This type of parricide was the topic of Ps.-Quintilian, decl. friends. The superintendence of the grain supply was given 1, v. 73.
mai., 4. seen in the most happy reign (laetissimo principatu) 431 Tacitus, Annals 14, 22.
Philo, de providentia 1, 79-83. Latin translation by J -B. de sacerdotibus, 89-92; quaestiones in Exodum 2, 74; cf. D. 452 See cod. Paris, gr. 2425, f. 229, Cat. 8, 3: 103. There the
Aucher in his edition, 1: 36 ff.; Venice, 1822; cf. D. Amand, Amand, op. cit.: 88-90. 412 Tacitus, Annals 13, 21 f. synkephalaiosis is also found.
op. cit. : 93 ff.; E. Brehier, Les idees philosophiques et religieuses 408 Philo, de congressu eruditionis, 50. There astronomia, the 418 See above, p. 110 f. 428 Cod. Paris, gr. 2425, f. 165v; cod. Paris, gr. 2524, f. 90;
de Phiton d’Alexandrie, 2nd ed.: 167; Paris, 1925, claims Pan­ science of astronomers and Chaldaeans ( !) is called the “ queen 414 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 19, 1, 3. cod. Paris, gr. 2506, f. 80. The synkephalaiosis is published in
aetius as Philo’s chief source; Amand suggests Carneades; of the disciplines ” (fiaaiXis twv itrtarijtiiav) ; compare E. Brehier, 415 Compare P IR , 2nd ed., 1936, 2: 184 f. Cat. 8, 3: 103 f.; other fragments ibid. 8, 4 : 235-238 ; 240-244.
Wendland attributes to Posidonius the main influence; see also op. cit.: 167f.; W. Bousset, Juedisch-christlicher Hochschul- 410 Seneca, quaest, nat. 4, 2, 13. The story reads as if based 434 Cod. Angel. (Rome) 29, f. 125.
E. Zeller, Phil. d. Griech. 3, 2, 4th ed.; 442 ff.; Leipzig, Fues, betrieb in Alexandria und Rom : 101 f .; Goettingen, 1913. on an oral account of Balbillus. 42r' See above, p. 20; for an explanation of the computation of
1903. 40ft Tacitus, Afmals 12, 68: tempusque prosperum ex monitis “ ’ Tacitus, Annals 6, 22; 14, 9. the length of life, see Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 3, 10.
4®fl D. Amand, op. cit.: 88 f. Chaldaeorum adventaret. 418Ibid. 14, 22. '"'Cat. 8, 3: 103f.; about Tyche, see Bouche-Leciercq: 307;
407For a summary, see E. Brehier, op. cit.: 165f .; see Philo, 410Compare above, p. 9 f. 410 Seneca, quaest. nat. 7, 32, 1, clearly referred to the comets 436.
de opificio mundi, 58; de speciatibus legibus 1: de monorchia, 1; 4,1 Appian, 11, 9, 58. of a . d . 54 and 69 as the two which he himself had observed. 437 Cat. 8, 3: 104, 27.
128 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
Thanks to the synopsis, however, it has been possible
to identify a passage saved by Palchus as constituting
the first chapter referred to in the synopsis.428 In the
same Parisian manuscript a number of other chapters
have been tentatively assigned to the authorship of
Balbillus,*20 one of them entitled About the time of
death.™ In short we know definitely that Balbillus
wrote a treatise on the length of life dealing with the
astrological method of computing from the nativity the
death date, as well as the kind of death awaiting any
person. We possess at least one, and perhaps several
other chapters' from this work. The Hermogenes to
whom the essay was dedicated was perhaps the one
mentioned with two other friends of Seneca in an
epigram which has survived.131
The year 64 again provided Balbillus with an oppor­
tunity to demonstrate to Nero his astrological usefulness.
The year had been a disastrous one. An enormous fire
had swept across Rome and well-nigh destroyed the
capital. Ugly rumors arose. Many ascribed the con­
flagration to Nero’s desire to rebuild the ancient city
in a more elegant style; others, including Nero, sug­
gested that a new sect, the so-called Christians, had set
fire to Rome which many of them considered as the den
of iniquity. The real cause of the fire was never estab­
lished. The populace was of course in a highly excitable
state for months thereafter. Its feverish fears rose to
a pitch in the late fall:
A t the close of the year people talked much about prodi­
gies, presaging impending evils. Never were lightning
flashes more frequent, and a comet too appeared for which
Nero always made propitiation with noble blood.432
The source on which Tacitus based these lines was
apparently not well informed on the details of Nero’s
reaction. For we possess another account, transmitted
by Suetonius, which not only throws light on the vague
generalization of the last words of Tacitus, but also
reveals the responsibility of Balbillus for Nero’s course
of action on this occasion:
A comet, whose appearance according to general opinion
presages disaster for the highest princes, already had shown
itself in the skies for several nights in succession. D is­
quieted thereby [Nero] consulted the astrologer Ba[l]billus,
and when he received from him the information that kings
usually by the execution of a number of illustrious persons
deflected such evil portents from their own heads towards
those of their nobility, [Nero] decided at once to slay all
the noblest Romans, all the more since the discovery of two
conspiracies gave him some pretext of justification. Of
these the earlier and more dangerous one, that of Piso was
4“ Ibid. 8, 3: 103, n .; 8, 4 : 233 f.
**• Ibid. 8, 4 : 240-244.
43(1Ibid. : 243 f.
431Ed. Baehrens, Poet. lat. min., 4: 72, no. 38; see Cumont,
Cat. 8, 4 : 233.
“ ‘ Tacitus, Annals IS, 47.
fomented and discovered in Rome, the other one, that of
Vinicius, in Beneventum.433
To what extent Balbillus may have used this occa­
sion to give Nero at least a hint in what direction to
turn for selecting the substitute victims called for by
the comet is uncertain, but a lingering suspicion remains
that just as Thrasyllus probably helped to open the
eyes of his imperial patron, Tiberius, to the dangerous
activities of Sejanus in 31, thus now Balbillus preferred
perhaps to save the throne for Nero instead of having
it mounted by Piso, or possibly even Seneca.134
In any case this incident is another illustration of
the deadly power held by court astrologers of the first
century, a power based neither on rank or on wealth,
but solely on the deep rooted faith of the ruling strata
of Roman society in the infallible accuracy of astrology,
a belief high lighted rather than contested by lampoons
like those epigrams of Lukillios, or the crude credulity
of a ludicrous Trimalchio depicted by Petronius. To
what extent Balbillus’ action in the winter of a . d . 64-65
was a desperate attempt to dissociate himself from any
personal danger he foresaw from the Pisonic conspiracy,
and to save his own life and the fortunes of his family
is difficult to assess. Surely, however, the death of
men like Petronius, Seneca, Seneca’s brother, Seneca’s
nephew Lucanus, and a host of other Roman leaders
in the realm of the arts and letters, accompanied by the
banishment of the ranking Stoics of the day, including
the knight Musonius Rufus and others — these losses
must have made Balbillus a lonely figure at court. If
anyone in years to come would ask him what he had
really done during the last years of Nero’s reign, he
might well have anticipated Sieyes who, when asked
what he had done during the French revolution, replied
simply: “ I have survived.”
Even that was not easy. For Balbillus was faced
during those years with an unscrupulous rival whose
access to influence and power at court was engineered
by the most beautiful woman of her time, Poppaea
Sabina. Her mother, also named Poppaea Sabina and
in her own time also considered the most beautiful
woman of Rome, had been hounded to death by Claudius’
wife, Messalina, who begrudged her the affections of
an actor named Mnester. Obviously the morals of
Poppaea’s mother had been those of .Messalina’s own
set, i. e. non-existent.435 Her daughter was resolved
to use her charms more prudently. Her definite am­
bition seems to have been to reach the imperial bed.
This might not have proven unduly difficult with Nero,
but Poppaea Sabina insisted on marriage, although she
433 Suetonius, Nero, 36; Tacitus relates only the Pisonic plot,
but also begins his account of it immediately following his
mention of the comet; see Annals 15, 48 ff.
434For a rumor of such a plan, see ibid. 15, 65; compare also
Cassius Dio, ep. 62, 24, 1.
488Tacitus, Annals 11, 1 ff.
T H E P O W E R O F ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
was not averse to granting a future husband a foretaste,
of her favors, but even Tacitus, who did not think much
of her character, while saying: “ she had everything ex­
cept a decent mind ” ( honestum animum), admitted that
“ her conversation was charming and her wit anything
but dull.” Outward modesty was coupled with reckless
use of her sex appeal. Nor did she in the pursuit of
her ambitions worry about whatever gossip might attach
to her.
Her first marital venture was but a stepping stone,
as her husband, the knight Rufius Crispinus (from
whom she had a son) was to find out soon enough.
“ Where it seemed useful there she transferred her
passion ” (unde utilitas ostenderetur illuc libidinem
transferebat). Attracted by the youth and luxurious
way of life displayed by M. Salvius Otho, Poppaea
Sabina soon succeeded in advancing from adultery to
marriage with her next willing victim.130 In her new
menage she seems to have been introduced to Otho’s
household astrologers among whom a certain Ptolemy
(probably identical with an astrologer Seleucus of that
era) 137 was the most influential. It is even not im­
possible that Poppaea Sabina had prevailed upon the
astrologer to use his influence with Otho in her favor.
For on the subject of marriage, as well as on political
or business matters, a devotee of astrology was likely
to consult astrologers, and Otho was one of the firmest
believers in astrology in a Roman set quite generally
addicted to that pseudo-science.438 No sooner, however,
had Poppaea advanced to Otho’s marital bed than she
began to drive for the goal of her ambition: the nuptial
couch of Nero. It is even possible that her present
husband’s reputed influence with Nero had prompted
her very marriage to Otho.
During this time— it was in 58— Balbillus was still
in Egypt as governor. Nero, barely twenty-one years
old, was meanwhile treated by the newly-wed Otho to
fascinating tales about the charms of Poppaea. Even
Tacitus admits that Otho’s outbursts may have been
due to the genuine enthusiasm of a happy lover rather
than to a calculated hope “ of adding to his own influ­
ence by the further tie which would arise out of pos­
session of the same woman.” 138 No matter what Otho’s
motives were, Poppaea Sabina was not willing to let
matters culminate merely in a happy menage a trois.
She did, indeed, follow her well established routine
“ pretending that she could not resist her passion and
that she was captivated by Nero’s person.” Again she
Ibid. 13, 45; on the sad end of Rufius: ibid. 15, 71; 16, 17.
431 Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Semi­
nar 9, 1951; 31-35.
438Tacitus, Histories, 1, 22. Another future candidate for the
throne, Septimius Severus, selected (about one hundred and
thirty years later) his bride on the basis of her horoscope
which promised her future husband the imperial purple; Scrip-
tores Historiae Augustae (S H A ), Severus, 3, 9; Geta, 3, 1.
438 Tacitus, Annals 13, 46.
129
was perfectly willing to tempt her next vicitm by grant­
ing him the favor of a little adultery. But
as the emperor’s love grew ardent, she would change and
be supercilious, and, if she were detained for more than
one or two nights, would say again and again that she
was a married woman and could not give up her husband
attached as she was to Otho by a manner of life which no
one equalled.140
Otho either refused to play the part of a conniving
husband or he aroused Nero’s jealousy. For the em­
peror demonstratively ended their familiarity and sent
Otho to the end of the realm, appointing him to the
governorship of distant Lusitania, a post which Otho
held for ten years.141 This was a far cry from the im­
perial power of which Ptolemy Seleucus (and probably
other astrologers also) had assured Otho.412 Poppaea
Sabina of course remained in Rome. The grass-widow.
eager to get on with her ambitious scheme, urged Nero
to do away with his mother.113 Agrippina must, indeed,
have opposed the marriage, since it involved a divorce
by Nero from Claudius’ daughter, the blameless Octavia.
Poppaea, on the other hand, would press for Nero’s
divorce from Octavia. The emperor succumbed. He
arranged for the murder of his mother. Agrippina was
killed in the very year in which Balbillus returned from
his Egyptian post ( a . d . 59). But not until Seneca’s
influence had waned ( a . d . 62) did Nero break with
Octavia. After a mockery of divorce, reconciliation, and
banishment he ordered her death. This accomplished
he married Poppaea Sabina.111
Otho’s favorite astrologer Ptolemy Seleucus seems to
have attached himself to the rising star of Poppaea.
For among the host of astrologers who crowded around
the triumphant fair schemer his name also appeared,
while Otho pined away in Lusitania:
The astrologers . . . , a class of men, whom the powerful
cannot trust and who deceive the aspiring ( potentibus in-
jidum, sperantibus fallax), [are] a class which will always
be proscribed in this country, and yet always retained.
Many of these men were attached to the secret councils of
Poppaea and were the vilest tools in the employ of the
imperial household. One of them, Ptolemy. . . ,115
It may be noted, on the other hand, that on the two
occasions on which Tacitus referred to Balbillus he
440Loc. cit.
441Tacitus, Annals 13, 46; Suetonius, Otho, 3, 2.
442As early as about a . d . 58 Otho flippantly exclaimed in the
presence of Nero: “As truly as you may expect to see me
emperor! ”—a joke with perhaps a sinister meaning; Cassius
Dio, ep. 62 (61), 11, 2. That Otho at some time prior to his
quasi-banishment to Lusitania actually received promises of this
kind from his favorite astrologer Ptolemy Seleucus is asserted
by Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1.
443Cassius Dio, ep. 62 (61), 11, 1.
444 Tacitus, Annals 14, 59 ff.; Cassius Dio, ep. 62, 13; compare
Ps.-Seneca’s tragedy Octavia.
448 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22.
130 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTRO LO G ERS FRO M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 131
named him without any criticism.446 In contrast to the new bride. It was probably at this juncture that could proceed against malcontents. His plan was suc­ 10. BALBILLUS AN D H IS HO U SE U ND ER THE
ex-praefect and Roman knight, Ptolemy Seleucus was Ptolemy Seleucus ruefully thought of his former patron, cessful. The complete horoscope of Anteius and at FLAV IAN RULERS
never considered anything but an ambitious and un­ Otho, who still languished in Lusitania. Abandoning least some data on that of Ostorius Scapula were found With Nero’s death the last obstacle to Galba’s uncon­
scrupulous professional astrologer who. through his craft all hope of further success with Nero the disappointed and duly sent to Rome where Nero and his minister, tested ascent to the throne disappeared. The wealthiest
alone had risen to influence and power.447 Inasmuch astrologer betook himself to Lusitania. He apparently Tigellinus, considered the material sufficient prjma facie man ever to reach the imperial power,457 Galba, was
as Nero did not marry Poppaea until a . d . 62— she had succeeded in returning into the good graces of Otho, proof of the crime of maiestas to bring about the death also the first Roman ruler not related to the Julian-
been his mistress since 58 — one must assume that whom he now stimulated again with pleasant promises. of the two men without even the formality of a trial.4”1 Claudian family.458 Long before he had, of course,
Burrus, Seneca, and the inner council of his advisers Not only would Otho survive Nero, but he would even The many sensational trials of 65 and 66 were fol­ received astrological assurances of the glory in store
continued to oppose the marriage, even after Agrippina’s himself ascend the imperial throne.449 lowed by Nero’s extreme scandalizing of Roman society for him. Already Augustus was said to have known of
death, largely in view of the unfavorable reaction which With Poppaea dead and Ptolemy Seleucus removed with his “ artistic ” antics. The flood of prophecies of those predictions.459 Tiberius himself had cast Galba’s
a divorce from Octavia would produce in Rome. from Rome, Balbillus would have had no reason to stay his impending fall must, therefore, have reached new horoscope, perhaps with the aid of Thrasyllus, before
The prudent Balbillus probably tried to remain neu­ on in the capital. We do not know his whereabouts for heights. Astrologers certainly swelled the chorus of he admitted Galba to the consulship of a . d . 33. It was
tral in this dangerous matter. Consequently, he may a number of years after 64. The death of Nero, the doom. Their predictions to the effect that Nero was said
have found little favor with Poppaea when at last she accession and fall of Galba, Otho, and Vitellius in 68-69 going to be deposed 452 could not but affect an emperor
succeeded in her ambition. His name, for example, was apparently found him on the sidelines. If he did leave who was so firm a believer in astrology. We hear from that he [Tiberius] was assisted in such a way by Thrasyllus
not included among the astrologers dancing attendance Rome, he was most likely to return to the east, perhaps with regard to astrology (tit ra -rrcpl acrrpa) that once upon
one source, albeit a dubious one, that towards the end a time when he encountered Galba he told him that “ you
on her and being in her “ secret councils.” Poppaea to Alexandria or Ephesus. The Jewish rebellion which of his reign he lashed out at astrologers. In the fashion too will eventually taste the imperial power.” 4,0
was intelligent and perhaps mischievous enough to put broke out in 66 led to a substantial Roman campaign in customary at times of political crises in Rome it is said
her own favorite astrologer, Ptolemy Seleucus, forward Palestine. The legions were commanded by Vespasian. that he banished them from Rome and Italy.453 In any This passage stemmed from Cassius Dio’s pen,461 but
as a rival of Balbillus in the esteem of Nero. Under Not only would Alexandria be a potential base for his case he seems to have accepted astrological predictions that the story was generally accepted already as early
these circumstances the comet of 64 must have provided military operations, but also— at least after the death of of his fate unquestioningly. He meekly hoped, quoting as the first century a . d . is clear from both Tacitus and
Balbillus not only with a welcome opportunity of demon­ Nero— the city would be a politically risky abode for an a Greek proverb, that art would find bread (for him) Suetonius. Said Tacitus:
strating his supreme astrological prowess, but also his astrologer-scholar hesitant to commit himself to any anywhere on earth, even if he were deposed.454 I must not pass over a prognostication respecting Servius
personal loyalty to Nero whom— as has been suggested imperial candidate. Could it be Ephesus which, far Galba, then consul ( a . d . 33). Having sent for him and
—he may have informed of the incipient Pisonic con­ from the scenes of battles and commotions, offered to sounded him on various topics, he [Tiberius] at last
Nevertheless some of these prophets [the astrologers] had addressed him in Greek to this effect: “ You too, Galba,
spiracy. Nevertheless, the resulting mass trials cannot the aging Balbillus a hospitable haven during these promised him the rule over the East in case he were de­ will some day have a taste of empire.” He thus hinted at a
but have inspired a longing in the breast of Balbillus years? That Ephesus not long afterwards bestowed posed, some of them even the kingdom of Jerusalem, some brief span of power late in life, on the strength of his
to withdraw from a court in which the atmosphere be­ the highest possible honors on him points to the estab­ even the eventual recovery of his entire dominion.455 acquaintance with the art of astrologers, leisure for ac­
came rapidly as surcharged with the foreboding of lishment of strong ties between the old scholar and that quiring which he had had at Rhodes, with Thrasyllus as
impending doom as it had been in the last years of city. These ties may have been forged already while instructor.482
Caligula’s reign. As long, however, as Poppaea and Balbillus was in charge of receiving embassies at Rome Under such circumstances Nero was hard put to
know what to believe. At the last moment he did, In still greater detail Suetonius related the general
Ptolemy Seleucus remained at court, capable of under­ in the reign of Claudius. The time between 66 and 70, tradition:
mining his position with Nero, Balbillus could not dare however, would be a logical period to which to assign indeed, plan to flee to Alexandria, but events moved
the intensification of an already established cordial rela­ too rapidly. During his last moments the doomed It is common knowledge that Augustus, when he [Galba]
to retire from Rome.
ruler exclaimed repeatedly: “ What an artist dies with —then still a boy—paid him his respects together with other
But Fate which so often had smiled upon Thrasyllus tion. For after 70 we shall encounter Balbillus once boys, pinched his cheek and said to him in Greek: “ You
me,” 458 a verdict which neither his contemporaries nor
ancl his house once more came to the rescue. Poppaea, more in Rome, with Ephesus clamoring for imperial too, sonny, will eventually taste our imperial power.” But
posterity have been willing to confirm. The death of
having already borne Nero a daughter who had died permission signally to honor the far-famed gentleman- Tiberius too made a similar prediction, when through astrol­
Nero ended in 68 the Julio-Claudian dynasty which
at the age of four months, was pregnant again in the astrologer. ogers he had learned that “ Galba would become emperor
had raised Thrasyllus and his house to a height com­ but only as an old man,” saying: “ Well, then he may live;
latter part of the year 65. Not long after the death of After Balbillus faded from the Neronic scene, the
parable with any but the old senatorial families. During for that will never concern me myself! ” 468
Seneca, Nero, returning from a drunken debauch, last act of the reign was not slow in coming. In 66 two
the years which followed Balbillus, head of the Thra-
found her complaining. A well aimed kick knocked noblemen were put to death because of their hopes for One wonders to what extent astrological predictions
syllan clan, had to face an unprecedented tempest from
her down and quieted her— forever. She died. All that the throne, confirmed by a renowned astrologer. The of this kind influenced the conduct of Galba. Was it
which, however, his star emerged with undimmed lustre.
Nero could do to make amends was to have her extrava­ star-rede was an Egyptian by the name of Pammenes,
gantly embalmed and to obtain her deification from a his dupes P. Anteius and Ostorius, eminent members 487 Plutarch, Galba, 3, 1.
488Ibid., 3, 2;—to the contrary Suetonius, Galba. 2; but ibid.,
pliant but none too grieving senate.448 He remarried of the Roman nobility. Pammenes was already in exile 401 Tacitus, Annals 16, 14 f . ; compare F. H. Cramer, The
4, 1, about his high social rank.
not long afterwards, and the astrologers of Poppaea no for some earlier offense, a fate which at one time or Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9, 1951: 23 f.; R. S. Rogers, A
488 Suetonius, Galba, 4, 1.
criminal trial of a . d . 70 (Tacitus, Histories, 4.44), Proc. Amer.
longer seem to have found favor with Nero and his another was also shared by Ptolemy Seleucus.450 Pam­ Philol. Assoc. 80, 1949 : 349 f. 4,0 From a tenth century manuscript, cod. Paris, suppl. gr.
menes meanwhile continued to be consulted by courier 607 A, f. 44T, printed in Cat. 8, 4: 100, 6-8.
452 Suetonius, Nero, 40, 2; Cumont suggested that this daring
481 Cassius Dio, 57, 17, 4 from Xiphilinus; compare Zonaras,
148 Tacitus, Annals 6, 22: “ son of Thrasyllus "; 13, 22; less or by mail, since many of his Roman clients retained prophecy stemmed from Balbillus, but the known prudence of
11, 2. The arrangement of Boissonade, accepted by the Loeb
friendly Suetonius, Nero, 36. unbounded faith in him. Anteius, for example, went the knightly astrologer would seem to militate against such a
Classics edition, is misleading, including this episode under a . d .
447 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; 2, 78; Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1; 6, 1; on to pay Pammenes an annual pension. A fellow-exile, hypothesis.
20; see also Cassius Dio, ep. 63 (64), 1, 1 from Xiphilinus.
Plutarch, Galbo, 23, 4; Juvenal, 6, vv. 557-559. 488 Cat. 8, 4: 100, 18 ff.; compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion
the Roman nobleman Antistius Sosianus, in 66 rifled 408Tacitus, Annals 6, 20.
448 Tacitus, Annals 16, 6; 7; 21; Suetonius, Nero, 35; Cassius of astrologers from ancient Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 488 Suetonius, Galba, 4, 1. Galba was born on December 24,
the files of Pammenes in the hope of gaining a pardon 1-2, Copenhagen, 1951: 32 ff.
Dio, ep. 63, 26, 4. He first wanted to marry Claudius’ surviving 3 b. c. The visit at the court of Augustus was therefore not
daughter Antonia. When she refused he killed her and pro­ from Nero by providing evidence on which the emperor 454 Suetonius, Nero, 40,2; Cassius Dio, ep. 63, 27, 2. likely to have occurred prior to A . d . 2, i. e. the time when
ceeded to marry instead Statilia Messalina, whose husband—to 4,5 Suetonius, loc. cit. Thrasyllus arrived in Rome. It is thus quite possible that
facilitate the marriage—was put out of the way; Tacitus, Annals 448Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1. 488 Suetonius, Nero, 49, 1: “ Qualis artifex pereo 1” ; Cassius Augustus’ prediction reflected his new astrological adviser’s
15, 68 f.; Suetonius, Nero, 35. 450Juvenal, 6, vv. 557-559. Dio, ep. 63, 29, 2. opinion; compare above, p. 98f.
132 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
merely ordinary prudence or natural caution that caused
him to reject wide spread suggestions to claim the
throne after the assassination of Caligula in 41 ? 464
Under Nero he went to Spain as governor of the
province Hispania Tarraconensis, in a . d . 60-61, thus
joining Otho who under less auspicious circumstances
had been sent out two years earlier to administer nearby
Lusitania. Both governors remained " neighbors ” until
6 8 , i. e. through the entire remainder of Nero’s reign,
and both had been assured of an imperial future by the
stars. During these years Otho received renewed prom­
ises of this kind, although perhaps not from his astro­
logical adviser Ptolemy Seleucus, who (probably not
before 66 or 67 ?) came to visit him in Lusitania.4*8 Did
Ptolemy by-pass Galba on his way to Otho ? Even if he
did, it is most likely that other astrologers were consulted
by Galba prior to his reluctant acceptance of the im­
perial purple.486 Among those who urged him to take
this step was undoubtedly Otho who— seeing the well-
known astrological prediction of Galba’s imperial power
confirmed — would, being only in his mid-thirties, all
the more be persuaded of the truth of astrological
promises of imperial grandeur which he himself had
received. Assuredly Galba in 68 was encouraged by
all kinds of favorable auspices, omens, and prophe­
cies.467 Renewed astrological predictions would hardly
be lacking.
We are told on the other hand that for example on
January 10, 69, “ which was a gloomy, stormy day,
unusually disturbed by thunder, lightning, and all bad
omens from heaven” Galba intrepidly proceeded with
the public business on hand “ either because he despised
such things as being mere matters of chance, or because
the decrees of fate, though they be foreshown, are not
escaped.” 468 If the second reason applied, then Galba’s
disdain for the traditional Roman omens may have
been due to his acceptance of astrological predictions
concerning his approaching death. Otho, at any rate,
decided not to await passively the arrival of his astro-
logically promised imperial power. At first he had
hoped to succeed the childless Galba by the traditional
method of adoption.469 Had not Julius Caesar in his
will adopted Octavius, thus paving the way for the
young man’s rise to power? Tiberius too had been
the adopted son of Augustus. Claudius in turn by
adopting young L. Domitius had facilitated the acces­
sion of Nero. It was only when Otho realized that he
would not be Galba’s choice that he embarked upon a
desperate venture.410
4,4 Suetonius, Galba, 7, 1.
4' s Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1; Tacitus, Histories 1, 22.
40* Suetonius, loc. cit., indicates that this voyage of the astrol­
oger took place not long before the revolt of Galba and the
fall of Nero.
407 Suetonius, Galba, 9, 2.
Tacitus, Histories 1, 18; Plutarch, Galba, 23, If.
4”“ Plutarch, Galba, 21, 1-2; Suetonius, Otho, 5, 1.
478 Cassius Dio, cp. 63 (64), 5, 1-2; Tacitus, Histories 1, 21.
Only four days elapsed between Galba’s adoption of
Piso, whom he thus designated as his heir, and the
maturing of Otho’s plot:
His confidential freedmen and slaves . . . reproached the
inaction . . . . The astrologers also urged him to action
predicting from their observation of the heavens revolutions
and a year of glory ( a . n. 69) for Otho.471
Apparently these predictions were recent ones, made
for the new year which had just begun. “ For the
soothsayers and Chaldaeans who were always about
him would not suffer him to abandon his hopes or give
up altogether. . . . ” tri One of them, Ptolemy, had
attended Otho in Spain, and there foretold that his
patron would survive Nero.
Ptolemy 473 . . .. dwelt much upon his frequent prediction
that Nero would not kill Otho, but would die first himself,
and that Otho would survive him and be emperor of the
Romans. For now that he could point to the first part of
the prediction as true, he thought that Otho should not
despair of the second part.474 . . . Gaining credit by the
result [of his earlier predictions], and arguing from his
own conjectures and from the common talk of those who
compared Galba’s age with Otho’s youth, he had persuaded
the latter that he would be called to the throne. Otho, how­
ever, received the prediction as words of wisdom and the
intimation of destiny.476
Of the extant accounts about the role played by
Ptolemy Seleucus at this crucial time, that of Tacitus
seems the most accurate. Plutarch and Suetonius, on
the other hand, referring to Seleucus or to Ptolemy,
linked two different prophecies, i. e. the survival and
the accession to the throne. Tacitus, however, stated
that merely Ptolemy before the fall of Nero had only
assured Otho (while in Lusitania) of his surviving
Nero. Then, as the historian cuttingly remarked, partly
by his own conjectures, but partly also owing to general
political calculations, Ptolemy Seleucus added after the
fall of Nero his imperial prophecy.
In the January days of 69 Ptolemy Seleucus reached
the zenith of his influence on the affairs of the Roman
empire. The conspirators literally were acting or inac­
tive according to his orders. For Otho had intended
to strike on the very day of Piso’s adoption by Galba;
The interim which elapsed from then until the execution
[of the coup on January 15] was lost on account of a
number of bad omens and through the warnings of
[Ptolemy] Seleucus. . . ,476 Nor did Ptolemy fail to play
his part; he now even incited to the crime.477
Meanwhile, a veil of silence surrounded the activities
of Balbillus. For almost five years, i. e. since his inter­
471Tacitus, Histories 1, 22.
472Plutarch, Galba, 23, 4.
473Tacitus, loc. cit. ; compare Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1.
474 Plutarch, loc. cit.
475Tacitus, loc. cit.
474 Suetonius, Otho, 6, 1.
477Tacitus, Histories 1, 23.
T H E P O W E R OF A STRO LO G ERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
pretation of the meaning of the comet’s appearance in
64, there is no record of his activities. If the suggestion
were correct that he again had chosen a diplomatic
retreat — under Caius Caligula he seems to have pre­
ferred Alexandria to Rome — during the last years of
Nero’s reign, he may have accompanied Nero as far as
Greece, but then remained in the east while the em­
peror returned to Italy where death awaited him. With
Galba the house of Thrasyllus apparently had no close
connections. With Otho Balbillus was perhaps on even
cooler terms; their estrangement may have dated back
to the days when Otho’s wife, Poppaea Sabina, began
to woo the emperor Nero.478 Surely with Ptolemy
Seleucus and Otho’s other diviners now in the saddle
the scholarly Roman knight Balbillus could scarcely
hope to regain the important role at court which he and
his father had played in the Julian-Claudian era. Be it
at Alexandria or at Ephesus, Balbillus seems to have
spent the fateful period of 68-69 safely away from Rome,
awaiting perhaps the restoration of a durable govern­
ment before taking sides in the multifaceted struggle
for power.
Galba and Piso were slain on January IS. The stars
were proven right. Otho ascended the throne. But
even before this coup took place in Rome Vitellius had
been proclaimed emperor by the legions of Roman
Germany. Otho’s attempts to reach a compromise with
his rival were in vain. C>v'l war became inevitable.
The father of Suetonius, who participated as a (plebeian)
military tribune with the 13th legion in Otho’s ill-starred
campaign, believed that, had Otho foreseen the civil war,
he would never have risen against Galba.479 Obviously,
Ptolemy Seleucus had failed to reckon with such an
eventuality in his astrological calculations. On the other
hand, Otho like Galba despised the traditional Roman
methods of divination. No number of unfavorable
auspices and other omens could deter him from mili­
tary decisions.480 Winning some minor and losing one
major engagement, he suddenly decided to end the war
by committing suicide— be it that he lost his nerve, or
that he despaired of the future. All historians agree on
the fact that his military resources were considerable,
superior probably to those of Vitellius. If not due to
hysterical panic alone, Otho’s abrupt collapse may at
least have been hastened by astrological predictions that
he was doomed anyway.
His victory assured by Otho’s suicide, Vitellius pro­
ceeded slowly from Gaul to Italy. He was in his mid-
fifties with a past as dissolute as that of Otho and as
much given to belief in divination as any member of his
set in this era: “ . . . He had a great regard for omens,
and dicl nothing however trivial without consulting
1,8 See above, p. 428 if.
i7“ Suetonius, Otho, 8, 1; 10, 1; compare Tacitus, Histories 2,
11; Tacitus, Histories 1, 74; Cassius Dio, ep. 63 (64), 10, 1,
from Xiphilinus; Zonaras, 11, 15.
46iu Tacitus, Histories 1, *86.
133
them. . . .” 481 He did receive among others prophe­
cies from astrologers also, but seems to have developed
a strong antipathy against this particular branch of
divinaticn. The reason for Vitellius’ attitude was not
difficult to find. For
the horoscope which the astrologers cast for him [at his
birth] filled his parents with such horror that his father at
all times, as long as he lived opposed the appointment of his
son to the governorship of any province, while his mother,
when she heard that he had received the command over an
army, and again upon learning that he had been proclaimed
emperor, at once bemoaned him as doomed.482
The actual nativity cast, according to custom, for
the infant Vitellius has not been preserved, but from
the context of the above-quoted passage it appears
that the astrologers promised Vitellius the throne, but
only a brief reign after winning a civil war. At the time
of his birth even the most sanguine astrologer could
not envisage the infant’s eventual accession to the throne
in any other manner. The credulous Suetonius im­
plied, moreover, that the horoscope also contained a
prophecy of short glory and a miserable death. Other­
wise the horror of Vitellius’ mother when learning of
his elevation would be hard to understand. That the
prediction, and possibly a later astrological prophecy
also, promised him the throne cannot be doubted;
moreover it seems to have been a generally known
forecast. Vitellius therefore prudently professed com­
plete disbelief in i t :
Vitellius himself, for that matter, held himself as of so
little account that he scoffed at the astrologers and used
their prediction as evidence against them, saying: “ Cer­
tainly they know nothing when they declare that even I shall
become emperor.” Nero when he heard of it also laughed
and felt such contempt for the fellow that he did him no
harm.483
It is difficult to believe that Dio, himself a great
believer in astrology, would have been so simple minded
as to ascribe Vitellius’ scoffing to a sincere disbelief in
astrology. Men possessing imperial horoscopes were
marked in the days of fervent imperial faith in astrology.
Had not Tiberius spared Galba only because of the
remoteness of the imperial power promised him by the
stars? 484 Or, in the reign of Nero again, had not
young Otho, having received an astrological prediction
of imperial power, similarly laughed it off as ridiculous
for a man of his ilk and thus escaped Nero’s sus­
picion? 485 In short it seems to have been a general
practice on the part of astrologers to promise promi­
nent babes imperial glory, while the recipients of such
predictions — walking in the very shadow of death__
tried to feign disbelief in order to prevent imperial
481 Zonaras, 11, 16.
*83 Suetonius, Vitellius, 3, 2.
Cassius Dio, ep. 63 (64), 4, 3 from Xiphilinus.
,S4 See above, p. 131.
4M Cassius Dio, ep. 62 (61), 11, 2.
134 T HE R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
suspicion from striking them down. For, in spite of
their firm belief in fatalist astrology and Fate, few
rulers of the first century would have been convinced
enough fatalists—or philosophers-—to accept the wistful
truism that “ no one ever succeeds in killing his suc­
cessor.” Nevertheless, Vitellius may, indeed, have held
at least some personal grudge against astrologers, if
only on account of the treatment received from his
father because of their forecast. In any case, Vitellius
could hardly relish the astrological prospect of a short
reign and an ignominious death.
He entered Rome early in July, 69. On the eighteenth
— the dies ater commemorating the Roman catastrophe
at the river Allia— he formally assumed the supreme
pontificate, a sign that he too shrugged his shoulders
at traditional Roman superstitions. This, of course,
merely meant that he fell prey to others. In particular
he seems to have been impressed with German prophet­
esses of whom Tacitus too spoke with considerable
respect*86 and who enjoyed a considerable vogue in
Rome during this very period. One of them at least
accompanied Vitellius to Rome:
One suspected him when his mother died, alleging that
he had ordered to refuse her any nourishment during her
illness, because a woman of the Catti whose words he took
for oracles had predicted to him that “ only if he would
survive his mother would he reign long and securely.”
Others relate that his mother, disgusted with the prevailing
situation and afraid of the future, had asked her son for
poison and received it without much difficulty.487
One may dismiss the first part as mere gossip. For
one thing the oracle was ambiguous. Furthermore, the
whole story suspiciously paralleled the one about Agrip­
pina and young Domitius whom the astrologers had
promised the throne while admitting that he was des­
tined to murder his mother.*88 That Vitellius’ mother
died during his brief reign we may accept as certain.
Nor was it uncommon for hopelessly ill people to put
an end to their sufferings by suicide. Euthanasia in
those days was not outlawed. Neither his mother’s
request nor Vitellius’ compliance with it, therefore,
should be interpreted out of the context of their society
and its customs. What remains, however, is his ap­
parent faith in German prophetesses, an example of
his addiction to divination (transmitted by Zonaras).
His relations with the host of astrologers in Rome were
bad from the very start. Many of these had undoubtedly
been on Otho’s side and predicted the downfall of the
“ usurper” Vitellius at the hands of Otho. The unex­
pected fall of Otho obviously must have discredited
them with many of their clients. What could be more
natural than their attempt to “ save face ” by admitting
only a minor miscalculation on their part, i. e. to amend
Tacitus, Germany, 8. He also gave the names of renowned
German prophetesses of the Vespasian era (69-79).
887 Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 5.
438 Tacitus, Annals 6, 22; 14, 9.
their recent predictions to the extent of insisting that at
least the reign of Vitellius would be short and his violent
death near at hand!
The proclamation of Vespasian as emperor by the
legions in Palestine in the early days of July 69 seemed
an immediate corroboration of such prophecies. Under
the circumstances the majority of astrologers in Rome
would, therefore, he inclined to see in Vespasian the man
who would vindicate their earlier forecasts in a slightly
revised form. In line with the imperial policy of the
past Vitellius, therefore, ordered the expulsion of as­
trologers, this time through an imperial edict.480 They
were to leave Rome and Italy by October 1, 69. Impu­
dently some of them at once posted a placard asserting
that by then Vitellius would be dead.400 Although his­
tory proved this prediction false*91 — Vitellius survived
for almost three months after October 1— the wrath of
the doomed emperor against the tribe of astrologers
was great. A number of them were now executed
without much ado. Mere denunciations sufficed. It
should, however, be remembered that even in ordinary
times of public peace the legal interpretation of the
Augustan edict of a . d . 11 (which had forbidden astro­
logical forecasts concerning the death of any person)
termed it treason to make such predictions about em­
perors and their family.492
Among those who were leaving Italy at this time
was probably Ptolemy Seleucus. He had much reason
to dread both Vitellius and his own disappointed cliehts
at Rome. He may even have been formally banished
by Vitellius,493 or, on the other hand, merely left Italy
with other astrologers after the general ban was pro­
nounced, or, finally, he may have fled from Italy with­
out even awaiting the arrival of Vitellius in Rome.
Only the overthrow of Vitellius would enable Ptolemy
Seleucus to return to the capital, to fame and prosperity.
So long as Vitellius reigned people were only too likely
to remind the astrologer unpleasantly of his extrava­
gant predictions, which in large measure had influenced
Otho in his coup against Galba. Vespasian, therefore,
would be the logical pretender for Ptolemy Seleucus
to support. Although we do not know at what time
Ptolemy Seleucus established himself in the good graces
of Vespasian, he did, indeed, succeed in doing so in the
very highest degree.*34 What would be more likely than
that these ties were first forged in the crucial summer
of 69 when Vespasian, still torn by doubt, whether or
480 Compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from
ancient Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951; 36-39.
• Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4; Tacitus, Histories 2, 62.
481 Cassius Dio, t'p. 64 (65), 1, 4, or at least Xiphilinus and
Zonaras (11, 16), covered up the erroneous prediction and
asserted that the astrologers had prophesied the correct date!
4,2 Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Semi­
nar 9, 1951; 8 ff.
<u:l He seems to have been exiled more than once; Juvenal, 6,
w . 557 ff.
484Tacitus, Histories 2, 78.
T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N
not to assume the imperial purple, would be especially
grateful for divinatory encouragement! 495 The accept­
ance of the heavily discredited astrologer by Vespasian
demonstrated the ineradicable faith in astrologers:
“ This is a class of men, whom the powerful cannot
trust, and who deceive the aspiring.” 496 This Tacitean
outburst was directly applied to Ptolemy Seleucus and
agreed with Juvenal’s opinion 497 of the man. That
Vespasian received favorable astrological predictions for
his rising against Vitellius could be taken for granted:
After this speech from Mucianus, the other officers
crowded round Vespasian [July, 69] with fresh confidence,
encouraging him, and reminding him of the responses of
prophets and the movements of the heavenly bodies. Nor
was Vespasian proof against this superstition, for after­
wards, when master of the world, he openly retained one
[Ptolemy] Seleucus, an astrologer, to direct his counsels,
and to foretell the future.498
It would thus appear that perhaps only after the pre­
dictions of Ptolemy Seleucus had been borne out by the
facts did Vespasian publicly show his appreciation for
the astrologer. In any case astrological prophecies in­
fluenced Vespasian’s decision to try for the throne, as
they had in the past been instrumental in encouraging
Galba, Otho, and Vitellius.
Meanwhile Vitellius had good reason to tremble,—
at least according to popular opinion. For
. . . evil omens occurred. A comet was seen,490 and the
moon, contrary to precedent, appeared to suffer two eclipses,
being obscured on the fourth and on the seventh day. Also
people saw two suns at once, one in the west weak and pale
and one in the east brilliant and powerful.500
In addition to celestial portents, more or less faith­
fully interpreted as harbingers of doom for Vitellius,
the wide spread rumor that the master of the world
would arise from Judaea 501 tended to raise Vespasian’s
hopes while diminishing those of Vitellius. The primi­
tive mentality of Roman armies even at this late stage
was revealed once more by their terror evoked by a
lunar eclipse:
The great confusion which . . . prevailed in the camp of
Vitellius was increased that night by an eclipse of the moon.
It was not so much its being obscured [though even such
phenomena cause fear to men who are excited] as the fact
that it appeared both blood-colored and black and gave out
still other terrifying colors.50®
. i8'"'Tacitus, loc. cit. -, Suetonius, Vespasian, 5, 1-7; 7, 1-3;
Cassius Dio, ep. 64 (65), 9, 1 from Xiphilinus.
488 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22.
487J uvenal, 6, vv. 557 ff.
408 Tacitus, Histories 2, 78.
488 Compare on its appearance Josephus, hell. Jud. 6, 5, 3;
Eusebius, hist. eccl. 3, 8, 2; Hegesippus, hist. eccl. 5, 44.
Cassius Dio, ep. 64 (65), 8, 1 from Xiphilinus; compare
Zonaras, 11, 16.
801 Suetonius, Vespasian. 4, 5; Tacitus, Histories 5, 13.
002 Cassius Dio, ep. 64 (65), 11, 1-2 from Xiphilinus.
135
So great, however, was the furor of civil war passions
at this juncture that “ not even for this . . . would the
men change their minds or yield,” 508 while, for ex­
ample at the time of the short-lived mutiny in a . d . 14
the terror inspired by a lunar eclipse had sufficed to
bring back to obedience a rebellious army.504
Of considerable importance for the success of Ves­
pasian’s enterprise was the immediate support which he
received in the near east. Not only the Parthian king
Vologeses,505 but Roman clientele princes also rallied to
Vespasian’s standard. The most important of these was
Antiochus IV Epiphanes of Commagene, “ who pos­
sessed vast ancestral wealth, and was the richest of all
the subject;kings.” 506 Moreover apart from financial
support Antiochus also provided auxiliary forces for
Vespasian’s army.507 One may suspect that the motives
of Antiochus IV w£re not those of pure affection for
the new claimant to the imperial throne. Satellite-
kings long had learned the need to tread warily. For
Roman policy since the days of Augustus had been
directed towards the abolition of clientele states and
their inclusion among the provinces of the realm. Often
the imperial government simply informed the incum­
bent ruler of such a territory that he had ceased to
reign.508 Commagene itself had been treated more
politely in the past. For Tiberius had at least awaited
the death of Antiochus I I I in 17 before pronouncing
in a . d . 18 the joining of Commagene with the Roman
province of Syria.509 This small concession may have
been due to the intercession of Thrasyllus, the husband
of a princess of Commagene.510 Afterwards Caligula
had first restored Commagene to the dynasty, then
rued his act and deposed the new ruler,511 who was
none other than Antiochus IV. Claudius, indeed, had
once more established Antiochus IV on the throne of
Commagene,512 possibly encouraged in tliis decision by
his friend, the scholarly astrologer Balbillus, son of
Thrasyllus, who may have pleaded the cause of his
relative.
It may be taken for granted that Antiochus IV did
his best to secure his shaky throne in the reigns of
Claudius and Nero by cultivating friendly relations
with his relative Balbillus whose presence in Rome and
803Loc. cit.
884 Tacitus, Annals 1, 28.
M* Tacitus, Histories 4, 51; Suetonius, Vespasian, 6, 4.
888 Tacitus, Histories 2, 81.
587Ibid. 5, 1.
'°s This for example had happened in a . d . 17 to king Arche-
laus of Cappadocia; compare W. E. Gwatkin, Cappadocia as a
Roman procuratorial province, University of Missouri Studies 5
no. 4, 1930: 7-16.
808Tacitus, Annals 2, 42.
“ ° See p. 95.
511 Suetonius, Caligula, 16; Cassius Dio, 59, 8, 2. Caligula also
restored at the time to Antiochus IV the 100,000,000 sesterces
which in a . d . 17 Tiberius had confiscated from the royal treasury
of Commagene.
512 Cassius Dio, 60, 8, 1; Josephus, ant. Jud., 19, 5, 1.
136 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTRO LO G ERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 137
whose influence with the ruling house made him a very fiance could not bring himself to embrace Judaism. The proclamation as emperor, Antiochus IV and his sons house of Commagene had no choice but to support the
valuable ally of the king of Commagene. In the summer young lady’s brother, Agrippa II, finally married her at once recognized Otho (as did Vespasian and his Roman commander of seven legions hovering about
of 69, Antiochus IV must have been very desirous to off, when she was fifteen, to King Azizus of Emesa army). A detachment of auxiliaries, headed by the the little kingdom. Between 69 and 72, however, Bal­
give Vespasian a proof of his zeal beyond the mere in 53. Within a year, however, the bride ran away king’s son, Antiochus Epiphanes, was sent westward to billus seems to have renewed his contact with Vespasian.
financial and military aid which he supplied. He there­ with the Roman governor Felix to become his third aid Otho in his struggle against Vitellius. It is possible That he would be welcome at court was certain enough.
fore selected as commander of the troops sent to wife. A year later (54) King Azizus died — although that the corps was already on its way to support Galba For what believer in astrology would not receive with
Palestine his oldest son and heir, C. Julius Antiochus probably not of a broken heart. His faithless spouse against Vitellius, but at any rate, it saw action for the open arms an astrological authority of the reputation
Epiphanes,518 the son-in-law of Balbillus.514 seems to have perished (together with a son she had first time in the service of Otho during the series of possessed by the son of Thrasyllus! Yet whatever
The date at which the new tie between the house of from Felix) twenty-five years later in the eruption of engagements culminating in the battle of Bedriacum influence Balbillus may have gained over Vespasian
Thrasyllus and the tottering dynasty of Commagene Mount Vesuvius in a . d . 79.519 Her former fiance, which ended the reign of Otho. “ King Epiphanes [in during the first years of the reign was not great enough
»was .fogged is,unknown. It seems-likely.,that->the-matoh' •.-.Antiochus* Epiphanes,...meanwhile, had ..consoled. himself one of these battles] was wounded, while he was zeal­ to avert the blow which had been so long in coming.
was arranged sometime between 64 and 69. For of with Claudia, the daughter of Balbillus. ously cheering on the troops for Otho.” 524 Obviously Supposedly aroused by a report from the Roman gov­
the two children known to have resulted from the mar­ His career was marked by military feats for which Antiochus Epiphanes, not his aged father, participated ernor Caesennius Paetus (who had established an
riage of Claudia Capitolina and C. Julius Antiochus the coarse looking young man -— the coins reveal an so valiantly in the fighting. The title of “ king ” was unenviable record in the campaigns of Corbulo) 627 that
Epiphanes, son of Antiochus IV, one, a son,515 was uncouth face— showed real ability. He may have seen often given to hellenistic heirs designate, as well as to Antiochus IV and his son, Antiochus Epiphanes, were
consul in A . d . 109, the other, Julia Balbilla, was still his first action, when his father in a . d . 53 fought a vic­ actual or deposed rulers. Hence Tacitus’ use of the plotting with the Parthians against the Roman interests,
active enough in 130 to accompany Hadrian and his torious campaign against some of his rebellious Cilician title was not inaccurate. Recovered from his wound, Vespasian decided to revive the policy of Tiberius
wife Sabina on a journey through the eastern part of subjects, a victory, apparently gained by diplomacy and the battle-hardened young prince reappeared in the towards Commagene.528 Thrasyllus had been unable
the Roman empire.510 A family tree,517 supplementing bribery rather than by force of arms.520 A year later field a year later. In May or June, a . d . 70, he led to prevent the earlier annexation of Commagene in
the one presented earlier (p. 95), may illustrate the Antiochus IV received orders from Rome to prepare, a Commagenian corps, the so-called Macedonians, to the spite of his hold over Tiberius. Now at the end of 72
last known branch of the house of Thrasyllus: together with Agrippa I I of Judaea, for an invasion aid of Titus, whom he chided for hesitating to assault Balbillus found himself similarly helpless. Caesennius
Jerusalem’s walls: Paetus received instructions to proceed as he saw fit.
Antiochus I I I of Commagene Assisted by other clientele kings the governor promptly
(d. A . D. 17) He was a warlike man, and naturally bold in exposing
himself to dangers; he was also so strong a man that his
marched on Samosata, the capital. Antiochus IV,
boldness seldom failed of having success. . . . Antiochus wholly unprepared for the sudden storm which now
Ti. Claudius----- -m. (ca. A . d. 2)- -Aka(?) of Antiochus IV- -Iotape
Thrasyllus (d. 36) went as he then was, and with his Macedonians made a swept him off the throne, did not wish to offer any
Commagene
sudden assault upon the w all; and, indeed, for his own part, resistance at all to Paetus. But his two sons, Antio­
Ti. Claudius Balbillus his strength and skill were so great, that he guarded himself chus Epiphanes and Callinicus, overruled him, rallied
from Jewish darts, and yet shot his darts at them.525
I the military forces of the kingdom and joined the issue.
M. Mettius-m. (2)—Claudia Capitolina—m. (1) (ca. 64)— C. Julius Antiochus Callinicus Iotape and sisters
Junius (ca. 85) I Epiphanes Although the assault was not successful, this episode A day-long engagement with the Roman forces was
Rufus showed the temper and the mettle of the son-in-law bravely contested and ended in a draw. The old king,
of Balbillus. The astrologer’s influence to commend however, had enough, left the battlefield and fled to
C. Julius Antiochus Julia Balbilla Tarsus, accompanied by his wife and daughters. His
Epiphanes Philopappus (d. after 130) Antiochus IV or his son to Vespasian was thus not
(consul A . D. 1 0 9 , d . ca. 114) needed, nor, on the other hand, did of course Balbillus 31 my lost heart and surrendered. The two princes,
require any introduction from the ruler of Commagene refusing even now to bow to the Roman victors, sought
The son-in-law of Balbillus must have been born into the Parthian realm.521 Peace overtures, however, to the newly proclaimed emperor. For Vespasian and and found asylum with the Parthian king Vologeses.
prior to a . d . 38. For he was in his early boyhood dragged out the beginning of major warfare, the scene Balbillus must have met repeatedly at the court of Nero. Antiochus IV was arrested on orders of Paetus to
betrothed to Drusilla, the daughter of king Agrippa I of which was to be Armenia. The Roman commander- They may, indeed, have shared a feeling of somnolence be sent to Rome in fetters, but Vespasian, upon hearing
of Judaea, to whom Caius Caligula had also restored in-chief was Corbulo, who in 58 instructed Antiochus during the everlasting artistic performances of that ruler. of it, sent word to release the king and permitted him
his kingdom in a . d . 38.5lS Drusilla was the youngest IV “ to hasten to the provinces on his frontier.” 522 Vespasian actually forfeited his personal popularity to reside in Sparta. He also allocated large revenues
of the king’s daughters and barely six years old when During the war years which followed, the young prince with Nero when he fell asleep in the midst of a Neronic to the luckless monarch that he might live in a manner
her father died in a . d . 44. Since it does not seem must have seen action under the energetic Corbulo, recitation.526 Balbillus apparently had better self-control befitting his former station. When the two princes
likely that Antiochus IV betrothed his son to a girl while Commagene, a border state, played an important or more stamina, but he probably sympathized with the abroad learned of the good treatment of their father
older than the boy himself, we may assume that Antio­ strategic role.528 disgraced general. they asked the Parthian king to intercede on their behalf
chus Epiphanes was born in or before a . d . 38. The The fall of Nero and the accession of Galba were in with Vespasian. Antiochus Epiphanes took the lead
Whether or not Balbillus actually spent the last years
marriage, however, did not take place, because Drusilla’s all likelihood accepted by the dynasty of Commagene in this attempt at reconciliation. Vespasian proved
of Nero’s reign in the east, he would in any case prefer
as passively as Vespasian and his legions in Palestine amenable, even allowing the prince to come to Rome
to await the outcome of Vespasian’s bid for the throne
Compare on him Stein, RE 10, 1919: c. 159, no. 66,-c. 163. had recognized the new ruler. Again, when Galba was while his father was still at Sparta. Soon afterwards
514 Compare above, p. 115. before attaching himself irrevokably to the new ruler.
the entire royal family was reunited in Rome and lived
016 Compare J. Kirchner, RE 20, 1, 1941: c. 75; literature ibid. assassinated and simultaneously news arrived of Otho’s The gentleman-astrologer could bide his time, but the
there “ happily ever after.” 528 It would seem that such
B1* The poems composed and inscribed in November, 130 by
Julia Balbilla on the pedestal of the “ Memnon” statue were M" Josephus, ant. Jud. 18, 5, 4; 19, 9, 1; 20, 7, 1-2; bell. Jud. 2, 624 Tacitus, Histories 2, 29. 527 Tacitus', Annals 15, 6-8; 10-17; 24; 28.
restudied and republished by W. Peek, Zu den Gedichten auf 11, 6; Suetonius, Caligula, 28; Acts, 24, 24; Jerome, nomina 525Josephus, bell. Jud. 5 , 11, 3. S2SVespasian’s action did-not single out Commagene. It
dem Memnonkoloss von Theben, Mitteilungen des deutschen hebr., ed. Migne, PL 23: c. 847; cf. Stein, P IR 3, 2nd ed., 1943: 820 Suetonius, Vespasian, 4. 4; compare Nero, 23: “ Whenever stemmed from a decisive change in imperial policy. For at about
Instituts filer aegyptische Altertumskunde, 5 , 1934: 95-109. 63, no. 195. he [Nero] sang, no one was permitted to leave the theatre the same time the autonomy of the kingdom of Thrace was also
517 Based on sources, cited above, p. 95, and P IR 1, 2nd ed., f,"° Tacitus, Annals 12, 55. during the performance for any reason whatever. It is said that terminated, as was the “ independence ” of Lycia, Achaea, Samos,
1933: 138, nos. 740 and 741. •” Ibid. 13, 7. a number of women gave birth during the performances, while Byzantium, and Rhodes; compare Suetonius, Vespasian, 8, 4.
018 Cassius Dio, 59, 8, 2; Josephus, ant. Jud. 18, 6, 12; 19. 5, 1; *M Ibid. 13, 37. many men . . . the doors being locked, jumped furtively down m Josephus, bell. Jud. 7, 7, 1-3. Josephus errs in calling’ both
bell. Jud. 2, 11, 5. csn Ibid. 15, 12; compare Cassius Dio, ep. 62, 19 ff. from the walls or simulated death . . . ” ; cf. Tacitus, Annals 16, 5. sons of Antiochus IV of Commagene “ young and inexperienced
 T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 139
138 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
tinued to be held well into the third century. Thereafter he but a descendant of Augustus should worry about had appeared earlier in the year. C. Plinius Secundus,
lenient treatment of princes who had so recently resisted the meaning of this. Again, when a comet appeared in then admiral of the Roman squadron stationed at
Roman forces on the field of battle was decidedly un­ we have no further record of them. They may have
fallen victim to the economic crisis which swept the 79, predictions of his death were rife. The emperor, Misenum, had fallen a victim (on August 23-24) to
usual. Would it be too far-fetched to assume that however, insisted that the long-haired Parthian king, his insatiable scientific curiosity which had driven him
throughout the crisis Balbillus had used every shred of empire in the wake of the great revolution of the third
century of our era. not he, the balding old Roman, should take heed; 540 to the very scene of the eruption from which everyone
his influence to modify Vespasian’s natural resentment apparently this jest also involved a word play. For
Thus honored the elderly knight, ex-prefect, and else was trying to escape.545 He left behind him as his
at Commagenian resistance? It may also be noted that comet was a Greek word, meaning “ [long-]haired
astrologer, Balbillus, was clearly in a different category last major work, an encyclopaedia, the so-called Natural
Balbillus’ son-in-law, in spite of his relatively graver star.” Vespasian’s light-heartedness may perhaps also
from that to which his fellow astrologer, Ptolemy History, which he finished sometime between 76 540 and
sins, was at once allowed to come to Rome, even before have been due to the fact that an earlier comet (which his death in 79, probably in 77.547
his father had obtained imperial permission to do so. Seleucus, belonged, although both men acted as astro­
logical councillors to the emperor. Whether or not had appeared in 76 and inspired the emperor’s son The work is of special importance, because Pliny
If the surmise is correct that Balbillus was the chief Titus to a poem) 541 had not proven fatal to any member
conciliator at Rome in 73 and 74, it would follow that Vespasian’s parents had obtained at his birth an im­ neither was nor ever claimed to be more than an edu­
of the imperial family. cated Roman gentleman who wrote, not for the spe­
his prestige with Vespasian was by then very high. perial (or any) horoscope,635 the nativity of Vespasian
must have been analyzed by competent astrologers long It has been suggested, and perhaps not without cialists, but for the benefit of other educated Roman
There is, indeed, strong evidence for this assumption.
before his accession. His faith in the stars was natur­ reason, that Balbillus was the source of the reassuring laymen, endeavoring to present a cross section of human
Not that Vespasian liked astrologers in general, at least
ally confirmed by his successful rise to power; his trust interpretation of the comet of 7 9 542 (and possibly also knowledge in the major disciplines, as well as interest­
not in so far as they were capable of advising private
in his court astrologers became well-nigh complete. already of the benign one of the comet of 76). He was ing items selected for their pertinence in connection
clients of the political future! Actually among his first
When, for example, a Roman nobleman by the name of after all a renowned authority on comets, at least since with the topics under discussion. Among the many
acts as emperor had been the issuing of still another
expulsion edict banishing them again from Rome, before Mettius Pompusianus boasted that he had received from his interpretation of the comet of 64 which, indeed, authors whom he used — we find for book I I alone
astrologers the promise of his eventual accession to the had not presaged the death of the emperor Nero, as for example Thrasyllus, Vespasian’s son Titus, Julius
Vespasian himself had even set foot in the capital.
throne, a prediction which was bound to attract elements Balbillus had rightly foretold at the time.543 Nor had Caesar s calendar maker Sosigenes, as well as writers
On the other hand, it was his duty to obtain for his
opposing Vespasian, the emperor calmly dismissed the the comet of 76 “ killed ” Vespasian. Nevertheless, on astrology like “ Petosiris” and “ Nechepso” and
own and the empire’s benefit the most accurate pre­
suggestion to try Pompusianus for maiestas,536 com­ one may perhaps wonder whether or not the reassuring Epigenes (of Byzantium?), not to mention “ the
dictions available, and these— in his opinion were the
mitted by the violation of the Augustan edict of a . d . prediction of 79, no matter which astrologer made it, Pythagorean writers ” and Critodemus.548 Roman
ones made by astrologers:
11,537 and proceeded “ to appoint the man to the con­ was not a parallel to the (intentionally misleading) names, which we have encountered earlier, were also
. . . He was in the habit of consulting all the best of them sulate, adding: ' I vouch that sometime in the future prophecy which Thrasyllus had given to old Tiberius.544 represented, for instance, Sulpicius Gallus, Quintus
himself, and, by way of showing a favor to Barbillus [stc.j, Be that as it may, Vespasian died not long after the Tubero, and Marcus Varro. Greek authors, however,
a man of that profession, even permitted the Ephesians to
he will gratefully remember this favor.’ ” 538 This went
comet’s appearance. Thereafter we lose all trace of were in the majority, although of course one must
celebrate some sacred games, a privilege that he granted to even beyond the action of Tiberius, who— in a . d . 33—
had made Galba consul although he himself had learned Balbillus himself. If he lived to the end of the reign, assume that Pliny used most of them merely through
no other city.5’ 1
as well he might have, it was to be expected that— in compilations. It would have surpassed the capacity of
Obviously the city and the man thus uniquely honored from the stars that Galba was destined to reign. One spite of his possible “ error ” about the comet—he con­ any single man to plod through hundreds of tomes of
must have been in exceptionally high favor with cannot but assume that Vespasian’s serenity was based tinued in high favor with Titus, and if surviving into the original Greek writings. Again for book V we find
on his firm conviction (obtained from the advice of
Vespasian. the reign of Domitian (81-96) with that ruler also. among the authors Timaeus mathematicus, in all proba­
The newly established games at Ephesus in honor ot men like Balbillus, Ptolemy Seleucus, or other court- It may be assumed that he died some time after 75, bility the astrologer known under that name.549 A veri­
Balbillus remained popular for a long time thereafter. astrologers) that the astrological predictions, which possibly in the early ’eighties of the first century, leav­ table galaxy of writers who among other works left
A number of extant inscriptions referred to them. The Mettius Pompusianus had received, were erroneous. ing at least one married daughter and two grandchildren important astrological treatises appeared in the authors’
oldest of these dated from the year a. d . 90, others from The same quiet confidence in his astrological advisers
from this Claudia; Julia Balbilla and Caius Julius list for book V I I : Berossus, “ Petosiris ” and “ Ne­
the time between 92 and 105, later ones from the era of was displayed in his own case by Vespasian when he Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus, born to Claudia and chepso,” Epigenes (of Byzantium?), as well as Nigi­
the Antonines.532 The earliest references uniformly faced the succession. According to general opinion her husband Antiochus Epiphanes, son of Antiochus dius Figulus (who was also listed as an authority for
spoke of the BalbiUea or BcUbilleia, later inscriptions . . . he was so tranquil and assured about his own fate and IV , ex-king of Commagene. Approximately half a cen­ book V III) . Among the authors acknowledged for
referred to the Barbillea.™ That these games were that of his family, as written in the stars, that, in spite of
tury had elapsed since the death of Thrasyllus. His book IX we find again Nigidius Figulus, but also the
more than a purely local festival was attested by a the perpetually fomented plots against him, he had the
audacity of firmly proclaiming to the senate that no one but family had now fully “ arrived.” It had become one of Chaldaean astronomer and diviner, Sudines, and Thra­
second-century inscription in Thyatira which called the great houses of the Roman empire and continued syllus. The versatile Nigidius Figulus reappeared in
his sons would succeed him.533
them "the great Balbillea[n games]. 534 They con- to retain close ties to the rulers of the realm at least book X and X I, and again in book X V I, where he was
This confidence never left Vespasian. Portents which
for another half century to come. joined in the authors’ catalogue by the astrologer,
in war." At least Antiochus Epiphanes, the older son, had con­ seemed to indicate his impending demise, he laughingly
siderable military experience prior to this last stand. rejected. When, for example, the portals of the Augus­ Meanwhile, a contemporary of Balbillus had probably Timaeus. For book X V III Pliny acknowledged his
0,0 Compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers irom tan mausoleum suddenly opened, he suggested that not preceded him in death : the elder Pliny. He succumbed indebtedness to a number of astronomical or astrological
ancient Rome, Classica et Mediaevolia 12, 1-2, 1951: 39-41. to a heart attack during the frightful eruption of Mount authors; Lucius Tarutius Firmanus’ Greek treatise
8,1 Cassius Dio, ep. 65 (66), 9, 2 from Xiphilinus; cf. Exc.
in F. Cumont, Astrologues romains et byzantins, MHanges Vesuvius which took place soon after Vespasian’s death
d'archtologie et de I'hisloire . . . de I'ecole franfaise de Rome 37, in 79 and might well have been interpreted by the super­ 648 For a detailed account rendered to Tacitus, see Pliny,
VC* " 2C1G, no. 5806; Kaibel, IS 1, nos. 746 and 747; compare epist. 6, 16.
1918-1919: 34, n. 3. stitious as the catastrophe foretold by the comet which
Inscr. Brit. Mus., no. 615. _____ S3SAn haruspex, however, had supplied the 44customary ’’ ““ Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2, 22, 89, refers to the comet of 76; his
CIG no. 2810 (from Aphrodisias); no. 3.4)8 (irom encyclopaedia must therefore have been completed in or after 76
Smyrna),' no. 3675 (from Cyzicus) ; CIA 3 , no. 129 (from prophecy that the infant would some day mount the imperial
“ “ Suetonius, Vespasian, 23, 4; cf. Aurelius Victor, epit., 9; at the earliest.
Athens); also CIG, nos. 5913; 6916 (also » i Kjubd. ^ 1 no. throne; Suetonius, Vespasian, 5, 2.
630 Suetonius, Vespasian, 14. Cassius Dio, ep. 66, 17, 2-3. 047 The work was dedicated to Titus, “ six times consul” ; see
1102 and 1113; both from Rome) ; also no. 739 (from Naples), 641 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2, 22, 89. Nat. Hist., pr., 3.
compare CIG, no. 2741; see on this inscription D.ttenberger, 037 See F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9.
“ a F. Cumont, Astrologues romains . ..: 33; Bouche-Leciercq: 548 Ibid. 1. The first book consists of a table of contents of
Orient. Inscr., no. 509 (from Aphrodisias), line 23; cf. Jour. 1951: 1-15.
t3* Suetonius, Vespasian, 14. 360, n. 3. the entire work, book by book. In each instance a list of authors
Hell. Studies, 37, 1917: 89, 12f. ,, t ^ < 643 Suetonius, Nero, 36. used for the particular section is given.
534 ►imjaai'Ta ir ’E<t>ioQ r i jiryaXa BaX0iXXi|a; see Revue dc “ “Ibid., Vespasian, 25; compare Cassius Dio, ep. 65 (66),
644 See above, p. 107. 54l‘ Compare W. Kroll, RE, 2. Reihe, 6, 1, 1936: c. 1228.
Philologie 29, 1913: 312. A list of these inscriptions is found
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 141
140
and the basic laws of nature, contains the most explicit and more widely accepted belief in astrology. Reject­ had been for years. He too in his youth had received
On the Stars,*™ Julius Caesar’s work with the same
summary of Pliny’s Weltanschauung. His first chal­ ing fatalistic astrology Pliny had even less sympathy a prediction of imperial grandeur, although not from
title, Fonteius Capito,551 Quintus Tubero, Sosigenes,
lenge to the Stoic tenets of ekpyrosis and palingenesis with popular astral superstitions. For example: an astrologer but from a physiognomist.565 That he
Hipparchus,' Aratus and Zoroaster ( !) . A number of
was pronounced at the very beginning: was well acquainted with Balbillus may be taken for
the books which followed boasted of Orpheus and We have stated that the stars, are attached to the universe, granted. Perhaps that expert on comets even advised
Pythagoras as helpful authors to whom in book X X V I The universe and . . . the sky are fitly believed to be a not assigned to each of us in the way in which the common
Titus on the occasion of the comet of 76 which the
Anaxilaus of Larissa was added.552 He reappeared in deity, eternal, immeasurable, a being that never began to herd believes, i. e. not dealt out to mortals with a degree of
radiance proportionate to the lot of each, the brightest stars Flavian prince commemorated in a poem.566 Of Titus’
book X X IX . this time together with the indefatigable exist and never will perish.557
to the rich and powerful, the smaller ones to the poor, the deep faith in fatalistic astrology there can be no doubt:
Nigidius Figulus (and Orpheus). Among the collec­ dim to those who are worn out; they do not each rise with
The stars whose influence Pliny admitted freely in Two men of patrician rank were convicted of having
tion of authors’ names for book X X X I Anaxilaus again their own human being, nor indicate by their fall that some­
many a passage were not of equal importance. Like a aspired to the throne. Titus merely exhorted them to desist
put in an appearance, joined by Thrasyllus and Epi- one’s life is being extinguished. There is no such close
faint reminiscence perhaps of Akhnaton’s sun cult or alliance between us and the sky that the radiance of the from their plan, because, as he said: “ The throne is allotted
genes (of Byzantium? ) . 553 Book X X X I I I listed Domi­ by Fate.” . . . It is also reported that upon learning of the
of other forms of solar monotheism, destined to con­ stars there also shares the fate of mortality. . . . But the
tian among the authors, while in X X X IV apparently horoscope of both men he did prophesy that both of them
quer Rome in the third century a . d ., sounded Pliny’s heavenly bodies have a nature that is eternal— they are parts
Timaeus’ treatise de medicim metallica was used. Book of the universe and are blended with its weft; yet their were in grave danger, but only at a future time and from
assertion that someone else,— as, indeed, it was the case.567
X X X V I finally was in part indebted to authors like potency has a powerful influence on the earth.561
Sudines, Horus (!) , and Zoroaster (!) . . . . the sun . . . is the ruler not only of the seasons and We do not know the names of the two conspirators.
Considering the fact that Pliny “ left 160 sets of notes of the lands, and even of the stars themselves and of the Thus Pliny joined the ranks of those who in accept­
Perhaps one of them may have been that Mettius Pom-
heavens. Taking into account all that he effects, we must ing astral influence on mundane affairs approved of
on selected books, written on both sides of the paper in believe him to be . . . the supreme ruling principle of the pusianus whom already Vespasian had pardoned in
catarchic astrology, while rejecting fatalistic astrology,
an extremely small hand ” 554 in addition to 102 books world (principale naturae regimen ac numen).558 spite of his “ imperial ” horoscope. In any case the
an attitude common to all sceptics of antiquity. The
of which only 36 belonged to his last work, the Natural eventual fate of these two men would furnish another
As if inspired by this outburst Pliny suddenly deviated same degree of objectivity was shown by Pliny with
History, one can well understand that — he was after example of the different attitude towards such people
all an educated layman and not a specialized scholar— from his account and began a personal proclamation of regard to comets:
which, in contrast to his father and brother, Domitian
Pliny’s choice was often indiscriminate when it came his own faith: People think that it matters in what direction a comet was to take. For “ the future danger” which proved
to selecting authors or compilations. He may even have . . . I deem it a mark of human weakness to seek to dis­ darts, . . . what shapes it resembles. . . . If it forms an deadly to them must have destroyed them in the reign
consulted Balbillus on some matters which might ac­ cover the shape and form of God. Whoever God is— equilateral triangle . . . in relation to certain positions of of Domitian. Who supplied the horoscopes of those
the fixed stars it portends a man of genius and a revival1of
count for the frequent use of the works of Balbillus provided there is a God— . . . he consists . . . wholly of two plotters we do not know. Was it part of the evi­
himself. To believe in gods without number . . . reaches an learning, in the head of the Northern or Southern Serpent
father Thrasyllus. Pliny certainly was in close touch it brings poisonings. . . . Aristotle also records that several dence accumulated against them, or were their nativi­
even greater height of folly. . . . For mortal to aid mortal
with the emperor Vespasian. “ Before dawn he [Pliny] this is God. . . . That that supreme being, whatever it be, may be seen at the same time ( Meteorologica, f. 345a, 29) ties recast for Titus by Ptolemy Seleucus, Balbillus, or
used to wait on the emperor Vespasian, who also worked pays heed to man’s affairs is a ridiculous notion. Can we and that this signifies severe winds or heat.562 some other court-astrologer? An emperor so pro­
during the night; and then he went off to the duty believe that it would not be defiled by so gloomy and foundly convinced of the infallibility of astrological
assigned to him.” 555 Pliny therefore surely knew multifarious a duty? . . . Pliny cited impartially instances of ill, as well as predictions must have taken his own horoscope very
Vespasian’s highly esteemed court-astrologer Balbillus Nevertheless mortality has rendered our guesses about favorable events coincident with the appearance of seriously. He may well have received a warning of
God even more obscure by inventing for itself a deity inter­ comets, but again refrained scrupulously from taking
personally. mediate . . .: Fortune alone is invoked and named, alone an early death, even a death date perhaps (an astro­
In the void left by the death of Seneca Pliny raised sides in interpreting the astrological significance of logical specialty of Balbillus). This seems a logical
accused, . . . deemed volatile and indeed by most men blind
his voice once more on behalf of a deep-rooted faith in as well. . . .
such phenomena. As to the scientific explanation of interpretation of his extraordinary behavior before his
Another set of people banishes Fortune also and attributes comets he was more non-committal than Seneca had approaching death:
human progress:
events to its star and to the laws of birth, holding that for been:
W e have collected in 36 volumes 20,000 noteworthy facts all men that ever are to be God’s decree has, been enacted When the public games were over, at the end of which
obtained from one hundred authors . . . with a great number once and for all, while for the rest of time leisure has been Some persons think that even comets are everlasting, and before the whole populace he had broken out into a violent
of other facts in addition . . . , Future generations . . . will vouchsafed to Him. This belief begins to take root, and travel in a special circuit of their own, but are not visible fit of weeping, he traveled to the Sabine region— even more
challenge us to battle as we have challenged our prede­ the learned and unlearned mob alike go marching on when the sun leaves them; there are others, who hold that dejected by the fact that, when he was sacrificing, the
towards it at the double. . . . they spring into existence out of chance moisture and fiery victim had fled and from a clear sky a thunderclap had been
cessors.566
But it agrees with life’s experience that . . . the gods force and eventually are again dissolved.563 heard. In the very first night’s lodging he became feverish,
Although Pliny’s philosophical tendencies have often exercise an interest in human affairs . . . and that man was but had himself carried on in a litter, whose curtains— it is
not born God’s next of kin for the purpose of approximating This is of course not the place to discuss in detail said— he opened frequently, and looking up at the sky com­
been called those of a modified stoicism, there is little plained repeatedly and loudly that he did not deserve to be
the beasts in vileness.559 Not even for God are all things
evidence of Stoic creeds in his attitude concerning cos­ possible— for he cannot, even if he wishes, commit suicide. Pliny’s cosmology 564 and his variegated references to killed____ 568
mology and astrology. Assuredly he was no fatalist. . . . He cannot cause twice ten not to be twenty. . . . U n­ astral influences throughout his work. Enough evi­
Apart from the treatment of astral influences on weather questionably the power of nature we should call “ God.” 560 dence, however, has been adduced to indicate his posi­ Surely a man who believed himself doomed by the
and agriculture which occurred in books V II and X V III tion in the historical trends of belief and disbelief in stars at a certain date would behave in this fashion,
Even from this condensed credo of Pliny it is apparent astrology during the first century of the principate. especially when—at the games— he apparently was still
especially, book II, dealing with the cosmos, its stars
that in contrast to his imperial friends, Vespasian and It is certain that the Flavians to whom he dedicated enjoying good health. Among primitive people the
Titus, he denied, as Cicero and Lucretius had done, the his Natural History were not converted by Pliny to his belief in one’s ordained death has at times caused at
5=8 This astrologer cast the birth horoscope of Rome.
validity of fatalistic astrology, thus continuing the Latin own scepticism concerning fatalistic astrology. Titus least some of those who thought themselves magically
551 On his astrological interests, see above, p. 67 f.
S0! Compare on this magus above, p. 85 f. minority tradition which steadfastly opposed the more ( a . d . 79-81) succeeded his father whose co-regent he
“ sentenced to death ” to perish without visible cause.
553 Pliny usually refers to Epigenes of Rhodes, but sometimes Could Titus have carried his faith in the stars that far?
merely to an Epigenes, who may perhaps on occasion have been “ * Ibid. 2, 1, 1; compare on the subject W. Kroll, Die Kos-
Ibid. 2, 6, 28 f.
a different author, although hardly the early Hellenistic astro­ mologic des Plinius; Breslau, 1930. °”5 Suetonius, Titus, 2.
“•* Ibid. 2, 23, 92 f. and 91.
logical writer Epigenes of Byzantium. M* Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2, 4, 12-13. 500 Pliny. Nat. Hist. 2, 22, 89.
5a” Ibid. 2, 23, 94.
6I!, Pliny, epist. 3, 5. ss“ In the words of Goethe (Faust, /) : “ Er hat Vernunft und 5IUW. Kroll, Die Kosmologie des Plinius: 1 ff., analyzes it in 007 Suetonius, Titus, 9, 2.
Loc. cit. braucht’s allein, urn tierischer als jedes Tier zu sein.” I’c' Ibid., 10, 1; compare Cassius Dio, ep. 66, 26, 1f.
detail.
*** Pliny, Nat. Hist. 1, pr., 17 and 20. s'° Pliny, Nat. Hist. 2, 5, 14 ff.
142 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F A ST ROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
The assumption that Titus did, indeed, possess an
astrological prediction of his death date is strengthened
by the fact that his younger brother, Domitian, assuredly
had received such a prophecy:
Since a long time lie [Domitian] had a certain knowledge
of the year and the day of his death, even, indeed, of the
hour and the manner of his end. In his youth the Chal­
daeans had predicted him all this.569
It may be difficult for a modern mind to project itself
into a mental state of absolute acceptance of such dicta.
Yet only by fully realizing the depth of the impression
thus created in Domitian’s mind may one comprehend
the shadow hovering above this ill-fated ruler. The
prophecies of the astrologers were no secret. The Fla­
vian family knew them. Perhaps they had even been
made at the time of his birth when Vespasian consulted
the Chaldaeans about the future of the infant. So seri­
ously did, indeed, young Domitian take the predictions
that
Even his father had once at table made fun of him when
he refused to partake of some mushrooms: “ Did he not
know the fate in store for him any better [than to be afraid
of possibly poisonous mushrooms] ? He should fear iron ”
[not mushrooms].679
The firm belief that he would be assassinated seems
to have overshadowed the whole life of Domitian.
Having accepted this fate, revealed by the stars, “ he
was for that reason continually filled with anxiety and
terror, and the slightest suspicion [against anyone]
made an enormous impression upon him .” 671 An ob­
server 072 who had occasion to comment on Domitian
ventured the character analysis that “ in so far as one
may risk an appraisal, he was against his inner inclina­
tion made rapacious by [financial] needs and became
bloodthirsty out of fear.” 573 Fear of the deadly iron
never left Domitian. To what lengths he carried his
terror could be seen from two incidents. The senate
had voted him the honor of a bodyguard of Roman
knights who in festive dress and armed with spears
should precede him between the official lictors and the
court messengers. Domitian, usually most willing to
accept any new honors exalting his position, declined.
He had, his contemporaries believed, no desire to add
armed men to his immediate entourage. Similarly,
when a Greek quotation of quite harmless content was
paraphrased to allude to his future assassination, he
was frightened into withdrawing a recent edict which
had ordered the destruction of surplus vineyards. For
the pamphleteer had quoted one of the doomed vines
588 Suetonius, Domitian, 14, 1.
570 Loc. cit.
071 Ibid., 14, 2. . Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Semi­
578 Ibid., 12, 2. Suetonius reported a scene which he himself
witnessed, although apparently not in the presence of the
emperor.
078Ibid., 3, 2.
as warning the emperor that even if he were to destroy
it to the very roots, it would grow again to produce
enough wine for a libation when he would be assassi­
nated.574 Fear-ridden Domitian executed his relatives,
lived in adulterous incest with his niece (whose hus­
band he had killed), and vainly tried to soothe his
jagged nerves by elevating himself to the pinnacle of
divine despotism.575
In the early years of Domitian’s reign Balbillus (if
he had lived as long as that) died. Of the fortunes of
his daughter’s family in this era we know but little.
The children of Claudia Capitolina and Antiochus Epi­
phanes were growing up, perhaps in Rome, or in the
safer atmosphere of a flourishing Greek city in the east.
Sometime prior to 85 Claudia’s husband seems to have
died, and the widow married Junius Rufus, a Roman
knight, who during the last decade of Domitian’s reign
became governor of Egypt. He held the post either
shortly before or after a. d . 90,576 proof that at least
until then this branch of the house of Thrasyllus would
have continued to enjoy imperial favor.577 Claudia’s
son Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus, mean­
while, was honored with the Athenian archonship. (ca.
87).578
Among the victims of a terror-stricken ruler those
would, of course, be most eagerly prosecuted who were
believed to possess “ imperial horoscopes.” The legal
action of maiestas could be brought against them for
having inquired about the political future.679 Vespasian,
relying upon astrological assurances that his sons were
bound to succeed him, had — as we saw — considered
such predictions made to third parties as erroneous
and refused to prosecute the holders of imperial horo­
scopes. Titus too had followed this policy.680 Domi­
tian, however, took no chances. He exiled Mettius
Pompusianus to Corsica and then ordered his execution
because it was public knowledge that his horoscope promised
him the throne, and because he always carried with him a
map of the world painted on parchment, as well as excerpts
from Livy’s speeches of kings and commanders, and had
also named his slaves Mago and Hannibal.580
Mettius Pompusianus was hardly the only victim of
this kind!
Domitian clearly lacked the assurance of the true
fatalist. His father and his brother, Titus, had been
sensible enough to draw the logical conclusion from
5,‘ Ibid., 14, 2.
",a Ibid., 13, 1-2; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 5, 7 fromZonaras 11, 19.
570Compare Stein, R E 10, 1919: c. 1083.
077 It would be worthwhile to know the reasons which Domi­
tian whispered to his pet dwarf; Suetonius, Domitian, 4, 2.
Cf. p. 136.
nar 9, 1951: 8 ff.
r,s0 Suetonius, Titus, 9, 1-2, may refer to one, or possibly two
cases of this kind.
r"’' ! Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3.
T H E P O W E R O F ASTROLOGERS FR O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 143
their astrological belief. Domitian, on the other hand, sion order against astrologers, choosing like his father,
represented the type of person who irrationally believed Vespasian, and Vitellius before him, the legal form of
in his grim destiny and yet tried to escape it. Like an imperial edict. Simultaneously, an expulsion of
Tiberius philosophers was decreed.585 We may well assume
that especially the Cynics and the Stoics were aimed at,
Domitian, of course, had not failed to take careful note of
the Cynics because they were inveterate rabble-rousers,
the days and the hours when the foremost men had been
born, and in consequence was destroying in advance not a
the Stoics because (as in the days of Nero and Ves­
few of those who were not even hoping for the attainment pasian) they represented the creed of the aristocratic
of power.582 opposition to the divine despotism of Domitian’s choos­
ing. The futility of these measures was soon apparent.
Since it is nowhere asserted that Domitian himself was
For in a . d . 93 Domitian not only went so far as to
a practicing astrologer, he must have relied on the fore­
execute the leaders of the Stoic opposition, Junius
casts of expert astrologers at court. To what extent his
Rusticus, Herennius Senecio, and Helvidius, the son
father’s court astrologers also served him is unknown.
From his reign we do not possess the name of any of of the Stoic “ martyr ” Helvidius Priscus,588 but also
once more drove the philosophers and astrologers from
the court-astrologers and can only deduce their presence
from such references and on the ground of the general Rome.687
But inexorably the fatal date was approaching:
continuity of imperial faith in astrology in his reign.
The haunted spirit of Domitian must also have been When the time of the dreaded danger came closer, he
responsible for a nightmarish episode worthy of the became more worried from day to day. He had the walls
imagination of an Edgar Allan Poe : of all rooms through which he used to' walk covered with
luminous stone,588 through whose mirroring effect he could
He entertained the foremost men among the senators and observe everything that went on behind his back. He also
knights in the following fashion. He prepared a room that examined prisoners mostly in secret and alone; holding even
was pitch black on every side, ceiling, walls, and floor, and their chains in his own hands.589
had made ready bare couches of the same color resting on
It was in vain. We are told that his own wife has­
the uncovered floor; then he invited his guest alone at night
without their attendants. And first he set beside each oftened the final conspiracy.590 The emperor himself
them a slab shaped like a gravestone, bearing the guests expected to be killed on September 18, 96 at the fifth
name and also a small lamp, such as hangs in tombs. Next
comely naked boys, likewise painted black, entered like
hour. On September 17 he moodily suggested to keep
phantoms, and after encircling the guests in an awe­ some truffles which were served him until the next day,
adding: “ Provided that I should still be able to eat
inspiring dance took up their stations at their feet. After
this all the things that are commonly offered at the sacrifices
them then.” In the same vein he firmly informed his
to departed spirits were likewise set before the guests, all
intimates that “ on the following day the Moon in
of them black and in dishes of a similar color.
Consequently every single one of the guests feared andAquarius would be stained with blood and a deed would
be done of which men all over the world would talk.” 591
trembled and was kept in constant expectation of having his
throat cut the next moment, the more so as on the part of The usual portents abounded of course, but “ nothing
everybody but Domitian there was dead silence, as if theymade so deep an impression on him as did a reply of
were already in the realms of the dead, and the emperor
the astrologer, Ascletarius,” i. e. probably Asclation or
himself conversed only upon topics relating to death and
slaughter. Finally he dismissed them. . . . And scarcely Asclepios.592 The man sometime on September 17 was
had each guest reached his home . . . when word was brought before Domitian on a charge of maiestas, proba­
brought him that a messenger from the emperor had come.
bly for his prediction of the emperor’s impending
While they were expecting accordingly to perish this timedeath.593
in any case [the messengers merely brought them costly
Domitian with a forced laugh asked the doomed man
presents from Domitian].588
the same question which on an earlier occasion Tiberius
Sharp tongued Roman gossip had it that this was, was supposed to have asked Thrasyllus, i. e. whether
indeed, meant to be “ the funeral banquet that Domitian
held for those who had died in Dacia and in Rome,” 581
888Jerome, Chron., a . d . 89-90.
probably in the year 89. The mounting tide of dis­ 888 Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 13, 2-3.
content was accentuated at about this time by the 587 Suetonius, loc. cit.; Cassius Dio, loc. cit.; Jerome, Chron.,
rebellion of L. Antonius on the Rhine border. The A. d . 93-94; Suidas, s. v. &ofunav6s; compare also Pliny, epist. 3,
rebellion was put down by L. Maximus, but wholesale 11; Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 7, 3.
088 On this lapis phengites, see Pliny, Nat. Hist. 36, 22, 163.
executions followed in its wake. Inflammatory astro­ It was found in Cappadocia in the reign of Nero.
logical predictions in Rome seem to have worried 888 Suetonius, Domitian, 14, 4.
Domitian to such an extent that he reissued an expul- 580 Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 15, 2 ff.
0,1 Suetonius, Domitian, 14, 1.
888 Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 15, 6, from Xiphilinus; compare 6,5 Compare Cat. 8, 4 : 101, n.; F. H. Cramer, The Caesars
and the stars (2), Seminar 10, 1952 : 36 ff.
Zonaras, 11, 20.
588 Casius Dio, ep. 67, 9, 1-5, from Xiphilinus. 508 Cod. Paris, suppl. gr. 607 A, f. 44”; see Cat. 8, 4 : 101, 3 ff.:
compare Suetonius, Domitian, 15, 3; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 16, 3.
I18‘ Ibid. 67, 9, 6, from Xiphilinus.
144 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF AST RO LO G Y IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D T H E P O W E R OF ASTROLOGERS F R O M AUGUSTUS TO D O M IT IA N 145

the astrologer could foresee what was in store for him­ his innermost being accepted as inexorable fate he sen­ Not even the use of maiestas actions against the more desperately— and in his case vainly— to fight Fate itself.
self.591 Thrasyllus was credited with anticipating an tenced the diviner to death, but postponed the execution important violators of the imposed topical restrictions This outlook was illogical, but thoroughly human. The
imminent mortal danger. Now Ascletarius-Asclation so that the man could before dying behold the fallacy could dampen the ardor of the faithful. We are of desire to know the future and yet to be able to prevent
too gave “ proof” of the accuracy of his astrological of his prediction. With this business the day began. course best informed about the lives of the rulers. it from coming true has always remained one of man’s
skill, predicting that shortly he would be torn to pieces Domitian must have gone through untold agonies as Every single one of them seems to have been given tragi-comic follies. It is, indeed, difficult for modern
by dogs. Domitian gave orders to execute him at once the hours dragged on. Scratching himself nervously, promises of supreme political power, although not always minds to visualize the deep and often blind faith of
and to bury him carefully. It was the action of a he drew some blood. He cried out: “ If that would by astrologers. These, however, were at least said to Roman society' in astrology. We are too prone to
desperate man trying to disprove what in his own mind only be a ll!” 59” Time passed slowly. The hour for have been responsible for such prophecies in the case consider it as what it is today: a shallow hobby for
he foresaw only too well. Even so Domitian failed. his siesta at hand Domitian retired. A sword lay always of Octavianus Augustus, Tiberius, Nero, Galba, Otho, shallow minds. Almost two thousand years of Judaeo-
A sudden storm extinguished the funeral pyre. While under his pillow, mute testimony of the ruler’s ever- Vespasian, probably Titus, and certainly Domitian. Christian indoctrination have vaccinated western civili­
the men in charge of the cremation had sought shelter worried mind. Parthenius, one of the conspirators, Perhaps even Caius had received such predictions. zation against fatalism so that even the revived mechan­
a pack of dogs fell upon the half burnt corpse and tore was said to have removed the blade secretly that day,600 Claudius alone never obtained such astrological encour­ istic concept of the universe did not lead to a durable
it to pieces. An actor by the name of Latinus passed leaving only the handle. Domitian apparently did not agement. Nor was, of course, the receiving of such renaissance of this faith. Therefore it is sometimes
the extraordinary scene. That evening — he had been notice the fraud. He awaited the passing of the fifth promises confined to emperors-to-be. Many noblemen difficult to realize that ancient astrologers, although
invited to dinner by the emperor — he told Domitian hour. If he survived it, all might still be well. The stars lost their lives because they were known to possess they contained in their ranks an inevitable quota of
what he had seen. The effect upon the ruler must would have lied. Finally he could stand it no longer. “ imperial horoscopes.” Sometimes they had received charlatans, were very often high minded scholars, some
have teen staggering. Vainly he tried to sleep that He asked for the time. He was told— falsely— that the direct astrological promises to this effect, as for example of whom were scientists of the first rank. One cannot
night. “ About midnight he was gripped by such panic dreaded fifth hour was over, the sixth having begun. the luckless Mettius Pompusianus. Often, however, dismiss men like Manilius or Thrasyllus as supersti­
that he jumped out of bed.” 595 September 18 dawned In a frenzy of relief Domitian believed all danger passed court astrologers simply informed the emperor of their tious fools, or money starved knaves. The rise of
at last. The restless emperor ordered another diviner and was about to hurry to a bath. At this moment, his having discovered “ dangerous ” men possessing im­ astrologers to positions of influence and power during
to be arraigned before him : the augur Larginus Pro- wariness momentarily relaxed, another conspirator, perial horoscopes, whereupon a number of them were this period was general. Thrasyllus and his house did
culus. The man had on the far-away borders of Ger­ named Stephanus, asked to be permitted to reveal im­ exiled or slain, perhaps without even having themselves not represent a unique fluke of good fortune, but merely
many through the augurial technique of brontoscopy portant news to the emperor in private. Domitian known their fatal horoscope. But the practice of as­ the most spectacular case of this kind.
predicted a change of rulers.596 He had not done this agreed. Stephanus then stabbed him. Others rushed trology remained rare among the Roman gentry of the Latin astrologers throughout this era continued to
in public, according to this version, and only when in and gave the emperor the coup de grace. Stephanus first century. Tiberius was the only practicing astrol­ be a small minority. In the east Egypt seems to
asked about that matter. From the time of Suetonius himself was slain in the melee by men loyal to Domitian. oger on the throne during the first century. Nor do have produced the greater part of the more renowned
(ca. a . d . 100) to that of Cassius Dio (ca. a . d . 200) Thus ended on September 18, 96 the Flavian era, and we know of any successors to Republican aristocratic astrologers. Thrasyllus was an Alexandrinian. The
the story had changed in important aspects. Larginus with it the whole period in which, since the reign of astrologers, like Nigidius Figulus, Tarutius Firmanus, very names of astrologers like Pammenes and Ptolemy
Proculus was said to have made his dangerous pre­ Augustus, astrologers, having become the power behind or Manilius, although undoubtedly mere dabbling in Seleucus pointed in the direction of Egypt. Asclation
diction in public. Moreover he was credited with haying the throne, had reached the zenith of their influence in astrology remained in vogue among educated Romans. (alias Asclepius or Ascleparius) also may well have
predicted accurately the very day on which Domitian Roman history. Astrologers were ubiquitous, the majority still hail­ stemmed from Egypt. Assuredly Chaeremon, Nero’s
would die.597 This was of course only possible through It seems ironic that probably Domitian’s very em­ ing from the east. The more often they were formally tutor, also came from Alexandria. Of earlier astrologers
the use of astrological techniques. Indeed, Xiphilinus' phasis upon the fifth hour of September 18 as the time expelled, or jailed and exiled, the greater became their who lived in our era (i. e. from the middle of the first
epitomized version of Dio was paralleled by a more which would be fatal for him inspired the conspirators prestige. Clients were willing to keep a renowned century b . c. until the end of the first century a . d )
explicit variant, preserved in a tenth century manu­ to choose that moment for their deed. For, believing astrologer on their “ pay-roll ” even while he was exiled the names of Timaeus, Thessalus, and Teucrus the
script. There Larginus Proculus was referred to as in astrology as they did, they themselves would be to a far away island. Pammenes in his exile, for ex­ Babylonian seem most important. Timaeus is believed
" an astrologer and sorcerer ” who had made his inclined to believe that their undertaking was “ fated” ample, still drew a large income from Roman noblemen to have lived during the first century b . c .,001Thessalus
prophecy in an assembly in Germany.’'98 Perhaps the to succeed if carried out at the very moment designated who continued to patronize him by correspondence— lived in the middle of the first century a . d .,602 and
well attested episode concerning the astrologer Ascle­ by the stars for the death of the emperor. with results fatal to some of them. Nor were ambitious Teucrus apparently some decades later.603
tarius-Asclation led to the later ascription of astrological men the only source of revenue for astrologers. Aemilia All of them stemmed from the Greek east. Timaeus’
prowess to the augur also. Lepida, Claudia Pulchra, the younger Agrippina, Lollia works included a treatise jua^juaroca, and another one
11. CONCLUSION Paulina, Domitia Lepida, Poppaea Sabina, to mention Trcpl The earliest author to quote him was
In any case a political forecast of this kind would be
only a few great ladies of the first century, were faith­ the elder Pliny, but he knew already of an author who
treason in Roman law as then established. The diviner, The first century of the principate witnessed the final
ful, if not to their numerous husbands or lovers, at had opposed views of Timaeus. In the second century
therefore, had been sent to Rome in chains and was conversion of the Roman nobility to the most profound
least to their belief in astrology. Since high society a . d . both Vettius Valens and Antiochus used astro­
now, on the morning of the fatal day, brought before faith in fatalistic astrology it ever acquired. The elder
usually set the pace in such matters, one can safely logical writings of Timaeus.005 About a . d . 500 the
the emperor. Domitian’s mood can easily be imagined. Pliny rightly referred to this as a well-nigh universal
assume that at least the middle class was equally in­ astrologer Palchus still knew him ,000 while of medieval
It bespoke his desperate and wholly irrational hoping movement. Only in such an age would the fantastic
fected with the all-pervading creed. Petronius thus in authors Suidas and Tzetzes were to refer to him.697
against hope that in a direct challenge to what he in rise of a man like Thrasyllus be possible. In vain did
his Satyricon could take it for granted that wealthy
the rulers of this era try to monopolize what they came , "”1Compare W. Kroll, Die Kosmologie des Plinhts: 10 f.
parvenus were also consulting astrologers even for
"•* Cod. Paris, suppl. gr. 607 A, f. 44'; see Cat. 8, 4: 99, 9 ff.; to accept, at least since the last decade of the reign of “ 2F. Cumont, Cat. 8, 4: 253 f.
important business decisions.
Cassius Dio, 55, 11, 2; Cedrenus, 1: 344, 1; ed. Bonn; on the Augustus, as the most accurate and scientific means of ““ F. Boll, Sphaera - . 6-12; 416, 2; W. Gundel, RE, 2. Reihe,
Thrasyllus legend, compare A. H. Krappe, Tiberius and Thra­ divination. Attempts to outlaw political inquiries and It was always difficult for human beings to accept 5, 1, 1934: c. 1132, no. 5,-c. 1134.
syllus, Amer. Jour. Philol. 48, 1927 : 359-366. unquestionably the tenets of fatalistic astrology. Nor Suidas, s. xi. Ti/taios.
those about the death of anyone remained ineffective.
°®6 Suetonius, Domitian, 16, 1. would ordinary minds usually perceive the inherent ““ Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 2, 31; ed. Kroll: 102, 19ft.;
M0 Ibid., 16, 2. difference between it and its milder sister,' catarchic Antiochus in Cat. 8, 3: 116, 3.
:'*7Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 16, 2, from Xiphilinus. 5” Suetonius, Domitian, 16, 2. For Palchus, see Cat. 1: 97.
CMCod. Paris, suppl. gr. 607 A, f. 44'; Cat. 8, 4: 100, 27,- oao Suetonius, Domitian, 17, 1-2; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 17, 1, astrology. Even those who, like Domitian, were per­ 007 Compare W . Kroll, RE, 2. Reihe, 6, 1, 1936: c. 1228, no. 9.
2; compare Cedrenus, 1: 430, 20-431, 2; ed. Bonn. from Xiphilinus. suaded of the inescapability of astrological fate, tried For the identification of this author, see Cat. 8, 4: 253 d.
146 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
Among the physicians of the first century who linked
astrology with their profession Thessalus of Tralles
(not Harpocration) was an outstanding figure.608 His
treatise On plants ruled by the twelve signs and the
seven planets, addressed to Claudius or Nero, has
already been mentioned.609
By far the most important astrological writer, how­
ever, whom we know of in this period was Teucrus the
Babylonian. He seems to have flourished in the first
century a . d .610 In astrological literature his emphasis
on the decani and their paranatellonta611 has led some
modem authors to assume that the Babylon located in
Egypt— homeland of the decani— was the native town
of Teucrus.*18 Others maintained with better reason
that Chaldaean Babylon (or its later neighbor Seleuceia)
was the city of his birth, ascribing to him an attempt
to vindicate Chaldaean astrology against the then pre­
vailing primacy of “ Egyptian ” astrology.613 Be that
as it may, Teucrus the astrologer was to be of con­
siderable influence in the era of Arab astrology, many
centuries later. He was, on the other hand, a valuable
contributor to the evolution of astronomical nomen­
clature. For he transmitted the names of numerous
stars and constellations, not found in the sphaera grae-
canica, but stemming from “ barbaric sources,” i. e.
“oa Already P. Boudreaux, Cat. 8, 3: 132-134, pointed out the
“ similarities ” between “ Harpocration ” and Thessalus.
See p. 122 f.
” * F. Boll, Sphaera: 416, 2.
°1' Compare above, pp. 21-25.
813 For example W. Gundel and R. Eisler; see RE, 2. Reihe,
5, 1, 1931: c. 1132, no. 5,-c. 113.
01J Bouche-Leclercq: 224 and 227.
IV. A S T R O LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M NERVA TO THE D EA T H O F SEV ERU S
A L E X A N D E R (96-235)
1. INTRODUCTION
From the death of Domitian (September 18, a . d . 96)
to that of Severus Alexander (March 18 or 19, a . d .
235) almost one hundred and thirty-nine years elapsed.
The span from the assassination of Julius Caesar
(March 15, 44 b . c.) to that of Domitian had been
almost exactly as long. But not only for numerical
reasons did the end of the Flavian dynasty mark the
end of an era and the beginning of another. There are
more profound grounds for this sub-division of the
principate. One of the main characteristics of the
earlier age had been the stubborn opposition with
which a small but still important aristocratic group in
Rome confronted the monarchic establishment of Julius
Caesar and Augustus. This opposition had fortified
itself with intellectual weapons borrowed chiefly from
the arsenal of the Stoic school of philosophy. The noble
from non-Greek traditions.614 Like Thrasyllus, Teu­
crus seems also to have been interested in the magical
properties of precious stones,815 in short among the
known astrologers of the first century of our era Teu­
crus looms next to Thrasyllus as the most important
figure. Altogether the influx of eastern astrological
works into the Latin orbit continued steadily throughout
the early principate.
Only a few opposed the raging torrent. Certainly the
first century of the principate did not produce intel­
lectual opponents to fatalistic astrology of the calibre of
a Lucretius, or a Cicero. Nevertheless, a hostile under­
current remained in existence. Writers like Columella
and the elder Pliny attested to the tenacity of the small
minority which in Rome opposed the unquestioning
fatalism of the Stoics and their allies, the astrologers.
A few Greek poets, among them Lukillios and a Graeco-
Jewish philosopher like Philo, still lashed out at the
folly of astrological infallibility. And in melancholy
protest inscriptions on tombstones recorded for posterity
the tearful disappointment of many who had too late
discovered the vanity of their trust in astrologers. The
crest of astrological influence on Roman rulers and
ruling strata was to pass with the Flavian era. There­
after rationalist astrology was faced with increasing
opposition from two diametrically opposite forces:
religious mysticism on the one hand, and rationalist
scepticism on the other.
“ * F. Boll, Sphaera: 6-12.
" ‘ Compare Ruska, Tabula Smaragdina, 1926: 129 and 136;
F. v. Lippmann, Die Entstehung der Alchemie 1, 1919: 356 and
515.
Stoics from the younger Cato (d. 46 b . c . ) to Thrasea
Paetus (d. 6 6 ), Helvidius Priscus (d. ca. 70), his son
(d. 93), and Junius Rusticus (d. 93) had produced a
long line of martyrs for the cause. Owing to the social
and political influence of their leaders, the Stoics were
far more dangerous to the new monarchic order than
the merely rabble rousing Cynics. Nero’s minister of
ill repute, Tigellinus, had presented the official view of
the earlier principate in saying that to be a Stoic was
synonymous with being a foe of the imperial regime.1
Ironically enough both the Stoics and the emperors
of the first century of our era were equally fervent
believers in astrology. That meant that in a sense the
Even a man of Quintilian’s horizon shared this general
opinion; see Quintilian, de inst. orat. 6, 3, 78.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M NERVA TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
imperial restrictions imposed temporarily or perma­
nently upon the practice of astrology and other forms
of divination were in large measure especially directed
against the Stoic opposition. From the reign of Nero
to the death of Domitian both oppositional philosophers
and astrologers were, indeed, on more than one occa­
sion common targets of imperial expulsion edicts.
Slowly, however, the Roman nobility bowed — albeit
grudgingly^—to the army-supported monarchic govern­
ment. The senatorial explosion which had caused the
death of Domitian was, however, both a warning to his
successors and to the senators themselves. For the
permanent latent conflict between the senatorial claim
to the right of choosing an emperor by its vote and the
army’s traditional preference for a Julio-Claudian, or,
more lately, a prince of its own choice arose anew im­
mediately after the accession of the senatorial candidate,
Nerva. Only his hurried adoption of a popular general
as his successor prevented another civil war. Nerva’s
early death ( a . d . 98) also helped greatly to ease the
tension by bringing this commander, Ulpius Trajanus,
to the throne. He in turn was succeeded by a relative
whom he in all probability adopted before his death in
117:2 Aelius Hadrianus.
Hadrian in turn prior to his death in 138 not only
adopted his successor, Antoninus Pius, but made him
also adopt the young man who as Marcus Aurelius
ruled after the death of Antoninus (161). The usual
term applied to this series of emperors, referring to
them as “ rulers by adoption” rather than by biological
hereditary right, is misleading. For from Julius Caesar
to Nero with the single exception of Caligula and
Claudius adoption had been the usual way to create an
heir designate. In addition, however, a family relation­
ship of some sort usually existed. This was the case
between Julius Caesar and Octavianus Augustus and,
more remotely, between Claudius and Nero, although
Augustus and Tiberius— step-father and step-son— had
not been connected by blood-relation. Caius Caligula,
on the other hand, owed his selection by Tiberius
largely to the family relationship between them: he was
the grandson of the emperor’s brother and the great-
grandson of Augustus. The constitutional aspects of
Augustus’ principate discouraged the hereditary princi­
ple so popular in. the orient, but the political practice
favored at least some blood tie between the princeps
and his successor. Titus and Domitian were the first
and only non-adopted sons to succeed their father.
From the legal point of view, therefore, the adoption
of heirs designate from Trajan to Marcus Aurelius
represented not a new principle but merely the revival
of the one which had prevailed in the beginning of the
principate. It meant (after the hereditary Flavian era)
a victory for the senatorial opposition over oriental
principles governing the dynastic succession.
Eutropius errs.
147
In one important respect, however, did these rulers
of the second century of our era differ from the majority
of their predecessors. The selection of a successor now
was made almost always irrespective of any blood ties
between the emperor and his chosen heir. Nerva was
not related to Trajan, Antoninus Pius was not con­
nected by close family ties with either his predecessor,
Hadrian, or — prior to the time of adoption8 — with
his successor, M. Aurelius. Hadrian, on the other hand,
was, indeed, related to Trajan, but his selection, as
history shows, could well be justified on the grounds
of his personal fitness for the task. The unprecedented
continuity of excellent government has made this Roman
era a traditional example of a "golden age” of peace
and prosperity. The earnest devotion of the emperors
to the laborious process of seeking the most suitable
candidate for the succession represented in itself a tri­
umph of the Stoic political ideal which insisted that
the government should be in the hands of “ the best
man.” Slowly the fires of anti-monarchic opposition
in the senate died down. The hopelessness of restoring
a republic against the unflinching insistence of the army
on monarchic leadership became at last apparent to the
overwhelming majority of the Roman nobility. Plots
fomented by ambitious individuals occurred, on the
other hand, even in the best of reigns. But the syste­
matic perfection of an imperial civil service based chiefly
on the lesser, i. e. the equestrian nobility contributed
much — especially since the reign of Hadrian — to the
strengthening of the government’s hand against the
vestiges of senatorial opposition.
It was symbolical that Marcus Aurelius, the last of
this illustrious sequence of rulers, was himself a con­
firmed Stoic. Nevertheless, it was this very Stoic on
the throne who broke the precedent by feebly suc­
cumbing to paternal affection for a worthless son.
Leaving his power to Commodus, Marcus Aurelius in
180 ushered in the final period of the principate. Of
the series of rulers from 180 to 235 only Septimius
Severus in 211 died a natural death. This statistical
fact alone indicated that something “ was rotten in the
state” of Rome. Commodus was strangled by an
athlete on December 31, 192. Didius Julianus, Perti-
nax, Pescennius Niger, and Clodius Albinus perished
violently within a few years. The restoration of domes­
tic tranquillity by Septimius Severus proved transient.
Soon after his death Caracalla, his son and heir, mur­
dered his younger brother Geta, in the very presence
of their mother, only to be slain himself a few years
later (217). His successor, Macrinus, in turn soon
met the same fate together with his son, Diadumenianus
(218). The victor, Elagabalus, fared no better. He
was dispatched in 222. His cousin Severus Alexander
lasted somewhat longer, but in the end he too was mur-
3 He did, however, afterwards arrange the marriage between
his daughter Faustina and M. Aurelius.
148 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
dered ( a . d . 235). With his death the catastrophic era
of the “ barrack emperors ” began.
In the light of the sanguinary statistics just cited
it is obvious that the years from 180 to 235 must be
considered as the twilight zone of a long period in
which the civilian power had succeeded in keeping in
check the ever-present threat of military despotism.
It was a twilight era in more ways than one. With the
exception of Macrinus and his son the emperors from
193 to 235 were again related by family ties and there­
fore formed a kind of hereditary sequence, returning—
mutatis mutandis— to the pattern of the first century of
our era. Actually, however, the reigns of Elagabalus
and Severus Alexander were the first ones in which
orientals wielded the imperial power. Thus was sym­
bolically completed the homogenization process which
Julius Caesar had envisaged for the empire, a concept
which he had borrowed from Alexander the Great. It
was but fitting that a few years before the first oriental
ascended the throne Caracalla’s constitutio of 212
proclaimed the equality before the law of almost all
free inhabitants of the empire by bestowing Roman
citizenship on them. The political decline of the Latin
West was at hand even before the great revolution of
the third century and long before the Germanic migra­
tions (usually credited with having brought about the
ruin of the Latin world). The last great jurists of the
realm known to us as individuals also lived and died—
some of them violently— in this twilight period. Their
Roman names more often than not veiled their eastern
origins. Thus the far-famed Gaius probably and Ulpian
certainly hailed from the eastern part of the empire.
Similarly in the field of literature, including his­
toriography, the star of Rome had long begun to pale.
The reigns of Trajan and Hadrian were the last ones
in which we encounter important Latin contributions.
The historians Tacitus and Suetonius, the poet Juvenal,
or Pliny the Younger, men of this type were the rear­
guard of the Latin host which from the days of Plautus
had added a significant portion to Europe’s cultural
heritage. Already their generation, however, had wit­
nessed the rising renaissance of Greek rivals. From
Plutarch to Cassius Dio and Herodianus Greek his­
torians were in the ascendant once more. Latin poetry
and prose similarly declined in the second century.
The Latin writings of an Apuleius, for example, cannot
compare with the Greek output of his contemporary,
Lucian. No Latin equivalent has come down to us to
the Greek works of Philostratus— feeble though they
were. In the realm of science and pseudo-science the
second century continued the traditional supremacy of
the Greek east. Names like Ptolemy or Galen speak
for themselves. In the field of astrology not a single
Latin treatise of this era has survived, not even in
fragments. The tangential essay by Censorinus (O n
the birthday), written in 238, could hardly stand com­
parison with the extant outpourings of Greek authors
in this field, among whom the second century pro­
duced (besides Ptolemy) men like Vettius Valens,
Antigonus of Nicaea, Antiochus of Athens, and others.
The second century of our era witnessed, on the
other hand, the last great revival of antifatalistic scepti­
cism in antiquity. Again the traditional arguments of
the New Academy and the Epicureans were dusted off
and flung in the face of the ardent champions of fatal­
istic astrology. Favorinus of Arles, who flourished in
the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and Antoninus Pius,
was the sole Latin in the procession of this revived
opposition. His arguments were in large part preserved
by an enthusiastic listener: Aulus Gellius. Favorinus’
older contemporary, Plutarch, too was (probably
falsely) credited with a treatise which tried to reconcile
fatalism with a modicum of free will. The greatest—
but not the most methodical — foe of fatalism during
the second century, however, was Lucian, a native of
Samosata, the ancient capital of the now defunct king­
dom of Commagene whose rulers had so assiduously
believed in astrology.4 Lucian, however, was not, nor
did he try to be a philosopher. His presentation rather
than his argumentation was effective and must have
attracted numerous readers. More seriously than Lucian
did the non-Stoic philosophers of this era combat as­
trology. Epicureans like Diogenes of Oioanda and
Diogenianus were joined in their attack upon fatalis-
tism by Cynic philosophers, for example Oinomaus of
Gadara, an occasional Academic like Maximus of Tyre,
or Peripatetics, of whom Alexander of Aphrodisias
(who flourished under Septimius Severus) was the
most important one.5 The most comprehensive and
devastating onslaught against astrology (and all other
forms of scientific endeavor) came from the pen of
Sextus Empiricus (about 200).
The battle royal of the second century between the
foes and the defenders of astrology will be dealt with
in detail later. Suffice it to say at this point that it
ended in a stalemate, or better in a defeat for both
sides, for during the third century the era in which
Graeco-Roman rationalism had developed and flourished
(and “ scientific” astrology with it) came to an end.
The claims of astrologers, as well as the logical argu­
ments advanced against them by their opponents, ceased
to impress an age which began to seek another approach
in man’s unending search for answers to the eternal
problems of the cosmos and his own role in it. The
mass of the Mediterranean population had never taken
an active part or even an interest in the intellectual
disputes. They had been satisfied to accept the astrolo­
gers’ claims at face value, but without ever abandoning
* See above, p. 13.
6A summary of their antifatalist arguments is found in D.
Amand, Fatalisme et liberte dans Vantiquiti grecque: 96-156;
Louvain, 1945. In keeping with his topic the author only tan-
gentially refers to anti-astrological arguments, i. e. when they
touch upon fatalistic astrology.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 149
their faith in religious revelations. Thus “ Mainstreet ” senator invited to accompany the emperor.9 But seven
remained happily unaware of the logical incompatibility years later, perhaps exposed as a usurer during an
between a belief in fatalistic astrology and the reliance anti-usury campaign, he committed suicide (a.d. 3 3 ) .10
on prayers and sacrifices to gods and goddesses for a It stands to reason that so intimate a friend of
happy and prosperous future. Tiberius must have been on good terms with Thrasyllus
The infiltration of increasingly primitive and often and must— at least— have pretended to a firm faith in
outright barbarous elements into the ranks and, in the astrology. Conforming to established practice, his son,
third century, into highest circles of the officers’ corps Nerva’s father, in all likelihood had his infant boy’s
of the Roman armies helped to encourage religious horoscope cast. We do not know what fate the astrolo­
rather than “ rationalistic ” superstitions. Outside the gers predicted at this time for young Nerva. Later in
army the ascendancy of eastern religions, long at home life, however, Nerva’s possession of an imperial horo­
in the western part of the empire also, became manifest. scope was well known and may, indeed, have been one
W ith the accession of Elagabalus in 218 a sun priest of the factors impressing in 96 the senators with the
introduced (although only for a short time) the sun “ inevitability ” of his being the “ fated ” choice to suc­
cult as the supreme cult of the empire.' The era in ceed Domitian. The public career of Nerva prior to 96
which “ scientific ” astrology had dominated Rome’s included the praetorship in 66 and the regular consulate
ruling circles was ending. —a great honor— together with Vespasian in 71. For
more than twenty years he seems to have remained in
favor with the Flavian house. For in 90 he was again
2. A S T R O L O G Y 'IN T HE REIGNS OF NERVA AND
TRAJAN (96-117) made consul, holding the office jointly with Domitian.
Soon afterwards, however, Nerva came under sus­
The lacuna in our ancient historical sources for this picion, perhaps in connection with the campaign of 9 3 ,
period, alleviated but slightly by inscriptions, medals, directed against the Stoic opposition, whose leaders
coins, some later summaries, and the fragments of an­ were executed, and the astrologers who— together with
cient authors preserved in Byzantine writings should oppositional philosophers — were once more expelled
not mislead us into assuming that there was a major from Rome.11 Nerva himself was exiled to Tarentum
break in the Latin life between the end of the Flavian and he might have fared worse. For his close con­
house and the reign of Hadrian (117-138). Literature nections with oppositional philosophers were no secret.
and rhetorical treatises, including Pliny’s Panegyric on An episode, se non e vero k ben’ trovato, reveals such
Trajan, demonstrate the continuity of Latin upper-class ties. Apollonius of Tyana, miracle-worker and prophet
enthusiasm for astrology. For Nerva’s career until his —a Dr. Faustus of the first century— was one of those
first consulate an inscription provides the most impor­ enmeshed in the net thrown out to catch oppositional
tant data.7 Born on November 8 , about 35 in the city philosophers in 93. About a century later Philostratus
of Narni north of Rome he came from a family of high wrote from extant sources a lengthy work on this
reputation. His father not long afterwards reached the strange figure. From it some passages may be quoted,
consulate, becoming consul suffectus in 40. The founder because they illustrate the close contact Nerva was
of the family’s fortune probably had been Nerva’s known to possess with such men, including prophets
grandfather, M. Cocceius, one of the outstanding jurists like Apollonius and astrologers as well. Apollonius was
of his time. His unscrupulous eagerness to amass ushered, so the story went, into the presence of Domi­
wealth had, however, ruined his close friendship with tian at a time when the emperor was at leisure and
Tiberius. In 26 when (in all probability moved by the therefore able to engage in a lengthy conversation with
advice of Thrasyllus and other astrologers) 8 Tiberius the renowned sage. He soon came to the point:
had left Rome forever, M. Cocceius had been the only
“ Don’t try to put me off . . . , but just tell me about your
darling Nerva and his accomplices.”
• Compare on this subject for example the classical work of F. “Am I to plead his cause . . . or— ? ”
Cumont, Les religions orientates dans I’empire romain, 4th ed.,
“ No you shall not plead it. . . . For he has been taken
Librarie orientaliste, Paul Geuthner, Paris, 1929; see also his red-handed in guilt; but just prove to me that you are not
Astrology and religion in the Roman empire, New York and yourself equally guilty as being privy to his designs. . . .”
London, 1912, G. B. Putnam’s Sons and La theologie solaire du “ For myself I know Nerva to be the most moderate of
paganisme romain, Acad, des inscript. 12, 1909 : 447-479; Lux men. . . . And as for his friends, for I suppose you refer to
perpetua: 178 ff.; Librairie orientaliste, Paul Geuthner, Paris, [Verginius] Rufus and Orfitus—these men also are discreet.
1949. . . . As for revolution, they are the last people to plan it or
’ CIL 11: 840, no. 5743; our most important sources for Nerva, to take part with another who should do so. . . .”
apart from coins and inscriptions, are Xiphilinus (Cassius Dio),
Eutropius, Orosius, the Epitome Caesarum (12) ; Aurelius Vic­ •Tacitus, Annals 4, 58; for his ties with Tiberius, compare
tor, as well as Pliny’s Panegyric, and Jerome, Chron., Abr. also Pomponius, Dig. 2, 2, 2, 44; Cassius Dio, 58, 21.
2112ff.; compare on Nerva and modern literature on him Stein, 10Tacitus, Annals 6, 26.
RE 4, 1901; c. 133, no. 16,-c. 154; P IR (2nd ed. 1936) : c. 292, 11 See above, p. 143; compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of
no. 1227,-294. astrologers from anicent Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12 1-2
1 See above, p. 104. 1951: 41-46. ’ ’
150 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E F R O M N E RV A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R 151
“ You accursed rascals, . . . you all hold together like clearer. Apollonius and Nerva were accused of having fact that from the hands of Domitian death had menaced tagonized Domitian there can be no question. Apol­
thieves. But the accusation shall unmask everything; for undertaken a forbidden consultation, outlawed by the
I know, as well as if I had been present and taken part in him but recently. From the context we cannot be cer­ lonius — then at Ephesus — for example, was invited
Augustan, edict of a . d . 1 1 : an inquiry into the political tain whether this incident occurred in 93 prior to his apparently less than a month after Nerva’s accession,
everything, all the oaths which you took, and the objects
for which you took them, and when you did it, and what future, i. e. about the death of Domitian. In modern exile, or after his return to the capital: to return from the east. Apollonius declined the invita­
was your preliminary sacrifice.” 12 times — so-called — Jews have been accused time and tion politely, but did send Nerva a letter containing
again of practicing secret human sacrifices. In the days . . . He had furthermore been in the peril of his life as
At the subsequent trial Apollonius refuted the charge the result of his being denounced by astrologers who some “ advice on matters of state.” 25 Much better
of Nerva and Trajan, Christians also were commonly fared Larginus Proculus, an haruspex who — perhaps
of wizardry. In doing so, he would, according to Philo­ declared that he should be sovereign. It was this last
accused of this and even worse practices, as a letter of circumstance that made it easier for them to persuade him through the use of astrology, or, according to others,
stratus, have presented a classification in which divina­ the younger Pliny attests.18 Small wonder then that to accept the imperial power.21 through brontoscopy— had predicted correctly the date
tion, together with the liberal arts, was clearly set apart Apollonius, Nerva, and their accomplices were not only
from the suspect “ pseudo-liberal art ” of the wizard; It would seem more probable that the denunciation of Domitian’s death. Sent to Rome in chains from
accused of maiestas, but also of having used human
was made after rather than before 93. But it is by no Germany (where he had made the fateful prophecy)
The various arts . . . are yet all concerned to make money, sacrifices for their nefarious attempt of ascertaining the he was sentenced to death by Domitian with the proviso
future. Apollonius denied the charge categorically. As means clear from this abbreviated passage whether
some earning less, some earning more, and some just enough that his execution should be carried out after the date
to live upon; and not only the base mechanic arts [/Sarawroi to Nerva’s role he reiterated his earlier statement: Nerva, having obtained such an astrological promise,
rtyvai], but also those of the rest which are esteemed liberal was betrayed by some astrologer who revealed the he had proclaimed for the emperor’s death. Thus he
arts [<7o<£ai], as well as those which only border upon being If I am to be put upon my trial on account of Nerva and dangerous secret of Nerva’s “ imperial ” horoscope to would die convinced of having witnessed Domitian’s
liberal [Wwro^ot].13 his companions, I shall repeat what I said to you the day survival and his death would be the more bitter. “ But
before yesterday. . . . For I regard Nerva as a man worthy Domitian, or whether Domitian, suspecting Nerva of
imperial designs, had employed his own staff of astrolo­ in the meantime Domitian was slain, and so Proculus’
In contrast to the strenuous efforts on the part of of the highest office . . ., but as one ill-calculated to carry
through any difficult plan; for his frame is undermined by a gers to find out whether or not Nerva was destined for life was saved and he received 400,000 sesterces [about
modern champions of the liberal arts, to set them apart disease which . . . incapacitates him even for his domestic $20,000] from Nerva.” 26
the throne. Probably both men had employed their own
from the vocational training, whose primary aim is to affairs.17 The accession of Nerva was greeted with open hos­
astrologers. From the context it seems more probable,
raise the future earning power of the student, Apol­ tility by the armed forces. The appointment of Trajan
It may have been the easily verifiable fact of Nerva’s however, that Nerva had not been denounced by his
lonius professed a more “ realistic ” view. But lest it to the command of the legions of upper Germany27
poor health that saved not only Apollonius, but also own men, but that Domitian’s staff had “ discovered ”
be forgotten, his was a case of special pleading; was followed by his adoption through which on October
Nerva. Apollonius admitted freely, however, that Nerva Nerva’s imperial prospects directly from his horoscope.
For 27, 97 Nerva, now rapidly failing in health, made him
And true philosophy is the only exception. And by liberal and he had, indeed, been very close.
arts I mean poetry, music, astronomy [atrrpovoniav], the art heir designate.23 Three months later Nerva was dead
This may have been an exaggeration arising from Domitian, of course, had not failed to take careful note (January 28, 98), and Trajan ascended the throne,
of the sophist and of the orator, the merely forensic kinds
excepted; and by the arts which border upon the liberal the vanity of Apollonius, but it is at least not impossible of the days and the hours when the foremost men had been one of his first acts of the reign being the deification
I mean those of the painter, modeller, sculptor, navigator, that a Roman grandseigneur like Nerva was the patron born, and in consequence was destroying in advance not a
few of those who were not even hoping for power; and he of his predecessor by the senate. Tradition had it that
agriculturist, . . . for these arts are not very inferior to the of a highly-reputed Greek sage like Apollonius. At any thereby a deceased ruler was elevated to the stars.
liberal professions [itc/]. And on the other hand . . . there rate Domitian’s suspicions, whether well founded or not would have slain Nerva, had not one of the astrologers who
are the pseudo-liberal arts [i//cuSo<7o<£o[] which I would not in 93, were temporarily allayed so far as Nerva and was friendly with the latter declared that the man would Octavius Octavianus had started this official interpre­
have confuse you with divination.13* die within a few days. And so Domitian, believing that this tation in the summer of 44 b . c. with the catasterism of
Apollonius were concerned.18 Apollonius was released would really come to pass, did not wish to be guilty of this
additional murder, since Nerva was to die so soon in any the late Julius Caesar.20 Valerius Maximus, for ex­
Apollonius thus set up the following categories: and betook himself to Greece, another singed victim of case.22 ample, had acknowledged this view by eulogizing at the
( 1 ) philosophy, ( 2 ) the liberal arts, including astro­ the persecution of suspected philosophers, and Nerva end of his preface to the Varia the catasterized prede­
nomia, (3) the applied liberal arts, including techno­ was permitted to return to Rome. For in 94 already Two comments are called for. For one thing Domi­ cessors of Tiberius. The younger Pliny now presented
logical skills of an artistic nature, (4) the pseudo-liberal Martial flattered him again openly in an epigram1* We tian acted wholly illogically in sending men—the luck­ the sum total of the first century’s catasterisms in his
arts, which included niagic, but not divination, i. e. not can safely assume that Nerva, like many another senator less Mettius Pompusianus was one of them 23 — to their Panegyric, welcoming, so to speak, Trajan back to
astrology. Although he did not specifically mention in these years of stalking terror, consulted the stars, death when he found out that the stars promised them Rome on September 1, 100:
astrology, he had this to say of divination: “ This is surely not for the first time, about his future. He may the throne. For if he executed them, their horoscopes
highly esteemed, if it be genuine and tells the truth, also have tried other methods of divination. When were demonstrably wrong. Hence Domitian’s own faith Tiberius allotted Augustus to the skies, but only to begin
though whether it is an art, I am not yet sure.” 1* Domitian’s wife, Domitia, learned of her husband’s plan in horoscopes should have been jolted. Furthermore, launching maiestas prosecutions himself. Nero did it to
Claudius for the sake of having a laugh, Titus to Vespasian,
From this it would be safe to conclude that astrology to launch a veritable massacre among the senators — a fact characteristic for that era emerges from the above and Domitius to Titus, the one in order to appear as the son,
would for Apollonius belong to category (3), i.e. besides doing away with herself— she passed the news quotation (if true). Among the staff of astrologers the other to pose as the brother of a god. You [Trajan]
among the applied liberal arts.15 Among these he had along to the senators concerned: consulted by Domitian was at least one man who be­ have lifted your [adoptive] father to the stars, not for your
included navigation, which would involve the ability to trayed his employer. Like Apollonius of Tyana this own glory, but because you believe he is a god.30
Accordingly they hastened the plot which they were
steer a course by the stars, in other words applied already forming; yet they did not proceed to carry it out unknown astrologer was well disposed towards Nerva,
Even more strongly did the catasterism of both
astronomy. Astrology would come under the same until they had determined who was to succeed to the and he used his authority with Domitian effectively to
Nerva and Trajan’s recently deceased natural father
heading: astronomy applied to divination. If naviga­ imperial office. . . . When none would accept it . . . they save Nerva’s life.24 In retrospect the historical impor­
betook themselves to Nerva.20
tion as applied astronomy was assigned to class (3), tance of this action was enormous. For it was Nerva
then astrology logically would also belong there. who a year later chose Trajan for his successor and 2BPhilostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 8, 27-28.
The reasons for approaching him were two: his per­ 28 Compare Suetonius, Domitian, 16; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 16, 2
As the trial proceeded, the charges became even sonal character and reputation for mildness, and the thus inaugurated the happiest period of the principate. from Xiphilinus; an anonymous author in cod. Paris, suppl ar
Of Nerva’s gratitude towards diviners who had an- 607 A in Cat. 8, 4: 100 f.
12 Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 7, 32 f. 18 Pliny, epist. 10, 96. 27 Compare Pliny, Panegyric, 9, 1-2.
13 Ibid. 8, 7, 3. 17 Philostratus, op. cit. 8, 7. 31 Loc. cit. 28 Ibid., 8, 2-3; epit. Caes., 12. The day became the dies imperii
188Loc. cit.; compare ibid. 8, 7, 9, and 15. 18 But as to the fate of others compare Syncellus, ed. Bonn, 1: 22Ibid., ep. 67, 15, 6; cf. Xiphilinus: 222, 31-255, 4; Zonaras, of Trajan; compare R. Paribeni, Optimus princeps 1 - 139 n !•
11 Loc. cit. 649 (f. 343); Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 2; Suidas, s. v. Aonfrtavos. 11, 20 . 2 v .; Messina, 1936-1937.
“ He was, moreover, reported to have written four books on 18 Martial, epigr. 9, 26. 28 Suetonius, Vespasian, 14; Domitian, 10, 3. 20 See above, p. 78 if.
astrology; Philostratus, Apollonius of'Tyana 3, 41. 80Cassius Dio, ep. 67, IS, 4-5. 24 Stein agrees with this premise; see RE 1, 1894: c. 135. 80 Pliny, Panegyric 11, 1-2.
152 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F A ST ROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
come into play in Pliny’s eulogy. Referring to both
the adoptive and the real father of the ruler, Pliny
addressed the deified Nerva directly:
What great joy, deified Nerva, is now yours when you
behold that whom you chose for being the best not only is
the best, but is also officially called thus.81 . . . But you,
too, father Trajan—for you also have, if not the stars, but
at least a seat next to the stars 32—what pleasure do you
feel when you behold that tribune, that soldier of yours as
so great an emperor and so illustrious a prince! 33
With more enthusiasm than tact Pliny even sug­
gested that Trajan himself already deserved a heavenly
abode:
With what outstanding intelligence had Titus cared for
our well-being . . . and was held equal to the gods, but
how much worthier of heaven are you who has added so
much to that for which we did make him [Titus] a god! 34
Actually Trajan had to wait about seventeen more
years for his deification which introduced him to the
astral abode of his imperial predecessors.
The unhappy state of our historical sources about the
reign of Trajan does not permit us to form a valid
opinion about his views on astrology. Negatively at
least one might say that he must have known from
numerous sources the predilection of his young relative
Ulpius
M. Ulpius Trajanus Ulpia-
(d. before ^
a . d . 100)
I I
M. Ulpius Trajanus—m. (before 100) Ulpia Marciana—in.—C. Salonius
• (emperor, 98-117) Pompeia Plotina (d. Apr. 29,112) I Patruinus
(d. ca. 122) (d. 78)
L. Vibius -Matidia
(d. 119)
Matidia (iunior) Vibia Sabina—m. (ca. 101)- -Hadrian
(d .136)
(d. after 161)
31 The passage embroidered the flattering concept that Trajan,
long before he received the title officially, was already optimus.
33 Apparently Trajan’s own father was also dead by then;
compare M. Durry, Pliny le Jeune. Panegyrique de Trajan, app.
i i : 233 f., Paris, Publ. Assoc. Guillaume Bude, 1938.
33 Pliny, Panegyric, 89, 2.
34 Ibid., 35, 4.
33 Compare M. Durry, op. cit., appendix ix : 246; Rubel, Die
Familie des Kaisers Trajan, Zeitschrift fuer die oesterreichischen
Gymnasien 36, 1916 : 486; RE 1, 1894: c. 497 f.
33After Trajan’s death she interceded for example with
Hadrian on behalf of Popillius Theotimus, head of the Epicurean
Hadrian for this form of divination. Yet Trajan did
not hesitate to arrange a marriage tie between his grand-
niece Vibia Sabina and the amateur astrologer (see
table) . 85 This marriage was arranged not long after
Pliny’s eulogy had been proclaimed and must have drawn
the twenty-four-year-old Hadrian even more closely
towards the inner family circle of the Ulpian house.
In view of the personal interest which Trajan’s wife,
Plotina, took in the Athenian colleges of philosophy,88
an interest which Hadrian was to share,87 she probably
knew personally a man very popular in Athens at the
time and made consul by Trajan in 109. This gentle­
man, a grand seigneur of the type later exemplified by
the better known Herodes Atticus,38 was C. Julius
Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus, grandson of the
renowned court astrologer, ex-governor of Egypt, and
Roman knight Balbillus.30 Philopappus and Julia Bal-
billa were the children of Balbillus’ daughter, Claudia
Capitolina, and C. Julius Antiochus Epiphanes, son of
the last ruler of Commagene (Antiochus IV ). Philo­
pappus himself was probably born towards the end of
Nero’s reign, his sister Julia perhaps about a decade
later. He may have spent his early years in Comma­
gene at his paternal grandfather’s court at Samosata.
With the incorporation of Commagene into the Roman
Aelius
I such an extent that he was not only able to join the
-m. Aelius Aelius Hadrianus
(expert astrologer ?)
I
P. Aelius -m.—Domitia Paulina
Hadrianus Afer
(40?—ca. 85)
I I
Domitia Paulina m. L. Julius Ursus
(emperor, Servianus
117-138) (d. 138)
Cn. Pedanius
Fuscus Salinator
(cos. 118)
Pedanius Fuscus
(113-138)
school, who was thereupon granted imperial permission to write
part of his will in Greek and to select a successor, irrespective
of whether or not the candidate possessed Roman citizenship;
Dessau, IS 2, 2, no. 7784; compare J. W. H. Walden, The uni­
versities of ancient Greece: 84 f., New York, Charles Scribner’s
Son, 1909.
37J. W. H. Walden, op. cit.: 83 {., gives a summary of the
situation.
3* He lived from ca. 100 ca. 179; see on him especially Philo-
stratus, vit. soph. 2, 1, ff. 545-566 and elsewhere; Suidas, s. v.
33 Compare above, p. 136.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
realm in 72, the boy and his mother in all likelihood
sought shelter with Balbillus, whose influence with
Vespasian helped to mitigate the fate of the fallen
dynasty of Commagene. Thereafter, during the ’seven­
ties, Philopappus for some time remained in Rome,
where the entire royal family was finally reunited.40
When he grew up, he showed little of the military
inclination of his father, but apparently was drawn very
strongly towards the intellectual interests of his mother’s
family. The center of philosophical studies, Athens,
became his favorite abode. He held the office of archon,
probably in the mid-’eighties, and possibly again in the
’nineties.41 His illustrious ancestry and the largesse
which might be expected from so wealthy a lover of
Athens must have contributed towards the bestowal of
this honor. Philopappus, like his father, was permitted
to retain the title of king.42 The range of his Greek
friends included Plutarch, who not only dedicated to
Philopappus one of his Moral discourses,43 but also
made him a speaker in another one.44 Of poetical offer­
ings the Hypomnemata of Q. Pompeius Capito were
apparently dedicated to him.45 Although Trajan cared
little for intellectuals, his wife, Plotina, who favored
the Epicurean sect, probably did appreciate them.
The degree of Romanization of this Graeco-Syrian
prince was shown by the fact that he enjoyed Trajan’s
favor — and Trajan was no lover of the Graeculi — to
brotherhood of the fratres Arvales, but was also chosen
by the emperor for membership in the imperial guards
and finally, a signal honor for a great-grandson of the
Alexandrian Thrasyllus and grandson of Balbillus,
43 See above, p. 136 ff.
31CIG 2, 2nd ed., no. 3451, referring perhaps to a . d . 87-88.
Although P. Graindor, Chronologic des Archontes Atheniens
sous I’empire, 1920: 95-100; 292, in his thorough discussion of
the problem of dating the tenure of Philopappus considers it
highly improbable that the Commagenian prince held the office
after 87, the later dates suggested by other authors (discussed
by Graindor: 96f.) cannot be dismissed as entirely impossible;
the hypothesis that the Philopappus who held the office of archon
between a . d . 90 and 100 was not only a different person, but
also that he died during his term of office is advanced by
Graindor: 102-104, but cannot convince. Even if C. Julius An­
tiochus Epiphanes Philopappus should have been archon as early
as 87, he might have been archon again in the ’nineties, but we
know that he lived until at least ca. 114.
33 Plutarch, quaest. conv. 1,10,1: 'I' fiaaiuXtus . . .: J. Kirchner,
strangely enough, was unaware of the connection between Philo­
pappus and the house of Thrasyllus: RE 20, 1, 1941: c. 75, no. 1.
43 The Quomodo adulator ab amico internoscatur (tt^s Slv t is
SianplveLt roy KoXaxa rov tpl\ov), 1 (f. 48 E). It has been con­
cluded from this dedication that Plutarch believed, surely with
good grounds, that Philopappus stood in need of some admonition
to guard against false friends posing as flatterers. His sump­
tuous tomb which survives is mute evidence of an inclination
towards ostentatiousness, a trait obviously transmitted to his
heirs.
33 Plutarch, quaest. conv., esp. f. 628 B.
33 Athenaeus, 8, f. 350 C; cf. Dittenberger, Apophoreton: 9;
Berlin, 1903; W. Kroll, RE 20, 1; 1041, c. 75.
153
elevated to the consulship in a . d . 109.46 Nevertheless,
like many a noble Roman before him, he seems to have
preferred Athens to any other domicile. It was, indeed,
his last wish that he should be buried in the beloved
city. The splendid mausoleum which his heirs — per­
haps some brothers unknown to history ?—erected (be­
tween a . d . 114 and 116) became a landmark. More
than fifty years later Pausanias, composing his Baedeker
for those touring Greece, wrote:
The place [in Athens] called the Museion . . . is a hill
opposite the Acropolis within the old city boundaries, where
legend says Musaios used to sing and, dying of old age, was
buried. Afterwards a monument also was erected here to a
Syrian [i. e. to C. Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus].
The monument has endured in large measure until this
day. For us it marks the end of the male line of the
house of Thrasyllus.
Trajan’s attitude about astrology is unknown. But
Nerva was a devoted client of astrologers and un­
doubtedly, apart from political and military considera­
tions, was reassured by astrological interpreters of
Trajan’s horoscope that his choice of an adoptive son
and successor was a propitious one. As for Trajan
himself the only suggestion of an astrological interest—
and it stemmed from an unreliable source— was to the
effect that Aelius Hadrianus, an uncle of Trajan’s
cousin, and therefore related, however distantly, to
Trajan also, was an amateur astrologer of considera­
ble reputation. He was said to have for example accu­
rately forecast that his grand-nephew, P. Aelius Hadri­
anus (born January 24, 76), was destined to mount the
throne some day.48 A family possessing an astrological
expert in its midst was likely to employ such talent to
ascertain the future of its most prominent member at
the time, i. e. Ulpius Trajanus. Be that as it may, we
can be certain that Trajan himself was neither a prac­
ticing astrologer, nor apparently much interested in
divination of any kind.48
Perhaps the dearth of our source materials veils
43From an inscription on this monument (CIL 3: 104, no. 552;
CIA 3, no. 557) this cursus honorum stems. Although P. Grain­
dor, Chronologie . . .: 98, n. 2, rightly remarks that the title
Optimus was not official prior to July or August a . d . 114—
hence Philopappus’ death should be placed at about this time—
he points out that unofficially the word optimus was applied to
Trajan on coins and in writings, for example in Pliny’s Pane­
gyric, 88, 4, many years earlier. On the consulate of Philopappus,
see Fasti cons. imp. Rom., ed. Liebenam: 107; compare W.
Judeich, Topographie von Athen, Hdb. d. kl. Alt., ed. I. Mueller,
3, 2, 2 : 346 f. (1st ed„ Muenchen, C. H. Becksche Verlagsbuch-
handlung, 1905); 388 (2nd ed.); see also P. Graindor, A thines
de Tibtre a Trajan: 51 f.
37 Pausanias, 1, 25, 8.
43SHA, Hadrian, 2, 4.
43Cassius Dio, ep. 68, 7, 4. Dio merely mentioned Trajan’s
lack of the then fashionable oratorical training, but from Pliny’s
Panegyric and all other sources it is clear that the camp rather
than the Forum or the auditoria of professors was the chief
training ground of young Trajan.
154 THE R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
from us the knowledge of astrological consultations
which Trajan may well have engaged in, but had there
been any real hold over him exercised by this craft it
is almost certain that Cassius Dio (and his Byzantine
excerptors), who rarely failed to include any data on
that subject, would have made some mention of this
attitude. If imagination were allowed some free play
it would be intriguing to speculate on Trajan’s visit to
Babylon. He was the only ruler of the principate to
reach this cradle of astrology. His visit to the already
deserted site — “ he saw nothing but mounds and stones
and ruins” — was said to have been prompted by the
desire to emulate Alexander. Indeed, in the ruins of
Babylon, he “ offered sacrifice in the room where
[allegedly) he had died.” 80 One may wonder whether
here or elsewhere on his marches across Mesopotamia
he did not'receive the usual flood of astrological pre­
dictions. But Clio’s lips are sealed about this matter
and hence are ours. Instead of idle speculation there­
fore let us turn to a survey of the views on astrology
held by some of the major Latin writers flourishing
into, through, and beyond his reign for an impression
of the importance of astrology in Rome at this time.
3. ASTROLOGY IN LATIN LITERATU RE AT THE
TURN OF THE FIRST CENTURY
It seems sufficient for our purposes to concentrate on
a relatively small but representative number of writers.
Of this group Quintilian, far famed rhetorician from
Spain — homeland of Trajan and Hadrian— , was the
oldest. He flourished in the Flavian era and exerted
considerable influence upon Rome’s intellectuals both
young and old. The praise bestowed on him by Mar­
tial 51 and Juvenal52 attests to this. Only a few years
younger than Quintilian was Martial, the greatest epi­
grammatist produced by the Latin speaking world.
Like Quintilian he was a native of the Spanish province
Tarraconensis and began to flourish prior to the reign
of Trajan. But his life extended well into the reign
of Trajan. Another member of this group was the
younger Pliny, one of Quintilian’s outstanding stu­
dents.53 Pliny himself became the center of a circle
which included not only Quintilian and Martial, but
also the historians Suetonius and Tacitus. The writ­
ings of men of such different backgrounds and creeds
reflected the attitude of Rome’s upper class concerning
astrology not only under the Flavians, but also during
the reigns of Nerva and Trajan.
It should always be borne in mind, however, that a
searching interest in astrology was limited to the
higher strata in Rome. The rank and file of the Latin
Cassius Dio, ep. 68, 30, 1, referring to a . d . 116.
51 Martial, epigr. 2, 90, 1 ff.
63Juvenal, 6, vv. 75 and 280; 7, vv. 186 and 189.
6* Pliny, epist. 2, 14, 10.
citizenry preferred the emotionally more satisfying for­
eign cults, including star worship, and only consulted
astrologers as indiscriminately as it did haruspices,
oriental soothsayers, and similar folk. For Rome’s
intellectuals, on the other hand, a minimum knowledge
of the various cosmologocal theories, including of course
astronomical hypotheses and established facts, had long
become a standard part of the higher educational cur­
riculum. How far non-scientists on occasion were able
to discuss, or at least present, topics of this kind was
illustrated by Seneca’s quaestiones naturales and the
elder Pliny’s Iristoria naturalist* The schools of ora­
tory, devoted to higher education of a more specific
nature, also recommended at least a smattering of astro­
nomical knowledge. An additional factor influencing
the outlook of high Roman society was undoubtedly
the attitude of the court. From Augustus to Nerva
unwaveringly a fierce faith in astrology prevailed and
inevitably influenced the courtiers, their families, their
friends and clients.
In the early years of Trajan’s reign— almost certainly
before 100 — died an old professor of Latin oratory:
Marcus Fabius Quintilianus. A Spaniard— he was born
about 35— Quintilian had been sent to Rome to receive
the best Latin education available. There was a cer­
tain parallelism between the family of Seneca and his
own. For Seneca’s father, the older Seneca (often
referred to as Seneca rhetor), had also come from Spain
to Rome (although a hundred years earlier) in quest
of a Latin education. For the same purpose Quin­
tilian’s father, a Spaniard too, went to Rome. He had
then become a professor of oratory,58 practicing at one
time in Rome where, indeed, he may still have met his
Spanish compatriot, old Seneca, an indefatigable visitor
of the Roman schools of rhetoric. Unlike the older
Seneca, however, the father of Quintilian was not
wealthy and eventually returned to Spain. Years later
he in turn sent his son to Rome for his higher educa­
tion. There the younger Seneca’s writings were then
the rage among the literati. Young Quintilian’s own
attitude towards Seneca,56 whose ideas he (somewhat
grudgingly) admired, but whose style he attacked bit­
terly, may go back to the impressions received during
this first sojourn in Rome during the ’fifties. Quin­
tilian apparently, like his father before him, did return
to Spain, perhaps to take over his father’s school.
He certainly was in Spain during the later years of
Nero’s reign and had attracted the favorable attention
of Galba during his long governorship of Quintilian’s
home-province, Hispania Tarraconensis. Perhaps out
of a personal attachment to Galba or simply because he
hoped to better his fortunes, Quintilian accompanied
Galba in 68 on his triumphant return to Rome. The fall
‘‘ Compare above, pp. 119ff., 139ff.
“ Quintilian, de inst. or. 9, 3, 73.
" Ibid. 10, 1, 125 ff.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
of Gallia and the turbulent months which followed did
not harm Quintilian. For the last three decades of his
life he flourished in the capital, not only as an out­
standingly successful professor of Latin oratory, but
also as a lawyer.57 His practical bent of mind may
have been responsible for his opposition to the private
tutorial system still prevalent among the great families
of Rome for the education of their sons. Quintilian’s
school was open to all who would pay the requisite fee.88
Although the suggestion that he was the first recipient
of an imperial salary for professors of the liberal arts88
may not be entirely accurate, he surely was a protege
of the Flavian rulers and eventually did receive a state
salary.
A man of Quintilian’s reputation could count on
attracting the most gifted students of his era. They
included, for example, the younger Pliny 60 and per­
haps Tacitus. Domitian’s two grand-nephews, how­
ever, were probably not among those enrolled in Quin­
tilian’s school of Latin oratory, but in all likelihood
privately tutored by him. Among the favors bestowed
thereupon on the Spanish rhetorician was a distinction,
unique for a man of his origins and profession: the
consular dignity awarded him by Domitian. Quintilian,
otherwise an honest and reasonable writer, showed his
gratitude by flattering Domitian 61 in the gross manner,
shown for example at an earlier age by Valerius Maxi­
mus and Velleius Paterculus towards Tiberius and
later by Pliny in honor of the more deserving Trajan.
The degrading aspects of such court flattery were
ludicrously brought out by Quintilian’s eulogy of
Domitian as a poet:
W ho could sing of war better than he who wages it with
such skill ? [Domitian’s wars were notorious failures!] To
whom would the goddesses that preside over literature
sooner lend an ear ? To whom would Minerva, the familiar
deity [Domitian insisted on being the son of Minerva],
more readily reveal her secrets? Future ages shall tell of
these things more fully; today his glory as a poet is dimmed
by the splendor of his other virtues. But you will forgive
us, Caesar, who worship at the shrine of literature, if we
refuse to pass by your achievements in silence. . . .62
It was inevitable that Quintilian, partly out of his
tTAmong Quintilian’s early writings was a defense of Naevius
Arpinianus against the charge of having murdered his wife. On
Quintilian’s familiarity with Roman law courts, compare for
example, dc inst. or. 4, 1,.19; 2, 86; 7, 2, 24; 9, 2, 73.
“ Jerome, Chron., A. D. 90.
5* Since Vespasian (Suetonius, Vespasian, 18) seems to have
introduced this policy, it appears somewhat unlikely that a man
like Quintilian should have had to wait until a . d . 90 before
receiving a government stipend from'the hands of Domitian
(Jerome, loc. cit.) and still be the first scholar thus honored.
Perhaps upon Quintilian’s retirement (ca. A. i>. 88) Domitian
granted him an additional pension beyond an earlier imperial
salary.
" Pliny, epist., 2, 14, 10.
“ Quintilian, de inst. or. 4, pr., 2 f.
M Ibid. 10, 1, 91 f.
155
partisanship for rhetoric as against philosophy, but
partly also out of conformity with the Flavian antagon­
ism against oppositional philosophers, should side with
the government on this issue. Acknowledging that the
Stoics had, indeed, ranked rhetoric as one of the vir­
tues,63 he nevertheless insisted that “ there is no need
for an orator to swear allegiance to any one philosophic
code.” 64 The study of mathematics he deemed an essen­
tial part of a future orator’s general education, and
mathematics for him included astronomy as well as
astrology. He need not fear to antagonize Domitian
when praising the usefulness of this subject both for
its proven importance on a number of historical occa­
sions and for its philosophical value:
By its calculations it [mathematics] demonstrates the
fixed and ordained courses of the stars, and thereby we
acquire the knowledge that all things are ruled by order
and destiny ( nihil esse inordinatum atque jortuitum), a
concept which may at times be of value to an orator.65
It seems safe to conclude from these lines which Quin­
tilian wrote without additional comment that he was at
least sympathetic with the widespread belief in fatalism,
including its astrological application.
But this was at the most a matter-of-fact acceptance of
astrology, not the fervid faith of a Domitian. This rela­
tive saneness of Quintilian also came out in what seems
to be his only extant direct mention of astrology. When
in his discussion of forensic oratory he enumerated the
various types of legal evidence and their treatment by
the would-be lawyer in effective oratorical form, Quin­
tilian reminded his students of the important contro­
versy between the champions and the foes of fatalism:
If . . . anyone should wish to add evidence of the sort
known as supernatural, based on oracles, prophecies, and
omens, I would remind him that there are two ways in
which these may be treated. There is the general method
with regard to which there is an endless dispute between
the adherents of the Stoics and the Epicureans, as to
whether the world is governed by providence.
The other method is the special one and is concerned with
the particular departments of the art of divination. . . . The
credibility of oracles may be established or destroyed in one
way, and that of soothsayers, augurs, diviners and astrol­
ogers ( mathematicorum) in another, since the two classes
differ entirely in nature,66
The conclusion seems inescapable from these lines
that Quintilian considered some knowledge of the major
types of divination, including astrology, an indispensable
part of an orator’s educational equipment, but also em­
phasized the value of a compensatory knowledge of the
arguments against each divinatory discipline. Such an
attitude on the part of Quintilian was in keeping with
his unflinching pragmatism.
“ Ibid. 2, 15, 20.
Ibid. 12, 2, 26.
. “ Ibid. 1, 10, 46 ff.
'••'ibid. 5, 7, 35 f.
156 THE R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
This attitude was a far cry from that expressed in
the emotionalism of a declamatio falsely attributed (with
an entire collection of such classroom exercises) to
Quintilian.67 The topic of this particular oration, sup­
posed to be an address to the Roman senate, was this:
in order to obtain the right to proper burial a would-be
suicide had to lay his reasons for choosing death before
the assembled senate (according to an assumed senatus
consultum). In this instance a son pleaded against his
father. He wanted to commit suicide rather than face
the future which would make him a parricide. He had
no grudge against his father, nor did the father mistreat
him in any way. But before his birth an astrologer,
consulted by the father-to-be, had predicted correctly
(among other things) the child’s sex and his future
military pre-eminence. Everything the astrologer had
said now had come to pass, including the military glory.
The only prediction still unfulfilled was that in the end
the son would kill his father. Rather than live to do
that frightful deed the young man now pleaded with
the senate for permission to die by his own hand.
Shorn of its theatrical trimmings the argument obvi­
ously revolved about whether or not astrological pre­
dictions should be considered as infallible. The son’s
thesis, under the given circumstances, was that they
were, especially since so far every prediction except the
last one, the parricide, had come true in his case:
I have been placed, conscripted Fathers, in a position of
a most sad lot: I have no right to die, unless you consider
me a parricide. . . . Through [the fear of] parricide it has
come to pass that I can kill myself, through Fate that I am
not allowed to die: Not the astrologer (mathematicus) alone
has predicted the deed of these hands specifically as to
period and time, but I myself am also convinced that I shall
commit parricide. Worse it is, indeed, than the prophecy,
worse than the prediction of the sacred art( 1) that my own
mind threatens me with the deed.'8
The author went on to develop how the knowledge
of the astrological prophecy had created the young man’s
psychopathic state of mind. There was not the slightest
personal trouble between father and son. The logical
dilemma of the case, however, was clearly seen by the
author, i. e. if the senate found the son’s reason for
suicide a valid one, his death would contradict the decree
of Fate, because he then would have died without having
committed parricide:
Nor should you decide in favor of my life because I seem
to be engaged in a struggle with the astrologer to defeat
Necessity, to conquer Fate (vincere necessitates, expugnare
fatum) . 60
The father himself strenuously opposed the son’s
plea, preferring apparently to take his chance, but the
noble young man refused of course to accept such
47 Ps.-Quintilian, dcclamationes maiores, ed. G. Lehnert, 4.
•* Ibid., 4, 1.
” Ibid., 4, 2.
generosity. Again the psychology of the father’s posi­
tion was clearly set forth. So far the father had not
only completely relied on the astrologer’s prediction—
his faith in astrology had made him consult the man in
the first place — but he had also seen all predictions
come true except for the ultimate one, the murder. It
would, argued the son, place an intolerable burden on
the father, so firmly convinced of the infallibility of
astrology, to be kept in helpless suspense awaiting the
“ inevitable ” horror. Thus another weighty reason was
added in favor of granting the son’s plea. As to the
accuracy and the veracity of the astrologer himself, the
son rightly argued that the man had not only made
the usual glowing promises of a happy future for the
infant to be bom, but also had bravely revealed to the
prospective father the dreadful fate in store for him and
his son. Such courage certainly was a good reason for
accepting the astrological predictions in their entirety.
It was to the father’s credit not to have exercised his
right of exposing the infant, but to have raised him to
fine manhood so that now by his military deeds he had
become a real asset to the community. All the more
reason for the son to repay his father’s kindness by
dying before Fate forced him to murder such a worthy
parent:
My father knows how great the lack of guilt is in the
predicted crime and he therefore tries to persuade you not
to believe in the art of the astrologer. He therefore con­
tends that there is no Fate and that everything happens by
accident and haphazardly. Or that even if everything were
ruled by Providence, it nevertheless could not be found out
by human science (humana scientia). . . . I, however,
assume that the astrologer has spoken the truth . . . because
certain stars, so to speak fixed and [in relation to each
other] linked, shine jointly for all eternity once they were
tied to each other, while others in unchanging orbits pursue
their measured courses dispersed all over the sky. Do you
really believe that all of these have been casually and acci­
dentally distributed? . . . God, the creator of the cosmos
(fabricator operis universi), has . . . placed them in their
respective positions.. . . Hence whatever is born is assigned
its role . . . and thus accepts the future as it does life itself.70
From these cosmological generalities a historically
explained validity of astrological predictions followed:
These [celestial phenomena] I believe were at first
causing terror to the mortals, then merited admiration once
the newness had worn off. Then the human mind gradually
dared to observe carefully what we see with amazement
and sent forth its sacred spirit into the secrets of nature.
It then proceeded to the causes when by assiduous observa­
tions and recurrent records the knowledge of the hidden
matters had been obtained. [Now] the eclipses and labors
of stars are told [in advance], the origin of* tempests
announced . . . and what the comets portend. . . '.
I know nothing that could be more certain than the genius
of this veracious art which says what will be and then
effects what it has said. Nature, reason, and experience( !)
(experimenta) prove the existence of the art of astrology
"Ibid., 4, 13-14.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
(artem mathematicam). . . . Accept the basic proof of this
most certain science (certissimae scientiae) 171
If nothing else this rhetorical exercise of the second
century showed that astrology was still as popular a
classroom topic as it had been in the time of Augustus.72
Marcus Valerius Martialis, Quintilian’s junior by a
few years, was born at Augusta Bilbilis in northern
Spain, then Hispania Tarraconensis, about a . d . 40.
Like his fellow countryman, Quintilian, he came from a
middle-class family, not rich enough to be conspicuous
like the Senecas, but well enough off to afford a good
education for its children. But unlike Quintilian he
seems to have come to Rome only after his education
was well nigh completed, namely in his twenties. At
that time— in the early ’sixties—his poetical talent ap­
parently was already recognized. Seneca and his rela­
tive, the young Lucanus — himself a renowned poet
already and about the same age as Martial — took
their Spanish fellow countryman under their wing and
introduced him to aristocratic Rome. He attached him­
self, to some extent at least, to the important Pisonic
family. Soon afterwards, however, one of its members,
L. Calpumius Piso, formed a conspiracy against Nero 73
which, once discovered, dragged besides the ill-starred
leader himself scores of men to their death, including
Seneca and Lucanus. Martial was still unimportant
enough, however, to escape unscathed, but in a chast­
ened mood he may — after 68 — have listened to the
advice of his sturdy compatriot Quintilian,74 who coun­
seled the nascent poet to begin working for a living
rather than to depend on the liberality of noble patrons.
The Flavian rulers, however, appreciated Martial’s
talent to such an extent that Domitian even made him
a tribune. Other patrons combined in showing their
admiration in tangible form by donating to the poet a
small house in Rome and a little estate near Nomentum
in the Sabine mountains. Whether it was Trajan’s lack
of literary interest or another reason, the aging Martial
found Rome uncongenial after 96. The changed spirit
of the times was reflected in Pliny’s comment:
It was the custom of the ancients to distinguish those
poets with honors or pecuniary rewards who had celebrated
particular persons or cities in their verses; but this practice,
with every other that is fair and noble, is now grown out
of fashion. . . ,75
Martial had included Pliny among those to whom—
no doubt in hopes of tangible recompense—he addressed
71 Ibid., 4,14-15. Since the text of this declamatio is not always joys? Now that Caesar comes, Phosphorus, bring us back
quite easily come by and, apparently, no English translation is
available,’ it has seemed advisable to quote from this work at
some length.
1-Compare Seneca rhetor, Suasoriae 4, 1 ff. for the violently
anti-astrological argument of the rhetorician Arellius Fuscus.
73 On the part played by the astrologer Balbillus in that epi­
sode, see above, p. 118.
7‘ Compare Martial, epigr. 2, 90.
" Pliny, epist. 3, 21.
157
flattering poems. Pliny for one did not disappoint him.
For in his own words, when Martial finally decided to
leave Rome for his native town in Spain, Pliny
complimented him by a present to defray the charges of his
journey, not only as a testimony of my friendship, but in
return for a little poem he had written about me.76
Martial left the capital, probably in a . d . 98, to retire
to his native Bilbilis. There he published his swan­
song, the twelfth book of the Epigrams and died some­
time thereafter. In an infuriatingly patronizing epitaph
the well meaning Pliny said :
I have just heard of the death of poor Martial which
much concerns me. He was a man of an acute and lively
genius, and his writings abound in both wit and satire,
combined with equal candor. . . . Do you not think that the
poet who wrote in-such [high] terms of me, deserved some
friendly marks of my bounty then, and that he merits my
sorrow now? For he gave me the most he could, and it was
want of power only, if his present was not more valuable.
But to say truth, what higher reward can be conferred on
man than fame, and applause, and immortality? And though
it be granted that his poems will not be immortal [sic/],
still, no doubt, he composed them upon the contrary sup­
position.77
But Martial was right and Pliny was wrong! The
polished elegance of the writings of Pliny no longer is
of interest to any but the rare specialist of silver-Latinity.,
and his extant works have chiefly become quarries of
historians frantically digging for information about
Roman society in Trajan’s reign. Martial’s poetical
fame, however, will live as long as men will appreciate
the sharp barbs of epigrammatic wit. The poet did,
indeed, triumph over the orator!
Worldly wise as the epigrammatist had to appear he
would also have to be familiar with the customary
astrological lore. Like Pliny in his Panegyric Martial
professed complete faith in the official catasterisms of
the imperial tradition. Thus he asked Domitian on
occasion
Did thy brother [Titus], Germanicus, or the sire [Ves­
pasian] himself send down this beast [the Nemean lion]
from Hercules’ star [i. e. the constellation Leo] ? 78
All paraphernalia of astronomical verbiage had to serve
Martial’s desperate flattery of Domitian, as necessary
in that age as in the sixteenth or eighteenth century
when the greatest writers in order to live had to address
eulogies even to the foulest specimens of rulers:
Phosphorus, bring us back day; why puttest thou off our
day, Rome begs thee. Doth the sluggish wain of slaw-
twisting Bootes bear thee . . . ? Thou mightest have with­
drawn Cyllarus from Leda’s constellation; freely will Castor
yield his steed to thee. . . . Already Xanthus and Aethon
look for the reins: Memnon’s kindly Mother wakes. Yet the
74 Loc. cit.
77 Loc. cit.
71 Martial, epigr. 8, 55.
158 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
slow stars yield not to glowing light, and the moon longs
to see Ausonia’s Chief. Now, Caesar, come thou, even by
nig ht; let the stars stand still; the people, when thou comest,
shall not want for day.78
Superior to Hercules Domitian had given “ morals
to the people, rest to the sword, stars to his own kin
(astra suis), stars to heaven (sidera caelo). . . .” 80
Martial did not, however, confine his astral phraseology
to political eulogies. When he noticed a lion and a lamb
peacefully side by side in one pen, he exclaimed:
What was the merit of Nemea, what of the carrier of
Helle that they should glow, the tall sky’s lustrous signs?
If both sheep and wild beasts could win by merit to heaven,
this ram, this Hon were worthy to become stars.81
It is impossible to secure from these political or
poetic uses of astral mythology and imperial cataster-
isms a satisfactory picture of Martial’s own views on
astrology. The two instances in which the word astro­
logus occurs in his extant writings do not contribute
much light on this matter:
An astrologer said that you would soon perish, Munna,
and he did not lie, I think, when he said it to you. For you the devotion of the Flavian rulers and most of their
in fear of leaving anything after your death, have in extra­
vagance exhausted your father’s wealth, and your two
millions have melted away in less than a year. Tell me,
is not this, Munna, to perish soon ? 82
Martial’s target, Munna, had obviously violated the
Augustan edict of a . d . 11 which outlawed astrological
inquiries about anyone’s death date, including one’s own.
This offense was so general, however, that Martial ap­
parently did not believe that the victim of his pen had
to fear prosecution in these particular circumstances.
He castigated, however, the blind faith in the stars
which had caused the foolish Roman to run through a
great fortune rapidly. But Martial, in ridiculing both
the false prediction of the astrologer and the gullibility
of his client, did not attack the craft as such. Nor did
his other epigram in which the word astrologus was
used go that far. Speaking of a type of dilettante,
common to Rome’s upper class, he said:
You declaim nicely; you plead causes, Atticus, nicely;
you write nice histories, nice poems. You compose nicely
mimes, epigrams nicely; you are a nice philologer ( gram-
maticus), a nice astrologus; and you sing nicely, Atticus;. designate, Piso, had been slain. Otho whose coup thus
you are a nice performer oh the lyre, you are a nice player at succeeded had chosen even the very hour of his rebellion
ball. . . . You are a great dilettante ( magnus es ardelio).113 on the direct advice of his main astrological adviser,
70Ibid. 8, 21.
80 Ibid. 9, 101; compare also 9, 1: “ The towering glory of the
Flavian race shall endure, coetemal with sun and stars . . .” ; of her husband’s death— she bought his head from his
see furthermore 8, 36; 14, 124; 9, 91; the allusion to a (star-
studded ?) dome built for Domitian in 7, 56; also 5, 65, and de
spectaculis (which was published in A .D . 80, i.e. under Titus),
1 ; 2.
81 Martial, epigr. 9, 71; compare 65; 51; 11, 69.
" Ibid. 9, 82.
83Ibid. 2, 7. Nor should of course anyone conclude from 5, 56
that Martial preferred harpists, flutists, auctioneers,'or architects
to poets, grammarians, or rhetoricians.
The Latin term astrologus he.re might well cover a
dilettante’s familiarity with elementary astronomy and
astrology. But again the attack was directed against
dilettantism, not against astrology.
It is useless to read into Martial’s extant works a
positive belief in astrology or a complete scepsis. When
writing of the death of a boy killed by an icicle which
had fallen off the edge of a roof, Martial did, indeed, ex­
claim : “ What stretch of power has not ruthless For­
tune willed for herself, or where is not death . . . ? ” 84
But this again was poetic sentiment rather than a sober
statement of faith. A belief in this supreme power
seems more clearly revealed in his:
Nowhere canst thou shut out Fate ! 85
(nullo fata loco possis excludere!)
On many an occasion, however, Martial used fata
simply as a synonym for death.S6 Suffice it, therefore,
to suspend judgment on Martial’s faith in the stars.
His verses do, however, furnish ample evidence for the
continued popularity of astrology in the circles for which
he wrote, even if we did not know from other sources
inner circle to this creed.
We are in somewhat the same position in the case of
the younger Pliny. One might perhaps assume that he
followed his much admired uncle,, the elder Pliny, who
after his death in 79 adopted him in his will, but even
filial piety wouid not require the adoption of the older
Pliny’s views on the subject81 by the younger. We have
already seen that in the Panegyric Pliny officially pro­
fessed his complete faith in the imperial catasterisms,88
but his personal views on this matter, or ori astrology
in general, cannot be deducted from such instances. Even
his private correspondence fails us, because he did write
(at least those letters which did survive) with a definite
view to future publication. In one of them he reported
an incident, revealing the unscrupulous exploitation of
a lady’s faith in the stars, but since the villain of this
episode was Pliny’s bete noire Regulus, one could
hardly take Pliny’s specific attack on the abuse of the
faith in the stars as proof of his disbelief in astrology.
On January 15; 69 Galba and his adopted heir-
Ptolemy-Seleucus.89 At that time Verania, wife of the
luckless Piso, had survived. The very circumstances
■* Ibid. 4, 18.
88Ibid. 4, 60.
“ For instance in prophesying the immortality of his own
writings: Si post fata venit gloria, non propero; 5, 10.
*’ See above, p. 139 ff.
88Pliny, Panegyric, 11, 1-2.
80 See above, p. 132 f.; compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars
and the stars (2), Seminar 10, 1952: 35 ff.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 159
murderers — may have strengthened her faith in as­ permitted to enjoy his legacy for long. For he died
trology. For had not Ptolemy-Seleucus rightly foreseen early in the reign of Trajan,06 a few years probably
Piso’s fate even to the very day when he would be slain ? after Verania.
Now many years later00 Verania herself lay dying. The ridicule heaped upon old Regulus for his inces­
What distant memories arose before her dimming mind sant consultations with diviners might at least indicate
we can only surmise. She did not want to die and that with Verania he had not acted in bad faith. Pliny,
hoped to recover. Rumor spread of her condition. on the other hand, by criticizing this excessive belief in
Among those, attracted by the possibility of persuading divination would seem to have been somewhat sceptical
towards divination as a whole, hence also with regard
her to insert into her will a legacy in their favor, was
to astrology. Such conclusions, however, are unwar­
M. Aquilius Regulus, himself an old man at this time.
Although Pliny violently disliked Regulus01 (who had ranted. For in a letter to Licinius Sura, the War-
been a loyal supporter of Nero as well as of Domitian) wickian king maker of that era, Pliny soberly requested
and at one time had toyed with the idea of prosecuting this eminent statesman to let him know his "views
him, Regulus, whose chief crime seems to have been his concerning ghosts,” admitting that he himself was
failure to sympathize with the senatorial opposition, quite inclined to believe in their existence. He went on
enjoyed a considerable reputation as a lawyer and to submit to Sura three “ well authenticated ” ghost
orator.92 stories, one involving a Roman nobleman named Curtius
Pliny insisted, perhaps with reason, that Regulus had Rufus, the second centering around a philosopher,
been an enemy of the late Piso and hence of Piso’s Athenodorus, who successfully laid a ghost to rest very
widow Verania: much in the manner of Oscar Wilde’s story about the
Even barely to enter her house would have been impudent ghost of Canterville. The third ghost story, however,
enough; but he had the confidence to go much further, and Pliny recounted from an experience in his own house­
very familiarly placed himself by her bedside. He began hold, involving two ghosts whose penchant had been
with inquiring what day and hour she was born? Being nocturnal haircuts administered to Pliny’s servants.
informed of these particulars, he composes his countenance,
He concluded with the earnest request that Sura, rank­
fixes his eyes, mutters something to himself, counts on his
fingers; nothing comes of it. After keeping the poor lady ing elder statesman of the Roman realm, would deign
on tenterhooks, “ You are,” says he, “ in one of your cli­ “ to apply learning to this question. . . .. Yet I hope
macterics ; 93 however you will get over it. But for your you will throw your weightiest reasons into one scale,
greater satisfaction, I will consult with a certain haruspex,
lest you should dismiss me in suspense and uncertainty,
whose skill I have frequently experienced.” Accordingly
whereas I consult you on purpose to determine my
away he goes, sacrifices, and returns with the strongest
assurances that inspection of the victim’s entrails confirmed doubts.” 97
what he had predicted by astrology ( siderum significations). There are two interpretations of this passage: Either
Upon this the good woman, made credulous by her danger­
Pliny was honestly affected by a tentative belief in
ous state, calls for her will, and gives Regulus a handsome
ghosts, or, knowing that the highly influential Sura
legacy. Some time afterwards her distemper increased; and
in her last moments she exclaimed against this perfidious, made a hobby of occultism, Pliny submitted to him three
worse than perjured, wretch, who had wished every curse ghost stories, which would in any case interest him,
might befall his son, if what he promised her was not true.94 and flattered Sura by asking his “ authoritative ”
This vividly described scene was surely no unique opinion about ghosts, pledging himself in advance to
occurrence.- In less drastic form it was probably quite accept Sura’s views. If nothing else, however, this
common among the legacy hungry Roman nobility of letter proves that it is impossible to arrive at definite
this era. In fairness to Regulus it should also be added conclusions about Pliny’s faith in astrology and other
that even his foe Pliny admitted that Regulus himself forms of divination and superstition from his published
was an ardent believer in divination, it being his custom correspondence. The man who ridiculed the divina­
“ of always consulting the soothsayers (haruspices) tory consultations of Regulus, and then himself pro­
upon the outcome of every plea (at the bar) through fessed to be more than half convinced of the existence
senile superstition.” 05 At any rate Regulus was not of ghosts, surely was no hard-boiled sceptic. We may
perhaps assume that, in keeping with his natural tem­
The chronology of most of Pliny’s letters remains uncertain. perament “ to be friends with (almost) everybody,”
There are some grounds for believing that the second book con­ Pliny did not entertain violent convictions on matters
tained letters of a . D. 97-98. The death of beldame Verania of this kind, allowing perhaps for the possibility of
could therefore antedate the reign of Trajan (which began in
astrological revelations without assuming their infalli­
98), but she may even have died already during the last years
bility. A man of such a disposition would, indeed, find
of Domitian’s rule.
01 Compare also Pliny, epist. 1, 5 and 20; 4, 2 and 7; 2, 11;
6, 2. “ Loc. cit.', after a grudging acknowledgment of Regulus’
02 See Martial, epigr. 4, 16; 5, 28 and 63; 6, 64. achievements as a lawyer, Pliny caustically concluded: “ Regulus
Cf. Bouchc-L.eclercg: 526-529. did well to die, though he would have done still better had he
died sooner.”
D‘ Pliny, epist. 2, 20.
87Pliny, epist. 7, 27.
8t Ibid. 6, 2.
160 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
it easy to include among his wide circle of friends
orators like* Quintilian, historians and senators like
Tacitus, or rising officials like Suetonius. He knew
almost certainly98 also one of the harshest critics of
contemporary Roman society: Juvenal.
This was the last great satirist of Rome. Born
about 47 at Aquinum 99 — the future home-town of St.
Thomas, the great scholastic philosopher — he obtained
his higher education in Rome 100 in the reign of Nero.
Having seen service in the army as a tribune he rose
to the high office of censor in the Flavian era. The reign
of Domitian clearly was a dangerous time for satirists,
and Juvenal found it prudent to abstain from public
life 101 until the accession of Nerva and the rule of his
successors Trajan and Hadrian 102 provided again a
modicum of literary freedom. During this period he
penned the satires from which we receive a vivid con­
firmation of the popularity of astrology in Rome at the
turn of the century. Although he did not refer to
astrology frequently and although allowances must of
course be made for the exaggeration inherent in his
genre of writing, the well known passage in the sixth
satire speaks for itself. In discussing the fashionable
rage for various kinds of divination, especially among
the great ladies of Rome, Juvenal castigated the blind
faith in astrologers as follows:
But greater will be the faith in Chaldaeans. Whatever
an astrologer says they will believe as if revealed by the
spring of Hammon. Although the Delphic oracles have
ceased, the passion for knowing the future still ruins the
human race. O f them [i. e. of the astrologers] he [Ptolemy
Seleucus] ranks highest who was exiled more than once,
he through whose friendship and authoritative computation
a great citizen [i.e. Galba] died, and who also was fatal
to Otho. Hence this faith in the art, especially if chains
have clanged from the right and left hand and if he has long
dwelt in the dungeon of a citadel: No astrologer will possess
his genius unpunished unless he almost perished, or to
whom it fell to be deported to the Cyclades or to have eked
out his life on little Seriphus.103
In these sweeping verses based on historical facts
Juvenal agreed with the curt statement of Tacitus who—
also in reference to Ptolemy Seleucus — commented
acidly that astrologers were “ a breed of men, faithless
to the great, deceiving the hopeful, a species which in
our country time and again is proscribed and yet re­
tained.” 104 The dangerous influence which astrologers
•s A rising young poet whose recitations attracted enthusiastic
audiences in the Rome of Domitian could hardly have escaped
the notice of Pliny.
•"Juvenal, 3, v. 319.
>”• Ibid. 1, v. IS.
191 Ibid. 15, v. 27, indicates that he was still alive in a . d . 127.
If ever exiled, as is alleged, he must have suffered this fate after
the reign of Domitian, i. e. after a . d . 96.
1M Ibid. 7, 1 ff.
1°“ Ibid. 6, vv. 554-564.
104 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; compare Annals 12, 52, where he
calls the SC of 52 both “ harsh and useless.”
on many an occasion gained over credulous minds had
not been curbed by the Augustan edict of a . d . 1 1 105
and the state trials of the first century, punishing for­
bidden consultations about anyone’s (and especially
the ruler’s) death. 106 How general the desire of the
Roman public was to ascertain “ infallibly ” the death
dates of those near and dear (or obnoxious) was clearly
shown by several verses of Juvenal. For example:
What shall I do in Rome? I cannot lie. I cannot praise
a book if it is bad, nor ask for it. The movements of the
stars I do not know. I neither want nor am able to promise
a father’s funeral.107
Cheerful inquiries of this kind from hopeful children
were apparently quite frequent. A man’s horoscope
seems to have been common knowledge whether or not
he himself had consulted astrologers.108 Nor was the
— erroneously so-called— weaker sex less eager to ascer­
tain the death dates of their close relatives:
Your Tanaquil109 [i.e. your wife] has consulted [astrol­
ogers] about the tardiness of her ailing mother’s funeral
even before she did so about your own. Also when her sister
would be carried off, and whether her own adulterous lover
would survive her. For what greater boon can the gods
bestow ? 110
Such consultations were, as has been said, not only
indicative of what had become of upper-class Roman
family life, but also absolutely illegal. Juvenal had,
indeed, illuminated the perverse nature of the human
race by stressing the extreme popularity of those very
astrologers who for their pains had been severely pun­
ished and were therefore considered as most reliable by
their clients.
Blithely oblivious of the logical discrepancy between
fatalist and catarchic astrology Roman society cultivated
both branches simultaneously. Of the permeation of
the daily life of the specially credulous with catarchic
lore Juvenal also provided a caricaturized picture:
[Bad] she may be [who consults astrologers being her­
self] ignorant of what the baleful star of Saturn threatens,
towards what star moves joyous Venus, or what months
are given over to adversity, and what times of the year to
prosperity.
But remember to avoid the tracks also of women in whose
hands you see (as if they were large gems) much used
[astrological] ephemerids. Such a woman does not consult
any [astrologers], she is herself consulted. Nor will she
accompany her husband when he goes to camp or returns
home if warned [against doing so] by the numerological
manual of Thrasyllus. She will not even go out as far as
105 Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5.
IM The most important ones are treated in F. H. Cramer, The
Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9, 1951: 9-50; 10, 1952: 1-59.
107Juvenal, 3, vv. 41-44.
100 Ibid. 14, v. 248: “ Your horoscope is known to the astrol­
ogers--- ”
‘••Roman legend considered Tanaquil, the wife of king
Tarquinius Priscus, both haughty and well versed in divinatory
techniques; compare Livy, 1, 34; 39; 41.
ll* Juvenal, 6, vv. 565-568.
A ST R O LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E R V A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
the first milestone, unless a favorable hour has been chosen
first from the book. When the rubbed corner of her eye
itches she will ask for a soothing balm only after consulting
her horoscope ( inspecta genesi). She may lie in bed sick,
then no hour will be considered more apt for taking some
food than the one which Petosiris has named.111
Clearly Juvenal was only too familiar with the cant
and customs of certain society women, and he himself
revealed enough of a familiarity with astrologers to
make one wonder whether he meant to ridicule merely
extreme credulity, but not astrology in general. We
have already noted that he was familiar with the his­
torical role played by Ptolemy Seleucus in the fateful
year 68-69. At that time Juvenal, being about twenty-
one years old, may have been well informed from per­
sonal social contacts about the astrologer’s fateful influ­
ence on Otho’s decisions. Juvenal also happens to be
the only extant Latin source informing us not only of
the fact that Thrasyllus, one of the outstanding astrolo­
gers of the first century,112 had written a. numerological
handbook, but also that it was still an extremely popular
work at the turn of the first century. Juvenal of course
was familiar with the common superstition which saw
in cornets harbingers of the death of a ruler.113 He may
have been influenced by what he knew of the sinister
influence of astrologers on Otho and Domitian to draw
similarly unfavorable inferences about Thrasyllus and the
host of other astrologers which had surrounded Tiberius
at Capri.114 The satires were not published until after
Domitian’s death and could therefore not have aroused
that ruler’s ire. Written perhaps in the reign of Trajan
(98-117), who seems to have been less susceptible to
astrology than either his predecessors or his successor
Hadrian, such allusions on the part of Juvenal may
well have later on drawn Hadrian’s fire. For Hadrian,
a practicing astrologer like Tiberius, took offense easily.
The allegation of some sources that Juvenal was pun­
ished for his writings with exile would — if true — fit
more easily into the era of Hadrian than into the preced­
ing reign. But Hadrian bore the anti-astrological attacks
of Favorinus of Arles without much ado. Hence Juve­
nal’s exile was probably not due to his known writings.
Hadrian certainly was responsible for a purge in
which several men, including the magister epistularum
C. Suetonius Tranquillus, were dismissed from the court
“ because without his consent they had been conducting
themselves toward his wife, Sabina, in a more informal
fashion than the etiquette of the court demanded.” 116
This fall from imperial favor seems to have taken place
about 120. It led the hapless ex-official to the composi­
tion of several works of which his Lives of the Caesars,
devoted to the Roman rulers from Julius Caesar to
111 Ibid., w . '569-581.
112 Oil Thrasyllus, see above, ch. iii, 1-6, pp. 81-108.
" “Juvenal, 6, v. 406.
114 Ibid. 10, v. 94.
113 SHA, Hadrian, 11, 3.
161
Domitian, became a classic of its kind. Although
nowhere did Suetonius express himself directly about
his attitude towards astrology, he included assiduously
astrological predictions in his biographies. Natal horo­
scopes of rulers, the astrological prophecies of the death
of emperors, and a wealth of additional data about the
influence of astrological forecasts on future rulers
demonstrated that Suetonius at least believed such items
would interest his readers. We are indebted to him
for example for the account of the consultation of an
astrologer by young Octavius and his friend, Agrippa,
for added evidence of the influence of astrology over
Tiberius, of Balbillus’ fateful interpretation of the comet
of 64 for the benefit of Nero, and of the role of Ptolemy
Seleucus in connection with the rise of Otho. The most
complete picture, however, of imperial faith in astrology
occurred significantly enough in those of his imperial
biographies which were closest to the time of the author
himself, i. e. in the three lives of the Flavian rulers.
These were among the shortest of the twelve essays,
but in proportion to their size exceptionally full of astro­
logical references. The most unforgettable passage
undoubtedly was the one leading up to the assassination
of Domitian. Here Suetonius reached a climax worthy
of the pen of an Edgar Allan Poe in revealing the creep­
ing horror gripping the heart of a man convinced by his
astrological advisers of his approaching death by murder.
Unless one assumes the historian to have been a com­
plete hypocrite writing merely for effect, one must con­
cede that, especially on the basis of his treatment of the
Flavian faith in the stars, he too was a firm believer in
the inevitability of star ordained destiny. On that score
at least he would have been in accord with Hadrian.
As to his over free behavior in the presence of the
empress Sabina, which led to his fall from favor, we
have no clue to the precise nature of his offence. Prior
to this he did, however, in all probability encounter in
the entourage of Sabina Julia Balbilla, a granddaughter
of the astrologer Balbillus. For she was lady-in-waiting
to the empress.
We possess, however, direct evidence of the attitude
of Rome’s greatest historian, Publius (or Caius) Cor­
nelius Tacitus, concerning astrology. Bom between
a . d . 55 and 60 he obviously came from a well-to-do
family of respectable social position. As he himself
reported: “ I would not deny that my elevation was
begun by Vespasian, augmented by Titus, and still
further advanced by Domitian.” 116 In 78 he married
the daughter of the highly placed Agricola whose biog­
raphy he later wrote. Since, at the time of Agricola’s
death in 93, Tacitus had been away from the capital
for four years, he may have traveled in the provinces
on some official business. An inscription indicates that
he rose to the peak ol the provincial administrative
career under Trajan. For in 112 he was governor of
110Tacitus, Histories 1, 1.
162 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 163

the province of Asia. Eleven respectful letters addressed person’s future is fixed from his very birth, but that some place on April 5, a . d . 40 — revealing that Hadrian’s To this P. Aelius Afer and his wife, Domitia Paulina,
to him by his friend, the younger Pliny, give some things happen differently from what has been foretold father reached an age of about forty-five years. If the was born in Italica on January 24, 76 a son, the future
indirect impression of his personality. Of strong aristo­ through the impostures of those who describe what they identification is correct we learn from the horoscope that emperor Hadrian. His great-unde, the astrologer (peri-
do, not know, and that this destroys the credit of a science, tia caelestium callente), could be expected to cast the
cratic, i. e. republican predilections, he nevertheless, clear testimonies to which have been given both by past . . . he will himself be illustrious, being descended from an
like most of the nobility, now accepted the monarchic ages and by our own. In fact, how the son of this same illustrious family and punishing many, and very wealthy .. . infant’s horoscope at once. He declared that the boy
regime. As Tacitus had one of his characters put it: Thrasyllus predicted Nero’s reign I shall relate when the and justly accused. . . . Disinclined towards natural inter­ possessed an imperial nativity.122
time comes. . . .118 course he became^ and inflamed about the genitals. . . . And This tempting prediction was not particularly danger­
I do not forget the times in which I have been born, or the Moon, having been waxing and in a triangle with Saturn ous at that time. For Vespasian, himself fully convinced
the form of government which our fathers and grandfathers From the context it appears at least probable that
established. I may regard with admiration an earlier period, of the “ inevitability ” of his son’s succession, tended to
Tacitus included himself among the great majority of
but I acquiesce in the present, and while I pray for good treat recipients of imperial horoscopes gently.123 In the
men (plurimis mortalium) who according to his own
emperors, I can endure whomsoever we may have.117 [The reign of Domitian, however, the possession of such a
proper creed also for citizens of our totalitarian regimes!] observation accepted fatalistic astrology itself as infalli­
horoscope could easily entail death.124 It was perhaps
ble, attributing the failure of any predictions to come
It is superfluous to add anything to the countless fortunate for Hadrian that Domitian djd not' stoop to
true solely to the fallibility of the mortal astrologer, not
writings about the Tacitean concept of historiography. investigate the horoscopes of boys.125 Hadrian lost his
to the art itself. Further confirmation of Tacitus’ faith
Suffice it to say that, while less prone than Suetonius in the stars is found in the concluding lines of the above father in 85,126 and his guardians, not his mother,127
to adduce astrological minutiae, he nevertheless allowed passage. There Tacitus mentioned as an example of took over the arrangements for the lad’s education.
fully for astrological influence on the conduct of the a correct prophecy the one of “ the son of Thrasyllus ” Perhaps his mother had also died, for we hear no more
leading figures of the era which his historical writings (i. e. Balbillus) concerning the eventual accession of of her. His older sister, named Domitia Paulina like
covered. The state trials involving charges of forbidden Nero to the throne. It might be added that the greatest her mother,128 may already have been married at this
consultations of astrologers were faithfully recorded by Roman historian wrote this passage probably about the time to L. Julius Ursus Servianus, a man of high rank
him, the influence of men like Thrasyllus over Tiberius and a generation older than Hadrian. The two guar­
time of Trajan’s death,119 i. e. in a period when for the
or that of Ptolemy Seleucus over Ocho fully dealt with, dians of the boy were Ulpius Trajanus, his senior
first time in almost a hundred years a practicing as­
and government measures directed against the practice by about twenty-two years, and the Roman knight,
trologer mounted the Roman throne, a throne long
of astrology in Rome and Italy briefly but pertinently Acilius Attianus. Attianus probably exercized the
promised him by more than one astrologer.120 In men­
referred to. It was perhaps significant that in connec­ decisive influence on Hadrian’s upbringing, because
tioning the parallel case of Nero, Tacitus, who intended
tion with the greatest astrologer at the imperial court Trajan, who had already been praetor, was soon called
to write a history of his own era also, may have alluded
of the first century, i. e. Thrasyllus, Tacitus felt called to important military assignments along the far away
to the new ruler’s astrologically revealed predestination
upon to insert one of the relatively rare personal pas­ for the throne. German border. In any case, Trajan, trained in the
camp rather than in the auditoria of higher education,
sages setting forth his own views on a specific subject:
may therefore have felt himself incapable of super­
I suspend my judgment on the question whether it is fate 4. H A D R IA N : A N O T H ER ASTROLOG ER ON THE vising the scholastic education of his young ward
and unchangeable necessity or chance which governs the TH RO N E (117-138)
properly, and therefore left the uncongenial task gladly
revolutions of human affairs. Indeed, among the wisest of
the ancients and among their disciples you will find con­ Publius Aelius Hadrianus descended from Roman to Attianus, who was thoroughly competent in this
flicting theories, many holding the conviction that heaven veterans of the second Punic war, who had been settled matter.
does not concern itself with the beginning or the end of our in the newly conquered Spain. Their city, called Italica, On the boy’s passionate enthusiasm for Greek culture
life, or, in short with mankind at all; and that therefore was destined to give the Roman empire its first ruler
sorrows are continually the lot of the good, happiness of the born in a province, far removed from Italy: Ulpius F ig . 13. Hadrian (117-138). From A. Hekler, Greek and a . d. 40 horoscope therefore could apply to both southern Spain
wicked; while others, on the contrary, believe that, though Roman portraits: 247 b. and Rhodes. Hadrian—whose horoscope is absolutely certain—
there is a harmony between fate and events, yet it is not Trajanus. In Italica the Ulpian family had been linked surely was born in southern Spain and not on Rhodes. Hence
dependent on the wandering stars, but on primary elements, with the Aelian family by marriage ties.121 Hadrian’s O. Neugebauer suggests very plausibly that all three extant
and on a combination of natural causes. Still they leave us grandfather had married an aunt of the future emperor and Jupiter, made him •fortunate and very wealthy and a
donor of many gifts and donations for his native city horoscopes cast by Antigonos apply to the Aelian family.
the capacity of choosing our life, maintaining that, the Trajan and had himself risen to senatorial rank. The 125 SHA, Hadrian, 2, 4. The birth was erroneously assigned
choice once made, there is a fixed sequence of events. . . . ( Tjj iraTpt&t) .121b
to Rome instead of Italica, the actual birth-place of Hadrian;
Aelian family must therefore have been not only wealthy,
So far Tacitus did nothing but present in the most but also widely known as early as the reign of Claudius Appian, 6, 7, 38; Ca'ssius Dio, ep. 69, 1, 1; Gellius, 16, 13, 4;
logically into two remarkable separate categories. The first
comprises horoscopes, all but four of which are preserved in the Eutropius, 8, 6, 1; Jerome, Chron., 01.224. On modern views
summary form the Epicurean and a modified Stoic view. or Nero. The brother of old Aelius was said to have compare B. W. Henderson, The life and principate of the
Anthologiae of Vettius Valens. Of the four others one is found
The very last sentences smack even of Plato’s Republic, been a renowned astrologer. emperor Hadrian: 10, n. 1, London, Methuen and Co., 1923.
in Manetho’s Apotelesmata, the other three in a work of Anti­
in which the souls of the unborn were permitted a choice By one of those happy accidents on which historians gonus of Nicaea (second century a . d . ) . The latest in the first 121For example in the case of Mettius Pompusianus; Sue­
of their future life, but thereafter were bound to it, thrive the horoscope of Hadrian’s father seems to have section of Greek literary horoscopes belongs to Vettius Valens’ tonius, Vespasian, 14.
whether or not they liked it. One has the feeling that, been identified.1-1- His birth would thus have taken Anthologiae and dates from August 10, a . d . 188, while the *2* Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3; compare Cassius Dio, ep. 67,
earliest Greek literary horoscope of the second section is about IS, 6, from Xiphilinus; Zonaras, 11, 20.
moved by the impression created in his own mind by 120 Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
118Tacitus, Annals 6, 22. two centuries younger (November 24, a . d . 382). There is
the wondrous account of Thrasyllus’ astrological per­ abundant evidence from papyri and ostraca that horoscopes were 130 SHA, Hadrian, 1, 4-5. Hadrianus Afer had inherited his
spicacity ( Annals 6 , 21), Tacitus prefaced his own In the second book of the Annals Tacitus referred to events
steadily and plentifully cast throughout the interval. The chrono­ father’s senatorial rank and reached the praetorship; Cassius
of A .D . 116. It would seem therefore that the sixth book was
views on such matters with a cautious review of two logical gap in the extant literary horoscopes therefore is merely Dio, ep. 69, 3, 1.
main schools of Greek thought on the subject. Finally, W" » ebJtiA, c J 1 0r„ Sh,°rtly after 117- the
Hadnan, 2, 4.
o{ Hadrian’s accession. proof of the capriciousness of the survival of historical records. 127 Among the great ladies of Rome who when widowed took
151 See the family tree above, 152. >!1“ Cat., 8, 2: 84 f. O. Neugebauer, thanks to the lucky fact charge of their sons' education we find for example Cornelia,
however, he arrived at his own conclusions: p.
the mother of the Gracchi, Julius Caesar’s mother, Aurelia, as
15“ In the manuscript of O. Neugebauer’s and H. B. van that both the Horoscopal Point and the Mesuranema are given
in the April 5, a . d . 40 horoscope (and in the one of Hadrian), well as Nero’s mother, the younger Agrippina, and the mother
Most men, however, cannot part with the belief that each Hoesen’s work on Greek horoscopes which the author was
has established the clima, whose geographical latitude agrees of Pliny the Younger.
graciously permitted to peruse, the literary horoscopes—in con­
117Ibid. 4, 8. with southern Spain, as well as with Rhodes. The April S, 1!* CIL 10, 1: 618, no. 6220; SHA, Hadrian, 1, 2.
trast to those preserved in papyri, ostraca, etc.—fall chrono-
164 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
all sources agree.128 If his devotion to these studies mountain climbing became his favorite sports. In 93
he was recalled to Rome, again by Trajan, who
earned him the derisive nickname, Graeculus ( “ Greek-
ling ”), it might have tended to estrange him from his by then possessed a good deal of prestige and influ­
guardian, Trajan, who held the traditional contempt of ence. Not only his own childlessness, but also the
apparent success of Hadrian’s conversion to a manly
outdoor life may have induced Trajan to assist his
young relative now embarking upon a career.131
After a year of minor administrative activities182
(94) Hadrian was made tribune of the 2nd legion,
guarding the Danube border at Budapest (then called
Aquincum) ,lsa A year later he was transferred to a
similar post with the 5th legion in the province of
Lower Moesia.134 This happened in 96, not long before
the assassination of Domitian. The life in these border
camps must have been far from attractive to a young
man, accustomed to the intellectual life of Rome and
fond of cultural pursuits. Small wonder that the twenty-
year-old officer began to doubt whether or not his great-
uncle’s astrological prediction were ever going to come
true. In this mood he apparently consulted another
astrologer, who reassured him by repeating the same
promise of future glory which Aelius Hadrianus had
seen in his grand-nephew’s horoscope.135 Inasmuch as
Hadrian’s birth date is known, it is of course possible
to reconstruct his horoscope and apply to it the various
interpretative techniques of those days with which the
extant manuals have made us familiar.
But a happy circumstance has made such an under­
taking superfluous. For we possess a second-century
attempt of this kind, originally included in a collection
of historical horoscopes, compiled soon after the death
of Hadrian. His name, to be sure, was prudently
withheld, but the horoscope itself has survived in at
least three manuscripts,130 and could be identified with­
out much trouble. It is the only imperial horoscope
which has come down to us from an almost contempo­
rary source, the second-century physician-astrologer,
F ig . 14. The Athenian tomb of C. Julius Antiochus Epi­ Antigonus of Nicaea, being the author. Writing within
phanes Philopappus, grandson of Ti. Claudius Balbillus and less than a century after Hadrian’s death, he had to
great-grandson of Ti. Claudius Thrasyllus (built ca. a . d .
114-116). Compare P. Graindor, Athines de Tibere a Trajan:
51 f.; W. Judeich, Topographic von Athen (2nd ed.) : 388. 131 In view of Trajan’s preference for outdoor activities it
seems unlikely that he did, as is suggested in SHA, Hadrian, 2,
2, recall young Hadrian from Spain on account of his excessive
the Roman non-humanist for the Greek way of life.130 zeal for the chase. The emperor may simply have considered
It was perhaps at Trajan’s insistence that after about the time opportune for the boy to start on a career.
four years, which Hadrian spent in Rome imbibing in l” SHA, Hadrian, 2, 2-3; CIL 3, 1: 103, no. 550.
the fountains of Greek and Latin learning, the fourteen- 133 CIL 3, suppl.: 2324, no. 13611; 10: 22, no. 135.
year-old boy was sent back to Spain to begin “ military 134CIL 3, 1: 102 f., no. 550. This inscription, discovered in
Athens, contains Hadrian’s official career until A .D . 112.
service.” Actually the incipient bookworm now warmed 130 SHA, Hadrian, 2, 3-4; compare F. Gregorovius, Der
up to the attractions of outdoor life. Hunting and Kaiser Hadrian: 9ff.; 3rd ed., Stuttgart, J. G. Cottasche
Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1884; W. D. Gray, A study of the life
180 SHA, Hadrian, 1, 5; Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 3, 1 ff.; Aurelius of Hadrian prior to his accession: 152 ff., esp. 162 ff.; Smith
Victor, epitome, 14. College Studies in History, 4, no. 3, Northampton, 1919; B.
130 For Trajan’s attitude a passage in a letter to Pliny (epist. Henderson, op. cit.: 19.
10, 40) is significant. Rejecting the plea of the Nicaeans, trans­ 130Cod. phil gr. Vindob. 108, f. 301, and cod. Paris, gr. 2417,
mitted to the emperor by Pliny, for imperial aid in the construc­ f. 106; ed. W . Kroll from both in Cat. 6: 67-71. Another version
tion of a gymnasium, Trajan replied witheringly: “ Gymnasiis of this horoscope is found in cod. Paris, gr. 2501, ff. 132 ff.,
indulgent Graeculi.” If they wanted a new gymnasium, the whose variants from the other text were printed in Cat. 8, 2:
citizens of Nicaea should bear the total expense themselves. 82-84.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E R V A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
adhere strictly to the generally known facts. For many
readers would remember them still. On the other hand,
however, the author would inevitably choose only those
astrological interpretations which would satisfactorily
explain Hadrian’s career in astrological terms. This
makes Hadrian’s horoscope a poor document for the
true believer in astrology, but a useful historical source,
especially in view of the dearth of contemporary records
of Hadrian’s reign.
We owe the survival of Hadrian’s horoscope to the
astrologer Hephaestion of Thebes, who in the fourth
century b . c . excerpted it with some others from the
collection of historical horoscopes compiled by Antigonus
of Nicaea.137 Since Porphyry (middle of the third
century) already referred to Antigonus, he must have
lived prior to 250, and probably in the second century.
A Greek version was edited decades ago. At present
an English translation of this (and other extant Greek
horoscopes) exists, but is not yet published.138 In any
case, it seems logical to include here at least some of
its text, especially the historical data:
From the third book of Hephaestion. Horoscopes to be
analyzed in the way in which it is set forth and we shall
pursue every single horoscope so that you may be convinced.
Come then, and let us now present the method, according
to which those others around Petpsiris and Nechepso ana­
lyze horoscopes, and among them Antigonus of Nicaea.
“ There was,” he says, “ a man born with the sun in the 8 th
(or 20th) degree of Aquarius, the moon, Jupiter, and the
Horoscopal Point—all three together in the first degree of
the same sign Aquarius, Saturn in the 16th (or 5th) degree
: „ os j «,
, f i ,i« *> i -»
* Soft'll?
I, "V » f* ft/ I
y M (. i ! , r /
s‘*f'1 •v •yi-Grfj,rw
Fig. 15. The horoscope of the emperor Hadrian, cast in the second century
phil. gr. Vindob., 108, ff. 301-303). (Continued on following pages.)
137 He included it in his third book, according to one version,
and in the second (ch. 18), according to another.
l3* O. Neugebauer and H. B. van Hoesen are preparing an
edition of Greek horoscopes. The author is greatly indebted to
them for their permission to peruse the manuscript of this work.
130 On this term, see Bouche-Leclercq: 258; 271 f.
1,0 Recently computed by O. Neugebauer. Earlier A. Farns­
worth had arrived at almost the same result in an independent
165
of Capricorn, Mercury in the same sign in the 12th degree,
Venus in Pisces in the 12th degree, together with Mars
who was in the 22nd degree, but the Mesuranema138 in
Scorpio in the 22nd degree. In this horoscope Saturn is the
Lord of the house of the moon. Being in his own house he
gives death at the age of 56 years. Inasmuch as Venus
favors him, she adds another 8 years to his life, making a
total of 64. After 61 years and 10 months, however, hurries
the Horoscopal Point and the Moon into the square of
Saturn, although that does not kill him, because Venus aids
him in the second (corner of the square?) [thus shortening
his life to about 62 years and 6 months].
The horoscope’s astronomical data permit the com­
putation of the birth date. This was January 24, a . d .
76.14“ Antigonus proceeded by giving the important
data of the life of the possessor of this horoscope:
“ He was adopted (tiioflenj&j) by an emperor who was
related to him and became emperor at the age of about
forty-two years.141 He was intelligent ( t f r p o v i j i o s ) and well
educated so that he was worshipped in temples and groves.
He was married only once and this to a virgin, but remained
childless. And he had only one sister. He became suspicious
and rose against his kin. In his sixty-third year he dies of
dropsy, succumbing to breathlessness.
The reason why things happened this way is worked out
as follows. . .
The astrological “ proof ” why such a life followed
from the natal constellation takes up what amounts to
almost four finely printed pages.142 Antigonus of Nicaea
evidently took great pains with this important horo­
scope. For it seems to be the longest exposition of its
kind which has come down to us. Tempting though
’ i v \ i J i c_
i i
, .
•
km >u ^
a . d. (cod.
computation. The author gratefully acknowledges their assis­
tance in this matter.
141 This figure is found only in cod. Paris, gr. 2501. It proves
beyond any doubt that the horoscope is actually that of Hadrian,
and thus supplies a valuable corroboration of the astronomical
computation; compare F. Cumont, Cat. 8, 2: 83, n. 1.
142 Cat. 6: 68, 16-71, 31.
166 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D 167
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E F R O M N E R V A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R

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»• *rf ^ M «.v » *TT ? .

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168 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF AST R O L O G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
it would be to suspect that Antigonus may have had
before him an earlier horoscope, worked out by a con­
temporary of the emperor, perhaps even by Hadrian
himself, such flights of fancy ill behoove the historian.
But the argument that Hadrian (or his court astrolo­
gers) would hardly insert his death date and thus “ go
out on a limb ” cannot be used. For Hadrian, who at
some time in his career, probably after his return to
Rome — for why should he otherwise have to consult
an astrologer in the barbarous border camp of Moesia?
— mastered astrology himself, was said to have written
down (on the basis of his own astrological prowess)
on January first of each year the major events which
were in store for him. And— it was claimed— he even
foretold the very hour of his own death accurately in
his forecast on January first, 138.143 But there is no
need to assume that Antigonus of Nicaea used a previ­
ous horoscope. The date and hour of Hadrian’s birth
were common or easily obtainable knowledge. Any
competent astrologer could compute the constellation
which had then prevailed. This done and possessing
the historical facts of Hadrian’s life, he could settle
down to the task of fitting the one to the other. Astro­
logical interpretations were variable enough to permit
a satisfactory result even for a sincere believer in this
technique.
“ Imperial horoscopes ” played an increasingly im­
portant role from the days of the late republic. Nigidius
Figulus was said to have told the father of the new-born
Octavianus in 63 b . c . that the babe would become
master of the world according to the stars.144 The as­
trologer Scribonius prophesied to young Livia that the
infant, Tiberius, was headed for the supreme power.140
Caius Caligula in turn assuredly had received the same
promise, for certainly Thrasyllus must have “ revealed ”
to the aging Tiberius Caligula’s “ imperial destiny,” 146
and, while we have no reason to assume that Claudius
was ever given such astrological assurances, Nero’s
mother, the younger Agrippina, did obtain astrological
confirmation of the ambitious hopes she had for her
young son.147 Nero’s successor, Galba, had long pos­
sessed astrological forecasts of imperial grandeur.148
The same was true for Otho .149 Vitellius’ parents seem
to have received such an astrological prediction for
their infant son, but were also warned of his dreadful
death. They were, therefore, deeply worried, and Vitel­
lius himself professed a strong personal dislike for
1,3 SHA, Hadrian, 16, 7; Aelius, 3, 9; compare Cassius Dio, 2; Domitian, 14, 1.
ep. 69, 11, 3.
1,1 Suetonius, Augustus. 94, 5; Cassius Dio, 45, 1, 3-5.
1,5 Suetonius, Tiberius, 14, 2.
1.0 See above, p. 132.
141Tacitus, Annals 6, 22.
1.1 Cassius Dio, 57, 17, 4; Zonaras, 11, 2; ep. 63 (64), 1, 4;
Suetonius, Galba, 4, 1; Cat. 8, 4: 100, 6-8.
149 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1; 6, 1.
astrologers, in spite of his general faith in divination.150
Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian at one time or another
prior to their accession had been assured of their pos­
sessing “ imperial horoscopes.” 151 Nerva also held such
a promise.152 As for Trajan we can only surmise that,
if he did not obtain from his astrologer-relative, Aelius
Hadrianus,153 a similar prediction, he probably received
it by some other diviner at one time or another. In short,
with the possible exception of Claudius and Trajan,
every single emperor from Augustus to Trajan held—
or was credited with holding — definite astrological
assurances of future imperial grandeur.
This statistical fact alone would make it clear that
any prominent family could count on obtaining such a
prediction at the birth of a son. Hadrian’s birth, for
example, was followed, as we saw, by this prophecy also.
The great majority of these blithe forecasts inevitably
proved wrong, but emperors who took astrology seri­
ously would always wonder which ones might prove
correct, as one of them was bound to do so. We know
of at least five rulers, Tiberius, Vespasian, and Domitian
before Hadrian and Septimius Severus and Caracalla
after him, who took official cognizance of persons, pos­
sessing “ imperial horoscopes.” Perhaps even Augustus
belonged to this group.154 O f any ruler of the princi­
pate one may, indeed, assume that he must have been
beleagured with denunciations about possessors of such
horoscopes. Tiberius himself took the matter as seri­
ously as Domitian. Both rulers were said actively to
have investigated prominent men’s horoscopes. If these
were “ imperial ” ones, it might go hard with their
owners.155 Nerva himself had been in danger of immi­
nent death when Domitian found out that the aged
senator possessed such a horoscope.156
Ancient and modern historians alike have been prone
to condemn such imperial tactics. What is often over­
looked, however, is the fact that inquiries by adults
about their own “ imperial” future involved the death
date of an emperor and his heirs designate (if any).
Such topics, however, had been generally outlawed in
a. d. 11. When concerned with the death of any member
of the imperial house, they were — at the latest by
a.d. 49 — considered prima facie evidence of treason,
and hence prosecuted by maiestas actions.157 If, there­
fore, ambitious men were seeking astrological assur­
ances of imperial power, they knew that they now ran
l “ Suetonius, Vitellius, 3, 2; 14, 4; Cassius Dio, ep. 64 (65),
1, 4, from Xiphilinus; Zonaras, 11, 16.
161 Tacitus, Histories 2, 78; Suetonius, Vespasian, 25; Titus,
153 Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 15, 6; compare also 16, 2.
153 SHA, Hadrian, 2, 4.
1G‘ If his prediction about Galba’s eventual accession were
accepted; Suetonius, Galba, 4, 1.
135 Cassius Dio, 57, 15, 7-9; 17, 2-4; Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3.
130 Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 15, 5.
’ Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Semi­
nar 9, 1951: 8 ff.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E RV A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R
the risk of prosecution for treason. It was, of course,
a different matter, if rulers on their own proceeded to
investigate the horoscopes of prominent men for the
purpose of executing them before they could have
become conspirators. There was a grim irony in such
activities. For the firmest imperial believers in fatal­
istic astrology were the very ones to go furthest along
such lines, i. e. Tiberius and Domitian. Yet if they
did succeed in destroying “ destined ” rulers, how could
they continue to believe in fatalistic astrology? At best
imperial actions might be defended on the basis of
catarchic astrology, i. e. that certain men might have a
chance of mounting the throne. To prevent them from
doing so would logically be possible according to the
tenets of catarchic astrology. Obviously, however, subtle
logical distinctions of this kind were not made by those
rulers who embarked on prosecuting “ potential” em­
perors and yet continued to believe in fatalistic astrology.
Meanwhile, astrologers throughout the empire con­
stantly violated the law of topical restrictions, and
textbook writers freely gave the technical details for
determining what constituted “ imperial horoscopes.”
No less a scientist than Ptolemy, younger contemporary
of Hadrian and government-salaried research professor
at the University of Alexandria (about 150), wrote
quite nonchalantly:
And if the attendant planets are either themselves angular
or bear an aspect to the superior angle, the children born
will continue to be great, powerful, and world rulers
( KotJtWKparope*;) ,158 and they will be even more fortunate
if the attendant planets are in dexter aspect to the superior
angles.159
To explain the astrological terminology is superfluous
in this context, but one illustration of the practical
application of such views may be quoted. For this
purpose the horoscope of Hadrian, truly an "imperial
horoscope,” provided the following passage:
He became emperor (avTOKparap), because of the presence
of two planets in the horoscopal sector [Mars and moon],
and especially because the moon was in the ascendant and
coinciding with the horoscopal sector, and because Jupiter
was about to rise in the east within seven days. And because
of [the moon’s] “ satellites ” 169 being in their own houses,
and of them Venus being in the hypsoma of her own house,
and Mars in his own triangle, having his position in his
own sectors ( / m h ' p <u s ) , while both planets [i.e. Venus and
Mars] are close together and about to rise soon after the
moon. Moreover the sun too, the ruler (Kooiuutparuip), is
her [the moon’s] attendant in her six sectors, and he [the
sun] himself is [in turn] “ attended ” by Saturn in his own
house and by Mercury, both of them being in their morning
158F. Cumont, L ’Egypte des astrologucs: 27, rightly observes
•that prior to its being applied to Roman emperors the term
denoted king.
153 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 4, 3.
100These 6op(i<t>opot or tiopv^opoGvTcs, i. e. “ attendant ” planets
were defined for instance by Porphyry, Isagoge, 29, ed. E. Boer
and St. Weinstock in Cat. 5, 4 : 204 f., and thence by Hephaestion
of Thebes, 1, 17; cf. Bouche-Leclercq: 252-254.
169
rising. It remains to be shown that the moon too was about
to be in conjunction with a bright fixed star in the twentieth
degree. For one must not only pay attention to the con­
junction of the moon with the planets, but also with fixed
stars.161
This, however, Antigonus in our extant manuscripts
did not do, although in the original he may have added
the data on the conjunction of the moon with a bright
fixed star. In general his interpretation conformed
the main principles laid down by his contemporary
Ptolemy. It is significant that the demonstration of
Hadrian’s imperial destiny not only came at the very
beginning of the astrological demonstration, but was
also its longest section. It was followed by passages
which successively “ proved ” ( 1 ) why he was physically
well built, manly and graceful (Cat. 6 : 69, 3-4) ; (2)
why he was wise, well educated, and profound (ibid.:
69, 5 ff. and 70, 6 -8 ) ; (3) why he treated many unfairly
and was hated and plotted against (ibid.: 69, 2 0 ff.);
(4) why he married a virgin and never another wife
(ibid.: 70, 8 ff.) ; (5) why he had only one sister (and
no brother) (ibid.: 70, 20ff.); ( 6 ) why he himself
had no children (ibid.: 71, 2 ff.); (7) why he was
fated to die of dropsy and breathlessness (ibid.: 71,
7 ff.).
The surviving text of the horoscope contains an
insertion between --(3) and (4). There Antigonus
hearkened back to the imperial dignity:
That he was honored and received the proskynesis162
from all men was due to the fact that Jupiter was in
epicentric “ attendance ” on the sun. For a planet that
“ attends ” in this manner the sun and the moon has the
effect that a man is highly esteemed by his equals or betters
and has attendants and receives the proskynesis. And the
beneficial qualities he received from the aforesaid position
of Jupiter. That he was beneficient towards many and, as
I said, received the proskynesis was due to the fact that the
epicentric sun and moon were equally “ attended” by the
five [other] planets. For especially if the sun or the moon
or both are in “ active ” [cardinal ?] points (irpaxruca
Ktvrpa.), i. e. in the Horoscopal Point or the Mesuranema,
and are “ attended ” in this manner by all stars [i. e. planets],
they create those born under such constellation to become
kings ruling over many nations (0a<ri\eas waimoWmv iOv&v
K p a T O V V T a s ) -1G3
One thing we may safely assume: Hadrian received
this type of horoscope at one time or another, be it
from his great-uncle, from the astrologer in his Moesian
garrison, or from another one. Although details like
his childless marriage and accurate time and manner
131 Cat. 6 : 68, 16-69, 2.
133 This term denoted the ceremonial prostration in vogue
before oriental rulers. The Persian kings had insisted on it, and
beginning with Alexander the Great the Hellenistic despots con­
tinued this etiquette. Eastern subjects of Roman emperors would
therefore not look askance at such a ceremonial, but Antigonus
merely seems to mean by this term “ Greeted as it behooves an
emperor to be salutqd.”
133 Cat. 6 : 69, 27,-70, 6.
170 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF AST R O LO G Y IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
of his death were probably not included in those early
astrological forecasts, the promises of imperial grandeur
most certainly were, if, indeed, such predictions had
been made at all.
The adoption of Trajan by Nerva (October 27, 97)
and his almost instant accession to the throne (January
25,98), leading as it did to the advancement of Hadrian,
must have seemed to the young man proof of the accu­
racy of the astrological promises he had received. But
he was never satisfied to leave things alone. His pen­
chant for all kinds of divination164 led him for example
to look for reaffirmation of future glory in the works
of Vergil.165 But on the practical side it was the stead­
fast support of Trajan’s wife, Plotina, which helped
more than any other factor to maintain the cordial rela­
tions between Trajan and Hadrian during the decisive
decade which began with Trajan’s return to Rome in
99 ieo Age 0id slander has persistently suggested that
Hadrian was the paramour of Plotina and chiefly for
that reason was eventually successful in ascending the
throne. A saner view could easily ascribe Plotina’s
affectionate interest in Hadrian to the obvious psycho­
logical affinity which Plotina, patroness of a philo­
sophical sect and, in general, a woman of high moral
character, must have had with Hadrian, whose uni-
versalist intellectual interests probably formed a bond
between them which Plotina could not establish with
her soldier-husband, fond of wars, wine, and boys rather
than of literary or poetical endeavors.
Trajan may, indeed, have been somewhat relieved at
finding within his family circle a sympathetic partner
for Plotina’s intellectual hobbies. Proof of his own
esteem of young Hadrian was that he had arranged the
marriage between his young grandniece Sabina and
Hadrian. The marriage ended only with the death of
Sabina in 136. Although Hadrian’s penchant for boys
and the childlessness of the marriage could not but cast
a shadow over Sabina’s life, Roman society matrons were
long conditioned to the vagaries of their husbands, and
Hadrian at least insisted that his wife should be treated
with the respect due to her. Those who failed to do
so were removed from the court, a fate which was to
befall, for example, Suetonius (about 120), who thus
received the leisure for the composition of his historical
works.
Meanwhile Hadrian completed the cursus honorum
by rising from the quaestorship to the consulate, which
he first held as consul suflectus and finally as consul
ordinarius. He also mounted the politically more im­
1,4 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 11, 3.
106 SHA, Hadrian 2, 8; compare also 9 for other prophecies
of good fortune.
144 W . D. Gray, op. cit.: 206 f., contributes a valuable analysis, pulled from its abode on the Palatine to its new location by
concluding that Plotina’s greatest importance in the furthering twenty-four elephants.
of Hadrian’s career antedates a . d . 111. Thereafter there is clear
evidence that Trajan himself became increasingly aware of wholly convincing evidence, tends towards assuming that Hadrian
Hadrian’s qualifications for the throne.
portant ladder of military offices. At the time of
Trajan’s death in 117 he commanded the large oriental
army, while his old guardian Attianus headed the im­
perial guard. On August 8 , 117 Trajan died on his
return to Rome. On his death bed he adopted Hadrian.
He was apparently so ill that Plotina herself signed the
letter, which announced the momentous news to the
senate. This and the suddenness of the adoption fol­
lowed by the instant death of Trajan would of course
set tongues wagging in any era. It is, therefore,
hardly surprising that gossip of this sort persisted,
allowing Cassius Dio’s father many years later to tell
his son161 that Hadrian’s adoption had been a fraud,
perpetrated probably by Plotina and others. In modem
times Gibbon (ch. iii), and more recently a host of
German historians have joined Cassius Dio in denying
that an adoption ever took place.168 French, and most
of the English writers have been more reluctant to
abandon the idea of the adoption of Hadrian by Trajan.
Yet Henderson, for example, in 1923 cautiously cap­
tioned in his work on Hadrian ch. ii, 3, “ The ‘ adop­
tion’ ( ?) of Hadrian.” Yet published as early as 1903,
for all to read was the oldest extant source touching
on the topic of the horoscope compiled by Antigonus
of Nicaea in the second century. Not a single modern
historian, from Kornemann169 to the present, seems to
have known of the existence of at least three manu­
scripts quoting an authority antedating Cassius Dio,
an authority flatly stating as a matter of course that
Hadrian was adopted.170 Even if, in the end, there
would still remain some doubt about the validity of
even this source, there can be no question that it adds
considerably to the weight of evidence in favor of
adoption.
Our information about the details of Hadrian’s build­
ing activities is inadequate for the purpose of ascertain­
ing the influence which his astrological predilection
exercised upon specific projects. One may mention
his order to match the colossal statue of Nero (which
already Vespasian transformed by substituting a star-
encircled head of Helios for that of Nero) with a colos­
sal statue of the moon goddess.171 He also restored
Agrippa’s Pantheon172 providing it with a vault, whose
147 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 1, 1-3. This passage also errs with
regard to Hadrian’s consulate.
188For a balanced view of the arguments, see W. D. Gray,
A study of the life of Hadrian, ch. iv : 195 ff. F. Gregorovius
too believed the adoption of Hadrian by the dying Trajan had
really taken place; Der Kaiser Hadrian: 20 f.
108 E. Kornemann, Der Kaiser Hadrian und der letste grosse
Historiker von Rom : 11 ff.; esp. 21, Leipzig, Dieterichsche
Verlagsbuchhandlung, Theodor Weicher, 1905.
.
170Cat. 6, M 68, 10: vioderrjBtls; Cat. S, 2: 82: vioBtT^df}.
171 SHA, Hadrian, 19, 13. The hundred feet high colossus was
174 Between A. D. 120 and 124. Modern opinion, based on not
rebuilt not only the roof, but also most of the walls.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 171
circular sun-like opening in the center stylized a heavenly hardly find a better illustration. It is perhaps unfortu­
semi-sphere, which may even have been of his design, nate that all we know of Julia Balbilla is a number of
since he himself was an enthusiastic amateur architect. mediocre poems. She seems to have been one of those
But more clearly than in any architectural allegories literary bluestockings of whom Juvenal wrote:
Hadrian’s eclectic mysticism stood out during his last
. . . As soon as she has sat down to dinner she commends
great journey, which led him via Athens through Asia
Vergil, pardons the dying Dido, and pits the poets against
minor to Egypt, and thence back to Rome by way of each other, putting Vergil on the one scale and Homer on
Syria and Athens.173 the other. . . . She lays down definitions, and discourses on
morals, like a philosopher, thirsting to be deemed both wise
It was his last great venture. When he returned to and eloquent.176
Italy, Hadrian buried himself in his fantastic villa at
Tivoli, or some other Italian palazzo. His traveling A lady of such qualities would not only suit Hadrian,
days were over. By premonition or plan, he had made but also his wife Sabina, probably herself a lady of
his last voyage the most magnificent of all. In his en­ literary interests.
tourage we find the empress Sabina and his favorite
Antinous, a young Bithynian whose extraordinary
beauty had captivated Hadrian. The empress in turn
included among her ladies-in-waiting a friend of long
standing, Julia Balbilla. The appearance of this lady
in the innermost circle of Hadrian’s court revealed the
continuity of a family tradition of long standing. Had
not Julia’s great-grandfather, Thrasyllus, been an inti­
mate of the old emperor Augustus and of his successor,
Tiberius? Had not her grandfather, Balbillus, enjoyed
the personal friendship of Claudius, the respect of Nero,
and the high esteem of Vespasian, Titus, and probably
Domitian? Julia’s brother, C. Julius Antiochus Epi­
phanes Philopappus (consul a . d . 109), had died before
Hadrian’s accession, but Julia Balbilla herself, probably
a good many years his junior, was still sprightly enough
to bear the strain of the far flung voyages during the
years 128-132 without apparent discomfort. She also
represented, although somewhat feebly, the literary and
scholarly traditions of her family. A poetess she was
persona grata with Hadrian and his wife.
Probably raised in Rome, she was of purely Greek
stock. Her father descended from the defunct hellen­
istic dynasty of Commagene and had, as Balbilla proudly
recorded, still borne the honorary title of king1''1 (as
did Julia Balbilla’s brother). Her maternal grand­
Fic. 16. Antinous (d. 130). From A. Hekler, Greek and
parents were Balbillus, son of the Alexandrian Thra­ Roman portraits: 251 (detail).
syllus and a princess of Commagene, and Balbillus’ wife,
who may or may not have been of Greek extraction.175 The imperial voyage followed the traditional highroad
Thus with the possible exception of her maternal grand­ for tourists in Egypt from the days of Herodotus to
mother, Julia Balbilla was of pure Greek descent. Yet those of Cook or American Express Company guided
she could boast of a lineage which included a Roman ones of today: the Nile. With a poetic feeling, rare,
knight (Balbillus) and a hellenistic king (Antiochus alas, among the far too sober historians of the modern
IV ) as her grandfathers, and of a brother who had era, Gregorovius has drawn an unforgettable picture
reached the consulate. The cosmopolitan structure of of Hadrian’s leisurely journey through the age-old
high Roman society in the early second century could world of Egypt’s monuments.177 In the midst of this
pilgrimage the grim reaper appeared as an unbidden
178 A somewhat different itinerary is suggested by B. Hender­ guest. The scene deserved a Poe to do it justice, but
son, The life . . . of Hadrian: 294.
we know only the bare fact: Antinous, the emperor’s
174 Kaibel, epigr., no. 991; W. Peek, Zu den Gedichten auf dem
Memnonkoloss von Theben, Mitteilungen des deutschen Instituls favorite, drowned in the Nile near the city of Besa,
fuer aegyptische Altertumskunde 5, 1934: 95-109; the text of probably on October 30, 130. It does not seem likely,
this poem is printed on page 96 f.; a German translation of the
four poems of Julia Balbilla is found on pp. 108 f. 1,8 Juvenal, 6, vv. 434 ff.
118 Compare the family trees on pp. 95 and 136. 1,7 F. Gregorovius, Der Kaiser Hadrian, ch. xvii and ch. xviii.
172 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F A STROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
however, that the pompous funeral which the stricken 178
emperor held at Besa evoked undue grief in the breast
of Sabina or Julia Balbilla. Another participant of the
tour, L. Ceionius Commodus, probably also shed few
tears on this occasion. His father, with three other
consulars, had been killed by order of the senate (or
more truly at the instigation of Attianus) in 118 for an
abortive plot against Hadrian.179 The son, no Hamlet,
but a gay blade, literary dilettant, and exceedingly
handsome, may well have seen in the death of Antinous
an opportunity for his own advancement in the affec­
tions of Hadrian.
Was — as a modern writer has wondered180 — the
death of Antinous due to astrological mysticism? Let
us quote the only important source suggesting that
Antinous was not merely the victim of an accident:
Antinous was from Bithynium, a city of Bithynia. . . .
He had been a favorite of the emperor and had died in
Egypt, either by falling into the Nile, or as the truth is,
by being offered in sacrifice. For Hadrian . . . was always
very curious and employed divinations and incantations of
all kinds. Accordingly he honored Antinous, either because
of his love for him, or because the youth had voluntarily
undertaken to die (it being necessary that a life should be
surrendered freely for the accomplishment of the ends
Hadrian had in view). . . ,181
The belief that a man’s life could be saved from
fated death by the voluntary sacrifice of another’s was
an old one. The story of Alcestis and her devotion
has become immortal. Had Hadrian received an astro­
logical warning that his end was near, unless someone
else would voluntarily die for him? Evidence that
such an astrological hypothesis existed prior to this
date is connected with Balbillus. For in 64, when a
comet according to popular belief announced the im­
pending death of Nero, Balbillus had consoled the
quaking emperor by pointing out to him that he could
avert his own death by sacrificing a number of aristo­
cratic victims.182 The substitution of a single life for
the emperor’s life did, however, not occur in this inter­
pretation. Nor did Balbillus consider it necessary that
the victims died voluntarily. Indeed, they did not!
But granted Hadrian’s mysticism, there may have been
some connection of this kind between the death of
Antinous and an astrological warning that such a sacri­
fice was necessary for the survival of the emperor.
There is no need to go into the transformation of the
town of Besa into Antinoe or Antinoupolis, or to deal
with the erection of shrines and statues of the departed
young man. But was this not the country whence the
178 If SHA, Hadrian, 14, 5, could be trusted, he did weep
openly.
178 SHA, Hadrian, 7, 1-2; compare Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 2, 5.
1,0 F. Gregorovius, op. cit.: 172 f.
1S1 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 11, 2-3.
182 Suetonius, Nero, 36.
locks of Berenice had been wafted unto the stars to
become heavenly luminaries ? 183
Hadrian declared that he had seen a star which he took
to be that of Antinous, and gladly lent an ear to the fictitious
tales woven by his associates to the effect that the star had
really come into being from the spirit of Antinous and had
then appeared for the first time.184
To this day the star of Antinous has remained in­
cluded in our astronomical nomenclature, the last
Graeco-Roman example of the transformation of history
into legend engraven in the heavens. Poets and orators
galore composed paeans and panegyrics on Hadrian’s
catasterized favorite,185 but apparently none of these
efforts has survived.
Three weeks after the death of Antinous Hadrian
stood before the colossal statue of Amenophis III, the
so-called colossus of Memnon. We are indebted for
the precise date of this visit to the granddaughter of
Balbillus, who carefully scratched into the pedestal of
the statue the date of Hadrian’s visit, “ the 24th and
25th day of the month Athyr in the fifteenth year of
Hadrian’s reign,” i. e. on November 20 and 21, 130:188
By Julia Balbilla when to the Memnon listened the illus­
trious Hadrian.
I heard about Memnon the Egyptian that he speaks when
illuminated by the ray of the sun. But when he saw Hadrian
he gave him what greeting he could even before the sun’s
[first] ray arrived. But when the Titan traversing with
fiery horses the ether reached the second mark in the shadow
of the hours, then again like beaten bronze he sent out his
voice. And for the third time, parting, he gave his greeting.
Then fittingly Lord Hadrian also greeted Memnon and left,
inscribed on a stele, for posterity the report of all he had
seen and heard. Clear, however, to all became how much
the gods loved him.187
Hadrian’s stele has long since vanished, but the glit­
tering flattery of the lady tourist in his entourage has
survived. Julia Balbilla, however, was probably re­
cording the triple greeting of Hadrian by the statue
only from hearsay. For in another poem she reported
181 The astronomer Conon and the poet Callimachus were
given the main credit for this catasterism which in Catullus’
Latin poetic account has been transmitted to us in detail; see
above, p. 13.
184 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 11, 4; compare Suidas, s. v. 'Adpiavis
and s. v. waiSt/ca.
185 Such authors included Hadrian’s freedman, the renowned
Cretan citharoede Mesomedes (Suidas, s. v. ; SHA, Antoninus
Pius, 7, 7), Pancrates (Athenaeus, 15, f. 677 E ), and the rhe­
torician Numenius, who addressed a written consolatio to
Hadrian (Suidas, s.v.). Hostile criticism came of course from
Christian writers, for example Justinus, apologia, 29, 4; Ter-
tullian, de cor., 13; ad nationes 2, 10. In the fourth century the
emperor Julian ridiculed the deification of Antinous; Caesares,
I. 311 D ; for another fourth century record, see Aurelius Victor,
14, 9.
188W. Peek, op. cit., poem no. 4, the last of those composed by
Julia Balbilla.
187 Ibid.: 95 ff.; on Memnon compare Strabo, 17, 1, 42 (f.
813); Herodotus: 3, 64.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
the visit which, perhaps on the following day, the em­ the scholars whom Hadrian appointed to teach at the
press Sabina, accompanied by the poetess, paid to Athenaeum used these halls for the most part, occa­
Memnon: sionally non-academic meetings, even a senate assem­
bly19* might be held there. The new institution of
When I had come together with the illustrious Sabina to
Memno". higher learning not only was the first Latin one of its
. . . I greet you. Do speak and bid a friendly wel­ kind, but also, by providing western Europe with a
come to the illustrious wife of Lord Hadrian . . . I do state university, set the pattern which eventually became
not believe that this your marvelous effigy has been ruined.
Pure in spirit I have retained your immortal soul. For the dominant type of European university. Moreover,
the Athenaeum also, for the first time in history— as far
pious were my fathers and forefathers; Balbillus the wise
and Antiochus the king, and my father of a royal mother’s as we know— possessed a “ department of languages ” ;
blood,188 and his grandfather, king Antiochus. . . .18B i. e. it had on its staff Greek as well as Latin gram­
But Memnon was apparently not prone to perform marians and rhetoricians. This was, on one hand, a
for women, no matter how highly placed. For he re­ formal recognition of the equality of Greek and Latin,
mained stubbornly silent: a blow to Roman die-hards to be sure, but, on the other
hand, it introduced in principle also the study of lan­
When we failed to hear Memnon on the first day. guages other than one’s native tongue as a cultural
Yesterday, Memnon, naughty one, you remained silent,
effort worthy to be state subsidized. Owing to the experi­
so that once more fair Sabina should guide her steps hither.
For you enjoy to behold the fair form of our empress. Now mental nature of this arrangement at first only a single
that she has returned, let ring your divine sound, so that Greek professor of oratory seems to have been ap­
the emperor’s wrath may not be aroused, because you kept pointed.195 Aspasius, Pausanias, Hadrianus, and Phila-
waiting in vain for so long his illustrious spouse.— And grius were among the earliest occupants of this coveted
Memnon, trembling before the majesty of powerful Hadrian, post in the second century.100
at once sounded his voice. But she who heard it was
gladdened. . . . In still another field Hadrian’s Athenaeum differed
Out of the ringing stone I, Balbilla, heard the divine from its Greek predecessors: It seems to have been the
voice of Memnon or Phamenoth [i. e. Amenophis], I had first institution of higher learning with which a law-
come hither with Sabina, the fair empress. Helios had school was connected. Although not part of the build­
finished the course of the first hour, in the fifteenth year
of the reign of Hadrian . . . on the twenty-fifth day of the ing itself, its classrooms were apparently located in
month Athyr.180 law libraries adjacent to the Athenaeum.197 We have
no evidence about the teaching or research in the realm
W ith these informative but poetically mediocre poems of philosophy envisaged by • Hadrian — philosophy of
of Julia Balbilla the house of Thrasyllus faded into course including the natural sciences. But in Alexan­
oblivion. From the reign of Augustus to, that of Hadrian dria, home of the oldest state university of the Greek
it had played a prominent and often decisive role at world, Hadrian had been able to observe at first hand
court.
the renowned scientific division of the Museion. Ptolemy
It is not certain when Hadrian returned to Rome, was perhaps too young then to be among the illustrious
but at the very latest he was there by May, 134.191 members of the Alexandrian institute, but his life­
Deeply impressed by Greek culture, which he had ob­ long imperial salary, once he was appointed, showed at
served so intensely, he decided to establish a state uni­ least that the Roman emperors were as eager as their
versity in the Latin capital. He built a large structure, Hellenistic predecessors to retain the lustre of the mecca
calling it — in memory of his beloved Athens — the of scientific achievement.
Athenaeum. It contained those very gymnasia which No evidence, however, for the appointment of a phi­
Hadrian’s predecessor had ridiculed as a Greek foible,182 losopher to the Athenaeum by Hadrian has survived.
and auditoria whose semicircular rows of seats rose, Yet it seems almost impossible to assume that Hadrian,
forming a large wedge as in public theatres.193 Although a living encyclopaedia of Greek culture, should have
confined his appointments to grammarians, rhetoricians,
1,8 In lieu of ~A.ua, suggested by E. Honigmann, Zu CIG 4730,
Hermes 59, 1924: 477 f., and "AKfias or "Aktijs, according to C. and jurists. The general picture of his court surely
Cichorius, Roemische Studien: 390 ff., Peek, who restudied the would favor the view that additional chairs were created.
inscriptions on the spot, prefers al/ia; see op. cit.: 97.
180 Peek, loc. cit.; Kaibel, epigr., nos. 992 and 991. the hiring of the faculty, compare Aurelius Victor, Caesares, 14,3.
108 W. Peek, loc. cit. One might add that the empress Sabina, Owing to the dearth of early records concerning the Athenaeum,
after being married to Hadrian for about thirty years in a . d . F. Schemmel, Das Athenaeum in Rom, Wochenschrift fuer klas-
130, must have been in her mid-forties at least. To call her sische Philologie 35, Febr. 17, 1919, nos. 7-8: 91 ff., deals chiefly
“ fair,” as Julia Balbilla did, was therefore probably a piece of with the Athenaeum in the later period of the empire.
court flattery rather than the literal truth. But then: de gusti- 181 Cassius Dio, ep. 64 (63), 17, 4.
bus non est disputanduml 188 Philostratus, vit. soph. 2, 10, 9; 33.
181 CIG, no. 5906, dated May 5 of the eighteenth year of 188F. Schemmel, op. cit.: 91.
Hadrian’s tribunician power, was written in Rome. 187 On these stationes docentium, see Gellius, 13, 13, 1; F.
188 Pliny, epist., 10. 40. Bremer, Die Rechtsschulen und Rechtslehrer im roemischen
188 Sidonius Apollinaris, epist. 2, 9, 4. On the founding and Kaiserreich : 68 ff.
174 THE R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F A STROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
However ready Hadrian might have been to criticize
musicians, tragedians, comedians, grammarians, and rhe­
toricians, he nevertheless bestowed both honors and riches
upon all who professed these arts, although he always
tormented them with his questions. . . . He treated with
the greatest friendship the philosophers Epictetus and Helio-
dorus, and— to spare myself the naming of individuals—
various grammarians, musicians, geometricians, painters,
and astrologos.1’"'
It may be assuming too much stylistic consistency
on the part of the author of Hadrian’s vita (from which
this passage stems) to remember that he called astrology
(in that same biography) mathesis,109 (as Firmicus
Maternus was to entitle his long work on astrology in
the reign of Constantine I [d. 337]). But even from
the mere list of scholarly disciplines it is clear that these
astrologi were scholars, i. e. astronomers. That they
would (like Ptolemy) include astrology among their
astronomical pursuits may also be taken for granted.
Certainly — in spite of his interest in divination —-no
diviners were listed among Hadrian’s intellectual pro­
teges. It, therefore, seems at least possible that some
of those scholars referred to in the vita may have re­
ceived their “ honors and riches ” in form of appoint­
ments to the new Athenaeum — we know that such
appointments were made by Hadrian to the university
of Alexandria 200 — and it would be in keeping with
Hadrian’s universalism that at least one philosopher
and perhaps also an astronomer were included in the
faculty of the Athenaeum. That a (hypothetical) pro­
fessor of geometry might be combined with that of
astronomy was not unlikely. For these two disciplines
were, especially by Romans, often considered as one
and the same.201
An indirect indication of Hadrian’s official appoint­
ment of astrologi might be seen in a passage from the
vita of Severus Alexander in which this ruler (222-235)
was said to have “ established salaries and decreed audi­
toria for rhetoricians, grammarians, physicians, haru-
spices(l), mathematici, engineers, and architects.” 202
These mathematici, although suspiciously listed directly
after the haruspices, could philologically be mathema­
ticians (including astronomers). The fact that, for
example, Juvenal and Tacitus (although not Suetonius)
almost consistently used mathematicus for astrologer
carries little weight for the loose writing of the authors
of the vitae. Moreover Aurelius Victor specifically
reported—alas, also from the fourth century only— that
1M SHA, Hadrian, 16, 8 and 10.
” * Ibid., 16, 7.
200 SHA, Hadrian, 20, 2: “ To them [the professors] he pro­
pounded many questions.” Among the absentee appointees of
Hadrian at Alexandria were Polemon of Smyrna and Dionysius
of Miletus; Philostratus, vit. soph. 2, 37. Chief priest and presi­
dent of the Museion became the knight Julius Vestinus; CIG,
no. 5900.
For example by Quintilian, de inst. or. 1, 10, 46 ff.
103 SHA, Severus Alexander, 44, 4.
Hadrian “ founded a school of liberal arts (ingenuarum
artium), called the Athenaeum." 203 Taken at face
value, this would include the teaching of astronomy
which in the second century of our era was definitely
included among the liberal arts.204 Assuredly Hadrian
had already provided for grammarians and rhetoricians
—and may have added state stipends for certain branches
outside the sphere of the liberal arts, but the latter inno­
vation would not necessarily cover the astronomers,
already counted among the professors of the liberal arts.
Early in 136 Hadrian contracted the lingering disease
which was to kill him within two years. The search
for a successor, never a task agreeable to men at the
summit of power, became acute. Sabina (whatever
her role in Hadrian’s life may have been) died in that
year. The nearest male relatives of Hadrian were his
brother-in-law, Servianus,205 and Servianus’ grandson,
Pedanius Fuscus, a young man of about twenty-three.
Servianus was a nonagenarian, too old for the throne,
Pedanius Fuscus untried. How long could one count
on the availability of so old a mentor as Servianus to
guide his grandson ? Worse than that, relations between
Servianus and Hadrian were not good.206 Although
perhaps no deadly grudge separated the two men, so
closely related, so different in age and character, family
feuds are habitually long-lived. A strident note of
sarcasm marked Hadrian’s joking words, injected into a
private discussion of potential candidates for the throne.
The emperor asked the group to present a slate of ten,
but corrected himself at once: “ Make it nine! For I
have already one, and that is Servianus.” 207 The jest
would not set well with the proud old man to whom it
was bound to be reported. Other hopefuls were Teren-
tius Gentianus, a senator, and Aulus Platorius Nepos.208
None of these pleased Hadrian. His health deterio­
rated. Although the secret of his condition was perhaps
guarded, it was not impenetrable to his next of kin.
Should Servianus in the absence of any declared suc­
cessor see the imperial power slip from his family, or
should he let it go to the victor of. a series of civil wars
reminiscent of the dreaded year 69? Under these cir­
cumstances Servianus may have made some suggestions
for a transfer of power to Pedanius Fuscus, perhaps
with himself in the role of a co-regent, in case Hadrian
should succumb to a hemorrhage. Needless to add,
Rome must have been agog with predictions of an im­
pending change of rulers. Astrologers, undoubtedly
consulted long before, probably even at the time of
Fuscus’ birth, were ready, as they usually were, to
predict imperial grandeur for their client.
Aurelius Victor, Caes., 14, 3.
304 See for example Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyona 8, 7. 3.
“ * See above, p. 152.
For an incident showing friction between them as far back
as A. D. 98, see SHA, Hadrian, 1, 6-7. Servianus also tried to
disturb Hadrian’s relations with Trajan.
307Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 17, 3.
30» SHA, Hadrian, 23, 4-6.
A ST R O LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
In contrast to the usual assumption, however, that
Servianus was at least as deeply implicated in such
schemes, it now seems that Fuscus alone was “ spurred
on by prophecies and omens.” 200 Nor can the date,
hitherto accepted for the family tragedy, the year 136,
be maintained in the light of evidence, long available
but spurned by, or simply unknown to our historians
of antiquity. A horoscope (in all probability that of
Fuscus) 210 shows that the crisis in Hadrian’s family
took place probably in the first months of 138. The
course of events was overshadowed by Hadrian’s search
of a successor. He decided (about the middle of 136)
to adopt Lucius Ceionius Commodus,211 who as Aelius
Verus thus became heir designate. For years he had
been a member of the emperor’s inner circle—we find
him already in Hadrian’s entourage on his Egyptian
tour in 130— and the ruler’s aesthetic taste was said to
have played a large part in the selection of what to all
disinterested—and of course all the more to interested
observers— seemed to be merely a handsome roue. A
historian of doubtful validity, Marius Maximus, seems
to have explained the almost inexplicable choice of
Hadrian as due to his astrological activities:
The emperor was acquainted with Verus’ horoscope, and
. . . adopted a man whom he did not really deem suitable
to govern the empire merely for the purpose of gratifying
his own desires. . . . For Marius Maximus represents
Hadrian as so expert in astrology, as even to assert that
he knew all about his own future.212
Thus Hadrian, foreseeing that Verus would precede
him in death, was accused of bestowing honors on him
to satisfy his own perverse desire in the certain (?)
knowledge of a later opportunity to select a worthier
successor. Even the emperor’s astrological belief could
hardly blind him to such an extent that, besides select­
ing a wholly inadequate heir to the throne, he should
also overlook the serious illness of the candidate, proba­
bly tuberculosis, to which Aelius Verus was so soon to
fall victim. The date of the formal adoption of Aelius
is not known. The evidence of coins213 contradicts
that suggested by an inscription,214 but the event took
place in any case between July and December 136,218
probably in August.216
This to Fuscus and Servianus must have been a
severe blow. Modern historians, relying on the very
SHA, Hadrian, 23, 3.
210 F. Cumont, Cat. 8, 2: 85, n. 1.
111 SHA, Hadrian, 23, 10 ff.
313Ibid., Aelius Verus, 3, 8-9.
313Zoega, tab. 9; Borghesi, 8, 457; compare Vaillant, 1, 164,
i. e. prior to August 29, 136.
CIL 3, 1: 547, no. 4366 lists Aelius’ tribunate (first year),
i. e. after December 10, 136. But it is possible that Hadrian
bestowed the tribunician power on Aelius after adopting him.
315 B. W . Henderson, The life . . . of Hadrian: 259, n. 8.
3,4 Loc. cit. : F. Gregorovius, Der Kaiser Hadrian: 234, sug­
gests that Hadrian may have selected the date of his own dies
imperii.
175
meagre evidence of an epitomized sentence from Cassius
Dio 217 and the Hadrian vita's brief references,216 as­
sumed that, if not before, then soon after the adoption
in the year 136 Hadrian ordered the summary execution
of his two nearest male relatives. This, however, was
not the case. Fuscus knew of the illness of the heir
designate, which was, indeed, no secret. Aelius Verus
was physically unable to pronounce in the senate his for­
mal oration of thanks for the adoption.219 Yet although
Hadrian only became aware of the deadly nature of
his heir’s ailment after the adoption,220 Servianus and
Fuscus may have hoped at the very time of the adoption
that Aelius Verus would not long stand in their way.
If he outlived Hadrian to die soon afterwards, the
imperial promises of the diviners might still come true
for Fuscus. If, on the other hand, Aelius Verus were
to die even before Hadrian, the ailing emperor might
still find Fuscus preferable to an “ outsider.” The year
137 which Aelius spent mostly in Pannonia, where,
indeed, he seems to have acquitted himself creditably,
witnessed the rapid decline of his health. He returned
to Rome towards the end of the year and died on
January 1, 138.221
Before his death a scholarly friend of Hadrian— per­
haps one of the astrologers who had gone over Aelius’
horoscope together with Hadrian prior to the adoption
— had raised doubts about the accuracy of the astro­
logical predictions (which must have included promises
of long life for Aelius Verus) :
When one of the learned men (unus ex literatis) . . .
tried to console him, saying: “ What if a mistake has been
made in the obtaining of his horoscope (si non recte con-
stellatio eius collecta est) ?" Hadrian is said to have
replied: “ It is easy for you to say that, when you are
looking for an heir to your property, not to the empire.” 222
If this episode actually occurred it would not only
confirm the assumption, probable in any case, that care­
ful astrological investigation along with other considera­
tions had influenced Hadrian’s selection of Verus, but
also that the emperor admitted, albeit grudgingly, the
probability of an error in those calculations. In any
case in spite of his own declining condition Hadrian
hesitated for some time before choosing another suc­
cessor.223 Perhaps, after the debacle of the astrologers
in the case of Aelius Verus, he was now less inclined
to rely on such a method of determining the future
ruler of the Roman realm. During those weeks of
317 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 17, 1.
318 SHA, Hadrian, 15, 8; 23, 2-3; compare also 23, 8; 25, 8.
313Ibid., 23, 15. This may, however, be the same episode
referred to as belonging to the end of a . p. 137; SHA, Aelius,
4, 7. Yet why should Aelius have deferred his official speech
of thanks that long?
330 SHA, Hadrian, 23, 14; Aelius, 4, 1 ff.
331 SHA, Aelius, 4, 7; compare 6, Iff.; Hadrian, 23, 16; Cas­
sius Dio, ep. 69, 20, 1.
333 SHA, Aelius, 4, 5.
333 Ibid., 6, 9.
176 T HE R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 177
January, 138 the hopes of Fuscus must have reached of any matters pertaining to the imperial office, but can . of about 25, and, for striving for the imperial power, he data, on the other hand, are far fewer and more vague
a very high point, indeed. handle them all effectively. I refer to Aurelius Antoninus was executed together with an old man belonging to his
here.227 than those of the Hadrian and Fuscus horoscopes:
Hadrian, meanwhile, pondered on his sickbed the family, who had become suspect and that through him.
All of his family furthermore were affected through the He was eminent and of illustrious ancestry and punished
dilemma created by the death of Aelius Verus. For the The formal adoption took place on February 25, many [jroAAow koA o ^wv] and was very wealthy . . . was
same [causes], i.e. the sun was in the Horoscopal Sector
deceased had left behind him a youngster, L. Ceionius 138.228 It was not received with general joy, especially and attended by Mercury, as well as Jupiter. For [this] accused unjustly. . . ,240
Aelius Commodus fVerus Antoninus], later known as not by men who had hoped for the throne themselves. is said [by Antigonus] about this: He became ill-advised
through Mercury’s and Saturn’s being in a male sign, and These meagre items do not contradict the other evidence
L. Verus. Born on December 15, 126 the boy was One of them, Catilius Severus — he had been the col­
through the same configuration someone of his family concerning Servianus, but they certainly are inconclu­
now eleven years old and by his father’s adoption a league of Antoninus Pius during his consulate in 120289
perished. That he himself was cut down was through the sive. If Servianus were, indeed, the owner of that
“ grandson ” of Hadrian. Dynastically his claim in a —showed his disappointment so openly that Hadrian moon’s being in Scorpio, a harm working constellation, and horoscope, he would have been about 97 or 98 years
sense was better than that of Fuscus at this stage, but deprived him of his office, the city prefecture.230 If Mars’ shining [against the moon], being in regard to the old at the time of his execution.
Fuscus, now almost twenty-five years old,224 would grey beards took the loss of their hopes so hard, young Mesuranema in Epanaphora. Also the harm would come
from a human being through Mars’ being in a human­ As to the horoscope of Fuscus, it contained sufficient
from the point of age have the advantage over L. Verus. Fuscus must have lost all self-control. To what extent
shaped constellation. But this man became erotic and astronomical data to permit its computation. The result
But Hadrian’s mind was made up against Fuscus. Per­ Servianus failed to check his grandson’s behavior re­
gladiator loving,—erotic through Venus, gladiator loving, has been the establishment of April 6 , a . d . 113 as
haps the young man’s gullibility in regard to divinatory mains unknown. At any rate the nonagenarian was however, through Mars, being in regard to the Mesuranema
promises was a warning to the emperor? At any rate still active. For he continued to give banquets and even Fuscus’ birthday, i. e. a date in accord with the age of
in Epanaphora, and through Mercury’s being in the house
of Mars. His death — miserable — at about his 25th year “ about twenty-five ” at which, according to Antigonus,
he resolved to reserve for young L. Verus at least a made the rounds of the palace guards231 while Hadrian
[was wrought] through his [Mars’] rising and that of the luckless Fuscus was executed. To illustrate the
chance to ascend eventually the throne, but dashed all lay in bed awaiting death. Did he perhaps, racked
Aquarius being the same.235 manner in which modern scholars tackle such a com­
hopes of Fuscus by deciding on the adoption of T. with pain, recall the scene in the dimmed bedroom of
the dying Trajan, whence Plotina and Attianus had This horoscope was published in 1911 and at that putation,241 O. Neugebauer’s procedure in the case of
Aurelius Fulvus Boionius Arrius Antoninus, i. e. Anto­
emerged with the document announcing Hadrian’s for­ time tentatively identified by F. Cumont as that of the Fuscus horoscope may be quoted. The data of the
ninus Pius. To this, however, he attached the condi­
mal adoption? 232 Did Fuscus perchance besiege the Pedanius Fuscus. For more than forty years, there­ Greek text were given as follows:
tion that the new heir-designate should also in his turn
adopt L. Verus and another boy, not yet seventeen, the imperial invalid with his outbursts of furious disap­ fore, the constant plaint of historians 238 about the The theme of his nativity was. the following: The Sun
future emperor Marcus Aurelius.225 Since Marcus was pointment? Did not his horoscope promise him the scantiness of the extant information about this ill- and the Horoscopal Point were in T, the Moon in HI, three
starred young man has been less well founded than it days after its evening rising, Mercury and Saturn in T,
the older of the two and already by far the more throne ? setting in the morning,—Jupiter in X , rising in the morning.
promising, Hadrian’s terms favored M. Aurelius over used to be. It may be added that this was the third The lot of Fortune was in itl. The Lord, he [Antigonus]
L. Verus. Of most eminent and illustrious descent both on his and, alas, last “ historical ” horoscope copied from says, will thus be Mars. The Moon will be after seven
father’s [he was Cn. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator] and on Antigonus of Nicaea in the fourth century by Hephaes- days in £1, after forty days in =a=.248
From his couch the ailing ruler submitted to the his mother’s side [she was Servianus’ only daughter and
senate his suggestions, perhaps as early as January 24, Hadrian’s niece] . . . he was raised in great expectations tion of Thebes. The repeated insistence of Antigonus The one statement in this nativity which contradicts
his last birthday. The speech ascribed to him on that and seemed already to approach the imperial power. . . .2sa that Fuscus was about twenty-five years old at the astronomically all others made about that celestial body
occasion may of course be fictitious, but its arguments, time of his execution sounds more plausible than Dio’s is the one which insists that the moon was in TTL- In the
Hadrian may have known that the young man pos­ pitiful figure of only eighteen years.287 Hadrian, pain-
applying to the rejection of Fuscus and L. Verus as words of Neugebauer:
sessed an “ imperial ” horoscope. Taking into con­ racked and suspicious of any attempt on the part of
immediate successors, were surely valid:
sideration the emperor’s own faith in the stars, shaken his sister’s family to challenge his final choice for the The remaining data amply suffice to determine the date
I, my friends, have not been permitted by nature to have perhaps but not destroyed by the fate of Aelius Verus, throne, reacted to the news of Fuscus’ activities with of the horoscope as April 6 , a . d . 113, that is three days
a son, but you have made it possible by legal enactments. he could— racked with pain as he was— view the ac­ after the conjunction of April 3. One finds:
Now . . . a begotten son turns out to be whatever sort of desperate and possibly exaggerated severity. He could
O f 15 Text: Y
person heaven pleases, whereas one that is adopted, is tivities of Fuscus— and who knows whether they were not but assume that Fuscus proceeded on his foolhardy
« 8 21 [8 ]
chosen as the result of deliberate selection. Thus by the confined to mere outbursts of fury ? — in a grimmer course with the at least tacit support of Servianus. The 5 T 6 ]
process of nature a maimed and witless child is often given light than they warranted. That Fuscus actually plotted destruction of grandfather and grandson was ordered ^T 2 j T
to a parent, but by the process of selection one of sound for the throne — and once his age, as clearly stated in and carried out. Although a recent hypothesis assigns UX 23 X
body and sound mind is certain to be chosen.228 the horoscope,234 is accepted as twenty-five instead of 5 = 22
the third extant horoscope of Antigonos to Hadrian’s
Coming on the heels of the death of Aelius Verus a Xiphilinus-Dio’s eighteen, this plotting could appear father,237* it may also perhaps be ascribed to Servianus. . . . Thus all astronomical data are correct.244
remark of this kind would at least cause a raising of significant, indeed— was definitely assumed by Antigo- Two reasons, none of them conclusive, however, for
some eyebrows, but the emperor, on the other hand, nus of Nicaea, to whom we are indebted for a “ post­ such a hypothesis are: (1 ) The horoscope occurs be­ forthcoming collection of Greek horoscopes, edited by H. B. v.
Hoesen and Neugebauer.
could of course not admit on the eve of another adop­ mortem ” horoscope of the ill-fated young m an: tween that of Hadrian and the one now ascribed to 340 Cat. 8, 2: 85.
tion that his former choice had neither physically, nor Fuscus,238 (2) Servianus was described as a nona­ 241 A. Farnsworth some years ago computed from the data of
He was born to become, at the age of about twenty-five,
morally been “ of sound body and sound mind ” : the cause of his own destruction and that of his parents genarian, a loose term which did not preclude that he the Greek text the same date at the request of the author who
might have been some years older. Recent computa­ is indebted to her for several computations of Greek horoscopes.
For this reason I selected Lucius before all others, . . . [or* oAtOput TW t€ IStat Kax TtHv iraTipmv cycvero]. . . . He 243On it see Bouche-Leciercq: 289-296.
but since heaven has bereft .us of him, I have found as became ill-advised [koko/JovAos] and was killed at the age tions of the respective birth dates on the basis of the 24* Cat. 8, 2: 85.
emperor for you in his place the man whom I now give you, astronomical data of the horoscopes have established 244 From O. Neugebauer’s Commentary on this horoscope
one who is noble, mild, tractable, prudent, neither young 227 Ibid., 20, 3-5. beyond a reasonable doubt that the owner of the horo­ in his and H. B. v. Hoesen’s collection of Greek horoscopes.
enough to do anything reckless [as might be the case with 528 SHA, Antoninus Pius, 4, 6-7; compare C lL 1, 2nd ed.: scope was born on April 5, a . d . 40.239 The biographical Concerning the erroneous statement about the moon’s position,
Fuscus] nor old enough to neglect aught [this might allude 258 and 310. Neugebauer remarks: “ The cause of the error is perhaps to
to Servianus], one . . . who has exercised authority in 220 SHA, Antoninus Pius, 2, 9. 225 Cat. 8, 2 : 85, 26-86, 12. be found in the fact that the moon is said to be in aspect with
accordance with our traditions, so that he is not ignorant =so SHA, Hadrian, 24, 6-7. 330For example, see B. W. Henderson, op. cit.: 258, n. 4. Mars in Aquarius. Now both 8 and n\are 90° distant from
231 Ibid., 23, 8. The gossip about the banquet is an “ embellish­ 237 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 17, 1. ss and this may have caused the substitution of the wrong
221 This follows from Cat. 8, 2: 85. ment.” a37‘ See above, p. 162. zodiacal sign. . . . The Lot of Fortune, however, is said to be
"“ Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 20, 1-5; 21, 1-2; SHA, Hadrian, 24, 222 See above, p. 170. 238 Cat. 8, 2 : 84, 1-85, 16. The text seems to be a condensation in HI and is therefore based on the wrong lunar position in
1 ff.; Aelius, 6, 9. 222 Cat. 8, 2: 85, 26-29 (from cod. Paris, gr. 2501 f. 134'). of the original. TTl, computed according to
220 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 20, 2-3, from Xiphilinus. Loc. cit., line 29. “ Computation by O. Neugebauer, to be published in the A P = XH -f~ ^ ).
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 179
178
soul abandoned the reeds of the many faiths which he sented by Panaetius— the Stoics of the second century and therefore for Epictetus to die after 138 would not
In any case, from the horoscope of Fuscus alone it
had studied. Astrology never warned of what might a . d . sought to reconcile their faith in Fate with a gentler necessarily be out of the question.
would follow that as early as the second century Servi-
lie beyond the grave.251 But even the mystery cults belief in a benign Providence. Their foes, Platonists, His influence over Antoninus Pius and Marcus
anus was considered the innocent victim of Hadrian’s
which Hadrian had sought out so intensely no longer Epicureans, Peripatetics, and Cynics in particular, Aurelius was in any case considerable. Hence his views
wrath. In the words of a much later writer:
assured him. Staring into the dark void, towards which would of course never agree with fatalist concepts of on divination (which of course would include astrology)
Just before his death he [Hadrian] compelled Servianus he was bound, he parted with this world in a sigh any sort. Indeed, there could be no compromise be­ carried special weight. Indeed, it is safe to say that
to kill himself . . . in order that Servianus might not tween those on the one side who believed in a rationally the reign of these two emperors (138-161; 161-180)
outlive him, and, as he thought, become emperor. . . .-46 whose ageless poetry defied translation. In the words
of nineteen-year-old Byron: organized cosmos and those on the other who either marked the first period since the days of Augustus in
And Fuscus, too, he put to death on the ground that,
being spurred on by prophecies and omens [and by his believed in an arbitrary divine rule or denied any cosmic which Stoic fatalism was applied logically by Roman
horoscope?] he was hoping for the imperial power.246 A h ! gentle fleeting wav’ring Sprite, order, insisting that, even if it existed, men would never rulers. Since divination only revealed what the future
Friend and associate of this clay,
be able to discern it. One might, therefore, just as well would bring in any case, there was no reason for an
According to another source Hadrian to what unknown region borne
W ilt thou, now, wing thy distant flight? cease to concern oneself with problems of this kind. emperor to worry about any predictions which his sub­
despaired of his life, and on this account appointed Lucius No more with wonted humor gay, The Stoicism of the second century thus faced a wide jects might receive about their future. It may be an
Commodus to be Caesar . . . Servianus and his grandson, but pallid, cheerless, and forlorn.252 front of reinvigorated intellectual opposition. No longer accident that among the usual omens for the future
the former a nonagenarian and the latter eighteen years of could it retain its earlier predominance in Rome’s ruling grandeur of Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius 282 no
age [We! Even in mid-136 Fuscus would have been twenty- Thus died another Roman astrologer on the throne.
three!], were put to death on the ground that they were stratum. astrological predictions have been recorded.263 Even if
displeased with this action.24’ The transformation from unbending fatalism (which in moments of political crisis Marcus Aurelius occa­
5. THE RETREAT OF THE CH A M PIO N S OF hearkened back to the early days of Stoicism) into the sionally deviated from his tranquil attitude,204 on the
The epitome erred in that Hadrian did not “ put to ASTROLOGY IN T H E SECOND CENTURY gentler attitude of the second century a . d . was largely whole the tenor of governmental equanimity during
death ” («/>o«vcrc) Servianus, but drove him to suicide. due to the influence of a Greek slave from Phrygia: these four decades provided a wholesome change from
The Greek phrase may have been mere rhetoric. Hadrian did revive the imperial fervor for astrology the frantic fears of the previous century.
Epictetus. Born about a . d . 60 in Hierapolis, Epictetus
Similarly if the horoscope is correct the death of the which seems to have subsided under his predecessor. The attitude of Epictetus which must largely be
arrived as a small boy in Rome, slave to Nero’s freed­
two men took place in 138, i. e. after the death of Aelius Plotina, wife of the late Trajan, had been inclined credited with bringing about this profound change in
man, Epaphroditus.254 This worthy, it is said, bent on
Verus, who had died on January 1, 138. towards the Epicureans. Therefore, what influence she the imperial outlook was reflected in his views on
breaking the youngster’s unshakable calm even when
That Fuscus was guilty, seems now quite certain, would have had in the reign of Trajan was bound to divination in general:
faced with torture, succeeded only in breaking his leg,
while the innocence of Servianus is once more con­ be unfavorable to astrology’s popularity at court. But
crippling him for life,255 but did not cow his spirit. From an unseasonable regard to divination we omit many
firmed. All the more poignant in the light of this new Hadrian had, indeed, restored the imperial tradition
Eventually Epictetus gained his freedom and lived in duties. For what can the diviner see, besides death, or
evidence is the incident preserved by Dio’s excerptor relying on astrology. His successors, Antoninus Pius
abject poverty in Rome.256 In contrast to astrological danger, or in short things of this kind? When it is neces­
Xiphilinus: (138-161) and Marcus Aurelius (161-180), however, sary to expose oneself to danger for a friend, or even a
activities the teaching of philosophy was apparently
were animated by a different spirit. Their mellowed duty to die for him, what occasion have I for divination?
unprofitable in a capital whence in the Flavian era by
Servianus before being executed (irpii> 8e OT^ayrji'ai) Stoicism resembled more closely that of the age of Have I not a diviner within, who has told me the essence
asked for fire, and as he offered incense he exclaimed: Panaetius (ca. 150 b . c . ) than it adhered to the sterner government action philosophers were expelled on more of good and evil . . . ? What further need, then, have I of
That I am guilty of no wrong, ye, O Gods, are well aware; than one occasion,257 Stoics and Cynics in particular the entrails of victims, or the flight of birds ? . . .
as for Hadrian, this is my only prayer, that he may long concepts of men like Posidonius, or Manilius and the being favorite targets of such measures. Finally the What, then, is it that leads us so often to divination?
for death but be unable to die.248 leading Roman Stoics of the first century a . d . The Cowardice, the dread of events. Hence we flatter the
persecution of the Stoic opposition and the expulsion of
differentiation between a benign providence and a neu­ diviners: “ Pray, sir, shall I inherit my father’s estate ? ”
The old man’s wish was granted. Hadrian suffered tral, inexorable, and immutable Fate already pervaded philosophers in 93 drove the penniless Epictetus from “ Let us see, let me sacrifice upon the occasion.” “ Nay, sir,
the tortures of the damned before death released him.249 the writings of Seneca, although, for example in his Rome.258 Retreating to Nicopolis across the Adriatic just as Fortune pleases.” Then, if he says, “ You shall
Meanwhile, our historians are silent on the fate of quaestiones naturales, he strongly leaned towards he continued his teaching, but again without financial inherit it,” we give him thanks, as if we received the
success. Even in later life this St. Francis of the princi­ inheritance from him. The consequence is that they play
Fuscus’ parents. His horoscope clearly said that they fatalism.253 on us.265
were involved in his ruin. Had they been executed, pate was attended only by a woman hired by him to
The renewed retreat of Stoicism from absolute fatal­
however, the horoscope would hardly have withheld this ism was part of a general trend. In the second century rear a child that he had saved from death by exposure.258 Although only haruspicial and augural techniques
information. We may assume perhaps that they were of our era there developed a renaissance of that struggle Epictetus apparently returned to Rome in the reign of were referred to, this criticism of Epictetus applied to
banished. In any case, however, the horoscope revealed which had characterized the second century b . c . Once Hadrian (117-138) who treated him with great re­ all clients of diviners, regardless of the particular
that the suspicion concerning the traditional death date more—and mostly with the old arguments— the battle spect.260 In spite of modem scepticism there is no method employed.
of Fuscus’ mother (ca. 131) was warranted.250 She of free will versus Fate was being fought. This revival biological impossibility about the tradition which as­ Epictetus the Stoic was as ready as his predecessors
must have died in or after 138. signed his death to the reign of Antoninus Pius.261 to believe in divination. But his approach was that of
had a melancholy aspect, for both sides were firm be­
The imperial invalid dragged out his miserable exist­ lievers in reason. But just as in the earlier conflict An age of eighty was not uncommon for philosophers, the true fatalist:
ence until July 10, 138. As he lay dying his restless Chrysippus and Diogenes of Babylon, Stoic champions
Tacitus, Annals 15, 55; compare Suidas, s. v. ' E w ik t t it o s .
354 We should come without previous desire or aversion. As
of fatalism, had been forced by a rising tide of Scepti­ 235 Origines, contra Celsum 7, 53. Suidas, loc. cit., says the a traveler inquires the road of the person he meets, without
“‘“ SHA, Hadrian, 25, 8; compare 23, 2-3 and 8.
248 Ibid., 23, 3.
cism (culminating in Carneades and his New Academy) philosopher’s lameness dated back to his birth; Simplicius,
to compromise to a degree— a compromise best repre­ comment, in Aristot., f. 102, ascribed it to rheumatism. between Epictetus and the Antonines is paralleled with that
243 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 17, 1.
264 Simplicius, loc. cit.; Gellius, 2, 18. between Thrasyllus and Tiberius (76, 1).
" ‘ Ibid., 17, 2. 257 See F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from ancient 282 Especially during the rebellion of Avidius Cassius; compare
Ibid., 17, 2-3; SHA, Hadrian, 26, 6; 24, 8 ff.; Aurelius 331 Compare F. Cumont, Lux perpetua: 304.
Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951: 39 ff. F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from ancient Rome,
Victor, epit. 14, 9 and 12. 303 SHA, Hadrian, 25, 9: Animula vagula blandula
258Ibid.: 41-46; compare Gellius, 15, 11. Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951: 46 ff.
258 See for example B. W. Henderson, The life . . . of Hadrian: hospes comesque corporis, 259 Simplicius, comment, in Arist., f. 272. 283 SHA, M. Antoninus, 4, 3. He was credited with acting as
230, n. 1; 231, n. B. The attempt to support the view that quae nunc abibis in loca a prophet (votes) ; ibid., 4, 4.
300 SHA, Hadrian, 16, 10.
Hadrian’s so-called letter to Servianus is substantially authentic pallidula rigida nudula? 341 Themistius, orat. cons, ad Jovianum imp. (ed. Dindorf: 5; 284 Ibid., Antoninus Pius, 3, 1-5.
still leaves unexplained the improbability of Hadrian’s familiarity nec ut soles dabis iocos. 75-84). There (f. 63D ; ed. Dindorf: 76, 2-3) the friendship 285 Epictetus, Discourses 2, 7, 1-2; compare Enchiridion, 32.
with the details of the later Christian hierarchy. 1153See above, p. 119 ff.
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any desire for that which turns to the right hand, more The tranquil acceptance of Fate — already the Stoic
than to the left. . . . Why do you, as far as in you lies, cor­ Seneca had written a treatise de tranquillitate anitnae— TABLE 3
rupt your judge and seduce your adviser [the diviner] ? had been voiced by the all but philosophical Trajan who
S t a r -s y m b o l s G C P *
quoted what seems to have been a popular phrase at on reek o in s of the r in c ip a t e
But in his views on providence, repeatedly proffered
the time: 273 “ No ruler would ever be able to slay his No.b Ruler City; date, if any Symbol
in the extant collection of his teachings,267 Epictetus
successor.” 274 The restless Hadrian — a kindred soul
modified the stern creed of the earlier fatalists. He as­ 50 Augustus Alexandria Cresent and Star.
to the universalist Arrian — had striven vainly for that
sumed— a view attacked so bitterly by Voltaire in his
airaOia, the apathy of the Stoics. But Antoninus Pius, 132 — ( a . d. 11-12) Antioch Aries.
Candide— that rational Providence was benign and not
whose character portrait M. Aurelius himself drew in 16 [C. Caesar (a . d.4) Alexandria Crescent, horns upwards].
an unfeeling machine operating the universe:
his Meditations, reverently, but on the whole accurately, 49 Tiberius or Caius:
Whenever you lay anything to the charge of Providence, succeeded in achieving it. The coinage of his reign Ptolemy, king of a . d. 23-40 Crescent upwards, containing Star of six
do but reflect, and you will find that it has happened agree­ expressed a decided preference, especially in Alexan­ Mauretania rays, border of dots.
ably to reason.268 dria,275 for astral symbols, but of the ruler himself no 60 Claudius Iceni (Britain) (a . d. 50) Two Crescents back to back with groups
The amor jati of Epictetus moulded his concept of free predilection for astrology or any other forms of divina­ of pellets around them.
will. For him it consisted of a voluntary acceptance tion was recorded. In this he differed sharply from his 61 — — Similar.
neither joyous nor abject: predecessor, Hadrian, whose complex personality would 133 Nero Antioch (a. d. 55) Aries, Ram leaping; above, Star of six
never have evoked an appraisal like this one applied to rays.
He is free who lives as he likes; who is not subject either Antoninus Pius by M. Aurelius:
to compulsion, to restraint, or to violence; whose pur­ 136 Hadrian Eucarpeia (Phrygia) Gemini?—Two stars connected by ver­
suits are unhindered, his desires successful, his aversions tical line.
He would bear with them that with all boldness and
unincurred.269 liberty opposed his opinions; and even rejoice if any man 56 Antoninus Pius Nicomedia (Bithynia) Crescent with horns upwards; within it
could better advise him: and lastly how religious he was three stars.
But no one, not even a man who has been consul twice without superstition,276 129 Alexandria Zodiac inside of which a circle of the
and is the emperor’s friend, is his own master: eponymous gods of the days of the
This may have been meant as a direct reflection on week; busts of Saturn, Sun, Moon,
“ Who can compel me but the master of all, Caesar ? ” Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus. In
Hadrian’s very different temper of which M. Aurelius
" By your own confession, then, you have a master; arid center of circle bust of Sarapis.
let not his being, as you say, master of all give you any (bom April 26, 121) must have witnessed many an 130
comfort, but know that you are a slave in a great family. 0 outbreak. Astrology like other forms of divination Two Zodiacs, one inside the other, each
Antoninus Pius himself would probably accept but sign coinciding. Inside busts of Sarapis
Political concepts of this kind revealed the trans­ without fear of the future. Epictetus would surely have and Isis, wearing globe and horns,
jugale 1. (commencement of Sothiac
formation of Stoicism from a creed on which the Roman approved the watchword chosen by the emperor on his circle).
opposition to imperial rule could draw into one which deathbed: “ Equanimity.” 277 131 144-145)
— — (a. d. Aquarius, Saturn in it.
emperors themselves would readily profess and like to Historians have always blamed Marcus Aurelius for 135 — — Bust of Selene; in front a star; beneath,
see adopted by their subjects. It was perhaps signifi­ transferring the succession to his inept son, Commodus,
crescent moon in Cancer (Crab).
cant that the disciple of Epictetus to whom we owe the thus breaking the principle laid down by Nerva and Stoic
137 — — Bust of Helios radiate; beneath Lion
extant collection of this meek Stoic’s teachings was political philosophy: the succession of the worthiest. In
rushing; star (Sun in Leo).
Arrian, a competent man of action, a Greek, who reached fact, however, Nerva had no son, neither had Trajan.
138 — — Jupiter in Pisces; bust of Zeus in front,
the consulate and himself became a member of the Hadrian’s marriage too remained childless. Antoninus
star; beneath, Fishes.
Roman senate.271 Author of one of the most impor­ Pius had two sons, but both died before he was adopted
139 Antoninus Pius Alexandria (Egypt) Jupiter in Sagittarius. Galloping Centaur
tant historical accounts of Alexander the Great’s era, by Hadrian.278 He reaffirmed the dynastic principle,
with star above head.
as well as of other historical works now lost,272 this however, by bestowing his only surviving child, Faus­
140 — — (a. d. 144-145) Mars in Scorpio. Helmeted bust of Ares.
Bithynian was consul sometime between 121 and 124, tina, on his adopted son and heir, M. Aurelius, in 145,279
Star in front. Scorpio beneath.
and occupied during the last years of Hadrian’s reign— having broken a previous engagement of the heir to the
141 — — Venus in Taurus. Bust of Aphrodite.
he was still in office in 137 — the post of governor of throne.280 In acting in such a manner, Antoninus Pius
Beneath, bull; above star.
Cappadocia. He lived into the reign of Marcus Aure­
141a — — Constellation of the Ploughman. Plough­
lius and must have provided a living link between 211 Apollonius of Tyana was credited with the same statement,
man, ploughing with yoke of oxen.
Epictetus and this imperial disciple. Apart from the Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana, 8, 7, 16.
274 SHA, Avidius Cassius, 2, 3. The letter may be a forgery, 142 Constellation of the Reaper. Reaper,
professional philosophers, who taught M. Aurelius in wearing short kirtle. His right hand
but the words would well represent Trajan’s frame of mind.
his youth, men of the type of Flavius Arrianus ap­ 870Compare H. Vogt, Die alexandrinischen Muensen 1: 118 ff. cuts three stalks of grain which he holds
parently exercised a profound influence upon the Stoic 270 M. Aurelius, Meditations 6, 30, 2 (end) ; also 1, 16, 1-9 with his left
on the throne. (on Antoninus Pius). 17 L. Verus Carrhae Crescent with horns upwards, placed upon
277 SHA, Antoninus Pius, 12, 6. a globe.
204Epictetus, Discourses 2, 7, 3. 278Their remains were placed in Hadrian’s mausoleum, where
their names have been found on sepulchral inscriptions; CIL 6: 25 Septimius Severus Nicopolis (Lower Moesia) Crescent and star.
207Ibid., especially 1, 6 and 16; 3, 17.
185, nos. 988; 989. One of his daughters also died before a . d . 47 — Carrhae Crescent upwards, upon a cushion.
*•8Ibid. 3, 17.
Ibid. 4, 1, 1. 138. She had been married to Lamia Silanus, and her remains
878Ibid., 4, 1, 11. were laid to rest alongside those of her brothers in Hadrian’s
mausoleum; CIL 6: 185, no. 990. •The samples are taken from L. Anson, Numistnata Graeca, 6, 1916; Iff., London.
271 An exceptional honor at the time for a naturalized citizwi. b Numbers as in Anson, loc. cit. Those italicized refer to coins reproduced in fig. no. 1 (Anson,
272 For a list of these and other writings, see for example F. 270 SHA, Antoninus Pius, 1,7; M . Antoninus, 6, 6.
280 SHA, M. Antoninus, 6, 2. 6, pi. I I ) ; see above, pp. 33 ff.
Gregorovius, Der Kaiser Hadrian: 323-325.
T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 183

TABLE 3 Continued merely followed a pattern already preferred by Trajan, theurgian Julianus, son of Julianus the Chaldaean,285
who— lacking any children— had at least linked Sabina, also remains a mere conjecture, although a somewhat
Ruler City ; date, if any Symbol one of his closest younger relatives, in marriage to likelier one than the jealous legend of Xiphilinus.
No.*
Hadrian.281 The world should thank Providence for In any case the plight of the army was such that on
55 Philippopolis (Thrace) Crescent, horns upwards; above, three the dearth of sons in the imperial families of the second this occasion M. Aurelius may well have been willing
—
stars. century rather than accuse M. Aurelius— the first em­ to try any expedient whatever. He certainly was no
57 __ Pantalia (Thrace) Crescent within which are four stars. peror since Vespasian ( a . d . 69-70) (i. e. since more foe of divination either and himself accepted dreams as
Philippopolis (Thrace) Crescent, above which are nine stars, and than a century!) to possess a surviving son—of suc­ revelations of providence.286 Nor did he hesitate to
58 —
two below. cumbing to the natural feelings of paternal affection. consult in the usual fashion astrologers when on August
Silandus (Lydia) Star of six rays within crescent. Above, Nor could it be taken for granted that the by-passing 31, 161, not long after his accession to the throne, his
52 — (or Caracalla)
another star of six rays. Border of dots. of Commodus would have been possible without a civil wife, Faustina, presented him with twin boys. Worried
Hadrianopolis (Thrace) Crescent within which a star. war to follow. Yet the grim irony persists: Hadrian, perhaps by a dream of his wife he sought the advice of
30 Geta
at least influenced by, although probably not relying ex­ the stars:
39 Caracalla Carrhae Star within crescent.
clusively on, his faith in the stars, selected for the suc­
Marcianopolis Crescent within which are three stars. But after she had given birth to Commodus and Anto­
54 Diadumenianus cession two of the best rulers of the principate, perhaps
(Lower Moesia) ninus, this latter, for whom the astrologers had forecast a
of all time: Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius. The latter, horoscope as favorable as that of Commodus, lived only to
127 Julia Maesa Amastris (Paphlagonia) Hera, Zeus, encircled by Zodiac. be four years old.287
however, serenely convinced of the vanity of mundane
38 Elagabalus Carrhae . Star within crescent. values, succumbed to paternal affection. He hoped
Crescent upward, resting on globe, and probably that if Fate did not ordain the succession of This bitter experience did not shake the faith of
48 — -
having an eight-rayed star between his handsome but weak son Commodus, it would elimi­ M. Aurelius. He took divination for granted and re­
horns.
nate him in due course. If, on the other hand, Destiny mained convinced that astrologers like physicians might
29 Julia Mamaea Byzantium e Crescent and star above it. willed that Commodus was to rule, what Stoic could make mistakes, but that their craft as such was valid:
24 Gordianus Pius Marcianopolis Crescent within which a star. entertain foolish hopes to oppose the inexorable? Let it be thy perpetual meditation, how many physicians
(Lower Moesia) Although the Byzantine historian Xiphilinus ener­ who once looked so grim . . ., are gone themselves. How
Magnesia (Meander) Stars between letters of inscription. Cres­ getically asserted that M. Aurelius was impervious to many astrologers, after in great ostentation they had fore­
36 — told the death of some others, how many philosophers, . . .
cent with star. beliefs in magic and witchcraft,282 it seems more likely how many brave captains and commanders, . . . how many
134 Nisibis (Mesopotamia) Aries above bust of Tyche. Before and that the imperial Stoic viewed such crafts as he did kings ancl tyrants, . . . how many whole cities . . . both men
—
behind her a star. astrology and other forms of divination, i. e. with a and towns: Helice, Pompeji, Herculanum, and others innu­
Aegeae (Cilicia) Head of Meduse surrounded by the signs quiet amor ja ti: no magic could take effect unless Fate merable are dead and gone! 288
128 Valerianus
of the Zodiac. willed it. We have the authority of Cassius Dio for a Grouped amidst physicians and philosophers, captains
“ miraculous” episode.in which a wizard played a lead­ and kings, the astrologers were — irony of ironies — so
ing role, a wizard, who, during the war against the
No.'1 Ruler Date Symbol highly placed because of their predictions of other men's
Quadi in 174, was a personal companion of the emperor: death, a criminal offense according to the law of Rome
40 Orodes I 57-38/37 b . c. Star within crescent.
The Quadi had surrounded them [the Romans]. . . . The since a . d . 11! That this prowess of the astrologers
41 _ — Similar. Romans were in a terrible plight from fatigue, wounds, the was considered their most potent appeal was made clear
42 — — Similar. heat of the sun, and thirst . . . when suddenly . . . a mighty by M. Aurelius—and if he took that view, we may safely
rain, not without divine interposition, burst upon them. assume that educated Roman believers in astrology
43 Phraates IV 38/37-3/2 b . c. Crescent and star.
Indeed, there is a story to the effect that Arnuphis, an shared it:
44 Phraates V 3/2 B. C.-A. D4 Star within crescent. Egyptian magus, who was a companion of Marcus, had
Star within crescent. invoked by means of enchantment various deities . . . and Hippocrates, having cured many sicknesses, fell sick him­
45 Artabanus I I I A. D. 10/11-40
by this means attracted the rain.283 self and died. The Chaldaeans and astrologers, having
46 Gotarzes 40/41-51 Inside a wreath a crescent and a star.
foretold the death of diverse, were afterwards themselves
The sensational incident was’ lopg remembered. Suidas surprised by death.289
• Nos. 26, 27, 28 of imperial Byzantine coinage show the same type of reverse. included Arnuphis in his Lexicon,, while Xiphilinus,
d Numbers and data from Anson, op. cit., 6: 4-5. These Greek coins belong obviously to the first unwilling to let the credit for so miraculous an event S8CSee below, p. 221.
century of the principate, some antedating it as far back as the first triumvirate. Actually Greek S8“ M. Aurelius, Meditations 1, 17, 8; compare SHA, M.
coinage inscribed with crescents and stars was minted as early as the fifth century by a number belong to a pagan theurgian, insisted that Christians in Antoninus, 5, 2. Friends and foes of astrology alike were prone
of Greek cities, for example Cnossus on Crete, Athens, Zacynthus, and possibly Croton and the ranks of the army of Marcus Aurelius had through to accept the revelatory nature of dreams, for example Galen,
Syracuse That a city like the Macedonian Uranopolis ( “ Skytown ”) should mint coins with their prayers brought about the saving downpour. They Cassius Dio, and the rhetorician Aristides, as well as the sceptic
astral symbols is hardly surprising. Further archaeological discoveries since the time when had, he insisted, done so upon the express request of Lucian of Samosata.
Anson’s work went to press have added to our evidence, but the satnple-lists given above bear . !8T SHA, Commodus, 1, 4. It may be taken for granted that
witness to the fact that all but three zodiacal constellations, as well as the entire zodiac and the emperor who had been informed that “ Christians no astrologer warned M. Aurelius that his other son was to end
planets (except Mercury, but including the sun and the moon) were represented, Alexandria in can accomplish anything whatever by their prayers.” 284 his life as a degenerate falling under an assassin’s blows.
the reign of Antoninus Pius providing the larger portion of such Greek coins. They assuredly A modern suggestion that the magus Arnuphis may !8S M. Aurelius, Meditations 4, 48, 1; compare Epictetus, Dis­
attest continued interest in star lore among artists, byt should by no means be interpreted as have been identical with his famous contemporary, the courses 3, 10, 15.
astrological symbols until clear evidence to that effept will be discovered. 28‘ M. Aurelius, Meditations 3, 3, 1. He used in this passage
the Greek term rt> weirpaiiivov, a synonym for fate. But fate since
881 See above, p. 152, 170. Homeric days had denoted both death and destiny, for other
*** Cassius Dio, ep. 72, 9, 3, from Xiphilinus. passages in which M. Aurelius employed the traditional Greek
s" Ibid., 8, 2-4. word for fate, compare for example ibid. 3, 6, 1; 5, 8, 1; still
a8‘ Cassius Dio, ep. 72, 9, 1-6, from Xiphilinus. other terms in 4, 44; 26, etc.
184 T H E R IS E AND TRIU M PH OF A STROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N ERV A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R 185

The Meditations abound with their author’s views on with the Aegyptiaca of Manetho. The Anthologiae of until the very present. Among the men whose pens had
our era. The principate witnessed few original con­
Fate, Providence, and Epicurean “ accidentalism.” For Vettius Valens were published—though incompletely— so durable an effect one finds for example astrologer-
tributions in this field, but even amongst the compilers,
example: by W . Kroll in 1908. This edition lacks a preface, but poets like Astrampsychus, Dorotheus of Sidon, and
synthesizers, and organizers of the growing mass of
an introduction by W . Kroll prefaces a selection of the Manetho, physicians like Antigonus of Nicaea and
materials we can distinguish two groups, the one be­
Either Fate— and that either an absolute necessity, and Greek astrologer’s work in volume 5, 2 of the Catalogus Galen, professional astrologers like Anubio, Antiochus
unavoidable decree, or a placable and flexible Providence— longing to the later principate, flourishing approxi­
cod. astrol. graec. Recently O. Neugebauer by a pains­ of Athens, and Vettius Valens, or astrologer-scientists
or all is a mere casual confusion, void of all order and mately in the era from Trajan to Severus Alexander
taking investigation of the horoscopes found in the of whom Ptolemy was the most illustrious representa­
government. If an absolute and unavoidable necessity, why (98-235), the other — the last revivalists of astrology
doest thou resist? If a placable and exorable Providence, in antiquity—dating chiefly from the reign of Constan­ Anthologiae has established that the astronomically de­ tive in the later principate. Astrampsychus, for exam­
make thyself worthy of the divine help and assistance. . . . terminable dates of the work begin with two horoscopes ple, was an ancient magus, antedating Alexander the
To everything happens [only] what the nature of the tine I to that of Justinian I (311-565). Within the between a . d . 37 and 50. There are forty-odd refer­ Great.297 But in his name (as in that of almost any
universe ordains for it. And it occurs only at that time. scope of our present endeavor lies only the first of the
ences to specific dates, all of them between a . d . 54 and renowned sage) astrological writings were published at
Why should thoughts of mistrust and suspicion con­ two.2”2 It included a host of almost forgotten men—
cerning that which is future, trouble thy mind at all ? . . . few fragments besides their names have survived—but 157. The two latest horoscopes pertain to the years a much later date. Of these we possess 101 verses in
For all things derive force from the nature of the universe, 173 and 188, respectively. The rest, numbering about a strictly alphabetical arrangement.208 Since the date of
also the most important extant Greek manuals on the
and within a very little while all will have ceased to one hundred horoscopes, extend from a . d . 61 to 162. these verses cannot be determined with any degree of
exist. . . . Watch the stars in their courses as one that subject, especially the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy and the accuracy, we can only assign him to the Graeco-Roman
Book V of the Anthologiae in chapters purporting to be
runneth about with them—therein. . . . The nature of the Anthologiae of Vettius Valens.
universe did once deliberately resolve upon the creation of based on the writings of the early hellenistic astrologer era in general, but prior to the time of Manetho’s
The most important modern effort of surveying Greek Apotelesmata, i. e. prior to a . d . 100. At any rate,
the world. . . . Critodemus (ch. 11 and 12) includes horoscopes from
Whatsoever does happen unto any, is ordained to him astrological literature has been concentrated in a single together with Dorotheus of Sidon and Manetho, Astram-
a . d . 37, 6 8 , 92, and 104, obviously centuries later than
as a thing subordinate unto the fates. . . . Therefore let us undertaking. About half a century ago a small band the usually accepted lifetime of Critodemus. The pre­ psychus represented the type of astrologer-poet which
accept these things, as we do those prescribed unto us by of classical philologists united under the leadership of
Asclepius. . . .2D0 ceding chapter (10) contains 13 horoscopes, dating was to enjoy considerable popularity in the second and
Franz Cumont. They shared the desire to branch out third centuries of our era.
from a . d . 102 to 153. From the horoscope of a child
Even if an exorable Providence appeared as a substi­ from the stereotyped overconcentration on “ classical” born on August 14, 158 and referred to by Vettius Another astrologer who liked on occasion to express
tute for Fate, M. Aurelius, who was no independent Greek and Latin literature. Their aim, successfully Valens as dead in 161, as well as from the distribution himself in verse may have been Anubio .280 Substantial
thinker but a receptive vessel for the revived Stoicism achieved in 1953 after more than fifty years, was to of other horoscopes Neugebauer rightly concluded that fragments of his prose have also been preserved.300
of the second century, could create a niche for a modi­ edit a catalogue of Greek astrological texts surviving the bulk of the Anthologiae was written between 152 About his life and profession we know nothing. Only a
cum of free will only with considerable difficulty. in European libraries. Among those rallying to the and 162, the author “ using earlier material in earlier terminus ante quern may be established by the fact that
Quoting Epictetus, he exclaimed: cause, Franz Boll and Wilhelm Kroll were perhaps books and perhaps making a few additions in later Manetho’s astrological poem seems to have used some
the two most significant figures. Boll, who had begun years.” Since Ptolemy’s observations fell into the same of Anubio’s writings also. If any conclusions could be
Either the Gods can do nothing for us at all, or they can his career as a librarian, established his first great mark, period ( a . d . 127-151), it seems that the often com­
still and allay the distractions and distempers of thy
drawn from his name, he would have been an Egyptian.
when in 1894 he proved beyond any reasonable doubt mented on failure of either to mention the other’s astro­
mind. . . . But thou wilt say perchance: “ In those things On the other hand, the reputation of Egypt during the
the much contested authenticity of Ptolemy’s authorship logical writings was due to the fact that both wrote at
the gods have given me my liberty.” But wert thou not principate as the center of astrological studies was so
better if thou mayst use this liberty like a free man than of the most renowned extant manual of “ scientific ” the same time.296' great that any enterprising astrologer from the Greek
wilfully to concern thyself with baseness and servility of astrology, the Tetrabiblos.™3 In the same year Riess pub­ Still unassembled, on the other hand, are for example east might well have chosen an Egyptian name for a
mind to affect those things, which are not in thy power ? . . . lished substantial parts of a famous astrological manual
Whatsoever does happen in the world does happen justly . . . of the Hellenistic era, the handbook of “ Nechepso-
the numerous fragments of Dorotheus of Sidon, Antio­ pseudonym. Perhaps the mass of extant materials,
I say not only in right order by a series of inevitable conse­ chus of Athens, and some lesser astrological writers of barely canvassed, will sooner or later render some addi­
quences, but also according to justice,m Petosiris.” 204 Since then twelve volumes of the Cata- the later principate. The astrological poem of Manetho, tional information about Anubio and his writings. If
logus codicum astrologorum Graecorum have been whose last printed text is almost a century old, would Anubio’s penchant for verse— contested though it is—
It was this difference which marked the chief dis­ published, all of them with long appendices in which merit a new edition. Historians and philologists alike did not leave many traces for posterity, this cannot
tinction between the inexorable mechanical fatalism of portions of the texts themselves are printed. This might well benefit from the diversion of some of our be said in the case of a renowned figure among the
early Stoicism (and its ally, fatalistic astrology) and corpus gives access to a vast mass of hitherto unknown young scholars to this promising field which contains astrological authors of the late principate, the astrologer-
the mellowed Stoicism of the second century of our era. or inadequately known Greek writings. a rich harvest of source materials in the large numbers poet, Dorotheus of Sidon.
The most famous astrological treatise of antiquity, of Greek manuscripts dealing with astronomy, astrology,
the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy, has recently been repub­ astromagic, alchemy, medicine, and magic. It is, indeed, 3,7 Diogenes Laertius, pr., 2; cf. Riess, RE 2, 18%: c. 1796 f.;
6. THE ASTROLOGICAL LITERATU RE OF THE lished twice within the same year (1940), once in the a pity that the first volume of Lynn Thorndike’s monu­ F. Boll, RE, suppl. 1, 1903: c. 155.
LATER PRIN CIPATE Teubner edition of his collected works,205 and simul­ 308 Ed. J. Rendel Harris, The annotators of the codex Bezae:
mental work, devoted to the history of magic and ex­
128-160, 1901; Suidas, s. v. ; compare Pap. Mus. Brit., C X X II,
History is not a sequence of rigidly circumscribed taneously (with an English translation) in the Loeb perimental science, merely skimmed the surface of so If.; C. Wessely, Neue griechische Zauberpapyri, Denkschriften,
units of time. The Hellenistic era which witnessed the □assies series,296 by a strange editorial whim together important a topic, condensing its survey of 1300 (!) Kais. Ak. d. Wiss. Wien, Phil.-hist. Kl., 42, 2, 1893 : 55 and 58;
birth of the first major Greek literature in the field of years of ancient and early mediaeval developments into also Cat. 1: 25; 2: 6 and 72; 3: 4; 4: 43; 5, 4: 7; 31; 33; 107f.;
The later era will be treated in F. H. Cramer’s forthcoming a single (though substantial) volume. 8, 2: 64f.; 73; 74; 8, 3: 72; 9, 1: 24; 11, 1: 110L
astrology passed imperceptibly into the Graeco-Roman Astrology in Roman Law and Politics, from Diocletian to
period. Throughout the eight centuries from Berossus Justinian I. It is not our task to write a history of astrological 208 Hephaestion of Thebes, one of our best sources for earlier
astrological writings, cited under the name of Anubio twelve
to John Lydus, Greek astrologers continued to pour 288 F. Boll, Studien ueber Claudius Ptolemaeus. Ein Beitrag literature. Therefore, it seems sufficient to deal only verses (2, 2) ; see Cat. 8, 1: 147, 10-22; compare, however, the
out treatise after treatise. Most of these were based on zur Geschichte der griechischen philosophic und Astrologie with those writers of the later principate whose impact violent opposition to the belief that these verses stemmed from
a relatively small number of “ classical ” authors whose (Jahrb. f. klass. Philol., 21, 1894). on their own time was so great that posterity continued Anubio’s pen, ibid. 5, 3: 124, n. 1 (J. Heeg) ; see also J. Heeg,
301E. Riess, Nechepsonis et Petosiridis fragmenta magica Dorotheus von Sidon und Firmicus Maternus Math. VI, Hermes
writings dated back to the last three centuries before (Philolgus, suppl. 6, 1894: 325-394). to use their works for a prolonged period, in some cases
45, 1910: 315 f.
388Ed. E. Boer, Ptolemy, opera omnia 3, 1; Leipzig, Teubner, 308 See for example Cat. 2 : 202-212 ; 8, 2 : 57, 16-27 ; 61, 4-8;
“ "Ibid. 12, 14 and 1; 10, 20 (compare 4, 23) ; 8, S; 7, 48 and 1940. !8“* O. Neugebauer, The chronology of Vettius Valens’ Anthol­
75; 5, 8, 1. ogiae, Manuscript to be published in the Harvard Theological and references to him in Cat. 2: 35; 47; 190, 15 and 32; 7:
200Ed. F. E. Robbins, Loeb Classics, Cambridge, Harvard 108 n.; 8, 1: 15; 162; 8, 4: 115 f. ; 203, 3 and 18; 10: 93.
"'Ib id . 9, 40; 4, 10. Review.
University Press and London, W . Heinemann, Ltd., 1940.
 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
186
Among the Greek astrologers who believed in making
their dry offerings more palatable by presenting them
in poetic form, he was probably the most important.
For his writings— whether they were originally in prose
and later versified by him or someone else is not quite
certain — not only supplied Firmicus Maternus with
much material, especially for the sixth book of his
Mathesis,301 but they were also used by Hephaestion
(fourth century) , 302 Palchus (ca. 500),303 and Rhetorius
(ca. 500).804 For the Arabs Dorotheus became one of
the chief astrological authorities.805 His main work,
referred to as the Pentateuch,308 probably consisted of
five books, although the astrologer Antiochus on one
occasion quoted from an eleventh book.307 Omar-ben-
Farchan, who wrote a commentary to Dorotheus’ Penta­
teuch, preserved the topics with which each of the five
books dealt:
Book I : De natalibus (O n births)
Book I I : De epochis et periodis (O n eras and periods) have perished, or have at least not yet been rediscovered.
Book I I I : De geniturae dominis (O n the Lords of the
the writings of Dorotheus was Antiochus of Athens,
who may have lived between 150 and 200.300 In any
case, the assertion of Abulpharagius, who assigned
Dorotheus to the era of the emperor Julian (361-363),
cannot be taken seriously. Nor can the opposite ex­
treme be accepted, i. e. that Dorotheus belonged to the
earlier Hellenistic era.310 Hephaestion of Thebes, one
of the main users of Dorotheus’ work, listed him imme­
diately after Thrasyllus (d. 36) ,311 If this sequence
expressed a chronological order, Dorotheus would have
flourished in the century between Thrasyllus and
Ptolemy, perhaps early in the second century.312 In any
case, Dorotheus is apparently one of our earliest sur­
viving Greek astrologer-poets. Inasmuch as we already
possess an (incomplete) astrological poetical effort in
Latin, the Astronomica of Manilius from the early first
century of our era, we can assume that Hellenistic as­
trologers preceded Manilius in the writing of versified
astrological treatises. Yet these early Greek works
Perhaps a younger contemporary of Dorotheus of
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M NERVA TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
whom did not hesitate to deal in detail with this ever
popular topic.319
The text of the Apotelesmata, in so far as it was then
known, was published about a century ago.820 Since
then, however, additional evidence about the sources of
the work has been discovered,321 an appraisal of the
basic doctrines of the poem has been published, and a
revision of earlier views about the text 322 has become
necessary. In particular the opinion that Manetho relied
directly on Nechepso-Petosiris, tempting though this
idea was, must now be modified.323 Dorotheus of Sidon
and the astrologer Anubio have rightly been suggested
as the chief intermediaries between the older Hellenistic
manual and the Apotelesmata of Manetho.324 The
urgency, proclaimed almost twenty-five years ago, for a
new analytical edition of Manetho’s poem,325 still seems
to remain unrecognized by our modern philologists.
Among the astrologers of the second century of whom
fragments in verse, as well as laigthy ones in prose
have survived,326 Antiochus of Athens was one of the
most important ones. Copious excerpts of his writings
187
quoted by later writers, as well as by the survival of
not inconsiderable fragments of synopses of his work
(or works) . 330 F. Boll published a long epitome of
excerpts, chiefly from Antiochus’ treatise, combining a
Viennese manuscript version (cod. Vind. phil. gr.
179, ff. 41 ff.) with that of a Munich text (cod. Mon.
287, ff. 100ff.) as early as 1908,331 having already previ­
ously printed some sections from the same Munich
manuscript.332
About the period in which Antiochus flourished this
much is known. The anonymous author of an astro­
logical compendium of 379 listed him among older as­
trologers, i. e. between Vettius Valens and Antigonus
of Nicaea,838 who, according to Hephaestion of Thebes,
was a close follower of the doctrines of Nechepso-
Petosiris. Inasmuch as Antigonus of Nicaea lived
towards the end of the second century,334 it seems that
Antiochus himself flourished somewhat earlier, perhaps
between 150 and 200. Apart from some fragments
surviving in the writings of the astrologer Palchus (ca.
a . d . 500) the work of Antiochus of Athens was chiefly

horoscope) Sidon was an astrologer-poet named Manetho. This were preserved, especially by Rhetorius (ca. 500). To preserved by Palchus' contemporary Rhetorius (ca.
name was a popular one in Hellenistic and Roman what extent in particular a much copied set of astro­ a . d . 500). In an epitome of book 2 of an Isagoge by
Book IV : De annorum natalicium conversione (O n the
Egypt. Apart from the author of the history of Egypt logical verses was the creation of Antiochus or Doro­ Antiochus, Rhetorius stated that Antiochus approved
computation of the birth years)
in the third century b . c., we know an important physi­ theus of Sidon,327 or of later paraphrasers, has not yet the methods of Ptolemy (ca. 150) and of Dorotheus
Book V : De actionibus incipiendis (O n undertakings, cian by that name who seems to have flourished prior
been convincingly clarified. Perhaps the most impor­ of Sidon (not later than 175-200).330 He was, how­
i.e. on catarchic astrology) to “ Nechepso,” i.e. before 150 b . c .313 The poet- tant compilation of the Athenian was an anthology ever, said to be older than Paulus of Alexandria (end
Substantial fragments of his work have been published astrologer Manetho, however, belonged to a much later entitled Treasures (Qrpavpoi) 82a whose very title was of fourth century) and Valens 839 (if this meant Vettius
in the last fifty years,308 but no edition of his extant era. A horoscope in his poem ( 6 , v. 738) has been indicative of the character of the work. Of his life we Valens, then not later than about 170). Firmicus
computed. It belongs to the year a . d . 80.314 Although know very little,329 but his influence on posterity was Maternus named Antiochus between Ptolemy and Doro­
work has as yet been forthcoming.
The earliest author who seems to have quoted from the influence of Dorotheus of Sidon on Manetho315 not inconsiderable. It was attested by the relatively theus of Sidon.337 In all then, the later second century
has perhaps been exaggerated,310 the six books of frequent mention of his name among astrological authors appears to be the era in which Antiochus wrote. Whether
Manetho’s Apotelesmata in all likelihood were com­ or not he had special connections with Egypt cannot be
301 Ibid. 2: 160, 3; Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 29.
posed after the Pentateuch of Dorotheus. Of historical 318 For example Ptolemy, Vettius Valens, and Antigonus of decided, although a calendar of Antiochus of Athens
302 Hephaestion, 1, Iff.; Cat. 6: 92 ff. Nicaea.
303 Cat. 6 : 67 ff. interest is the author’s fear to deal with royal (or im­ has survived which was meant for Egypt.388
328In Poetae bucolici et didactiei, ed. Lehrs et alii, Paris, 1851;
304 Compare Cat. 1: 146; 6 : 91. perial) constellations from which he shied away as ed. A. Koechly, Leipzig, 1858; ed. Axt and Riegler, Koeln, 1832. That Antiochus was an Athenian was recorded by
303 In a Greek excerpt from Marsala ( a . d . 770-820?) the being liable to arouse official wrath.317 This attitude,
381 For a discussion of certain aspects of Manetho’s work in Hephaestion of Thebes. If that were true he would be
name of Dorotheus occurred in a sequence of authors, preceded which later Firmicus Maternus shared,318 was very
relation to that of Vettius Valens and those of other astrological the only Athenian of the principate who became a re­
only by Ptolemy, Hermes, and Plato (1) ; see Cat. 1: 82, I l f .;
rare among the astrologers of the principate, most of authors, see W. Kroll, Cat. 5, 2: 143 ff.
compare 5, 3: 115. 381 See G. Darmstadt, Quaestiones apotelesmaticae, Leipzig, nowned astrologer. For the rapidity of his spreading
330 W. Kroll, Astrologisches, Philologus 57 (N. F., 11), 1898:
308 Antiochus of Athens used the writings of both Ptolemy and 1916.
123-133, esp. 129; Cat. 8, 3: 106. 323 Compare Bouche-Leclercq: xiii; he suggests that Manetho
387Cf. W. Kroll, RE, suppl. 3, 1918; c. 412-414; also Kuhnert, Dorotheus of Sidon. Hence he must have lived after the middle 833 Apart from passages referred to in other footnotes, see
of the second century; compare Cat. 8, 3: 106, 17 f. lived in the reign of Severus Alexander, i. e. during the first Cat. 1: 3; 15; 24; 59; 66; 80, 24; 82, 19; 2: 5; 3: 6; 4: 30; 31;
RE 5, 1905: c. 1572. third of the third century of our era.
308For references to and fragments of Dorotheus of Sidon, 310 See Roeper, Lcctioncs Abulpharagianae: 43; Danzig, 1844. 61; 154, 28-155, 27 ; 5, 1: 35; 81; 205, 14; 5, 4: 50, 187; 210, 6;
311 Hephaestion, 2, 22; Cat. 8, 2: 89, adn. 2 ff. 38,W . Kroll, R E 14, 1, 1928: c. 1102-1106; see also A. Lud- 6: 9; 15; 29; 35; 51; 83, n. 1; 7: 5; 8; 17; 18; 21; 213; 8, 1:
see Cat. 1: 14; 29; 53; 57; 82, 11; 103, 20; 107, 2; 108, 5;
3.3 W. Kroll, RE, suppl. 3, 1918: c. 414, suggests cautiously wich, Das elegische Lehrgedicht des Astrologen Anubion und die 9; 104; 142, 19; 181; 8, 2: 22; 61, 16; 63, 21-35; 8, 3: 104, 28-
125 3; 130, 21; 146, 10; 154, 15 and 20; 173, n.; 2: 1; 32; 33; Manethoniana, Philologus, 63 (N. F. 17), 1904: 116-134, esp.
34; 35; 40; 44; 47; 157, 11-25; 192, 21; 195, 15-198, 24; 3: 6; that Dorotheus lived between A. D. 50 and 300. 119, 36; 8, 4: 22; 23 and n.; 30; 33; 34; 38; 50; 117; 118 and
3.3 See Laqueur, RE 14, 1, 1928: c. 1060, no. 1,-c. 1101; Kind, 120 f.; W. Kroll, Ein astrologischer Dichterling, ibid.: 135-138. n. 2; 119, n. 1; 123, n. 2-3; 126, n. 2 and app.; 132, n. 1; 139;
4- 6; 7; 105, 13; 5, 1: 8; 29; 33; 34; 54; 76; 186; 13; 240, 13- 333W . Kroll, loc. cit.: compare Cat. 1: 4; 2: 37; 39; 79; 5, 2:
33- 5 3: 19; 20; 5, 4: 47; 6: 5; 8; 12; 15; 27; 41; 46; 53; 55; ibid.: c. 1101 f. The passage in which this astrologer-physician n. 2; 148, n. 1; 196, n. 1 and app.; 214, n. 1; 225; 11, 1: 105;
was listed with Nechepso and Cleopatra is found in cod. Law. 143 ff.; 5, 3: 14; 15; 17; 18; 20; 22; 26; 32; 33; 35; 36; 62; 63;
64 12; 67; 8; 72, 11; 81, 1-11; 91-113; 8, 1: 19; 20; 37; 40; 11, 2: 33; 109, 1-111, 12; 193; 9, 1: 10; 34; 57; 66; 70; 71;
73, 1 (f. 142’ ) ; see M. Wellmann, Zur Geschichte der Medizin S, 4; 59; 6: 5; 7: 78; 8, 1 : 16; 64; 101; 8, 2: 81, 33; 86; 36;
63: 64- 73; 79; 88; 93; 102; 123; 150, 4-11; 153; 23; 241, 10; 129; 132; 136; 173; 12: 9.
in Altertum, Hermes 35, 1900 : 367. 8, 4: 151; 165; 166; 169; 216 in app.
242, 13 ; 246, 7-8 and 30 and 32; 247, a, b, 4; 8, 2: 38; 39; 47; 331 Cat. 7: 107-128.
311 Computation by Downing; see R. Garnett, On the date of 383 The astrologer Palchus preserved a version of the verses;
51, 1; 52, 12 and 18; 42 (54, 9 and 13; 55, 16 and 26) ; 43 (57, 338Cat. 1: 142 ff.
the iiroTfXeopara of Manetho, Jour. Philol. 23, 1894 : 238-240; Cat. 1: 108-113.
17) • 44 (59, 7) ; 45 (61, 11) ; 47 (64, 21); 48 (66, 8) ; 60, 8 333Ibid. 1, 80, 24; 5, 1: 205, 14.
compare above, ch. iv, n. 112. 337 This is W . Kroll’s opinion; see his Astrologisches, Phito-
and n.; 61, 2-4; 64, 15-23 ; 81; 27; 82, 26adn.; 88, 24-34 ; 89, n.; logus 57 (N. F. 11), 1898; 123-133, 192, esp. 126; compare F. 384Ibid. 6: 67, 4-6; 8, 2 : 82, 32-34.
91 n • 111 n.; 117, n.; 118, 40; 119, n.; 120, n.; 123, 30; 136, 313J. Heeg, Dorotheus von Sidon und Firmicus Maternus 333Ibid. 8, 3: 104 ff.; for the reference, see 106, 17 f.
Math. VI, Hermes 45, 1910: 315-316. Boll, RE, suppl. 3, 1918: c. 412, and in Cat. 6: 91.
15; 8, 3; 20; 50; 116, 15 and 17; 128,9; 130, 22; 131,6; 8, 4; 35; 388 Cat., 1: 142. 388Ibid. 8, 3: 111, 2-3 (end of synkephalaiosis).
49; 115 and n. 1; 118, n. 2; 125, 2 and app.; 141, 16; 187, 12; 313W. Kroll, RE 14, 1, 1928: c. 1102, no. 2,-1106.
317 Manetho, Apotelesmata 6, v. 732. 838 Compare Riess, RE 1, 1894 : 2494; W. Kroll, ibid., suppl. 5, 387Firmicius Maternus, Mathesis 2, 29.
218 in app.; 222, 11; 225; 229, 28 ; 235 ; 242, 26; 243, 14 ; 244; 1931: c. 2; F. Cumont, ibid., suppl. 1, 1903: c. 92; F. Boll, 388 See F. Boll, Griechische Kalender, I and II, Sitzungs-
9, 1: 7; 36; 44; 63; 67; 69; 87; 139; 141-156; 161 f.; 164, 15; 318Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 30, 4; compare K. Ziegler,
Zum Zeushymnus des Kallimachus, Rhein. Mus. 68, 1913: 341. Sphaera: 52 ff. berichte der Akad. Heidelberg, no. 16, 1910; no. 1, 1911.
175; 10: 90 ; 93.

188 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
fame it was significant that Porphyry quoted him.33*
The passage in which he admitted his debt to Antiochus
contained also a quotation from “ Petosiris,” an indica­
tion of the high reputation enjoyed by Antiochus. For
Petosiris was one of the supreme authorities of hellen­
istic astrology. In the light of our present knowledge
of Antiochus’ writings it has become clear, moreover,
that Porphyry throughout his Isagoge borrowed a great
deal from Antiochus, without, however, citing him as
the source of these passages.340 Among the host of
shadowy figures populating the Parnassus of astro­
logical literature during the later principate341 the name
of Serapion (or Sarapion) may at least be mentioned.
For his works were sufficiently popular to be included
in excerpts and references by much later astrologers.
Of Alexandrian origin, he wrote on many astrological
topics. The Anonymus of 379 quoted him as having
written prior to Ptolemy, i.e. before ISO.342
Poet-astrologers or prose writers on the subject
were usually indiscriminate in treating both fatalist
and catarchic astrology alike, but in one. particular field
catarchic astrology alone held sway. That was in the
realm of the so-called iatromathematics, or medical as­
trology. No less an authority than Ptolemy referred
enthusiastically to this branch of applied astrology,348
although he did not treat it in any detail in his Tetra-
biblos. In his day, i.e. in the middle of the second
century of our era, Egypt was generally recognized,
not only as the center of medical studies in general,
but also as preeminent in iatromathematics, notwith­
standing apocryphal claims on behalf of Pythagoras.344
The elder Pliny had already touched upon the connec­
tion between medicine and magic, asserting:
T hat it [magic] was born from medicine no one w ill
doubt, nor that under the pretense, benign, indeed, of being
a superior and holier kind of medicine it has spread. [It
is equally certain also] that it added unto itself with
the sweetest and most welcome promises the strength of
religion . . . and, so that this too would come in, the
astrological arts, because everybody is eager to know his
future, and believes that it can be obtained most truthfully
from the sky.345
The character of iatromathematics was truly astro-
330 Porphyry, Isagoge, 38 (f. 194); Cat. 5, 4: 210, 6ff.
3,0 Compare W . Kroll, RE , suppl. 5, 1931: c. 2.
341 Their names and fragments of their works fill the astro­
logical manuscripts of the Byzantine period and are abundantly
represented in the appendices to the twelve volumes of Cat.
343 Cat. 5, 1, 205, 17; compare for other examples of his work
and for references to him ibid., 1: 54; 55; 80, 26 ; 99-100; 101-
102; 3: 6; S, 1: 29 (2 f. 103); 30 ( 2 f. 106, 107, 107”) ; 179, 16;
180, 12; 5, 3: 33; 39; 43; 87, 4-15; 96, 24-97, 27 ; 6: 47; 7: 45
adn. 1; 8, 1: 33; 91; 241 adn. 1; 247, 5-15 and adn. 18, 4: 33;
117; 208 app.; 225-232 (225, 1; 231, n. 1) ; 240, n. 1.
:u:l Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, 3, 15-16.
3“ Theodor. Priscian., ed. Rose: 250f.; cf. Bouche-Leciercq:
519, n. 1.
Pliny, Nat. Hist. 30, 1, 2; compare Tertullian, * idola-
tria, 9.
magical. It belonged to the very borderland of ca­
tarchic astrology and magic. Whatever pre-Hellenistic
Egypt may have done in this field, in a general sense
Hippocrates for example had also proclaimed the value
of astronomical knowledge for the physician.34* Hellen­
istic astrological literature undoubtedly developed iatro­
mathematics a good deal further in the Hermetic writ­
ings, a number of which presented Hermes in the role
of revealing to Asclepius, god of medicine, supernatural
wisdom, including both medical and astrological subject-
matter.347 Nechepso in particular was later quoted as
one of the main sources of iatromathematical lore,
most of which developed in detail the relation between
the diverse parts of the human anatomy and specific
stars and constellations."48 Fatalistic astrology would
at best only supply prognostics on the unalterable out­
come of a disease, but it obviously could not offer any
means of influencing the course of an illness. Catarchic
astrology, on the other hand, would on the contrary
contend that astral influences, once known, could be
countered with specific drugs, treatments, or other
medical weapons. Therefore essays on catarchic as­
trology would usually include a section on medical
application of catarchic theories.340
Intrinsically not even the most rabid sceptics doubted
the reality of astral influences on nature and natural
phenomena. The abundant evidence of solar and lunar
(tides!) power could not be denied. Hence a serious
physician might well ponder whether or not catarchic
astrology could guide him in ascertaining “ critical
days ” of a disease, or in the selection of certain plants,
supposedly possessing special affinity to one planet or
another, for the concoction of healing prescriptions.350
Numerology, especially the concept of climacterics, as
well as chemistry, i.e. the affinity of certain plants,
drugs, and elements with the stars, inevitably also
invaded the field of iatromathematics. It may suffice
to illustrate the degree to which astrological concepts
had penetrated the thinking of even the most sober and
careful physicians of the second century, that for ex­
ample Galen, though more reluctant to rely on iatro­
mathematical methods than most of his contemporaries,
did not exclude them from his considerations.351 Of
Galen’s interest in cosmology Greek and Arabic trans­
lators have preserved sufficient evidence.352 He pub-
318 Hippocrates, de aer. aq. locis, 2.
347 Compare above, p. 44 f.
348 See Bouche-Leciercq: 517 ff., esp. 520.
810 A n astrological poem by Maximus (perhaps the fourth
century philosopher Maximus of Ephesus?), entitled rrtpi
Karapx^v (ed. A. Ludwich, 1877), dealt in book 6 with diseases
and in book 7 with surgery.
380 For an example of astrological botany, compare a tract
addressed in the reign of Claudius or Nero by the physician
Thessalus to the ruling emperor; Cat. 8, 3: 132-151; also
8, 4 : 253 ff.
851 See Mewaldt; R E 7, 1912: c. 578-591.
883 Compare Corpus Platonicum medii aevi: Plato Arabus 1,
ed. P. Kraus and R. Walzer, London, 1951.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
lished at least two commentaries of Plato’s Timaeus.3*3
Inasmuch as Galen was not only posthumously ac­
claimed, but had already in his own lifetime achieved
such prominence that the emperor M. Aurelius made
him his family physician, the attitude of Galen may be
considered characteristic of the outlook of the best
medical men of that period.
As a physician Galen would be particularly interested
in certain astrological contentions, but not in astro­
logical fatalism. Clearly, if a patient was doomed to
die or to recover anyway, he would never need a physi­
cian at all. Consequently, Galen’s attitude would favor
catarchic rather than fatalistic astrology. That he be­
lieved in astral influences is certain. In a routine man­
ner he insisted time and again that among the necessary
elements to be investigated prior to any diagnosis was
the constellation prevailing at the time the patient had
“ come down ” or “ gone to bed ” with the disease. But
this status coeli (mnwraow) 354 was always listed in
such a stereotyped manner along with a host of other
factors that it must be assumed that Galen only men­
tioned it to save his professional conscience. Nor did
he show much sympathy with astrological botany one
of whose long deceased champions, named Thessalus,
he attacked on professional grounds with vitriolic sar­
casm.866 Another apostle of astrological botany, named
Pamphilus, fared equally badly. Ridiculing “ the sacred
herbs of the decani and the demons ” 300 Galen lashed
out:
Pamphilus speaks of herbs. . . . H e says he found [them]
written in a book among those authored by the Egyptian
Hermes [Trismegistus], containing the 36 sacred plants of
the horoscopes (iipooKotmv) [i. e. the decani]. It is obvious
that these things are mere nonsense and a fiction of that
author. . . . Perhaps Pamphilus, like very many others, had
idle time on his hands to spin useless yarns.307
Like any scientist of his time Galen was wholly con­
vinced, however, of the physical influence of the stars
and only objected to what seemed to him unwarranted
(i.e. unscientific) extensions of this principle. He was,
for example, particularly concerned with the powers of
the dog-star (Sirius) on the course of diseases and the
preparation of drugs.358 A medicine against rabies,
303 One has survived in Greek, the other only in an Arabic
translation. The Greek commentary was edited by H. O.
Schroeder, Corpus medicorum Graecorum, suppl. 1, 1934, while
the Arabic version was published in Plato Arabus 1, 1951; com­
pare G. Sarton, Isis 43, no. 131, April 1952 : 57 f.
334 See for"example, Galen, de methodo medendi 9, 5; 14; 17;
10, 1; 5; 11, 1; 9; 14; 12, 3 (ed. Kuehn, 10 : 625 ; 645; 658; 662;
685; 737; 759 f .; 778; 829); cf. L. Thorndike, History of magic
and experimental science 1: 178 f.
’““ Galen, de methodo medendi 1, ed. Kuehn, 10: 4 f .; 20 and
elsewhere.
350 Galen, dc simplicium medicamcntorum tcmpcramcntis ac
facultatibus 4, pr. (ed. Kuehn, 11: 797).
357 Loc. cit., ed. Kuehn, 11: 798.
338 Galen, de theriaca ad Pisonem, 17 (ed. Kuehn, 14 : 285),
189
concocted by a peripatetic philosopher Aeschrion “ after
the rise of the dog-star when the sun had moved into
Leo and the moon had reached its eighteenth day,” 860
apparently drew no objections from Galen. One of
his own most renowned concoctions was the so-called
theriac. Its popularity among the Roman nobility was
great, and its administration regulated by astrological
views:
Furthermore many of the most highly placed Romans
take this medicine on the first day of the moon, some choose
the fourth day. . . . They take it about the third hour.860
Again Galen’s factual statement indicated no objection
to astrological and numerological considerations in the
taking of the theriac. Indeed, he did devote an entire
work to numerological medicine, i. e. to the mystical
influence of numbers on “ critical days.” 381 As for
astrology itself Galen sharply objected to “ these men
[i. e. the atomists] who hold in contempt omens,
dreams, portents and any kind of astrology (ikmjijs
uoTpoXor/'tas).” 362 Inasmuch as, for example, at Perga­
mon the famous priestly clinic of Asclepius operated on
the assumption that the god would reveal his medical
advice to patients in a dream while they slept in the
temple precinct, Galen, who himself had practiced for
many years in Pergamon ( a . d . 158-164), was not
likely to challenge the importance of dreams for medical
treatment.
As to astrology proper, we do possess under his
name a treatise, also occasionally ascribed to Hip­
pocrates. It was devoted to astrological prognostica­
tions based on the time a patient came down with a
disease and went to bed.803 Its tenor throughout was
catarchic:
Astrology is the foreseeing part of their [i.e. the physi­
cians’] art, and if not all, but at least most of them have
accepted this concept of astrology as part [of medicine].
. . . Hippocrates said that [any physician’s] m ind strays
into darkness, who has not used physiognomy. But the
physiognomical part of astrology is its m ajor part.364
Galen then devoted twelve chapters (3-14) to the
astrological influence of the moon in-each of the twelve
zodiacal signs, starting with Aries. Each section began
with the same phrase: “ If someone goes to bed ill when
the moon is in the sign of . . . Saturn was given
special emphasis next to that accorded to the moon.
cited Hippocrates as an authority confirming his own views of
the dog-star’s importance.
380 Galen, de simpl. medicam. temp, ac fac. 11, 24 (ed. K., 12:
357).
300 Galen, de theriaca ad Pampilianum, ed. Kuehn, 14: 298,1 if.
301 Galen, nepl Kpitri/iuv ijp.epu>v, 3 books, ed. K., 9 : 769-941.
303 Galen, de naturalibus facultatibus 1, 12 (ed. Kuehn, 2: 29).
The author promised to “ deal with these matters more fully in
another book."
383 Galen, Prognostica de dccubitu ex mathematics scientia,
ed. Kuehn, 19: 529-573.
’ " Ib id ., 1 (ed. Kuehn, 19 : 530).
190 TH E R IS E AND T R IU M P H O F ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
The other planets were considered thereafter in each
section. Galen’s own attitude towards astrology was
perhaps best summarized in his own words:
To prove that a knowledge of astrology is necessary, the
authority of the Stoics is itself sufficient. . . . If someone
has acted negligently in his calculations . . . in him, not
in the subject-matter [astrology] would lie the fault, if
things afterwards happened otherwise than he predicted.300
Among the physicians of the second century whose
writings included not only topics from catarchic, but
also from fatalistic astrology, Antigonus of Nicaea
seems to have been the most celebrated.366 While his
great contemporary, Galen, confined his references to
astrology to the realm of catarchic iatromathematics,
Antigonus of Nicaea compiled a collection of historical
horoscopes. Each of these contained a detailed set .of
astronomical data (which made it possible for modern
astronomers to compute the birth dates of the persons
involved). Posterity has remembered him but cur­
sorily for his medical prowess—he was the inventor of
some useful antidote8<” — but from his collection of
“ historical ” horoscopes astrologers continued for cen­
turies to excerpt some important ones. About 380 the
astrologer, Hephaestion of Thebes, included among his
own writings a number of horoscopes, three of which
he ascribed to Antigonus.368 These three belonged to
men torn on January 24, 76; April 5, 40, and April 6 ,
113.360 The first of these was the horoscope of Hadrian,
the last almost certainly that of Pedanius Fuscus, and
the intervening one probably that of Hadrian’s father,
P. Aelius Afer,370 or possibly of Hadrian’s brother-
in-law Servianus. The original collection consisted of
at least four books.371
The astrological reputation of Antigonus must have
been considerable.372 Porphyry (about 250) in his
Introduction to Ptolemy’s astrological manual, the
Tetrabiblos, mentioned Antigonus (together with an
Egyptian named Phnaes) immediately after a reference
to Ptolemy (about 150) 373 in a chapter devoted to a dis-
m Ibid., 2 (ed. Kuehn, 19: 533).
388 The period in which Antigonus flourished seems now fairly
definitely established. An earlier appraisal, based on insufficient 83, 1-121, 14; 161, 18 and 36; 162, 15 and 33; 163, 11 and 20 and
evidence (Riess, RE 1, 1894: c. 2422, no. 24) has been corrected
by W . Kroll, RE, suppl. 5, 1931: c. 2.
387 Antigonus of Nicaea, according to Aelius Promotus, taught
his disciple Theodore of Macedon the recipy of this antidote;
compare M. Wellmann, Die pneumatische Schule: 13.
388 Hephaestion of Thebes, 2, 18; Cat. 8, 2 : 82, 30 ff.. or
Hephaestion 3, according to Cat. 6: 67 ff. Palchus obviously
used another edition of Hephaestion’s work.
Cat. 8, 2: 82ff.; computations by O. Neugebauer.
3,0 See above, pp. 152, 162 f.
371 Rhetorius (ca. A. D. 500) cited from the fourth chapter of
the fourth book of a work by Antigonus; Cat. 8, 1: 242, 16f.
and n. 1.
373 Compare Cat. 1: 80, 24; 81, 8; 2: 44; 5, 1: 205, 14; 6: 5; 98, ii.; 101, n.; 136, 1 and n.; 8, 3: 14; 102, n. 1; 106, 3; 111, 3;
7; 64, 14 and 23; 8, 1: 35 (4, f. 106); 8, 2 : 82, 34 ; 84, 4-14.
378 Porphyry, Isagoge, 51 (f. 201) ; Cat. 5, 4 : 223, 18.
cussion of the geometrical patterns of constellations, i. e.
triangles, squares, hexagons, etc. Hence Antigonus
must have flourished between 150 and 250, probably in
the latter part of the second century. That more than
a century after Porphyry, Hephaestion of Thebes used
Antigonus has already been mentioned. Another cen­
tury later, i. e. towards the end of the fifth century, the
astrologer Palchus when excerpting Hephaestion in­
cluded a few horoscopes from Antigonus’ collection
with some recent ones, dating from the second half of
the fifth century.374 In the reign of Justinian I only
the astrological prowess of Antigonus was remembered.
His medical reputation had long been forgotten. John
Lydus (ca. 550) knew him only as an astrologer.375
The historian must remember Antigonus chiefly as the
author of the only extant ancient imperial horoscope,
that of Hadrian, which he computed soon after the
death of the emperor.
No practicing astrologer of the second century, how­
ever, could be compared in popularity with an astrolo­
ger from Antioch (?) named Vettius Valens. Next to
Ptolemy’s his writings, going under the modest and
honest title Anthologiae, have been copied wholly or in
part more often than those of almost any other astrolo­
ger of antiquity. His approach was poles apart from
that of his Alexandrian contemporary, Ptolemy. For
the Anthologiae were not like Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos
written by an ivory-tower scientist, but as a practical
handbook for his own use and that of his fellow
astrologers. In quality and level, therefore, they were
far inferior to Ptolemy’s classic, but all the more im­
portant as a source of information about the techniques
and views of the “ men of the trade ” of the second
century. A large, but incomplete, section of this work
was published in 1908 by W . Kroll, but only now are
its contents, as well as those of other fragments, and
references, printed in the Catalogus cod. astrol. gr.,*''*
3,1 For example Cat. 6: 63 ff.; compare 1: 107. Rhetorius, as
well as his astrological contemporary Palchus knew Antigonus;
see Cat. 2: 188; 8, 1: 242.
376John Lydus, de ostentis, 2 (ed. Wachsmuth: 6).
3,8 See Cat. 1: 15; 66; 69; 79, 1-80, 6 ; 80, 24; 82, 21; 84, 18 f.,
130, 21; 152, 13 and 15; 2, 2; 5; 33; 43; 44; 45; 47; 49; 73;
32; 169, 26; 173, 26; 174, 12; 176, 11 and 22; 177, 18; 179, 1
and 30; 180, 9 and 10; 187, 14f .; 188, 4 and 8; 4: 58; 59; 66;
77; 113; 146, 22-149, 31; 174, 1-177, 37; 179, 1-182, 17; 5 , 1:
31; 74; 75; 98, n. 4; 100, n. 3; 118, 18ff.; 131, 15 ff.; 132, 22;
172, no. 12; 205, 14 ; 218, 34; 239 ; 5 , 2: 4; 27, 1-129, 19 ; 5 , 3:
12- 15; 41; 43; 110, 29-112, 12; 110; n.; 113, 8f.; 117, 7-14 and
33-118, 12; 5 , 4: 50; 70; 73; 75; 86; 6: 4; 5; 17; 7: 43; 48; 77;
78; 108 n.; 112, n. 1; 194; 203, 13 app.; 206, 9 app.; 213; 219,
12 app.; 221, 16 app.; 223, 1 app.; 8, 1: 25; 63; 64; 76; 89; 93;
106; 110; 115, n. 1; 116; 161, 1-171, 24; 181; 222, 31; 237, 27;
238, 4 ff.; 239, 6 f. and 21 and 23; 240, 7; 242, 6 and 9; 244, 15
and 31; 246, 4 ff.; 247, a, 8 and 23 and 25; b, 4 and 24 and 26;
249, 2 ; 255, 13 and 16ff.; 256, 22; 263, 22 ; 8, 2: 93, n.; 94, n.;
190, 23 and 25; 8, 4: 7; 24; 35; 38; 58; 65; 89; 115; 116; 117,
a; 119, n.; 122-170 (excerpts from Vettius Valens found in the
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM NERVA TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
being discovered by scholars at large. As might be
expected, many passages are corrupt, and especially
ascriptions to certain Hellenistic authors will call for
sharp scrutiny. For example, a number of horoscopes
attributed to the early Hellenistic astrologer Crito­
demus, have just been found (by astronomical computa­
tion) to date from the first and even the second cen­
tury a . d . ! 377 Nevertheless, the Anthologiae were a
treasure chest through their preservation of much earlier
material used by the professional astrologers of the
Graeco-Roman world of the principate. Strangely
enough it was only in the nineteenth century that the
writings of Vettius Valens came to be appreciated as a
mine of information on an older and far more famous
Hellenistic compendium of astrology, the work of
Nechepso— Petosiris.378
The hard life of the professional astrologer of his
own era was reflected in the occasional insertion of
personal remarks by Vettius Valens. Rivals and de­
tractors made life miserable for him,370 and he eked out
a living which was far from prosperous.380 The body
of materials whence he drew his excerpts was the
standard one of popular astrological literature of the
preceding four hundred years. It was largely identical
with the works on which Manetho and Firmicus Mater­
nus were drawing later.381 The writings of Vettius
Valens also included astrological treatises now lost, for
example a Protrepticus and a Teachers’ manual.382
Vettius Valens himself seems to have added to his
income by maintaining a school for prospective as­
trologers.383 To one of his former students, named
Marcus, he dedicated the Anthologiae.*** Nor was it
writings of Rhetorius) ; 139, n. 1; 186, 4 app.; 188, 12 and 16;
192, 2; 194, n. 1; 202, n. 1; 203, 22 app.; 204, 10 app.; 206, n. 1;
207, 20 ; 219, 33 and 35; 226, 17 app.; 227, 25 app.; 231, 6 app.;
239, 14 app.; 9, 1: 36; 47; 65; 66; 67; 74; 75; 164, 15; 175;
184; 11, 1: 53; 185, 25 and n.; 186, 11; 191, 20 f. and 27; 192,
5f. and n. and 11 f. and 18 and 21 and 24; 11, 2: 90(?).
377 A number of Greek horoscopes, listed in book 5 of the
Anthologiae, has been computed by O. Neugebauer. While not
ascribed to Critodemus in W. Kroll’s edition of the work, they
were assigned erroneously to the early Hellenistic astrologer by
the scribe responsible for the version printed in Cat. 5, 2: 120 f.
O. Neugebauer, however, has shown through computation that
they actually refer to August 16, A. D. 112; 87( ?) ; December 26,
115; May 4, 90(?), respectively.
378 Compare W. v. Christ, Geschichte der griechischen Litera-
tur, Hdb. d. klass. Alt., ed. I. Mueller, 7, 2, 2; ed., 1924 : 906;
W. Kroll in his preface (to Vettius Valens’ Anthologiae) : vi ff.
3,8 See Cat. 5 , 2: 143; Vettius Valens, as might be expected,
also relied on Hermetic literature, although he never cited
Hermes Trismegistus among his sources.
380Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 6, pr. (ed. Kroll: 241, 4 ff.).
381Loc. cit.; also ibid. 8, 5; 9, pr. (ed. Kroll: 301, 14 ff.; 329,
15-17).
383 irporpeirTiitol and 8iddvKa\oL \oyoi; cf. W. Kroll, op. cit. : vii.
’“ Ibid. 3, 16 (ed. Kroll: 157, 28ff.).
“ ‘ Ibid. 7, 5; 9, pr. and 15; compare 4, 11; 6, 1; 9, 11 (ed.
Kroll: 293, 24 ; 329, 4 ; 359, 11; 172, 31; 244, 22 f.; 352, 32 ff.).
191
an innovation to establish a school of astrology.385 One
might have taken the existence of such institutions for
granted, but the testimony of Vettius Valens adds
authentic proof to this natural assumption.
His main aim was not the composition of a new and
independent work. He humbly professed as his chief
desire a vindication and explanation of earlier astro­
logical writers,386 many of whom he quoted copiously;
but in his heart of hearts the little schoolmaster and
moderately successful practitioner of astrology hoped
like every author that posterity would accord him the
fame 387 which his own age seems to have withheld.
Among the later authors who gladly used the Antho­
logiae, some are known to us by name, others merely
as anonymous excerptors.388 In the fourth century of
our era the Anonymus of 379,380 as well as his con­
temporary Hephaestion of Thebes390 was among the
perusers of Vettius Valens, more than a century later
Palchus391 and Rhetorius 892 (both ca. 500), and in the
eighth century Theophilus still returned to the Antho­
logiae.303 It was inevitable that the widespread use
of the work caused emendations or additions to the
text. No complete and unmutilated version seems to
have survived. For that reason the list of imperial
dates given in the Anthologies (1, 19; ed. Kroll: 32,
22 ff.) cannot be accepted as necessarily stemming in
its entirety from the pen of Valens himself. Its last
entry, referring to a . d . 248, must be considered as the
end of a later addition to the original text, which, if
Kroll’s conjecture is correct,394 did not extend beyond
the reign of Marcus Aurelius— hence Valens would be
a contemporary of Ptolemy.395
The work itself in its main extant version was divided
into nine books. Among the topics which recurred with
special frequency was the one of the climacterics.390
As might be expected Vettius Valens also offered all
technical paraphernalia for determining the date and
mode of death of any person, thus showing that the
disregard for the legal restrictions imposed by Augustus
in a . d . 11 was not confined to influential circles in
Rome, or scientific theorists in Alexandria, but was
380Ibid. 4, 11 (ed. K r . : 172, 3ff.) about Valens’ own experi­
ences with Egyptian teachers.
“ ‘ Ibid. 2, Pr.; 5, 12; 6, 1 and 8; 7, 2 and 3; 8, 5; 9, pr. (ed.
K roll: 55, 4ff.; 238, 18ff.; 242, 18ff.; 258, 32ff.; 270, 28 ff.-
272, 7 ff.; 301, 3 ff.; 330, 8 ff.).
887Ibid. 7, 5; 8, 5 (ed. K r.: 293, 24 ff.; 301, 25 ff.).
388 W . Kroll, ibid.: vii f.
380 Cat. 5, 1 : 205, 14 ; 218 (fourth line from bottom).
330 He seems to have used Anthologiae 1, 2.
3,1 Cat. 5, 1 : 171 f., esp. 172, art. 12.
313 For example in Cat. 1; 152, 13 and 16, 2: 187, 14.
333 Ibid. 1 : 130, 21.
384 W . Kroll in Vettius Valens’ Anthologiae, pr.: vi.
3,5 This explains why neither of the two ever referred to the
other, compare above ch. iv, n. 296a.
3,8For example Anthologiae 3, 8; 11; 15; 5, 2; 8' 12' 8 8-
9, 4.
 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F A ST RO LO G Y IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
192
ubiquitous throughout the entire Roman realm. More­
over, both fatalistic and catarchic387 astrology were dealt
with by the author. Apparently the practicing as­
trologers and their clients paid little attention to the
inherent contradictoriness of both systems of astrology,
a blind spot from which the most illustrious author of
antiquity on the subject of astrology, Claudius Ptole-
maeus, was free.
Scientists of supreme quality are rarely glamorous.
Ptolemy of Ptolemais (or Pelusium?) was no excep­
tion to this rule. Moreover, an emperor who favored
rhetoric and skilled debate beyond any scientific pur­
suits was not likely to glorify his greatest scientist. He
recognized his solid merit, however, sufficiently to ap­
point him (if the surmise is correct) to a research post
in the famous Alexandrinian Museion. Inasmuch as
the astronomical observations recorded in Ptolemy’s
Almagest— an Arabic title for the /Miflij/mTucr) <ru'v7-a|«—
belonged to the years 127-151, and his life-span ap­
parently amounted to seventy-eight years, his era seems
to have been approximately the time between 100 and
178. Thus he had, for example, already begun his own
observations when Hadrian was in Egypt in the year
130, but the imperial astrologer and patron of the arts
paid no attention, so far as we know, to the brilliant
young scientist (who observed the heavens perhaps in
that very night when Hadrian was persuaded that his
beloved Antinous had become a bright star in the skies).
While Hadrian did appoint a number of scholars to
posts at the Museion, he does not seem to have been
aware of Ptolemy’s genius. Since the scientist’s major
works were not published until long after Hadrian’s
death, one can hardly reproach the emperor for his
oversight.
It is but fitting to conclude our survey of the astro­
logical literature of the later principate with the work
of Ptolemy. For nothing could better illustrate the
scientific mantle which astrology had assumed in the
Graeco-Roman era than the fact that a scientist of
Ptolemy’s calibre should devote his time and energies
to the composition of a lengthy handbook of astrology.
When in modem times astrology had been discarded
by scientists,- this seemed so preposterous that the
authenticity of an astrological work transmitted under
the name of Ptolemy was seriously questioned. This
scepticism, however, was typical of the common human
failure to comprehend an earlier period on its own
terms. Thanks to the searching effort of F. Boll, how­
ever, no one any longer can question the authenticity
of the- Tetrabiblos.?98 Another astrological treatise, the
so-called K a p i r o i or Centiloquium, which was ascribed
to Ptolemy, has, on the other hand, found few defenders
507For instance ibid. 5, 3.
J"8F. Boll, Studien ueber Claudius Ptolemaeus, Jahrb. f. klass.
Philol. 21, 1894; compare also his Zur Ueberlieferungsgeschichte
der griechischen Astrologie und Astronomie, Sitsungsberichte
der kgl. Ak. Muenchen (Phil.-Hist. Kl.), 1899 : 77 ff.
and is nowadays generally considered the work of some
unknown writer, greatly inferior to Ptolemy.
Apart from this probably spurious Centiloquium
Ptolemy’s extant writings include four astronomical
works, the Almagest and the “ Phases” of fixed stars
and a collection of prognostics (rfxiacK airXaviov aoTCpwv
kox irvvaywyri bruj'qiubtrtMv) as well as a set of astro­
nomical tables (irpoxetpoi Kavovw) and a memorandum
O n how to use them (irpoxclpw v . Kavovmv 8 m t o £ t? Kal
ip7](f>o(t>opia). His astrological handbook, usually called
Tetrabiblos (or Quadripartitus), was probably originally1
called fia&rjfiaTLKi] TeTpaftiftAo*; trvvra£is. This title would
help to clarify its relation to the astronomical writings
of Ptolemy. For its natural counterpart was the
lw.6Tuia.TiKr) otjpto&s, i. e. the Almagest itself. Perhaps
both works in the mind of Ptolemy formed a unit, and
inasmuch as the Tetrabiblos was written after the
Almagest it was a planned addition to the earlier work
and Ptolemy, as we shall see, said so succinctly.300
Whether or not Syrus, to whom the Almagest, as well
as the Tetrabiblos and other works of Ptolemy were
dedicated, was a scholarly physician, or a literary fiction
cannot be decided, but in view of the many notable
astrologer-physicians of the second century there is no
reason to doubt the existence of an Alexandrian physi­
cian, intellectually competent to be worthy of Ptolemy’s
dedications.
The purpose of the Tetrabiblos was clearly stated by
the author:
O f the means of prediction through astronomy, O Syrus,
two are the most important and valid.
One, which is first [i. e. astronomy] both in order and in
effectiveness, is that whereby we apprehend the aspects
of the movements of sun, moon, and stars in relation
to each other and to the earth, as they occur at any
time; the
second is that in which by means of the natural character
of these phenomena themselves we investigate the
changes which they bring about in that which they
surround.400
Inevitably one has construed this second “ means of
prediction ” to mean astrology, and the fact that
Ptolemy’s subsequent treatise is devoted to that subject
confirms this view. Yet modern astrophysics too is
devoted to the interplay of forces between and within
stars. The incessant bombardment of our own planet
(and any other star) by meteors and cosmic rays for
example is proof of the fact of some physical influence,
however infinitesimal or as yet undetermined, of the
cosmos on our earth.
Ptolemy erred of course (as did his less illustrious
fellow astrologers) in the over-simplification of this
3°“ Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, py. In 1940 E. Boer (Ptolemaei
opera omnia 3, 1, Leipzig, Teubner) and F. E. Robbins (with
an Engl, transl. in the Loeb Classics series, Cambridge, Mass.,
Harvard University Press, and London, W. Heinemann) pub­
lished the two most recent editions of the Greek text.
*°° Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, pr. 1.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E R V A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
principle. He took for granted most of the accumu­
lated “ verities” of Hellenistic astrology and tried to
compress them into a purely scientific system. But he
did not stumble blindly into the morass of astrological
detail:
The first of these [two branches], which has its own
science [i.e. astronomy], desirable in itself even though it
does not attain the result given by its combination with the
second, has been expounded to you as best we could in
its own treatise [i. e. the Almagest] by the method of
demonstration.
W e shall now give an account of the second and less
self-sufficient method in a properly philosophical way, so
that one zvhose aim is the truth might never compare its
perceptions with the sureness of the first, unvarying science
[i.e. astronomy], for he ascribes to it the weakness and
unpredictability of material qualities found in individual
things,— nor yet refrains from such an investigation as is
within the bounds of possibility, when it is so evident that
most events of a general nature draw their causes from the
enveloping heavens.401
The clear realization of the difference between the
predictability of astronomical phenomena and the unpre­
dictability of complex “ sublunar ” events should not
deter scholars from embarking on the more difficult
task of establishing the scientific connection between
the two realms. Astrology was applied astronomy in
the eyes of its devotees, and that-it was for Ptolemy
also. As to astronomy, allegations against it “ could be
made only by the blind.” Astrology, however, Ptolemy
had to admit, was in a less unassailable position:
Its difficulty in parts has made men think it completely
incomprehensible, or the difficulty of escaping what is
known has disparaged even its object as useless.402
These two basic objections were refuted in the subse­
quent chapters. Opponents of astrology— even if ad­
mitting the theoretical possibility of determining the
influence of the stars on mundane affairs— insisted that
the subject was too complex ever to admit of a solution.
No scientist worth his salt would, of course, ever accept
such an argument. The other objection to astrology
was a serious philosophical one: If, as the laws of
nature were bound to be, astral influence determined
by scientific law every minute phenomenon on earth,
man’s fate was sealed, hence his knowledge of it would
in no way enable him to “ escape ” or “ avoid ” his
destiny. One may note that this argument did not
necessarily presuppose a single decisive natal constella­
tion, but would apply with equal forcefulness to the
assumption of a continual astral influence throughout
every moment of one’s life. A thorough study of
Ptolemy’s theory of knowledge apparently is still pend­
ing. His own treatise403 largely devoted to this topic
would furnish ample material for establishing his scien­
tific creed.
401Ibid. 1, 1, 1-2.
402Loc. cit.
403 Trepi KpiTTiptov koX ijye/lovtKov.
193
With the detachment of a true scientist Ptolemy pro­
ceeded to give first his argument for the technical
feasibility of astrology, i. e. that it was scientifically
possible, and afterwards his views on the value of
man’s knowledge of the future, whether or not it was
inevitable. For example: 404
(1) The steady influence of the sun is indisputable.
All life on earth is affected by this star.
(2) The influence of the moon also cannot be contested.
Apart from dubious physiological arguments there
is the fact of the moon’s influence on the waters
of the earth, especially their tides.
(3) Astrometeorology in general, i. e. the apparent in­
fluence of certain stars and constellations on the
weather, the flocks of the farmer, the sailor’s ex­
perience with storms at certain times, demonstrates
astral influence.
From this Ptolemy concluded :
I f then a man knows accurately the movements of all the
stars, the sun, and the moon, . . . and if he has distinguished
in general their natures as the result of previous continued
study . . . and if he is capable of determining . . . both
scientifically and by successful conjecture the distinctive
mark of quality resulting from the combination of all the
factors, what is to prevent him from being able to tell on
each given occasion . . . [the weather to come] and with
respect to an individual human being perceive the general
quality of his temperament . . . and predict occasional
events ? 408
The “ if ” of Ptolemy would presuppose a knowledge
of chemistry and physics far beyond that of any mortal,
past, present, and future. It, therefore, practically ex­
cluded the very thing Ptolemy tried to demonstrate,
the possibility of such a process. Yet, man, especially
the scientist, has often been given to over-optimistic
views on human progress, and within the Ptolemaic
" i f ” the possibility of some prognostics from astral
information could not be excluded. That man had not
yet reached the level of knowledge required, Ptolemy
himself knew only too well:
The mistakes of those who are not accurately instructed
in this practice . . . have brought about the belief that even
its true predictions depend upon chance. . . . Secondly very
many, for the sake of gain, claim credence for another
technique [rey^r/] in the name of this, and deceive the
vulgar. . . . In general . . . every science that deals with
the quality of its subject matter is conjectural and not to be
absolutely affirmed. . . .40°
In view of the very limited knowledge available the
room for conjecture was, therefore, proportionally so
large that mistakes were unavoidable. But even if all
astral influences were known, and the laws of their
application established, Ptolemy was unwilling to sub-
404 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, 2, 1 ff.
405Ibid. 1, 2, 5-6.
‘"Ib id ., 1, 2, 6-7.
194 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
scribe to the fatalist interpretation of such knowledge.
The arguments of the New Academy in the second
century b . c . had long forced defenders of astrology to
allow for the influence of heredity, environment, and
upbringing:
A ll the aforesaid conditions being equal, rearing and
customs contribute to influence the particular way in which
a life is lived. Unless each of these things is examined
together with the causes that are derived from the sur­
rounding cosmos (Tats airo rov irtpvcxovTos alm as), although
this latter be conceded to exercise the greatest influence,
they can cause much difficulty for those who believe that in
such cases everything can be understood . . . from the
motion of the heavenly bodies.407
This was a far cry, indeed, from the vaunted claims
of the average astrologer that a mere horoscope sufficed
for the prediction of a man’s entire life. The reserva­
tions made by Ptolemy were compared by him to those
of a physician, a comparison which occurred repeatedly
in the Tetrabiblos.
Consequently and logically Ptolemy rejected the fatal­
ism of the early Stoics and expressed his attitude in
terms of Chrysippus, Diogenes of Babylon, and per­
haps Panaetius. The German predilection for ascribing
Ptolemy’s opinions largely to the influence of Posido­
nius alone has no facts to support it adequately. The
very attack, which Ptolemy launched against those
fatalists, who rejected astrological knowledge as useless
since no man’s destiny could be changed anyway, indi­
cated the extent to which he dissociated himself from
purely fatalistic astrology. He did, indeed, remark that
even if man were a helpless prisoner of Fate, he could
by foreknowledge avoid “ excessive panic and delirious
joy.” But in any case
we should not believe that separate events attend mankind
. . . as if they had originally been ordained for each person prognostication of a man’s lifespan, or to the (equally
by some irrevocable divine command and destined by neces­
sity without the possibility of any other cause interfering.
The change of earthly things is subject to a natural
and mutable ( .') fate, and while drawing its primary causes
from above, it is governed by chance and natural sequence.408 cism of men like Epictetus, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus
This was not a total abandonment of fatalism. Some
things remained governed by fate, others by chance.
Some might be inevitable if men did not know of their
approach, as for example in the case of an illness:
Those physicians who can recognize ailments know before­ revelatory literature. Shorn of their antecedents, how­
hand those which are always fatal and those which admit ever, and presented as “ scientific facts ” in the calm
of aid . . . so also if future happenings to men are not known,
or if they are known and the remedies are not applied, they
will by all means follow the course of primary nature; but strong appeal to later writers on the subject. An Intro­
if they are recognized ahead of time and remedies are pro­ duction 414 to the Tetrabiblos has been ascribed to Por-
vided, again quite in accord with nature and fate, they
either do not occur at all, or are rendered less severe.409
Under these circumstances it is hardly surprising to
407Ibid. 1, 2, 8-9.
““ Ibid. 1, 3, 11.
Ibid. 1, 3, 11 and 13.
find Ptolemy extolling the iatromathematical practices
flourishing in his day :410
The Egyptians have entirely united medicine with astro­
logical predictions. . . . They would never have devised
certain means of averting or warding off the universal and
particular conditions that come or are present by reason of
the surrounding cosmos, if they had had any idea that the
future cannot be changed.411
According to Ptolemy, Egyptian iatromathematicians
did " . . . place the faculty of resisting by orderly natural
means second to the decrees of Fate.” 4,1
With this concept Ptolemy agreed wholeheartedly.
Unfortunately, however, he accepted the wholly un­
proven hellenistic astrological tenets as axioms without
an attempt to verify their observational basis (or lack
of it). A single example may illustrate the sad results
of this uncritical approach. Speaking of the Lord of
Action Ptolemy assigned the chief role in determining
“ the quality of the action ’’ to Mars, Venus," and
Mercury. For instance:
If Mercury governs action . . . he makes his subjects
scribes, businessmen, calculators, teachers( 1), merchants,
bankers, soothsayers, astrologers, sacrificers. . . .412
In view of the fact that Hermes alias Mercury was
the traditional patron divinity of travelers, businessmen,
merchants, and thieves, Ptolemy’s blanket addition of
diviners in those groups is amusing. The often stressed
greed of diviners in general and astrologers in particu­
lar was thus of Mercury’s making. Here and almost
everywhere else in the Tetrabiblos Ptolemy thus suc­
cumbed to the simple hellenistic identification of plane­
tary powers with those of the divinity whose name the
planet bore. Nor did Ptolemy have the slightest hesi­
tation of devoting whole chapters to the (forbidden!)
dangerous) topic of imperial horoscopes.413
The moderate attitude of Ptolemy about fatalistic
astrology paralleled the cautious second-century Stoi­
Aurelius. The denial of the inevitability of all things
allowed for an area of free will. The complete exclu­
sion of revelatory elements from astrology was on the
part of Ptolemy more seeming than real. For many
of his theories were derived from hermetic and other
and detached manner of Ptolemy, they exercised a
410Ibid. 1, 3, 15-16.
4,1 Ibid. 1, 3, 16.
413/fcid. 4, 4 (ff. 178; compare 181 end).
4,3 Ibid. 3, 10; 4, 3 and 9.
414 This Isagoge has recently been reedited by E. Boer and St.
Weinstock in Cat. 5, 4: 184-229.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E R V A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 195
phyry (about 250). This was by no means the only the founder of the New Academy, had been the most
work of its kind.415 We have for example some frag­ formidable. The common denominator of all attacks
ments of a commentary by Pacharius.410 Demophilus was the challenge of fatalistic astrology. Against ca­
wrote scholia for the Tetrabiblos, while the name of the tarchic astrology only the objection of man’s inadequate
last great neoplatonist, Proclus (410-485), lias been observational knowledge was raised. The adversaries
attached to a Paraphrase417 and commentary of the of astrology presented two diametrically opposed argu­
work.418 Needless to say that Arabic translations of ments. On the one hand, Stoic fatalism was challenged
the Tetrabiblos became an integral part of mediaeval by the Platonists who defended the axiomatic existence
Arabic astrological literature (since the ninth century of a divine power or powers capable of interfering at
when Ishaq ben Hunein seems to have published the will in the life of man, while, on the other hand, em­
first version in that language). From the Arabic ap­ piricists and other sceptics employed purely rational
parently western Europe received the work in Latin weapons in their war on fatalism and its astrological
translations, the earliest of which— barring the possi­ defenders. Thus peripatetic opponents would stress the
bility of a late Roman attempt of this kind — was pub­ lack of truly observational experience for the vaunted
lished in 1138 by Plato Tiburtinus. claims of fatalist astrologers. Sceptics — Epicureans,
It was a healthy sign that even the towering reputa­ Cynics, Pyrrhonists alike — would deny the very possi­
tion of a Ptolemy could not silence contemporary bility of ever ascertaining any positive knowledge about
attacks on astrology. The impact of anti-fatalistic matters in general, and fatalistic astrology in particular.
scepticism may, indeed, have strengthened Ptolemy’s Their attacks against religious concepts; of any kind
natural scientific caution to the extent of limiting the
were based on the denial of “ knowledgeability ” which
power of Fate over man in his definition of astrology’s led them also to taunt the astrologers who so firmly
scope. The total effect of the revived struggle between asserted the accuracy of their “ knowledge,” be it
the two rationalist forces towards the end of the second derived from divine revelation or alleged scientific
century was a complete stalemate. It was finally broken observations of millennial continuity.
by the rise of anti-rationalist forces, philosophical and
The most popular defender of religious values against
religious, two of which, neo-Platonism and Christianity,
atheist rationalism and sceptic nihilism was, at the turn
were to resolve the long struggle. But that story will
of the second century, Plutarch of Chaeronea.421 Repre­
have to be told later.419 For it does not belong to the
sentative of rationalist opposition to astrology in this
principate.
era were, for example, Favorinus of Arles, the Epicu­
reans Diogenianus and Diogenes of Oeoanda, the last
7. FOES OF ASTROLOGY IN T HE LATER great Peripatetic, Alexander of Aphrodisias, the Cynics,
P RIN C IPAT E Oenomaus of Gadara, Lucian of Samosata, and the
nihilist Sextus Empiricus. Of this group Plutarch was
No serious thinker of the second century questioned the oldest, living from approximately 40 into the reign
the influence of stars on mundane matters. The indis­ of Hadrian, perhaps until 120. His popularity was
putable power of the sun over all living things, the attested by the mass of writings subsequently ascribed
moon’s responsibility for the tides, the repetition of to him, many of which have been questioned on various
weather patterns like the stormy periods around the grounds as to the authenticity of his authorship. Among
equinoxes, or the apparent coincidence between the Dog- those an essay On Fate expressed sentiments which—
Star’s ascendancy and the hottest weeks of the summer even if not stemming from the pen of Plutarch himself
— these were phenomena which made it impossible to — did on the whole agree with his views on the subject
deny the validity of the claim that astral influences were as presented in treatises of undoubted authenticity. The
apparently of great influence on terrestrial affairs. The author was no firm adherent of any specific philosophi­
Sceptics therefore concentrated on limiting the scope of cal sect, but an eclectic. He restated the fashionable
astrological claims rather than to deny them in their view, shared in the second century by the leading
totality. This had already been the attitude of the early Stoics also, that there was a distinction between a cosmic
Hellenistic foes of astrology, among whom Carneades,420 Providence and a mechanistic Fate. Fate was sub­
ordinated to Providence. It supplied the logical link
415Compare F. Boll, Studien ueber Claudius Ptolemaeus: 127.
410Fragments published in Cat. 8, 2: 67, 18-33; 73, 18-21; 74, between cause and effect, but had nothing to do with
38-75, 5; 76, 23-36; also 1: 118 ft. and F. Cumont in n. 1; W. the establishment of the primary causes themselves.
Kroll, Astrologisches, Philologus 57 (N. F., 11), 1898: 123 ff. As Ptolemy, for example, also expressed it in his Tetra­
417 Ed. Ph. Melanchthon, Basel, 1554. biblos, one must distinguish between possible and inevi­
41‘ Ed. Wolf, Basel, 1559. table consequences of a given cause. There remained
419 In F. H. Cramer’s forthcoming Astrology in Roman lazv
Providence to be appealed to. For it— or the gods—
and politics, from Diocletian to Justinian I.
430 Compare above, p. 53 ff. D. Amand, Fatalisme et liberte
dans I’antiquite grecque, Louvain, 1945, has attempted to recon­
431 On Plutarch, compare the extensive article in R E 21, 1,
struct the antifatalist argumentation of Carneades. 1951: c. 636, no. 2,-c. 962.
196 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
could at least avert possible harm, although not any
inevitable effects. There also existed in the author’s
view a considerable area in which free will, or sheer
coincidence applied.422
In his copious writings Plutarch seems to have
shunned the methodical discussion of astrology. His
very vocabulary showed rare references to astrologia
(by which he almost invariably meant astronomy,
although he did sometimes also use the term astro-
nomia). On the very few occasions on which he re­
ferred to astrology proper he preferred the word
fiaOrj/uiTiKa, speaking of “ some ' mathematical ’ parts of
astrologia," i. e. in modern terminology of " some astro­
logical parts of astronomy ” ! 423 That he did not ap­
prove of the abuse of human credulity through un­
scrupulous diviners was manifest. In line with the
Platonic tradition which he professed to favor he did,
however, emphasize the importance of astronomy. He
went so far as to point out its usefulness even for
women, for had not the ignorant women of Thessaly
been persuaded by the unscrupulous Aglaonice, daughter
of Hegetor and well versed in astrologia, that she could
pull down the moon from the skies, a feat which she
“ accomplished ” by predicting a lunar eclipse during
which — according to her — she made the moon vanish
from the heavens. Plutarch seems to have liked the
story, for he used it on two different occasions.424
Altogether with his faith in divination 425 Plutarch
could at best only criticize blind fatalism, but not
astrology itself.
In his amiable wanderings across the surface of philo­
sophical problems Plutarch was not squeamish in his
choice of materials. If Plato had chosen to terminate
his Republic with a beautiful myth, his follower, while
proudly combating superstition in general,426 in his On
the Face in the disc of the Moon 427 presented a far
cruder myth, purportedly stemming from a stranger
whose home was in the western lands across the Atlantic.
This fictitious “ American ” suggested a three-fold com­
position of the human being. According to him it con­
sisted of body, soul, and mind. Of these the body re-
4SaPlutarch (?), de fato, esp. 1 ; 4-6; 1 1 ; compare Albinus,
Introduction to the philosophy of Plato, esp. ch. 26; cf. D.
Amand, op. cit.: 104-106 and the literature cited there in the
footnotes.
433 Plutarch, de Iside et Osiride, 41 (f. 367 C). Elsewhere,
however, Plutarch like Ptolemy employed the term mathematica
as a synonym for astronomy also; see Terrestriane an aquatilia
animalia sint callidiora, f. 974 F.
*=‘ Coniugalia praecepla, 48 (f. 145 B-C) ; de defectu oracn-
lorum, 13 (ff. 416F-417A).
4s!i Plutarch, de defectu oraculorum, treats this topic specifi­
cally, but throughout the Moralia his attitude about oracles is
consistent.
424Plutarch, de superstitione, 1-14 (ff, 164E-171F), esp. 8
(f. 169 A ) where he severely criticizes the superstitious fear of
eclipses.
" 7Plutarch, de facie quae in orbe lunae apparet, 1-30, ff.
920 A -945 D.
turned unto dust after death, the soul to the moon, the
domicile of demons, the mind, however, to the sun.
Star lore of this kind smacked somewhat of Hermetic
astrological traditions; 428 and it is hardly surprising
that, having commented On the obsolescence of ora­
cles,™ Plutarch concluded his essay on The oracles at
Delphi430 somewhat sadly by saying;
. . . Children take more delight and satisfaction in seeing
rainbows, haloes, and comets than in seeing moon and sun;
and so these persons yearn for riddles. . . . And if they
cannot ascertain to their satisfaction the reason for the
change, they go away, after pronouncing judgment against
the God. . . ,4al
Although an essay On comets, ascribed to Plutarch
in the catalogue of his writings by Lamprias. is lost,
there is small reason for believing that it dealt with
astrological topics. More probably it was a pleasant
ramble through the various views on these celestial
apparitions. His only common basis with the more
violent foes of astrology among his contemporaries was
his rejection of Fate, a decision made inevitable by his
views on religion. Obliquely in his essay On Chance
(Iltpi tu'x??s)4S2 he argued against the belief which as­
cribed all happenings to Fate. He opposed this
concept by asserting that intelligence (<£pdr>7<r«) was
man’s decisive difference from the animals. It provided
him with what amounted to free will, and prevented
him from drifting helplessly on the tides of fickle
Fortune:
Precisely as would be our case, if the sun did not exist,
and we, for all the other stars, should be passing our life
in a continual night . . . , so man, for all his senses, had he
not mind and reason, would not differ at all in his life from
the brutes.433
It is hardly surprising that Plutarch’s gentle antifatalism
created not much of a stir. It was left to more radical
rationalists to carry the attack against fatalist astrology
to new heights.
Towards the end of the second century another self-
styled follower of Plato revived Plutarch’s arguments
about the validity of divination: Maximus, a rhetori­
cian from Tyre.434 He wrote an essay in which he
discussed the question, stated in the title, If divination
1:18Compare A. J. Festugiere, La revelation d1Hermes Tris-
migiste, 1: L'astrologie et les sciences oecultes, esp.: 19-28; 309-
346; Paris, Librairie Lecoffre, 1944.
“ “ Plutarch, de defectu oraculorum, 1-52 (ff. 394E-409D).
“ “ Plutarch, de Pythiac oraculis, 1-30 (ff. 394 E-409 D)
131Ibid., 30 (f. 409 C-D).
“ a Plutarch, de fortuna, 1-6 (ff. 97 C-100 A )
4“ Ibid., 3 (f. 98 C).
434 Compare on him E. Zeller, Philosophie der Griechen 3 2
(4th ed., 1903): 219-225; W. Christ (-Schmid-Staehlin), Ge-
schichte der gnechschen Literatur 2, 2 (Hdb. d. klass. Alt. ed.
I. Mueller, 7) : 767-769; D. Amand, op. cit. : 101-104, esp. 101,
n. 1; E. de Faye, Origcne. Sa vie, son ccuvre, sa pensee 2 •
L ambiance philosophique, ch. x i: 154-164; Paris Librairie
Ernest Leroux, 1927.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
exists, what is left for us435 [i.e. for our free will]?
This question was of course particularly pertinent in
connection with fatalistic astrology. Maximus, however,
tried to salvage a general belief in oracles, for example,
but wished to eliminate from it all old-fashioned super­
stition. His logic was very questionable. For he sug­
gested that a divine power governed the cosmos, but
left to men a limited area in which they were free to
decide for themselves. In keeping with the fashion of
the times, physicians or pilots, as well as commanders
of armies were cited by Maximus as illustrations for
the feasibility of such a condition. Divination on his
terms would permit man to penetrate the curtain sepa­
rating him from the knowledge possessed by the ruler
of the cosmos. Learning from that knowledge both
avoidable and inevitable events to come, he could then
conduct himself in accordance with such information.436
Hence prayer as well as acceptance of one’s lot were
called for. Although Maximus of Tyre—at least in his
extant writings— did not deal with astrology directly,
he described Fate in his Should one prayf 437 in terms
which indicated that no real Platonist could be a fatalist.
Seneca in his Quaestiones naturales had — like others
before him — pointed out the senselessness cf praying
to Fate or to Gods, if Fate ruled supreme. Even that
Stoic, however, had quailed before the inescapable
aspect of living the life of an animated puppet, dangling
helplessly on the strings of Destiny. But Maximus of
Tyre, rhetorician rather than Platonic philosopher,
failed to grasp the full significance of the dilemma.
Carried away perhaps by his oratorical enthusiasm he
confined himself to ridiculing the very idea that man,
bound by Fate, should pray to gods who—from the days
of Homer— had equally been subject to that immutable,
inexorable supreme tyrant of the universe.438
The survival of works of this kind indicated at least
a continuation of the great debate, but it would be as­
suming too much to expect that any believer in fatalistic
astrology would be influenced through argumentation
of this kind. More penetrating, however, than eclectic
self-styled Platonists like Plutarch, his “ ghost writer,”
or Maximus, were the rationalists of the second century.
Among them Favorinus of Arles was the earliest major
foe of fatalist astrology. Born about 85 he lived well
into the reign of Antoninus Pius, probably even into
that of M. Aurelius. The zenith of his career was
reached in the time of Hadrian, who — about ten years
his senior — admitted him to his innermost circle.438
Favorinus, a native of Gaul, had absorbed both Latin
and Greek literature. A universalist in his intellectual
“ “ Ed. Hobein, or. 13: 158-170; Leipzig, Teubner, 1910.
430Ibid., 1-9.
437 Ibid., or. 5.
434Loc. cit.: 58-60.
430 Compare SHA, Hadrian, 16, 8-10, which asserts that
Favorinus was the most highly esteemed among the swarm of
scholars in the emperor’s entourage.
197
interests,440 he was bound to attract Hadrian’s attention.
For both men shared this encyclopaedic outlook. They
crossed verbal swords on occasion, but Favorinus saga­
ciously remarked that not to give in to the master of
thirty legions would be sheer folly.441 Hadrian in turn
delighted in pulling Favorinus’ leg by appointing him,
for example, on one occasion to the onerous and costly
office of high priest at Athens. When the thunder­
struck scholar tried to beg off, insisting on the immunity
from such onerous duties granted since the days of
Vespasian to recognized scholars,442 Hadrian looked
stern, and Favorinus meekly withdrew his plea. There­
upon the emperor seems to have admitted his jest, and
all was well.448
In view of Hadrian’s well known belief in astrology it
is particularly piquant to imagine a clash between him
and Favorinus on the subject of fatalistic astrology. For
we know that Favorinus was wont to orate against it.
Although one could neither expect brand new argu­
ments from a man of his kind nor even assume that he
would defend to the death his views against a master
of thirty legions, the argumentation of Favorinus was
bound to reach large audiences. For if Aulus Gellius,
to whom we owe the extant synopsis of Favorinus’
anti-astrological discourse, heard him in public, one
can safely assume that Favorinus would repeat so pro­
vocative a lecture on his travels throughout the empire.
Its chief arguments were fourteen: 444
(1) Astrology is of recent vintage. Its hoary founders are
an invention of the astrologers.
(2) From a number of demonstrable instances of astral
power on terrestrial phenomena absurd generalizations
have been made, applying to everything under the sun.
(3) Man’s existence on this planet is far too brief for him
to acquire complete knowledge of the cosmic affinities.
(4) The tenets of astrology are not universally valid, but
limited by climate.
(5) Astrometeorology fails to account for the fact that the
same constellations are accompanied by the simultan­
eous existence of fair and foul weather in one place or
another. Consequently stars cannot produce the same
destiny in different places.
(6) The number of fixed stars, as well as of planets is by
no means exactly known. How then could anyone
440 See W. Schmid, R E 6, 1909: c. 2078-2084; also in W.
Christ, Gesch. d. griech. Lit., Hdb. d. kl. Alt. 7, 2, 2 : 764-766.
In 1931 a papyrus fragment was published ol Favorinus’ irepl
tpvyfis (pap. Vat. 11) ; compare W. Schmid, R E , suppl. 6, 1935:
c. 65-70; cf. D. Amand, op. cit.: 96 ff.
441 SHA, Hadrian, 15, 11-13.
443Favorinus claimed exemption as a philosopher, not as a
rhetorician. This is another proof for the inclusion of phi­
losophers among those entitled to this privilege, while the
original edict of Vespasian had only granted it to physicians and
the professors of the liberal arts, especially grammarians and
rhetoricians.
443 Philostratus, vit. soph. 1, 8 (f. 490).
444 Cf. D. Amand, op. cit.: 98, n. 2. Gellius, 14, 1, is the source
for Favorinus’ antifatalist argumentation.
198 THE R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
predict from those already observed the absolute
sequence of events.
(7) Human history is far too short to allow for the neces­
sary length of scientific observation of astral powers.
The claims of enormous spans of actual observations
are therefore false.
(8) The constellation prevailing at conception is neces­
sarily different from the one at birth. Which of the
two is the decisive one, or must somehow both be
reconciled ?
(9) Assuming the primary importance of the moment of
conception, it too must have been predestined. Hence
from the beginning of time an unbroken astral cau­
sality must have preceded each conception. No human
being could hope to unravel this continuity, hence
astrological reliance on a conceptual— or for that
mater, a natal— horoscope is foolish.
(10) The very idea that all our actions, down to the deci­
sion whether or not to take a bath, are immutably
predestined is ridiculous and unbearable.
(11) W hat possible connection can our brief little lives
have with the majestic grandeur of the universe!
(12) Not even technically can usually the exact moment of
birth be established. The smallest difference in time
produces a different constellation. Thus even tech­
nically it is impossible to obtain an accurate birth-
horoscope (an argument which of course applies even
more forcefully to the moment of conception).
(13) Moreover, men and women born at the very same
moment have different destinies. This is a contra­
diction to the claim that a birth-horoscope alone
determines the future life of its owner.
(14) If astral influences are all pervasive, they would apply
with equal strength to all living creatures, not to man
alone.
Comparing these arguments against fatalistic astrology
for example with those advanced by Ptolemy in its favor,
one finds that Ptolemy took the sting out of them by
pointing out the very fragmentary nature of the present
state of our knowledge and by admitting areas of free
will, as well as the existence of other influences, includ­
ing those of race, customs, and climate. The true con­
flict was one between belief and disbelief. Therefore
rational arguments on either side were not likely to
convince even the narrow stratum of Graeco-Roman
society which would be interested in this controversy.
The missionary aspect of diatribes against divination
in general, and fatalistic astrology in particular can be
gleaned from the comment of a young auditor of Favori-
nus’ fervid harangue against fatalistic astrology:
Favorinus . . ., wishing to deter and turn away young
people from such astrologers and from others of that ilk
who profess to reveal the whole future by magic arts, con­
cluded with arguments of the following kind, to show that
they ought by no means to be resorted to and consulted:
“ They predict . . . either adverse or prosperous events.
If they foretell prosperity and deceive you, you will be made
wretched by vain expectations; if they foretell adversity,
you will be made wretched by useless fears. . . . The
anticipation of your hopes will wear you out with suspense.
. . Therefore there is every reason why you should not
resort to men of that kind who profess knowledge of the
future.” 445
It is pleasant to imagine a ruler of the Roman empire
being confronted with such advice, a ruler who like
Hadrian and his predecessors was only too eager to
probe the mists of the future by all means at his disposal,
and especially through astrology.
The Epicurean school, seemingly doomed in the
Ciceronian era, experienced a remarkable revival at
the beginning of the second century. This may in part
have been due to imperial patronage. For Plotina, the
wife of Trajan, was apparently especially interested in
this sect, and Hadrian at least continued to show it
some imperial favor.448 It was probably an adherent
of this creed, Diogenianus, to whom we owe an anti­
fatalist expose.44' Like the great majority of his con­
temporaries, however, he was by no means a strict
follower of Epicure, but an eclectic who adapted for his
own use also ideas quite incompatible with his professed
allegiance. In the debate for and against astrology
Diogenianus went remarkably far (for an avowed Epi­
curean) in accepting at least the law of cause and effect
in limited areas, while, on the other hand, rejecting of
course fatalism as such. This attitude earned for him
a niche of honor in Christian literature.448 Attacking
divination in general, Diogenianus used arguments
reminiscent of those of Carneades and Cicero, for ex­
ample the uselessness of foreknowledge of an inevitable
fate. But his reiteration of Favorinus’ “ Why take the
joy out of joy by long anticipation, or aggravate sorrow
by prolonged worry ? ” 449 was neatly answered in the
manner of Ptolemy that the shock of panic or the
deliriousness of joy would be healthily modified by
foreknowledge of the event.450
The absolute and unquestioning rejection of astrology
along with the other techniques of divination was in
line with Epicurean tradition, while Diogenianus’ ac­
ceptance of the cause-and-effect relationship in some
areas was a compromise made necessary by the rise of
the natural sciences since the days of Epicurus.451
A unique protest against fatalism was added by
Diogenes, an aged Epicurean who died about 200 in his
native city of Oeoanda. Awaiting death he decided to
leave behind a giant testimonial of his creed for all the
world to read. For all men were equal, “ citizens of
“ =Gellius, 14, 1, 35-36.
“ "See p. 152; Dessau, IS 2, 2, no. 7784; also Philostratus,
vit. soph. 2, 2 (f. 566) for the inclusion by M. Aurelius of the
Epicurean school at Athens among those endowed by him.
H. v. Arnim, R E 5, 1905: c. 778; D. Amand, op. cit.; 120,
n. 4.
“ * Eusebius, praepar. cvang. 4, 3; 6, 8.
Ibid. 4, 3, 10-13; for Favorinus, see Gellius, 14, 1, 36
400 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, 3, 10-11.
,S1 On the Epicureans of the second century a . d ., see M.
Caster, Lucien et la penste religieuse de son temps : 84-90, Paris,
1938.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E R V A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R
the world ” as he would call them.452 Apart from the
Epicurean “ catechism ” the inscription (which he
mounted on the wall of a portico at Oeoanda) contained
the text of a letter to his mother, a letter to his friends,
his will, and an essay on the blessings of old age.
Although considerable sections of this enormous inscrip­
tion have vanished, his attack on divination 458 and
Fate, the darlings of the Stoics, has in large measure
survived:
If the arguments adduced on behalf of divination are
absolutely untenable, what could one call upon on behalf of
Fate? . . . The decisive argument against it: If Fate is
believed in, all foreknowledge is useless and all reproaches
and all punishment of criminals.454
Diogenes of Oeoanda went to his reward. His atoms
mingled with those of the cosmos, a worthy end for the
old Epicurean.
One often wonders, however, to what extent the con­
tinued use of the old terms, Academician, Peripatetic,
Epicurean, Stoic, and Cynic, was still justified in the
second century. For a synthesis of philosophical views,
a syncretism, indeed, characterized most of the philo­
sophical writings of that era which have reached us.
The Stoics, for example, had softened their attitude
about fatalism considerably; on the other hand, they
had come to place more value on empiricism than Zeno
and his first disciples had thought necessary. The
Platonic school had long abandoned the lofty mysticism
of its founder on behalf of a more rationalist, even an
outright sceptical, attitude. The Epicureans in turn
perforce had come to concede that logical continuity
had its place, even if each atom still might theoretically
be capable of deviating from the course set for it by
the laws of nature. The customary attitude of modern
writers is to bemoan this prpcess of syncretistic assimi­
lation. Yet from another point of view the gradual
blurring of the sharp edges of the original philosophical
sects meant a general consensus of opinion on the
validity of a logical approach to the problems of the
macro- and microcosm and a defiant but treacherous
hope: Ratio omnia vincit, the “ Reason conquers all ”
of Manilius.455 The importance of this joint article of
faith (for a belief in reason is fundamentally, though
paradoxically, a faith like any other) transcended
“ party lines.” In drawing together the rationalists of
the second century were already instinctively aware of
the mounting pressure of irrational forces which, in the
ceaseless tide of oriental religions, were undercutting
the very foundations of Graeco-Roman civilization,
built since the days of the Ionian philosophers on the
‘°sEd. J. William, Leipzig, Teubner, 1907; cj. also D. Amand,
op. cit. : 118, n. 1.
433 Extant in fragments only; compare frgm. xxxi; xxxii;
xxxiii (ed. William: 39-42).
“ ‘ Loc. cit.; see F. Ueberweg-K. Praechter, Die Philosophie
des Altertums: 579 f.; Berlin, E. S. Mittler und Sohn, 1926.
Manilius, Astronomica 4, v. 932.
199
trusting assumption of a rational cosmos. Social and
economic developments had not kept pace with the
evolution of philosophy and its precocious children, the
natural sciences. Creative innovation outside the “ safe ”
haven of these sciences had long been frowned upon.
Neither the Hellenistic despots nor their more recent
and much nobler counterparts, the great Roman rulers
of the second century, encouraged political, social, or
economic concepts at variance with the tenets of the
existing order.
Into this world, still outwardly resplendent and
secure, but inwardly already unsure of itself, the last
great empiricist of antiquity was bom, Alexander of
Aphrodisias.450 Growing up in the benign age of the
Antonines, this last great Peripatetic of antiquity was
no exception to the above seated rule; he too “ deviated ”
from the stringent Aristotelian empiricism, although he
tried faithfully to adhere to the concepts of the founder.
It was an irony of history that Septimius Severus,
fanatical believer in fatalistic astrology,457 appointed
this staunch foe of fatalism to the official chair of the
Peripatetic school at Athens (which he held from 198
to 211). In a number of writings, especially in his
treatise On Fate 458 Alexander went so far as to acknowl­
edge a limited sphere In which the stars, as well as Fate
exercised a dominant influence, but he sharply rejected
the universal fatalism of Chrysippus and the earlier
Stoics. It has been suggested that he also opposed the
element of mysticism inherent in the Aristotelian con­
cept of an ultimate link between the human intellect
and the divine one,450 because such an admission would
involve the acknowledgment of a superior power and
pave the way for an acceptance of the Stoic tenet of a
supreme power, i. e. Fate.
Nevertheless Alexander did not deny the fact that
astral influences did exist, that, indeed, our sublunar
world might reflect in its own changes those taking
place in the motions of the stars.400 But he admitted
only astral influence on the purely physical elements on
earth. In his quaestiones naturales461 Alexander treated
in particular the relation between the immortal and the
450 See P. Moraux, Alexandre drAphrodise, exegete de la
noetique d'Aristote ( Bibl. de la Fac. de Philos, et Lettres de
I'Univ. de Li&ge, 90, Liege and Paris, 1942) with a bibliog­
raphy: 225-227. Compare also Gercke, R E 1, 1894: c. 1453,
no. 94,-c. 1455; D. Amand, op. cit.: 135 ff.; Zeller, op. cit., 3, 1
(5th ed.; 1923) : 817-830, with a list of Alexander’s writings on
818 f.
See below, p. 209 ff.
Ed. X. Bruns, Suppl. Aristotelicum, 2, 2: 164-212; Berlin,
1892. French translation by Nourrisson, Essai stir Alexattdre
d'Aphrodisias, appendix; Paris, 1870.
P. Moraux, op. cit., esp.: 167-179; cf. D. Amand, op. cit.:
137, n. 2; P. Wilpert, Reste verlorener Aristotelesschriften bei
Alexander von Aphrodisias, Hermes 75, 1940: 369-396, esp.
369-371.
400 See P. Duhem, Le systhne du monde, 2 : 302; Paris, 1914.
401 Ed. I. Bruns, Suppl. Aristotel. 2, 2.
200 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN THE L A T IN W O R L D
mortal body.362 In his usual manner — sometimes he
did not even indicate his own preference— he presented
a variety of opinions on the subject. Finally, however,
he agreed with the following concept:
(1) The power of the heavenly bodies creates both simple
and complex organisms in form, as well as in essence.
(2) Depending on their position with regard to the stars,
heat and dryness or their opposites are engendered in
earthly bodies by astral influence. The planets circu­
lating in the zodiac are responsible for bestowing on
those particles closest to them qualities like heat and
dryness, i. e. the element of fire. Similarly the stars
are responsible for creating the other three elements,
air, earth, and water.
(3) Besides creating the four elements (of which all
matter— according to the Peripatetics— is composed)
the stars also are responsible for the compounds
resulting from the mixture of these elements.
(4) From the purely physical point of view the stars in the
material realm on earth are directly responsible for
creation, destruction, and in general all transformation
of matter. They also determine all terrestrial motion.463
All matter for Alexander of Aphrodisias was thus as
firmly controlled by the stars as the most devout ad­
herent of astrology might wish. Nevertheless, he refused
to concede that this purely physical power of the stars
applied to the realm of the soul and to its freedom of
decision. Grudgingly he admitted that in a restricted
sphere cause and effect relations prevailed immutably,>ei
but maintained that in a very wide area free will pre­
vailed.015 This relativism once more demonstrated the
intellectual rapprochement which had taken place among
the four old philosophical sects; for Alexander borrowed
a large number of arguments on behalf of free will from
the New Academy, a limited concept of Fate from the
Stoics, and a measure of atomic freedom (on a small
scale) from the Epicureans. But no such compromise
was made by the Cynics and the triumphant nihilists
of the second century.
The two main sects which opposed the principate in
the first century of our era were, as has been said on
many an occasion, the Stoics and the Cynics. While
the ones had obtained their strongest backing from the
Roman nobility, the others relied on their appeal to the
masses. Their reckless impudence knew no bounds.
One of the Cynic rabble rousers, for example, pene­
trated into the theatre, in which Vespasian’s son, Titus,
with thousands of Romans attended a spectacle, and
began to harangue the multitude with a fierce attack on
Titus and his Jewish mistress, princess Berenice.400 The
482 Ibid. 2, 2 (ed. Bruns: 47-50) is especially devoted to this
topic, cf. Amand, op. cit. : 140 f.
*“ On this see his treatise O n mixture and growth, 11 (ed.
I. Bruns, 2, 2 : 225).
‘“‘ Alexander of Aphrodisias, de fato, 2 (ed. I. Bruns: 2, 2:
165, 14-25).
“ '“ Ibid., 5; 12; 14f. (ed. Bruns, 2, 2: 165-186).
“ “ Cassius Dio, ep. 65 (66), 13, 1; 15, 3-5; compare Suetonius, op. cit. : 27-68.
government on this occasion (and on some others)
proceeded against the more spectacular Cynics, but on
the whole considered them less dangerous than the
Stoics, because the Cynics failed — quite naturally — to
win any following amongst the wealthy upper class
which alone was able to influence the imperial govern­
ment. On the subject of fatalism, however, the Cynics
were diametrically opposed to the Stoics.407 But the
intentionally uncouth Cynics with their unkempt beards,
disheveled hair, ragged appearance, not made more ap­
pealing by their sizable clublike canes, included not only
some serious thinkers, but had also attracted a host of
tramps who in the guise of traveling Cynic philosophers
practiced their wiles on the credulous multitude.
The syncretism of the second century, however, did
not leave even the Cynics quite untouched. Although
we have but few testimonials to their intellectual activi­
ties during that era, the names of at least two men,
Oenomaus of Gadara 468 and Demonax, should be men­
tioned. Both were Cynics who flourished under the
Antonines. Oenomaus was younger than Plutarch and
older than Lucian. His mordant wit attacked the basis
of his philosophical colleagues’ arguments— the respect
for reason. Two centuries later his writings still scan­
dalized the pious pagan, Julian the Apostate (361-
363).410 But Oenomaus had one virtue, rare in that
period in which he lived. He sincerely believed in his
ideas and did not, like the elegant Favorinus, or the
ice-cold Alexander of Aphrodisias, merely present them
as an intellectual exercise to his audience or readers.470
Of his Unmasking of xvizards ( y o r j r u i v <f>wpa.) substantial
portions have been preserved by a Christian author,
delighted at this pagan attack against pagan beliefs.471
Divination as a means of anticipating the political future
in particular came in for special ridicule. Cautiously,
however, Oenomaus chose his examples from ancient
Greek history — for example the fall of Croesus by
fatuous interpretation of an oracle, rather than less
harmless and more recent parallels from Roman history.
Yet the polemic of Oenomaus against oracles and
the faith in the old deities in general was not necessarily
incompatible with the acceptance of fatalistic astrology,
provided Fate were recognized as the supreme power
before which even the gods had to bow. But Oenomaus
fully upheld the Cynic tradition also in respect to its
denial of fatalism. Neither the atomism of Democritus
Vespasian, 13; Seneca, de beneficiis, 7, 1, 8; Zeller, op. cit., 3, 1
(5th ed., 1923): 792 f.; M. Caster, op. cit.: 65 ff.
See Lucian, Zeus catechised (Zeiis {Xeyxi^cos), 1 ff.
408 Compare Mette, R E 17, 2, 1937: c. 2249-2251; Zeller, op.
cit., 3, 1 (5th ed.) : 796-798; P. Vallette, De Oenomao Cynico ;
diss., Paris, 1908 for the text of the fragments of the Unmasking
of wizards (yo^rm (piipa), and also a commentary on it.
‘"Julian, or. 6,ff. 187C ; 199A.
4,0 Ed. P. Valette, op. cit., for example: 68f.
171 Eusebius, praepar. evang. 5, 19-36; 6, 7, 1-42; P. Valette
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
(and Epicure), nor of-course the Stoic belief in Fate,
even in its modification by Chrysippus was acceptable.
Apollo, the- divinity in charge of divination,' came in for
particularly severe criticism. The old argument, for
example, which applied to fatalistic astrology as it did
to the belief in fatalism in general was again advanced:
Evildoers would reply to you in all justice: “ O Gods,
you have not permitted us to become virtuous! On the
contrary, you have coerced and forced us to live as crimi­
nals ! ” As to virtuous people: If they strut, placing dis­
dainfully their hands on their hips, one will not applaud
that complacency. . . ,472
Less stridently a gentler Cynic, Demonax, voiced
similar views. Seeing him, as we do, almost exclusively
through the eyes of the versatile Lucian, we once again
are faced with the eclecticism so typical of this era. For
Demonax “ did not mark out for himself a single form
of philosophy but combined many of them, and never
would quite reveal which one he favored.” 473 Never­
theless, if one must assign him to any of the recognized
philosophical sects, his Weltanschciuung was closest to
that of the Cynics. He was a contemporary of Favori­
nus, perhaps somewhat younger than the rhetorician
from Arles with whom he exchanged some fireworks
on occasion.474 A keen scientific mind must have been
his. For when asked by someone:
“ If I should burn a thousand pounds of wood, . . . how
many pounds of smoke would it make ? ” he replied:
“ Weigh the ashes : all the rest will be smoke ! ” 475
His rationalism determined of course his attitude about
all divination, hence about fatalistic astrology also:
On seeing a soothsayer (fiAvrcv) make public forecasts
for money, he said: “ I do not see on what ground you
claim that fee: if you think you can change destiny in any
way, you ask too little, no matter how much you charge;
but if everything will turn out as Heaven has ordained
what good is your prophesying? ” 476
The very manner in which Lucian presented Demonax
to posterity indicated that he sympathized with a gentle
Cynic. Difficult though it may seem to pin the greatest
satirist of antiquity down,477 in so far as his own views
on astrology were concerned—for Lucian’s writings are
truly protean — the task is somewhat simplified by the
fact that in two of his dialogues, the Zeus catechized
and the Astrology, Lucian apparently spoke his- own
mind and did not talk with his tongue in cheek or
merely to please a patron for whom he wrote.
475 Eusebius, praep. ev. 6, 41.
478 Lucian, Demonax, 5.
474Ibid., 12.
475Ibid., 39. This of course does not take into account the
addition of oxygen.
470 Ibid., 37.
477 Compare for example M. Caster, Lucien et la penste ad Graecos, 25; Athenagoras, leg. de Christo, 26; Tertullian, ad
religieuse de son temps, esp. ch. i and ii: 9-122, for Lucian’s mart., 4; Ammianus Marcellinus, 29, 1, 39; Jerome, Chron., Abr.
views on the standard philosophical sects; cf. D. Amand, op. cit.: 2181.
107 ff.; 107, n. 1 and 2.
201
Lucian was born about 120 in Samosata, the erst­
while capital of the defunct kingdom of Commagene.
The rulers of that small Hellenistic state had themselves
been devout believers in astrology. Their blood had
mingled with that of outstanding astrologers,478 but in
the days of Lucian Samosata was reduced to a pro­
vincial city of Syria. The boy grew up -into a rhetori­
cian, not a philosopher. Hence his variegated literary
output was not meant to propagate a creed, but was
chiefly aimed at pleasing his audiences. His approach,
however, was that of a humorist (rather than that of
a satirist).470 This lent his works the sparkle which
distinguished them from most of the florid but dreary
outpourings of his fellow rhetoricians and has made
them immortal.
Yet malgre soi Lucian revealed his own attitude,
which was one of profound scepticism, in his highly
polished but deadly attacks on religious beliefs of any
sort. In an age in which a vogue for nihilist rationalism
brought to the fore numerous writings of this kind, the
wildest superstitious gullibility also abounded, providing,
to the fury of Lucian, fatuous adherents by the thousand
falling for any quack. The well attested career of a
self-styled divine prophet like Alexander of Abono-
teichus 480 demonstrated the lengths to which the credu­
lous, high and low alike, would go in their acceptance
of revelatory prophecies. But not only impious im­
postors drew fire from Lucian. His contempt for any
supernatural belief was demonstrated by his descrip­
tion of the Christians, depicted as simple minded fol­
lowers of a crucified sophist (cto^kttijs),481 as well as
by his irreverent report on the self-immolation of the
philosopher, Peregrinus Proteus (d. 165).182 It could
be expected that Lucian’s treatment of astrology would
be in similar terms.
The treatise called Astrology was written in Ionic
dialect— the skill to write in archaic Greek dialects was
considered part of one’s literary prowess; Julia Bal-
billa, for example, in 130 had ventured into the Aeolian
dialect when scratching her tourist’s poems into the
pedestal of the “ Memnon ” statue.483 A defense of any
478See above, p. 95, 136.
478 Compare P. Pisacane, Luciano umorista, Atene e Roma 44,
1942: 109-132; Zeller, op. cit., 3, 1 (5th ed., 1923): 852-854;
Christ-Schmid-Staehlin, op. cit. 2, 2, 1924: 710-745.
480Lucian, Alexander the false prophet ('AXiiavdpos j) tpcvSo-
liiv T is ) . This charlatan flourished between a . d . 150 and 170.
Coins and medals attest to his reputation; compare F. Cumont,
Memoires couronnees de I’Academic de Belgique 40, 1887; cf.
M. Caster, Etudes sur Alexandre ou le faux prophete de Lucien,
Paris, 1938.
481Lucian, The passing of Peregrinus (trtpl rrji Ucptyplyov
TeXeur^j), 13.
483 For a contemporary’s favorable comment, see Gellius, 8,
3; 12, 11; compare Philostratus, vit. soph. 2, 1, 33; Tatian, or.
488 See above, p. 171 ff.
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 203
202
by my own free will, or has Fate spun the thread of my
kind of divination, on even the most limited basis, But the speaker himself freely admitted that times had badgered relentlessly by Cyniscus, obviously a member
actions ? ”
seemed to ponderous logicians of modem times so wholly changed: of the Cynic sect. His manner strongly resembled that
“ Doubtless, Fate has spun it.”
inconsistent with Lucian’s Weltanschauung that the Whereas our forbears were so mightily enamored of of an impertinent reporter of our own era: “ Saints or sinners, we then are but the agents of its
little essay was by many assigned to the limbo of divination (^lAo/uivTeis), among this generation there are “ Is whatever Destiny and the Fates spin for each of us will ? ”
some denying the possibility to find anything useful for men “ Certainly! You obey Clotho. She ordains at the moment
“ pseudo-Lucianic ” writings. Yet viewed in the con­ in divination. It is neither credible nor truthful, and Mara at his birth inevitable ? ”
of anyone's birth what each has to do.”
text of rhetorical customs of Lucian’s time the Astrology and Jupiter do not move in the sky for our own sake. They “ It is really quite true. . . . For nothing can come to
pass outside the control of the Fates. . . .” “ But if a man is forced to kill another without the power
merely r e f l e c t e d , whatmost -rationalists of the era agreed are not at all interested in the affairs of men with which to resist the one from whom he receives this order . . . who
“. . . But there are only three of the Fates. . . . How
on. The very criticism against the craft was freely pre- they have nothing in common, but accomplish their courses about Destiny and Fortune ( tux>j ) ? 496 . . . Are you gods shall accuse him of murder? . . . In the present case, if a
sented, and the emphasis on the fatalistic quality of independently through necessity revolving.402 under their rule too 401 slave on order of his master brings gold or silver to some­
one . . . who shall be listed as the benefactor ? ”
astrology was so cautiously worded that the fictitious This was of course the very argument which in the “ The master, Sostratus. The carrier is but his agent.”
defender of astrology himself seemed to be lukewarm end, i.e. since the days of Newton and Leibniz, has Zeus was forced to admit that they were, indeed, “ Thus you see, how unjust it is to punish us, who have
in his belief. Compared to the devastating attacks of become the victorious scientific coup de grace adminis­ subject to Fate. Thereupon Cyniscus resumed His only carried out Clotho’s orders, and to reward those who
Favorinus and other contemporaries of Lucian his little tered to astrology. It was advanced by Lucian as the attack: merely bestowed a blessing which was not their property.
Truly one must say that we did not have a chance to resist
piece was innocuous indeed: first of two basic objections raised in his time against “A nd is it possible for you to change things . . . ? ” orders which were given us with such fatal strength.” 501
This treatise concerns heaven and the stars, but not the astrology. The second was this: “ Not by any means. . . . See here, your talk is getting
stars themselves nor heaven, but the prediction (tu-vnap) insulting, Cyniscus, and you will perhaps regret it some Minos —■like Zeus — surrendered to the logic of the
And others affirm that astrology, although not untruthful, day.”
and truth which comes from them into the life of mankind. dead criminal.
is useless, because divination will not alter what conies upon “ Be chary of your threats, Zeus, for you know that
My discourse contains no advice nor instruction, how to ply But Clotho tamed the roving rhetorician before she
us by decree of Fate ( oKoaa rfjai ixoipyitn S oK to vT a).403 nothing can happen to me which Fate has not decreed before
this divinatory art, but I criticize those scholars who culti­
you. . . 498 sent Lucian to face Minos himself. He who had so
vate and show to the young all other disciplines except Both arguments were of course far from original. often ridiculed all hierarchies, terrestrial and divine,
astrology.484 The very fact, however, of their being commonplace in In vain Zeus tried to claim for the gods at least the bowed at last when the lengthening shadows of old age
At the very outset the frequent miscalculations of the second century accentuated the hard and fast draw­ role of prophets, foretelling what Fate had decreed: were upon him. None other than M. Aurelius502
astrologers, held against them by their o p p o n e n t s , were ing of the battle lines in which attackers and defenders seems to have tamed the old man, persuading him to
“ On the whole, Zeus, it does no good to have foreknowl­
freely admitted, but were ascribed to human fallibility of astrology had fought themselves to a standstill. In edge of future events when people are completely unable to bow under the yoke by accepting a post in the imperial
and inaccurate knowledge, and therefore no proof of keeping with accepted practice Lucian’s cautious cham­ guard against them. . . .” administration of Egypt. Lucian’s literary friends, many
the falsity of astrology itself,485 an argument made, for pion of astrology concluded: “ Then you leave nothing for us, and we are gods to no of them no doubt envious of his prosperity, apparently
example, by Ptolemy also in his defense of astrology as purpose . . . ? ” reproached him for turning docile and conformist in
To both these opinions I may answer that although the “ Strike, Zeus, if it is fated that I am really to be struck
a branch of applied astronomy.486 In keeping with a stars do, indeed, absolve their own course in the sky, none by lightning . . . 1 " the end. He tried to defend himself, and his Apology
widespread — though erroneous — opinion of his age, the less as an incidental [effect] everything among us comes “ Don’t you believe that there are any punishments, and showed how much he resented such attacks:
Lucian accorded to the Ethiopians the priority of the to pass. . . . Furthermore astrology is, indeed, powerless rewards, and a court where each man's life is scruti­
to convert bad into good, or to achieve mutation of any of nized ? ” 400 Shall I plead the decrees of Fortune, Destiny, or Fate?
evolution of astrology. From them it was handed down Shall I plead for mercy with my critics by telling them that
the things thus effected, yet it is useful to those who employ
to the Egyptians, and then reached the Libyans. it. For the good of which they know in advance delights they know full well that our actions do not depend on us,
But this feeble suggestion that man must possess at
them long beforehand, while the bad they accept well- but on a superior power, or rather on one of those divini­
The Babylonians also knew everything [about astrology], least some responsibility for his actions, was brushed ties . . . ? Shall I answer them that she governs us at her
prepared, because it does not come upon them unaware, but
and, as they themselves claim, before anyone else, but m aside with invincible logic by Cyniscus: pleasure, enslaves us in spite of ourselves,— that we are not
in careful foreknowledge is accepted easily and lightly.404
my opinion this knowledge came to them much later. responsible for our words or actions ? No, my friend. That
Agreeing thus with Ptolemy on the second point,495 “ I hear that somebody named Minos, a Cretan, acts as kind of defense is too cheap. . . ,503
The G r e e k s — contrary to all historical fact — were judge in such matters down below. . . . He ought not to
credited with having invented astrology independently this defender of astrology went, however, far beyond reward or punish anyone.”
the Alexandrian scholar in asserting without any Thus, still defiant, Lucian withdrew from the battle
from the Orient, Orpheus being the discoverer of these “ W hy not ? " against fatalism. But the fight itself continued. The
modification the tenets of fatalist astrology. The stars, “ Because we men do nothing of our own accord, but only
celestial verities.48" Greek myths and legends were incompatibility of ethics and fatalism was to be stri­
freely and amusingly presented to “ prove the early it was true, had no concern with human affairs what­ at the behest of some inevitable necessity. . . . If a man
ever, but, purely incidentally, were the one and only slay, it is she who slays, and if he rob temples, he only
dently proclaimed once more, but what remained if the
popularity of astrology in the Greek world. In the deft does it under orders. Therefore if Minos were to judge gods were impotent, Fate non-existent, causality a Stoic
and truly Lucianic handling of this material Lucian cause of all of them just the same. Psychological pre­
justly, he would punish Destiny instead of Sisyphus, and delusion ? The void, the nihil! It was left to a mediocre
showed a thorough familiarity with astrological tenets paredness for the joys and sorrows meted out by the
Fate instead of Tantalus,— for what wrong did they do in compiler to present the logical attack against all knowl­
different stars remained thus the only benefit which obeying orders ? ” 500
and terminology.430 In all: edge per se: Sextus Empiricus.
astrology could possibly bestow on men. Lucian’s ice-
The ancients . . . would found no cities, invest themselves cold logic led to this inevitable conclusion. Even if one The attack was pressed home directly to Minos in Of his life we know but little. He lived later than
with no ramparts, slay no men, wed no women, until they another work of Lucian, the Thirtieth dialogue of the Galen, but prior to Diogenes Laertius.604 For Satur-
assumed fatalistic astrology to be scientifically valid,
had been advised in all particulars by diviners.491 dead. There Sostratus, a robber, boldly argued his
its value for human beings was at best not great. 601 Lucian, Dialogues of the dead (venpiicol SmXoyoi), 30, 2-3;
But fatalism itself was a creed far transcending its case before the supreme judge of the dead: cf. D. Amand, op. cit. : I l l f.
‘“‘ Lucian, Astrology Ot/>! rv< dcTpoXoylys) , 1.
astrological incarnation. In his Zeus catechized Lucian 50! If that assumption is correct, Lucian’s appointment must
“ • Ibid., 2. “ Whatever I have done during my life, have I done it
484 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 1, 2, 6-7. amassed for the Cynic interviewer of Zeus the entire obviously antedate A . d . 180, perhaps occurring between 175 and
4,7 Lucian, Astrology, 3-8. 180. The old rhetorician did not survive it by more than a few
arsenal of anti-fatalistic arguments. Poor Zeus was “ "Fortune ( F ortum , Tyche) had long become an important years.
“ • Ibid., 9. „ horoscopal concept; see Bouche-Leclercq: 276 ff.; esp. 289-292.
Ibid 10. On the astrologumena of ‘ Orpheus, see tor Lucian, Apology (&wo\oy(a), 8; cf. D. Amand, op. cit.:
example fc. Ziegler, R E 18, 2, 1942: c. 1400; J. Heeg, Die Ibid., 27. 4,7 Lucian, Zeus catechised, 1 ff.; 4. 110 f.
Ibid., 28. 4,1 Ibid., 7 and 9. '°4 See W. Vollgraff, La vie de Sextus Empiricus, Revue de
angeblichen orphischen tpy* Kai ijfiepai; diss., 1907.
4.4 Ibid., 29. “ • Ibid., 12; 15; 18. Philologie 16, 1902: 195 ff., L. Haas, Das Leben des Sextus
440Lucian, Astrology, 11-22. 4.5 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, 3, esp. 11. Ibid., 18. Empiricus, Programm des Gymnasiums Burghausen, 1883; and
‘,1 Ibid., 23.
204 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
ninus, his main disciple, flourished between 180 and 200.
Consequently, one must assume that Sextus, ardent ex­
ponent of the Pyrrhonic school of philosophy, wrote in
the reigns of Marcus Aurelius, Commodus, and perhaps
Septimius Severus. The cry “ All is vanity ” had
already come from Marcus Aurelius, a strange sound
from imperial lips. Now Sextus Empiricus sat down
to administer the intellectual coup de grace to the world
of reason which Greece had created from chaos and the
mists of myths. He was not an original thinker. Scores
of scrolls and codices had long been filled with the criti­
cism of all theories of knowledge. Sextus Empiricus
merely compiled these findings. The futility of ration­
alism was perhaps never more clearly exposed than in
this suicide attack in which with all logical instru­
ments available Sextus Empiricus destroyed the belief
in knowledge, in causality itself.505
Three books devoted to the theories of the Pyrrhonic
school provided the general background for the relent­
less attack against all disciplines of organized knowledge.
The latter work itself was entitled Against scholars
(II/>09 /jjifrq.uvTiKom), or as it is often quoted adversus
mathematicos. The title can only be understood in the
light of the work itself. For the term mathematicus in
both Greek and Latin had long acquired a number of
different meanings. Astrologers for example were
commonly referred to as mathematici, a habit which
Sextus Empiricus himself demonstrated on occasion.500
Astrology, as well as astronomy itself, was called a
“ mathematical ” discipline.” No less a scientist than
Ptolemy used it in this manner, once for the title of his
(astronomical) Almagest, and once for that of his
astrological Tetrabiblos.607 The original Greek mean­
ing of the word mathematicus, however, had simply
been that of “ learned man,” i. e. scholar or intellectual.
It was this earliest usage which Sextus Empiricus
preferred.
The work was subdivided according to the main
disciplines of organized studies, but it was prefaced by
a brief introduction. Beginning with the historical em­
phasis on Epicurus and Pyrrho 508 as the founders of
Greek scepticism, Sextus Empiricus asked the funda­
mental question: “ Does any knowledge exist?” (Ei
«rrt /ia%ta). Knowledge meant organized and syste­
matized scientific facts, specifically the traditional disci­
plines developed since the clays of Plato and Aristotle.
The curt, almost abrupt, conclusion was “ No knowl­
his Ueber die Scliriften des Sextus Empiricus, Freising, 1883;
H. v. Arnim, R E , 2. Reihe, 2, 2, 1923: c. 2058.
*,s Compare C. Hartenstein, Ueber die Lehren der antiken
Skepsis, besonders des Sextus Empiricus, Zeitschrift fuer P hi­
losophic 94, 1888 : 217 ff.
Sextus Empiricus, adversus mathematicos 5: adv. astro-
logos, 1.
See above, p. 192.
Compare Diogenes Laertius, 9, 11 (on Pyrrho) ; 10, 1-154
(on Epicurus).
edge of any kind exists” (ouk Zpa. can rt fia(%ia),50*
The suicide of ancient rationalism could not be an­
nounced more succinctly. It was an anticlimax then to
discuss “ What can be learned.” The expected answer
was of course: Nothing.510 A brief expose about
teacher and student terminated the preface.511 The first
book of the work itself demolished the grammarians,
experts on literature and philology. The second on­
slaught was aimed at the rhetoricians, the pampered
darlings of the Hellenistic era, and especially of the
Roman principate. Even so safe and certain a field as
geometry was not spared. Its certainties were dis­
solved in the third book. Nor did arithmetic fare any
better: “ Number is a nothing,” proclaimed the author
triumphantly at the end of book four. Next in line
were the astrologers. Having (in the fifth book) estab­
lished the hopeless fallacy of their discipline, Sextus
Empiricus went on to attack the theorists of music
(book six). Then came the turn of the logicians. They
were— for obvious reasons— formidable opponents, and
it took our author two lengthy books (seven and eight)
to annihilate them. Thereafter the physicists were sub­
jected to a barrage of arguments which filled two more
books, the ninth and tenth. The reader, who must have
gone limp long before, was finally exposed — and that
was perhaps a symbolical order— to the destruction of
the champions of ethics (book eleven). With an almost
audible sigh the author ended his labors:
And inasmuch as we have now treated the doubtful points
among those, which include most subjects treated in the
field of ethics, we have surveyed therewith the whole realm
of sceptical analysis 512 (rijs o-Keirrucijs d'/wyrjs).”
The first important realization to be derived from this
“ table of contents ” is that Sextus Empiricus considered
fatalistic astrology as a science on the level of any of
the other major disciplines. His very attack against it
must be measured thereby. It surely cannot be com­
pared with similar criticism launched by men who
would never question the very existence of definite
knowledge itself. Thus Cicero’s criticism of divination,
or even that of Lucian did not strike that general note
of nihilism. But even Sextus Empiricus did not go
further than to attack fatalistic astrology only:
It is. proposed to analyze astrology, also called “ mathe­
matics,” but not that part of it which consists of arithmetic
and geometry— for we have already argued against those
who profess these disciplines. Nor will the power and
possibility of prediction be discussed which is possessed by
Eudoxus, Hipparchus, and men of their type, i. e. the disci­
pline called astronomy. For there is observation of phe­
nomena in certain fields (like agriculture and the art of
navigation) in it, from which one may predict droughts.
5°" Sextus Empiricus, adv. math., pr. 1.
010Ibid., 2.
*“ Ibid., 4.
“ s Ibid. 11, 257.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
rains, plagues and earthquakes, and other changes of the
surrounding air.513
Astronomy and astrometeorology were thus singu­
larly exempted from the attack of the sceptic. Indeed,
as Ptolemy had put it, one would have to be blind not
to realize the obvious facts of astral phenomena. But
against the “ science of birth horoscopes ” (vei/caAoyiW) by
means of which the Chaldaeans, bedecking themselves with
high sounding names like mathematicians or astrologers,
have inflicted not inconsiderable injury on human life, [shall
we argue] against a discipline with which they are creating
within us a mighty superstition, while preventing us in any
way to act according to common sense ( opOov A0701').514
Having thus limited the scope of his attack, Sextus
Empiricus methodically proceeded by presenting a sum­
mary of horoscopal astrology whose positivist tenets he
planned to subvert. A considerable section of the book
against the astrologers was devoted to this exposition
(5, 3-42). This is the longest detailed presentation
from the pen of a second-century critic which has
reached us. It began with the basic axiom of fatalist
astrology: “ Mundane matters have an ‘ affinity ’ — he
used the Posidonian term ‘ sympathy ’ ( TO ov/XTraOciv')-—
with those of the heavens” (5, 4) and are in every
moment influenced by them. The astrologers, usually
now called Chaldaeans by Sextus Empiricus, ascribed
to the seven planets the decisive role in shaping the
events of a man’s life, while the twelve parts, into which
they divided the zodiac, also played a role, but a sec­
ondary one. Each zodiacal constellation — he called
them (somewhat inaccurately) animals, a term de­
cidedly unfair to Aquarius, Sagittarius, and Virgo—
was subdivided into 30 degrees, each of which in turn
consisted of 60 minutes (5, 5). Some constellations
were called male, others female, others bi-sexual; still
others were entirely sexless (5, 6). Masculine signs
would of course be responsible for the birth of boys,
feminine ones would see to it that the proper number
of girls were born. Pythagoreans—-Sextus was not
quite certain on that point — similarly endowed num­
bers also with sexual characteristics (5, 7-8).
Not satisfied, however, with the almost innumerable
possibilities thus created, some ambitious astrologers
construed an additional division by distinguishing in
each zodiacal sign twelve parts (5, 9-10). For all these
stars and constellations four points were considered of
prime importance in each horoscope for the establish­
ment of its owner’s fate. These “ cardinal points ” were
the Horoscopal Point, the Mesuranema (medium coeli),
the Setting Point (Dysis, diametrically opposite the
eastern [Horoscopal] Point), and the Antimesuranema
(hypogeum), diametrically opposed to the Mesura­
nema (5, 12-13). Apart from this arrangement, signs
or planets which preceded or followed the ones in the
013Ibid. 5: adv. astrol., 1-2.
•“ Ibid. 5, 2.
205
four cardinal points were also given astrological mean­
ing. The evil and the good demon (Kakodaimon, Aga-
thodaimon), as well good and bad Fortune, for example,
were thus assigned important sectors also in horoscopes,
secondary only to the four cardinal ones (5, 14-20).
Some astrologers also correlated each part of the human
body with a particular sign whose influence was domi­
nant over that section of our anatomy (5, 21-23).
Alleged observations of great antiquity were said to
confirm the physical effect of certain bright stars on ter­
restrial matter, for instance on flowing water (5, 24 ff.).
The great importance of casting a horoscope for the
exact moment of birth was stressed. Instead of using,
as was surely the most frequent (and scientifically satis­
factory) method, astronomical handbooks for computing
the constellations prevailing at a given moment of time,
wealthy parents-to-be believed that direct observation
would furnish more accurate results:
A t night . . . one astrologer sat on some high mountain,
observing the stars, another was seated in the chamber of
the woman about to give birth. As soon as she had done so,
he signalled by means of a gong to the one on the promon­
tory. When he heard it, he made a note of the sign just
rising i. e. of the horoscopal constellation, and then attended
to other signs of the nativity and the motions of the sun.515
Although it is a statistical fact that more births occur
at night than during the daytime, this method clearly
would be unworkable for at least those babes born on
cloudy nights or during the day (5, 71). It was also
technically unnecessary. For by this time astronomical
tables were available and were accurate enough to permit
computations for all astrological purposes.
Certain planets, Sextus Empiricus added, were called
beneficent, others maleficent, and of seven planets sun
and moon were considered as more important than the
other five (5, 29-32). All planets were credited with
especially strong influence if they happened to be located
in their own “ houses,” the sun’s home being Leo, the
moon’s Cancer, while each of the other five had two
zodiacal “ houses” (5, 33-34). “ Elations” and “ de­
pressions,” as well as other astrological refinements
contributed towards making the casting of horoscopes
a complex process. Two kinds of these were distin­
guished, so-called simple ones, and the more “ accurate ”
ones. An elementary horoscope was merely based on
the relations between zodiacal signs and planets in the
Horoscopal Point— hence, incidentally, the name horo­
scope for the whole nativity— the more elaborately cast
nativity taking into account signs and planets in cardinal
and other important points, as well as the astrological
refinements referred to above (5, 35-42).
Having in this brief summary established what seemed
to him the salient details of the astrological technique,
Sextus Empiricus was ready to launch his onslaught
against the whole structure. It was inevitable that his
“ * Ibid. 5, 27- 28.
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H O F A ST ROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
summary represented at best a hasty and very incom­
plete review of the subject. How far “ scientific ” as­
trology had gone beyond these crude doctrines attacked
by Sextus Empiricus was shown by Ptolemy’s Tetra­
biblos. Even a purely practical manual of a mediocre
professional astrologer like Vettius Valens demonstrated
how many points of Empiricus’ argument had already
been anticipated by shrewd astrologers who had modi­
fied their techniques accordingly.
But Sextus Empiricus touched the core of the prob­
lem by pointing out the irreconcilable conflict between
catarchic astrologers, who admitted that not all mundane
things were linked with the celestial ones (5, 43-44),
and those astrologers who insisted that without the
concept of Fate astrology itself would be meaningless.
A third group, similar to the first, asserted that some
things happened according to Fate, others according to
accident. Fatalistic astrology, Sextus Empiricus re­
marked, had little practical use, since what was destined
to happen would happen anyway. Catarchic astrology,
on the other hand, might help to avoid possible trouble
(5, 45-47). If there were a category of events deter­
mined by our own free will, such events logically would
always remain unpredictable (5, 48). Some people,
Sextus Empiricus sneered, believed that this was enough
of an argument to demolish astrological doctrines, but
he would produce stronger arms which would overthrow
the very principles and essence of astrology (5, 49).
Inasmuch as the basis of all astrology was the Horo­
scopal Point from which were then established the
other Cardinal Points, and geometrical figures like
triangles, squares, etc., it would suffice to concentrate
the attack on this single element of astrological practice.
If it should be shown to be based on an error, or other­
wise indeterminable, then no further arguments need be
adduced (5, 50-51). That it was actually impossible
to establish the Horoscopal Point and its dominant
zodiacal constellation was to be demonstrated by a num­
ber of arguments (5, 52-53) :
(1) Knowledge of the precise decisive moment would be
necessary for finding the Horoscopal Point.616
(2) The point itself must be accurately established.
(3) The rise of the specific zodiacal constellation must be
observable with complete accuracy.
Before presenting the “ proofs ” of Sextus Empiricus
against the possibility of satisfying these three require­
ments, one should point out that the author’s pyrrhonic
scepticism was stronger than his knowledge of scientific
developments. Accepting the time of birth as decisive
for each of these three stipulations, one could well es­
tablish the natal constellation with the then existing
astronomical manuals. The technical question whether
or not time as such could ever be determined accurately,
remained of course open, but, in mathematical language,
“’“For the technique, see Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 3, 2.
one could “ approach” any moment of time sufficiently
closely for astrological purposes. To meet the three
requirements was, in the opinion of Sextus, impossible
(5, 54). First of all there was the question whether
the moment of conception, or that of birth was the de­
cisive one.517 The precise time of conception being
unascertainable, it could not be used to bolster astro­
logical contentions of the absolute power of the stars
(5, 55-64). But even the moment of birth itself also
was hardly likely to be determined with adequate accu­
racy, Sextus argued, even in those cases in which a
waiting astrologer sat poised on a promontory to make
the proper astronomical observations upon notification
that the birth had taken place (5, 65-70). The lapse
of time involved between the birth and the arrival of
the gong’s sound waves at the eardrum of the astrologer
would falsify the observation (5, 71). Sextus failed to
consider, however, that, if the speed of sound, the alti­
tude of both the chamber and the promontory, the tem­
perature of the air, and the distance between the gong
and the astrologer were known, sufficient allowance
[by the use of an astronomical table] could be made to
correct the error, which Sextus had pointed out. The
fact, already commented upon, that astronomical tables
were not only in existence, but actually widely used
in astrological circles, was either unknown to Sextus
Empiricus or disregarded by him. His argument against
conception horoscopes, on the other hand, was valid.
Having established to his own satisfaction that the
first and second requirements, the exact fixation of the
astrologically decisive moment and of the Horoscopal
Point, were impossible, Sextus Empiricus now under­
took to prove that the third prerequisite could also not
be met (5, 72-73). He protested that the borderlines
of the zodiacal signs were inadequately defined, and that
movements in the atmosphere might impede accurate
vision, that no zodiacal constellation had a sharply de­
fined outline, some, indeed, overlapping each other. Nor
did the places of observations, hills, rooftops, or moun­
tains, remain invariably constant in their location. Even
the phenomenon of refraction, especially noticeable
near the horizon, was adduced by Sextus Empiricus to
demonstrate the impossibility of accurately establishing
within the rising constellation the Horoscopal Point.
Furthermore, the same signs rose at different times
for different observers, depending on their geographical
location (5, 74-87).
In the last section of his attack upon astrologers
Sextus Empiricus summarized the stock arguments
presented at least since the days of Cameades against
fatalistic astrology: 618
(1) The prophecies about empires and rulers are false. “ Of
Men born at the same time, . . . some have ruled, others
grew old in chains ” (5, 88). Many for example were
Ibid. 3, 1, esp. ff. 105 ff.
“ * Compare above, p. 53 ff.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E R V A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
born at the same time as Alexander the Great, none
matched his fortune. The same applied to men born
simultaneously with Plato (5,89).
(2) O n the other hand, men born at different times should
have a different destiny. This was at least not true
in the case of those who, irrespective of their age, died
on the same battlefield, as had happened to countless
Persians and to many Greeks at Marathon. Many of
those returning from Troy were drowned, although not
all of them could possibly have been born under the sign
of Aquarius (5,91-93).
(3) A man and an ass born under the same constellation
would be subject to the same astral influences, as would
all breathing animals.518 Yet the one might have a
splendid public career, the other spend his life as a
beast of burden, or driving a mill (5,94).
Therefore the assumption “ that life is regulated by
the motion of the stars is not tenable” (5, 95). Nor
was the crude identification of the power of zodiacal
signs with the animals or human beings whom their
names represented anything but a ridiculous pretension:
(4) Those born under the same sign have quite different
characters and characteristics. Why should anyone born
under Leo become strong and brave just because that
constellation was called Leo? By similar reasoning a
man born next to a real lion might be expected to
become strong and brave. If it were claimed that a
change of the atmosphere accounted for the difference,
how should that produce a robust man or one of wild
habits, or make him a ruler, a debtor, a slave, a father
of few children or a man of few brothers indeed, the
condition of the air could have nothing to do with all
that. O r if Virgo were the constellation making people
fair who were born under it, then surely no swarthy
Ethiopian could possibly have been born in the sign of
Virgo (5,95-102).
Finally Sextus Empiricus objected to the insufficiency
of actual observations on which to base the claims of
astrologers. For just as in medicine it would be ridicu­
lous to say, merely on the basis of a single case, for
example that of Dio, that a heart wound (r; r>js /capfiias
rpwuis) was fatal— many cases should, indeed, be ana­
lyzed before one reached such a general conclusion,
thus in the case of astrology thousands upon thousands
of life histories should be checked against the natal
constellations of these persons, before one could even
hope to establish scientifically the existence and nature
of any astral influences. In view of the frequent de­
struction of the world, the ekpyroseis of the Stoics were
obviously accepted by our sceptic as scientific truth ( !),
history itself between two such cosmic conflagrations
would be too short a span to secure the data for such
a scientific investigation of countless horoscopes (5,
103-105).
With this parting shot Sextus Empiricus declared
astrology demolished and moved on to tackle the musi­
cians. Posterity cannot share his proud sentiments.
For one thing, his knowledge of astrology was obviously
B” Compare Augustinus, de civitatc dei 5, 7, and elsewhere.
207
superficial. Moreover his arguments were based on
antiquated sources. For example none of his historical
examples was less than five hundred (!) years old.
Plato and Alexander the Great, Dio, Theon, and Socra­
tes— this was the world from which he quoted. No one
would ever guess that the Roman empire had risen and
for centuries dominated the Mediterranean world. Com­
pared to this feeble attack, Cicero's compressed culling
from Greek sources was a masterpiece. Nor had Cicero
resigned himself to a mere recitation of hellenistic stock
examples, but had added a number of more or less recent
instances, refuting fatalistic astrology, from Roman his­
tory up to the very year preceding his own death (43
B . C . ) , for example a reference to the fate of Pompey,
Crassus, and Julius Caesar. Yet— just as Achilles was
killed while Thersites lived on— it was “ fated ” that of
all systematic attacks against fatalistic astrology during
the second century of our era only this mediocre sample
of Sextus Empiricus has survived.
His most important criticism was the one of insuffi­
cient scientific data. Curiously enough he did not (like
Cicero and others) refer to the extravagant claims ad­
vanced by astrologers on that very point. The millen­
nial observations which were commonly held to have
furnished the scientific basis for fatalistic astrology were
so vulnerable a point that the failure of Sextus Empiri­
cus to attack it must have been due either to a defect
of his source materials, or to a gross omission of his
own. Moreover he not only excepted astronomy, a re­
markable concession on the part of the nihilist Sceptic,
but also astrometeorology, navigation etc., from his
attack. Throughout his argumentation against fatalistic
astrology he did not seem too sure of his ground. His
style was hurried and perfunctory rather than expressive
of any individual thoughts on the subject. One should
in fairness, however, consider the fact that his main
object in the encyclopaedic attack against all disciplines
of learning was to challenge the very theory of knowl-
edgeability, not all technical details of the different disci­
plines. It would therefore be sufficient for his purpose
to cast doubt on the validity of the positivist claims of
the astrologers, and this, indeed, his essay achieved to
some extent. In conclusion one might quote perhaps
his argument against divination in general, repeated of
course from earlier sources:
If there are no gods, then there exists no divination. For
this is the science which observes and interprets signs which
are given to men by the gods. Nor could there be any pre­
diction which is made by divine revelation, or through the
stars (aarpojiavTiKrj). Nor by the inspection of entrails, or
from dreams.520
From Plutarch to Sextus Empiricus a potent revival
of anti-astrological sentiment had swept across the sec­
ond century. It was to furnish the Christian foes of
astrology with most of the material they were to use
B!0 Sextus Empiricus, adv. mailt., adv. physicos, 132.
208 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
later against pagan divination in general and fatalism
in particular. The impact of the wave of scepticism
was manifest. How different was the end of the second
century from that of the first! Then few had dared
question the validity of fatalistic astrology; now, how­
ever, the number of rationalist defenders of fatalism
was dwindling rapidly. A scientific interpretation of
the cosmos no longer interested the Roman elite. It was
tiring of reason, of creativity itself. Its writers had
long re-ceded the intellectual primacy to Greek authors.
Except for Favorinus no major Latin foe of astrology
had arisen in the second century. An abyss separated
the Latin output of Apuleius, for example, from the
level of Pliny the Elder. At the dawn of the third
century the writing on the wall must have been ap­
parent for those rationalists, both Greek and Roman,
who had eyes to see.
8. THE T W ILIG H T OF “ SCIEN TIFIC ” ASTROLOGY
Commodus (180-192), like Nero a steady customer
of taverns and brothels, and a performer in the arena—
not as an “ artist,” but as a naked gladiator— may have
relied too much on the prophecies of good omen which
the astrologers had bestowed upon him, when his father
Marcus Aurelius consulted them at the time of his
birth. He should, however, have remembered that these
predictions, which were equally favorable for his twin
brother, had long been shown up as hollow. For the
twin brother died in infancy.0-1 Lulled into a false
sense of security perhaps after so long a span (since
96!) in which no emperor had been assassinated,
Commodus left much of the conduct of affairs in the
hands of favorites like Perennis, or later Cleander,
while he himself spent his time on his hobbies among
which his interest in the making of goblets was the
most respectable one. His bent of mind clearly was
not attracted by the stern rationalism of the Stoics.
Fatalist astrology also would be a too somber, too de­
pressing subject to win the interest of this ruler. Star
worship would be more to his taste, and he did, indeed,
join the cult of Isis, taking it so seriously that he shaved
his head and carried in procession a statue of the Egyp­
tian dog-headed god Anubis.622 His predilection for
oriental mystery cults involving star worship was even
more manifest in his adherence to the cult of Mithras,828
a creed which was to blend with that of the Sol invictus,
the Invincible Sun.624
051 SHA, Commodus, 1, 3-5; compare on this reign Cassius
Dio, ep. 73.
033 SHA, Commodus, 9, 4-6; compare 16, 4; Pescennius Niger,
6, 8-9; Caracalla, 9, 11.
833 Ibid., Commodus, 9, 6. For the mystical sacrifice which the
ritual called for he tried to substitute gory realism.
624 Compare F. Cumont, Les religions orientales dans le
paganisme romain (4th ed.; 1929) : 132ff.; also 106; 136; 88 f.;
plate xii; La theologie solaire du paganisme romain, Ac. des
Inscr., 12 : 447-449; Astrology and religion among the Greeks
Strong of body, mediocre of mind, Commodus repre­
sented in these attachments a trend which marked the
beginning of the twilight era of rationalism in Rome.
It may seem ironic today, but it was then true that
this decline was also reflected in the waning hold of
“ scientific ” astrology on Roman society. For a while
Fig. 17. Septimius Severus (193-211). From R. P. Hinks,
Greek and Roman portrait sculpture: 44a. British Museum,
London, 1935.
the tide seemed undecided. The stalemate, which in the
Greek arena had been reached at this time between the
champions of fatalist astrology and their adversaries,
was paralleled in the receptive minds of educated
Romans. Many of them, like Commodus, retreated
from the battlefield of rationalism. Wearied by the
perennial arguments of both factions they sought refuge
in another realm, the one of mysticism. Others, how­
ever, still continued to place their faith in reason, or at
least went along with the traditional rationalist approach
to life. To the borderline between rationalism and
indiscriminate faith in all kinds of divination clung for
example a younger contemporary of M. Aurelius, L.
Septimius Severus, from the African city of Leptis.
and Romans: 161 ff.: Lux perpetua: 179 f . ; 272; 317; F. Boll,
Die Sonne itn Glauben und in der Weltanschauung der alten
Voelker, Stuttgart, 1922; H. Usener, Sol invictus, Rhein. Mus.
60, 1905: 465-491.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N ERV A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R
Born on April 11, 146 525 of an equestrian family,
whose Roman character had been somewhat diffused
in the local setting, he was destined to become the first
native of Africa to mount the throne,526 hitherto held
by Latins from Italy, Spain, and Gaul only. Like any
other young Roman provincial of good family, Septi­
mius Severus was sent to Rome for his higher education
and with an eye to a future career in the government
service. Arriving in the capital about 165, i.e. in his
late ’teens, he obtained through a relative from Marcus
Aurelius admission to the senate. Thereafter he rose
slowly but steadily in the imperial hierarchy. In 170
he was quaestor, went in 172 on government business
to the Spanish province of Baetica, but after his father’s
death returned to his native city of Leptis, probably in
order to cope with problems arising from his paternal
estate. Soon afterwards (about 17S) he rose to the
rank of legate in the province of Africa, and in 176 the
emperor bestowed on him the tribunate. The thirty-
year-old tribune now married, apparently for the first
time. His choice was a certain Paccia Marciana.527
Whether or not he had her horoscope cast before marry­
ing her we do not know, but it was common knowledge
that Septimius Severus was in general given to divina­
tory lore.528 It may have been inaccurate to insinuate
that he was — like Tiberius and Hadrian — himself a
practicing astrologer,52” but he did, indeed, perpetually
patronize the practitioners of this craft.
If not before he apparently plunged into the dan­
gerous business of investigating his future, when as a
legate, i. e. sometime before his marriage, he became
worried about his prospects:
H e had recourse to an astrologer in a certain city of
A frica. The astrologer, when he had cast the horoscope,
saw high destinies in store for him, but added: “ Tell me
your own nativity and not that of another m a n ! ” A nd when
Severus swore an oath that it was really his, the astrologer
revealed to him all the things that did later come to pass.630
The vagueness of the scribe may make his account
suspect. It has, for example, a strong similarity to the
story told by Suetonius about the prediction which
Theagenes of Apollonia had read from the horoscope
of young Octavius, the future Augustus.531 But 175
535 Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 17, 4; SHA, Severus, 1, 3, gave
the date wrongly (April 8).
s3‘l He had a pronounced African accent; SHA, Severus, 19,
9; on his early life, see ibid., Iff.; cf. M. Platnauer, The life
and reign of the emperor L. Septimius Severus, Oxford, 1918;
J. Hasebroek, Ulitersuchungen sur Geschichte des Kaisers Sep­
timius Severus : esp. 174-189 for inscriptions, Heidelberg, 1921;
Fluss, RE, 2. Reihe, 2, 1923: c. 1940, no. 13,-c. 2002.
037 CIL, 8 , suppl. 2: 1855, no. 19494.
638 Compare SHA, Severus, 1, 6-10; Cassius Dio, ep. 77, 11,
1-2.
030 Ibid., 3, 9, he was called matheseos peritissimus; cf. SHA,
Geta, 2, 6.
130/ b i d . , 2, 8-9; Cassius Dio, ep. IT, 11, 1.
C31 Suetonius, Augustus, 94, 12.
209
was the year, when Avidius Cassius rebelled in the
east against M. Aurelius, and many a high official must
have been especially curious about his own future.
In consulting an astrologer about his political future
Severus had of course broken the law. He had thereby
committed treason, according to the long established
legal interpretation of such consultations.532 But, as
we have seen time and again, the Augustan edict, im­
posing topical restrictions on astrological and other
divinatory inquiries, was always more honored in the
breach than in the observance. Moreover, in the mild
reign of M. Aurelius men had little to fear, even if such
violations of the law were discovered. In any case one
could apply to this African episode the comment “ se
non e vero, e ben' trovato." Soon the fall of Avidius
Cassius and Severus’ promotion to the tribunate seemed
to " prove ” the accuracy of the auspicious predictions.
In 178 M. Aurelius appointed Septimius Severus to
the office of praetor, although not among those offi­
cially designated as " imperial candidates.” Promising
dreams 533 bolstered astrologically aroused hopes. To­
wards the end of the reign of M. Aurelius, Severus
became legate of the Fourth legion, the Scytliica, and
then went to the east, perhaps in 179-180. His natural
inclination towards all kinds of divination must have fed
on the abundance of divinatory activities which he en­
countered in the Orient. It had apparently become cus­
tomary for high Roman officials to patronize when in
Syria a far famed oracle of the god Bel, whom Graeco-
Romans equated with Zeus-Jupiter.534 To this shrine
Severus too, of course, betook himself. Having received
the usual flattering predictions from the prudent priests,
he remembered them so well that, after he had ascended
the throne, he again undertook a pilgrimage to this
oracle.535
The death of M. Aurelius and the accession of Com­
modus, however, proved an immediate set-back to the
proud hopes of Severus. For he seems to have been
among those officials of M. Aurelius whom Commodus,
or perhaps his all powerful praetorian prefect Perennis,
removed from positions of influence and power.530 For
about six years Severus was out of office. During these
years his first wife died. The overthrow and death of
Perennis in 186 ended at last this time of eclipse.
Severus was now appointed as legate to the province
of Lugdunum (Lyon). His hopes revived and he
r'3s See F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars. Seminar 9
1951: 8-35.
“ 3 SHA, Severus, 3, 4-5 ; compare 1, 8-9. Cassius Dio, ep. 73,
1 , mentions that lie compiled a collection of these dreams of
Severus, which Severus perhaps published in his autobiography;
compare also Herodianus, 2 , 9, 3-5.
*** This oracle was also visited, for example, by the future
emperor Macrinus; Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 40, 4.
635 Ibid., ep. 79 (78), 8, 5-6.
530 Ibid., ep. 73 (72), 1, 2; SHA, Commodus, 3, 1; cf. Hero­
dianus, 1 , 8, 1.
 THE R IS E A N D T R IU M P H O F AST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
210
planned to remarry. Among the women considered
eligible, he made a final choice:
He made inquiries about the horoscopes of marriageable
women . . .; and when he learned that there was in Syria
a woman whose horoscope predicted that she would wed a
king . . ., he sought her for his wife, and through the
mediation of his friends secured her.53’
The lucky bride was Julia Domna, a Syrian lady,
whose father was Julius Bassianus, Roman citizen and
high priest of the sun god, Elagabalus, in the city of
Fic. 18. Julia Domna. From A. Hekler, Greek and Roman
portraits: 288b.
Emesa. He had given his daughter an excellent educa­
tion, which fitted her well for the role of an imperial
patroness of the arts. When risen to the summit of
influence and power, she gathered around her a host
of intellectuals, including, of course, astrologers as well
as men of letters.5=8 For her, for example, the younger
Philostratus wrote his Lije oj Apollonius oj 7 yana,
MT SH A , Severus, 3, 9; Cela, 3, 1. , , ,
138 Philostratus, vil. soph. 2, 30 (i. 622). Even after the death
of her husbani Septimius Severus her influence was still
sufficient to obtain from her son, Caracalla, the appointment of
a protege to one of the coveted imperial chairs of rhetoric at
63* Begun probably during her lifetime the work was published
the theurgian of the first century, now set up as a pagan
rival of Christ. The wedding of Julia Domna and
Septimius Severus must be considered symbolical. For
her family deity, the god Elagabalus of Emesa, had
long been closely associated with sun worship. From
its very shrine were to come forth about thirty years
later the first two sun priests destined to rule the
Roman empire: Elagabalus (significantly re-named
Heliogabalus by the Greeks) and Severus Alexander
(218-222, and 222-235, respectively). Thus the wed­
ding of the Latin Septimius and the hellenized Syrian
Julia may be considered as a symbolical merger of two
beliefs, the one a faith in fatalist “ scientific ” astrology,
the other a mystic surrender of one’s soul to the divine
power of our planet’s dominant star.
Julia Domna did her duty by her husband. Their
oldest child, named after her father, Bassianus, but
better known under his later “ nickname,” Caracalla,
was born on April 4, 188.540 A year later, on May 27,
189 a second child, ill-fated Geta, was born. The proud
parents, both sharing the faith in dreams,5" astrology,
and other forms of divination, undoubtedly consulted
astrologers at once. They must have received the usual
predictions of grandeur, but Septimius Severus for once
seemed doubtful:
Severus, on learning his [Geta’s] horoscope— a study in
which like most Africans [sic!] he was very proficient—
is said to have remarked [to Flavianus Juvenalis who was
to become praetorian prefect in 193]: “ It seems strange to
me, my dear Juvenalis, that our Geta is destined to be
a deified emperor, for in his horoscope I see nothing
imperial.” 542
One may dismiss the implication that Severus him­
self was a sufficiently competent astrologer to be able
to check Geta’s horoscope, but even with a layman’s
knowledge of astrology, intensified by his burning
preoccupation with what constituted an “ imperial ”
horoscope, he may have been able to question its im­
perial aspects.
Probably early in 189 Septimius Severus was made
praetorian governor of Sicily.548 Meanwhile, under the
regime of the hated imperial favorite Cleander, Com­
modus’ popularity was waning. The curiosity of Severus
now drove him to reassure himself once more by con­
sulting astrologers and other diviners about the political
future. These, however, were no longer the halcyon
days of M. Aurelius. Nor was Severus as governor
of Sicily any longer as innocuous as he had then been.
His activities were discovered:
after her death; compare Philostratus' letter addressed to Julia
Domna ( epist., 63).
""Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 6, 5.
0,1 For Julia’s belief in dreams, see SH A , Geta, 1, 5.
5,2 Ibid., 2, 6-7.
343 SH A , Severus, 4, 2-5, is chronologically completely garbled.
It also erroneously reports that Severus was appointed to com­
mand the legions of the German provinces.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
While he was in Sicily, he was indicted for consulting
seers and astrologers ( Chaldaeos) about the imperial dig­
nity, but because Commodus was now being detested, he
was acquitted by the prefects of the guard to whom he had
been handed over for trial, while his accuser was crucified.544
In the light of our knowledge of his frantic faith in
divination there can, indeed, be little doubt about his
guilt. Under sovereigns of the type of Commodus, far
more harmless men than Severus had been executed for
treason committed by political inquiries of this kind.
From the fact that the accuser died on the cross one
may surmise that he was a man of low station, eager
to reap the reward for the successful prosecution of a
high ranking person like Severus.
If, indeed, a praetorian prefect had a hand in quash­
ing the dangerous indictment, it may well have been
Aemilius Laetus, who afterwards led the successful con­
spiracy which resulted in the assassination of Commo­
dus. That Laetus was disaffected is well established.545
If one could trust our confused source, one might unravel
its rambling chronology about as follows: Immediately
after his rehabilitation Severus was made consul (189?).
Soon, however, he again faced a criminal prosecution,
this time for adultery. Again he triumphed over his ac­
cuser, but spent about a year out of office, i. e. 190-191:
“ Then, on the recommendation of Laetus he was put
in charge of the German [sic 1 Should read the Panno-
nian] legions.” 546 This meant not only official acknowl­
edgment of his complete vindication, but also placed
him at the head of one of the most important units of
the Roman army. Whatever concern he might have
had until then, now — with Laetus apparently on his
side in tacit opposition to Commodus— the future looked
bright. Before departing, the newly appointed com­
mander acquired an elaborate estate in the capital,547
certain that the time was approaching when the long-
expected supreme fortune would arrive at last.
In 192 a comet appeared,548 heralding, as the faithful
believed, dreadful events—perhaps the death of the em­
peror. Many, however, must have anticipated such an
event with more than equanimity. But when the blow
had fallen and Commodus lay dead, Laetus, perhaps
under the urgency of the moment, raised Pertinax, not
Severus, to the throne.549 But soon the “ king maker ”
regretted his choice and himself organized the plot, to
which Pertinax succumbed after a rule of less than
three months (March 26, 193).550 The praetorian
guards thereupon auctioned off the empire to the highest
Ibid., 4, 3.
045 Cassius Dio, ep. 73 (72), 22, If f .; SH A , Commodus, 17,
1-2; Herodianus, 1, 16, 5; 17, 6.
S H A , Severus, 4, 4.
5*' Ibid., 4, 5-6.
0,8 S H A , Commodus, 16, 1; compare Herodianus, 1, 14, 1.
**“ SH A , Pertinax, 4, 5 ff .; Herodianus, 2, 1, 3; Cassius Dio,
ep. 74, 1, Iff.
*“ SH A , Pertinax, 10, 8 ff.; Cassius Dio, ep. 74, 8, If f.; com­
pare Herodianus, 2, 5, 1 ff.
211
bidder. This proved to be a wealthy, profligate senator,
Didius Julianus, apparently against the wishes of Laetus.
The new ruler, a worthy product of his age, was much
given to superstition. Of our chief historians of this
period two, Cassius Dio and Herodianus, lived through
these chaotic months, and Dio, a senator, did so in the
midst of his trembling fellow senators. He learned that,
refusing to acknowledge the result of the infamous auc­
tion at Rome, the armies of the empire were proclaiming
three rivals to Didius Julianus. One of the three was
Septimius Severus, who, persuaded that the moment
had arrived, which innumerable omens, oracles, and
astrologers had foretold him, strove boldly for the
supreme power.551
In contrast to Cassius Dio, a devotee of every kind
of superstition, his contemporary, Herodianus, com­
mented shrewdly and somewhat disdainfully about
Severus’ acceptance of those prognostics:
And what added riot a little to his encouragement was the
remembrance of several dreams, oracles, and other predic­
tions, which seemed to foretell his future grandeur. For all
these kinds of prophecies are then believed, when the course
of events seems to verify their predictions. Most of these
are since published by him himself in his Autobiography
and represented in sculpture and painting on his public
images.555
This practice applied to architecture and interior deco­
rations as well. For Severus ordered “ star chamber ”
frescoes for the imperial apartments when his daring
coup had succeeded:
. . . The stars under which he had been born . . . he had
caused to be painted on the ceilings of the rooms in the
palace where he was wont to hold court, so that they were
visible to all, with the exception of that portion of the sky
which, as the astrologers express it, “ observed the hour ’’
when he first saw the light [i. e. which contained the Horo­
scopal Point ] 553 ; for this portion he had not depicted in the
same way in both rooms.554
Lacking the courage of the aged Augustus, who boldly
had published his entire horoscope, Severus kept the
public guessing.
He knew full well that it was standard astrological
practice to compute a horoscope from the Horoscopal
Point onwards. That meant, if he had revealed that
point amidst its constellation, any astrologer could
have calculated the date on which the emperor was to
die, a boon to would-be plotters. His birth date (April
11, 146) in any case enabled astrologers by the mere
551 Herodianus, 2, 9, 2 ff.; SH A , Severus, 5, 1, where Severus
was said to have accepted the diadem reluctantly; Cassius Dio,
ep. 75, 3, 1 ff.
“ * Herodianus, 2, 9, 3.
383 On the decisive role of the horoscopal sector, see Ptolemy.
Tetrabiblos, 3, 2; Sextus Empiricus, adv. math. 5: adv. ostrol.,
12f . ; 50f.; cf. Bouche-Leciercq: 83-86 ; 257f .; 276-288, and
elsewhere.
35< Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 11, 1.

212 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
use of astronomical tables to establish the relative posi­
tions of the five planets ancl the moon within the zodiac
on that day. This pattern then must have teen the
one painted on the two ceilings. But the all-important
hour of the birth,655 which for example would determine
what particular zodiacal sign “ dominated ” the horo­
scopal sector, was not shown to the public. If the
meager description of Cassius Dio, who had seen those
star frescoes on many occasions, could therefore be
interpreted accurately, it might indicate the existence
of two different patterns, one on each ceiling and both
presumably applicable to April 11, 146, but differing
from each other in the relative position at least of the
sun. It is of course impossible to determine which of
the two patterns was the genuine birth horoscope, or
whether both were intentionally misleading. A fanati­
cal believer in astrology like Severus would probably
have chosen the latter arrangement which would give
“ wrong ” dates for his future death to over-inquisitive
astrologers and their clients, and hence might foil
prospective plotters.
Another example of Severus’ penchant to express as­
trological ideas-in artistic form was the Septizonium,55"
built on a site where it would strike the eyes of most
newcomers approaching the city on the Appian road.561
The purpose of the structure cannot have been to func­
tion as a mausoleum of the house of Severus, most of
whose, members were laid to rest in Hadrian’s tomb.
Moreover, a statue of Severus himself was placed in
the center of the building 558 which was formally opened
in 203.560 About fifty years earlier we encounter for
the first time the Greek word «rTa£«>vos in an astrological
text,500 while a Septizonium as such was (according to
Suetonius) already in existence in the days of Ves­
pasian,501 i. e. long before the first known astrological
use of the word. It was employed by Vettius Valens
and other astrologers to denote a sequence of the seven
planets in which the sun was in the middle, i. e. the
fourth of the seven. In this pattern they were treated
as the deities of time-keeping. It has, therefore, been
suggested that the Septizonium of Severus contained a
clock denoting each of the seven weekdays. The statue
of Severus in the center of the structure would thus
have stood directly beneath the sun, which symbolically,
might thereby appear as the divine protector of the
On the technique of computing the Horoscopal Point, see
Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 3, 2.
'i5“ Compare Th. Dombart, RE, 2. Reihe, 2, 1923: c. 1578-1586.
“ 7 SHA, Severus, 19, 5; 24, 3-4.
■" Ibid., 19, 3.
060 Attested by an inscription; Jerome, Chron., A . D. 201 is thus
in error.
**• Vettius Valens. Anthologiae, 1, 10 (caption) ; compare 3,
9; 6, 7 (ed. W. Kroll: 144, 14ff.; 256, 29); see also Leyden
Pap. J. 395.
eftl Suetonius, Titus, 2.
emperor and his house.562 If this conjecture were true,
the Septizonium would have been an architectural ex­
pression of Severus’ syncretism which mixed elements
of star worship unconcernedly with the tenets of “ scien­
tific” astrology.
Before, however, L. Septimius Severus could even
dream of building a Septizonium, or having star-frescoes
painted on the ceilings of the imperial palace in Rome,
he first had to win the throne against Didius Julianus,
a contest in which Albinus, commander of the British
army and Pescennius Niger, at the head of the Asiatic
legions, vied with him for the supreme power.503 Before
Severus’ potential ally Laetus could intercede on his
behalf, Didius Julianus, suspecting (probably rightly)
the “ king maker’s ” loyalty, executed him together with
Marcia, Commodus’ erstwhile concubine and Laetus’
accomplice in the ruler’s assassination.564 While Cassius
Dio and his fellow senators pondered the future, with
Didius Julianus in Rome and three formidable rivals
gathering on the horizon, the stars spoke out:
These were the three men portended by the three stars
that suddenly came to view surrounding the sun when
Julianus in our presence was offering Sacrifices of Entrance
in front of the senate house. These stars were so very dis­
tinct that the soldiers kept continually looking at them and
pointing them out to one another, while declaring that some
dreadful fate would befall the emperor. As for us, however
much we hoped and prayed that it might so prove, yet the
fear of the moment would not permit us to gaze up at them
save by furtive glances.505
This charming scene must have deeply impressed the
Greek senator in Rome. For his account was written
many years after the event. The psyche of the doomed
Didius Julianus reacted to this portent by feeble at­
tempts at defense. It was said, perhaps without truth,
that in his desperate eagerness to find out what the
future held in store he used human sacrifices in magic
rites, a suspicion which on an earlier occasion had also
attached itself to the sudden death of Hadrian’s favorite
Antinous.560
When Didius Julianus had fallen and Severus emerged
victorious over his competitors, Pescennius Niger and
Albinus (193-197), Cassius Dio decided to ingratiate
himself with the new master of the Roman world.
Nothing could better illustrate the value of what a
002 Th. Dombarth, Die Baugestalt des palatinischen Septi-
soniums in Rom, Muenchen, 1923; E. Maass, Die Tagesgoetter,
Berlin, 1902; Chr. Huelsen, Das Septizonium in Rom ; also
Septizonium, Zeitschrift fner Geschichte der Architektur, 5, 1,
1912; E. Petersen, Septizonium, Roemische Mitteilunuen . . . ,
1910, 56 ff.
noa For an alleged prophecy of the Delphic oracle about the
winner, see SHA, Pescennius Niger, 8.
g«4 TViat Laetus on one occasion had saved Didius Julianus
from Commodus now availed him nothing; SHA, Didius Ju­
lianus, 6, 2.
ccc Cassius Dio, ep. 74, 14, 4-5; Herodianus, 1, 14, 1 .
Compare above, p. 171 f.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
modem scholar has described as “ the study of wretched
subjects ” 567 than the result of Dio’s effort:
I had written and published a little book about the dreams his palace :
and portents which gave Severus reason to hope for the
imperial power; and he, after reading the copy I sent him,
wrote me a long and complimentary acknowledgment.568
For this exchange of pleasantries among kindred
superstitious spirits posterity had good reason to be
everlastingly grateful:
This letter I received about nightfall, and soon after fell
asleep; and in my dreams the Divine Power commanded
me to write history. Thus I came to write the narrative
with which I am at this moment concerned.568
Dio went on to explain that he first finished an account
of the civil commotions culminating in the triumph of
Severus. When this work gained considerable acclaim,
Dio was encouraged to undertake the writing of the
entire history of Rome from the beginning to the point
“ that shall seem best to Fortune” {rayrq, an astro­
logical concept of great importance also). This, Dio
admitted, was his supreme deity:
This goddess gives me strength to continue my history
when I become timid and disposed to shrink from it; when
I grow weary and would resign the task she wins me back
by sending me dreams ( !) ; she inspires me with fair hopes
that future time will permit my history to survive and never
dim its lustre.570
What weary scholar cannot but sympathize with Dio’s
moods of dejection! And how few are those to whom
Fortune has granted the boon it held in store for D io!
For his monumental history of the Roman world— he
spent twenty-two years in research and writing until his
work reached the death of Severus (211)—became the
standard history for the Byzantine world and hence
survived in copious fragments. Our debt to Dio is
incalculable. Yet had not both Dio and Severus been
fervent believers in astrology and divination of any
kind, Dio’s History might never have been written!
But the faith which Severus had in the stars had
its menacing aspects also. For astrologers and other
diviners would be called upon, as they had been by
earlier rulers of similar beliefs, to reveal what men
were potentially dangerous. In particular after the
defeat and death of Pescennius Niger and Albinus, his
erstwhile rivals, Severus ordered numerous executions:
He even went so far as to bring charges against several
of his own friends on the ground that they were plotting to
kill him. He put numerous others to death on the charge of
having asked Chaldaeans or soothsayers (votes) how long
he was destined to live.671
O. Neugebauer, The study of wretched subjects, Isis 42,
1951: 111.
•“ Cassius Dio, ep. 73 (72), 23, 1-2.
s<” Ibid., 23, 2.
" ° Ibid., 23, 3-5.
SHA, Severus, 15, 4-5.
213
It was this frame of mind which caused Severus to keep
the Horoscopal Point of his nativity a secret when he
had those star frescoes painted on the two ceilings in
And he was especially suspicious of anyone who seemed
qualified for the imperial power, for his sons were still very
young, and he believed, or had heard that this fact was being
observed by those who were seeking omens regarding their
own prospects to the throne (qui sibi augurabantur im-
perium).572
What obviously happened, and it was only to be
expected, was the revival of the legal prosecution of
important violators of the Augustan edict of a . d . 11.
The last previous major prosecution of this kind seems
to have been that of Pedanius Fuscus shortly before
Hadrian’s death in 138.573 Even if no trial had actually
been held in that case, there can be little doubt that
Fuscus’ foolish reliance on astrology and other forms
of divination had led him to believe himself destined
for the throne. Thus his guilt of maiestas under the
law was clear, for which exile or death were the cus­
tomary penalties. The mild era of the Antonines ap­
parently had seen the temporary lapse of such rigorous
prosecutions. Now, however, a renaissance of the atti­
tude of the earlier rulers was at hand. Severus remem­
bered only too well his own experience, when he had
been tried for such forbidden inquiries and only escaped
thanks to the protection given him by the praetorian
prefects. At least one state trial reminiscent of the days
of Tiberius and Claudius has from his own reign been
transmitted: the fall of Popilius Pedo Apronianus.574
The trial was held in the senate in the presence of
Cassius Dio, apparently in the year 205 or 206:
An incredible affair even in the hearing. This man was
accused because his nurse was reported to have dreamed ( 1)
once that he should be emperor and because he was believed
to have employed some magic to this end.575
The ascendancy of the belief in dreams was a peculiar
phenomenon of the second century. Artemidorus, for
example, a contemporary of Hadrian and the Antonines,
had compiled no fewer than five books of Oneirocritica
to “ prove ” the accuracy of predictions stemming from
dreams. An era in which the stern rationalism of an
earlier age was fading would be especially prone to
prefer such revelations to the seemingly scientific and
dry methods of the astrologers:
Now when the evidence concerning him, taken under
torture, was read to us, there appeared the statement that
one of the persons conducting the examination [of the nurse
and the household slaves of Apronianus] had inquired who
had told the dream and who had heard it, and that the man
1,1 Ibid., 15, 5.
071 See above, p. 176 ff.
c7‘ On the legal aspects of this case, compare F. H. Cramer
The Caesars and the stars (2), Seminar 10, 1952 : 27 f.
Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 8, 1 ff.
214 T H E R IS E AND T R IU M P H O F A STROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
under examination had said among other things: “ I saw a
certain bald-headed senator peeping in." On hearing this
we found ourselves in a terrible position. . . . And although
no one was very cheerful, except those who had unusually
heavy hair, yet we all looked round at those who were not
so fortunate. . . .6711
The wretch on the rack had not revealed any name, was not even given a chance to defend himself. Con­
nor had Severus in his message to the senate named demned in absentia— he was at the time in the province
anyone in particular. All the greater was the general of Asia as governor— he was apparently killed without
consternation:
. . . I actually felt with my hand to see whether I had any that the stars had revealed to Severus the date of his
hair on my head. And a good many others had the same
exerience. And we were very careful to direct our gaze approaching end, as they had, at an earlier age, to
upon those who were more or less bald, as if we should
thereby divert our own danger upon them.577
F ig . 19. Caracalla (211-217). From A. Hekler, Greek and
Roman portraits: 290.
Eventually a former aedile named Baebius Marcellinus
was designated by the witness, who had been brought
into the senate chamber, as the man who had been
present at the narration of the fateful dream. Cassius
Dio indicated discreetly that Baebius Marcellinus was
probably innocent and had merely been pointed out
after the witness received an “ imperceptible nod that
somebody gave.” The spectacle of abject cowardice and
complete lack of confidence in any chance of a fair trial
in a matter involving “ treason by divination ’ was an
eloquent demonstration of the general faith in such
revelations. For the government’s assumption was ob­
viously that anyone who heard such a dream would
6,“ Loc. cit.
877 Ibid., 8, 4-5.
henceforth believe that the recipient of this divine an­
nouncement was “ fated ” to mount the throne and
would thus become a willing collaborator in a conspiracy
which was “ bound ” to succeed. Not only was Mar-
cellinus summarily executed— even before Severus him­
self learned about his arrest— but also Apronianus, who
further ado.'78
A man of Dio’s outlook would of course be convinced
Sulla.570 When Severus left on his last campaign— it
was to be waged in Britain— he was said to undertake it
though he knew he should not return. He knew this chiefly
from the stars under which he had been born. . . . He knew
his fate also by what he had heard from the seers.580
Dio, who knew Severus personally and was familiar
with whatever rumor or gossip there was about the
emperor, thus clearly showed his opinion to the effect
that Severus relied chiefly on the stars, and only sec­
ondarily on all other omens, oracles, and portents. It
was reflected in the legal literature of this era, for to the
uppermost circle of the legal advisers of Severus be­
longed jurists like Papinian — who may have been a
relative of Severus— as well as Paulus and Ulpian. We
owe to the last two the extant summaries of the legal
theory and practice of the principate.581 Moreover,
these views in the realm of divination and magic eventu­
ally were recognized throughout the Middle Ages. As
late as 1541 Henry V III of England still executed a
man for forbidden inquiries about the political future.
In a household in which both father and mother were
enthusiastic devotees of astrology and all other forms
of divinations Caracalla and Geta, the sons of Severus,
grew up. The younger boy’s horoscope was, as men­
tioned earlier, questioned by Severus himself, who
found in it no indication of imperial grandeur.582 It may
be assumed that Caracalla’s horoscope, too, was not only
cast, but had also been full of promises of future glory.
No love was lost between the two brothers, at least
in so far as Caracalla was concerned. The admonition
of the dying Severus to live and rule the empire in
brotherly amity fell, therefore, on deaf ears. Within a
year after his accession Caracalla murdered Geta in the
very arms of their mother, Julia Domna. A bloodbath
878 Ibid., 8, 6 ff.; 9, 1; compare 8, 1. The prosecutor Pollenius
Sebennius himself narrowly escaped death sometime afterwards
when as governor of Noricum he was found guilty of miscon­
duct during his term of office; ibid., 9, 2-3.
8,8 Plutarch, Sulla, 37, 1.
880 Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 11, 1.
881 See F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2), Seminar
10, 1952 : 44 ff.
SH A, Geta, 2, 6-7.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
purged those suspected of having sympathized with
the victim. Among the most illustrious men thus slain
was Papinian, perhaps the greatest jurist of his day.
His executioner was only criticized for having used an
axe instead of a sword.588 In contrast to his father
Severus, the new ruler, although given a good educa­
tion, had little interest in furthering intellectual or
artistic pursuits.584 His frame of mind manifested itself
in his decision to abolish the privileges of the Peripa­
tetics in Alexandria and elsewhere, because Aristotle,
according to legend, had somehow been connected with
the death of Alexander, whom Caracalla admired
fanatically.586 Could perhaps the sceptical attitude of
the Peripatetics — this was the era of Alexander of
Aphrodisias— have anything to do with Caracalla’s hos­
tility towards them? For the Peripatetics opposed the
blind faith in divination which Caracalla had inherited
from his father and mother.
This faith, indeed, hastened his death; it actually pro­
voked it. The two authorities on which the following
account is based are Cassius Dio and Herodianus:
Antoninus [i. e. Caracalla] was of a very inquisitive
nature and loved to pry, not only into the affairs of man­
kind, but even into the mysteries of the gods and demons.
For suspecting all about him to be traitors, he was so fre­
quently making the most scrupulous researches into oracles,
and sending for magi, as well as astrologers (aorrpoxd/ious)
and soothsayers, that not one professor of such trickery
(voijrcia) escaped his notice.586
Not since the last days of Domitian had so ominous
an atmosphere surrounded a doomed ruler. Ironically
enough Caracalla even began to question the “ veracity ”
of his own staff of diviners:
. . . A t last, growing suspicious of these too and thinking
they had regard not to truth but flattery in their answers
he writes to one Maternianus, who had the management of
all his affairs at Rome, and whom he judged the most faith­
ful of his friends, and had trusted with his most important
secrets, to look for the best magi that could be found; and
making use of the necromancer’s art to learn the time and
manner of his death; and whether any one was privately
plotting to seize the government.687
As it happened, Maternianus was able to oblige with
a minimum of delay:
. . . A seer in Africa had declared, in such a manner that
it became noised about, that both Macrinus, the prefect, and
his son, Diadumenianus, were destined to hold the imperial
power; and later this seer, upon being sent to Rome, had
revealed this prophecy to Flavius Maternianus, who at this
time commanded the soldiers in the city, and this man had
at once written a letter to Antoninus .688
888 Cassius Dio, ep. 78 (77), 4, 2; SH A , Caracalla, 4, 1; Geta,
6, 3.
88‘ Cassius Dio, ep. 78 (77), 11, 2-3.
888Ibid., 7, 3.
888 Herodianus, 4, 12, 3.
887 Herodianus, 4, 12, 4.
888 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 4, 1-2.
215
Herodianus, less well informed of affairs in Rome at
this time than Cassius Dio, the senator, and also far
less credulous in matters of divination than the Bithy-
nian historian confined himself to a vaguer version:
Maternianus boldly executed the emperor’s order, and
whether the demons really gave him such information, or
whether it was through some private pique to Macrinus, he
writes back to the emperor that Macrinus was contriving
treasonable means for getting the imperial dignity and that
he should be executed.689
While the fateful epistle was on its way Caracalla
himself was faced with a prophet of doom :
. . . A certain Egyptian, Serapio, had told the emperor
to his face a few days [before his death] that he would
be short-lived and that Macrinus would succeed him .590
In similar fashion Domitian had learned his impend­
ing fate from the lips of the astrologer Asclation and
the haruspex Larginus Proculus. He had executed the
one and promised to execute the other after the “ dead­
line ” had passed.591 Now Caracalla, faced with an
equally pleasant prediction, acted likewise:
Serapio had at first been thrown to a lion for this, but
when, as the result of his merely holding out his hand, as is
reported, the animal did not touch him, he was slain; and
he might have escaped even this fate— or so he declared—
by invoking certain spirits, if he had lived one day longer.692
Meanwhile, the letter from Maternianus arrived, but
was not destined to be read by Caracalla:
But it happened that this letter was diverted to Antioch
to the emperor’s mother Julia, since she had been instructed
to sort everything that arrived and thus prevent a mass of
unimportant letters from being sent to him while he was in
the enemy’s country; whereas another letter, written by
Ulpius Julianus, who was then in charge of the census, went
by other couriers direct to Macrinus, informing him of the
state of affairs. Thus the message to the emperor was
delayed, while the despatch to Macrinus was read by him
in good season.693
Yet was Cassius Dio’s version correct? He was well
informed about affairs at Rome.. Moreover, he gave the
name of the man, who had warned Macrinus directly.
But about affairs in the east he was clearly relying on
hearsay. This was shown, for example, in his account
of the episode involving Serapio. Herodianus, on the
other hand, seems to have been in the east at the time,
possibly even in the vicinity of Antioch. Consequently,
allowing for his careful metiiod of presentation, his own
account at least may be cited also: 1
The letter [from Maternianus to Caracalla], sealed up
among the public despatches, was given as usual to the
couriers, who, knowing nothing of the contents of their
888 Herodianus, 4, 12, 5.
880 Casius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 4, 4.
881 See above, p. 143 f.
““ Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 4, 5.
888 Ibid., 4, 3-4.

216 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF AST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
charge, traveled after their accustomed manner, and came
to Antoninus, just at the time when he was going to the
races, and had already mounted his chariot.
They delivered to him the package of letters safely in
which was the letter relating to Macrinus. But the em­
peror, wholly intent upon his diversion at the races, ordered
Macrinus to open the package apart by himself, and inspect
the contents, and if there was anything of extraordinary
moment, to send him w ord; if not, that he should perform
his duty as prefect in the usual manner. . . . Having left
these orders he proceeded to his diversion. Macrinus, pe­
rusing the letters in private, came at length to that which
contained his own death sentence.584
Cassius Dio knew Roman affairs, on which Hero­
dianus, on the other hand, was far less well informed.
In turn, Cassius Dio relied in this instance on second­
hand information from the Orient, while Herodianus’
much more detailed account — at least in comparison
with Dio’s extant epitome—has a certain flair of imme­
diacy when dealing with this and other matters in con­
nection with the end of Caracalla. In any case, whether
Julia dallied too long, or Macrinus was warned early
enough in one way or another, he now decided to make
the predictions of the African seer and the luckless
sorcerer Serapio come true. He formed a hurried con­
spiracy with some military men. Caracalla was to be
slain on an excursion across the desert, scheduled for
April 8, 217. Cassius Dio, who never failed to record
“ accurate ” warnings from astrologers or other diviners,
learned that the haruspices had definitely warned Cara­
calla to beware of April 8 — just as Julius Caesar had
been told by the haruspex Spurinna to fear the Ides
of March. Moreover, in truly Shakespearean manner,
Septimius Severus was said to have appeared to Cara­
calla “ in a dream, wearing a sword and saying, ‘ As
you killed your brother, so will I slay you.’ ” 595 Fit­
tingly enough the excursion to Carrhae was made for
the purpose of visiting a shrine of the moon.596 Was
it to appease the astral divinity after word reached
Caracalla that after a great and destructive fire in
Alexandria strange stars had appeared in the skies?591
According to Dio, the murder took place during an
expedition from Edessa to Carrhaewith this the author
of the vita in the SH A agreed in one passage,598 but
asserted in another that Caracalla s death march led
from Carrhae to Edessa,599 which would agree with
Herodianus who stated that the emperor, who had held
his court at Carrhae, was setting out for the temple
from there, a journey of several days— another instance
in which Dio’s knowledge of oriental affairs was ap­
parently less accurate than that of his fellow historian
Herodianus, whose statement should be accepted. About
694 Herodianus, 4, 12, 6-8.
fi83 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 7, 1-2.
Herodianus, 4, 13, 3.
097 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 7, 4.
“ 8 S H A , Caracalla, 6, 6.
5" Ibid., 7.
the goal of the expedition, however, there can be no
doubt:
. . . Antoninus had a mind to go from his court at
Carrhae, a city of Mesopotamia, and visit the temple of
the moon, which the local people hold in most religious
veneration. . . .600
According to Herodianus, the emperor had obviously
reached Carrhae and planned to proceed from there on
his visit to the shrine of the moon. The moon deity,
worshipped in the temple he was never to reach, was
supposedly the masculine oriental moon god,601 not the
familiar feminine Graeco-Roman deity Selene-Luna.802
The deed was done in the midst of the journey, and
Macrinus was proclaimed emperor. Among the first
of his acts was an order for the execution of Mater-
nianus.603
Soon afterwards Julia Domna died. She had long
suffered from cancer of the breast. Weary of life she
now hastened her end by refusing food and by beating
her breast thus worsening her condition.604 As she lay
dying she may have remembered those days long gone
when the proud promises of astrologers had fetched her
a husband who raised her to the summit of influence
and power. That husband had died years ago. Of her
two sons one had been slain in her very presence by
the other, who now in his turn had been murdered.
The blithe promises of hope and good fortune which
astrologers and soothsayers had dinned into her ears so
often, what had become of them ? The fortunes of her
house had sunk low. The imperial power had fallen
into other hands, not hostile to her, but plainly indif­
ferent. Julia Domna, well read as she was, may also
have remembered the warning of Solon that no one
should dare to proclaim himself happy before his last
hour. For Fortune was fickle. In her agony she seems
to have seen through the hollowness of all divination.
Indeed, she might have refused to believe it, had some
astrologer predicted to her the imminent fall of Macri­
nus and the accession to the throne of her sister’s
grandsons.
With the death of Caracalla the revival of the faith
in astrology at the imperial court, which had begun
with the accession of Septimius Severus, ended its
first phase. The nervous search for infallible knowl­
edge of the future which had characterized the lives of
men like Hadrian, Severus, and Caracalla more and
more deserted rational paths. Magic and mysticism,
dreams and omens seemed to provide direct divine
revelations. Isis and Mithras, Elagabalus and Ascle-
•oo H ero(]ianuSj 4( i 3i 3.
001 SH A , Caracalla, 6, 6; 7, 3-5; compare F. Cumont, Les
religions orientates . . .: 58 1 .
“°s Herodianus, 4, 13, 3, referred to the deity, however, under
the feminine name of Selene.
»<'8 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 15, 3.
“ * Ibid., 23, 1-6; 24, 1-3. Even Dio acknowledged the grim­
ness of her fate; see also Herodianus, 4, 13, 8.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E R V A TO SEV ERU S A L E X A N D E R
pius proffered religious certainty instead of scientific,
human, and, therefore, fallible methods of astrology.
This trend was clearly reflected in Latin and Greek
literature of the second and third centuries, before it
became politically manifest in the reign of Elagabalus,
the apostle of solar monotheism in Rome.
9. T H E D E C L IN E O F R A T IO N A L IS M A N D T H E
R IS E O F ST A R W O R S H IP
Towards the end of the second century the great
impetus of rational approaches to the riddles surround­
ing us, a movement which in the sixth century b . c .
began with the Ionian natural philosophers in the west­
ern world, had run its course. Men were tiring of the
endless quest for rational answers to cosmic problems.
Astrology now paid for its mighty claim of providing
scientifically accurate methods for an investigation of
the future. The amor fati of the Stoics of the second
century a . d . was but the lassitude of human surrender
to the inevitable force of Fate. But man’s desperate
desire to influence the future by actions based on his
own decisions, his religious hopes of appeasing anthro­
pomorphic divinities by rites and proper moral conduct
were unabated among the masses of the Roman world.
Beyond the realm of logic they found no incongruity
in their belief in fatalistic astrology while offering sacri­
fices and prayers to gods of any shape, color, or origin
to avert the very evils predicted as “ inevitable ” by the
astrologers. Fatalistic astrology therefore, fully ac­
cepted at any time by a small upper-class group of
intellectuals only, began to wither when this band of
supporters, the very intellectuals, tiring of reason, began
to abandon it.
The process was of course a gradual one. At all
times since the later Roman republic a not inconsiderable
number of upper-class Romans had been attracted to
foreign rites.805 The successful missionarizing of the
followers of Jupiter Sabazios,008 of Jews and Christians,
the duping of the fair Paulina, an aristocratic devotee
of Isis,007 or similar offenses of other sects had time
and again provoked repressive measures of the govern­
ment. But, as the principate reached its second cen­
tury, oppositional philosophical or religious sects like
the Stoics and Cynics, the Jews and Christians became
the chief target. The role of mystery cults in the Roman
empire has been fully described in the classic ceuvre of
F. Cumont and other modern scholars. The rising
popularity of astral elements in religious worship during
the later principate is illustrated by four writers, two
of them Latin authors, and two of them Greek. They
were, respectively, the Latins Apuleius of Madaura (ca.
•""F or example in the Bacchanalian rites severely curbed in
186 b. c .; see above, p. 47.
In 139 b . c.; compare p. 58.
°‘!TSee above, p. 102 f.
217
124-180?) and Censorinus (fl. between 200 and 250?),
and the Greek authors Julianus, son of Julianus the
Chaldaean (ca. 150-200), and Philostratus (ca. 175-
240).
Of this group Apuleius was probably the oldest.
Born in the African town of Madaura of well-to-do
parents, he received the traditional education, of a young
gentleman of the Latin west during the principate.
After attending the schools of higher learning at
Carthage00* he went to Athens, where he imbibed the
disciplines included in the philosophical studies of that
era.809 Thereafter he traveled widely, indulging in­
creasingly his interest in mystery cults, many of which
he joined.810 That he called himself a Platonist611
was in keeping with the era’s general trend towards
neo-platonism, but it would have seemed incompre­
hensible to the earlier age of the New Academy. Men
like Cameades, or in the Latin West, Cicero, would
have found such an attitude incompatible with their
own concepts of Platonism. How far Apuleius strayed,
however, not only from the path of the New Academy,
but also from that of Plato himself, was evident in the
three books of his uncompleted On the doctrine of
Plato612 (a work he abandoned apparently, because
the topic proved too much for him). A shorter treatise,
On the deity of Socrates,013 demonstrated even more
clearly the gulf between Plato and his Latin disciple
from Madaura. For Apuleius developed under this
heading an entire demonology, defining a realm of inter­
mediary divinities between the highest realm and the
human level,014 and insisted on Plato as the originator
of such a division. Apuleius introduced his astral deities
as those which in contrast to others were visible to the
mortal eye:
W e see you, most illustrious lights of the cosmos, who
in heaven are leading the year’s march. Nor are these
[zodiacal signs] alone outstanding. The Sun [also is] the
creator of daylight, and the Moon, the glory of the night,
is imitating the Sun . . . , be it that it [the moon] possesses,
as the Chaldaeans believe, a surface half shining and half
dark 015 . . . or that it lacks any glow of its own. . . .
No matter what may be the correct opinion, . . . at any
rate neither Greek nor barbarian would hesitate in the
slightest to say that the moon or the sun is a god, and
also . . . the five stars which commonly by the ignorant are
called vagabonds (vagae), but which actually . . . pursue
long established, stringently regulated, and eternal orbits
on an inflexible, certain and fixed course. . . . In the same
M . Schanz-Hosius-Krueger, Geschichte der roetnischen
Literatur, Hdb. I. Mueller, 8, 3; 3rd ed.: 100ff.; Muenchen,
C. H. Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1922.
Apuleius, Florida 4, 20.
010 Apuleius, Apologia, 23.
1,11 Apuleius, de Platonis dogmate 3, 4: pro “ Apuleio ” dicas
“ Philosophum Platonicum Madaurensem ” . . . .
°la De Platonis dogmate.
013 De deo Socratis.
814 Ibid., 13, for a definition of demons; compare Florida 2, 10.
015 This Chaldaean theory was mentioned for example by
Vitruvius, de architectura 9, 2, 1.
 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A STROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
category of visible deities belong, for anyone siding with
Plato( !), also the other stars.616
This astral host of divinities was of course supple­
mented with invisible ones of longstanding, all of whom
dwelled in the highest heaven (in sublimi vertice).
Beneath them an intermediary realm of demons was
’—then propounded by Apuleius. One of these demons
was to have been the daimonion to which Socrates in
his Apology referred as his guiding deity. In short,
apart from the existence of a general host of demons,
each human being was also credited with its special
guardian angel, a religious concept quite parallel to that
of the gnostic contemporaries of Apuleius. From our
particular point of view it may be noted that Apuleius
ranked the astral divinities alongside the traditional
hierarchy, but not yet above it. He felt of course him­
self that his Platonism had a strong dosis of neo-
pythagorean mysticism. In order to justify this he
insisted that Plato also had steeped himself in the creed
of Pythagoras:
After Socrates left mankind, he [Plato] searched for
sources from which he [Plato] might b e n e f i t , and adopted
the teachings of Pythagoras (ad Pythagorae duciplmam se
contulit). . . . And because he came to the conclusion
that the knowledge of the Pythagoreans (Pjythagoreorum
ingenium) was aided by other disciplines, he went to I heo-
dorus of Cyrene to learn geometry. And he went as far as
Eevpt in quest of astrologia and to learn the rites ot. the
prophets. Then he returned to Italy, attaching himself to
the Pythagoreans Burytus of Tarentum and . . . Archytas
And he would have visited the Indians_ and magi had not
wars closed Asia to him at that time.
No matter whether or not Apuleius considered him­
self a Platonist, however, he could not but dwell with
loving interest on the legendary Greek mystic, Pythago­
ras. In his Florida, culled at some unknown date by
an unknown excerptor from a collection of rhetorical
treatises of Apuleius— speeches he had held during his
W a n d e r ja h r e — , Plato’s alleged inspirer, Pythagoras,
was credited with similarly impressive travels, all of
which were directed to the Orient, Greece herself then
being still too backward to satisfy a zest for such higher
pursuit:
He 'f Pythagoras] became more renowned by the repu­
tation (fama) that he had cultivated the Egyptian disciplines
[including presumably astrology], and had learned there
from the priests the incredible powers of the [Egyptian]
rites (caeremoniarum), the marvelous qualities of numbers,
' the most complex formulae of geometry. Nor—-was it said—
was his mind satisfied with these arts, but he soon also
visited the Chaldaeans, and then the Brahmans . . . ot
India. . . .fll8
A religious universalist of the type of Apuleius would
also accept astrology at face value:
Apuleius, de deo Socratis, 1-2; compare de Platonis dog-
Apuleius, de Plat, dogm., 1, 3; see also Diogenes Laertius,
3, 6-7 ; but see on the subject of such voyages above, p. 81.
*18 Apuleius, Florida 2, 15, 3.
The Chaldaeans revealed to him the science of the stars
(sideralem scientiam), the fixed circuits of the wandering
divinities and their various influences on the nativities of
men. . . -619
It was but natural, therefore, that Pythagoras was
generally credited with the authorship of astrological
treatises.620
But not only in cosmological speculations or in a
translation of Peripatetic writings, the de mundo, did
Apuleius touch upon astrology. In his own life too he
was confronted with its hold upon other minds, as well
as his own. When he settled down in his native Africa,
a wealthy widow, Aemilia Pudentilla, married him. Her
sons stirred up trouble, until Apuleius’ brother-in-law,
Sicinius Aemilianus, accused him before the tribunal of
the governor, Claudius Maximus, of sorcery (ca. a . d .
155-158). In his Apologia Apuleius, then in his thirties,
refuted the charge. He attacked especially Herennius
Rufinus, who — father-in-law of Pudentilla’s (now de­
ceased) son Pontianus — had persuaded Sicinius to
undertake the prosecution:
Furthermore I have no idea what astrologers he had
consulted about the dowry with which he should set up his
daughter for marriage. I hear— although I wish they had
not prophesied the truth— that [they said] the bridegroom
would die in a few months. The rest— concerning the in­
heritance— they put together as they usually do in what­
ever way will please their clients best:621
The respect which Apuleius had shown towards the
priestly astrology of Egypt and Babylon was obviously
lacking in this evaluation of professional “ scientific ”
astrologers. The same note of disrespect was sounded
in a passage which Apuleius included in his Latin ver­
sion of a Greek fable, the so-called Metamorphoses, in
which a young man, having by magic been transformed
into a donkey, after many adventures regained his
human shape:
In our midst at Corinth a certain foreign astrologer set
the whole city on turmoil by his prophecies, and for money­
making purposes told the secrets of the Fates to everybody
(in vulgus). W hat day would strengthen the ties of matri­
mony, which one would make durable the building of walls,
what day would be favorable for a businessman, auspicious
for a voyager on land, opportune for travel by sea; to me
finally, when I inquired about the outcome of this journey,
he prophesied much that was strange and diverse: For
there would at some time be abundant fame [in store for
me], at another a great adventure (historiam magnam), an
incredible tale, and I would be [the subject of] books.622
The mixture of catarchic and fatalistic astrological
predictions mirrored faithfully what popular astrologers
were likely to tell gullible clients. In this case, indeed,
•“ Ibid. 2, 15, 4; but see again above, p. 8 f. about fabulous
voyages.
Compare above, p. 5 f.
011 Apuleius, Apologia, 97. Those astrologers, in predicting the
bridegroom’s death, violated of course flagrantly the edict of
A.D. 11 , but obviously this practice was quite common.
•** Apuleius, Metamorphoses 2, 13-14.
A s t r o l o g y i n r o m e f r o m n e r v a t o s e v e r u s Al e x a n d e r 219
incongruous with the original piquant story of the so-
it turned out. that the diviner was not altogether wrong.
Apuleius, however, in continuing the story insisted that called Golden Ass (Metamorphoses). In a fervent
the astrologer, a certain Diophanes, was a mountebank prayer addressed to the moon arising from the waters
wholly devoid of prophetic knowledge.628 the desperate Lucius pleaded with the astral goddess to
The religious inclinations of Apuleius were, indeed, redeem him from his animal shape.627 Here Apuleius
difficult to reconcile with the fatalist creed of “ scientific ”himself spoke in the guise of Lucius pleading for death
astrology. In his summary of Plato’s views on the or redemption. Exhaustedly Lucius, the ass, fell asleep.
relation between Fate and divine Providence — which In a dream Isis now. appeared to him in translucent
for example Lucian’s Zeus had tried to claim so vali­ brilliance and promised him salvation.028 Returned to
antly in his defense against Cyniscus 621— the difficulty human existence the grateful Lucius embraced fervently
of reconciling fatalism and religion was apparent: the rites of the goddess. With a paean of her cult
Apuleius closed his work.
He [Plato] defines three kinds of gods. The highest of The quaestiones naturales of Apuleius have not sur­
them is a single deity, beyond the cosmos ( ultramundanus)
and incorporeal. W e shall show later that he is the father vived. Of his astronomical or astrological writings—
if, indeed, they were his and not merely issued under
and architect of this divine world. A second kind of divinity
is that which the stars and the other deities possess which his name by someone else — we know apparently only
we call the “ dwellers in heaven” (Coelicolas). A third the few details which four hundred years later John
group consists of those . . . which are inferior in power
Lydus incorporated into two of his works, the de mensi-
to the highest divinities. . . .
But everything that happens naturally and therefore bus,(‘2'> and the de ostentis,630 but nowhere else did
rightly is governed by the guardianship of Providence. Nor he speak so clearly his own mind as he did at the end
could the cause of any evil be ascribed to God. Therefore of the Metamorphoses. The writings of Apuleius re­
he [Plato] believes that not everything can be referred to vealed throughout the great change which the intel­
the lot of Fate (fati sortem). He defined it thus: Provi­ lectuals of the second century experienced. Apuleius
dence is the divine conscience (sententia) , the protector of
that prosperity for which it is its duty to work. Fate, how­ himself had spoken of the nectar-like quality of Greek
ever, is the divine law, by which the inevitable plans (cogita- philosophy which intoxicated him at Athens. But ra­
iiones) of God and all beginnings are fulfilled. Hence what tionalist fatalism in quasi-Platonic disguise had failed
is done by Providence, that is also done by Fate. And what to satisfy his innermost longing. Astral divinities also
is terminated by Fate, must be considered as terminated by
Providence.025
were too concrete, too material for his mystic leanings.
A cult which like that of Isis combined elements of
In this manner the “ Platonist ” Apuleius came to star worship with those of transcendental union between
terms with fatalism. But this solution could not possi­ the deity and man seemed to him and to an increasing
bly satisfy the longing of his heart for the mysterious,620 number of other intellectuals the fulfilment of a great
the lofty religious exaltation which had led him finally emotional need. It was perhaps significant that such
to embrace the cult of Isis, on whose ritual he became tendencies were equally manifest in both spheres of the
one of our most important sources of information. In empire, in the Greek east, as well as in the Latin west.
transposing into Latin the Greek romance of a man, About three quarters of a century later, at the very
who, having been changed into an ass by means of time when the tide of revolution began to sweep away
magic, finally regained his human form, Apuleius gave the foundations of the society and the culture of the
the popular story a completely different ending. Origi­ principate, Q. Caerellius in 238 received among the
nally the bewitched Lucius had regained his human presents on his birthday a little treatise On the birthday
shape simply by at last discovering a bunch of roses. (de die natali). Most of its text has been preserved,
Since eating roses was (as he knew) the means of as has a fragment of another work ascribed to the pen
breaking the spell, he simply used this opportune mo­ of the same author: 081 Censorinus.032 The essay On
ment, devoured the flowers, and was transformed into the birthday brought together from many sources
his former self. Apuleius, however, provided a denoue­ materials pertinent to the treatment of this topic:
ment which in its deeply religious mood was wholly ’ s7 Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11, 1-21.
028 Ibid. 11, 3-6.
'“ ’'Ibid., 14. Elsewhere (2, 28), however, an Egyptian wizard 029 Lydus, dc mcnsibtis 4, 116: “ There are, according to
was implored “ by the heavenly planets ” to recall a man from Aristotle, nine types of comets, but, according to the Roman
death. The priestly sage obliged. The passage confirms the Apuleius, ten.”
impression that Apuleius had greater respect for magical or *3,>Lydus, dc ostentis, pr. ; 3; 4; 7; 10; 44; 54 (ed. Wachs-
mystical prowess than for “ scientific ” astrology. muth: 8, 25; 103 ( “Apuleius wrote on such matters”) ; 14, 21;
051 Lucian, Zeus catechised, 10 ff. 35, 7 (where Apuleius, as well as Varro and Nigidius Figulus,
Apuleius, dc Plat, dogm., 1, 11-12; compare also Asclepius, are cited as Lydus’ authorities for his chapter on comets) ; 98, 6
39-40, where Hermes Trismegistus delivers himself of an expose ( “ the great Apuleius” on lightning); 110, .8 (Apuleius on
on Fate. earthquakes).
" ’ Apuleius, Apologia, 84, said specifically that in his opinion M1 Both treatises were edited by F. Hultsch, Leipzig, 1867.
magic and fate were two mutually exclusive concepts. This view *33 Compare on him Wissowa, RE 3, 1899, c. 1908, no.. 7,-c. •
of magic was, however, by no means generally held. 1910; Schanz-Hosius-Krueger. op. cit., 3 (3rd ed.) : 219 ff.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M NERVA TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 221
220 T HE R IS E AND T R IU M P H O F AST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
scientific theories thrown together at random was a far that Julianus wrote copiously on magic.053 Among the
Since precious gifts are not lacking thanks to the excel­ in the science of stars and constellations ” (qui in stel-
cry, indeed, from the works of earlier Latin writers like definitely astrological works of the younger Julianus
lence of your mind (per anipii virtutem ), while I, on the larum signorumque ratione verum scrutantur) ,638 i. e.
other hand, have no supply of them owing to my impecuni­ Nigidius Figulus, Cicero, Germanicus, and Manilius, seems to have been one which was organized according
in his own terminology astronomers, as well as astrolo­
ousness, I have sent you under the title O n the birthday all of whom had wrestled with such topics. Serious to planetary zones.054 Julianus allotted to Chronos the
gers. Accordingly he often referred to astrologi in the
whatever I did compile by my efforts in this book.033 interest in “ scientific” astrology had all but vanished seventh zone. His religious views blended with his
purely astronomical sense, for example in the discussion
in the Latin world by the end of the principate. The astrological concepts. For he preached a sun cult. In
Beginning with a discussion of the biological ante­ of the length of the solar year,030 and in the section riddles of the universe, of man’s life and death within this also Julianus was a pioneer of the era to come.
cedents of birth, Censorinus, having quoted the opinion devoted to the discussion of the length of a day.640 it were no longer probed with eager reason (however First Elagabalus, then the emperor Aurelianus pro­
of many Greek authorities on the matter, arrived at the The essay of Censorinus was not the work of a scien­ ill-guided). A new era, an age of faith, was at hand, claimed sun worship as the supreme cult of the empire.
Chaldaean views: tist, or even an astrologer, but that of a grammarian. seeking new answers to old problems.
That the author, although not blessed with earthly Philostratus, unlike Julianus, was a professional lit­
But now the theory of the Chaldaeans must be briefly riches, enjoyed a considerable professional reputation Among the contemporaries of Apuleius in the Greek terateur. This made him all the more valuable, because
treated. And it has to be explained why they believe that east the Chaldaean Julianus046 and his far more re­ he was willing to write on any subject his patrons would
men can be born in the seventh month, as well as in the
in his own field was attested by later writers. One of
nowned son, also named Julianus,047 represented the appreciate. For many years he belonged to the personal
ninth and tenth. Primarily they say that our doings and life them remembered him as “ most learned in the gram­ pioneers of a type which was destined to replace the entourage of Severus, especially attaching himself to
are subject to both planets and fixed stars, and the human marian discipline,” 641 while another, writing in the fifth
race is governed by their diverse and multiple motion, but century of our era, specifically praised the essay On the “ scientific ” astrologer. Unlike Vettius Valens, who Julia Domna, wife of Severus and mother of Caracalla.
also that the movements, constellations (schemata), and birthday as a masterpiece (volumen illustre) ,'ii2 The had said that it was useless to offer sacrifices to the Her predilection for surrounding herself with astrolo­
effects are often changed by the sun . . . which (as it rules gods,648 since all was ruled by inexorable fate—a tradi­ gers and literati has already been mentioned.655 Little
the very stars by which we are ruled) gives us the soul by greatest Latin scholar of the sixth century also paid tional argument of staunch fatalists — the Juliani were did she anticipate in those halcyon days of power the
which we are governed . . . when after the conception we tribute to Censorinus,643 while a scribe of the seventh
theurgians, i. e. miracle-men who believed that the secret bitter end in store for her. Posterity owed her the
come forth into the light of day.634 century left us the oldest extant manuscript of the de
forces of nature, not only the stars and constellations, existence of a Caracalla, but also the incentive for a
die natali, on which all modern editions are based. It
Censorinus after this exposition of astral dominance was an irony of history that this little work alone sur­ had a part in shaping mundane phenomena. Evocation work by Philostratus which (written about 217) was
set forth summarily the definition of the zodiac, equally vived almost intact — the beginning and the end are of spirits, quasi-religious ritualistic procedures, astro- to have considerable influence on later pagan religious
divided among the twelve signs, whose mutual relations missing — while his professional writings were left to magic— alchemical rites— a blending of various religious thought, the Life of Apollonius of Tyana. Its very
differed amongst each other depending on the time and perish. For posterity, however, the fact that the trained and scientific ingredients in a spirit of mysticism— this success with pagan readers evoked a bitter Christian
the position of the planets. Hence the constellation philologist chose only good authors for his sources has was the atmosphere of the new missionaries of divine counter attack from Eusebius as late as the fourth cen­
prevailing at the moment of birth differed necessarily proved a real boon, inasmuch as his excerpts preserved revelations. The older Julianus, perhaps the one to tury. Philostratus himself acknowledged his debt to
from the one which had governed the moment of con­ much that otherwise would have perished. whom the Christian Arnobius referred,049 was known Julia Domna. Damis, a follower of Apollonius, then
ception. The subdivision of the zodiacal circle into 360 for example as the author of a work on demons which dead for more than a century, had written an account
A fragment, ascribed to Censorinus, may also be consisted of at least four books. of the theurgian philosophers:
one-degree sectors, as well as the theory of the special
mentioned. For its first three chapters have been found
effects of triangular, square, hexagonal, and other His son, who lived under Marcus Aurelius, was
to be identical with the scholia Sangermanensia dealing A certain kinsman of Damis drew the attention of the
planetary groupings, added the necessary variety for the credited by Suidas with the authorship of the so-called empress Julia to the documents containing these memoirs
with the Aratea of Germanicus.044 Moreover, this frag­
prediction of individual lives. Each month of pregnancy Chaldaean oracles, a weird concoction of astrological hitherto unknown. Now I belonged to the circle of the
ment contains our oldest extant treatment of Latin
was also astrologically affected. For numerological and mystical elements.650 A miracle worker — perhaps empress. For she was a devoted admirer of all rhetorical
reasons the Chaldaeans ( ?) denied the possibility of the metric. identical with the Egyptian magus Arnuphis, who in exercises; and she commanded me to recast and edit these
living birth of embryos during the eighth month of The crowded compilation of the birthday-essay with 174 saved M. Aurelius and his parched army from cer­ essays, at the same time paying more attention to the style
and diction of them.050
pregnancy, while in the seventh, ninth, and tenth month its discussion of pertinent topics like the calendar, its tain annihilation by conjuring up rain through magical
children could be born alive.935 year, months, and days, together with some medico- invocations651— the younger Julianus was considered In “ reconstructing ” the life and philosophy of Apol­
astrological summary of diverse views on the biological by the neo-platonists as a pioneer of their own mystical
Chaldaean astronomy too was referred to by Censo­ lonius of Tyana, Philostratus undoubtedly molded his
aspects of human birth itself was' of course not meant creed. Proclus (410-485) and his Christian contempo­
rinus, when he discussed the various figures for the hero into a pattern which became more and more popu­
to be more than a scholarly gift. The first three chap­ rary, Sozomen, still paid tribute to the reputation of
length of the year.030 His use of the term astrologus lar during this era. We have already seen how the
ters dealt with the cosmos, the sky, and both planets Julianus. The pagan Proclus admired Julian’s theur-
was similar to that of Cicero, i. e. it covered the entire worship of the moon, for example, had found its rap­
and fixed stars, respectively.045 Although neither treatise gic works,052 while the Christian Sozomen recorded
realm of astronomy. For example, in the introduction turous expression in Apuleius, whose Lucius by pray­
of Censorinus made any new contribution to science or
to the section dealing with the time of live births he ing to the full moon had evoked the dream in which
pseudo-science, they indicated the continuing interest
insisted that “ some elements of astrologia, music, and 343 Compare Suidas, s. v . ; W. Kroll, R E 10, 1919: c. 15, no. 8. Isis promised him the restoration to human shape.657
arithmetic” (quaedam . . . de astrologia, musicaque et of Rome’s upper strata in some measure of astronomical 347 Suidas, s. v.\ W. Kroll, ibid.: c. 15, no. 9,-c. 17. Theurgic heroes who transcended the confines of ra­
and astrological knowledge. Otherwise the little Latin 348Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 5, 9 (ed. Kroll: 220, 28).
arithmetica) must be discussed.637 Again in discussing tionalist philosophy to enter the realm of mystic ecstasy
essay could hardly have been understood by its recipient. 343Arnobius, adversus gentes 1, 52 (Migne, P. L. 5, c. 790).
the meaning of sacculum our author showed that he 350 Suidas, s. v. ; on the Chaldaean Oracles, see W. Kroll, R E and worship were rapidly becoming fashionable in cur­
Nor would it have attracted later copyists. But the
had come across Berossus’ views on the subject. That 3, 1899, c. 2045; 10: c. 15 ff.; F. Cumont, Lux pcrpetua (1949) : rent literature. Philostratus, therefore, seems to have
hodge-podge of philosophical, scientific, and pseudo-
“ founding father ” of Hellenistic astrology was quoted 231; 273; 304 ; 373; 361; 363; 366 ; 379. J. Bidez, Cat. codicum
as allotting a span of 116 years to the saeculum. In alchem. graec. 6, 1928 : 61, 23 ; 62, 6; compare 218, 9 and 22. 3"a Sozomen, hist. eccl. 1, 18.
033Ibid., 17, 4. W. Theile, Die chaldaeischen Orakel . . . . Sc hr. d. Konigs-
this connection Censorinus inserted a definition of the “ 4Proclus, in Platonis Timaeum comment. 4 (ed. E. Diehl
030Ibid., 18, 9; 19, 2; 22, 4. berger Gel. Ges. 18, 1, 1942; Cat. 9, 1: 106-111.
astrologi. They were “ men who search for the truth 3: 27, 10) ; compare W. Kroll, R E 10, 1919: c. 16.
•4* Ibid., 23, 3. 361Cassius Dio, ep. 72, 8, 2-4; Suidas, s. v. ’IouXiavos, and s. v. 353 Philostratus, vit. soph. 2, 30 (f. 622).
041Xh. Priscianus, 1, 4, 17; compare 19, 1, 6. About a . d . 500. *Apvovtpi?; compare W. Kroll, R E 10, 1919: c. 15 f. Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 1, 3. The author'men­
038 Censorinus, de die natali, 1, 5. 342 Sidonius Apollinaris, carmina 14, pr., 3. 052 See Proclus, in Platonis Cratylum comm., 122 (ed. Pas-
443Cassiodorus, de artibus ac disciplinis liberalium litterarum tioned that besides a purported collection of Apollonius’ letters
" ‘ Ibid., 8, 1-3; note the emphasis on the sun. quali: 72, 10, Leipzig, Teubner, 1908); also in rempublicam and the sage’s testament he had also read a work on Apollonius
333Ibid., 8, 4-13. 5: de musica (Migne, P .L ., 70: c. 1208 D ). Plat, comment, (ed. W. Kroll, 2: 123, 12, Leipzig, Teubner, by Moeragenes, but rejected it as untrustworthy.
°3° Ibid., 11, 8-9; compare also, 18, 7. See above, p. 26. 1901, and elsewhere). 337 Apuleius, Metamorphoses 11, 1-6.
™ Ibid.,7,\. 3,5 Ed. Hultsch: 55-60, 7.
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF A ST ROLOGY IN THE LA T IN W O R L D
222
used his materials for bringing out in particular the
theurgic qualities of Apollonius. Born in the Cappa-
docian city of Tyana, he was a younger contemporary
of Christ, perhaps a boy in his early ’teens when Christ
died on the cross. At the age of fourteen Apollonius
was brought to Tarsus by his father to receive a higher
education. He was approximately the same age as
Paul, a native of that city. Both boys may have attended
the same lectures of Greek professors of grammar and
literature in Tarsus. For the Jew Paul received in his
native city a solid education along the traditional pagan
lines. After steeping himself in the theories of the vari­
ous schools of philosophy, including Epicurean scepti­
cism, Apollonius was finally and definitely attracted to
neo-Pythagoreanism, whose mysticism had found much
favor among Greeks and Romans for the past hundred
years, including among its converts men like P. Nigidius
Figulus and M. Terentius Varro.658
The young philosopher swore off the consumption of
meat and wine, and used either crude shoes of bark or
none at all. He was only sixteen years old when he
embarked on this austere life. His hair henceforth
knew no scissors, his beard no razor. Like the holy
men of India this strange figure moved for the next
half-century across the Mediterranean scene. He was
as usual credited with extensive voyages, covering for
example Persia, India, and Egypt.050 From India he
seems to have derived, according to his own claims, the
Hindu aversion to the killing of animals, and, inasmuch
as most meat eaten by the lower strata of the Roman
world came from sacrificial animals, the fierce campaign
of Apollonius against all sacrifices not only opposed the
religious practices in vogue among Jews and gentiles,
but also the dietary habits of almost every inhabitant
of the empire. That meat was costly and hence for
most people a rarity made it all the more attractive and
desirable. From India too Apollonius professed to have
received his deep impression of sun worship060 which,
indeed (according to Philostratus), he developed into a
monotheist cult, reviving after fourteen hundred years
the creed of the Egyptian king Akhnaton.
To what extent Philostratus colored historical facts
to please Julia Domna (whose father, Bassianus, had
been the chief priest in a temple of sun worship) cannot
be determined with certainty. But it can hardly have
failed to impress his imperial patroness to learn that
Apollonius too had been a sun worshipper in his own
right, who, for example, “ having landed at Corinth and
worshipped the Sun about midday, with his usual rites,
*“ See above, p. 8 £.
*“ Compare Apollonius, epist. 17: “ The Persians give the
name of magi to divine beings. A magus then is either a wor­
shipper of the gods, or one who is by nature divine. Well, you
lEuphrates] are no magus, but a man without god.”
000 For example Philostratus, Apollonius, 2, 24; 25; 32; 43;
compare 5, 25; 6, 11.
embarked in the evening for Sicily and Italy.” 661 Divi­
nation by means of the sun was also an important factor
in his creed.662 Obviously, in opposing the sacrifice of
any animal, he had to discard any faith in the age old
haruspicial techniques which insisted on reading the
future in the entrails of sacrificial victims.663 Never­
theless, he defended the principle of divination itself:
“ He practices divination.” Yes, for many are the things
we know not, and there is no way of foreseeing anything
that is going to happen. “ But such practices are not con­
sonant with philosophy.” Nevertheless they befit the deity.664
As a miracle-working theurgian, Apollonius had good
reason to fear accusations of magic, including also the
practice of divination by magic. Tried for his life by
Domitian, he refuted among other charges the one of
divination by magic for Nerva’s benefit, a rite allegedly
involving the sacrifice of a human victim.665 He sharply
distinguished between divination proper and magic:
Divination . . . is highly esteemed, if it be genuine and
tell the truth, though whether it is an art I am not yet sure.
But I anyhow affirm that wizards (-yoj)T«) . . . get men to
believe that the unreal is real, and to distrust the real as
unreal. . . . The cleverness of this art is relative to the
folly of the persons who are deceived by them. . . . Its
professors are given up wholly to filthy lucre.666
His general thesis, according to Philostratus, was
that magic was a fraud practiced by crooks on the
simple minded. Its widespread use, assuredly no less
in a . d . 200 than in the reign of the Flavians, was
attested to:
Magic also besieges the doors of merchants . . . , for we
shall find them too attributing their successes in trade to
the wizard or sorcerer. . . . But it is especially lovers who
are addicted to this art. . . . They will accept . . . a box
with stones in it, . . . some of the bits of stone having come
. . . from the moon and the stars. . . . But for myself I
would only denounce such arts in order to prevent young
men from resorting to its professors, lest they become accus­
tomed to such things even in fun.667
The fearful punishment of sorcerers, summarized in
the writings of the great Roman jurists of the period,
especially in the Sententiae of Philostratus’ contempo­
rary Paulus,608 was grim evidence of the continuing
popularity of magic.
In view of the solar monotheism and the frowning
of Apollonius on all haruspicial kinds of divination it
is hardly surprising to see him drawn towards a blood­
less variant of divination which excluded both magic
•“ Ibid. 7, 10.
K‘ Ibid. 5, 25 (end).
003Ibid. 8, 7, 12; compare 5, 25, and elsewhere.
““‘ Apollonius, epist., 8 (to Euphrates).
“““ Philostratus, Apollonius 8, 7, 12.
“«* Ibid. 8, 7, 3.
•” Ibid. 7, 39.
‘“"Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2),
Seminar 10, 1952 : 48 ff.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N ERV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
and animal sacrifices, a method, moreover, which paid
full tribute to the supreme power of 'the sun, i. e. to
fatalistic astrology. To what extent Philostratus pre­
sented his hero in such a light in order to gratify the
prevalent preference of astrology in the imperial family,
must needs remain conjectural. But there can be no
doubt about the most uncompromising stand on behalf
of fatalism which he ascribed to Apollonius. Not even
the most fanatical devotee of fatalist astrology could
surpass the faith of the famous theurgian. In a bold
attack upon Domitian, which at Smyrna he delivered
in public, Apollonius turned to a bronze statue of the
emperor and exclaimed:
Thou fool, how much art thou mistaken in thy views of
Destiny and Fate. For even if thou shouldst slay the man
who is fated to be despot after thyself, he would come to
life again.660
This reached the ears of the emperor and was made
part of the charges against the theurgian. He defended
himself without, however, disowning his views on Fate;
W hat I said concerned the topic of the Fates and Neces­
sity . . . I dwelled upon the influence of the Fates, and
argued that the threads which they spin are so unchange­
able, that, even if they decreed to someone a kingdom which
at the moment belonged to another, and even if that other
slew the man of destiny, . . . nevertheless the dead man
would come to life again in order to fulfill the decree of
the Fates. . . .
He who is destined to become a carpenter, will become
one even if his hands have been cut off; and he who has
been destined to carry off the prize for running in the
Olympic games, will not fail to win even if he broke his
leg; and a man to whom the Fates have decreed that he
shall be an eminent archer, will not miss the mark, even
though he lost his eyesight. . . .
Vitellius [the emperor] declared that his own fortune was
assured . . . and yet, because the Fates had decreed other­
wise, he was undone with all his counsels, while you
[Domitian] are now in possession of the throne.670
The most fanatical Stoic could go no further in cham­
pioning fatalism. Although Apollonius relied on his
direct contact with the supernatural world rather than
on fatalistic astrology for his predictions, he could and
did not oppose this craft as a proper source of divina-
tory information. He was even credited with having
himself composed a substantial work on astrology in
four books:
. . . Damis says that Apollonius alone partook of the
philosophic discussion together with Iarchas, and that he
embodied the results in four books, concerning divination
by stars (iiavrtias dtrrcpwv), a work which Moeragenes also
has mentioned.671
Philostratus, Apollonius 7, 9. The speech was delivered
shortly before the assassination of Domitian, and Philostratus
gave Apollonius full credit for his advance knowledge of events.
Actually, however, the maiestas indictment of the sage seems
to have been based on the charge of conspiratorial collaboration
with Nerva rather than on his utterance of illegal prophecies.
•,0 Ibid. 8, 7, 16.
0,1 Ibid. 3. 41.
223
It is, however, not certain that Apollonius wrote such
a work, but his objection to sacrifices was very probably
the topic of another work in which he must have spoken
out sharply against them. Philostratus, who found and
read this work, doubted the above reports about Apol­
lonius’ astrological treatise and remarked cautiously:
“ . . . I do regard the work on the stars and any such
divination as transcending human nature, and I doubt
that anyone has that knowledge.” 672 The fact that Philo­
stratus failed to find a copy of Apollonius’ book on
astrology is of course no argument against its existence.
At any rate Philostratus quoted Damis without com­
ment to show that Apollonius was not insensitive to
astral mysticism:
Iarchas gave seven rings to Apollonius named after the
seven stars, and . . . Apollonius wore each of these in turn
on the day of the week which bore its name.873
The emphasis of Apollonius on supernatural revela­
tions inevitably led to his being accused of magical
practices, a serious charge against which his disciples
were at great pains to defend him:
. . . He was enabled to make such forecasts by some
divine impulse. . . . It is no sound inference . . . that our
hero was a wizard. . . . Wizards whom for my part I
reckon to be the most unfortunate of mankind, claim to
alter the course of destiny, by having recourse to the torture
of lost spirits or to barbaric sacrifices, or to certain incan­
tations or anointings. . . . But Apollonius submitted himself
to the decrees of the Fates, and only foretold things that
must come to pass; and his foreknowledge was not gained
by wizardry, but from what the gods revealed to him.674
These words, taken from an earlier source, or per­
haps being Philostratus’ own comment, summed up the
attitude of Apollonius concerning the relation between
Fate and divination. The (solar) monotheism of the
theurgian and his emphasis on the need of a human
savior as mediator between god and man made Apol­
lonius a pagan rival of Christ and hence a target for
Christian attacks. In the fourth century Eusebius, son
of Pamphilius, wrote a special treatise, already men­
tioned, against Philostratus’ portrait of Apollonius.
That Eusebius contested any claims to Apollonius’
divine or semi-divine status was to be expected. Equally
sharp were Eusebius’ barbs against Apollonius’ fatalist
doctrines:
W hy do you insult wizards . . . if they are dragged down
by the Fates, as you believe, to their miserable life. . . . And
in the same way with regard to Nero and Domitian, why
do you not saddle upon the Fates and Necessity the respon­
sibility for their unbridled insolence, and acquit them of
all responsibility and blame? . . . Surely if it has been
destined that a man should be a wizard, and that being his
character, a wizard or a murderer and a wicked man and a
reprobate, come what will, he must of necessity end by being
Loc. cit.
"T1Loc. cit.
"* Ibid. 5, 12.
 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF A ST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
224
such a person. W hy then do you go wandering about,
preaching the virtues to those who are incapable of re­
fo rm ?075
To this logic Apollonius might of course have replied
that it just happened to be his own fate to go about
preaching to people in the full knowledge of their
inability to change for the better by any decision of
their own. An ecclesiastical dialectician, however, was
capable of handling that argument also:
But perhaps you will say the Fates drove you also on to
these courses. . . . And why . . ., if it was decreed by
Fate that you . . . should transcend the glory of king, did
you visit schools of teachers and philosophers, and trouble
yourself about Arabians and about the m agi of Babylon,
and the wise men of India? . . . I t was not your own will
and choice, nor a love of philosophy either, but Fate that
led you in her noose.670
Wherever one might look, Latin and Greek literature
at the end of the second and the beginning of the third
century revealed the decline of rationalism. The last
major antifatalists, men like Sextus Empiricus and
Alexander of Aphrodisias, were losing their battle, not
to their rationalist opponents, but to a third force which,
having been kept in leash for a long time by the staunch
advocates of reason, now rose to sweep the wearisome
arguments of both rationalist factions away in a mount­
ing torrent of religious faith. “ Scientific” astrology
ceased to be of interest to men like Philostratus’ Apol­
lonius, whether or not they believed in Fate. The wings
of faith were to reach the stars which had never fully
revealed their secrets to fallible mortal astrologers. An
astral hierarchy, ruled by the sun, now contended with
and finally superseded the official deities of the Roman
empire. The first apostle on the imperial throne to
preach the new gospel to an amazed and soon infuriated
Roman public was a grandnephew of Philostratus’
patroness, Julia Domna, the grandson of her sister,
Maesa, the sun priest Elagabalus.
10. FR IE N D S AN D FOES OF THE SUN CULT AT
THE END OF THE PRIN CIPATE
It was to be expected that Opellus Macrinus, who
succeeded Caracalla in 217, was all the more fervently
convinced of the accuracy of divinatory predictions,
because in his own case they had so exactly foretold
his rise to the imperial power. He stemmed from
Mauretania, had studied law, and then achieved the
position of steward in the household of Severus’ erst­
while favorite Plautianus, the father-in-law of Cara­
calla.677 When his employer was slain for treason,
Macrinus, having barely avoided sharing his fate,
emerged as a superintendent of traffic on the Flaminian
road, a post to which he was appointed by Severus.
878 Eusebius, contra Philostr. vit. Apoll., 41.
Loc. cit.
877 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 11, 1-3.
Finally he had managed to become the confidant of
Severus’ son and heir, Caracalla. The versatile Moor
for whom an African seer had, as we noticed, predicted
the throne,678 was of course familiar with the cult of
Tanit.670 A moon goddess, she was then the tutelary
deity of Carthage.680 From there this Caelestis Afro-
rum Dea, the “ Sky Goddess ” of the Africans, had
migrated to reach great popularity throughout northern
Africa and Spain. Thence, as so many other cults,
hers had been carried to the ends of the Roman empire
by her devotees in the Roman army.
Tanit of course also issued prophecies. One of her
priestesses, when inspired by the goddess in the reign
of Antoninus Pius, had suddenly exclaimed the name
Antoninus eight times. At first this had been inter­
preted as a prophecy that the emperor would rule eight
more years, but when he refused to abide by the verdict
and lived on, the devotees of Tanit alias Caelestis
( Urania) had hurriedly changed the meaning of the
oracle and henceforth suggested that it meant that eight
emperors of the name Antoninus were going to rule
the Roman empire681 which, thereafter, would perish.
The priestesses of Tanit were apparently loyal sup­
porters of the Roman administration. For when Pertinax
in the reign of Commodus (180-192) “ was made pro­
consul of Africa, during his proconsulship . . . he sup­
pressed many rebellions by the aid of prophetic verses
which issued from the temple of Caelestis.” 682 The
oracle of the eight Antonines must have been widely
known among the Roman legions. For when Caracalla
was slain his army was shaken by superstitious fears:
. . . Great Sorrow beset the hearts of all, for they thought,
because they had not an Antoninus at the head of the state,
that with Bassianus [Caracalla] the Rome empire would
come to an end.088
The simple soldiers vaguely knew that a number of
emperors had borne the name of Antoninus, or had
chosen it after their accession.684 Partly at least Macri­
nus may have been influenced by considerations of this
kind when he insisted of the deification of the very man
he had murdered and then himself bestowed this name
on his young son Diadumenianus.685 But the young
man’s prospects were dim, as, after his death, believers
in divination were quick to point out.686 Indeed, “ Fate
had decreed («rx>)*') that Macrinus [with his son] was
678Ibid., 4, 1-2.
878 On her relationship with other star-gods, compare F.
Cumont, Les religions orientates . . .: 262, n. 77.
888Herodianus, 5, 6, 4.
881 SHA, Macrinus, 3, 1-2.
8,8 SHA, Pertinax, 4, 2.
083 SHA, Diadumenianus, 1, 2.
“8‘ For this kind of vagueness, compare also SHA, Macrinus,
3, 4-8, a thoroughly garbled sequence of fiction and facts.
085 SHA, Macrinus, 3, 8; Diadumenianus, 2, 6-10; Cassius
Dio, ep. 79 (78), 19, 1-2.
88“ SHA, Diadumenianus, 1, 1.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
to reign in pleasure but one year, and then to lose both
life and empire.” 687 During that year, however, he
executed Maternianus, who had almost caused his
ruin.688 He rewarded, on the other hand, his timely
wamer, Ulpius Julianus, with the praetorian prefecture.
Julianus went to Syria to take over his command, but
was soon involved in his master’s ruin. When in 218
the tides of fortune began to run against Macrinus,
Julianus was slain by his own troops who then went
over to the rebels.680 Meanwhile, the Roman senate,
while not delighted at being ruled by a low-born Moor,
still considered Macrinus preferable to the late oppres­
sive fratricide. The army, however, continued to regret
the loss of a bountiful patron in whose place a stem
civilian now ruled.
The beginning of one of the portentous revolutions
of Roman history was, as is often the case, almost
trivial:
There was a Phoenician woman, named Maesa, of Eme-
s u s (!), a city of Phoenicia, who was a sister of Julia
[Domna], the wife of Severus and the mother of [the late]
Antoninus [Caracalla]. During the lifetime of her sister
Maesa had spent many years at the court in the reigns of
Severus and Antoninus, but after her sister’s death and
the assassination of Antoninus [Caracalla] Macrinus had
ordered her to return to her native country and to live
there in quiet domesticity in full possession of her fortune.
. . . This woman had two daughters, the elder named
[Julia] Soaemis, the younger Mamaea 680 . . . by her hus­
band Julius Avitus, an ex-consul. She had also two grand­
sons. One was Avitus [Bassianus], the son of Soaemis and
Varius Marcellus, a man of the same race . . . who had
been enrolled in the senate, and later had died. The other
was [Alexianus] Bassianus, the son of Mamaea and Gessius
Marcianus, who was also a Syrian . . . Avitus . . . after
his governorship of Asia . . . had died from old age and
sickness.691
Thus Maesa, a sister-in-law of Severus, her two
daughters, and two grandsons entered the arena of
history at this stage:
Educated under their mothers and grandmother [Avitus]
Bassianus was about fourteen years old, but Alexianus
[Bassianus] was not yet advanced beyond the tenth year.
They were both priests of the sun. This deity the natives
[of Emesa] worship with singular devotion, calling him in
the Phoenician language Elagabalus :602
Dissatisfaction of the army with Macrinus, promises
and bribes on the part of Maesa, her fraudulent claims
to the effect that Caracalla had actually fathered both
boys — these elements blended in a fantastic plot to
which Macrinus’ power and then his life fell victim.
Elagabalus, or as the Greeks were to call him: Helio-
08’ Herodianus, 5, 3, 1.
088 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 15, 3.
880 Herodianus, 5, 2-4; SHA, Macrinus, 10, 1-3; Cassius Dio,
ep. 79 (78), 15, 1-2; 31, 4; 32, 1-33, 2 ; 34, 1-5.
800 Herodianus, 5, 3, 2-3.
081 Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 30, 2-4.
Herodianus, 5, 3, 3-4.
225
gabalus, seems to have ruled for only four years there­
after. His age in 218 was only about fourteen; he was
therefore but eighteen years old when in 222 he was
slain in Rome. But during those four years, in spite
of the frantic attempts of the three women, Maesa,
Soaemis, and Mamaea, to keep his religious fervor in
check, this youngster attempted the greatest religious
revolution which Rome was to witness prior to the
victory of Christianity more than a century later. The
extant accounts, chiefly those of Herodianus; Cassius
Dio, and the SHA, showed the incredible career of the
young emperor, perhaps the most fantastic ruler that
ever sat on any European throne. Elagabalus seems
to have considered his miraculous accession to the
throne as a mandate from his Lord, the sun, to estab­
lish solar monotheism as the dominant religion through­
out the Roman empire. A number of passages from
our historians may illustrate this revolutionary aspect
of Elagabalus’ reign.
At first “ he sought refuge in the temple of the god
Elagabalus, as in a sanctuary, for fear that Macrinus
would kill him.” 603 This shrine was, indeed, more
than a mere local sanctuary:
A very large temple had been built to him, adorned with
much gold and silver, and a wealth of precious stones. Nor
is he only worshipped by the local people, but all the
neighboring satraps and kings of the barbarians are sending
to the god every year costly offerings.604
In such an atmosphere the dream was born of making
this cult supreme throughout the empire. It was there
that Roman soldiers discovered the young sun priest.
The army of Caracalla,.now commanded by Macrinus,
was still encamped in the vicinity, and many soldiers
visited the far famed shrine:
It happened while he was performing divine service, and
dancing in the chorus around the altars according to the
custom of barbarians to the sound of flutes, pipes, and all
kinds of instruments, that among others the soldiers in
particular observed him, knowing him to be of the imperial
family.605
The rest had followed. Now Maesa pressed for a
hurried march on Rome. Elagabalus might, as could
be expected, know next to nothing of statecraft or the
business of administration (v/hat fourteen-year-old lad
does?) but he gave ample warning of the religious
revolution which he was planning. While he spent the
winter in Nicomedia en route to Rome, he launched
himself, in spite of his grandmother’s warnings, on the
course which led to his destruction. He absolutely
refused to don the dress of Rome, but insisted on con­
tinuing to wear his oriental priestly garb:
And being willing to make the sight of the habit familiar
*88 SHA, Elagabalus, 2, 3.
804 Herodianus, 5, 3, 4; compare also 5-7.
“ ‘ Ibid., 3, 8 ff.
 T H E R IS E AN D T R IU M P H OF AST RO LO G Y IN T H E LA T IN W O R L D
226
to the Roman senate and people . . . he had a large picture
drawn of himself at full length, exactly representing him
in the public execution of his priestly office. And in the
same painting was the figure of his hometown-god, whose
ceremonies he was performing. This painting he sent to
Rome with orders to put it up in the middle of the senate-
house in a very high place, directly above the statue of
Victory, and that at the senate meeting every member should
burn incense and pour libation of wine [before the picture].
He also issued an edict that all Roman magistrates and any
who officiated at public sacrifices, should before any of the
other gods whom they had to mention in their divine service,
first name [in praise] the god Elagabalus .690
The religious revolution was on. And it was of course
resented with special bitterness, because a “ barbarian ”
deity was now set up to rule the Graeco-Roman Olym­
pus. The host of other barbarian deities hitherto had at
least “ kept their place.” Actually, adopting for him­
self in his capacity as hereditary sun priest the name
of his own god, Elagabalus, the new ruler seems to have
desired a merger of all mystery cults into a single one,
that of the sun god:
As soon as he entered the city [probably on July 19, 219],
. . . he established Elagabalus as a god on the Palatine
H ill close to the imperial palace, and he built him a temple
to which he desired to transfer the emblem of the Great
Mother, the fire of Vesta, the Palladium,697 the shields of
the Salii, and all that the Romans held sacred, purposing
that no god m ight be worshipped at Rom e save only E la g a­
balus. He declared furthermore that the religions of the
Jews and Christians must also be transferred to this place,
in order that the priesthood of Elagabalus might include
the mysteries of every form of worship. . . .09a
In fact, it was his desire to abolish not only the religious
ceremonies of the Romans but also those of the whole world,
his one wish being that the god Elagabalus should be wor­
shipped everywhere.6”” . . . In fact he asserted that all gods
were merely the servants of his god, calling some its
chamberlains, others its slaves, and others its attendants
for divers purposes.70"
This religious revolution must have aroused a venom­
ous opposition almost everywhere. Even the most indif­
ferent could hardly take calmly the fact that a fifteen-
year-old lad overthrew the most ancient religious tradi­
tions throughout the empire. The fanaticism of the
new ruler was said to have been so great that it soon
sufficed to accuse any important personage of opposi­
tion to the new order to bring about his fall and
destruction.701
‘ Inevitably the orgiastic rites of the Syrian sun cult
shocked even the hard-boiled Roman public. The tauro-
bolium, a rite requiring the neophyte to be sprinkled
•” Ibid., 5, 5-7.
007 Compare Herodianus, 5, 6, 3.
“”8 SHA, Elagabalus, 3, 4-5; Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 11, 1;
Herodianus, 5, 5, 7; compare O. Butler, Studies in the life of
Heliogabalus : 75 ff., Univ. of Mich. Studies, Human. Series 4,
1, N. Y., Macmillan, 1908.
•” SHA, Elagabalus, 6, 7; compare Herodianus, 5, 5, 8.
700 SHA, Elagabalus, 7, 4.
™ Herodianus, 5, 6, 1.
with the blood of a freshly killed bull, was easily misin­
terpreted as a rite calling for human sacrifices also,
especially when it was connected with magical practices:
. . . He kept about him every kind of magus and had
them perform daily sacrifices, himself urging them on . . .
and all the while he would examine children’s entrails [s ic ! ]
and torture victims after the manner of his own native
rites.702
Naturally astrologers would only be in demand at court
in so far as they professed catarchic astrology, which
would harmonize with the belief that a deity could be
influenced by proper rites, prayers, sacrifices, and
magical practices. Thus
when he [Elagabalus] was making plans to take up the
war against the Marcomanni, which Marcus Aurelius had
fought with great glory, he was told by certain persons that
it was by the help of astrologers and m agi that Marcus had
made the Marcomanni forever [.sic/] the liegemen and
friends of the Roman people, and that it had been done by
means of magic chants ( carm inibus ) and a dedication.703
Among the eyewitnesses of the religious revolution
on behalf of solar monotheism was Cassius Dio. In
dealing with the reign of Elagabalus the historian’s
natural caution was reenforced by the fact that he
wrote his account in the reign of Elagabalus’ first
cousin and successor, Severus Alexander, to whom Dio
himself owed the crowning preferments of his political
career: 704
As for his [Elagabalus’] violations of precedent, they
were of simple character and did us [the senators?] no
great harm, save that they were innovations upon estab­
lished usage.706 . . . Closely related to these irregularities
was his conduct in the matter of [the god] Elagabalus. The
offence consisted, not in his introducing a foreign god or in
his exalting him in very strange ways, but in his placing
him even before Jupiter himself and causing himself to be
voted his priest, and also in circumcising himself and ab­
staining from swine’s flesh. . . .70°
But nothing perhaps did more to discredit the barely
established solar monotheism than the emperor’s ill-
considered attempt to merge with it the moon cult of
Tanit-Caelestis (Urania). For while the blending of
other mystery creeds with that of Elagabalus had left
the solar deity in a position of supreme and uncontested
power, the moon goddess was now to share it by be­
coming the wedded wife of Elagabalus, the sun god:
He [Elagabalus] went over to the extreme absurdity of
courting a wife for [the godl Elagabalus— as if the god
had any need of marriage and children! And, as such a
wife . . . be chose the Carthaginian Caelestis (U rania),
summoned her thence, and established her in the palace.707
701 SHA, Elagabalus, 8, 2; see Cassius Dio, ep. 79 (78), 11, 1.
703 SHA, Elagabalus, 9, 1.
704 Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 5, 1. He became consul for the second
time, having been governor of Africa, Dalmatia, and finally
Upper Pannonia; ibid., 1, 3; 4, 2.
Ibid., 8, 1.
700Ibid., 11, 1, cf. Herodianus, 5, 6. 9.
Ibid., 12, 1.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FRO M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R
Apparently the moon goddess was transferred from
Carthage to the Palatine shrine of the god Elagabalus,
not to the other temple which the emperor had built in
the suburbs of Rome,708 a structure which was to sur­
vive his reign for a long time to come.70” Perhaps the
fact that Caelestis (Urania) was worshipped by many
as the queen of the stars ('Am-poapxn)710 influenced
Fig. 20. Mamaea. From R. P. Hinks, Greek and Roman
portrait sculpture: 46a.
the emperor’s decision to mate the two highest astral
divinities. Nor did he overlook the economic advantages
of this arrangement:
He sent for the image, together with all the gold in its
shrine,711 saying that the sun and the moon were a very
suitable match. And at the same time he demanded immense
sums of money to be donated as a dowry for the goddess.
When the image had arrived he placed it in the same room
with his god, commanding that a general festival be cele­
brated by the inhabitants of Rome and Italy . . . to solemnize
the nuptials of the two deities.712
7(” Herodianus, 5, 6, 6.
7", SHA, Elagabalus. 17, 8.
7,l>Herodianus, 5, 6, 6.
711 The emperor claimed that only two golden lions (which he
promptly melted down) had come with the image from Carthage;
Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 12, 2.
713Herodianus, 5, 6, 5.
227
The imperial orders were carried out:
He collected wedding gifts for her from all his subjects,
as he had done in the case of his own wives. These presents,
however, that were given during his own lifetime were
reclaimed later.713
It is hardly surprising that the emperor’s grand­
mother, Maesa, and his mother, Soaemis, both of whom
were said to have participated regularly in the senate-
meetings,71* and who in any case actually conducted
the affairs of the empire, were deeply concerned over
the unquenchable religious fanaticism of their young
charge. It was easy enough for them to notice the
growing disaffection of the populace and the praetorian
guards at the antics of a ruler who flew in the face of
every established, convention of Roman social conduct.
Nothing had contributed more to the downfall of Nero
and Commodus than their complete disregard for what
Roman society still looked upon as the proprieties
whose observance was expected at least from the em­
peror. The public recitals of Nero in theatres and
circuses, the personal participation of Commodus in
gladiatorial combats — these affronts to official social
conventions were far surpassed by the orgiastic oriental
rites in which the new apostle of the supreme sun god
indulged in public. These antics were, indeed, enough
to shock anyone, if only a fraction was true of what our
historians recorded.
Finally Maesa decided to act. She persuaded her
seventeen-year-old grandson to adopt as his colleague
in office his first cousin, the son of Mamaea:
This she effected by soothing his [Elagabalus’] vanity
and telling him, that he should devote himself chiefly to the
service and worship of his god and mind his religious bac­
chanalian and orgiastic ceremonies and the discharge of his
holy office. Mundane matters (ra dvOpmiraa) should be
handled by someone else, who might take this burden off
his shoulders and make his government free and easy.716
The young emperor was won over by this argument:
He brought his cousin . . . before the senate, and having
caused Maesa and Soaemis to take their places on either
side of him, formally adopted him as his son. . . . He said
that [the god] Elagabalus had ordered him to do this and
further to call his son’s name Alexander.718
The emperor Elagabalus himself had been proclaimed
an illegitimate son of the late Caracalla and his first
cousin, Julia Soaemis. Now Mamaea, Julia’s sister,
also claimed to have Conceived her son, Alexianus
Bassianus, in an adulterous affair with Caracalla. Upon
his adoption the boy received the name Severus Alex­
ander. His mother, Mamaea, anticipating the disaster
713 Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 12, 1-2.
714 The unreliable SHA, Elagabalus, 4; 2; 12, 3, is our only
source for this. For a more circumspect precedent, see Tacitus,
Annals, 13, 5.
71“ Herodianus, 5, 7, 1-3.
710 Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 17, 2-3.
228 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF ASTROLOGY IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
which the reckless religious revolution, instigated by
Elagabalus, was to bring down upon him, was deter-
mined to bring up her own son, Severus Alexander, in
such a way that he would appear not as a Syrian sun-
priest (although he had actually been one), but as an
educated Graeco-Roman gentleman of traditional tastes
and manners.
Meanwhile, driving relentlessly toward his own doom,
F ig. 21. Severus Alexander (222-235). Capitoline Museum,
Rome (detail).
the emperor had completed the great shrine of his god
outside the walls of Rome:
To it the god was carried in procession every year in
the height of summer. Great crowds of spectators assembled
in circuses and theatres with races, plays, and everything
which he believed would delight the people, who were
making merry all night long. He placed the god on a
chariot glittering with gold and precious stones and con­
ducted it from the city to the temple outside. He drove the
chariot with six large white horses without any spot what­
ever, superbly harnessed with gold and other trappings
reflecting a variety of colors. He held the reins himself.
No mortal was permitted on the chariot. He, the god’s
charioteer, walked backwards in front of the chariot, always
keeping his eyes on the god and holding the reins of the
horses. . . . The whole road was strewn with golden sand,
and his guards ran With him and supported him on either
side. . . . And the cavalry and the rest of the army marched
in pomp before and after the chariot. . . ,717
717 Herodianus, S, 6, 6 ff.
A similar scene was reenacted in a different and far
less glamorous— setting when Robespierre in the spring
of 1794 led the great official procession at the inaugura-
tion of the new deity to preside over the first French
republic. The Etre Supreme of Robespierre, however,
proved no more a protector to its founding father
Robespierre than did Elagabalus, the sun god, save
his imperial apostle from the inevitable outcome of his
Fig. 22. Elagabalus (218-222) and Severus Alexander (222-
235). From J. S. Hay, The amazing emperor, facing p. 142,
London, Macmillan, 1911.
revolutionary activities. Belatedly the young sun priest
awoke to the grim reality of his waning power. A half­
hearted attempt to destroy his cousin Alexander only
hastened his own downfall.718 Rome was not ripe for
solar monotheism, and even had it been, it would not
have accepted it in the orgiastic setting of the Orient.
The praetorian guards took matters into their own
hands:
[Elagabalus] . . . was slain at the age of eighteen. His
mother, who embraced him and clung tightly to him,
perished with him ; their heads were cut off and their
bodies, after being stripped naked, were first dragged all
718 A detailed account is given by SHA, Elagabalus, 13, 1-16,
4; compare Herodianus, 5, 8, 3-8; Cassius Dio, ep. 83, 19,1-20,1.
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FR O M N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 229
over the city, and then his mother’s body was cast aside the praetorian guards, a post which at first he shared
somewhere or other, while his was thrown into the river.719 with two colleagues. Having successfully intrigued
Thus died the first Syrian, the first sun priest ever against them, he became after their execution sole com­
to ascend the Roman throne. And “ as for Elaga­ mander of the guards. Until 228 when they rose against
balus [the god] himself, he was banished from Rome him and slew him, he was the most important man
altogether.” 720 within the government. Julius Paulus, another re­
The catastrophe which had overtaken the religious nowned jurist of eastern antecedents, was also highly
revolutionary was followed by the reign of Severus favored by Mamaea and Alexander.727
Alexander (222-235), or rather that of his mother, Both jurists, perhaps encouraged by the official direc­
Mamaea. Old Maesa died soon after the successful tive to reaffirm legal practices of the earlier principate,
proclamation of her last surviving grandson,721 who, summarized, independently of each other, the legal atti­
being barely fourteen years old at the time, was of tude of the past concerning astrology and other forms
course in no position to rule the empire himself. But of divination. Ulpian, in the seventh of ten books de­
even the most careful respect paid to earlier traditions voted to the proconsular office, laid down what might
of the principate— the address dominus (master) was, be considered as the correct attitude of a proconsular
for example, tabooed once more 722— the fact of an governor in such matters. Unfortunately his account
oriental’s rule could not be camouflaged. Although the survived only in a much later compilation, whose Chris­
young emperor received the traditional Graeco-Roman tian author may well have colored the original text with
education of his time, his proficiency in Latin was never his own hostile views on the subject.728 At any rate,
great. “ Indeed he did not greatly value the power to the extant fragment has a ring of definite enmity to
speak in Latin.” 723 But “ his mother held him in such divination as such, a mood hardly consonant with the
unreasonable subjection that he did whatever she was setting and the reading public for which Ulpian wrote.
pleased to command.” 724 Among her least objection­ He did insist that the theoretical study of astrology in
able recommendations was her insistence that the young all its aspects had never been outlawed. Only its appli­
emperor should revive the patronage of men of letters cation to certain topics was forbidden. Transgressions
which the rulers of the principate with few exceptions of this ban were to be punished according to their
had always practiced. gravity. The fact that Ulpian’s colleague, Paulus, in
his Sententiae,12’1 addressed to his son and meant to be
Moreover, he often resorted to the Athenaeum [i. e. the a practical handbook for daily use, presented an almost
university of Rome] to hear both Greek and Latin rheto­ identical picture of the legal treatment given violators
ricians and poets, and he would listen to the orators of the
Forum. . . . And he used to preside at contests.725 of the Augustan curbs of a . d . 11, makes it highly proba­
ble that both jurists wrote these passages in the atmo­
In keeping with this cautious policy of Mamaea the sphere of stressed conservation, characteristic of the
young ruler was indoctrinated to play down his Syrian reign of Severus Alexander.
origins: The ideal after which Mamaea tried to pattern her
He did not like to be called a Syrian and asserted that
son seems to have been Hadrian. Lacking that Span­
his ancestors were Romans, and he had his family tree iard’s military and administrative training, Severus
depicted, showing that he was descended from the Metelli.720 Alexander was at least being groomed to rival Hadrian’s
versatility in the realm of cultural accomplishments.
This fiction fooled, of course, no one, but it charac­ Apart from the usual rhetorical schooling the young
terized the attempt at appeasing the anti-eastem senti­ ruler
ments among the Roman nobility. Nevertheless, when
it came to assuring the personal security of the emperor was a student of geometry, he painted marvellously, and he
and his mother, as well as the control over the imperial sang with distinction. . . . He composed in verse the lives
of the good emperors. He could play the lyre, the clarinet
administration, two easterners were given supreme con­ and the organ, and he could even blow the trumpet. . . ,730
sideration. Domitius Ulpianus, a native of Tyre, who
had long been a member of the highest administrative Although this account strained the bounds of credi­
body of the empire, was promoted to the command of bility, it indicated that, contrary to the habits of Nero
and the late Elagabalus, the emperor never performed
118 Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 20, 2; Herodianus, 5, 8, 8-9; SHA, in public, thus avoiding the scandal which had contri-
Elagabalus, 16, 4-17, 3; 18, 2-3; 23, 2ff.
7L'° Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 21, 2; compare Herodianus, 6, 1, 3. 787Ibid., 26, 5-6; 27. 2; 68, 1; see also 15, 6; 31, 2-3; 51, 4;
781 Herodianus, 6, 1, 4. The beldame was of course deified.
67, 2; Cassius Dio, ep. 80, 1, 1; 2, 2-4; 4, 2; cf. in general
788 SHA, Severus Alexander, 4, 1.
Herodianus, 6, 1, 1-4.
Ibid., 3, 4.
728Legum Mos. et Rom. collalio, 15, 2, 1 ff.
784 Herodianus, 6, 1, 10, in retrospect on the first decade of
788Sententiae 5, 21, 1 arid 5; for a detailed discussion of these
his reign. texts, see F. H. Cramer, The Qiesars and the stars (2), Seminar
788 SHA, Severus Alexander, 35, 2-4. 10, 1952: 50 ff.
780 Ibid., 44, 3. 788 SHA, Severus Alexander, 27, 7-10.
230 T H E R IS E A N D T R IU M P H OF AST RO LO G Y IN T H E L A T IN W O R L D
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M E FROM N E RV A TO SEVERUS A L E X A N D E R 231
buted so much to the ruin of his predecessors. As to connected with the regular university, Severus Alex­
His mother shared his fate. The epitaph which the reason, reasonableness, and anti-emotionalism. It is
the role of divination in his life, Severus Alexander ander apparently reaffirmed and probably enlarged the
sober historian Herodianus wrote for him was in a always dangerous to forget that man does not live by
possessed of course the usual stack of felicitous pre­ imperial endowment for the traditional disciplines, i. e.
higher sense that of the entire principate: bread alone. The great rationalists on the Roman
dictions of grandeur: rhetoric, grammar, and medicine, whose teachers Roman
rulers since the days of Vespasian had favored with throne from Augustus to Marcus Aurelius failed to
He had reigned . . . without blood. . . . For he was
. . . O n the day of his birth [Oct. 1, 208] a star of the utterly abhorrent of murder, cruelty, and all illegal acts, realize that any overwhelmingly rationalist order is the
first magnitude was visible for the entire day at Area
special privileges. As for the other disciplines referred
and always inclined to humanity, and doing kind acts.788 equivalent of stagnation, decline, and death. Fatalist
Caesarea, and also that in the neighborhood of his father’s to in the above passage, their character would indicate
house [the father had been born in that city also] the sun the addition of an “ Institute of Technology” to the astrology, providing what was accepted as a rational,
Examples to the contrary notwithstanding— the reigns
was circled with a gleaming ring. And the soothsayers, Athenaeum. If that were true, this recognition of the scientific method of knowing the future, answered a deep
when they commended his birthday [said to have been the importance of technical skills such as engineering and
of a Caligula, Nero, Domitian, Caracalla clearly were
exceptions to the general pattern— never before or after need of the rulers of the principate. It was to them the
anniversary of the death of Alexander the Great731] to the
gods, declared that he would some day hold the imperial architecture would constitute a unique and, alas, short­ has the Mediterranean world experienced a similar embodiment of supreme cosmic order, the rational ap­
power.732 lived attempt to raise technology to a level comparable quarter millennium of such general prosperity and bliss. plication of the laws of nature to the decrees of an
with that of other branches of higher learning. The stagnation and decay that soon became manifest immutable Fate. The collapse of the premature mono­
His very upbringing in the shrine of the sun god The inclusion of divinatory disciplines, especially in the revolution which in the third century destroyed theistic revolution of Elagabalus did not at all mean that
Elagabalus was of course conducive to arousing the those of haruspices and astrologers, may, indeed, seem
the very foundations of Graeco-Roman civilization had the tide of religious emotionalism had been stemmed.
boy’s interest in divination, but it was channeled by strange to modern minds. Yet, especially in the case
of course deep roots in the society of the principate. But how this irrational force finally triumphed, destroy­
Mamaea towards the traditional divinatory disciplines of astrology, no major scientist of the principate ap­
Yet if one were to seek a metaphysical reason for the ing in its path the rationalist structure of “ scientific ”
of the earlier principate: parently questioned its validity, and the Tetrabiblos fading of the glory and the prosperity of the Roman astrology, will be told later.739
He was also well versed in haruspical techniques ( harus- of Ptolemy had lent it the supreme seal of scientific principate, one might point to its supreme emphasis on
picinae), and so skilled an observer of birds ( orneoscopos) approval. With its inclusion among the officially recog­ 788 In F. H. Cramer’s forthcoming Astrology in Roman law
was he that he surpassed both the Spanish Vascones and nized divinatory -techniques and its probable elevation ,a“ Herodianus, 6, 9, 8. and politics, from Diocletian to Justinian I.
the augurs of the Pannonians.733 to the rank of a legitimate subject of instruction at the
It may be noted that both disciplines, that of the haru- Athenaeum, astrology had reached the summit of its
spices and that of the augurs, while by no means con­ career in Roman intellectual history. Its future was
fined to Rome, were nevertheless the two oldest officially precarious. The early death of Severus Alexander, its
recognized divinatory techniques of the Roman republic. last enthusiastic imperial patron, accelerated the decline
As to astrology it too had been held in high esteem by of this most rationalistic divinatory discipline. Nor were
the emperors of the principate: predictions of the brevity of the reign of Severus Alex­
ander lacking. Even at the time of his birth
[Severus Alexander] was expert in astrology ( matheseos
pe ritus), and so great a supporter of it that on his orders haruspices prophesied that he would indeed be emperor, but
astrologers ( m athem atici ) set themselves up officially ( pub- not for long, and that he would early [in life] succeed to
lice proposuerint) in Rome and proclaimed that they would the imperial power.730
teach their art.734
It was a tragic irony of sorts that even in coming true
Apparently the astrologers were now recognized as one the astrological prediction of the manner of his death
of the official guild of diviners, and perhaps also en­ deceived him cruelly. An expedition against the Par-
dowed with the tax privileges enjoyed by professors of thians which he undertook in 231 or 232 proved a com­
the liberal arts. plete failure. His lack of leadership and military training
In pursuit of his encouragement of higher education became manifest to the army. The Parthians felt unable
Severus Alexander again followed in the footsteps of to pursue their hard won victory, but the emperor must
Hadrian: have returned to Rome with a heavy heart. Already
To rhetoricians, grammarians, physicians, haruspices, as­ news was reaching him of grave perils along the entire
trologers (m athem aticis ) , engineers ( mechanicis ), and northern frontier of the empire from the Rhine provinces
architects he paid regular salaries and assigned lecture to Illyricum. The Germans were on the march. In
rooms to them, and he ordered that [their] students should
this supreme crisis of his life Severus Alexander turned
be supplied with rations ( annonis ), if they were the sons
of poor men, but free-born.735 again to the stars:

This famous passage has usually, and probably rightly, When Thrasybulus the astrologer, with whom he was on
the most friendly terms, told him that it was his destiny
been interpreted to refer to a substantial reorganization
to fall by the sword of a barbarian, he first expressed his
of the university of Rome, the Athenaeum, founded joy, thinking that he was fated to die in battle in a manner
about a century earlier by Hadrian. Omitting the law- worthy of an emperor. . . . But the result deceived his
school, which in any case was probably only loosely hopes; for he did, indeed, fall, by the sword of a barbarian,
and by the hand of a barbarian guard [of his own army],
731Ibid., 13, 1, but Alexander the Great had died in June! but it was not in battle, though during a course of the
" ‘ Ibid., 13, 5-6. war.787
7S> Ibid., 27, 6.
7,4 Ibid., 27, 5. 7” Ibid., 13, 1.
Ibid., 44, 4. 7,7 Ibid., 62, 2-4.

PART II
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL T H E EN D O F T H E P R IN C IP A T E
PREFACE
The preceding section has been devoted to the rise
and triumph of astrology in the Roman world. Its influ­
ence on Roman intellectuals in republican days, as well
as its hold on the Roman rulers of the principate have
been discussed at some length. Only tangentially, how­
ever, was the treatment touched upon which astrologers
and their craft received at the hands of Roman law.
The law rarely anticipates developments. It usually
takes only cognizance of long existing trends which it
freezes into the perpetuity, or at least longevity com­
mon to legal institutions. The growing influence of
astrology upon Roman society was, therefore, reflected
in Roman Law only slowly and relatively late. Three
phases of this development can be traced, the one be­
longing to the republican era and the early principate,
the second peculiar to the principate only. The third—
to be dealt with elsewhere1— ended with the total ban
of all divination, including of course astrology.
At first expulsion decrees were used against astrolo­
gers. From 139 b . c . to (at the very latest) a . d . 175-76
measures of this kind were resorted to by republican
and imperial authorities. They were meant as tempo­
rary measures to cope with momentary problems. Once
these had been met, expulsion decrees were no longer
enforced. The area affected by such legal lightning was
always Rome and Italy also. Beginning in a . d . 11 a
second type of legal restriction of astrological activities forms of divination. Driven underground by a barrage
began with an edict of Augustus, outlawing consulta­
tions a deux and curbing the scope of topics on which
astrologers were free to speak and clients allowed to
consult them. From the very first these Augustan
restrictions were empire wide.
The Augustan edict of a . d . 11 became the permanent
basis of Roman Law on the subject. Its interpretation
in Roman courts reflected the general faith in astrology.
Political predictions of astrologers were likely to be
taken at face value by the government as well as by
politically ambitious clients of astrologers. Hence in­
quiries about one’s own political future or about the
well being ( de salute) of the ruler and his house since
the middle of the first century constituted prima-facie
evidence of treason. On a lesser level, inquiries about
anyone’s death — alieni interitus, as a fourth century
writer called it — which had been forbidden by the
1 In the forthcoming study of Astrology in Roman law and
politics from Diocletian to Justinian I.
Augustan edict of 11, also remained punishable. But
little or no evidence of the application of the law in
such cases has come down to us. Two classes of
defendants would appear in court: (1) the guilty as­
trologer, (2) their guilty clients. The clients of whom
we hear were usually important people. Their trials
were recorded. What happened to the equally guilty
astrologers in such cases can for the most part only be
surmised. A few trials of astrologers for forbidden
activities have, however, also been transmitted.
The legal practice in such cases remained, like the
law itself, unchanged from the middle of the first to the
end of the fourth century of our era. From there on
astrology was caught in the web enmeshing all kinds of
divination. Lumped together with haruspicial, augurial,
and other divinatory techniques, which were closely
connected with pagan religious rites, astrology was
labeled as a pagan craft and hence wholly forbidden
also. Fatalistic astrology in particular became the chief
object of Christian attacks, because fatalism to ortho­
dox Jews and Christians alike was incompatible with
the axiomatic omnipotence of God. The large number
of state trials of the later fourth century, which involved
charges of magic and forbidden divination, reflected the
transition from the merely restrictive attitude of earlier
Roman Law to the total ban of astrology and all other
of laws, many of which were included in the Theodosian
and the Justinian codes, astrology vanished in the Latin
west with the collapse of the western empire in the fifth
century. In the Greek east, on the other hand, a sur­
prisingly rich, though chiefly compilatory astrological
literary activity flourished from the fourth into the sixth
century. Of it Roman Law took less and less cogni­
zance, leaving the final battle against astrology to the
Christian councils in whose canons the fight against all
and every astrological theory and practice continued.
The nostalgic groan with which the learned Christian
Cassiodorus in the sixth century refrained from includ­
ing a passage on astrology in his essay on the liberal
arts was symptomatic for the way in which Christian
scholars began to bow to the dictate of the church. The
prohibitions preserved in the Justinian Code expressed
the final attitude of Roman Law towards astrology.
They were to dominate European legal theory and
practice in this matter for a thousand years to come.
232
V. E X P U L SIO N O F ASTROLOGERS FR O M R O M E A N D IT A LY
1. IN T R O D U C T IO N 1 critics. Two arguments were mainly advanced: (1) the
The outlawing of astrological activities within a speci­ apparent ineffectiveness of a measure which had to be
fied area began towards the end of the republican era. redecreed time and again, (2) the seeming hypocrisy
The ban applied to Rome and Italy, the center of the of an imperial government which forbade the practice
empire. With the end of the principate (third century of astrology in Rome and Italy, while continuing to
a . d .) Italy’s political importance diminished steadily. consult astrologers in its own right.5 This reasoning
Expulsion decrees, therefore, no longer served their was based on false premises. Even the keen eye of
earlier purpose and were discontinued. The last time Tacitus failed or refused to see that such decrees were
such a measure was invoked may have been in the reign meant to be emergency measures only. Republican
of Marcus Aurelius ( a . d . 161-180). Astrologers were and imperial authorities were not so fatuous as to believe
a favorite, but by no means the only target of these that sweeping orders of this kind would forever end
legal arrows. Sorcerers, philosophers, and at times all the practice of astrology in Rome and Italy. In effect
non-official diviners, as well as certain religious groups the ban was merely an official announcement that for the
like the Jews also were expelled from Rome and Italy time being such activities were considered undesirable
a number of times. The legal basis for such acts was and therefore forbidden. Occasionally this intent was
the government’s power to curb undesirable elements, made quite clear by the granting of permission to as­
sometimes found amongst the devotees of certain cults trologers to stay in Rome, if they pledged themselves
imported from the Orient. On other occasions the to refrain from practicing their art.0
social agitation and the inflammatory influence of non- The charge of imperial hypocrisy was equally un­
Romans in the capital would evoke official lightning. founded. Throughout the principate astrology was
Against astrologers the Roman republic used its considered as the most nearly infallible method of divi­
mailed fist only once (139 B.C.). Between the death nation. Any emperor, therefore, would feel duty bound
of Julius Caesar (44 b . c . ) , however, and that of Marcus to avail himself of this art in order to discover future
Aurelius ( a . d . 180) no fewer than eight, and possibly dangers to the empire (and of course to himself).
thirteen such instances were recorded. This frequency Especially in times of unrest or crisis therefore would
of expulsion measures mirrored the importance which he be eager to consult the stars that he might steer the
the Roman government ascribed to divinatory activities. ship of state wisely through the troubled waters. To
The waning importance of Italy as a political center pacify excited minds by withholding from them the
forced the rulers of the third and fourth centuries to stimulant of astrological promises, while, on the other
reconsider the legal methods employed to curb astrolo­ hand, retaining for himself the counsel of his court-
gers. The logical substitute for a regional ban became astrologers, could thus not seem inconsistent or hypo­
an empire-wide one. With the exception of Diocletian2 critical to any ruler of the principate. Nor should it be
( a . d . 284-305), however, no pagan emperor seems to forgotten that — at least' since the Augustan edict of
have gone that far. The Christian rulers of the fourth a . d . I I 7— permanent restrictions of a technical and
and fifth centuries finally outlawed the entire practice topical nature were steadily in force. Imperial expul­
of astrology permanently throughout the empire.3 Their sion decrees had, therefore, merely the function of add­
motives, indeed, were religious, not political ones and ing temporarily, i. e. in times of unrest in Rome and
differed sharply in this respect from those which had Italy, to those curbs a total ban of all astrological
inspired the expulsion decrees of the Roman republic practice in the political heart of the empire.
and the principate. The source materials for the tracing of such measures
The character and purpose of expulsion decrees are far from satisfactory. The earliest expulsion order
against astrologers were misunderstood as early as the on record survives, for example, through a single author:
first century a . d . The acid comment of Tacitus that Valerius Maximus. Our knowledge of the next decree,
such decrees though numerous had never been success­ dating from the year 33 b . c ., apparently also is due to
fully enforced4 has frequently been repeated by modern
• This was done for example by Augustus, Tiberius, Claudius,
1 Except for minor changes this chapter is based on my article Vespasian, and Domitian, each of whom issued at least one
Expulsion of astrologers from ancient Rome, Classica et Mediae­ expulsion decree, or had it proclaimed by a pliant aedile or
valia (ed. F. Blatt), 12, 1-2, 1951: 9-50. senate.
3C. I. 9, 18, 2, of uncertain date, perhaps from the year 296. 0 Suetonius, Tiberius, 36, in connection with the SC of a . d . 16;
3Compare C. 27:. 9, 16, 4; 6; 8; 12; C .I. 1, 4, 10; 9, 18, 5; compare Cassius Dio, 57, 15, 8-9.
7; 8.
7 Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5. The edict forbade consultations a deux
4 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; compare Annals 12, 52. and prohibited inquiries about the death of any person.
234 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL T H E END O F T H E P R IN C IP A T E E X P U L S IO N OF ASTROLOGERS F R O M R O M E AND IT A L Y 235.

the work of one author only: Cassius Dio. Moreover, which four applied to them alone. The other seven had seen the chief reason for the amazing stability of ever, the tense political atmosphere pervading Rome
he is the earliest historian to have transmitted Ves­ included other groups also. Of the three remaining the Roman state,8 ceased to cast their traditional spell. after the forced withdrawal of Laelius’ land reform bill
pasian’s expulsion edict of a . d . 70. He and Cornelius ones, one applied to public teachers of philosophy, one Too many new cults had come from the east to compete of 140 b . c. seems to have been the primary motive for
Tacitus in turn are the only extant authorities to record to sorcerers alone, one to philosophers only. Four dif­ with the old state religion. Too many Roman citizens expelling inflammatory elements from Rome in 139, the
the ban which Claudius in a . d . 52 imposed on the prac­ ferent forms were used: (1) In the republican era: the had begun to find the mysteries of those oriental gods very years in which the government found it necessary
tice of astrology in Rome and Italy. An unknown author and goddesses more attractive than the solid, homespun to ban secret gatherings altogether.
praetorian edict and the aedile’s ordinance. (2) During
is our sole source ascribing such a measure to the reign Roman divinities of their fathers. Following in the In contrast with the detailed account of the tenth-
the principate: Senatus consulta and imperial edicts. footsteps of Bacchus and Isis, Jehovah and his meta­
of Nero ( a . d . 54-68). Jerome, writing in the fourth century manuscript the fourteenth-century version re­
The earliest known use of the Senatus consultum for the morphosis, Jupiter Sabazios, had also successfully in­
century a . d ., is our earliest source of information for tained merely the ten day period after which the ban
Domitian’s expulsion order of 89-90. Tertullian in expulsion of astrologers from Rome and Italy occurred vaded the capital in the second century b . c .° In the went into effect, mentioned its limitation to Italy, named
conjunction with Ulpian finally provided what tenta­ in a . d . 16., the last in a . d . 52. From Nero to Marcus twilight region between religion and science hovered the man who issued it, and gave as the sole motive for
tive knowledge we possess of such a measure directed Aurelius imperial edicts were employed for this purpose. the wise men from the east, the astrologers. it the “ selling ” of foreign learning (peregrinam scien-
The wording of the praetorian edict of 139 b . c . tiam ). Perhaps the later scribe toned down' the older
TABLE 4 which banned astrologers from Rome and Italy has not version intentionally; he lived in an age in which, after
been transmitted. With Livy’s account of this period an eclipse of many centuries, astrology staged a re­
Date Form Author Groups affected Reason Area of ban surviving only in an epitome,10 our single main source markable comeback throughout western Europe: In the
b. c. for the edict’s content is Valerius Maximus who wrote fourteenth century again few learned men (outside the
•) praet. praetor in the reign of Tiberius ( a . d . 14-37). There are two church, of course) considered “ the interpretation of
139 edict peregrinus astrologers unrest Rome, Italy different manuscript traditions. The passage itself is the stars ” as fallible, or an ardent belief in the truth of
ii) 33 aedile’s aedile astrologers, contained in book I (de religione), chapter iii (de sufer-
ordinance Agrippa sorcerers unrest Rome astrology as a sign of an unstable mind. The old ver­
stitionibus), 3. The two main stems read as follows: sion of the praetorian outburst therefore may have
A. D.
iii) astrologers, sor­ jarred the feelings of the copying renaissance scribe.
Rome, Italy (1) cod. Par. Vat. (tenth century)
Sept 16 senatus Tiberius cerers, all other Libo’s plot On the other hand, many of his contemporaries' also
consultum diviners Cn. Cornelius Hispalus,11 praetor peregrinus, in the con­
sulate of M. Popilius Laenas and L. Calpurnius, ordered the complained (as the praetor Hispalus had done) about
iv) 16 inadequacy
of previous^ Rome, Italy Chaldaeans in an edict to leave the city and Italy within the cheapening of this lofty " science ” through lucra­
SC ten days, because through their lies by means of fallacious tive commercial exploitation on the part of charlatans.
Claudius astrologers Scribonianus’ (Rome?) Italy interpretation of the stars they were fomenting in instable In condensing the whole passage our scribe would thus
v) 52
plot and shallow minds an ardor from which they themselves
profited financially.12
not hesitate to present at least that part of the original
vi) 66? imp. edict Nero? public teachers version which gave as one of the chief reasons for their
of philosophy Piso’s plot Rome (Italy?)
(2) cod. Nep. (fourteenth century) expulsion the mercenary greed of such unscrupulous
vii) 68? “ ? astrologers, rebellion of
sorcerers Vindex, Galba (Rome?) Italy Cornelius therefore expelled the Chaldaeans and ordered exploiters of human credulity.14
them to leave Italy within ten days, so that they would not
viii) 69 Vitellius astrologers unrest Rome, Italy The importance of the edict of 139 b . c . lay in its
offer for sale foreign wisdom.12
ix) 69? ? sorcerers unrest Rome, Italy being the precedent for the future use of this legal
x) 70 Vespasian astrologers unrest Rome (Italy?) The more detailed older version undoubtedly is the weapon against astrologers, applied over and over again
xi) 71 philosophers political
opposition Rome (Italy?) superior one. It names not only the consuls of the year, in subsequent times of crisis. The very form of the
Domitian astrologers, thereby dating the edict, but also furnishes the complete ban, a praetorian edict, showed, however, the temporary
xii) 89?
philosophers rebellion Rome (Italy?) name and title of the issuing authority. It furthermore character of the measure. For unless specifically re­
xiii) 93
II
unrest Rome, Italy explains in what was to become the standard legal newed the validity of a praetorian’s edict was termi­
xiv) 175? M. Aurelius astrologers, rebellion phrase for measures of this kind that the ban covered nated at the end of the year in which expired the tenure
of Avidius Rome ? Italy ?
Cassius ? Rome, as well as Italy in general. Finally it lists two of the praetor who had issued it. There is no evidence
main abuses as the reasons evoking the expulsion order: to show that a later praetor peregrinus15 issued an ex­
(1) the fallaciousness of astrology as a means of divi­ pulsion edict against astrologers. One must therefore
against astrologers and soothsayers in the reign of 2. REPUBLICAN FO R M S: E X P U L SIO N BY P R A E ­
nation, and (2) the financial exploitation of gullible assume that it lapsed quietly on December 31, 139. The
Marcus Aurelius. The only decrees of this kind on TORIAN EDICT AN D CIT Y ORD IN A N CE
people by the unscrupulous practitioners of this pseudo­ government’s hope that it would contribute to the social
which there is ample information are the senatus con­ (i) T H E P R A E T O R IA N E D IC T O F 139 B . C. science. The legal phrase quoted by Valerius Maximus and political pacification of Rome and Italy did not
sulta of a . D . 16 which are referred to by Tacitus, Sue­ was— perhaps intentionally— reiterated in a similar pas­ materialize. The deep rooted unrest continued with
tonius, Cassius Dio, and Ulpian. Nevertheless, it is By the middle of the second century b . c . a social sage in which two hundred years later Ulpian spoke of growing intensity. Six years later the streets of Rome
possible to trace the historical evolution of this legal crisis was at hand in Rome and Italy. The rising dis­ "the ingenious fraud of the astrologers which through rjin red with the blood of Tiberius Gracchus and his
weapon against astrologers residing in Rome or Italy. content of the ever growing mass of citizen proletarians belief in it becomes more brazen.” 13 Actually, how- radical followers both Roman and Greek.
Table 4 offers a chronological list of both certain and in Rome, the smoldering hatred of tens of thousands of
uncertain expulsion decrees directed in republican times eastern slaves, recently transported to Italy and Sicily, * Polybius, esp. 6, 2 ff.; 14 f.; 9, 9, 6ff. and elsewhere. sive Mosaicarum et Romanarum legum collatio, 15, 2,1; compare
and during the principate against astrologers, philoso­ against their new masters were manifest. By 140 " See F. Cumont, A propos de Sabazios et du judaisme, Musee F. H. Cramer. The Caesars and the stars (2), Seminar 10,
phers and other non-religious groups. Roman authorities became fearful of open revolutionary Beige, 14, 1910: 55-60; compare above, p. 58. 1952: 49 ff.
10 Found in Pap. Oxyrh., ed. Grenfell and Hunt, 4: 101. 14 Porcius Latro, declam, in Catilinam, 19.
Of these fourteen expulsion orders none applied to a outbreaks. The solid and stable structure of the old 11 We happen to have his epitaph of about 135 b. c., published 15Compare Gaius, 1, 6; Th. Mommsen ( Roemisches Staats-
province. The authenticity of nine of these is beyond repiublic seemed to totter, to be in danger of imminent for example in Remains of Old Latin (Loeb Classics), 4: 9f. recht, ed. 1874, 2, 1: 201, n. 2) rightly stressed the fact that the
question, while that of the remaining five is more or less collapse. The ancient religious institutions, in whose “ Ed. C. Kempf: 17, 5ff.; 16, 24ff.; Teubner, Leipzig, 1888. great jurists of the principate had buried in oblivion the edict
doubtful. Eleven were directed against astrologers, of binding power a wide horizoned historian like Polybius ” Ulpian, de officio proconsulis 7, as transmitted in Lex dei of the praetor peregrinus as such.
236 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL T H E EN D O F T H E P R IN C IP A T E
( il) THE C IT Y O R D IN A N C E O F 33 B. C.
Precisely a century elapsed between the death of
Tiberius Gracchus (133 B . C . ) and the next recorded
ban of astrologers from the capital. In these ten decades
the Roman aristocracy, once overwhelmingly opposed
to astrological teachings,18 was gradually converted to
the belief in this scientific mode of divination. The
generation of Cicero (b. 106 b . c . ) and Julius Caesar
(b. 102? B . C . ) had produced the first aristocratic
Roman practitioners of astrology, among whom Nigi­
dius Figulus (b. 98 ? b . c.) was the most renowned.1'
Roman disciples of Epicurus like Lucretius (d. 55 ( ?)
b . c.) and followers of Cameades’ scepticism like Cicero
might still belittle fatalistic astrology and attack its
axioms, but the great majority of Roman humanists,
as well as Rome’s political leaders had come to accept,
albeit with some mental reservations, this most rational
method of divination. Consuls like Octavius (d. 87
B . C . ) , 18 dictators like Sulla (d. 78 B . C . ) , 10 triumvirs
like Crassus (d. 53 B . C . ) , Pompey (d. 47 B . C . ) . and
Julius Caesar (d. 44 B . C . ) 20 listened to astrological
predictions with varying degrees of belief. The time
was past, therefore, when governmental curbs of astrolo­
gers breathed contempt of this “ science” as such. In
that respect the edict of 139 b . c. remained unique. On
the other hand, the argument that astrological promises
of success might encourage subversive elements, had
become all the more valid during the decades of fero­
cious civil strife from the days of Marius to those of
Octavianus (90-30 B . C . ) . With the advent of mon­
archic government another motive was added: to keep
in tunes of tension from political opponents that very
information about the future which the rulers them­
selves considered reliable.21
In the year 33 b . c . the political atmosphere in Rome
seemed again tense enough to call for another expulsion
of dangerous diviners. Then, as in 139 b . c., the bulk
of astrologers apparently still consisted of foreigners,
whose banishment naturally presented far fewer legal
obstacles than that of Roman citizens for whom formal
and individual trials would have to be staged. This
fact in itself must have made general expulsion decrees
eventually obsolete. By a . d . 212, when almost all free
inhabitants of the empire were citizens, it had lost all
usefulness and was never reemployed. The immediate
reason for its proclamation in 33 b . c. was the approach­
“ This was largely due to the influence of the sceptics of the
New Academy, but also to that of the Stoic Panaetius whose
opposition to fatalistic astrology impressed the Roman humanists,
and especially the Scipionic circle in the middle of the second
century 6. c.
17 See W. Kroll, R E 17, 1, 1936: c. 200-212.
18 Plutarch, Marius, 42.
18 Plutarch, Sulla, 5, 5-6; 37, 1.
30 Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 99.
31 For Augustus’ faith in the accuracy of his own horoscope,
see Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5.
ing showdown between Octavianus, Caesar’s heir and
adopted son, who held Rome, Italy, and the West, and
Mark Antony, who had inherited Cleopatra and the
East. There could be no question that Mark Antony
still had many friends in Rome. People must have
remembered his famous funeral oration in honor of
Julius Caesar and his successful destruction of Brutus’
and Cassius’ armies at Philippi (42 b . c.). Since then
Antony had become the champion of the Greek east,
and what this had cost him in Roman friends was un­
doubtedly made up for by increased support from orien­
tals in Rome. Among these, astrologers and soothsayers
must have been for Antony almost to a man. With the
impending outbreak of hostilities between east and west
control of the volatile populace of Rome became of
course particularly important. Octavian, himself a firm
believer in astrology throughout his long life,22 there­
fore, decided to make his most trusted friend, M. Vipsa-
nius Agrippa, an aedile for this crucial year. The
“ appointment” of Agrippa (who fully shared Octa­
vianus’ faith in astrology)28 to the aedileship was all
the more extraordinary, since he was only thirty years
old at the time, the legal minimum age for this office
being thirty-three. Furthermore, in the turbulent years
after Julius Caesar’s death he had already held the post
of praetor for which a previous aedileship was a tradi­
tional prerequisite. In asking Agrippa, the ex-praetor,
to accept the inferior position of aedile, Octavianus
demonstrated his conviction of the supreme political
importance of that office in the stormy year 33.2*
The new aedile did what was expected of him. He
went out of his way to court the good will of the popu­
lace in various ways, some of the aediles transcending
even the liberality which the Romans were traditionally
expecting from them. Besides providing free distribu­
tion of such essentials as salt and olive oil to all, he also
opened the public baths free of charge to men and
women. But this was not all. Apart from pattern (or
its equivalent) Agrippa did not hesitate to offer the
people circenses of extraordinary impressiveness:
Young sons of senators performed in public an old-
time exhibition of equestrian skill, the so-called “ Trojan
game.” 25 Agrippa also
hired the barbers, so that no one should be at any expense
for their services. Finally he rained upon the heads of the
people in the theatre tickets that were good for money in
one case, for clothes in another, and again for something
else, and he set out immense quantities of various wares for
all comers and allowed the people to scramble for these
things.28
38 Compare above, p. 83.
88Cf. Suetonius, Augustus, 94, 12.
3* On the mounting tension at the time, see Cassius Dio, 50,
1, 1.
3r' Ibid. 49, 43, 3. On Agrippa’s aedileship compare F. A.
Wright, Agrippa, ch. i i : 78 IT.; 100 f., I.ondon, 1937.
88 Cassius Dio, 49, 43, 4.
E X P U LSIO N OF A STRO LO G ERS FR O M R O M E AN D IT A LY
Meanwhile, Octavianus appeased the followers of the
late Pompeian party by formally condoning what were
piously called past acts of piracy, and flattered the
upper bourgeoisie by obtaining senatorial consent to the
appointment of new senators from non-patrician ranks.27
Agrippa now was ready to use the whip against non-
Romans. He “ drove the astrologers and sorcerers
from the city.” 28 This is the sole extant mention of
the second expulsion measure against astrologers. In
contrast to the praetorian edict of 139 it was limited to
the city of Rome by the very fact that an aedile’s decrees
were only valid within the capital. Astrologers could,
and certainly did, continue to practice their profession
outside the city limits. From this one can safely con­
clude that Octavianus was satisfied with the local char­
acter of the ordinance, i. e. the measure was to affect
chiefly the lower classes of Rome. For had he meant
to circumscribe the opportunities of Rome’s upper class
for astrological consultations, he could hardly have con­
fined the ban to Rome alone. Moreover, the passage
recording the expulsion ordinance is inserted by Cas­
sius Dio into a lengthy account of Octavianus’ and
Agrippa’s attempts to win friends and influence people
in their favor. Apparently the eastern sorcerers and
astrologers not only remained cold to the official propa­
ganda, but continued among high and low to whip up
support for Antony and Cleopatra and were therefore
expelled from the capital.
What penalties were imposed upon those who refused
to heed the ban, either in 139 b . c. or in 33 b . c ., we do
not know. One may surmise that forcible deportation
and confiscation of the offender’s property were the lot
of those who stayed on and were caught at their old
occupation. The short term character of the ordinance
— it ended automatically with the end of Agrippa’s
aedileship — was in keeping with the precedent of 139
b . c. At that time a praetorian edict had been the legal
form of the ban. It too had expired automatically at
the end of that year. Similarly, we know of no subse­
quent city ordinance (after Agrippa’s) which expelled
astrologers from Rome. The two measures of this kind
recorded for the republican era therefore clearly indi­
cated the government’s intention of banning astrologers
only locally and temporarily, i. e. in times of special
political and social tension in the capital and Italy.
Apparently the ordinance of 33 b . c. served its purpose
in Rome. For it was allowed to lapse quietly.
3. IM P E R IA L METHODS (A. D. 16-52):
E X P U L SIO N BY S E N A T U S C O N S U L T A
Almost half a century elapsed before another expul­
sion order was issued. Augustus, instead of reinvoking
the ban of astrology in Rome in Italy, had preferred to
87Ibid., 43, 5; compare Suetonius, Augustus, 35.
88 Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
237
impose in a . d . 11 his empire wide technical and topical
restrictions of astrological practice. His successor,
Tiberius, however, found this edict inadequate when he
was confronted with the conspiracy of Libo Drusus in
a . d . 16 and decided to prohibit specifically the practice
of astrology in Rome and Italy. For this purpose a
different legal weapon was used: the senatus consultum.
That the senate in republican times had wielded this
instrument for similar purposes28 furnished the prece­
dent for its application to astrologers. Two such meas­
ures were voted in a . d . 16, and another one in the reign
of Claudius ( a . d . 52). In each instance an acute
political crisis in Rome was the cause. The reason for
preferring senatus consulta to praetorian edicts or
aedile’s ordinances can only be surmised. Perhaps the
imperial desire to permit the senate to play as much of
a legislative role as possible under the constitution of
the principate accounted for this change in a . d . 16, and
Claudius in 52 merely followed the precedent set by
Tiberius in this matter.
(iii, iv). t h e senatus consulta of a .d. 16
The very first years of Tiberius’ reign proved only
too clearly that the Augustan edict of a . d . 11 did not
prevent ambitious men from consulting astrologers on
forbidden topics. In a . d . 16 the conspiracy of Libo
Drusus30 convinced Tiberius of the acute need for re­
sorting once more to the expulsion technique of the
past although in a different legal guise. Himself a con­
firmed believer in astrology and an active practitioner
of this art, he realized only too well the stirring effect
which astrological promises of “ inevitable ” success
would have on political malcontents. As soon, there­
fore, as the luckless Libo had breathed his last, the
Fathers in September or early October a . d . 16 voted
an expulsion decree. When this seemed still too mild,
a second and much harsher senatus consultum was
quickly passed. It has recently been proven convinc­
ingly that this second senatus consultum against the
astrologers could not date from the next year a . d . 17.31
To conclude, however, that no second senatus con­
sultum was passed at all,32 is unwarranted. There seems
enough evidence in favor of a second decree to support
the hypothesis that another senatus consultum was,
indeed, voted soon after the first one. It must there-
88 In 161 b . c. for example; Suetonius, de rhetoribus, 1; Aulus
Gellius, 15, 1, 1.
30Tacitus, Annals 2, 27-33, has given the most detailed extant
account of this affair. For an excellent evaluation of its legal
aspects, see R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials and criminal legislation
under Tiberius, no. 6, Philol. monogr. pubI. by the Amer. Philol.
Assoc. ; Middletown, Conn., 1935: 12 ff.; see 12, n. 41, for a list
of sources.
81 R. S. Rogers, The date of the banishment of the astrologers,
Journal of Class. Philol. 21, 1931: 203 f., does not consider the
possibility that two SC may have been passed in quick succession
during the last four months of the year a . d . 16.
83 R. S. Rogers, loc. cit.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N LA W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E X P U L S IO N OF ASTROLOGERS FROM R O M E AN D IT A L Y 239
238
and Roman laws (in which alone Ulpian’s text sur­ in astrology. In short, an expulsion decree exempting
fore have been adopted at some date between October takably only one senatus consultum for this period is
Ulpian. It has been proven beyond any doubt34 that vives) wrote not long after 357, it would seem possible Roman citizens would be wholly ineffective from the
and December 31, a . d . 16. that he used Chaldaei in the same sense as the author very start.
The reason for so rapid a repetition of such a measure the particular senatus consultum to which he referred
of that edict, i, e. as a synonym for magi, sorcerers. Tiberius was therefore forced in a . d . 16 to choose
would mainly be the need for extending the scope and was passed in a . d . 16. Assuming there were in all
If this interpretation is accepted, Ulpian’s list of out­ between abandoning expulsion measures altogether or
the penalties, the earlier senatus consultum having probability two senatus consulta passed in that year
lawed groups reads as follows: Affected were astrolo­ extending them to Roman citizens as well. An astro­
failed to check the enterprising crowd of astrologers, after Libo’s suicide (September 13) the question is
simply to which of these two Ulpian referred. There gers, magi, soothsayers, and all other diviners. This logical practitioner himself, he had absolute faith in the
sorcerers, and other diviners in Rome and Italy. Two
tallies exactly with the groups mentioned by Cassius infallibility of this “ science ” and thus considered the
measures are mentioned by Tacitus and Cassius Dio, can be little doubt that he had the second senatus con­
Dio as the target of both senatus consulta of a . d . 16. influence of astrologers and other diviners a sufficient
one by Suetonius and Ulpian. Their joint testimony sultum in mind, for the penalties listed by Ulpian were
At first sight it is already clear that the expulsion of menace to warrant the inclusion of Roman citizens in
furnishes the most extensive information we possess identical with those mentioned by Cassius Dio in con­
all diviners from Rome must have proved an insuperable at least the second senatus consultum of a . d . 16. The
about any expulsion decree, proof of the widespread nection with the second senatus consultum. The reason
for Ulpian’s emphasis on the second decree alone may and hopeless task. Actually, it goes without saying that senate was therefore asked to pass another expulsion
interest which the senatus consultum of a . d . 16 aroused
well be that it had taken the place of the first ineffective the official colleges of divination in Rome, the augurs decree, which would apply to Roman citizens, as well
(1) Tacitus, Annals 2, 32: one. Its drastic penalties were long remembered. They and liaruspices in particular, remained wholly exempt as to foreigners, and to impose drastic penalties on
Senatus consulta were passed expelling astrologers and sor­ went beyond those contained in previous expulsion from the ban. It was directed exclusively against the future offenders. According to Cassius Dio the senators,
cerers [magi] from Italy; of these men L. Pituanius was orders. The first senatus consultum of a . d . 16, on “ unofficial ” diviners who were considered undesirable. many of them acutely concerned in the matter, balked—
hurled from the rock, while the consuls executed P. Marcius
outside the Esquiline gate in the ancient manner after they the other hand, probably imposed no more than the
The sharp distinction made by Tiberius between offi­ perhaps because not only the emperor was a practicing
had ordered the trumpets to be blown. traditional punishment of deportation upon refractory cially and privately practiced divination is evident from astrologer, but also many a senator as well. Most if
astrologers, sorcerers, and other diviners. his ban on another occasion of all unofficial haruspicial not all of those senators, who were not active practi­
(2) Suetonius, Tiberius, 36:
He also expelled the astrologers, but pardoned those who The geographical scope of the senatus consultum of activities.3’ That in all likelihood neither Tiberius nor tioners themselves, relied at least on astrological advice.
petitioned him and promised that they would give up their a . d . 16 was stated by Tacitus and Cassius Dio. Accord­ the senate were under any delusion about the possibility In passing the second senatus consultum they would
craft. ing to Tacitus it extended to Italy, while Cassius Dio of physically expelling all astrologers, sorcerers, and either expose their own persons to immediate danger
(3) Ulpian, D e officio proconsulis, 7, in Leg. Mos. et Rom . limited its validity to the city of Rome. It seems proba­ other diviners from Rome and Italy is clear from Sue­ or deprive themselves of their astrological advisers,
collatio, 15, 2, 1: ble that in view of the gravity of the situation both tonius as well as Cassius Dio. Only the practice of Roman and non-Roman alike. Cn. Calpurnius Piso,39
Furthermore was forbidden the ingenious fraud of the senatus consulta applied to Rome and Italy. Ulpian's those crafts was to be stopped, at least temporarily, therefore, brought a motion which represented a legal
astrologers which through belief in it becomes more brazen. but the continued presence of law abiding ex-practi- compromise. He suggested the death penalty for non­
Not in our day has this first been decreed, but this ban is
phraseology (which may, after all, be that of his anti-
tioners in Rome and Italy was expressly permitted.38 citizens caught violating the previous senatus consultum
an ancient one. Indeed, there is on record a senatus con­ astrological Christian excerptor) gives the false im­
sultum passed in the consulate of Pomponius and Rufus. pression that the ban of astrology was not a regional The penalties of the first senatus consultum of a . d . 16 of 16, but asked that Roman offenders might be par­
It warned that one would “ forbid water and fire ” to one, but covered the whole empire. No empire wide are not as clearly discernible as those contained in the doned. As the lesser of two evils this motion was car­
astrologers, Chaldaeans, soothsayers and all others who measure of such kind, however, is known prior to the second. As has been suggested, the very fact that it ried enthusiastically by the senate to the chagrin of
would undertake anything of this kind, and if any non­ was necessary to pass a second expulsion decree within Tiberius and his son, Drusus. They had to take refuge
citizen should do so, he would be executed. reign of Diocletian, i. e. until long after Ulpian’s death.
a few weeks after the first indicates that the first one in the hoary expedient of a veto proclaimed by an
(4) Cassius Dio, 57, 15, 8-9:
The groups affected by the two senatus considta were
had failed to put an end to these practices in the capital accommodating tribune. This killed Piso’s motion effec­
As for all the other astrologers and sorcerers and such as more numerous than on any preceding occasion. Not tively. Moreover, the senate in view of this sign of
and in Italy. Some astrologers, and probably other
practiced divination in any other way whatsoever, [he] put only astrologers, but also sorcerers (yoijres) and all imperial inflexibility, became afraid of its own courage
to death those who were foreigners and banished all the other diviners were expelled, according to Cassius Dio diviners as well, had indeed availed themselves of the
citizens that were accused of still employing the art at this and Ulpian. Tacitus mentions astrologers and sorcerers privilege of petitioning the emperor for permission to and capitulated. Meekly the Fathers adopted the
time after the previous decree by which it had been for­ stay, promising at the same time to abandon their pro­ “ official ” motion which provided a specific penalty for
bidden to engage in any such business in the city, but to
(magi), Suetonius only astrologers. It would seem
fessional activities. The greater number, however, ap­ Roman offenders (besides reiterating the previous ban).
those that obeyed immunity was granted. In fact, all the that sorcerers referred to in the two decrees were To see in this episode a splendid example of democratic
citizens would have been acquitted even contrary to his diviners by magic rather than practitioners of black parently had paid no heed to the first senatus consultum.
wish, had not a certain tribune prevented it. Here was a magic. Actually a necromancer of this type, when con­ Many of them seemed to rely on their Roman citizen­ procedure at its best— as Cassius Dio professed to do—
particularly good illustration of the democratic form of sulted by Libo, had revealed the whole plot.35 Ulpian’s ship for protection. For general expulsion orders in could only be vitriolic irony or—-Cassius Dio was, after
government, inasmuch as the senate, agreeing with the the past had chiefly been aimed at non-citizens, while all, no Tacitus— evidence of what a senator of the third
motion of Cn. Calpurnius Piso, overruled Drusus and Ti­ list of outlawed practitioners mentions astrologers special judicial proceedings were required to exile a century believed to be democratic procedure.
berius, only to be thwarted in its turn by the tribune. (mathematici) and Chaldaeans separately. This is un­
Roman citizen. This placed Tiberius in a dilemma. The final senatus consultum of 16 imposed death on
usual, inasmuch as Chaldaei was the older Latin syno­
The most important source insisting on two senatus If he continued to close his eyes to the divinatory activi­ non-citizens and exile and property confiscation on
nym for mathematici. The Latin use of the word
consulta is Tacitus. He also makes it perfectly clear mathematici does not antedate the first century b . c., ties of Roman citizens, no expulsion measure could Roman transgressors. On that point Cassius Dio and
that both expulsion decrees were passed in consequence even be temporarily effective. A good many Greeks Ulpian agree. The execution of two Roman citizens,
and it hardly came into general use until the first cen­
of Libo’s abortive plot.33 The italicized passage in and orientals already had succeeded in obtaining Roman L. Pituanius and P. Marcius, for a violation of this
tury a . d . The only passage in Roman law which is
Cassius Dio also refers to more than one expulsion citizenship at this time. Julius Caesar, for instance, decree seems to be a contradiction, but a careful reading
similar to Ulpian's usage is found in a constitution of
decree (Soy/m) in a way which practically precludes had granted it to all professors of liberal arts and to of this passage of Tacitus indicates that while the two
Constantius II, dated from a . d . 357. There, too, all
any other interpretation than the one in accord with the Jews residing in Rome. Men like Thrasyllus, men did belong to the group of practitioners banned
divination was forbidden, and the list of diviners con­
Tacitus. Suetonius’ brief reference is inconclusive on court astrologer and friend of Tiberius, had also been from Rome, they were apparently not executed for
tained mathematici as well as Chaldaei ac magi.30 Since
this point. The single authority that mentions unmis- able to acquire citizenship. On the other hand, indige­
in all probability the compiler of the collection of Mosaic 3,He was a great friend of Tiberius who appointed him soon
nous Latins too were becoming increasingly proficient after his accession to the post of praefectus urbi. Piso held this
33 The interpretation assigning one SC to astrologers only and office until his death at the age of eighty in a . d. 32. His modera­
another SC to sorcerers would also be grammatically correct, 34Rogers, loc. cit.
33Tacitus, Annals 2, 28. ,T Suetonius, Tiberius, 63. tion and lack of servility, attested by Tacitus, Annals 6, 10, was
but seems to run counter to the inner sweep of the Tacitean 33Ibid., 36. shown in this particular incident also.
30 C. Th., 9, 16, 4 (Jan. 25, 357) ; also found in C. I. 9, 18, 5.
passage.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N LA W U N T IL T H E END OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
240
TABLE S
Area Penalties
1st SC 411 Rome, Italy deportation,
confiscation
of property
2nd SC 40 death
(vetoed)
3rd SC death for
non-Romans,
exile for Romans.
Confiscation of
property for both
groups.
having violated the senatus consultum of 16, but more
probably for having played an active part in Libo’s
conspiracy.
Altogether three senatus consultum were debated and
two finally passed in the last months of that year:
(1) a hasty one soon after Libo’s death (September
13), (2) a more severe one sometime afterwards which,
however, was vetoed at the instigation of Tiberius be­
cause it pardoned Roman offenders, and (3) a final one
before December 31 with drastic penalties against
Roman culprits too. In short we are confronted with
the pattern shown in table 5.
The chief difference between the first and the third
senatus consultum, i. e. between the two actually vali­
dated decrees, were: (1) exemption of Roman citizens
from the first and their inclusion in the second senatus
consultum, and (2) the substitution of the. extremely
harsh penalties of the second senatus consultum for
relatively mild ones imposed by the first.
The long range futility of senatus consulta such as
those of a . d . 16 was acidly pointed out by Tacitus.41
Yet for the moment they seem to have struck into the
hearts of the diviners the wholesome terror intended.
The first known prosecution of an important violation
of the ban dates from the year a . d . 20, four years after
the decrees of a . d . 16.42 It has already been suggested
that diviners belonging to accredited religious institu­
tions enjoyed immunity from the decrees. Court
astrologers like Thrasyllus and later his son, Balbillus,
also undoubtedly remained exempt from such decrees.
When the chief crisis passed, Tiberius apparently was
willing to let the decree of 16 lapse. The Augustan
edict of a . d . 11 seemed adequate for curbing poten­
tially dangerous consultations. The shelving of the
decrees of a . d . 16 became obvious when in 26, barely
ten years after their enactment, a host of astrologers,
quite evidently residing in Rome and practicing their
40 Both SC (1) and SC (2) applied only to non-citizens.
41 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22.
4’ The trial of Aemilia Lepida; Tacitus, Annals 3, 22; R. S.
Rogers, Criminal trials . . .: 51-57; compare F. H. Cramer, The
Caesars and the stars (1), Seminar 9, 1951: 20-23.
Groups Exemptions
astrologers through written petition
and all other to Tiberius with pledge
to abstain henceforth
diviners, in­
cluding sorcerers from practicing one's art
same, but in­
cluding Roman
citizen-practi-
tioners too
profession without official hindrance, predicted freely
that according to the stars Tiberius would never re­
enter Rome alive.*8 They were proven right, although
Tiberius ruled for eleven more years.
(v) T H E SENATU S C O N SU LT U M O F A . D.
The reign of Claudius ( a . d . 41-54) witnessed the
completion of the Augustan edict’s evolution which
reached its final stage in a . d . 49 (at the latest) with
the trial of Lollia Paulina.44 Like his predecessors,
Claudius apparently preferred permanent, but limited
empire wide technical and topical restrictions of astro­
logical (and other divinatory) consultations to a total,
but only regional ban of such activities in Rome and
Italy. But when in a . d . 52 he was confronted with
what seemed to him a dangerous plot, he decided to
resort again to the traditional regional expulsion order
and used for it the Tiberian legal form, the senatus
consultum. Such a decree was voted as an immediate
sequel to the maiestas trial of Furius Camillus Scribo-
nianus and his mother Vibia( ?).45 Its text seems lost.
It is typical of the scantiness of our information on the
subject that Tacitus mentioned it in altogether ten
words, and Cassius Dio—at least in the extant epitome
of his work— with similar brevity:
Tacitus, Annals, 12, 52:
A senatus consultum, harsh and useless, was passed about
the expulsion of astrologers from Italy.
Cassius Dio, ep. 61 ( 6 0 ) , 33, 36 from Zonaras, 11, 10:
The astrologers were banished from all Italy, and their
clients were punished.
Even from these meager sources some important
facts may be gleaned. For one thing, Claudius adhered
to Tiberius’ legal procedure. Just as Tiberius after the
43Tacitus, Annals 4, 58.
“ Ibid., 12, 22; Cassius Dio, ep. 61 (60), 32, 4; cf. Suetonius,
Claudius, 26, 3.
48 Probably Vibidia, possibly Junia; on the trial, see Tacitus,
Annals 12, 52.
E X P U L S IO N OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M R O M E A N D IT A LY 241
conspiracy of Libo Drusus in a . d . 16 had used the may perhaps be found by taking into consideration the
senatus consultum as the legal form for pronouncing groups primarily affected. Astrologers and sorcerers
the expulsion order, Claudius acted after the discovery continued to be the favorite victims of this regional ban.
of Scribonianus’ treasonable activities.46 The geographi­ Diviners in general, however, were no longer subjected
cal area covered by the senatus consultum of a . d . 52 to such measures, but instead philosophers were now
was (in both sources) given as Italy. Nevertheless,
added to the list. The main reason for all expulsion
a ban from Italy would have made little sense, had not orders continued to be the government’s fear of inflam­
the traditional expulsion from Rome also been included. matory influences upon the volatile people of Rome and
Tacitus referred to a ban of astrologers only, but Italy in times of tension.
By including philosophers, imperial policy reverted
Dio, probably correctly, added that their clients were
also punished, referring undoubtedly to Scribonianus to the republican past. In 173 b . c . Epicureans had
and his mother and possibly to others. been driven from Rome. In 161 b . c . philosophers were
formally expelled from Rome by a senatus consultum,48
The penalties imposed upon prospective violators of
the senatus consultum of 52 were not mentioned, but Ever since the advent of imperial monarchy the Stoics
Tacitus insisted that the decree was harsh (atrox). and Cynics in particular had opposed the new regime,
One can, therefore, assume that its penalties closely notwithstanding the fact that some of them, like the
resembled those of the second senatus consultum of versatile younger Seneca, made their peace with the
a . d . 16 and were perhaps identical with them. Meant
court. During the later part of Nero’s reign (54-68),
as an emergency measure, the decree of a . d . 52 lapsed Stoicism became even more than before the creed of
quietly when a modicum of tranquillity seemed restored. the senatorial political opposition. Old time aristo­
That Tacitus castigated it as “ useless,” proves that he cratic republicanism among the senatorial families might
52 have blended with the Stoic concept of the ideal ruler,
did not or refused to recognize the temporary character
of this legal device. One may, however, suspect that “ the best man,” as being the only one worthy of wear­
the actual enforcement of the decree even in Rome was ing the crown, but Nero certainly did not fit that bill.
never too strict. For Seneca insisted, perhaps with In 62 Nero’s confidant, Tigellinus, warned the emperor
some rhetorical exaggeration, that throughout the en­ against a certain Rubellius Plautus by pointing out:
tire reign of Claudius, including of course the year 52, Plautus, with his great fortune, not content to parade his
the astrologers incessantly predicted the death of the mimicries of the ancient Romans, had taken upon himself
emperor.47 Although he did not specifically say so, the Stoic arrogance and the mantle of a sect which incul­
cated sedition and an appetite for politics.49
Seneca made it clear that heedless of the expulsion
decree of that year such prophecies were made by The widespread Pisonic conspiracy of 65 led to the
astrologers plying their craft in the capital itself. death of the brothers Seneca. It also was the undoing
of the Stoic Thrasea Paetus, who had been wont to
demonstrate, his political sentiments by toasting Cassius
4. IM P E R IA L METHODS (A. D. 66?-176?):
and Brutus on the date of their respective birthdays.50
EX P U L SIO N BY IM P E R IA L EDICTS
Another Stoic, the knight Musonius Rufus, escaped
Claudius seems to have been the last ruler to have with exile."1
expelled astrologers from the capital by means of a
senatus consultum. Why perhaps Nero and definitely
(vi, vii). T W O N E R O N IC E X P U L S IO N E D IC T S ?
his successors, Vitellius and Vespasian, abandoned this
legal form in favor of direct imperial edicts one can On the whole it may be assumed that the Stoic oppo­
only surmise. Was it merely a straw in the wind of sition, being most popular with the highest stratum of
the imperial policy of gradual emasculation of the sen­ Roman society, was the primary target of governmental
ate’s prestige and powers? The consistency with which, counter-attacks. It must, however, be borne iri mind
beginning at the latest in the brief reign of Vitellius, that the Cynics, who had a not inconsiderable influence
imperial expulsion edicts in lieu of senatus consulta with the masses, were also indulging in persistent and
were used against astrologers indicates a deliberate violent anti-monarchic and anti-capitalistic propaganda.
government decision rather than a purely accidental Some general imperial action against philosophers
development. A tentative explanation for the charge would, therefore, not seem illogical for the last years of
Nero. There is indeed a report, albeit an unreliable
40Tacitus, loc. cit.
47 Seneca, Apocolyntosis, 3. A recent attempt by M. A. Levi, 46 Suetonius, de rhet., 1 ; Gellius, 1 5 , 1, 1 . The ban extended
Nerone e i suoi tempi ; Biblioteca Storica Universitaria, Serie 2, to Rome only.
monografie, 1; Istituto editoriale cisalpino, Milano-Varese, 1949, 40Tacitus, Annals 14, 57.
to use this isolated little work of Seneca to prove the author’s 60Juvenal, 5, v. 35; compare Tacitus, Annals 16, 21 ff.; Sue­
anti-Hellenistic attitude, has rightly been criticized sharply by tonius, Nero, 37, 1; Cassius Dio, ep. 62 (61), 26, 3-4.
V. Scramuzza, Am . Jour. Philol. 73, 3 (no. 291, July, 1952) : 01 With him was exiled the rhetor Verginius Flavus; Tacitus,
307-312. Annals, 15, 71; Cassius Dio, ep. 62 (61), 27, 4.

242 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL T H E EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
one, ascribing such an expulsion edict to Nero. Philo­
stratus, almost a century and a half after the event,
described the troubles besetting his hero Apollonius of
Tyana during a visit to Rome in A . D. 6 6 , i. e. just after
the Pisonic conspiracy. Before setting out for Greece
in that year, Nero, according to Philostratus, issued an
imperial edict to the effect:
that no one should teach philosophy in public in Rome.
[Whereupon] Apollonius turned his steps to the western
regions of the earth . . . and he was accompanied by all his
pupils.52
An edict of this kind would be perfectly in keeping
with the trend of Nero’s policy after the Pisonic con­
spiracy, but in the absence of more conclusive evidence
a final judgment of its authenticity must be suspended.
If genuine the edict must be considered an important
precedent for subsequent imperial edicts directed against
undesirable elements in Rome and Italy, including not
only philosophers,r'2’ but also astrologers and others.
In the same year in which the ban of the public
teaching of philosophy in Rome is supposed to have
been proclaimed by Nero, the case of Ostorius Scapula,
P. Anteius, and their astrological adviser Pammenes
occured. Coming on the heels of the Pisonic plot,
this incident must have impressed Nero, himself a de­
vout believer in astrology, with the particularly dan­
gerous political influence of astrologers. Under such
circumstances it would hardly be surprising to find
Nero proclaiming an expulsion order against astrolo­
gers also. The only source for a Neronic expulsion
edict, however, is suspect. A tenth century manuscript,
cod Paris, suppl. gr.} 607 A, amidst selected passages
on astrologers of the first century a . d ., contains the
following paragraph:
TABLE 6
Time
Between
66-68
N ERO :<
Zonaras 69
69
Cassius Mid-sum­
Dio mer 69
Suetonius Sometime
V IT ELLIU S
before
Oct. 1, 69
Tacitus Summer
69
52 Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 4, 47.
5a” Compare Suetonius, Nero 39, 3, for an individual case in
which Nero banished urbe Italiaque a Cynic philosopher Isi­
dore; see on the case R. S. Rogers, Classical Weekly 39, 1946-
1947: S3 f
About Nero.
A t the end of his reign his ire was aroused against the
sorcerers and astrologers. He issued an edict and ordered
in it publicly that they should leave all of Italy on a fixed
day. They, however, posted a counter order, announcing
that on that day he would depart from life. On this day,
too, he did die. So accurately had they known what was
going to happen.53
Tempting though it would be to assign such an edict
to the reign of Nero, there are serious doubts in the
path of this assumption. For one thing, the whole pas­
sage bears a strong resemblance to Cassius Dio’s ac­
count (65 [64], 1, 4) of the expulsion edicts of Vitel­
lius in a . d . 69.54 Both versions have in common the
assertion that the astrologers in answer to the pro­
mulgation of an imperial expulsion edict predicted pub­
licly the correct date of the issuing emperor’s death.
In one case, however, it was the end of Nero, in the
other that of Vitellius. Another similarity exists be­
tween the edict ascribed to Nero and that of Vitellius,
as transmitted by Suetonius ( Vitellius, 14). Our
Anonymus simply motivated Nero’s edict with the em­
peror’s ire against astrologers and sorcerers, while
Suetonius more explicitly stated that Vitellius issued
the expulsion edict first and became incensed only when
the astrologers after its proclamation published their
impudent predictions. Neither the extant epitome of
Cassius Dio in Xiphilinus nor Suetonius, however, men­
tioned any other group than the astrologers as affected
by Vitellius’ edict. It was Zonaras (11, 16) who re­
lated that Vitellius first expelled the astrologers and,
on a later occasion also the sorcerers, i. e. that he issued
two separate edicts. This agrees with the Anonymus
who also mentioned both groups, but knew only of a
single edict aimed simultaneously by Nero at astrolo­
Form Groups affected Reason given
imper. edict astrologers, ( accurate)
sorcerers prophecy of
date of em­
peror’s death
imper. edict astrologers,
sorcerers
imper. edict
astrologers same as
imper. edict
Anonymus
imper. edict astrologers, (inaccurate!)
pasquill- prophecy of
writers date of em­
peror’s death
astrologers
" Printed in Cat. 8, 4: 100.
04 Compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from
ancient Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951: 36 ff.
E X P U LSIO N OF ASTROLOGERS F R O M R O M E A N D IT A LY
gers and sorcerers. Tacitus mentioned only astrologers
as the target of Vitellius’ expulsion edict.55 An impor­
tant difference between the Anonymus and Cassius Dio
was that the Anonymus asserted that Nero proclaimed
his expulsion edict “ at the end of his reign.” Cassius
Dio, on the other hand, stated definitely that Vitellius
ordered the expulsion of the astrologers “ after he came
to Rome,” i. e. after mid-July 69 (and prior to October
first).50 Dio could hardly thereby imply that this was
done toward the end of Vitellius’ brief reign which
lasted until the end of December. A comparison be­
tween the alleged Neronic and the subsequent Vitellian
expulsion edicts showing similarities and discrepancies
is given in table 6.
All in all there may well have been a Neronic ex­
pulsion edict, but the similarities between the account
of the Anonymus and those of the other historians are
great enough to make his testimony on behalf of a
Neronic expulsion edict far from conclusive. If Nero
actually issued an imperial expulsion edict against as­
trologers, it would have been the first of its kind.
(viii, ix). T H E V IT E L L IA N E X P U L S IO N EDICTS
The fall and death of Nero left Galba in uncontested
power on June 9, 68, but he was only able to retain it
for about seven months. A rebellion of the praetorian
guards at Rome, skillfully stirred up by Otho, led to
his assassination on January 15, 69, and Otho ascended
the vacant throne, long promised to him by his astrolo­
gers. His span of power, however, was even briefer
than that of Galba. In June, 69, he died a suicide
leaving the imperial power to his victorious rival Vitel­
lius. The new ruler advanced towards Rome in slow
stages. He reached the capital sometime in July, cer­
tainly before the eighteenth.57 There he found himself
confronted with the seething unrest of the population
which in hardly more than thirteen months now greeted
the fourth emperor within the walls of the capital. The
wildest political speculations were rife. The curious
and the ambitious must have beleagured astrologers
and all other diviners. Vitellius not only was generally
devoted to divination,58 but for understandable reasons
particularly interested in astrology. He saw in the
numerous astrological prophecies of the brevity of his
reign a very real and serious incitement to rebellion
and, therefore, issued an imperial expulsion edict, the
first one which is definitely known. It was directed
against astrologers practicing in Rome and Italy. Our
chief sources are:
Tacitus, Histories 2, 62:
Driven from Italy were the astrologers. . . .
115Tacitus, Histories 2, 62.
5* Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4.
67 On his arrival, see Tacitus, Histories 2, 89 f.; 91.
s* Zonaras, 11, 16, possibly taken from Cassius Dio.
243
Cassius Dio, epitome of 64 ( 65), 1, 4 from Xiphilinus:
Vitellius, upon reaching Rome and arranging affairs to suit
him, issued an edict banishing the astrologers and com­
manding them to leave the whole of Italy by a certain
specified day. They answered him by putting up at night
another notice, in which they commanded him in turn to
depart this life before the encl of the very day on which he
actually died. So great was their foreknowledge of what
should come to pass.
Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4:
Towards none was he more hostile than against anonymous
pamphleteers and astrologers. Any one of them who was
denounced he had executed without a hearing, because he
was incensed that, after his edict, by which he had ordered
the astrologers to quit Rome and Italy before October first,
at once an anonymous reply was posted publicly. And the
Chaldaeans said, it was a good thing that by that same
first of the month there would be no longer a Vitellius
Germanicus.
Zonaras, 11, 16, possibly also from Cassius Dio:
Although he [Vitellius] had a great regard for omens, and
did nothing however trivial without consulting them, he
banished the astrologers at this time and later the sorcerers.
Cassius Dio and Suetonius obviously used the same
source. They stated clearly that the expulsion was
pronounced by imperial edict, a break with the tradition
of the Julian-Claudian dynasty which had preferred the
form of the senatus consultum for such measures.
Tacitus and Zonaras were silent on this point. The
precise geographical scope was correctly given by Sue­
tonius alone. The astrologers were banished from
Rome and Italy (urbe Italiaque). Tacitus and Cassius
Dio merely mentioned Italy. Zonaras was entirely
vague about the area covered by the edict. Suetonius
was also the only one to preserve the precise date on
which the astrologers had to quit Italy: October 1, 69.
Cassius Dio, perhaps for a reason later to be discussed,
vaguely spoke of “ a certain specified day.” Tacitus and
Zonaras did not mention any date, although Zonaras,
by reporting a subsequent expulsion edict against sor­
cerers, automatically assigned the edict against the
astrologers to the earlier part of Vitellius’ brief reign.
The date of the edict’s promulgation, therefore, fell
between mid-July and the end of September. The
praetorian edict of 139 b . c . allowed ten days for the
leaving of Italy. A similar span was probably allowed
in the Vitellian edict also. Since it went into effect on
October 1, it could therefore hardly be promulgated
after September 20. Tacitus’ three-worded reference
to the edict (pulsi Italia mathematici) throws no light
on the date. His words followed immediately upon
his mention of a proclamation which Vitellius sent to
Rome while still en route to the capital. On the other
hand,.many pages later (Histories 2, 81) Tacitus spoke
of Vespasian’s rebellion and his gaining control of Egypt
and Syria by July 15. Still later (ibid., 87) he de­
scribed Vitellius’ slow approach towards Rome. Noth-
244
astrology in rom an law u n t il t h e e n d of the p r in c ip a t e E X P U L S IO N OF ASTROLOGERS FR O M R O M E AN D IT A LY 245

ing therefore can be gleaned from his account about Vitellius would be dead on that day, and, lo and behold, In his attempt to restore political tranquillity, Ves­ (4) Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3.
such was the case! Accordingly, Cassius Dio praised pasian considered it also necessary to direct a corre­ [Domitian] killed . . . Iunius Rusticus . . . on account
the exact date of the edict’s promulgation.
The only source definitely ascribing the edict to the the astonishing foreknowledge of the astrologers. This sponding edict against oppositional philosophers.63 Ac­ of whose crime he expelled all philosophers from the capital
and from Italy.
time after Vitellius’ arrival at the capital was Cassius change from Suetonius’ to Cassius Dio’s version reveals cording to Cassius Dio (in Xiphilinus’ excerpt) shortly
(5) Pliny, epistulae 3, 11.
Dio. His version on the whole agreed with that of the growth of a legend of astrological accuracy where after his arrival in the capital, “ Vespasian immediately
Indeed, at the time when all philosophers were expelled
Suetonius and was probably accurate in assigning the in reality the facts had demonstrated precisely the expelled from Rome all the philosophers except Muso- from the capital, I visited . . . [the philosopher Artemidorus]
issue of the edict to a date after July 15. For Vitellius, contrary. nius.” 64 Among the philosophical sects especially hos­ in the suburbs, and, what made it even more notable and
Zonaras alone described to Vitellius an expulsion tile to the imperial regime were, as mentioned before, more dangerous, I was then praetor.
after becoming pontifex maximus, definitely was in
Rome on July 18. This was a dies ater, the anniversary edict directed against sorcerers. Since all other sources the Stoics and the Cynics. That the Stoics in particular (6) Suidas, J . V . Ao^Enavos.
of the ancient disaster at the river Allia, and no business are silent on that point, we must assume that, if such were aimed at this time is apparent from the stated This man banished from Rome philosophers, as well as
should be undertaken on so unlucky a day. Vitellius an edict was actually issued at all, it was also promul­ exception: Musonius, a well known Stoic. The area astrologers.
failed to heed this custom, however, and proceeded gated between July 15 and December 20, 69. covered by this regional ban was Rome. This edict, (7) Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 7, 3.
with the affairs of the day.59 The edict against the incidentally, seems to have been enforced more vigor­ . . . while the senate had all its most distinguished members
(x, xi). v e s p a s i a n ’ s e x p u l s i o n e d i c t s ously than was the rule in such cases. For some years cut off, philosophy was reduced to cowering in a corner, to
astrologers was, therefore, issued sometime between such an extent that some of its votaries disguised them­
Tuly 15 and September 20, 69. This period can pei- Vespasian was destined to calm the turbulent political later it was still so strict that only some daring Cynics selves by changing their dress and ran away to take refuge
haps be narrowed down, for more than ten days may scene of Rome and to inaugurate a new era of relative afraid of nothing “ managed somehow to slip into the among the western Celts, while others fled to the deserts of
well have elapsed between the proclamation of the ex­ tranquillity, but this could not be foreseen with certainty city.” Even so perhaps no harm might have befallen Libya and Scythia.
pulsion edict, followed by the taunting reply of the at the time of his accession in 69. The Romans now them, had not some of them appeared in the midst of
The only authority listing two separate expulsion
astrologers, and the mass executions without trial pledged allegiance to the fifth emperor within less than a crowded theatre and delivered fiery orations to the
measures of Domitian (assigning them to the years
As to the penalties imposed upon violators of the two years. Ambitious men inevitably must have won­ multitude against Berenice, the Jewish mistress of
89-90 and 93-94, respectively) is Jerome from whom
edict of 69, the fact that Vitellius executed offending dered whether their own turn to mount the imperial Vespasian’s son and heir presumptive, Titus.65
Syncellus copied the passage referring to “ another ”
astrologers could indicate that the death penalty of the throne might not come next. Assuredly many astrolo­ expulsion edict against the same two groups.66 Cassius
senatus consultum of 16 against non-Roman violators gers had braved the wrath of Vitellius and remained in (xii, xiii). d o m i t i a n ’s e x p u l s io n e d ic t s
Dio spoke of the edict of 93-94 as banishing at least
only was now extended to Roman citizens as well. On Rome in spite of his expulsion order. Undoubtedly they Within a single year Vespasian had thus issued two philosophers “ once more ” (aSfts), an ambiguous term.
the other hand, these death sentences apparently were did not hesitate to reassure any clients’ exaggerated expulsion edicts, one aimed at astrologers, the other at For Dio might have remembered Vespasian’s earlier
meted out without even the formality of a trial. It may, hopes of future greatness. Thus the astrologers con­ philosophers. Like Vitellius (and possible Nero) he ban, or, on the other hand, referred to Domitian’s recent
therefore, be that Vitellius’ blind rage rather than a tributed in no small measure to the restiveness at Rome. too had chosen the imperial edict as the legal form for one of a . d . 89-90. From the context of the whole
specific penalty clause of his edict was responsible for Vespasian himself, being “ in the habit of consulting all those measures in preference to the earlier one of the passage, however, it hardly seems likely that Dio meant
these executions. One minor point may still be men­ the best of them himself,” 60 must have been impressed senatus consulta. The short reign of his oldest son and the old expulsion edict of 70-71. The more natural,
tioned. The terminology of Suetonius’ account shows by the astrological troublemakers at Rome. In his own successor Titus (79-81) apparently did not evoke such interpretation of his words would be that Domitian
that the historian apparently used two different sources. entourage was probably at this time already the re­ edicts, but Domitian, Vespasian’s younger son and suc­ himself had banished philosophers “ once more.” Jerome
He first referred (like Tacitus) to the astrologers as nowned Balbillus, son of Thrasyllus, and soon also the cessor of Titus (81-96), eventually faced another show­ (and Syncellus) alone revealed that Domitian’s first
mathematici, a term which in the first century a . d . late Otho’s main astrological adviser, Ptolemy Seleu­ down with both astrologers and philosophers. Whether edict was also directed against astrologers. Since the
more and more replaced the earlier Latin term Chaldaei. cus.61 Since Vespasian posed as Otho’s avenger, Otho’s he expelled both groups twice or only once is not quite ban of 93-94 was definitely, according to Jerome, pro­
Then towards the end of his passage he called the former court astrologer had no trouble in finding a new certain, although the weight of the available evidence claimed in the form of an imperial edict, there can be
astrologers, who posted the notice, Chaldaei. There imperial patron in Vespasian. makes it somewhat more likely that there were two little doubt that Domitian’s earlier expulsion order
can hardly be any other reason for this change in termi­ Even before reaching Rome, early in a . d . 70 the new such actions, one taken in 89-90, the other in 93-94. would have been issued in the same form. In using it
nology within a single sentence than the use of two emperor renewed Vitellius’ expulsion edict. The only Domitian merely followed the precedents established by
I. Passages indicating the possibility of two expulsion edicts
different sources, one of which had mathematici, while extant reference for this is again Cassius Dio, indefati­ Vitellius and Vespasian (and possibly already by Nero).
against astrologers and philosophers in the reign of
the other still clung to the traditional Chaldaei. Cassius gable in his interest in matters astrological. He, or Dom itian: The scope of both edicts of Domitian, at least accord­
Dio in his account simply called them astrologers better, the surviving epitome says briefly: “ And the (1) Jerome, Chronica, a . d . 89-90. ing to Jerome and Cassius Dio, covered Rome only.
(■MTTpoXoyous), while Zonaras even referred to them as astrologers he banished from Rome.” 02 No mention Domitian drove the astrologers and philosophers from the Suetonius, a contemporary of both edicts, however, re­
astronomers (aoTpovopovs). was made of the sorcerers or any other group in con­ capital. ported that the second one covered in the usual phrase­
Finally an amusing fact may be noted. Suetonius, nection with this edict. Nor do we have any idea of (2) Cassius Dio, epitome of 67, 13, 2-3. ology both Rome and Italy (urbe Italiaque).67 There
writing about half a century after the event, by relating the penalties with which it threatened future violators. [Domitian] . . . killed Arulenus Rusticus, because he was is some doubt about this, however, for Pliny, another
that the astrologers prophesied that Vitellius would die The area involved was Rome. Probably, however, the a philosopher. . . . Many others also perished as a result contemporary, boasted of his, a praetor’s, visit to the
before his edict went into effect, i.e. before October 1, edict was couched in the usual phraseology, expelling of this same charge of philosophizing, and all the philo­
suburban “ exile ” of the “ expelled ” philosopher Arte­
sophers that were left in Rome were banished once more.
revealed the complete failure of that astrological boast. astrologers urbe Italiaque. midorus in 93-94. This would indicate that the ban
(3) Jerome, Chronica, a . d. 93-94.
For Vitellius died sometime between December 20 and 00 Cassius Dio, ep. 65 (65), 9, 2. Dio criticized Vespasian of philospphers was limited to the city of Rome alone.
Domitian again by an edict expelled the philosophers and
24, i.e. several months after October 1. More than a sharply for what he considered the double standard of this ruler’s On the other hand, Artemidorus, son-in-law of the
astrologers from the Roman capital.
century after Suetonius, Cassius Dio, an ardent believer continuing his consultations with court astrologers, while, on the
Stoic knight, Musonius Rufus, may have been treated
in astrology, dreams, and all other kinds of divination,
other hand, forbidding other Roman residents to do likewise. II. Passages definitely referring to one expulsion edict by
Cassius Dio, loc. cit., as well as Suetonius, Otho, 4 and 6, Dom itian: with exceptional leniency. On the whole, Suetonius’
toned down the account of Suetonius. According to named as Otho’s chief astrological adviser Seleucus, while version appears more authentic and accurate than Pliny’s
Dio the Vitellian edict ordered the astrologers to leave Tacitus, Histories 1, 22, and Plutarch, Galba, 23, 4, assigned this *s Suetonius, Vespasian, 13 and 15; Cassius Dio, ep. 65 (66), casual “ at the time when the philosophers were expelled
before “ a certain day ” ; they replied by saying that role to Ptolemy. The astrologer’s full name was therefore 13, 1 ff.; 12, 2-3.
probably Ptolemy Seleucus or Seleucus Ptolemy. " Cassius Dio, cp. 65 (66), 13, 2. "Syncellus, 1, f. 343 D ; 344 C (ed. Bonn: 650 f.)
80 Tacitus, Histories 2, 91. Cassius Dio, ep. 65 (66), 9, 2. 00Ibid., 15, 5. The first edict probably covered the same area.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N LA W U N T IL THE END OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E X P U L S IO N OF ASTRO LO G ERS F R O M R O M E A N D IT A L Y 247

from the capital.” We may assume that at least less nius Senecio was condemned “ for having written the (xiv). AN E X P U L S IO N E D ICT OF M ARCUS A U R E L IU S ? the importance which the emperor attached to the in­
privileged philosophers were formally expelled from biography of Helvidius Priscus,” 73 who with Thrasea The Flavian rulers (except Titus) were the last
fluence of such persons during a period of crisis. How
Italy as well as from Rome. The penalties proposed symbolized the martyr tradition of the Stoic opposition emperors of the principate who seem to have resorted
seriously the rebellion of Avidius Cassius was taken in
in Domitian’s edict of 89-90 are not known. They were in the reigns of Nero and Vespasian. Other executions with relative frequency to such measures. Perhaps this
Rome is also attested by other authorities. Not only
in all likelihood stiff ones. For without teeth in it of hostile philosophers followed. Against the surviving was due to the prolonged unrest which followed the
was the population in a state bordering on panic, but
no such expulsion edict would meet with even temporary oppositional philosophers an expulsion edict was issued. hectic years 68 and 69. When Domitian was assassi­
also the staid Stoic on the throne was greatly worried
To this edict Suetonius, Pliny, Cassius Dio, Suidas, for a time.76 Admittedly, it is conjecture rather than
success. and vaguely even Philostratus referred, not to mention nated and Nerva ascended the throne in 96 to be suc­
The main question in connection with the authen­ established fact to ascribe the promulgation of an expul­
Jerome whose testimony has already been cited. All of ceeded by rulers of the calibre of a Trajan, Hadrian,
ticity of the first edict is : to what extent would the sion edict against astrologers to this particular year, but
these authors, except Suidas and Jerome, named only Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius, the anti-monar­
political situation in 89-90 warrant Domitian’s decision there would hardly have been any more fitting date in
philosophers as the target of this particular edict. As­ chic, philosophical opposition gradually lost its strength.
to resume the expulsion policy of his predecessors. the entire reign of Marcus Aurelius. All of the tradi­
trologers were linked with the philosophers as affected Its most influential part, the senatorial Stoics, made
He had for years struggled against a rising tide of dis- tional elements conducive to such a measure were pres­
by this second edict specifically only by Jerome and in peace with the great rulers of the second century who
content. As early as 82 he executed his own cousin ent : a dangerous rebellion against the emperor, high
a general manner by Suidas. Assuming that the as­ truly fulfilled the Stoic political ideal of “ the rule of
T. Flavius Sabinus for an alleged plot against him. tension in the capital, wild rumors fanned by even wilder
trologers were, indeed, expelled once more in 93-94, the best man.” The “ pratings of the Cynics ” who
After this trial he banished the well known rhetorician prophecies of inspired diviners. Even a Marcus Aure­
one has a choice between two possibilities: either the remained irreconcilable continued, indeed, to stir up a
and philosopher, Dio Chrysostomus.68 Since 86 the lius, otherwise even tempered, might then be worried
far more spectacular purge of ranking Stoics in par­ measure of popular opposition during the second cen­
emperor had undertaken a series of unsuccessful ex­ enough to proceed against astrologers in the traditional
ticular and philosophers in general made most authors tury, but, on the whole, anti-imperial philosophers no
peditions against the Marcomanni and the Dacians. A manner. If ever an expulsion edict was issued by M.
overlook the fact that on this occasion astrologers, too, longer seemed menacing enough to warrant renewed
sham triumph which he celebrated upon his return, Aurelius, it must have been on this occasion.
were included in the expulsion edict, or one must assume expulsion orders against them as a group.
probably in a . d . 89, fooled no one. To stifle the rising Not quite the same nonchalance, however, was mani­
that the astrologers were expelled in 93-94 by a sepa­
tide of opposition “ even at this time, too, he slew some fested towards astrologers, although — subject to the 5. CONCLUSION
rate edict. It seems more plausible that, just as had
of the foremost men.” 63 Already he was styling him­ now traditional topical restrictions — they appear not to
been the case in 89-90, a single edict directed against There is no further record of expulsion orders. By
self dominus et dcus despite the angry murmurs of the have given official offense until the reign of Marcus
both groups was issued in 93-94. Its character and 212 Roman citizenship became universal, and with the
senate Vainly the fathers tried to remind him of cer­ Aurelius. The internal tranquillity which characterized
scope would mainly be a reaffirmation of the earlier one. end of the principate began the great agrarian revolt
tain constitutional limitations by passing one senatus the era beginning with the reign of Nerva (96-98) and
The penalty for violators of the edict of 93-94 must of the third century. The importance of Rome (and
consultum after another to the effect that “ it should be ending in the one of Marcus Aurelius permitted the
have been severe, if Philostratus’ highly rhetorical out­ Italy) within the empire declined steadily throughout
unlawful for the emperor to put to death any of his rulers to discontinue the use of emergency expulsion these disastrous decades. When Diocletian at last re­
fsenatorial ] peers.” 70 The climax of this wave of ten­ burst contains a nucleus of truth. The fact that sensa­ measures for more than three quarters of a century. stored order by introducing the oriental despotism of the
sion was the news that L. Antonius, prefect of the tional executions preceded or accompanied the edict There was only one occasion on which the government later Roman empire, the old political center of the empire
province of upper Germany, had- raised the standard of. points in the same direction. It should also be remem­ again resorted to its hoary weapon against astrologers had ceased to be of primary importance. Soon cities
rebellion (sometime between a . d . 88 and 90). Domi- bered that during those last years of Domitian’s reign and other diviners. This none-too-well authenticated like Nicomedia, Constantinople, Antioch, Milan, Trier,
tian reacted with another series of political executions.’ prosecutions for violations of the Augustan law of action took place in the reign of Marcus Aurelius (161- and Ravenna housed political powers once centered in
This certainly was an atmosphere in which an expulsion topical restrictions were numerous and sentences harsh. 180), in all probability at the time when the pretender Rome. The expulsion of groups considered dangerous
edict against astrologers and subversive philosophers With Domitian’s assassination in 96 all of his edicts Avidius Cassius had assumed the imperial purple.in the from Rome and Italy, even if permanently enforced,
might well seem called for. There can be little doubt, expired automatically, when the senate in solemn session east (175 a . d . ) . Our sources for this incident are would, therefore, no longer serve its old purpose. The
therefore, that Jerome’s assertion that such an edict pronounced the dreaded damnatio memoriae.7* particularly unsatisfactory: logical development was an empire wide ban of all di-
was actually issued in 89-90 was probably correct. vinatory activities considered dangerous by the govern­
The politically far more exciting background of (1) Ulpian, de officio proconsulis 7 (in Leg. Mos. et Rom .
The second time Domitian resorted to such a measure Domitian’s expulsion edict of 93-94 may also have collatio, IS, 2, 6). ment. This step was first taken by Diocletian. Long
came in 93-94. At this time the aristocratic opposi­ Furthermore, the divine Marcus, too, relegated to the before Christian fanaticism outlawed astrology and all
contributed to the obscuring of the edict of 89-90. Soon
tion, fortified by die-hard Stoics, had reached such island of Syrus a man, who had uttered prophecies during other forms of divination (for wholly different reasons)
overlooked, it survived by sheer accident in Jerome’s
proportions that the emperor found it necessary to exe­ the rebellion of Cassius and had said much as if inspired this pagan autocrat in 296-297 (?) reached the logical
adaptation of Eusebius’ Chronica and thence in Suidas’ by the gods.
cute several leaders of this faction, both traditionally conclusion and replaced the traditional regional ban of
linked with the senatorial Stoic party. Iunius Arulenus dictionary. If nothing else, this instance once more (2) Tertullian, de idololatria, 9. astrology with a total empire wide one.76 The new legal
Rusticus was executed “ because he had published eulo­ demonstrates the slenderness of our literary tradition. Expelled are the astrologers. . . . The capital and Italy technique, however, still preserved the temporary char­
gies on Thrasea Paetus and Helvidius Priscus (the one From it, however, that much is clear: Vespasian and are forbidden to the astrologers. . . .
acter of the traditional regional ban. It was left to the
executed by Nero in 66, the other a few years later by Domitian fully developed what seems to have been Tertullian’s outburst seems to point at a recent, not an Christian rulers to make the total empire wide ban
Vespasian), calling these men holy ones.” 72 Heren- Nero’s initial policy of closely associating philosophers earlier expulsion, measure directed against the astrolo­ permanent.77
and astrologers as politically dangerous elements to be gers. We may safely assume that it had the form of an In conclusion it may be pointed out that at no time
“8 Suetonius, Domitian, 10; Dio Chrysostomus, or. 13, 1. On subjected to expulsion edicts. Vespasian did so in two the principate barred astrological studies and theoretical
Domitian’s campaign against the philosophers, compare also S. imperial edict. Its scope again was probably the tradi­
Gsell, Le regne de I’empereur Domitien (no. 66 of the Bibtio-
closely spaced separate edicts of 70 and 71, Domitian tional one: it covered Rome and Italy. In ascribing it research. It only interfered with the professional prac­
thdque des ecoles francaises d’Athdnes . . .) : 275 ff., Paris, 1894. probably in a single edict in 89-90, and almost certainly to the year 175, we follow a suggestion arising from tice of the craft and that only in times of special political
*“ Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 9, 6. in a joint expulsion order in 93-94. Ulpian. In a passage devoted to a survey of the curbs tension. Even then it limited the ban to Rome and
70 Ibid., 2, 4. of astrology and other forms of divination he mentioned
,1 Suetonius, Domitian, 6, 2; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 11, 1-2. 78 Cassius Dio, ep. 62 (61, 22, 2) ; SHA, M. Antoninus, 25 ;■
,s Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 2-4; compare Cassius Dio, ep. 67, ’* Loc. cit. the above quoted incident of that turbulent year when Avidius Cassius, 7, 7.
74 Suetonius, Domitian, 23, 1; Pliny, Panegyricus, 52, 7. for his wild prophecies some seer was banished to a " C. I. 9, 18, 2.
13, 2-3.
small island by Marcus Aurelius. This indicates at least " C . Th. 9, 16, 4; 6; 8; 12; cf. C .I. 9, 18, 5; 7; 8; 1, 4, 10.
248 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE END OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST R IC T IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y 249
Italy. Throughout the rest of the empire astrologers Needless to say astrologia as used in this epitaph could cariousness of his position. Having himself received serious cases of this kind Augustus sanctioned the addi­
were at all times allowed to practice, subject only to the well mean astronomy, astrology, or any combination of the encouragement of astrological predictions of a bril­ tional imposition of the penalty of exile.12 Not until the
Augustan law of technical and topical restrictions. Pro­ both. In any case the abundant writings of astrologers liant future,4 he was aware of their heady taste. Of the reign of Tiberius was the death penalty imposed upon
fessors of astronomy, many of them presumably also who lived during the principate alone would furnish great families of republican Rome a number considered " literary traitors.” 18
teaching at least the theories of astrology, may have conclusive evidence of the continued scholarly interest the Julian gens as an upstart and themselves entertained It was inevitable that the new Augustan policy led to
received chairs at the Roman state university, the in this field, irrespective of the recurrent suppression of hopes of claiming the throne. Energetic noblemen, the curtailment of the hitherto unlimited freedom of
Athenaeum, from the beginning (a. d . 134). This seems its practice in Rome and Italy. Manilius, Thrasyllus, therefore, might easily be persuaded by astrological ad­ astrological practice. The older the emperor became the
probable in view of the fact that the very founder of the Chaeremon, Balbillus, Timaeus, Teucrus the Babylonian, visers that the coup which they planned was “ destined ” more eagerly did his opponents seek information about
first Latin state university, the emperor Hadrian, not Antigonus of Nicaea, Antiochus of Athens, Vettius to succeed. the prospective date of his demise. Republicans might
only was a firm believer in astrology but was also a Not only astrology, but other forms of divination also hope for a restoration of the old order, while ambitious
Valens, Ptolemy, these are but the best known experts
practicing expert himself.18 Severus Alexander (222- could exercise such an inflammatory influence, especially individuals would seek the throne for themselves when
235) is known to have appointed professors of Astrologia among a host of astrologers of whose writings, in often the ubiquitous oracular literature. After the short-lived his long reign came to a close. No other form of divina­
to the Athenaeum in Rome.70 But secular profes­ substantial fragments, have come down to us. There ban of diviners from Rome (33 B . C . ) , however, more tion inspired, in upper class Romans at least, the same
sors were not the only ones permitted to study and to is no evidence that their treatises shied away from any than twenty years elapsed before official action was taken confidence as astrology whose “ logically infallible”
teach astrologia in Italy. Proudly a priest of Mithras of the forbidden topics, outlawed by the Augustan edict revelations were widely accepted. Even when these
again in this field. On March 6, 12 b . c . Augustus
could proclaim in his epitaph found at Milan: of a . d . 11. Death dealing, or “ imperial” constella­ were disproven by subsequent events only the human
claimed the last of the great offices of state which he had
M. Valerius Maximus sacerdos d[ei] S[olis] Ifnvicti] tions, as well as methods of computing the date of hitherto refrained from assuming and became pontifex frailty of the astrologers, but not the fallacy of their
M[ithrae] Studiosus astrologiae 80 ([Here lies] M. Valer­ anyone’s death were freely discussed, but practical ap­ tenets was blamed,14 a point of view fully shared by
ius Maximus, a priest of the invincible Sun [God] Mithras maximus,5 At once he ordered the confiscation of all
plication of these theories was, when discovered, dealt oracular literature. More than two thousand books and Augustus himself. The fanatical devotion to astrology
[and] a student of astrologia.)
with severely. State trials of the early principate molded scrolls of this kind were gathered in. With the sole of Tiberius, heir designate, and the influence of his
78 SHA, Hadrian, 2, 4; 16, 7: Aelius, 3. 9. A detailed horo­ friend Thrasyllus, whom he had introduced into the
scope of Hadrian, cast i n the second century a . d ., has survived; the Augustan technical and topical restrictions of astro­ exception of the Sibylline books all were condemned and
inner Augustan circle, may have contributed to the old
see Cat. 7: 67-71 (from two mss.: cod. phil. gr. Vmdob. 108, logical practice into a fixed legal pattern which persisted in a solemn autodafe committed to the flames.6
emperor’s decision to place certain restrictions on the
ff. 301 ff., and cod. Paris, gr. 2417, f. 106). Variants of a slightly until the end of the fourth century a . d ., when the total No ban, however, seems to have been proclaimed at
different text, preserved in cod. Paris, gr. 2501, were published manner and scope of astrological practice and that of
empire wide ban of the practice of astrology and all the time on the publication of oracular, astrological, or other divinatory techniques. No longer would curbs
i n Cat. 8, 2 : 82-84.
70 SHA, Severus Alexander, 27, 5; 44, 4. other forms of divination replaced the limited Augustan any other divinatory writings. This was in keeping be confined to short time regional expulsion measures,
‘" C I L 5, 2: 652, no. 5893 (Orelli, no. 1202) ; cf. F. Cumont, with the relatively liberal attitude of Augustus, grudg­ but durable empire wide imperial legislation was to
Les mysteres de Mithra, 3rd ed.: 126, n. 1; Paris, 1913.
restrictions.
ingly even admitted by Tacitus,7 concerning freedom of circumscribe astrological and other divinatory activities
literary expression. Not until the last decade of his everywhere. This was done by means of an imperial
long reign did the aging ruler begin to reconsider his edict, proclaimed it seems during the quaestorship of
VI E M P IR E W ID E LEGA L R EST R IC T IO N S OF ASTROLOGY AN D O T H E R D IV IN A T IO N policy. The immediate cause of this change appears to Tiberius’ son Drusus in a . d . 1 1 .
D U R IN G T H E P RIN C IPA T E have been the famine period beginning in a . d . 5.8 The The text of this edict has not been rediscovered as yet.
first official step in the new direction was the reinter­
The gist of it, however, was preserved by Cassius D io:
1. THE AUGUSTAN EDICT OF A.D . I I 1 structure of the old republic in normal times seemed to pretation of the ancient lex maiestatis (which in earlier
render harmless the inflammatory potential of astro­ times had only been applied to those who had harmed
The triumphant rise of astrology in the Latin world logical predictions among the masses of Rome and Italy, the state by acts, not merely by words).” This legal 12 The trial of Cassius Severus seems to have been the only
reached its zenith in the early principate. Scholars and at least prior to the age of the Gracchi. one of its kind which, during the Augustan era, ended with a
policy went into effect sometime between a . d . 7 and 11, sentence of exile.
generals, poets and emperors, society ladies and girls The great revolution of the first century b . c . which probably around the year 8.10 For the new crime of 15 In Criminal trials and criminal legislation under Tiberius,
who trod the primrose path now swelled the ranks of culminated in the overthrow of the republic and the “ literary treason ” a new penalty was provided: the R. S. Rogers listed more than a hundred maiestas trials, while
the faithful. Prior to the establishment of the princi­ establishment of the principate put an end to official burning of the culprit’s subversive writings.11 In more W. Allen, The political atmosphere of the reign of Tiberius,
pate, the Roman government had demonstrated its oppo­ complacency. Sulla and Pompey, both willing listeners Trans. Amer. Philol. Assn. 42, 1941: 18, counted only sixty-
sition to the practice of astrology only twice, in 139 and of astrologers,8 had refused to grasp monarchic power three. Closer to the figure of Rogers came E. Ciaceri, La respon­
* Suetonius, Augustus, 94, 12. sibility di Tiberio nell’ applicazione della Lex Iulia maiestatis,
in 33 b. c.s In each instance government action had when it was within reach. Julius Caesar at last ad­ 5 C IL 1, 2nd ed.: 371 = 9 : 503, no. 5289, 1; compare Monu- Studi storici per I’antichiti classica 3, 1910: 1-30, esp. 18 ff.,
been confined to a regional ban applying to the capital ministered the death blow to the moribund republic. mentum Ancyranum 2, 10; Appiaii, bell. civ. 5, 13, 131. with ninety-five maiestas trials in the reign of Tiberius. The first
and Italy in 139, and to Rome only in 33 b . c . Beyond His overt introduction of absolute monarchy, however, “ Suetonius, Augustus, 31, 1; Cassius Dio, 54, 27, 2-3. For an execution for the crime of literary treason seems to have been
the Italian peninsula Roman law took no cognizance of earlier attempt of Augustus to establish a secret official version that of Clutorius Priscus; Tacitus, Annals 3, 49-51; Cassius Dio
shocked even those who conceded the need for radical
of the Sibylline books, see Cassius Dio, 54, 15, 8; compare 57, 20, 3. R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 207, calls the action
astrology until the reign of Augustus. The apathy of changes. The Ides of March, 44 b . c ., were the result, Tacitus, Annals 6, 18 (12). quasi-maiestas. E. Ciaceri, La responsibility di Tiberio nell’
the preceding republican era was chiefly due to two but the assassination of the dictator did not resuscitate 7Tacitus, Annals 4, 34. applicazione della Lex Iu lia maiestatis. Studi storici per I'anti-
reasons: (1) The well established constitutional ladder the old order. With Octavianus’ victory over Mark 8 Suetonius, Augustus, 42, 3; compare 19, 3; Cassius Dio, 55, chitd classica 2, 1909 : 377-415, suggests that the senate’s belief
of honors and offices provided sufficient outlets for the Antony in 30 b . c . the permanent monarchic era began. 26, 1-5; 27, 1-3; Jerome, Chron., 01.196 ( a . d . 6). in the magical quality of Clutorius’ poems was responsible for
politically ambitious. Astrological promises of future "Tacitus, Annals, 1, 72; but see Suetonius, Tiberius, 2, 3. the harsh sentence. In any case it was the senate, not Tiberius,
The new ruler was careful to camouflage his power
greatness, therefore, could be fulfilled through consti­ 10 Compare F. H. Cramer, Bookburning and censorship in who created in A . D. 21 the precedent of capital punishment for
behind the facade of a constitution. Adopted in 27 b . c . ancient Rome, Jour. Hist. Ideas 6, 1945: 168 ff. The opposite “ literary treason” ; cf. Rogers, Criminal trials: 62-64; Studies
tutional channels and did not incite to political coups. it inaugurated the period called the principate. Never­ view, i.e. that in spite of Tacitus’ assertion Augustus did not in the reign of Tiberius: 149. A similar case, that of Aelius
(2) The traditional stability of the social and religious theless Octavianus, who recently had been voted the institute the maiestas procedure in cases of libel and slander, is Saturninus, ended in a . d . 23 also with the defendant’s execution,
title Augustus by the senate, fully realized the pre- held by R. S. Rogers, Augustus and Use majeste. this time, however, with the emperor’s express sanction.
1 This chapter is essentially based on my article The Caesars 11 Seneca, controversiae 10, pr., 5, in connection with the fate “ For a classical formulation of this attitude, see for example,
and the stars, Seminar 9, 1951: 1-35; 10, 1952: 1-59- _ of Labienus, establishes conclusively the novelty of this pro­ Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos 1, 6.
“ Valerius Maximus, 1, 3, 3; Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5-6. ‘ Plutarch, Sulla, 5, 5-6; 37, 1; Cicero, de divinatione 2, 47, 99.
cedure at the time. 15 C IL 12: 25, no. 147; Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 4.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
It was forbidden to diviners (/lav rtm v ) to prophesjr to
any person alone or to prophesy regarding death even if
others should be present.16
That astrologers were undoubtedly included among the
diviners, or even perhaps the chief target of the Augus­
tan edict, was shown by Dio’s (or rather Xiphilinus’)
words immediately following the above lines:
Yet so far was Augustus from caring about such matters
in his own case that he set forth to all in an edict the
aspect of the stars at the time of his own birth [and thus
revealed his death date!]. Nevertheless he forbade this
practice.16*
The whole somewhat vague, and probably mutilated pas­
sage indicates that (1) Augustus in an edict revealed
his own horoscope and with it the date of his future
demise (according to astrological calculations), (2) he
forbade such astrological practice henceforth, (3) con­
sultations d deux were prohibited, (4) the most popular
topic: “ When would someone die? ” was unequivocally
outlawed for all diviners throughout the empire. The
immediate reasons for these regulations were not diffi­
cult to find. Obviously, rumors of the emperor’s ap­
proaching end were circulating freely in 11, strengthened
by the recent appearance of comets,17 the usual har­
bingers of a ruler’s death. By publishing his horoscope,
Augustus hoped to “ prove ” that this event was not
likely to occur in the near future, and thus to calm
excited spirits. The danger of telling slaves, prospec­
tive heirs, dissatisfied wives or husbands, or personal
enemies the date at which they could expect the death
of masters, spouses, or enemies was clearly that, con­
vinced of the “ inevitability ” and the nearness of the
happy event, they might take matters into their own
hands if nature refused to abide by the stars.18 Finally
the presence of witnesses would, one might hope, restrain
clients from asking unlawful questions and prevent
astrologers and other diviners from answering them.
These two restrictions, binding upon all other diviners
as well as upon astrologers, proved the most difficult to
enforce. Nevertheless, they seem to have been kept
"o n the statute books” until the fourth century a . d .
Tiberius reenforced the Augustan edict by reminding
the haruspices specifically that they too had to abide by
10 Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5.
Loc. cit.
" Ibid. 56, 24, 3-4: “. . . the sky in many places seemed ablaze,
and numerous comets appeared at one and the same time; spears
seemed to dart from the north and to fall in the direction of
the Roman camps.” These and other portents were connected
with the annihilation of three legions in Germany in the year
A. D. 9. From then on the Roman population, always prone—
since the days of the Cimbri and Teutones—to tremble at the
thought of another Germanic invasion, may have become restive.
The advanced age of the emperor added to the general uncer­
tainty about the political future.
1* Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2),
Seminar 10, 1952 : 50 f.
it.19 Another refinement of the Tiberian era was the
distinction made between those on whose well being (de
salute) information had been sought. Inqiiiries of this
sort about the emperor and his house continued to be
punished with great severity for almost four hundred
years after the reign of Augustus.20 Severe penalties
were also applied to slaves who had inquired about the
death of their masters. In general political motives
were always viewed more gravely than any others in
the enforcement of the Augustan edict of a . d . 11. The
fear of rebellion or of an outright coup had, indeed, been
largely responsible for its very proclamation. But from
the very beginning the new edict posed a very difficult
problem of law enforcement. Its changing interpreta­
tion in legal practice is apparent from a number of state
trials of the first century a . d . Most of the evidence
produced at such trials was ferreted out by secret police
agents whose duties included the surveillance of possible
forbidden consultations of this kind.
In a . d . 11 the recently (after a . d . 6) established joint
fire-fighting and police corps in Rome numbered about
seven thousand freedmen, divided into seven cohorts, a
far higher percentage than prevailed, for instance in
western European capitals at the end of the nineteenth
century.21 At first a provisional imperial organization,
the vigiles, patterned after long existing Hellenistic
municipal police corps,22 eventually took over what in
earlier times had been a senatorial competence. Outside
Rome such forces remained under strictly municipal
control, making the enforcement of imperial legislation
like the edict of a . d . 11 a difficult task. The potential
political ramifications of secret astrological consultations
on forbidden topics were usually too elusive to be dis­
covered by these brave vigiles or their provincial counter­
part. Their counterpart, the secret police, through its
far-flung network of agents, was better equipped to
enforce the Augustan edict. These curiosi or specuiatores
at first were usually soldiers or officers in mufti. From
the time of the second triumvirate, i. e. after Julius
10 Suetonius, Tiberius, 63, 1: He forbade anyone to con­
sult hartispices secretly and without witnesses.” One wonders
whether this exact reaffirmation of the Augustan edict of a . d . 11
did not also apply to astrologers.
30 Paulus, Sententiae 5, 21, 3-4, and Ulpian, de officio pro-
consulis 7 in Leg. Mos. et Rom. coll., 15, 2, summarized the legal
situation in this field at the very end of the principate. No major
changes of legal theory or practice were recorded thereafter,
until the total ban of all divination throughout the empire in the
second half of the fourth century.
n In 1891 for example there were per thousand inhabitants:
23 policemen in both London and Vienna; 30 in Brussels; 32 in
Berlin; 35 in Paris, compared to no fewer than about 70 vigiles
in Augustan Rome, allowing for a population of approximately
one million at that time; see O. Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen
Venmltungsbeamten, 2nd ed.: 254, n. 4; on the vigiles in general
ibid . : 252 ff.
These had long existed in cities like Pergamum and Alex­
andria. The Latin west during the principate also developed
municipal police corps, for example in Lyon, Faventia, and
Nemausus.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST R IC T IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y 251
Caesar’s death, their numbers and importance grew there is evidence to show the application of this law in
steadily.28 By the end of the first century a . d . the a series of state trials. Of these, five occurred in the
peaceful Stoic Epictetus described these eyes and ears reign of Tiberius and during the first eight years of the
of the imperial government in terms which have an rule of Qaudius. Tried before the Roman senate in its
ominously modern ring: new capacity as a kind of supreme court, the defendants
in these cases uniformly belonged to the highest stratum
When someone appears to us to discourse frankly on his
of Roman society. ,It<must, however, be assumed that
own affairs, we,- too, are some way induced to discover
our secrets to him. . . . It is thus that the inconsiderate are similar prosecutions took place elsewhere even though
caught by the secret agents in Rome. A secret police agent none of them reached the eye of posterity. Almost the
sits by you and begins to speak ill of the emperor. Then same situation prevailed concerning astrologers caught
you, as if you had received a pledge of his fidelity by his in the meshes of the edict of 11. For the most part they
first beginning of this abuse, say likewise what you think;
and so you are led away in chains to execution:2* were obscure men whose fate did not interest the writers
of the period. Apart from some general references to
The Roman government must have relied chiefly on the punishment of guilty diviners only two instances
devious methods in obtaining evidence of forbidden astro­ involving them seem to have survived from the period
logical consultations. Such violations of the law were during which the law of topical and technical restrictions
undoubtedly prosecuted throughout the empire, though received its final molding in the courts of Tiberius and
with varying degrees of severity, from Augustus to Claudius until a . d . 49.
Theodosius I (d. a . d . 395),” but ancient historians Their reigns witnessed the emergence of the legal con­
have apparently paid little attention to those provincial cept that violations of the edict of a . d . 11 constituted
transgressions. They have preferred, especially the
treason per se when involving the “ well being ” (solus)
writers of the first century, to focus attention on the
of the emperor, and eventually also that of any member
sensational state trials in Rome. They have thereby at
of the imperial family. At first, indictments for for­
least enabled us to trace the hardening of the legal theory
bidden consultations of this kind formed only an addi­
of the Augustan edict of a . d . I I in the fire of court
tional part of a general maiestas charge which was based
practice. on more traditional accusations like outright conspiracy
to overthrow the government, or crimes like adultery or
2. T H E EV O LU T ION OF THE AUGUSTAN EDICT
fraud. The transgression of the edict of 11 was merely
IN LEGAL PRACTICE (A .D . 11-49)
adduced to add a more damning touch to the whole.
No record has survived of legal action taken during The evolution of the importance of this particular charge
the last few years of the reign of Augustus to enforce as a foundation for a maiestas indictment can be traced
the edict of 11. But beginning with the reign of Tiberius through five state trials.
TABLE 7
Date Defendant Indictment Verdict Penalty
A. D.
1) 16 M. Scribonius maiestas guilty | suicide before verdict;
Libo Drusus ( estate confiscated
exile, property assigned
2) 20 Aemilia Lepida maiestas, quashed
to daughter from Mamercus
falsum, etc.
Scaurus
3) 26 Claudia Pulchra maiestas, guilty?
adultery, guilty unknown
probably exile
unchastity guilty
4)a) 32 Mamercus-Aemi- maiestas ? quashed ? none
lius Scaurus f suicide before verdict;
b) 34 maiestas, guilty ■
j seven orations burnt,
adultery [ property confiscated ?
exile,
S) 49 Lolliai Paulina maiestas guilty \confiscation of most of
her estate
** To be inferred from Suetonius, Augustus, 27, 3. " The legal principle in strict conformity with the court-
“ Epictetus, Discourses, 4, 13, 1; compare the excellent study practice of the reigns of Claudius and his successors was ex­
of O. Hirschfeld, Die Sicherheitspolizei im roemischen Kaiser- plicitly restated as late as 394; C. Th. 16, 10, 12, I.
reich, Sitzungsberichte der kgl. Akademie der Wiss. zu Berlin
(PhiI.-Hist. KI.), 39, 30. Juli 1891: 1-35.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE END OF THE P R IN C IP A T E
From a . d . 49 on violations of the edict of a . d . 11, if
involving the salus of the imperial family, were con­
sidered to constitute the crime of maiestas. In order
to understand the use of this indictment in the state
trials of the first century, one should briefly outline its
historical evolution.
According to prevailing opinion 26 the concept of Use
majeste was formed when, following the unification of
Italy under Roman leadership, the Carthaginian wars
inaugurated the empire building era, i. e. after 272 b . c .
Originally maiestas was an attribute of the gods, but
now the Roman state came to claim the same prerogative.
Until the end of the Republican period, however, and
even during most of the reign of Augustus concrete
action against the state was the only generally accepted
basis for maiestas actions.26" Anyone who openly re­
fused to obey the laws or aimed at the supreme power
was considered guilty of the crime minutae maiestatis."7
No libel or slander, action for maiestas could apparently
be brought, at least until the end of the republican era.27*
High treason ( perduellio) was usually prosecuted by a
separate action.28 During the last century of the re­
public both actions, the one for minutae maiestatis and
the one for perduellio, were gradually fused into the
single maiestas indictment.
The oldest, though not well authenticated, attempt of
actual maiestas legislation may have been a lex Gabinia
of 139 b. c. It imposed the death penalty in the horrible
form of the mos maiorum on anyone “ who would con­
vene secret meetings in the city.” 29 Such an enactment
would at least have been in keeping with the known
mood of the government and the restiveness at Rome
in that year when, be it remembered, astrologers and
the followers of Jupiter Sabazios were driven from the
capital probably on the grounds of adding to the public
restiveness.3* A subsequent lex Mamilia, voted in 109
b . c. against Jugurtha’s friends in Rome, was soon
20 For a presentation of more recent opinion on the subject
against the older views of Th. Mommsen and others who as­
sumed a much earlier origin of the legal maiestas concept, see
Kuebler, R E 14, 1, 1928: c. 542 ff., esp. section II.
3“* Thus Tacitus, Annals 1, 72.
27 The first author known to refer to a crime minutae maies­
tatis was Cicero, de oratore 2, 25, 107. Under this law, then
“ new,” some cases were prosecuted of which Cicero spoke in
de natnra deorum 3, 10, 74; compare also, de inventione 2, 105;
ep. ad jam. 3, 11, 2; in Verrem 2, 1, 5, 12; pro Cluentio, 35, 97;
in Pisonem, 21, 50.
J” That in 246 b . c. a certain Claudia was indicted for maiestas
for “ mere words’* (Suetonius, Tiberius, 2, 3) was if true an
isolated case. For the general policy at the end of the republic,
see for example R. S. Rogers, Cicero, ad familiares 3, 11, 2 and
the Lex Cornelia Maiestatis, Trans. Amer. Philol. Assn. 82,
1951: 196-199.
28 The trial of Rabirius in 54 b . c . was one of the last perduellio emperor, claiming of princely honors or prerogatives,
cases on record; on the meaning of perduellio, see Chr. Brecht,
R E 19, 1, 1937: c. 615-639; R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials : 206 ff.
20 Porcius Latro, declamatio in Catilinam, 19.
30 Valerius Maximus, 1, 3, 3, when read against the Roman
history of that period, implies that much.
broadened into what appears to have been the first lex
de maiestate imminuta. Passed in 103 or 100 b . c . this
law, usually referred to as the lex Apuleia, covered the
crimes of sedition and its forerunner, subversive plotting.
A special lex Varia of 90 b . c . was aimed at Roman
supporters of the rebellious “ allies.” It was succeeded
in 81 b . c. by a lex Cornelia. This law became the basis
of all subsequent legislation and legal practice concern­
ing maiestas. It punished with interdiction from water
and fire, i. e. with exile, anyone who overstepped the
powers of his office, prevented a magistrate from the
exercise of his legitimate authority, damaged Roman
sovereignty, or was responsible for a rebellion. Julius
Caesar finally in a lex Julia of 46 b . c . merged the two
actions of perduellio and maiestas into a single one, the
new action of maiestas. Henceforth three main types
of action constituted the crime of maiestas:
(1) Proditio, i. e. high-treason : actions committed
either against the state (desertion, cowardice in battle,
etc.) or against individual magistrates, including the
ruler.
(2) Treason: committed for instance by participating
in conspiracies, the withholding of knowledge of plots
from the authorities, or the founding of subversive
organizations.
(3) Calumny and libel of the government, a crime
which at least since the reign of Augustus included
attacks against the emperor in speech or writing.
Prosecution of these crimes in republican days took
place before the comitia. With their abolition in a . d .
14, the senate became the tribunal for such actions in
maiestas cases involving Roman noblemen. Its function
thus may be compared perhaps to that of the British
House of Lords in which “ peers of the realm ” can still
claim a “ judgment by their peers ” in English law today.
While Roman jurists of the principate continued to em­
ploy the old term perduellio,31 the legal practice used
only the maiestas action. This often makes it difficult
to discern the actual basis of an indictment or of a
conviction, since it became customary to throw in for
good measure a maiestas charge along with other less
deadly accusations like adultery, unchastity, or corrup­
tion. In an effort to sift the different kinds of crimes
for which in the reign of Tiberius maiestas actions were
brought, a distinction has been attempted between per­
duellio charges, maiestas cases, and even quasi-maiestas
indictments.82 It has already been mentioned that during
the last years of Augustus anti-monarchic oral or written
utterances, or direct invective against the ruler came to
be considered sufficient grounds for maiestas actions.
In the reign of Tiberius lack of respect for imperial
statues or portraits, perjury involving the name of the
any violation of the respect due to the sovereign (and
31 Compare for instance Ulpian, Dig. 48, 4, 16.
32R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials : 206 ff.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST RICT IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y
soon also to the members of his family), or, naturally,
any plotting against his person, any or all of these
exposed the culprit to maiestas indictments. To sleep
“ without benefit of clergy ” with a daughter or grand­
daughter of Augustus also became a maiestas crime.
Apart from the “ loss of face ” the imperial family might
suffer from such activities, the possibility of illegitimate
claimants of the throne may have caused the serious
view taken of such amorous antics. Gnawing doubts
of this kind beset, for example, Tiberius concerning the
paternity of Tiberius Gemellus, his grandson from his
son Drusus and Livilla.38
For ordinary maiestas, i. e. so to speak second degree
maiestas, exile remained the chief, but no longer the only
punishment. High treason, on the other hand, at all
times was of course punishable with death. An im­
perial refinement in cases of .this kind was the granting
of a choice of suicide to aristocratic offenders. Usually
in such instances the doomed chose suicide in which—
a Roman suttee— occasionally wives voluntarily joined
their husbands. Not infrequently defendants who an­
ticipated being convicted in a pending trial, killed them­
selves, hoping that by dying “ unconvicted ” they could
preserve their property for their families, while, after
conviction, the confiscation of the entire estate was almost
inevitable, a legal parallel to the old English Common
Law in felony cases. Actually, however, suicide before
the verdict by no means guaranteed to a Roman noble­
man the financial salvation of his family.34 The extant
records of state trials before the Roman senate during
the principate list only members of the senatorial or
equestrian rank among the defendants. There can be
little doubt, however, that the same legal principles were
applied in the prosecution of lesser men.
When in Rome, the emperor often presided over
maiestas trials held before the senate. On one occasion
the Fathers convicted and executed a knight, Clutorius
Priscus ( a . d . 21) without imperial sanction and were
sternly reprimanded. Henceforth, Tiberius ruled, a
ten day respite was to be given the convicted in such
cases so that imperial clemency might intercede on their
behalf. Quite often the senate in the absence of com­
munication from the emperor in maiestas cases post­
poned action pending the return of the ruler or the
arrival of word of his stand in the matter.
13 Suetonius, Tiberius, 62, 3 ; Cassius Dio, 58, 23, 2.
34 Formal damnatio memoriae of a defendant automatically
included the confiscation of his entire estate; Papinian, Dig. 31,
76, 9. In the early principate, however, such cases seem to have
been relatively infrequent and the legal practice less harsh;
compare Tacitus, Annals 6,29; Papinian’s contemporary, Cassius
Dio, 58, 15, 4-16, 1, confirms the view that the later principate
became less tolerant in this matter. Neratius pointed out that
confiscation in perduellio cases was the rule upon conviction;
Ulpian, Dig. 48, 4, 11. If that was true, and it almost certainly
was from time immemorial, it follows that most maiestas cases
of the first century A. d . were “ second degree ” treason cases,
and not perduellio actions.
253
Rome knew no public prosecutors. Maiestas actions
therefore were initiated by private prosecutors in the
manner of a private law suit against an ordinary defend­
ant. In cases of this kind, however, the public interest
was at stake to a greater degree than.usual. There was,
therefore, frequently direct imperial intervention on
behalf of one side or the other, including imperial orders
for the sale of a defendant’s slaves so that they, legally
unable to testify against a master, would now as “ state-
slaves ” be subject to the rack to wring from their lips
evidence against their former masters.30 Occasionally
imperial orders were also issued to quash one or all
counts of a maiestas indictment, or on the contrary “ in­
structing ” the senate to find the defendant guilty.
Instances of this kind attest to the fluidity of legal prac­
tice in maiestas trials during the early principate. In
any case the financial36 and political incentive of bring­
ing in indictments of maiestas was great enough to
encourage not only sincere supporters of the govern­
ment, but also unscrupulous opportunists to tack maies­
tas charges onto indictments of ranking Romans accused
of assorted other crimes. Even if no conviction on the
treason count resulted, the record of having once been
under a maiestas accusation inevitably tended to blacken
the character of even an acquitted defendant. The main
preventive against wholly fabricated maiestas charges
was the threat of a calumnia action against plaintiffs
who brought, but lost such law suits. Exile of one kind
or another seems to have been the penalty for con­
viction of calumnia.37
It was thus clear that the Augustan edict of a . d . 11
would provide splendid material for maiestas charges.
Imperial faith in the infallibility of astrology created a
fertile atmosphere for accusations of forbidden astro­
logical consultations. Scientific astrology never became
the favorite form of divination among the Roman masses,
but it obtained a firm hold on the minds of Rome’s
upper class in the first century a . d . Predictions based
on astrology (and magic) were preferred by the nobility
to those obtained from older forms of divination. The
stage thus was set for the legal evolution of the Au­
gustan law of technical and topical restrictions in the
courts of the principate.
35 For example in the trials of Libo Drusus and Aemilia Lepida;
see F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9, 1951:
15-23.
30 Compare Tacitus, Annals 2, 3 2 ; 4, 2 0 ; Cassius Dio, 57, 19,
2 ; 58, 4 , 8 . In the case of Libo Drusus ( a . d . 1 6 ) , for example,
the successful accusers received their share, except for Vibius
(Tacitus, Annals 4, 2 9 ) , although the defendant had committed
suicide before the verdict; cf. Tacitus, Annals 2 , 2 8 and 3 0 ;
Cassius Dio, 57, 1 5, 5 . The indictment had obviously been for
perduellio (in which case Ulpian’s citation from Neratius would
apply).
87 See Strachan-Davidson, Problems of the Roman criminal
law 2, 1912: 138; cf. R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 197f.
254 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE END OF T H E PRINCIPATE-
CASE 1 ferred to Libo’s plans as scelerata.*- Seneca, although
Scribonius Libo Drusus was indicted for maiestas 38
in the late summer of 1 6 a . d ., probably around Septem­
ber first. There had been some earlier suspicion of his
loyalty, but these, doubts had apparently been allayed.
For Tiberius had permitted the young man to become
praetor, but this did not satisfy the spendthrift. He
seems to have continued to nurse higher ambitions.
Modern scholars have tended to redraw the harsh Ti-
berian portrait provided by the aristocratic sources of
Tacitus (who nowadays is often accused of purely parti­
san malice in blackening the record of Tiberius’ reign
and of his personality). In consequence the Tacitean
view of Libo as a giddy-headed young fool, who was
quasi-innocently indulging in at least ambiguous activi­
ties, has been seriously questioned. Libo thus came to
be considered by a number of modern scholars as a real
menace, while the gentle soul of Tiberius was driven
only with great reluctance to take extreme measures
against a dangerous plotter. To anyone who in the
ever present historical record finds incontrovertible evi­
dence of the corrupting influence of supreme power on
even the best of mortals these modern reappraisals must
remain unconvincing. The great and relatively mild
rulers of the principate from Nerva to Marcus Aurelius
( 9 6 - 1 8 0 ) dealt with a tamed Roman nobility. Their
predecessors, however, had done the taming. They had
been faced with an aristocratic opposition of not incon­
siderable strength. In the reign of Tiberius anti-
monarchic traditions were still strong within the great
families of Rome, while, on the other hand, ambitious
individuals constantly looked for ways and means to put
themselves on the imperial throne.
The most impartial appraisal perhaps of Libo’s plot
and of the young man’s character is that of the younger
Seneca who decades after the trial spoke of him as of
a man “ who in that age hoped for greater things than
anyone could hope for, or than he could hope for in any
age.” 38 Against this coolly stated view (which sup­
ports the Tacitean character portrait of the young con­
spirator) modem attempts to elevate Libo to the level
of a Catilina stand up with difficulty.40 The- Fasti
Amiternini recorded for September 1 3 , a . d . 1 6 that
Libo had harbored “ nefarious plans ” against the life
(de salute) of Tiberius, his children and other ranking
citizens, as well as against the state.41 This accusation
was reiterated in all subsequent literary records. Vel­
leius Paterculus, writing less than fifteen years after the
trial, in his ardently pro-Tiberian Roman History re-
s" Ib id .: 12 ff., for a detailed discussion of the whole trial.
" Seneca, epist., 70, 10.
40For instance S. R. Rogers, loc. cit. ; F. B. Marsh, The reign
of Tiberius: 59 f.; Tacitus and the aristocratic tradition, Jour.
Class. Phitot. 21, 1926 : 291-304, esp. 300 f.; also R. S. Rogers,
Studies in the reign of Tiberius: 27; 46; 48; 76 (with a doubtful
interpretation of Velleius Paterculus, 2, 129, 3) ; 84; 115 f.
41Fasti Amiternini, C IL 1, 2nd ed.: 244.
expressing himself in more cautious terms (quoted
above), left no doubt of Libo’s treasonable aspirations.
Tacitus recorded that the official indictment accused
Libo that he did moliri res novas, i. e. was planning a
coup d'etat.43 Suetonius, using perhaps the same source
as Tacitus, couched his brief reference in a more factual
manner. While Tacitus carefully dissociated himself
from the actual accusation by merely saying that Libo
was denounced for such activities, Suetonius simply
reported as a fact that Libo res novas clam moliebatur,
i. e. that Libo plotted a coup.44 Cassius Dio in turn
followed the more cautious Tacitean version by relating
that Libo apparently planned some coup.45
The text of the Fasti undoubtedly reflected the official
view. For the future development of court procedure
in prosecutions involving a breach of the Augustan
edict of a . d . 11 the distinction between the de salute
indictment and the one for de republica plotting was
important. It showed the merging of the old and the
new pattern of maiestas accusations. The salus of the
emperor, in particular, and of his house on the one
hand, and the whole principate’s survival, on the other,
were seen as endangered by Libo’s conspiracy. The
maiestas indictment was made on these two counts
jointly. Apparently for the first time forbidden con­
sultations with astrologers and other diviners, and even
with necromancers and other sorcerers, were introduced
as incriminating evidence. Whether or not these vio­
lations of the Augustan edict and of the ancient law
against black magic were committed at the instigation
of an agent provocateur by the name of Firmius Catus
could hardly influence the legal evaluation of such acts.
It was proven beyond any doubt that Libo had sought
“ the promises of the Chaldaeans, the rites of sorcerers,
as well as the interpreters of dreams.” 46 Astrological
promises of future grandeur, obtainable obviously only
by the success of Libo’s conspiracy against the ruler
and his house, thus constituted an important part of the
evidence.
Such evidence, however, was not yet considered in
itself prima facie proof of maiestas. It was merely used
to confirm from one important angle the general charge
of treason. The ludicrous character of Libo’s inquiries
was illustrated by one of the questions actually sub­
mitted by him to astrologers and other diviners: Would
he ever be wealthy enough to cover with money the
pavement of the Appian road [from Rome] as far as
Brindisi ? 47
For the four accusers Vibius Serenus undertook to
43Velleius Paterculus, 2, 130, 3; “ quid hie [Tiberius] meruit
ut scelerata Drusus Libo iniret ? ”
48Tacitus, Annals 2, 27.
44 Suetonius, Tiberius, 25, 1.
45Cassius Dio, 57, 15, 4: [Libo] “ do(ayrd ti pturtpi^eiv."
44Tacitus, Annals 2, 27; compare also 28 ff.
47Ibid. 2, 30.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R E ST R IC T IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y
act as spokesman. He presented the charges, begin­
ning with the above mentioned violations of the Augus­
tan edict.48 The importance of this particular section
of the indictment has recently been questioned,49 but
there can be no doubt that Tiberius and his legal ad­
visers, all of whom were probably confirmed believers
in astrology, attached great importance to it,50 even
though they were not yet ready to impose the penalties
of exile or death for violations of the Augustan edict of
a . d . 11 alone. Additional proof of perduellio was still
required before the full rigor of the lex Julia of 46 b . c .
would be invoked. One of the most damning bits of
evidence introduced at Libo’s trial was his notebook
which in his own writing contained “ fearful or code ”
entries (atroces vel occultas) behind the names of the
Caesars and certain senators.51
The obvious interpretation of this find was that these
persons had been the topic of forbidden divinatory or
magical consultations. Libo protested feebly that the
damning notebook was not his own, but his statement
fell on sceptical ears. For had not a certain necro­
mancer by the name of Junius been among the first
informers against Libo who had asked the man to em­
ploy his magical prowess on his behalf!52 In such inti­
mate matters as forbidden astrological consultations the
testimony of a defendant’s slaves would often be a vital
source of evidence. Traditionally slaves in cases of this
kind were not permitted to give evidence against their
masters. They, therefore, could not be questioned by
the prosecution. Although Tacitus asserted that Tiberius
was the first to use the legal device of enforcing the
sale of slaves to the state with the purpose of then
obtaining their testimony against a defendant,53 the be­
ginnings of this legal technique apparently went back
also to the crucial last decade of Augustus’ reign.54
The change thus would coincide with the general altera­
tion of Augustan policies from a more liberal towards
more restrictive tendencies.
The testimony of his former slaves seems to have
established the guilt of Libo on all counts beyond any
reasonable doubt. Despairing of his cause Libo killed
“ The four were Firmius Catus, Fulcinius Trio, Fonteius
Agrippa, and C. Vibius Serenus; Tacitus, loc. cit.
4DSee for instance, F. B. Marsh, The reign of Tiberius: 59,
n. 1.
60Thus rightly R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 15. He specifi­
cally criticized the lack of psychological understanding on the
part of Marsh; see also Rogers, A Tacitean pattern in narrating
treason trials, in Trans. Amer. Philol. Assoc. 83, 1952 : 279-311.
81Tacitus, Annals 2, 30.
83 Loc. cit.
88 Loc. cit. See, however, to the contrary Cicero, fro Milone,
22, 59, as well as Dig. 48, 18, 4 and 10, 1, but then there was
never any dearth of contradictory senatus consulta.
84 Paulus, Dig. 48, 18, 8, quoted a pertinent Augustan edict
of a . d . 8; cf. R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 16-18.
255
himself.50 Since his indictment of maiestas, however,
charged perduellio, his suicide before the actual verdict
did not affect the fate of his estate. The senate having
convicted the defendant posthumously, his property was
confiscated and divided up, even though Tiberius vetoed
a senatorial damnatio memoriae. The date of the plot’s
discovery became an official Roman Guy Fawkes day
(September 13).56 Nevertheless, the almost frantic
modern insistence on the importance of Libo’s plot re­
mains hard to reconcile with the incontrovertible evi­
dence of his empty-headed personality. That a gay fool
like Libo should pose a serious threat to the Tiberian
power and to the monarchic regime in general, especially
in view of the apparent lack of army support for his plot,
must at least arouse serious doubt. It anticipates the
future, however, to say that as early as a . d . 16 other
actions of Libo must have added sufficient _evidence of
treasonable conduct to bring about his cojiviction for
maiestas. The prosecution was “ attempting, and proba­
bly with success, to show that the defendant was guilty
of such traffic with astrologers as was interpreted by
the lex Julia maiestatis [and the more recent edict of
a . d . 11] as perduellio. " 57
case 2
Four years afterwards another state trial took place
which involved violations of the edict of a . d . 1 1 .
Towards the end of the summer of a . d . 20 Aemilia
Lepida, one of Rome’s ranking society matrons, was
accused of forbidden astrological consultations. This
charge was not the only one brought against her, but it
alone was apparently used for the purpose of tacking a
maiestas indictment onto other accusations, including
actions for adultery and falsum, as well as of the
attempted poisoning of her former husband Quirinus.58
The illustrious descent of the defendant contributed to
the sensation of her trial. Sulla and Pompey were
among her great-grandparents, the late triumvir, Marcus
Lepidus, was her grandfather. Augustus at one time
had deemed her worthy of being formally betrothed to
his own grandson, L. Caesar.50 The engagement had
soon been dissolved, however, long before the young
man’s premature death. For in a . d . 4 Aemilia Lepida
had already been married for years to an elderly Augus­
tan general, a self-made man of proven merit; Publius
Sulpicius Quirinus.80
Normally Roman brides had to have attained the age
of twelve, at least. Since Suetonius, on the one hand,
reported that this marriage lasted for twenty years,61
“ Tacitus, Annals 2, 31; Cassius Dio, 57, 15, 5; Seneca, ep.,
70, 10.
“ Fasti Amiternini, C IL 1, 2nd ed.: 244; compare 6; 15, nos.
91-94.
57 R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials : 16.
88 Tacitus, Annals 3, 22.
50Ibid., 23.
”° Suetonius, Tiberius, 49, 1.
81 Loc. cit.
 E M P IR E W ID E LEGA L R EST RICT IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y 257
A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
256 Pulchra, a “ beauteous” Claudian. It has been sug­ case 4
sided over the trial.09 Since Lepida’s ex-husband, gested that this trial marked the beginning of the great
and Tacitus, on the other hand, that at the time of her With Marcus Aemilius Scaurus, consul 1 1 5 B . C . , a
Quirinus, could not very well have been the topic of her family feud between the Claudian and the Julian
trial in a . d . 20 Aemilia Lepida had been married to hitherto inconspicuous family entered the circle of
forbidden inquiries, the only remaining possibility would
(and perhaps even divorced from) Mamercus Aemilius branches of the imperial house,76 the former represented Rome’s dominant clans. His great-grandson, Mamercus
be her present (or very recently divorced) second hus­
Scaurus02 (to whom she had borne a daughter), she by Tiberius and his grandson, Tiberius Gemellus, the Aemilius,81 in almost all other respects an unworthy
band, Mamercus Scaurus. He seems to have enter­
must have been at least in her thirties at the time of latter by Claudia Pulchra’s intimate friend, Augustus’ descendant of this illustrious ancestor, retained at least
tained no major political aspirations, but an ambitious
her trial. She was therefore probably born between granddaughter and Germanicus’ widow, the older Agrip­ two respectable family traditions. He remained op­
wife might nevertheless have probed his (and her!)
15 and 10 b . c . Her first husband, Quirinus, at the pina and her children. The man who launched the posed to the monarchic form of government, and— a rare
time of their marriage had already advanced to high future. The death of Germanicus in a . d . 19 may have accusation against Pulchra in 26, Domitius Afer, earned exception among his class—he could not be bought to
rank in the armies of Augustus. His long standing strengthened Aemilia’s curiosity about the future of exercise his considerable influence in the senate, the
the deep-seated dislike of Agrippina’s youngest son,
friendship with Tiberius63 may well have been estab­ “ the house of the emperor.” Although Scaurus was law courts, or with the emperor.82 On the other hand,
convicted of maiestas70 fourteen years later, he was at Caius, for this action and almost lost his life thirteen
lished while Aemilia Lepida was still in her infancy. he entertained apparently no great political ambitions.
this time ( a . d . 20) still (or again) beyond the shadow years later when Caius, invested with the imperial
In 12 b . c. Quirinus was made consul. Years later he. To the army camp or the onerous duties of governing
married Aeniilia Lepida. Being a man without illus­ of imperial suspicion.71 purple, had him tried on a maiestas charge.77
a province he preferred the pleasures of Rome. The
Other possible topics of forbidden inquiries touching The indictment of Claudia Pulchra consisted of sev­
trious ancestors, he may well have been at least forty theatres and literary circles, the boudoirs and the senate
more indirectly upon the imperial family might have eral counts: immorality (impudicitia), adultery, and
years old at the time of his consulate and thus on his chamber were the world in which he shone. A dilet­
been whether the stars foretold Lepida’s divorce from maiestas, committed by an attempt to poison the em­
wedding day was probably almost four times as old as tante grandseigneur he earned the reputation of being
Scaurus72 and her subsequent remarriage to a member peror and to employ magic arts (devotiones) against
his child bride. This was not an unusual age difference the most fluent orator of his time,83 yet he never took
for Roman society marriages, but it may explain the of the imperial house, perhaps even to Tiberius’ son,
him.78 Normally the lex Cornelia de sicariis et vene- the trouble of endowing his writings with the elegance
Drusus. At any rate, Tiberius himself does not seem
inevitable estrangement between the old warrior and ficis would be invoked on the last charge, but since the and effectiveness of his eloquence.84
to have taken the maiestas charge seriously. He did
his wife. . person of Tiberius had been the target of Claudia Pul­ It seems that Tiberius at the time of his accession
Suetonius and Tacitus ascribed the interest of Tiberius not even permit Lepida’s slaves to be questioned on the chra’s alleged crime, the proper action was the one of in a . d . 1 4 entertained some suspicion concerning the
subject under torture. He extracted from the slaves of
in this unpopular trial of a . d . 20 to his hope of reaping maiestas. The defendant may actually have engaged loyalty of Scaurus,85 but these fears were allayed, per­
Quirinus, however, ample evidence of her previous
financial benefits from the will of his wealthy and, if in those forbidden devotions chiefly for divinatory pur­ haps due to the support which Scaurus gave the rising
attempt to poison the old general. Torture also elicited
Aemilia Lepida’s alleged offspring from Quirinus should imperial favorite: Sejanus. It has already been men­
more than'sufficient proof of the defendant’s scandalous poses, or she may have consulted diviners about the
be proven spurious (as the indictment alleged), child­ tioned that Tiberius during the trial of Scaurus’ wife
life. Her conviction, however, was based only on the probable success of her efforts at magic against Tibe­
less friend.04 More likely, however, seems the sugges­ Aemilia Lepida in a . d . 2 0 demonstratively expressed
counts of adultery and, possibly, of falsum. The evi­ rius.79 No violation of the edict of a . d . 11 was offi­
tion of Suetonius that the emperor’s motive was chiefly ■
his belief in the political integrity of Scaurus.86 In
dence on the poisoning attempt was disclosed by Tiberius cially charged, however, and the extant record of her
his desire to support the embattled Quirinus as a friend. Shakespeare’s Henry V I the duchess of Gloucester took
For after the trial and conviction of Aemilia Lepida only after conviction and sentence had been voted by the trial does not even reveal whether she was convicted on
to consulting witches about her own and her husband’s
Tiberius allowed her immense fortune to pass in trust senate. She was exiled and at once divorced by Scaurus the maiestas indictment, or whether, as in the case of
political future— the duke of Gloucester being entirely
into the hands of Quirinus’ successor, i.e. her second (if not already prior to the trial). In the very next Aemilia Lepida, these secret practices were considered ignorant of his wife’s activities. When these were dis­
husband Mamercus Scaurus.60 Another indication of year her first husband, Quirinus, died73 and her second, insufficient to substantiate per se a charge of maiestas. covered, her ruin destroyed him also. Not so in the
the emperor’s desire to eliminate all but those charges Scaurus, became consul suffectus.’’* From the facts of She and her latest paramour were found guilty of adul­ case of Aemilia Lepida. Unless Scaurus had already
pertinent to the defendant’s relations with Quirinus the trial it seems that here for the first time an attempt tery and punished.80 Thus vanished from the Roman divorced his guilty spouse before her trial, he must
was made to base a maiestas charge solely on a violation
was the quashing of the maiestas indictment which had scene the widow of that luckless Quintilius Varus, who have done so soon after her conviction. It was not
of the edict of a . d . 11 involving the imperial family’s
charged Lepida with “ having conspired through astrolo­ in a . d . 9, sharing the fate of his doomed legions, had long, however, before his stepson Lucius Sulla (whom
future. This legal concept, however, was not yet ap­
gers against the house of Caesar.’ 07 A woman could perished by his own hand in the murky forests of Scaurus had adopted) involved him in a bitter intra-
proved by the government. Hence the maiestas indict­
never expect to rule the empire in her own right. Germany, when all was lost. senatorial squabble, which the young man had set off
Lepida’s forbidden inquiries could, therefore, not have ment was quashed. by a wholly unwarranted attack upon Domitius Corbulo,
been on this subject. A modern suggestion that Manius case 3 a respected member of the older generation. Early in
Lepidus, Aemilia’s brother, had been the person about 2 1 Scaurus had been prevailed upon, apparently under
whose imperial prospects the defendant had consulted The popularity of forbidden astrological and other return. His interview with the older Agrippina may, however, strong pressure from Tiberius’ son, Drusus, to apolo­
astrologers is equally untenable.08 Not only was Lepi­ divinatory consultations among Rome’s high ranking have taken place in Rome shortly before his departure.
gize to Corbulo for Sulla’s behavior.87 Perhaps as a
dus himself not indicted (as under such circumstances ladies in the reign of Tiberius was attested by another 73 Tacitus, Annals 4, 52.
77Cassius Dio, 59, 19, 1-7; 20, 1. On Afer’s eloquence compare sop for his wounded pride he received later in the year
he should have been), but he was even permitted to state trial involving charges of such practices. In a . d . also Tacitus, Annals, 14, 9; Dialogtus, 13 and 15. He died in the the appointment as consul suffectus. 88 It may have
conduct his sister’s defense before the senate, while 26 (or 27)75 again a woman faced the senate: Claudia reign of Nero.
Tiberius— hardly an impartial judge in this case—pre- 70 Tacitus, Annals 4, 52. 81 Tacitus, Annals 3, 66.
00Tacitus, Annals 3, 22. 79 Apparently her son Quintilius Varus was indicted in the 83 Cassius Dio, 58, 24, 3.
70In a . d . 34; compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the following year; Tacitus, Annals 4, 66. Could his political pros­ 83Tacitus, Annals 3, 31: “ oratorum . . . uberrimus.”
03 Tacitus, Annals 3, 23.
03 Quirinus had been one oi the few ranking Romans, who stars (1), Seminar 9, 1951: 24-3). pects, if not those of the sons of her intimate friend Agrippina, 84 Seneca rhetor, Controversiae 10, pr., 2-3.
dared to visit Tiberius at Rhodes when most Roman travelers 71He was not indicted; Tacitus, loc. cit. have been the topic on which Claudia Pulchra sought refuge in 85 Tacitus, Annals 1, 13.
7!Compare R. S. Rogers, Studies in the reign of Tiberius: 11. forbidden consultations, including the possible use of magic? 83 See F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9,
shunned the semi-exile; Tacitus, Annals 3, 48.
“ Suetonius, Tiberius, 49, 1; Tacitus, Annals 3, 22. 73Tacitus, Annals 3, 48. 80 Tacitus, Annals 4, 52. R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 92, 1951: 21-23.
7* See F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars, Seminar 9, agrees that we have no way of knowing if Claudia Pulchra was 87Tacitus, Annals 3, 31.
05F. B. Marsh, The reign of Tiberius: 272f.
1951: 23; 25 f.; R. S. Rogers, op. cit. : 11; 45; 71; 126; 150 f.; convicted on the maiestas charge. He nevertheless listed her 88C IL 4: 99: 1553; Acta Arvalium, ibid. 6: 461, no. 2023 b,
0,1Tacitus, Annals 3, 23. Criminal trials: 51 ff., for various aspects of the trial and con­
37 Ibid., 22: quaesitumque per Chaldaeos in domutn Caesans . .. (ibid . : 207) as convicted of perduellio. On the penalty probably 16 f. His colleague was Cn. Tremellius.— Seneca, de beneficiis 4,
08 See, however, R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 52. Augustus viction of Aemilia Lepida. imposed upon her, exile and confiscation of her property, see 31, 3-4, referred to Scaurus’ “ campaign” for the consulate;
75F. B. Marsh, The reign of Tiberius : 179. This seems an F. B. Marsh, op. cit.: 179. Tacitus, Annals 3, 66, called him an ex-consul.
was said to have considered him as a potential candidate for the
error, inasmuch as Tiberius left Rome in a . d . 26, never to
throne; Tacitus, Annals 1, 13.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E M P IR E W ID E LEGA L R EST R IC T IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y 259
258
Finally Sejanus succeeded in overcoming the emperor’s maiestas by a certain Tuscus.104 Even then his luck seem likely that both men consulted astrologers on for­
been at this zenith of his good fortune that Scaurus still held. For apparently the indictment was quashed bidden topics? The far famed and powerful astrologer
objection to a marriage alliance between him and the
remarried, his choice being Sextia, a high spirited or, at least, its prosecution suspended. Nevertheless the Thrasyllus, Tiberius’ intimate friend, was the grand­
imperial family. There is some confusion about the
woman of remarkable strength of character. She seems suspicions of Tiberius seem to have been aroused, and father of Macro’s wife and must have been exceedingly
fiancee allowed the favorite towards the very end of his
to have been the mother of the above-mentioned L. Sejanus’ successor in Rome, the new praetorian prefect well informed of what went on amongst the more im­
life, but the more probable assumption is that Sejanus
Sulla from a previous marriage, and Scaurus, in now Naevius Macro,105 contributed to the estrangement. He portant astrologers at Rome. He may even have advised
became engaged to Livilla’s daughter, Julia.98
adopting his stepson, would have followed good Roman skillfully insinuated that Scaurus was guilty of “ literary Macro of Scaurus’ efforts to probe the future, i. e. of
The fall of Sejanus in October, a . d . 31 launched the
precedents, Tiberius himself being the adopted stepson treason.” To prove this he quoted a number of verses his astrological consultations about the date of Tiberius’
series of events leading to the doom first of Livilla, then
of Augustus. of her last paramours, including Scaurus.99 The death from a play Atreus which Scaurus who obviously fancied death and perhaps about the name of his successor.
During the early twenties Scaurus continued his of Sejanus was immediately followed by the execution himself also as a tragic poet108 had written.107 A pas­ That Macro; whose very life might depend on such fore­
alignment with the party of Sejanus. Together with of his children. His oldest son, Aelius Strabo, was sage which aroused the emperor’s special ire advised— knowledge, was equally guilty of similar inquiries can
two other members of Sejanus’ faction, for example killed on October 24, 31'.190 a lift from the Phoenissae 108— the subjects to bear the hardly be doubted. The Atreus incident would thus
he accused C. Junius Silanus, ex-governor of Asia, of follies of their prince with patience. Assuming that this have been a ruse on the part of Macro to stir up the
maladministration (repetundae) and obtained his con­ It was then determined that the surviving children of
Sejanus should pay the penalty. . . . They were therefore reference to Atreus was aimed at himself, Tiberius is wrath of Tiberius, while the formal indictment for maie­
viction in a trial over which Tiberius himself presided. carried to the dungeon, the boy conscious of the fate in said to have exclaimed that he would make an Ajax out stas would be based solely on the grave violation of the
The first lightning flashed across the horizon of Scaurus store for him, the girl so completely ignorant that she asked of Scaurus, i. e. drive him to suicide.109 Actually, how­ edict of a . d . 11, a violation involving not only a for­
in 24-25 when the well known scholar, Votienus Mon- repeatedly what her offences had been and to what place ever, a new maiestas indictment, brought in 34, did not bidden question “ about anyone’s death,” but specifically
tanus, was punished with exile to the Balearic islands they were dragging her': She would do wrong no more, contain an accusation of literary treason, but the two inquiries about the death of the emperor himself. The
(where he died in 27)80 for “ literary treason.” 91 and she could be cautioned with the usual beating adminis­ plaintiffs, Servilius and Cornelius, charged Scaurus with trial of Scaurus would thus provide an important step
tered to children. . . . As it was an unheard-of thing for
Scaurus thought highly of him, calling him “ an Ovid capital punishment to be inflicted on a virgin, she .was the use of, or participation in, magic rites (magorum towards the clarification of the Augustan edict in legal
amongst the orators,” 92 and perhaps defended him m violated by the executioner with the halter beside her: they sacra) and with adulterous relations with Livilla, now practice. Henceforth forbidden inquiries about the em­
some writings.98 For the time being, however, the were then strangled, and their young bodies thrown down dead for about three years.110 peror ( de salute principis) would be treated as prima
all-powerful Sejanus may have shielded Scaurus from the Gemonian stairs.101 Adultery with women of the imperial family had been facie evidence of maiestas. In this light Tacitus’ state­
the dangerous consequences which otherwise might punished by Augustus with exile, although— if Tacitus ment that Scaurus did not owe his fall to his former
have befallen a supporter of Votienus Montanus. During Apicata herself can be trusted— no law or senatorial decree called for friendship with Sejanus but to the present enmity of
the years which followed, Scaurus even became one of was not condemned, . . . but on learning that her children such a penalty.111 Tiberius himself apparently took a Macro would be perfectly accurate.
the numerous successors of Sejanus in the affections were dead, and after seeing their bodies on the stairway, less violent view of such matters. Although Tacitus No details of the trial itself have survived. Scaurus
of the notorious Livilla. Since this particular conquest she withdrew and composed a statement about the death of averred that Scaurus’ past alignment with Sejanus was realized that his cause was lost. Spurred on by his wife
was the cause of his final ruin, the road to his fatal trial [Tiberius’ son] Drusus directed against Livilla; then after not the cause of his fall in a . d . 34, there may be a hidden he preferred suicide to death at the hands of the public
sending this document to Tiberius, she committed suicide.102
of a . d . 34 must be briefly traced. [Oct. 26, 31.] meaning in the historian’s assertion that Macro, the man executioner. She joined him and died by her own hand,
In a . d . 23 Livilla, wife of Tiberius’ only son [and chiefly responsible for the indictment, practiced the same an example of feminine courage not uncommon among
heir designate] Drusus, poisoned her husband. The A Roman Niobe, Apicata in dying achieved her revenge. arts as Scaurus but with greater secrecy.112 One won­ the ranking matrons of that era.114 Whether seven
deed was committed through her physician Eudemos, She dragged Livilla, who had wrecked her life, after her. ders what arts Tacitus alluded to; adultery? tragic orations of Scaurus were condemned to the flames at
one of her numerous paramours 94 The real instigator, Tried, convicted, and executed,103 Livilla atoned for her poetry? magic rites? A competent modern writer on this time by the senate,115 or whether this had already
however, was Sejanus with whom Livilla had become sins, but even from the grave she destroyed her former the subject sees in the magorum sacra of Scaurus astro­ been done on an earlier occasion, remains unknown.
infatuated, even though he was her senior by a good paramours. Scaurus’ time had come. logical consultations,113 a hypothesis which does sound
many years, married, and the father of three children. Within a year after Livilla’s death he was indicted of plausible. It would explain at least the indictment for case 5
Victorian respectability, however, was alien to Roman maiestas, assuming that the adultery charge, in the reign
In 246 b . c. what may have been the first maiestas
society in those days. Sejanus, having divorced his 88 F. B. Marsh, The reign of Tiberius: 192, n. 1; 226, believes of Tiberius at least, could not be the basis of a maiestas
indictment even when imperial ladies were involved. trial of a woman was conducted against a Claudia.11*
faithful wife Apicata, petitioned Tiberius to allow him that Livilla herself was the belated fiancee of Sejanus. Her
Now almost three hundred years later a Claudius in
to marry the conveniently widowed Livilla. The em­ daughter Julia’s husband, Agrippina’s oldest son Nero, perished If then Scaurus and Macro had practiced the same arts—
turn staged a maiestas trial against a woman, Lollia
peror turned down this request of his favorite, but did in the same years as Sejanus, but was probably divorced by and Macro avowedly was never a poet— would it not
Julia at the time of his banishment; compare Cassius Dio, 58, 3, Paulina. In the history of the legal practice concerning
it in the most polite manner.96 Gradually the relations 9 ; 7, 5.
between Livilla and Sejanus seem to have cooled there­ ** Cassius Dio, 58, 24, 5. 104 Seneca rhetor, Suasoriae, 2, 22; Tacitus, Annals 6, 9. On violations of the edict of a . d . 11 her case marked the
100Fasti Ostienses, Notisie Scavi 6, 1930: 186; cf. R. S. the date and’ other details, see Rohden, R E 1, 1894: c. 583; R. S. end of the evolutionary period. Thereafter astrological
after, and Scaurus, notorious for his profligacy even in Rogers, op. cit.: 154; 206; Guengerich, R E , 2. Reihe, 14, 1, 1943: inquiries or those addressed to other diviners about the
a profligate era,97 was among the men who consoled her. Rogers, Criminal trials: 118f. According to Tacitus, Annals 4, c. 1492 f.
3, Apicata bore Sejanus three children of whom obviously Aelius imperial family, not merely the emperor himself, were
Strabo must have been the oldest. 106 Tacitus, Annals 6, 29; Cassius Dio, 58, 24, 4-5.
100 He was probably the poet referred toby Suetonius, Tiberius,
steadily considered prima facie evidence of maiestas.
89 Tacitus, loc. cit. 101Tacitus, Annals 5, 9; Suetonius, Tiberius, 61, 5; Cassius The antecedents of this trial which probably took place
Dio, 58, 11, 5; compare Valerius Maximus, 9, 11, 4. The 61, 3.
00 Jerome, Chron., 01.201. early in a . d . 49 were highly dramatic. Like Aemilia
daughter of Sejanus at the time of her death must have been ,0, Tacitus, loc. cit.; Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
81 Tacitus, Annals 4, 42. 108 Euripides, Phoenissae, v. 393: tcls tuv Kparoiivruv d/ia0las Lepida (case 2) and Claudia Pulchra (case 3), Lollia
03 Seneca rhetor, controversial 9, 5, 17. ' at least eleven years old. For as early as a . d . 20 she had been
(pipeiv xpewp.
03 Ibid. 10, pr., 3. These were possibly among the writings oi betrothed, probably in infancy, to Claudius’ young son Drusus; Paulina belonged to the very highest stratum of the
Scaurus subsequently sentenced to the flames by the senate Tacitus, Annals 3, 29; Suetonius, Claudius, 27, 1; Cassius Dio, 108 Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
110 Tacitus, Annals 6, 29; Cassius Dio, 58, 24, 5. Roman nobility. Her wealth was legendary. Her
84 Pliny Nat. Hist. 29, 8, 20; compare Tacitus, Annals 4, 1U, ep. 61 (60), 32, 1.
103Cassius Dio, 58, 11, 6; compare Tacitus, Annals 4, 11. 111 Tacitus, Annals 3, 24; compare 2, 50; cf. R. S. Rogers, jewelry alone was estimated worth 40,000,000 ses-
about Sejanus’ tampering with Livilla’s eunuch Lygdus in con­
103 Tacitus, loc. cit., 5, 6; Cassius Dio, 58, 11, 7, reported that op. cit.: 192.
nection with the murder of her husband D ™sus-_ 112 Tacitus, Annals 6, 29 : easdem artes [Macro] occultius 114 Tacitus, Annals 6, 29.
88 Tacitus, Annals 4, 3; see also Cassius Dio, 57, 22, 2 and b. Livilla was handed over to her mother for execution and was
starved to death by her; compare Suetonius, Tiberius, 62, 1; exercebat. 115 Seneca rhetor, Controversiae 10, pr., 3.
“ Tacitus, Annals 4, 39 f.; compare also 4, 10.. 113 R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 152. 118 Suetonius, Tiberius, 2, 3.
•’ Ibid. 6, 9; Seneca, de beneficiis 4, 31, 3-4. . cf. R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials: 119 ff.
260 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST RICT IO N S OF ASTRO LO G Y 261
terces.117 Her grandfather (consul 21 b. c.) had come Clarian Apollo.128 Claudius, well coached by Agrippina of her caste Lollia went through with the then traditional tant cases involved only transgressions of high ranking
to grief when found guilty of dubious practices with no doubt, played the sorry part of demanding in a speech rite: She did away with herself. A ghoulish aftermath offenders. The astrologers and diviners who had sup­
oriental princes. Young C. Caesar (whose adviser the her conviction by the senate. For having harbored was, perhaps falsely, reported by Cassius Dio. When plied the forbidden political information were of course
old man was at the time) had humiliated him beyond “ pernicious plans against the state ” (perniciosa in rem her dead rival’s head was sent to Agrippina, the empress equally guilty, but as persons of lesser station they were
redemption. He died a few days later,118 probably by publicam consilia) she should be punished, and her was not assured of its identity until knowing of certain rarely deemed worthy of mention in the surviving his­
suicide,110 but Augustus apparently did not proceed means to pursue such aims be taken from her. peculiarities of Lollia’s teeth, she had opened the head’s torical accounts. The few cases concerning culpable
against the family, or withdraw his favor from it. For Modem opinion tends with Tacitus to consider Lollia mouth and, finding what she was looking for, was satis­ diviners themselves will be dealt with later.134 Mean­
Lollia Paulina’s father was made consul suffectus during Paulina’s indictment a fraudulent one.129 Whatever her fied at last.181 while, the continuity of imperial policy in these matters
the last decade of Augustus’ reign. “ plans against the state ” may have been, as a woman The memory of Lollia Paulina remained alive, how­ throughout the principate can be traced through nine
Apart from her social standing and her wealth Lollia she could not hope to obtain the crown in her own right, ever. The day came in 59 when Agrippina’s son, the state trials belonging to the reigns of Qaudius, Nero, Do­
was one of Rome’s most beautiful women, a legacy per­ but only by marrying an emperor, i. e. Claudius, or a emperor Nero, signed her death warrant. To blacken mitian, Hadrian, Commodus, and Septimius Severus.185
haps from her beauteous grandmother.120 Her first conspirator who in turn would ascend the throne. The her memory he then remembered her former victim: ‘ Extending over more than one hundred and fifty years
husband was P. Memmius Regulus,121 a former consul fact that she had inquired about the imperial marriage Lollia Paulina’s ashes were returned to Rome and this list (table 8) shows clearly that the law of topical
and a military commander of repute whom she accom­ can hardly lie doubted. Curiosity of this kind seems enshrined in a tomb worthy of her rank.132 Her trial and technical restrictions of astrology and other forms
panied when he became governor of Asia. The emperor definitely in keeping with a woman of Lollia’s type.
Caligula in her absence conceived a sudden passion for The law of a . d . 11 and its subsequent interpretation TABLE 8
her, insisted on her divorce from Memmius, and married in the courts (for example in the trials of Aemilia Date Defendant Indictment Verdict Penalty
Lollia himself in 38,122 apparently after an unusual di­ Lepida, Claudia Pulchra, as well as in the earlier one
(6) 52 Furius maiestas guilty probaby exile
vorce ceremony.123 He tired of her soon, however, and of Libo Drusus) had forbidden inquiries about any­ Camillus
divorced her under the pretext that she was barren, one’s death and had made inquiries de salute principis Scribonianus
the basis of maiestas indictments on more than one and his mother
forbidding her, nevertheless, to have intercourse with any
occasion. In Lollia’s case it is probable that she con­ (7) 53 T. Statilius maiestas ? guilty ? suicide before the
other man thereafter,124 a command which the proud Taurus impiety, guilty verdict; property
and beautiful woman was not likely to obey. The sulted astrologers and other diviners on the date and repetundarum guilty ? confiscated
former empress did not remarry, and in 48 was put circumstances not of the emperor’s, but of Agrip­ (8) 54 Domitia maiestas guilty death
pina’s death, dreaming perhaps of succeeding then in Lepida
forward as a candidate for the imperial bed of Claudius,
marrying Claudius. To inquire about the well being (9) 66 Barea Soranus maiestas guilty death
recently vacated by Messalina of odious memory.125 In and daughter
the three cornered race between herself, Claudius’ former (de salute) of an emperor’s wife had never before been Servilia
wife, Aelia Paetina, and Germanicus’ widowed daughter, construed as sufficient evidence of the crime of maiestas. (10) 66 P. Anteius and maiestas guilty death
the younger Agrippina, Lollia Paulina lost out to Agrip­ Agrippina, however, the first woman to win the formal Ostorius Scapula
title of empress (Augusta),180 may well have been de­ (11) 89? Mettius
pina whose Julian ancestry seems to have been the de­ Pompusianus maiestas guilty exile
cisive factor in her favor.128 termined to make forbidden astrological and other di- 90? maiestas ? guilty ? death
The winner, however, did not feel secure. Lollia vinatory inquiries de salute Augustae as much grounds (12) 138 Pedanius maiestas guilty death
Paulina (probably less than thirty years old)127 still for a maiestas indictment as those de salute principis Fuscus
had come to be. Lollia’s contacts with magi do not (13) 189? Septimius maiestas not guilty none
seemed a potentially dangerous rival. Her destruction Severus
was, therefore, resolved upon. Information was ob­ appear to have been for the purpose of employing black
(14) 205 . Popilius Pedo maiestas guilty death
tained leading to a maiestas indictment for violation of magic against her successful rival. At least the insertion Apronianus
the edict of a . d . 11. Lollia was specifically accused in of the word magi by Tacitus amidst the astrologers and
the senate of having entered into forbidden consulta­ the oracle of the Clarian Apollo speaks for diviners by marked the end of the formative period of legal inter­ of divination was enforced throughout the principate,
tions with astrologers, sorcerers, and the oracle of the magic rather than for practitioners of black magic or
pretation of the Augustan edict of a . d . 1 1 . There­ and, it may be added, beyond that era at least until the
venefici. Nor did Claudius himself intimate any sus­ end of the reign of Theodosius I (d. 395).138
after divinatory inquiries de salute of the emperor and
117 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 9, 58, 117; Solinus, S3, 29. picions of this kind.
his house were treated as maiestas per se,™3 a legal prac­
118 Pliny, Nat. Hist. 9, 58, 118; Solinus, loc. cit. ; Velleius The senate obediently convicted Lollia Paulina, stripped tice persisting until the end of Roman antiquity.
Paterculus, 2, 102; compare also Tacitus, Annals 3, 48; Sue­ her of all but five million sesterces and sent her into case 6
tonius, Tiberius, 12. exile. This, however, did not allay Agrippina’s fears. The harsh biblical threat that the sins of the fathers
“ •Rightly assumed by Groag, R E 13, 1926: c. 1377, no. 11,- 3. V IO LA T IO N S OF THE AUGUSTAN EDICT
c. 1387. According to Pliny Lollius drank poison. Lollia’s death alone could satisfy the empress. A mili­ will be visited upon the children came true in the trial
D U RIN G T HE LATER PRIN CIPATE
150 Suetonius, Caligula, 25, 2. tary man was sent out with the necessary instructions. which in a . d . 52 enmeshed Furius Camillus Scribo­
(A. D. 52-205)
181 Not C. as Suetonius lists him loc. cit. As befitted a person of her rank, Lollia Paulina was to nianus and his mother, Vibia ( ?). His father, who had
122 Tacitus, Annals 12, 22; Suetonius, loc. cit . ; Pliny, Nat. be given the privilege of committing suicide. If she From the trial of Lollia Paulina onward no important reached the consulate in 32,187 had rebelled against
Hist. 9, 58, 117 f,; Solinus, 53, 29. changes were recorded in the legal interpretation of the
153 Jerome, Citron., 01.204. He does not mention Lollia by refused, the soldier was to kill her. With the courage *“ Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2),
name; cf. Stein, R E 13, 1926: c. 1394f. Augustan edict of a . d . 1 1 . Unfortunately the few ex-
128 Tacitus, Annals 12, 22. Her accuser . . obiceret Chal- Seminar 10, 1952 : 29 ff.
12< Suetonius, Caligula, 25, 2; compare also Cassius Dio, 59, 1.1 Cassius Dio, ep. 61 (60), 32, 4. 135Ib id .: 1-28, In some cases no conclusive evidence of for­
12, 1; Zonaras, 11, 5. daeos, magos, interrogalunique Apollinis Clarii simulacrum super
1.2 Tacitus, Annals 14, 12. bidden consultations can be found, but the indictment of
125 Tacitus, Annals 12, 1; see F. Muenzer, Festschrift zu O. nuptiis imperatoris.” 133 See Paulus, Sententiae 5, 21, 3; compare F. H. Cramer, “ maiestas by magic ” often might have involved not only a
Hirschfelds 60. Geburtstag, 1910: 38. 13BStein, R E 13, 1926: c. 1394 f.
The Caesars and the stars (2), Seminar 10, 1952: 50 f. Capital charge of the use of black magic, absolutely prohibited at all
120 Tacitus, Annals 12, 2 if. 130Tacitus, Annals 12, 26; Cassius Dio, ep. 61 (60), 33, 2a;
punishment was the fixed penalty for inquiries de salute prin­ times, but also an accusation of illegal divinatory inquiries by
127 If, as was customary, she had married her first husband in CIG, no. 3610. Her picture is found on coins, and in the east cipis and about affairs of state in general. This broad term means of magic.
her early ’teens, Lollia was probably less than twenty years old she too was worshipped as divine; cf. V. Scramuzza, The emperor would be interpreted to cover inquiries about the ruler’s family 133 Compare C. Th. 16, 10, 12 (Nov. 8, 392).
when Caligula married her in 38. Claudius: 91; 262, n. 37 (no. 45, Harvard Historical Studies). 137 Tacitus, Annals 6, 7.
also.
 E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST R IC T IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y 263
262 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF THE P R IN C IP A T E
trial and ruin to Claudius’ campaign against foreign by her mad brother, the emperor Caius Caligula, Do­
Claudius earlier in the reign. For this he had paid with such charges was recorded for the eight years of Claudius’ mitia Lepida in a . d . 40 had taken her nephew, Agrip­
cults in general seems, however, wholly unwarranted in
his head.138 His wife, Vibia (Vibidia ? Junia ?), had reign prior to her marriage to him in 49, while from pina’s three-year-old son, L. Domitius, into her own
the absence of any corroborating evidence besides the
been banished. Small wonder, therefore, that she and then on during the next five years at least four state household. The charge that she neglected the boy’s
existence of that mysterious subterranean sanctuary on
her son longed for the death of Claudius. Although trials were based on such accusations. Could it be that education— she is said to have turned him over to a
Statilian property. Ironically enough Statilia Messa-
apparently neither the mother nor the son fomented an her family’s belief, inculcated in all her children by the dancer and a barber as tutors157— cannot be taken
lina, in all probability the daughter of the luckless owner
actual conspiracy, they had sought the confirmation of older Agrippina, that her husband Germanicus had seriously. For Claudius, immediately after coming to
of the too-beautiful gardens, subsequently married
their cherished hopes by astrological consultations about been murdered by black magic,142 heightened in the the throne in January a . d . 41, recalled the widowed
Agrippina’s son and murderer in 66, after Nero had
the death of Claudius. This was a clear and flagrant younger Agrippina the fear of magic and occult prac­ Agrippina from exile. Her son, soon afterwards re­
rid Statilia of an inconvenient husband by the simple
violation of the Augustan edict of a . d . 11 which forbade tices, a fear, common even to the best educated Roman turned to her, was then barely four years old. At that
device of slaying him in 65.152
all inquiries about the death of anyone. Moreover, when of her time? Forbidden divinatory consultations to her age he could hardly have been irreparably ruined by
the emperor’s death had been the topic, legal practice by might mean more than a merely factual investigation unorthodox educational methods.
case 8
now considered such inquiries as prima facie evidence of somebody’s future death date. They could, in her From this time on, however, a protracted struggle
opinion, almost automatically lead towards the use of The gradual extension of the scope of maiestas in­
of the crime of maiestas. That Furius was a lineal began between the two women who competed for the
black magic to ensure the desired death. dictments for forbidden consultations about the imperial
descendant of Pompey was, under the circumstances, an boy’s affections, a struggle which with some lulls seems
So far as Statilius Taurus was concerned, his real family was reflected in the trial of Domitia Lepida in
aggravating factor. As in the trial of Aemilia Lepida to have lasted until the very time when in 54 Domitia
a . d . 54. The defendant was accused of having attacked
such descent evoked among friends and foes of the crime seems to have been his magnificent park, coveted was brought to trial. The catastrophe which in 47
by a Roman Jezebel, Agrippina. Of noble stock— his Agrippina’s life by means of black magic and of spreading
monarchic order the memory of the bitter civil war overtook Messalina (who vainly sought refuge with her
father had been consul in a . d . 1 1 , his mother apparently unrest throughout Calabria through her numerous slaves
between Pompey and the founder of the Julio-Claudian mother and was killed in Domitia’s house)158 may have
was a daughter of Valerius Messala Corvinus143— he banded together in that part of Italy.153 To what extent
dynasty. led to a brief armistice between Agrippina and Domitia.
himself had reached the consulate in a . d . 44.144 As forbidden divinatory inquiries were part of the devo-
That astrological consultations alone were the crime Although she could hardly condone her daughter’s mis­
proconsul he became governor of Africa,145 probably in tiones with which Domitia was charged cannot be ascer­
of the two defendants may be surmised from the sentence deeds, Domitia Lepida must have seen with growing
52. A certain Tarquitius Priscus, a strong partisan of tained, but that some such violations of the law of A . D.
which even Tacitus had to admit was a relatively mild bitterness, how Agrippina took Messalina’s place as
Agrippina, served under him, perhaps already under 11 had taken place can hardly be doubted.
one in view of the aggravating antecedents of the case.
secret instructions to spy on his superior and to obtain The character of the accused was not without blemish. the wife of Claudius and at once began to groom her
Claudius was satisfied with seeing Furius banished— son, young L. Domitius, for the imperial succession.
material on which to indict him. A trumped-up charge Tacitus called her a woman as shameless and infamous
nothing is known about the mother’s punishment—but
as Agrippina.154 She had successfully weathered three Although hereditary monarchy was by no means defi­
the exile did not survive long. Death from natural of repetundae after the return of Statilius to Rome
husbands. From the first one she had a daughter, nitely accepted during the principate,150 Domitia may
causes seemed, as usual under such circumstances, too proved hollow. But when years later Tarquitius him­
Messalina of unholy memory. Among Messalina’s many well have entertained some hope that her own grandson
unlikely to the contemporaries. Therefore, the custom­ self was accused of that same crime he was enthusiasti­
misdeeds seems to have been her support of the fatal Britannicus, son of Messalina and Claudius, might
ary suspicion in such cases was voiced, i. e. that Furius cally convicted and punished by the senate.146 This eventually succeed his father.160 That her granddaugh­
indictment against her own step-father Silanus, Domitia
had perished by government-administered poison.139 fine fellow accused Statilius of magic superstitions ter, Octavia, was married to Agrippina’s son in a . d .
Lepida’s second husband. He was executed in A . d . 42,
Although this trial had failed to reveal an actual plot, ( magicas superstitiones) .147 Not long ago a sub­ 53,161 might console Domitia somewhat, but, on the other
perhaps because he had rejected his step-daughter’s
it focused the government’s attention once more upon terranean sanctuary, dedicated to some mystic cult, hand, would make her all the more eager to resume her
amorous advances.155 The irate Domitia thereupon
the dangers of inflammatory astrological predictions con­ perhaps the worship of Mithras, has been discovered in deadly rivalry with Agrippina for Nero’s affections.
broke formally with her daughter, even at the risk of
cerning the death of a ruler, i. e. an impending change what seems to have been part of the property of the The long struggle between the two women had now
thereby offending her imperial son-in-law, Claudius.
of the government. So seriously did the senate view Statilian family in Rome. The assumption was of become an important political issue. With Claudius
Not that Domitia herself could have been particularly
the situation that it passed in 52 (soon after the trial) course advanced almost at once 148 that this sanctuary failing rapidly, the one who would control the young
surprised at her daughter’s behavior. For rumor had it
a “ harsh though ineffectual ” decree, expelling all as­ may have been the scene of those magic rites, partici­ and seemingly pliable Nero would in fact wield the
that Domitia had been more than a sister to her own
trologers from Italy.140 pation in which was Statilius’ alleged crime, but it supreme power, when Claudius died and Nero mounted
brother, Cn. Domitius Ahenobarbus, the former husband
remains doubtful if Statilius (even if he partook of the the throne.
of Agrippina and the father of L. Domitius, the future
case 7 ceremonies at this shrine) could be accused of maiestas
emperor Nero.150 When Agrippina was sent into exile 137 Ibid., 5-6.
T. Statilius Taurus in a . d . 53 was the next victim. on those grounds alone.140 According to Tacitus, the 138 Tacitus, Annals 11, 37.
entire indictment was a fabrication.150 A strongly pro­
He was indicted of maiestas, mainly for occult practices 103 Suetonius, Nero, 35, 1; Tacitus, Annals 16, 63. After 150 In the two centuries from Augustus to the death of Com­
government modern historian, on the other hand, has Nero’s death Otho in turn wanted to marry her; Suetonius, modus ( A . d . 192) only three sons succeeded their fathers : Titus,
or forbidden divinatory consultations.141 Agrippina’s psy­
chological predilection of using charges of this kind for taken the view that the suicide of Statilius prior to the Otho, 10, 2. Otho’s wife, Poppaea Sabina, had left him (in
years gone by) for Nero’s nuptial couch. Now in turn Nero’s
Domitian, and Commodus. The lack of any but adopted male
verdict was an admission of guilt.151 To attribute his heirs on the part of most rulers of the principate, except in the
ridding herself of her enemies casts a revealing light on widow attracted Otho. Both men apparently had similar tastes. case of Vespasian and M. Aurelius, was a curious biological
her own character. Not a single state trial involving Statilia was exceptionally well educated ( schol. Juven. 6, 434) : factor which had a profound influence on preventing the triumph
1,2 Ibid. 2, 69-72.
143 See Nagl, RE , 2. Reihe, 3, 1929: c. 2205, no. 37,-c. 2207; “ usum eloquentiae usque ad usum declamandi . . .” had she of the concept of truly hereditary monarchy throughout the
138Ibid. 12, 52; compare Histories 1, 89; Suetonius, Claudius, mastered; cf. Nagl, R E , 2. Reihe, 3, 1929: c. 2209, no. 45,-c. principate. For no princeps who possessed a son was likely to
compare V. Scramuzza, The emperor Claudius; 97f.; 263f.,
35, 2. ^rI , 2210. omit him from consideration for the succession. Hence the
l3* Tacitus, Annals 12, 52. A Phrygian inscription, C IL 3, n. 59 ff. 153 Tacitus, Annals 12, 65: “ obiecta sunt quod coniugem
144 Cassius Dio, 60, 23, 1. dearth of sons made it possible to select heirs by adoption
suppl. 1; 1271, no. 7043; suppl. 2 : 2316, 22, no. 14192, 3, may principis devotionibus petivisset, quodque parum coercitis per according to fitness; compare V. Scramuzza, op. cit. : 91 f.
145Tacitus, Annals 12, 59.
refer to him or his brother; compare Groag, R E 7, 1912: c. 351, Calabriam servorum agminibus pacem Italiae turbaret ” ; com­ 130 The aspiration of Domitia Lepida on behalf of her grandson
no. 50. Were perhaps Agrippina’s fears that Furius might 140Ibid. 14, 46. pare Suetonius, Nero, 7, 1; Groag, P IR 3, 2nd ed., 1943: 56 f., has, for example, been considered the main reasson for Agrip­
become her son Nero’s rival for the throne the main reason for 147 Ibid. 12, 59.
148 By E. Gatti and F. Fornari, Not. Scavi, 1918: 39-52. no. 180. pina’s venomous hatred by Schiller, Nero: 87; Berlin, 1872;
the trial? 134 Tacitus, Annals 12, 64. Groag, R E 5, 1905; c. 1511, no. 102,-c. 1513, disagrees with this
110 See F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from ancient 148 See V. Scramuzza, The emperor Claudius : 264, n. 62 for 153 Cassius Dio, 60, 14, 1-4; 15, 1; Suetonius, Claudius, 29, 2; hypothesis.
Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951: 29-31. some literature on the matter. Tacitus, Annals 11, 29; Seneca, Apocolyntosis, 11, 3. 101 Tacitus, Annals 12, 58; the marriage seems to have almost
141 The second charge, alleging repetundae, was apparently a 150Tacitus, Annals 12, 59. 133 Suetonius, Nero, 5. coincided with the trial of Statilius Taurus.
mere formality, Tacitus, Annals 12, 59. 151 V. Scramuzza, op. cit.: 97.
264 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE END OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST R IC T IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y 265
In this tense atmosphere it is more than likely that into thoughts of revolt.108 Dio, on the other hand,
raise money for the performance of magic rites, she at first From the conviction of Asclepiodotus it would seem that
Domitia Lepida engaged in forbidden consultations about merely knew that “ Soranus was slain on the charge of flung herself to the ground and wept long in silence. After Soranus was found guilty of the charge of stirring up
the future. Agrippina, on the other hand, might well having practised a kind of magic through his daughter.169 awhile, clasping the altar steps and altar, she exclaimed,
disloyalty in his former province. In all probability the
fear, as her father Germanicus had done, to become the Even if not a formal part of Soranus’ indictment, this “ I have invoked no impious deities, no enchantments, nor
aught else in my unhappy prayers, but only that thou, secret consultations of the magi, although transacted by
target of black magic. The indictment of maiestas in accusation, leveled against his daughter, whose convic­
Caesar, and you, senators, might preserve unharmed this his daughter only, were assumed to have taken place
a . d . 54 resolved the long feud. Domitia Lepida, sen­ tion it caused, was probably meant to implicate him also:
best of fathers. My jewels, my apparel, and the signs of with his knowledge and consent. The death sentence
tenced to death, perished.162 The emperor Claudius “ There was a fresh charge involving the daughter in my rank I gave up, as I would hav? given up my life blood
the peril of her father, to the effect that she had lavished resulted. Against Servilia no other charge was brought.
died soon afterwards, whether by the tender ministra­ had they demanded it. They must have seen this, those men
The fact that she too was sentenced to death would imply
tions of his wife, Agrippina, or from natural causes need money on magi.” 170 These magi unquestionably were unknown to me before, both as to the name they bear and
diviners, perhaps astrologers.171 The charge against the arts they practise. No mention was made by me of the that the evidence against her was damning. Forbidden
not concern us. Young Nero ascended the throne. emperor, except as one of the divinities. But my most consultations and the suspected use of black magic com­
Five years later the shades of Lollia Paulina, Statilius Servilia was true, as even Tacitus admitted. He added unhappy father knows nothing, and if it is a crime, I alone
as an extenuating circumstance only that she had en­ bined to ruin her. The ban against the use of black
Taurus, Domitia Lepida, and a host of others were am guilty.” 179
gaged in these forbidden consultations “ with the thought­ magic had always been rigidly enforced. To tamper
avenged at last, when Nero killed his mother Agrippina. with the edict of a . d . 11 out of political curiosity had
lessness of youth ”— she was only nineteen years old— From this it would seem that the young woman had,
and out of affection towards her father.172 Her offense, indeed, trafficked with magi, be it to have their more also become a capital crime long ago. Moreover the
case 9
whether or not inspired by her father, was considered a potent prayers and rites soften Nero’s heart— which fate of Servilia was meant to be another warning lesson
With the accession of Nero in a . d . 54 Agrippina, her would constitute the practice of black magic on him— to malcontents.
grave violation of the edict of a . d . 11. For the topics
life’s ambition realized, apparently refrained from insti­ or to ascertain, whether or not fate had decreed the
about which she had consulted the magi were (1) de case 10
gating further state trials involving charges of forbidden death of Soranus. She had been thoroughly fleeced by
incolumitate domus, i. e. on the future fate of her own In the same year, shortly before the trials of Thrasea,
consultations or black magic. Nero himself began to those worthies, and then perhaps been denounced by
family, and (2) whether Nero would possibly relent.173 Barea Soranus, and Servilia, two men were condemned
resort to accusations of this kind only after the discovery one of them.
The first and second topics were clearly related, but the after the most summary kind of a trial, held not in public
of the Pisonic conspiracy in 65. Among the ensuing
first one, although a violation of the edict of a . d . 1 1 , Soranus thereupon demanded from the senate that he before the senate but apparently in camera by Tigellinus,
prosecutions of real and imagined culprits, two trials
was no basis for a maiestas indictment, since only the should be tried separately for the accusations brought Nero’s praetorian prefect, and Nero himself.182 The
dealt with maiestas charges based on forbidden consulta­
saltis of private persons had been inquired about. The against him, but that his daughter should only be tried two defendants were P. Anteius Rufus and M. Ostorius
tions or magic practices. The one was launched against
second topic, however, although not specifically de salute for acts of misguided filial devotion.177 A Stoic philoso­ Scapula. Their indictment was, as usual, for maiestas.
Barea Soranus and his daughter, the other ruined P.
principis, involved political issues and could, therefore, pher, P. Egnatius Celer, a client of Soranus, appeared The fatal evidence stemmed this time from the carefully
Anteius and Ostorius Scapula. Barea Soranus had
albeit tenuously, be construed as maiestas. Dio, how­ as one of the two most damaging crown witnesses.178 preserved files of an Egyptian astrologer by the name
been consul suffectus in 52.las Thereafter he had been
ever, related that father and daughter “ when Nero was A native of Berytus he had become a professor of philoso­ of Pammenes. The defendants were accused ( 1 ) of
governor of Asia, an office which he held before 63,
sick had offered a certain sacrifice.” 174 His, or his phy. As a Stoic he must have been especially convinced planning a coup d’etat, (2) of having engaged in for­
perhaps in 61-62. On that occasion he offended Acra-
excerptor’s, vagueness implies that either divination by of the value of astrological predictions. It seems even bidden consultations about their own future, as well as
tus, an influential freedman of Nero, by resisting his
sacrifice and magic, or even black magic may have been that it was he who induced his pupil, Servilia, to under­ that of the emperor.188 Both men belonged to the high­
attempts to strip the province of pictures and statues,
the crime imputed to Soranus and Servilia. take the forbidden consultations.179 Apparently he and est stratum of Roman society. Anteius’ brother may
which probably were to be added to Nero’s art collection
Although allowances must be made for the anti-im­ a wealthy Bithynian, Cassius Asclepiodotus, were named have been the one slain immediately after Caius Cali­
in Italy. Towards the provincials Soranus behaved
perial bias of Tacitus, his vivid evocation of the drama­ as co-defendants with Soranus, but by turning state’s gula’s assassination,184 while Anteius himself escaped
with clemency and beneficence.10,1 He now was caught
tic scene enacted before the senate rings essentially true. evidence against his patron Egnatius Celer saved him­ such a fate and rose to the rank of propraetorian legate
up in the dragnet of the purge following the failing of
He absolved both defendants of the charge of having self, while Asclepiodotus, steadfastly refusing to admit of Dalmatia in 51-52.185 He was promised the governor­
Piso’s plot in 65. any guilt on his 'part or on that of Soranus, was con­
From the account of both Tacitus and Dio (although used black magic against Nero: ship of Syria in 55, but was retained in Rome on some
victed, sentenced to exile and stripped of his entire pretext,186 while the knight and court astrologer, Ti.
Dio ascribed the trial of Soranus to 65, Tacitus to 66) When the- accuser asked her whether she had sold her property.180
it seems that Soranus was prosecuted simultaneously bridal presents 175 or stripped her neck of its ornaments to Claudius Balbillus, who was at the same time appointed
with the Stoic leader of the senatorial opposition, Thrasea The simultaneous trials of Thrasea, Soranus, and Ser­ as prefect of Egypt, safely departed for his province.187
Paetus.105 Dio relates these events, at least in the 118 Ibid., 23 and 30. vilia ended with the expected conviction of all three Whether or not the two men were more closely ac­
extant epitome, as directly following the death of Seneca 108Ibid., 30 f.; Cassius Dio, ep. 62, 26, 3. defendants. As befitted their rank they were permitted quainted than could be expected from their inevitable
and Seneca’s brothers. Ostorius Sabinus, a Roman
110 Tacitus, loc. cit. to choose their way of dying. This they did, committing social contacts is not known, but P. Anteius most cer­
1,1 A. J. Church and W . J. Jackson, The complete works of suicide rather than fall into the executioner’s hands.181
knight, acted as prosecutor of Soranus and of his Tacitus: 414, New York, Modern Library, n. d., translate magi tainly was a fervent believer in astrology. When one
daughter,160 a task for which he was handsomely re­ here with astrologers; but see E. Tavenner, Studies in magic of his personal astrological advisers, the above-men-
1,0 Ibid., 31.
warded with a quaestorship and a million two hundred from Latin literature: 1-12, esp. 10f.. New York, Columbia 177 Ibid., 32.
Univ. Press, 1916. Strangely enough, however, so sharp and 188To be inferred from Tacitus, Annals 16, 14, where Tigel­
thousand sesterces.107 According to Tacitus Soranus discerning a critic as R. S. Rogers has recently—apparently 1,8 Loc. cit.; compare Histories 4, 10 and 40. linus advised Anteius not to delay the making of his will, and,
was accused.of maiestas for (1) his friendship with the without any reluctance whatever—identified these magi with 178Juvenal, 3, v. 116; schol. Juven. 1, 33. That Egnatius when no one dared to witness the document of the doomed man,
luckless Rubellius Plautus, dead since several years, and astrologers; compare his A Tacitean pattern in narrating treason Celer was a “ client” of Soranus and kept in- the patrician did so himself.
(2) intrigues to lure his province (long relinquished) trials, Trans. Amer. Philol. Assn. 83, 1952 : 287 ff. Although household as a family tutor made his behavior the more odious; 1S>Loc. cit. : “ imminere rebus et sua Caesarisque fata scrutari.”
intrinsically possible in this particular case, the unquestioning compare on Servilla’s relations to him, schol. Juven. 6, 552. 184Josephus, antiqu. Jud. 19, 1, 15 (end).
identification of magi with astrologers pure and simple seems 180Tacitus, Annals 16, 33. 185 C IL 3, 1: 310, no. 1977; compare P I R 1 (2nd ed.) : 136,
The brief Tacitean account, Annals 12, 64 f., is packed with 181The Annals break off at 16, 35, in the midst of the dramatic
unwarranted. no. 731.
details and permeated with innuendo. description of Thrasea’s slow suicide. Undoubtedly Soranus 188 Tacitus, Annals 13, 22.
*** Ibid. 12, 52; compare Henze, R E 3, 1899: c. 12, no. 2. 178Tacitus, Annals 16, 30.
173Loc: cit.: 11an placabilis Nero.” and Servilia, having received their death sentence (Annals 16, 187 Except for a small minority headed by Stein there has been
10‘ Tacitus, Annals 16, 23. 33), were given the same privilege to die by their own hand. general consensus of opinion for some time about the identity
l“5Ibid., 21 ff.; Cassius Dio, ep. 62, 26, 1. 174Cassius Dio, ep. 62, 26, 3.
175 Her husband, Annius Pollio, had recently been punished True to the aristocratic code of honor during this century they of Ti. Claudius Balbillus, the astrologer, and Balbillus, the Roman
Tacitus, Annals 16, 23. must have chosen suicide in preference to death at the hands of knight, who became prefect of Egypt from 55 to 59; compare
with exile; Tacitus, Annals 16, 30.
1,7 Ibid., 33. the executioner. P I R 2, 2nd ed., 1936: 184, no. 812; xxi and 184 f.
266 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N LA W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST R IC T IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y 267
tioned Pammenes, was sentenced to exile, Anteius con­ tim. He filched from the files of the astrologer the again being given, the intrepid man stabbed himself to also another source than that from which Suetonius had
tinued to keep him in his pay and proceeded to consult horoscope of Anteius and documents containing Pam­ death after having severed his veins.200 drawn his own information.
him from afar.188 menes’ predictions of his patron’s future career. At the The entire affair revealed how deeply influenced Titus ( 7 9 - 8 1 ) continued his father's lenient policy
He was not the only one to deal thus with the exiled same time Antistius also found the horoscope of Os­ Rome’s ranking men were by astrological advice in the towards violators of the law of topical restrictions,210
astrologer. Among others M. Ostorius Scapula also torius Scapula and its astrological interpretation by gravest matters of state. Anteius and Scapula had been but Domitian ( 8 1 - 9 6 ) , a fanatical believer in astrology,
seems to have been one of Pammenes’ clients. It is Pammenes. He now did not hesitate to commend him­ encouraged in plotting Nero’s overthrow. Conversely, had none of this easy going attitude. Sometime after
possible, however, that Anteius, in looking for a possible self to the emperor by denouncing both men—and in­ Nero, himself wholly convinced of the accuracy of astro­ his accession he seems to have arraigned Pompusianus
successor to Nero, merely forwarded to Pammenes'the dubitably tl« astrologer also— to Nero, accusing them logical predictions,201 knowingly challenged fate by exe­ for violating the Augustan edict of a . d . 1 1 . Indicted
horoscope of Scapula for further investigation in the of planning a revolt and of forbidden consultations. If cuting those two caught in such forbidden consultations. for maiestas Mettius Pompusianus was found guilty (as
belief that Scapula might be imperial timber.180 In view brought back to Rome he would divulge all details. For a believer in fatalistic astrology this was illogical, he undoubtedly was) and sentenced to banishment in
of his record this would not appear out of the question. His plan succeeded to perfection. Some ships were since no one, after all, could escape his fate, but then Corsica.211 But when after the rebellion of L. Antonius
Son of P. Ostorius, he had accompanied his father who sent out and he was rushed back to the capital.195 what believer in fatalistic astrology has ever thought ( 8 9 - 9 0 ) a veritable reign of terror was ushered in by
then (about a . d . 50) commanded the Roman army in Surrendering the stolen papers, implementing them logically, especially when facing mortal danger! Two Domitian, the full rigor of the law was invoked. Men
Britain. Young Ostorius in that campaign earned a probably with lurid inventions of his own, he reaped years later Nero was dead, and Galba, whom the stars were now executed for forbidden consultations with
civic crown for saving a citizen’s life.190 His bodily his reward. He was permitted— apparently without a had long promised the throne,202 succeeded him. astrologers.212 Mettius Pompusianus himself fell victim
skill and his robust constitution supported his reputation formal pardon—to remain in Rome. Two years after to the purge. It is not certain whether a second trial
for military prowess demonstrated in Britain.101 In 59 Nero’s death, however, it was remembered that he was case 11 had been launched against him, or whether he was
Nero, still under the influence of Seneca and Burrus, still under formal sentence, and he was sent back to his merely summarily put to death in his Corsican exile.213
The reign of Vespasian seems to have remained free
made him consul suffectus during the second half of that island exile.100
from maiestas trials based on forbidden consultations.
year.102 Ostorius’ fearlessness was again demonstrated In the meantime, however, P. Anteius had long paid case 12
This may in part have been due to Vespasian’s serene
when he came forward to save Antistius Sosianus. In the price of his imprudent violation of the edict of a . d .
faith in astrology. Surrounded by the most renowned The reign of Trajan is the most barren one of the
62 Antistius, then praetor,193 was accused of “ literary 11. From the scant record it cannot be concluded with astrologers of his time, men like Thrasyllus’ son Bal­ principate so far as historical accounts are concerned.
treason ” ; he was said to have recited while dining at certainty whether or not he had done more than to in­ billus, and Otho’s erstwhile chief astrologer Ptolemy The pens of Tacitus and Suetonius apparently did not
the house of Ostorius some libelous verses, which he quire about his own and Scapula’s political future. This Seleucus,203 the emperor may have felt so absolutely deal with it, that of the younger Pliny only very little.
had written about Nero. The prosecutor was none evidence alone would now be deadly. For it came to certain of his sons’ succession 204 that he considered The epitome from Cassius Dio and the works of Byzan­
other than Cossutianus, son-in-law of the all-powerful light in the panicky atmosphere prevailing after the dis­ maiestas prosecutions as superfluous if forbidden con­ tine historians are but a poor substitute for the richly
Tigellinus. Although witness after witness testified covery of Piso’s plot. If the Anteia, who married the sultations were the only charge. This attitude he car­ flowing sources dealing with the first century of our
against the defendant, Ostorius Scapula, the host of that Stoic leader Helvidius Priscus, was, as has been sug­ ried so far as to make a man like Mettius Pompusianus era. The fact, therefore, that no trial involving vio­
ill-fated dinner party, insisted that he had heard nothing gested,197 a daughter of Anteius, he would in the eyes consul, although this senator was reliably reported to lation of the Augustan edict has survived does not
of Antistius’ alleged declamation. His attempt to save of Nero be linked with the oppositional circle around possess “ an imperial horoscope ” of which he made no mean that in Trajan’s time the government no longer
the accused failed, however, but—this being the first the Stoic Thrasea Paetus, whose destruction followed secret. Warned of this “ danger ” Vespasian, believing prosecuted forbidden divinatory inquiries. That there
maiestas trial of Nero’s reign— the senate was satisfied on the heels of Anteius’ ruin.108 After a most summary Pompusianus harmless, refused to proceed against him was no break in the legal continuity during the later
with a sentence of exile and the confiscation of Antistius’ trial in camera, Anteius was told to make his will at in any way whatever.206 Said the emperor: “ He will principate is evident from three cases dating from 1 3 8 ,
property, a sentence so “ mild ” that Nero only grudg- once. Given the gentlemanly choice between death certainly remember me and will certainly honor me in 1 8 9 , and 2 0 4 or 2 0 5 , respectively.214 The first of these
ingly gave his assent.194 by suicide and formal execution, Anteius took poison. return.” 206 Such imperial leniency seems to have made state trials occurred at the end of Hadrian’s reign and
Four years later Antistius was still on the island to When it proved too slow, he severed his veins.109 Pompusianus even more cocksure of his future grandeur. was, as might be expected, directly connected with the
which he had been banished. It happened to be the Ostorius Scapula, on the other hand, did not even re­ He never went anywhere without taking along a col­ question of the imperial succession.
same one to which the astrologer, Pammenes, had been ceive an opportunity to answer in person to the charges lection of the speeches of kings and famous generals, Hadrian himself had no son. His only sister, Pau­
exiled. Unmindful of any considerations of gratitude against him. He happened at the time to live on one culled from the works of Livy.207 He also openly dis­ lina,218 married L. Julius Ursus Servianus,216 who was
but only eager to rejoin his boon companions in Rome, of his estates in Liguria. Even allowing for Nero’s played and studied a map of the world, which according a generation older than his bride. Their daughter__
Antistius conceived a scheme which might achieve the fears of facing the intrepid, physically powerful defend­ to Suetonius he also carried about with him,208 while there is no record of other children— married in turn
revocation of his sentence. He had become aware of ant, whose popularity and military reputation might Dio relates that it was painted on the wall of his bed­ Cn. Pedanius Fuscus Salinator,217 son of a former consul
the intense correspondence and the ties which bound arouse great sympathies at the capital, one must assume room.209 Since Dio’s account of this case even in the of the same name. The match was considered a bril­
Pammenes to P. Anteius whom he knew to be disliked that the incriminating evidence from Pammenes’ files extant epitome is more detailed than that of Suetonius, liant one, and Pliny, fatherly friend of the bridegroom,
by Nero and wealthy enough to make an attractive vic­ was overwhelming proof of Scapula’s complicity in An­ it can be assumed that he used not only Suetonius, but congratulated his disciple’s father-in-law on that occa­
teius’ enterprise. A centurion was hurriedly sent from sion.218 The young couple in turn became the parents
1,8 Tacitus, Annals 16, 14. 888Ibid., 15.
188 On his name, see C IL 6, 1: 484, no. 2042, 33; cf. Groag, Rome to Scapula’s Ligurian domicile, surrounded the 801 For example Suetonius, Nero, 36 and 40, 2. 818 Suetonius, Titus, 9, 1-2.
R E 18, 2, 1, 1942, c. 1670, no. 3. house with guards, entered, and informed Ostorius 888 Cassius Dio, 57, 17, 4; already Augustus had been credited 811 Cassius Dio, loc. cit.
180 Tacitus, Anna/s 12, 31; compare 16, 15. Scapula of his fate. A choice of the method of dying with the foreknowledge of Galba’s imperial future. 218Ibid. 67, 12, 2.
181 Ibid. 16, 15. 888 Compare Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; 2, 78; Suetonius, Otho, 818Ibid., 12, 4; Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3.
188 A wax tablet, found in Pompeji, shows him in office on 4, 1; 6, 1; Plutarch, Galba, 23, 4; Juvenal, 6, w . 557-559; 814 See above, cases (7), (8), (9).
July 10; C IL 4, suppl. 1: 391, no. 143; compare 6, 1: 484, no. 180Ibid. 16, 14. Stein, R E , 2. Reihe, 2, 1923: c. 1248, nos. 29 and 30.
188Tacitus, Histories 4, 44. 215 Compare Stein, R E 5, 1905: c. 1519, no. 108,-c. 1520.
2042, 33. 804 Sutonius, Vespasian, 24 f. 218 Cf. Groag, ' R E 10, 1919: c. 882, no. 538. He was thrice
188 He had been severely criticized for his behavior as tribunus 187 See v. Rohden, R E I, 1894; c. 2349, nos. 4 and 5; Pliny, 888 Ibid., 14; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 12, 2-3.
ep. 9, 13, 4. consul, the last time in a.d. 134; on his end see v. Permerstein,
plebis. 808 Suetonius, Vespasian, 14. Klio. Beiheft 8: 38, who suggests that Servianus by Hadrian’s
181 Tacitus, Annals 14, 48 ff. On the trial of Antistius Sosianus 188Tacitus, Annals 16, 21 ff.; Suetonius, Nero, 37, 1; Cassius 887 Suetonius, Domitian, 10, 3; Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 12, 4. insulting treatment was driven to commit suicide.
in A . d . 62, see R. S. Rogers, The Tacitean account of a Neronian Dio, ep. 62, 26, 1 ff. 888 Suetonius, loc. cit. 217Pliny, ep. 6, 26, 1 ff.; also 11, 1; 7, 9; 9, 36 and 40
trial. Studies presented to David M . Robinson: 711-718. 188Tacitus, Annals 16, 14. 888 Cassius Dio, loc. cit. 218Ibid. 6, 26, 1.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N LA W U N T IL T H E EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
of the ill-starred Pedanius Fuscus and possibly also of ticular would surely displease Hadrian. Altogether it
a daughter. Until recently the birth of their son was now becomes clear why Fuscus was so definitely ex­
generally assigned to the year 118,219 the very year when cluded (by Hadrian) from the imperial succession.
the infant’s father was consul.220 Only an epitomized And Hadrian was right!
passage of Dio, however, led to that date by asserting While Antigonus of Nicaea had merely ascribed Fus­
that at the time of his execution, usually assumed to have cus’ downfall to his being “ ill-advised,” the SH A vita
taken place in 136, Fuscus was eighteen years old.221 of Hadrian stated that Fuscus had been charged with
But neither the date of Fuscus’ birth, nor that of his forbidden consultations with " prophets ” and oracular
execution was apparently correctly stated by Dio s epito- diviners,227‘ sorry “ advisers,” indeed! It was unlikely
mizer. For Fuscus was about 25 years old when that Fuscus’ grandfather Servianus, the nonagenarian
executed,222 and, as the SH A rightly reported, executed brother-in-law of Hadrian, hoped for the purple himself,
only at the very end of Hadrian’s reign, i. e. after 136.22S or had even encouraged the hopes of Fuscus in 137-138,
It now seems well nigh certain that the child was born but he shared his grandson’s fate. The order of events
was about the following:
as early as 113.224
As a lineal descendant of Servianus and Paulina he (1) Young Fuscus, a gay blade, reminiscent some­
would be the closest male relative of Hadrian, since he how of the ill-fated Libo Drusus, speculated on Hadrian’s
had no brother. Under the circumstances it is hardly death. For years he may have consulted diviners, when
surprising that young Pedanius Fuscus— Paulina being the adoption of Aelius by Hadrian in 136 dimmed his
his grandmother and Hadrian his grand-uncle—grew long sustained hopes. Frantically Fuscus, knowing that
up in great expectations of an imperial future, although Aelius Verus was far from well, sought recklessly the
the hereditary principle was by no means generally advice of astrologers and other diviners on the future
recognized during the principate.225 well-being (de salute) of Aelius as well as of Hadrian.
Some decades ago a second-century horoscope of (2) With Aelius’ death on January 1, 138 and the
Fuscus was published.226 It stems from a collection of rapid deterioration of Hadrian’s condition Fuscus, en­
“ historical ” horoscopes compiled by the physician- couraged by his forbidden consultations, must have seen
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST R IC T IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y 269
great reign. Yet who can doubt that the Roman empire recalled to Rome, probably early in 189, to be named
fared better with Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius governor of Sicily, where he was in office on July 1.
as Hadrian’s successors than it would have fared with At this time “ he was indicted for consulting about
the light-headed, gladiator-loving Fuscus! the imperial dignity (de imperio) with seers and astrolo­
gers (vel vates vel Chaldaeos) 234
c a s e 13 His guilt of maiestas through forbidden consultations
This trial is unique in that its defendant was a future was flagrant. Under normal conditions exile or death
emperor: Septimius Severus. Although it may safely would have been the inescapable punishment of Sep­
be assumed that almost all rulers of the principate relied timius Severus. Our slender record of the trial, how­
on “ imperial horoscopes” obtainable— after a . d . 11— ever, has it that “ because Commodus was now begin­
solely through forbidden consultations, not one of them ning to be detested, he was acquitted by the praetorians
had had to stand trial for such an offense. Some, like of the guard to whom he had been handed over for
Galba,228 were knowingly spared; others, like Nerva,229 trial.” 235 The regime of Commodus’ hated favorite,
escaped by sheer luck the wrath of an ever suspicious Cleander,236 may have been the reason for this breach
emperor. Those caught in the act of forbidden divina­ of judicial objectivity. If this were true, then Severus
tory inquiries, or subsequently found guilty of having who owed much to Cleander 237 must have sensed the
indulged in them, were, as has been conclusively shown, coming storm in which the praetorians played a leading
treated very severely, whenever political prospects of part 238 and severed in time his ties with the doomed
the inquirer or of the imperial house had been the topic favorite. Be that as it may, the praetorian prefects
of the consultations. Septimius Severus alone is known closed their eyes, acquitted Severus, and nailed his luck­
to have been accused (presumably of maiestas) of for­ less accuser to a cross.239 How fully Septimius Severus
bidden astrological inquiries about his future, and, was exonerated was shown by his appointment as consul
having survived the trial, lived to have made good tiie in 189-190 and in 191 as governor of the vital province
prophecy by actually reaching the imperial throne. of Pannonia.240
Born in a . d . 146 at Leptis in North Africa, Severus c a s e 14

astrologer, Antigonus of Nicaea, in the middle of the his prospects brighten. Hadrian, a fervent believer in, grew up in the benign era of Antoninus Pius (138-161)
and Marcus Aurelius (161-180). He became quaestor, His own lucky escape did not soften Severus’ attitude
second century and was excerpted with two others by and himself a practitioner of, astrology, learned of Fus­
Hephaestion of Thebes in the fourth century. Antigonus cus’ doings, suspecting, though wrongly, that old Ser­ probably at the usual age of twenty-five, i. e. about a . d . towards violators of the Augustan edict. Extremely
not only cautiously stated that Fuscus’ ruin was due to vianus— whose disappointment about the adoption of 171, and was then allotted the province of Baetica in superstitious himself, he suspected others easily, espe­
his being “ ill-advised” ( koko /J ouA o s ) , but also added Aelius must also have been bitter— was aware of and Spain. Owing to political disturbances there, however, cially when their high rank seemed to lend encourage­
two pieces of information which round out the character abetting the forbidden activities of his grandson. he was sent to Sardinia instead (ca. 172) and afterwards ment to imperial hopes on their part. Cassius Dio him­
of the ill-starred man. He was, according to the phy­ (3) With the adoption of Antoninus (who at Ha­ served as legate to the governor of Africa. Although self was eye-witness of a maiestas trial held in the senate,
sician from Nicaea, overly fond of sexual pleasures and drian’s request in turn adopted M. Aurelius) Fuscus’ he doubtless had investigated his horoscope long before, -which in a . d . 205 involved Popilius Pedo Apronianus,241
an ardent devotee of gladiators.22’ These traits in par- soaring hopes once more crashed to the ground. He he seems to have consulted at about this time another then governor of Asia, and a few others. Almost thirty
now may actually have begun plotting a coup, deluded astrologer. The man, it is said, foretold accurately the years later Dio still recalled the episode as an incredible
*“ C IL , 3: 2253, no. 13826; cf. Groag, R E 19, 1, 1937: c. 21, perhaps by astrological assurances that he was “ fated ”
brilliant future in store for him.230 This was of course affair even to a spectator like himself.242 The charges
no. 6. to mount the throne. Hadrian resolved then on drastic a flagrant violation of the edict of 11, punishable as against Apronianus were: (1) His nurse had dreamt
C IL , 6 : 3027, no. 30831; 3282, no. 32374 (Acta Arv.) ; action: Fuscus was indicted for maiestas, the incrimi­ maiestas. Under the mild rule of Marcus Aurelius, that he should be emperor; (2) he had used some magic
CIG , no. 1732a. He resigned on May 1st; compare W. Weber.
nating evidence consisting probably chiefly on charges however, the legate probably felt safe. Via the office of to this end. Like Ostorius Scapula 243 in the reign of
Untersuchungen sur Geschichte des Kaisers H adrian : 81 ff.; plebeian tribune to which this well affected ruler ap­
cf. Groag, R E 19, 1, 1937. c. 21, no. 6,-c. 23. alleging the flagrant violation of the edict of a . d . 11 and prospective bride’s horoscope carefully before marrying her; cf.
221 Cassius Dio, ep. 69, 17, 1, giving Fuscus’ age as eighteen active plotting. pointed him, Septimius Severus reached the praetorship Severus Alexander, 5, 4.
at the time of his execution in what seems to be the year a . d . in 178 at the age of thirty-one.231 During the first six 224 SHA, Severus, 4, 3.
(4) According to the horoscope of Antigonus, Fuscus
136, was the only known reference to Fuscus’ age, and hence years of Commodus’ reign he held no public office, but 223 Loc. cit. Within the same year, however, he seems to have
led to the assumption that he was born about 118. dragged down with him Servianus, whose innocence the
after the assassination of his foe, the praetorian prefect been charged with adultery, but was again acquitted. It may be
222Cat. 8, 2 : 85, 19, 29 ; 86, Ilf., if Cumont’s convincing horoscope “ reaffirmed ” even more strongly than our
Perennis, in 186 232 Severus emerged rapidly as one of that both indictments were part of the same law suit, however;
identification is accepted. This would change the date of the hitherto known records. Whether or not the parents of cf. Fluss, R E , 2. Reihe, 3, 1923: c. 1940, no. 13,-c. 2002.
execution of Fuscus from the hitherto assumed year 136 to the Fuscus also perished at this time, or escaped with a the most influential men in the imperial service. He 230 Cassius Dio. ep. 73 (72), 10, 2ff.; 12, Iff.
end of 137, or more probably to the first half of 138, on April 6 became governor of the Gallic province of Lyon 221 SHA, Severus, 4, 4, must be read in the light of Cassius
lesser punishment (exile?), the astrologer failed to
of which Fuscus became twenty-five years old. (187-88), married, probably in 187, the Syrian Julia Dio, 73 (72), 12, 4.
222 SHA, Hadrian, 23, 2-3; compare 15, 8; 23, 8. reveal. 238 SHA, Severus, 13, 5.
Domna whose husband, according to her horoscope was
224 Some years ago A. Farnsworth, at the author’s request, (5) Fuscus was guilty of the charge. The horoscope 230Ibid., 4, 3.
destined to mount the throne of the empire,233 and was 24(1Ibid., 4, 2. The chronology of this entire passage is wholly
computed the date of April 6, 113 from the astronomical data of says so, and the author of the Hadrian vita strongly
the horoscope. More recently O. Neugebauer arrived at the garbled. Severus did not reach Pannonia before midsummer,
suggests it. The death sentence and the ruin of the 228 Cassius Dio, 57, 17, 4. 191; cf. Fluss, loc. cit.
same result. The author is greatly indebted to both for per­
mission to make use of their findings. For a detailed discussion family followed. -"2* Ibid. ep. 67, 15, 5-6. 241C IL 6, suppl. J, 2: 442, no. 1980; compare Windberg, R E
of the horoscope, see above, pp. 176-178. 220 SHA, Severus, 2, 8-9. 19, 1, 1937: c. 45, no. 4; v. Rohden 2, 1896: c. 272, no. 4, and
On the threshold of death himself, Hadrian thus ruth­ 221Ibid., 3, 1 ff.
225 Compare for example, V. Scramuzza, The emperor Clau­ 273, no. 10.
dius : 91 f.
lessly destroyed his next of kin, a monstrous end of a 232 See A. Stein, Das Todesjahr des Gardepraefekten Perennis, 242 Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 8, 1.
226 Cat. 8, 2: 85, 19 and 86, 2; 8 f. Hermes 35, 1900: 528-530. 248 Compare F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2),
221Ibid., 86, 8f. See SHA, Hadrian, 23, 3. 233 SHA, Severus, 3, 9. Severus was said to have checked his Seminar 10, 1952: 13 ff.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N LA W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
Nero, Apronianus also was hurriedly sentenced to death
in absentia and summarily slain. Evidence against him,
obtained through torture, was forwarded to the senate
by Severus. One of the examiners, inquiring who had
told of the dream and who had heard the prophecy, had
been told: “ I saw a certain bald-headed senator peep­
ing in.” 244 ■ j
Under the impact of the recent overthrow of Severus’
former favorite, Plautianus,245 the senate, already in the
midst of a drastic purge by Severus, was panic stricken.
Said Dio:
We found ourselves in a terrible position. . . . Such was
the general consternation that even those who had never
visited the house of Apronianus, and not alone the bald-
headed but even those who were bald on their forehead,
grew afraid. . . . I was so disconcerted that I actually felt
with my hand to see whether I had any hair on my
head. . . .246
Eventually the guilty ( ?) party was singled out in the
senate: Baebius Marcellinus, a former aedile. He was
summarily done away with before Severus had even
been informed of the death sentence.247 This was a vio­
lation of the legal respite of ten days between sentence
and execution which Tiberius had introduced,248 but the
terrified senate obviously wanted to impress the emperor
with this zeal in his cause. From the limited informa­
tion now extant it seems that Apronianus, stirred up
perhaps by his nurse’s dream, had proceeded to seek
confirmation for it by means of forbidden divinatory
inquiries. This apparently was the main charge against
him. No one bothered to give the governor of Asia a
chance to be heard in his own province. He was con­
victed and sentenced to death. The executioner was
rushed to Asia and dispatched him.
From a . d . 16 to 205 legal practice was governed by
the Augustan edict of 11. The most important refine­
ment added to it was the division between “ ordinary ”
forbidden inquiries and “ political” consultations, i.e.
between those of a private person’s sains and that of
the emperor and his house. By a . d . 49 political in­
quiries of this kind had come to be regarded as prima
facie evidence of the crime of maiestas. Although our
“ court records ” concentrate exclusively on cases in­
volving forbidden “ political ” inquiries, it cannot be
doubted that lesser violations of the edict of a . d . 11,
being of course far more numerous than political ones,
were also prosecuted, especially those in which slaves
had consulted their own manuals or living diviners about
the prospective death of their masters.249 The general
Sli Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 8, 2-3.
2,5 SHA, Severus, 14, S; Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 14, Iff.;
15, 1 ff.
2*a Cassius Dio, ep. 77 (76), 8, 3ff.
2,7 Ibid., 8, 6-7; 9, 1-2.
'** Tacitus, Annals 3, 51; Cassius Dio, 57, 20, 4.
“ * Compare Paulus, Sententiae 5, 21, 3.
policy was stated by Ulpian. The penalties in such
cases were gradated according to the type of forbidden
inquiry.
4. ASTROLOGERS IN COURT FO R V IO LA T IO N S
OF THE AUGUSTAN EDICT
From its inception the Augustan edict was directed
against diviners, as well as against their guilty clients. In
every case, in which an over curious client was brought
to trial, at least one guilty diviner must also have figured.
Owing to the fact, however, that the accused clients
whose names have been preserved belonged to Rome’s
haut monde, historians took cognizance of their legal
plight, while only occasionally they deigned to mention
the equally guilty diviner. A pious wish for the execu­
tion of astrologers in general was voiced in the reign
of Nero (54-68) :
All those who take horoscopes from observing Mars and
Saturn are deserving of one cudgelling. I shall see them
perhaps at no distant date really learning what a bull can
do and how strong a lion is.251
Such sanguinary hopes were gratified at least in part by
Vitellius. In 69 he executed astrologers by the score
(although it is doubtful whether this was done for
their refusal to heed his expulsion edict or for publicly
prophesying his impending death).253
That there must have been many more than the few
prosecutions of individual astrologers discussed below
can be deduced from the well known passage in Juvenal
whose exaggeration obviously contained a hard kernel
of truth.253 Credulous Romans obviously reasoned that
astrologers, so heavily punished by the imperial govern­
ment, must have “ known too much.” The men, there­
fore, were considered especially reliable sources of astral
information.
The few instances which are known of individual
indictments of astrologers confirm the general picture
drawn by Juvenal. Exile or death were the usual penal­
ties in such trials. Occasionally an astrologer saved his
skin by turning state’s evidence. At other times the
conviction of a luckless diviner was based on more than
one indictment, for instance, on his active support of
treasonable plans (table 9).
CASE I
Our only source for the trial and execution of L.
Pituanius and P. Marcius is Tacitus.254 The two men
may have been astrologers or sorcerers, or possibly both.
250Ulpian, de officio proconsulis, 7, in Coll. leg. Mos. et Rom.,
15, 2, 3.
*“ Lukillios, Anth. Gr. 11, 164.
202 Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4.
258 Juvenal, 6, w . 560-564. Seriphus was one of the most
feared islands of exile. There, for example, the renowned
Cassius Severus had dragged out his miserable existence until
he died; Tacitus, Annals 4, 21; Jerome, Chron., 01.203.
2S‘ Tacitus, Annals 2, 32.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST R IC T IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y
TABLE 9
Date Defendant
A . D.
( I) 16 L. Pituanius \
P. Marcius ]
( II ) 40-41 Apollonius
( II I ) Prior
to 66 Pammenes
66 ? “ “
(IV ) 69 Ptolemy
Seleucus
(V ) 96 Larginus
Proculus
(V I) 96 Asclation
(V II) 371 Heliodorus
They seem to have fallen afoul of the law in connection
with the conspiracy of Libo Drusus against Tiberius in
A . d . 16,255 for their fate was recorded by Tacitus imme­
diately following his detailed account of Libo’s trial.
The senate had in rapid succession passed two decrees
against astrologers, sorcerers, and all other diviners soon
after the trial.256 Thereafter, as Tacitus stated laconi­
cally, L. Pituanius was hurled to death from the Tarpeian
rock, while P. Marcius was executed outside the walls
in the “ ancient manner,” i. e. undressed and flogged to
death.257 Their execution was either due to a violation
of the recent senatus consulta, or to their previous com­
plicity in Libo’s plot, perhaps in their capacity as diviners
by astrology or magic.258 Their part may only have
consisted in supplying him with those exciting predictions
which helped to turn his none-too-strong head in the
direction of sedition.259 If L. Pituanius and P. Marcius
were, as is most likely, indicted in the catch-all form of
maiestas, their eventual conviction could have been based
entirely or at least in part on their violation of the Au­
gustan edict of 11. If additional legal grounds were
needed to convict the two men, it could easily be
found in their being accessories' before the fact, i. e.
accessories to perduellio. Their guilt on either count
can hardly be questioned. They may thus have been
the first two diviners to have been executed on charges
involving the breach of the edict of 11. With the neat
distinction of Roman Law they — being of humbler
253 Compare R. S. Rogers, Criminal trials : 12 ff.
2t“ See F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from ancient
Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951: 21 ff.
' *" Tacitus, Annals 2, 32; Suetonius, Nero, 49, 2; Claudius.
34, 1; Domitian, 11, 2; cf. Th. Mommsen, Roemisches Staats-
recht 2, 1 (1st ed.) : 108, n. 7-9.
*"* Cf. R. S. Rogers, op. cit.: 21. In a . d . 14 the comitia had
been abolished. Even if the two men were Roman citizens
therefore, they now could only appeal against a death penalty
to the princeps, i. e. to Tiberius. This surely was not going to
do them any good under the circumstances.
250 It has been suggested that they were somehow connected
with the cryptic notebook in Libo’s handwriting, or had perhaps
inspired his comments about the persons listed in the fatal docu­
ment; compare Tacitus, Annals 2, 30.
271
Indictment Verdict
maiestas guilty death
(but pardoned)
u “ exile
“ exile?, death?
exile
death
“ “ “
state’s none
evidence
station — were not given the choice of
cide, a choice reserved for noblemen only.
CASE I I
Towards the end of a . d . 40 Caius Caligula’s madness
and the deepening rift between him and the senate must
have been widely known throughout the empire. While
in Rome predictions of his untoward end were un­
doubtedly rife, there were surely countless prophecies
of a similar nature uttered in the provinces also. Every
such prophecy constituted, of course, a grave violation of
the edict of a . d . 11. What happened in Egypt was
probably symptomatic. In Alexandria friction between
Jews and non-Jews, always latent, had recently been
vented in wide spread riots. An Alexandrian em­
bassy had hurried to Italy to defend the gentiles. The
Alexandrian Jew Philo, on the other hand, had gone
with a Jewish embassy 260 to the emperor to explain the
Jewish position. The city of Alexandria had long been
one of the foremost centers of divination in the empire.
Hence it may be safely assumed that a certain Apol­
lonius, who was arrested in Egypt for having “ foretold
in his native land the actual fate of Caius,” had prac­
ticed his art in Alexandria, as well as elsewhere in
Egypt.
For this he was sent to Rome and was brought before the
emperor the very day on which the latter was destined to
die, but his punishment was postponed until a little later,-
and in this way his life was saved.261
Dio to whom we owe the earliest record of this episode
is a somewhat suspect source in matters of this kind.
For his blind faith in astrology, dreams, and other kinds
of divination induced him on more than one occasion
falsely to record subsequent events as having borne out
200His account of this enterprise is found in Philo, legatio ad
Caium; additional information also in his in Flaccum; compare
above, pp. 108-111.
2,1 Cassius Dio 59, 29, 4, from Xiphilinus.
272 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
divinatory predictions.202 Dio’s story of Apollonius, at
any rate, is a parallel to another one of Dio, involving
under almost identical circumstances a certain Larginus
Proculus at the end of Domitian’s reign ( a . d . 96).263
Taking Dio’s account at face value, one might tenta­
tively reestablish the sequence of legal procedure.
Apollonius was arrested in Egypt for the most serious
type of violation of the edict of 11. If he was a Roman
citizen, he may have appealed a death sentence imposed
on him by the governor of Egypt and may, therefore,
have been brought to Rome — as the apostle Paul some
decades later — for final imperial disposition of the case.
Even if Apollonius did not possess Roman citizenship,
however, the governor of Egypt, after sentencing him
(presumably to death) may have thought this case of
sufficient importance to send the defendant to Rome,
perhaps in the hope that Apollonius before his execution
might implicate important personages, a betrayal for
which,Caius Caligula would be only too grateful. Ac­
cording to Dio, Apollonius faced the emperor on January
24, 41, a short time before the emperor was killed.
Caius, eager to attend the Ludi Palatini, seems to have
postponed final action on the matter, but the death of
Apollonius obviously remained a foregone conclusion.
Caligula’s death, however, led to an amnesty under
whose terms the new ruler, Claudius, also pardoned
Apollonius. This defendant, therefore, was among the
very few to ecsape the usual penalty of exile or death,
meted out to diviners who had so grossly violated the
edict of a . d . 1 1 .
CASE I I I
In the age of Nero the Egyptian astrologer Pammenes,
a man of no mean reputation,204 fell afoul of the edict
of A . d . 1 1 . While the particular client involved in his
violation of the law is not known, Pammenes himself
was convicted of the charge and in a . d . 66 lived on an
island as “ an exile, widely known [for his prowess] in
the art of the Chaldaeans and therefore a man enjoying
the friendship of many people.” 265 The astrologer,
however, did not take his lesson seriously, but behaved
in a manner reminiscent of the jidele Gefaengnis in the
Fledermaus. He openly plied his astrological practice
on the island, receiving for example an annual retainer
from P. Anteius Rufus, a Roman client who continued
to consult him by correspondence. Their dealings in­
cluded forbidden inquiries about Anteius’ own future
202 Instances of such technique are found for instance in Dio’s
changing a prediction which was false (Suetonius, Vitellius, 14,
4) into an allegedly “ accurate” one; Cassius Dio, 64 (65), 1, 4,
from Xiphilinus.
’“ 3 Cf. F. H. Cramer, The Caesars and the stars (2), Seminar
10, 1952 : 40-42.
304 See A. Stein, R E 18, 2, 2, 1949: c. 303, no. 6; W. Nestle,
ibid., no. 4. Stein suggests that Pammenes may have been the
alchemist mentioned by Syncellus, 1, f. 248 (ed. Bonn: 471). In
any case he was a well known figure; Aelianus, Nat. Hist. 16,
42.
*•“ Tacitus, Annals 16, 14.
and, apparently, also about the imperial prospects of
Anteius’ friend, Ostorius Scapula. A fellow exile of
Pammenes, Antistius Sosianus, suspected the astrolo­
ger’s renewed violation of the edict of 11. Antistius
was, however, more interested in trapping the high-
ranking clients of Pammenes than in merely ruining
the Egyptian astrologer. For Antistius hoped to win
Nero’s pardon by denouncing important Roman “ plot­
ters.” Having rifled the files of the astrologer, he
obtained sufficient evidence of forbidden consultations
to destroy both Anteius and Ostorius.206
What happened to Pammenes in consequence of this
exposure of his illegal activities is not known. Already
sentenced to exile, he may have had another trial and,
being convicted once more of gross violations of the
edict of a . d . 1 1 , he would probably be sentenced to
death, mere exile having proven itself to be an insuffi­
cient deterrent. Although the actual fate of Pammenes
remains uncertain, his brief appearance on the Tacitean
scene cast a .revealing light on the incessant circum­
vention of the Augustan edict even by those astrologers
for whom forbidden consultations constituted a very
grave personal risk.
C ASE IV
More, fortunate than Pammenes was his fellow astrolo­
ger and contemporary Ptolemy Seleucus.207 He appears
to have been sentenced to exile on more than one occa­
sion, obviously for violations of the Augustan edict of
a . d . 11. His great political influence was still remem­
bered by Juvenal who alluded to him in the following
terms:
The most eminent one, indeed, of these [astrologers] is
he who was several times exiled and through whose friend­
ship and infallible tables a great citizen [Galba] perished
and before whom Otho trembled.208
The great astrologer had visited Otho in his semi-exile
in far away Lusitania towards the end of Nero’s reign.269
This may have been the first of his “ exiles ” referred
to by Juvenal. His predictions not only kept Otho’s
courage up, but also undoubtedly influenced Otho’s de­
cision to depose Galba by a coup in 69.'-’70 When Otho
in turn was overthrown by Vitellius and committed sui­
cide in the summer of 69, his court astrologers, including
Ptolemy Seleucus, were of course dispersed. Whether
Ptolemy was formally tried and banished, or simply fled
from Vitellius even before the general purge of astrolo­
gers in Italy began in the late summer of 69,271 remains
*" Ibid., 14 f.
207On the probable identity of Ptolemy and Seleucus, see
Stein, R E , 2. Reihe, 2, 1923: c. 1248, nos. 29 and 30.
208Juvenal, 6, vv. 557-559.
209Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1.
870Tacitus, loc. cit.] Suetonius, Otho, 6, 1; Plutarch, Galba,
23, 4.
971 Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4; Cassius Dio, 64 (65), 1, 4;
Zonaras, 11, 16.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST RICT IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y 273
uncertain, but it does seem likely that some official action Asclation had been arrested, probably late in August
was taken against him at the time. This would account or early in September a . d . 96. Having banished astrolo­
for a second exile implied by Juvenal. gers from Rome on two previous occasions, i. e. in 89-90
As Apollonius before him, Ptolemy-Seleucus was and a . d . 93,232 Domitian — himself a fanatical believer
flagrantly guilty of habitual violations of the edict of in this pseudo-science 288— was hardly inclined to treat
a . d . 11. Yet, like Pammenes, banishment, not death flagrant violations of the edict of a . d . 11 lightly. On
did he draw as his sentence (if, indeed, he was indi­ September 17, 96 Asclation faced the emperor, who,
vidually dealt with at all in 69). With the fall of Vitellius having received astrological warnings of his impending
and the accession of Vespasian, however, a new era of death (to occur on September 18), was in a harsh mood.
prosperity dawned for him. He joined Balbillus, son Asclation seems to have admitted his guilt: he had dared
of the renowned astrologer Thrasyllus, as one of Ves­ to predict Domitian’s death. The chief reason for Do­
pasian’s favorite court astrologers.272 Thus, instead of mitian’s willingness to see the man must have been his
being punished for his perennial transgressions of the eagerness to pry out of the doomed astrologer some
edict of 11, Ptolemy Seleucus was not only pardoned, information about one of the countless plots which, the
but even permitted to continue his political prophecies more severely suppressed, the more did flourish around
in a quasi-official capacity. Domitian. The dramatic episode and its sensational
sequel were well remembered as probably the most spec­
CASE V
tacular case of an astrologer’s paying with his life for
accurate, but forbidden prophecies de salute principis.
This seems to be the only known case, in which no These are our chief sources:
ordinary practitioner, however renowned, was arraigned
for violation of the edict of A . d . 11. One of the most Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 16, 3.284
Some one else, also, had told Domitian on a previous
important astrologers of the first century paid the price
for having made forbidden political predictions, albeit occasion both the time and the manner of his death, and
then, upon being asked what manner of death he, the
accurate ones. His name was variously given as Ascle- prophet, should meet, had replied that he should be devoured
tarius,273 Asclepion,274 or Asclation.275 Repeatedly he by dogs. Thereupon command was given that he should be
was referred to as “ far famed.” 270 His writings, burned alive, and the fire was applied to him, but just then
there was a great downpour of rain, the pyre was exten-
usually quoted together with.those of another astrologer
guished, and later dogs found him lying upon it with his
of that period, Timaeus,277 enjoyed a lasting reputation. hands bound behind him and tore him to pieces.
Vettius Valens (ca. a . d . 150),278 the Anonymus of
a . d . 379,279 and Palchus (ca. a . d . 500)280 named both
Cassius D io(?)285 (tenth century ms.).
The astrologer Asclepius came before Domitian and told
men among their astrological sources. In the age of
him definitely that he would be slain on the next day, before
Justinian I (d. 565) John Lydus still drew on Ascla- the fifth hour of the day had come. The other asked him
tion’s writings.281 The name itself is of Egyptian origin. laughingly, whether he had something to predict about him­
Asclation would thus belong to that group of Egyptian self. The man then also said that he would very soon be
astrologers of the first century a . d . whose reputation eaten by dogs. The other, wishing to prove him a liar,
ordered that he be burned chained to a stake. But when
was empire wide, a relatively small group which included
they lighted the fire, a most violent rainstorm began and
men like Balbillus, Chaeremon, Ptolemy Seleucus, Pam­ extinguished the fire. And when the guards had fled on
menes, and possibly Teucrus the Babylonian. account of the vehemence of the rain, dogs came and tore
him to pieces. When Domitian heard of it, he began to fear
3,2 Tacitus, Histories 2, 78. It is uncertain whether or not that the man had said the truth about him also. And so it
Ptolemy Seleucus lived to face Domitian’s expulsion edicts of turned out.
89-90 and 93. In any case, as Vespasian’s favorite court astrol­
Suetonius (Domitian, 15) :
oger, he would probably not have suffered from such measures,
provided of course he had succeeded in keeping in Domitian’s Nothing, however, impressed him as much as. the reply
good graces also. given him by the astrologer Ascletarius. He asked the man,
373 Suetonius, Domitian, 15, 3, where one should probably read who had been denounced and who admitted it, too, that he
had boasted in public what he through his art had foreseen
Ascleparion in lieu of Ascletarion; see Boissevain, Cat. 8, 4: 101,
n.; cf. P I R 1, 2nd ed., 1933 : 239, no. 1198. of the future, whether he perhaps knew what end were in
274 Malalas, ed. Bonn: 266, 14; Asclepius in Chron. Pasch., ed. store for himself. And when the other confidently answered
that in a short while he would be torn to pieces by dogs,
Bonn, 1: 68, 13; Cat. 8, 4: 101.
375 Cat. 1: 79, 19; 5, I: 205, n. 1; 5, 2: 49, 3; 8, 4: 101, n. Domitian gave orders to execute him, indeed, at once,280
370 Malalas and Chron. Pasch., loc. cit.
377 See W. Kroll, R E , 2. Reihe, 6, 1, 1936: c. 1288, no. 9;
382Jerome, Chron., s. a.
compare Pliny, Nat. Hist. 5, 9, 55; 16, 22, 82; according to 383 Suetonius, Domitian, 14, 1-2.
Suidas, s. v., no. 4, he wrote a /iaSii/mri/ci and a treatise vtpi
284Cf. Boissevain, 3; 184, 12; there can be no question that
<pvaccov. Dio’s “ someone ” was Asclation.
373 For example in his Anthologiae, 9, pr., ed. Kroll: 329, 22 f. 286 Cat. 8, 4: 101, 2-12.
273 Cat. 5, 1: 204, 22 ff. "•* Asclation may have been a Roman citizen. This would
2,0 Cat. 1: 80, 15. have induced Domitian to plan a more " decorous ” end for him
381Lydus, de ostentis, 2 (ed. Wachsmuth: 6 ); Cat. 1: 81.
than if he had been a non-citizen.
274 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
but also to give him a most diligent burial, in order thus
to prove the falseness of his art. When this was being done,
it happened that the pyre was blown down by a sudden
storm and dogs tore apart the half burned corpse. The em­
peror learned of the matter at table along with the other
news of the day through the actor Latinus, who accidentally
had seen it when passing by the place.
One can easily see why this episode impressed Sue­
tonius and later historians. Coming as it did on the
very eve of Domitian’s assassination, the astrologer’s
correct prophecy of his own death, as well as of that
of Domitian furnished believers of astrology, with splen­
did ammunition in their defense of the infallible accuracy
of this craft. Suetonius outlined, albeit briefly, the legal
background of the case which was to end so dramatically.
According to him the astrologer had publicly boasted
of his discovery of the time when the emperor would die,
having foretold according to Dio “ both the time and
the manner ” of Domitian’s demise. Honestly con­
vinced of the scientific accuracy of his astrological tech­
niques the fearless Asclation had also applied them to
ascertain the date and the circumstances of his own end.
He was, therefore, ready to answer the emperor’s ques­
tion promptly. From the legal point of view the ques­
tion whether or not the Augustan edict still permitted
an astrologer to discover the date of his own death was
thus involved. Assuming that the general ban of in­
quiries about anyone’s death covered the case, one would
have to consider Asclation’s action as another violation
of the law even though in this instance he had investi­
gated only his own future. This lesser offense in any
case was completely overshadowed by the far greater
one for which he had been arrested and tried.
A slight discrepancy exists between Suetonius and the
other sources. The contemporary author of the Life of
Domitian attested that Domitian ordered Asclation’s
immediate execution (the manner was not mentioned)
to be followed by cremation. Asclation’s ashes would
hardly appeal to any dog, and the prophecy of the astrolo­
ger about his own death could thus be proven as fal­
lacious. Cassius Dio, on the other hand, reported that
the very mode of execution was the burning at the stake.
The rainstorm caused the guards to flee and extinguished
the blaze that had just been started. Asclation, his
hands tied to the stake, was thus alive, but unable to
fend off the attacking dogs when they tore him to pieces.
The more detailed version of the Anonymus (perhaps
more closely following Dio’s original text) offered about
the same description. Dio’s well known tendency to
mold his account in a fashion which would demonstrate
the miraculous “ accuracy ” of diviners, especially of
astrologers,287 makes his description of Asclation’s death
somewhat suspect. Suetonius, however, named the
source of his story: an eyewitness account, given by the
actor Latinus. He also — although without mentioning
387 Compare the change from Suetonius, Vitellius, 14, 4 to
Cassius Dio, ep. 64 (65), 1, 4 (from Xiphilinus).
Asclation as the source — was aware of the accurate
astrological prediction of the very hour of Domitian’s
assassination.288 Did Asclation perhaps know about the
conspiracy? At any rate he did not betray any secrets
but died proudly, consoled by his “ knowledge ” that
Domitian too would die within twenty-four hours.
case vx
On September 18, 96 — one day after Asclation’s exe­
cution — another prophet was haled before the emperor
for a similar violation of the edict of a. d. 11. Larginus
Proculus, variously described as an astrologer, haruspex,
or sorcerer (possibly practising all three arts) had
been arrested in one of the two provinces of Germany
for forbidden prophecies about the emperor’s death. He
had apparently confessed his crime, but, as a Roman
citizen, possessed the right of final appeal to the emperor.
Whether it was through his exercise of this privilege
or simply by order of the provincial governor that he
was brought to Rome is uncertain. The governor may
well have acted on his own initiative, knowing Domi­
tian’s passionate interest in matters of this sort. Two
basic accounts of this episode exist: one from the pen
of Suetonius, the other from Cassius Dio’s. Suetonius,
without referring to Proculus by name, recorded the
matter as a case involving a haruspex, who through
brontoscopy had ascertained an impending change of
rulers (seemingly without a precise date for this event).
Cassius Dio, on the other hand, transmitted the name
of the defendant and as his crime an “ accurate ” forecast
of Domitian’s death date, a technical achievement which
only an astrologer or sorcerer was capable of, but not
a haruspex employing brontoscopy only. The text of
the pertinent passages reads as follows:
Cassius Dio, ep. 67, 16, 2.289
Larginus Proc[u]lus, having publicly announced in [one
province of] Germany that the emperor would die on the
day when he actually did die, had been sent on to Rome by
the governor, and when brought before Domitian had again
declared that it should so come to pass. He was accordingly
condemned to death, but his execution was postponed in
order that he might die after the emperor had escaped the
danger; but in the meantime Domitian was slain, and so
Proculus’ life was saved, and he received 400,000 sesterces
from Nerva.
Cassius Dio ( ? )290
For they say that Proculus, an astrologer and sorcerer,
announced publicly in [a province of] Germany the day on
which [Domitian] would die. And for this he was sent in
chains to Rome, brought before Domitian, and told him to
his face the day on which he would die. He, however, gave
orders to guard him in chains because he wanted to witness
the execution. The man,, however, said: “ You will not slay
me. For I am not fated to die by you! ” In the meantime
Domitian perished.
288 Suetonius, Domitian, 16, 2.
289 Dio’s version was used by Cedrenus, Xiphilinus, and Zon­
aras ; cf. Boissevain, 3: 184, 15.
590Cat. 8, 4: 100, 28 ff. and notes.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST RICT IO N S OF ASTRO LO G Y
Suetonius ( D o m itia n , 16, 1) :
Then early in the morning [of the day of his assassina­
tion] he examined an haruspex who had been sent him from
[a province of] Germany and who, when asked about the
meaning of a bolt of lightning, had predicted a change of
rulers. He sentenced him to death.
There is no disagreement between these accounts on
the date of the trial (September 18, 96), the charge
(maiestas, committed by forbidden divination), and the
place where the offense had been committed (one of the
two German provinces, although which one of them is
nowhere stated). On the details, however, Suetonius
differs sharply from Dio’s excerptors, including the
Anonymus, whose assertion that Larginus Proculus was
an astrologer and sorcerer contrasts with that of Sue­
tonius who refers to him as an haruspex. Moreover,
the method used was described as brontoscopy by Sue­
tonius, while Dio and the Anonymus suggested astrology
(or magic) as the techniques employed. Suetonius had
the defendant merely prophesy a change of rulers, Dio
and the Anonymus the exact time of the assassination.
Allowing for Dio’s ineradicable predilection for “ accu­
rate ” astrological forecasts, one is tempted to assume
in this instance a similar falsification of historical facts
on his part as in the earlier case of the astrological death
prophecies about Vitellius in 69.291
Nevertheless there is one point which might tend to
corroborate Dio’s version: the reward of 400,000 ses­
terces bestowed on Proculus by Domitian’s successor
Nerva. That Proculus was guilty of maiestas through
violation of the edict of a . d . 11 was admitted by the
defendant himself. A legal precedent for his subsequent
pardon by Domitian’s successor had been established in
a . d . 41 by Claudius when he spared Apollonius (who
had committed the same crime at the end of Caligula’s
reign).292 But to reward a guilty diviner, to reward
him so handsomely, indeed, as Nerva did in the case of
Proculus, this was a novel feature. No explanation for
Nerva’s action is given by Dio’s excerptors. Could it
be that Proculus had in far away Germany obtained an
inkling of what was brewing in Rome ? Had he, perhaps
under torture, refused to name Nerva as the man whom
he believed to be fated to succeed Domitian? That
Domitian was deeply suspicious of Nerva is well attested.
Actually he spared the old senator’s life only when in­
formed of the pitiful state of his health, convinced that
in any case he would outlive Nerva.293 What secret
connection (if any) existed between Proculus and Nerva
will probably never be fully known, but without some
personal obligation to Larginus Proculus, Nerva’s im­
pressive donation would be inexplicable.
291Compare F. H. Cramer, Expulsion of astrologers from
ancient Rome, Classica et Mediaevalia 12, 1-2, 1951: 39.
293 Cassius Dio, 59, 29, 4.
398 Ibid., ep. 67, 15, 5-6; Zonaras, 11, 20.
275
CASE V II
This case chronologically does not belong among the
trials of the principate. It does, however, illustrate the
continuity of legal practice in dealing with astrological
offenders against the edict of a . d . 11. In 371 a pagan
conspiracy against the emperor Valens was discovered
in Syria.29* Among the diviners consulted by the plot­
ters about the selection of an imperial candidate and the
proper time for the coup of rebellion, an astrologer,
Heliodorus, belonged to the innermost circle of the con­
spirators. Arraigned for maiestas, apparently on a two­
fold indictment for forbidden astrological practices and
active participation in the plot itself, he confessed his
guilt. In a successful attempt to save his life he turned
state’s evidence. During the lengthy interrogations he
succeeded in impressing Valens so strongly that the —
fanatically Christian — emperor not only pardoned him,
but also made him his favorite court astrologer, and even
appointed the unscrupulous turncoat grand chamberlain!
His good fortune went to Heliodorus’ head, and his
arrogance added to the already large number of enemies
he had made. When an assassin succeeded in murder­
ing the grand chamberlain the inconsolable Valens or­
dered a state funeral for his court astrologer.
These relatively few surviving instances of legal
prosecution of astrologers for violations of the edict of
a . d . 11 belong to the same general category as the state
trials of their illustrious clients. In every case the in­
dicted diviner was guilty of the most serious offense of
that law: inquiry into the political future of his client,
the emperor, or of the imperial family. Although our
evidence is inadequate for definite conclusions, it does
seem to support the following hypotheses:
(1) As men personally incapable of claiming the
throne or assuming political leadership, offending di­
viners even in maiestas cases tended to receive somewhat
more lenient treatment than their dangerously high-
ranking clients.295
(2) The penalty normally imposed in such cases was
either' work in the mines or exile; 298 death sentences
were meted out only to those who openly predicted the
date of an emperor’s death, or had actively participated
in conspiracies.
(3) There is apparently no record of any trial of
law breaking diviners for lesser violations of the edict
of a . d . 11. But it is certain that non-political for­
bidden consultations remained punishable throughout
the principate.297
3I>‘ Our chief source is Ammianus Marcellinus, 29, 2. A de­
tailed discussion will be found in F. H. Cramer's forthcoming As­
trology in Roman law and politics, from Diocletian to Justinian I.
3,8 Attested by Paulus, Sententiae 5, 21, 1 and 3.
298 Loc. cit. ; on the imperial administration of the mines, see
O. Hirschfeld, Die kaiserlichen Verwaltungsbeamten, 2nd ed.:
144-180.
297Ulpian, leg. Mos. et Rom. coll., 15, 2, 3; Paulus, Sententiae
5, 21, 3.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL T H E END O F T H E P R IN C IP A T E E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL REST RICT IO N S O F ASTRO LO G Y 277

S. LEGAL RESTRICTIONS OF D IV IN A T IO N
DURIN G THE PRIN CIPATE
Fatalistic as well as catarchic astrology belonged to the
almost countless kinds of divination practiced through­
out the Roman empire. The scientific aspects of fatalis­
tic astrology impressed particularly the educated upper
strata of Roman society from the end of the republican
era until the triumph of Christianity. Although its hold
weakened towards the end of the principate when star
worship, the sun cult in particular, gained ground, it
continued — the astrological literature attests it — to
retain a devoted following at least among the educated
until the end of the fifth century. The masses through­
out the entire period, on the other hand, preferred less
rationalistic methods. Augurs and haruspices, already
discredited with the Roman intelligentsia in the days
of Cicero (himself an augur!), continued to have a
lucrative private clientele apart from their official duties,.
Practitioners of oracular, numerological, astrological,
and magical methods now vied with theirs (and each
others’) for the pocketbooks of the common man.
Prophecies and oracles emanated from organized cults
or inspired individuals. Numerology, claiming spiritual
descent from Pythagoras and other ancient scholars,
combined “ scientific ” and mystical appeal with con­
venient usage, a handbook of numerology being the only
thing required for consultations.
Augurial and haruspicial techniques possessed, at least
for the more gullible, the blended appeal of official sanc­
tion, religious tradition, and “ scientific ” experience.
Magic, however, extended beyond the realm of purely
divinatory methods. Eventually therefore Roman Law
distinguished three types of magic: (1) black magic,
outlawed at all times,208 ( 2) white magic, chiefly of a
pharmaceutical character, (3) divinatory magic. As
Cumont among others has pointed out, the belief in
magic like faith in astrology was fundamentally a quasi-
scientific creed. The sorcerer assumed that the precise
use of the same formulae, incantations, and material
ingredients inevitably in each case would produce the
same specific effect, a tenet which, except for its irra­
tional ingredients, has been subscribed to by every
experimental scientist in history. The distinction be­
tween the different types of magic in Roman Law was
not based on the techniques involved, but on the aims
of the practitioner and his client. Already the Twelve
Tables contained punitive clauses against theft by magic
and bewitching spells.299 The use of drugs in medicinal
s“s Compare on the subject two dissertations: E. Tavenner,
Studies in magic from Roman literature, New York, Columbia
Univ. Press, 1916; F. Beckmann, Zauberei und Recht in Roms
Fruehzeit, diss. 1923, publ. Muenster, 1928; for a general treat­
ment of the subject, see L. Thorndike, A history of magic and
experimental science, 1, esp. ch. ii.
Twelve Table Laws, 8a: qui fruges excantassit . . .; 8b:
neve alienam segetem pellexeris; compare Pliny, Nat. Hist. 28,
magic was probably also dealt with in the Twelve-
Tables,300 but no clause referring to this topic has sur­
vived. The Latin venenum (equivalent of the Greek
cftapiMiKov) originally had a neutral meaning denoting
both healing drug or deadly poison.301 Mala venena,
i. e. poisons, administered with or without magical in­
cantations, were of course always tabooed.302
Among the numerous definitions of sorcerers (yorp-cs)
in the literature of the principate the one given by Philo­
stratus was typical:
Sorcerers claim to alter the course of destiny by having
recourse either to the torture of lost spirits 303 or to barbaric
sacrifices, or to certain incantations and anointings.304
What seems to have been the first instance in which
diviners by magic were singled out for legal curbs
occurred in 33 b. c. when Agrippa as aedile banished
yoijTcs, as well as astrologers from Rome.305 Although
the transmitted ordinance was directed against magic in
general, the association of sorcerers and astrologers in
this ordinance clearly pointed to diviners by magic.
Black magic was firmly outlawed anyhow, and prac­
titioners of “ white ” magic, i. e. the pharmacists of the
time, could hardly be Agrippa’s target. No reason to
banish such magi from the capital can be imagined.
That left only diviners by magic for Agrippa to aim at.
In a . d . 16 the Roman senate by two successive decrees
expelled astrologers and other diviners from Rome.
Diviners by magic were obviously included in the group.
Since it was in practice often difficult to draw the line
between them and practitioners of black magic, magi
as a group were subject to far more rigid curbs than
astrologers. Roman legislation on the subject of black
magic has been aptly summarized by Paulus early in
the third century:
It has been ordained that those who know about the magic
art shall be punished with the highest penalty, i. e. they shall
be thrown to the beasts or be crucified. Sorcerers (m a g i)
themselves are burned alive.306
2, 10 and 17; 3, 41; Seneca, quaest. nat. 4, 6f.; Cicero in
Augustine, de civ. dei, 8, 19; Apuleius, apologia, 47.
“ F. Beckmann, op. cit.: 55£.; Cicero, de republica 4, 12
(compare Augustine, de civit. dei 2, 9) errs probably in assuming
that the Twelve Table Laws, 8, la and lb, included libelous
writings among the mala carmina which it outlawed; see also
Pliny, Nat. Hist. 28, 2, 17 f.
301 Gaius, Dig. 50, 16, 236: “ Who says venenum must say
whether it is malum or bonum. For medicamenta are also
venena.”
302 For republican times, see Sallustius, Catiline, 11; Cicero,
pro Cluentio, 57, 148.
303 A necromancer, named Junius, had for example played an
important part in the ill-starred conspiracy of Libo Drusus in
a . d . 16; Tacitus, Annals 2, 28.
504 Philostratus, Apollonius of Tyana 5, 12; for similar defini­
tions, see the second century author of Ps.-Quintilian, declamat.
maiores, 10, 15; Apuleius, apologia, 26; Tertullian, apologeticus,
23, 1.
Cassius Dio, 49, 43, 5.
300 Paulus, Sententiae 5, 23, 17.
Diviners by magic inevitably would also “ know about
the magic art.” From the terse sentence of Paulus it
would follow that they too were liable to death in the
arena or on the cross for their theoretical knowledge
alone. But that this was not the case follows logically
from the repeated issue of expulsion decrees against
them. Practicing sorcerers, however, were burned, a
method of execution faithfully adhered to in witchcraft
cases through the middle ages and well into the so-called
modern era. In fairness to the judicial spirit of the
Romans one must assume that if the defendant succeeded
in convincing his judges that he knew of and practiced
only white magic or magic by divination, he would be
acquitted, or at least would escape with a lighter penalty.
Obviously a charge of “ forbidden knowledge ” would
usually be substantiated in court by the assertion that
books on magic had been found in the defendant’s
possession. The accused then could naturally — but
unconvincingly — deny ever having read them. To
forestall such pleas, the principate ruled:
No one is permitted to have books on the art of magic
in his possession. And with whom such are found will be
deported to an island after his goods have been confiscated
and these [writings] burned in public. Persons of humble
rank will be executed. (Not only the practice but also the
knowledge of this art is forbidden).807
Books on magic thus fared as badly as practitioners
of black magic, but it should not be assumed that the
burning of books applied only to those dealing with
magic. Politically objectionable literature and unau­
thorized oracular writings even in the days of Augustus
had been committed to the flames.308 Thus books deal­
ing with oracular magic may well have been included
among those which according to Paulus endangered
their possessor and were when confiscated committed to
the flames, a legal practice continued into the later
Roman empire. The double standard of grading penal­
ties on the basis of a defendant’s higher or lower social
rank was not confined of course to owners of magical
literature. It also applied for example to those who
concocted pharmaceutical drugs:
When a man has died from a medicine which was ad­ to the use of magic in drug making indicates that no
ministered for the man’s restoration to health, or for alle­ legal objection was taken to it per se, a view held even
viating his condition, the one who has given the medicine
is deported to an island if of higher rank (honestior),
executed if of a lower (h u m ilio r ).309
An excerpt from the fourteenth book of Marcianus’ nal magic. If the intent of Roman law in general was
Institutiones has been preserved in the Digests. The to punish only attacks upon the health and life of human
passage, a parallel to Paulus’ interpretation of the lex beings, then only black magic and dangerous drugs would
301 Ibid . ; 23, 18. The bracketed sentence may be the additon
of a later writer; see Fontes ittris antejustiniani, ed. J. Bavieri other hand, were grouped together with astrologers:
et alii 2 : 410, n.
so' Compare for example F. H. Cramer, Bookburning and
censorship in ancient Rome, Jour. History of Ideas 6, 2, 1945:
157-196.
3°“ Paulus, Sententiae S, 23, 19; compare Dig. 48, 8, 3.
Cornelia de sicariis et veneficis, deals with the legal con­
sequences of making and administering dangerous drugs,
probably often to the accompaniment of magical prayers
or incantations:
The fifth article of the law covers anyone who has made
a drug (venenum) in order to kill somebody, or has sold it,
or has possessed it.310
Under this heading druggists like the notorious Locusta
could be punished for the mere manufacture of deadly
poisons. On the other hand, those who possessed them
or trafficked in them were held accountable too:
The penalty of this law applies also to anyone selling bad
drugs (m ala medicamenta) acquiring possession of them for
the purpose of killing somebody. The emphasis on bad drugs
clearly implies that there are also some good drugs (non
mala venena). . . . The word drug (venenum ) thus is
neutral, being applied equally to what is prepared for curing
and for killing, as well as to what is called a love potion
(am atorium ). But this law takes cognizance only of any
drug which causes the death of a person.311
The chanting of spells during the making of drugs
(especially amatory potions and the like) was an im­
portant part of ancient pharmacology, but Marcianus
made it clear that not medicinal magic as such was out­
lawed, but only its application to deadly drugs. So rigid
was the emphasis on the effect of the drug that even
the intention of the druggist who had made or peddled
it was considered secondary:
A senatus consultum ordered relegated a woman who
without evil intent but as a bad example had given out a
drug ( medicamentum ) for conception which had caused the
death of the woman who had taken it. Another senatus
consultum extended the penalties of this law to druggists
(pigm entarii) who rashly gave out hemlock, sulphur, aconi-
tum, pityocampas, buprestis, mandragora, and cantharids for
the arousing of sexual passion.312
In short the druggist’s responsibility was not only
confined to the preparation — with or without magic —
of healing drugs, poisonous or non-poisonous alike, but
also to their falling into wrong hands, or being adminis­
tered in deadly overdoses. The lack of attention paid
in the days of Theodosius I.313
The magic art whose ban under the lex Cornelia
Paulus dealt with could, therefore, hardly include medici­
have to be outlawed, and even inadvertent use of them
punished. Prophets (and diviners by magic) on the
“ • Dig. 48, 8, 3, pr.
311Ibid., 3, 1-2.
312Ibid., 3, 2-3.
“ • C. Th. 16, 10, 12 (Nov. 8, 392).
278 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE END OF THE P R IN C IP A T E
Paulus: 314
1, I t has been decreed to expel from the city ( civitate)
prophets who pretend to be inspired by a god, lest public
morale (m ores) by human credulity be seduced into hoping
for some particular thing, or that the minds of the people,
for certain, might be excited thereby. And thus first
offenders are flogged with rods and expelled from the city,
but persevering ones are thrown into public jail, or de­
ported, or at least banished.
3. Whoever consults astrologers, soothsayers (hariolos),
haruspices, and seers about the health (salute) of the em­
peror or about high matters of state is subject to capital
punishment. One would do better to abstain not only from
[the practice of] divination, but also from any writings on
it, because, if slaves have sought advice about the health
(salute) of their masters, they are punished with the
supreme penalty, i. e. the cross. Those, however, who were
consulted, if they supplied an answer, are either sent to a
mine or to an island.
U lpian: 316
1. Furthermore is forbidden the clever and obstinately
persuasive fraud of the astrologers. Nor has this been for­
bidden to them by law for the first time in our own days,
but it is a ban of old standing. . . .
2. The question, however, has been posed, whether men’s
knowledge of anything is punishable or [only] the practice
or professional .use. And indeed it has been asserted in the
writings of the ancients that the professional use, but not
the knowledge was forbidden. It cannot be denied that later
this was changed and that it did become customary [for
astrologers] to practice also and to offer their services in
public. This, however, came to pass by the boldness and
daring of those, who openly sought and those who gave
[astrological] advice, rather than because it was [legally]
permitted.
3. Very often, indeed, and by almost all emperors has it
been decreed that no one should involve himself in any way
in anything of this kind, and in various ways were those
punished who practiced it, in proportion to the kind of
inquiry. For those who have sought advice about the health
(salute) of the emperor suffer either capital punishment
or some other heavy penalty, but a lighter one, if [they
inquired] about their own [health] or that of members of
their family. Among these [diviners] the seers are also
included. They too must be punished, because at times they
practiced their illicit arts against the public peace and the
realm of the Roman people.
4. There is, indeed, a decree of the Divus [Antoninus]
Pius [138-161] addressed to Pacatus, legate of the province
of Lyon. Since there are many words to this rescript, I
have here given this brief summary of its content.
5. The Divus Marcus [161-180] also relegated to the
island of Syrus a seer, who during the rebellion of [Avidius]
Cassius [175] had uttered prophecies and said many things
as if inspired by the gods. And, really, men of this kind
must not be tolerated without punishment, who under the
pretext of divine commands announce or proclaim these or
assert they known them.
A llow ing for the twice repeated process of condensa­
tion in this text (which the Christian compiler of the
collatio presented of U lp ian ’s summary of a rescript
314 Paulus, Sententiae 5, 21, 1 and 3.
318Ulpian, de officio proconsulis, 7, in leg. Mos. et Rom.
collatio, IS, 2, 1-6.
of Antoninus Pius) is the most detailed review of Roman
Law concerning the interpretation of the edict of a . d .
11 (while Paulus added specific points on the treatment
of offending seers and diviners). At the very end of
the principate Ulpian reaffirmed the legal stand of the
government from the historical angle. He gave:
(1) A general reference to the expulsion edict of
139 b. c.31fl
(2) A specific reference to the second expulsion de­
cree of a . d . 16.31T
(3) According to long standing tradition the knowl­
edge of astrological theories was always legal.
(4) Expulsion orders against astrologers were never
formally revoked. Resumption of astrological practice
in Rome and Italy 318 was therefore due to the daring
of individuals rather than to a formal lifting of the legal
ban whose tacit lapse, however, Antoninus Pius admitted.
(5) A direct reference to the edict of 11 insisted that
almost every emperor since Augustus had specifically
reinvoked the edict of 11 by outlawing (a) inquiries
de principis salute, i.e. on the (prospective) health of
the emperor [and on high matters of state],319 (b) in­
quiries about one’s own future well-being and that of
one’s family members, (c) inquiries of slaves about the
future health of their masters.
(6) Penalties were graded according to the serious­
ness of the offense: For (5a) capital punishment or
other very heavy penalties, for (5b) lighter punishment,
[for (5c) death at the cross].
Paulus added the following:
(7) Guilty seers, astrologers, and other diviners were
ordinarily sent to the mines or an island exile. First
offenders were flogged.
While the knowledge of black magic was outlawed
at all times, Ulpian’s assertion that the theoretical study
of astrology was legal throughout the era of the princi­
pate, or at least until his own time (he was killed in
228), is amply borne out by the extant record. In 16
Tiberius allowed all astrologers to remain in Rome,
if they pledged themselves to give up their professional
practice, urirepentent practitioners were driven from the
capital.320 Again and again by senatorial decree and
imperial edict such expulsion measures were repeated,
but we know of no law against studying the influence
“ • Valerius Maximus, 1, 3, 3.
,1TTacitus, Annals 2, 32; Suetonius, Tiberius, 36; esp. Cassius
Dio, 67, IS, 8-9.
318 No total empire wide ban of astrology, or other forms of
divination is known prior to the reign of Diocletian. Ulpian’s
Christian excerptor, who wrote probably at the end of the
fourth century, in his natural enmity towards astrology may
have “ colored ’’ Ulpian’s original text in such a manner that
it now reads as if all astrology had been forbidden throughout
the principate also.
310 The bracketed passages stem from Paulus, Sententiae, loc.
cit.
330 Sutonius, Tiberius, 36.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGA L R EST RICT IO N S O F A ST RO LO G Y
of stars and constellations on the destiny of human
beings. The writings of astrologers even dealt freely
with methods for the prediction of anyone’s life span,
although the edict of 11 had prohibited the practice of
making such prophecies about anyone’s prospective
death date. Thrasyllus had gone so far as to announce
openly his own death date,321 his son Balbillus wrote
authoritatively on the subject,322 Ptolemy Seleucus freely
revealed to his patron Otho the time of the death of
Galba, and possibly Otho’s own as well.323 Apollonius,
Larginus Proculus, and Asclation faced death for such
practices, but Ptolemy,324 Vettius Valens,325 and other
astrologers of the second century felt no hesitation about
writing on all forbidden topics. A Mithras priest proudly
called himself studiosus astrologiae, while the emperor
Severus Alexander (222-235) paid state salaries to pro­
fessors of astrologia at the Athenaeum, the imperial uni­
versity of Rome.326 Priest and emperor thus openly
evinced their interest in public knowledge of astrological
theory. In general the theoretical discussion of accurate
methods for predicting a man’s life span from his horo­
scope continued to be treated in many astrological
manuals for centuries after the principate. Writings on
the subject seem to have circulated freely among the
reading public long after all practice of astrology was
outlawed.
The last detailed non-official discussion of the restric­
tions imposed by the edict of a . d . 11 upon political in­
quiries came from the still pagan pen of Firmicus
Maternus, more than a century after Paulus and Ulpian
had summarized the old law’s interpretation under the
principate. Towards the end of Constantine I ’s reign
(d. 337) Firmicus in his astrological treatise Mathesis,
the last major astrological work of pagan Latinity,
warned the practicing astrologer:
You will, indeed, give your replies in public, and this
must be told in advance to those who will inquire about
information that you will pronounce with a loud voice your
answers to them about whatever they may inquire, so that
not perhaps some question might be put to you the asking
or answering of which is forbidden.327
The caution thus advised had probably two reasons:
a traditional legal one, and another one rooted in con­
temporary expediency. When these lines were written
astrology and other forms of divination were still legal,
331 Cassius Dio, 58, 27, 3.
323Fragments in Cat. 8, 4 : 235 ff.
323 Tacitus, Histories 1, 22; 2, 78; Suetonius, Otho, 4, 1; 6, 1;
Plutarch, Galba, 23, 4.
334 Ptolemy, Tetrabiblos, 4, 3 (on royal and imperial power);
3, 9, and 4,9 (on the computation of death dates from horoscopes).
355 Vettius Valens, Anthologiae 1, 3 (forecast of imperial
power); 2, 16 (rise to the throne); 5, 9 and 12 (death date
computation); ed. Kroll: 15, 17-23; 70, 32-71, 13 ; 235, 3 ft;
237, 8 ff.
333 C1L, 5, 2 : 652, no. 5893; SHA, Severus Alexander, 27, 5;
44, 4.
331 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 30, 3.
279
but faced increasing official hostility from the govern­
ment in which Christianity, arch foe of pagan divination,
became rapidly dominant. Constantine I for example
in two decrees had already attacked the consultation of
haruspices, repeating in one order Tiberius’ ban of pri­
vate consultations of haruspices, while deriding in the
second even public consultations of this kind as mere
superstition.328 Nocturnal religious or divinatory rites
also became increasingly suspect,329 although not yet
officially outlawed at the time. Firm icus recognized this
trend and warned any astrologer:
Never participate in nocturnal sacrifices, be they public
or private ones! And never discuss matters with anyone in
secret, but publicly, as I have said before, in front of every­
one’s eyes ply the practice of this divine art [astrology].330
A part from contemporary reasons for counseling cau­
tion Firm icus fully understood — trained lawyer that he
was — the details of the edict of a . d . 1 1 , which had
forbidden consultations a de u x ,331 i. e. prescribed the
presence of third parties or public consultations. There­
fore Firm icus insisted that astrologers should loyally
warn their clients in advance not to expect any answers
except loudly proclaimed ones. Questions violating the
restrictions listed by Paulus and U lpian could thus be
forestalled, especially of course political inquiries. D i­
vinatory activities of this kind were inevitably the more
attractive (and lucrative!) for being forbidden. That
they were continued, nevertheless, in spite of the grave
danger for client and astrologer, attests the degree of
faith in this form of divination. The great social revolu­
tion of the third century had not changed this attitude,
nor had the latter-day despotism established by D io­
cletian curbed the insatiable curiosity of the politically
ambitious. The undiminished appeal of the forbidden
persisted when Firm icus composed his treatise. He,
therefore, took special cognizance of the particularly
perilous political inquiries and reminded his astrologer
reader:
Be careful never to give an answer to anyone inquiring
about the life of the Roman emperor (de vita R om ani im-
peratoris). For it is neither necessary nor permitted for us
to learn anything concerning the state of the realm (de statu
reipublicae) through nefarious curiosity. But anyone who
when asked says anything about the fate of the emperor
(de fato imperatoris) is both a criminal and worthy of
every punishment.332
This passage was clearly a paraphrase of the Augustan
333 C. Th. 9, 16, 1-2 ( a . d . 319).
323 For subsequent actions against them, see for example C. Th.
9, 16, 7 (Sept. 9, 364 by Valentinian I and Valens); cf. Lex
Visigoth 6, 7, 3; Zosimus, 4, 3, 2-3.
330Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 30, 10.
331 Cassius Dio, 56, 25, 5.
332Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 30, 4. For historical data
in this work, see L. Thorndike, A Roman astrologer as a his­
torical source: Julius Firmicus Maternus, Jour. Class. Philol 8
1913: 415-435.
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE END OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
280
law of topical and technical restrictions of divination
in. so far as it applied to the most severely punished
offense, the crime of maiestas through forbidden political
consultations. While Firmicus instructed astrologers to
refuse any answer to such inquiries, he added what
amounted to a novel astrological theory by saying that
it was “ not necessary ” to learn what the future would
hold in store for the country. Meek acceptance of what­
ever the future might hold was suggested as the wiser
and certainly as the safer course, a view most popular
with a despotic government. Firmicus, however, did
not stress the argument of personal security. Instead
he maintained, strange contradiction to the proud claims
of earlier astrologers:
And no astrologer has ever been able to find out anything
true about the fate of the emperor. For the emperor alone
is not subject to the courses of the stars, and he is the only
one whose fate the stars have no power to determine.533
This was a curious change from traditional concepts.
Originally the stars had exclusively deigned to reveal
the fate of rulers and empires in ancient Mesopotamia.
Roman emperors from Augustus to Severus Alexander
certainly believed that their destiny was fixed by the
stars. While worshipped in the eastern part of the
empire as living divinities according to oriental and Hel­
lenistic traditions, most rulers of the principate had not
insisted on official acceptance of their divine status in
the Latin west. Caligula and Domitian had tried for
such recognition, but had run afoul of the concerted
opposition to divine monarchy.
The revolution of the third century, however, culmi­
nated in the establishment of a new despotism, which
Diocletian based firmly on the ancient oriental concept
of ruler worship. Logical minds must have been quick
to perceive the astrological difficulties inherent in such
a theory. Could gods be subject to Fate? The Greeks
had always believed that this was the case, but latter-day
scholars had been prone to point out the inherent contra­
diction between the simultaneous acceptance of divine
omnipotence and the gods’ helpless subjection to Fate.
Firmicus tried to suggest a solution of this dilemma:
For since he [the emperor] is the lord of the entire
world (totm s orbis dotninus), his fate is directed by the
supreme god. And since the terrestrial space of the whole
world is under the emperor’s power, he has also himself
been placed among those gods to whom the supreme divinity
has entrusted the creation and the preservation of all
things.334
This impassioned plea was somewhat inconsistent with
an earlier invocation in which Firmicus prayed to the
seven planets that they might protect Constantine I and
his sons.33' It has been suggested that this idea was bor­
333 Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 30, 4.
384 Loc. cit. ; for the same reason no haruspex could foretell Mus. 68, 1913 : 336 ff., esp. 343 ff.
the emperor’s future.
336Ibid. 1, 10, 14.
rowed by Firmicus from a Hellenistic Egyptian source,
possibly from the manual of Nechepso-Petosiris.338 In
Egypt at least the concept exempting the ruler from the
control exercized by the stars might have originated
quite naturally. The thesis presented by Firmicus ad­
mitted, however, the existence of an all powerful su­
preme deity, the emperor himself being assigned the
second highest level of the heavenly hierarchy. The
stars, according to Firmicus, neither controlled the su­
preme power nor this second highest stratum of gods.
Nevertheless, the limitation of astral fatalism to the
lower spheres not only applied to human diviners, but
even prevented lesser divinities from revealing imperial
destinies:
This matter disturbs the haruspices also. For whatever
divinity may be invoked by them, its power is weaker; it
therefore has never been able to unfold the substance of
superior power which, indeed, is contained within the em­
peror. For all freemen, all ranks, all rich men, all noblemen,
all dignitaries, and all powers serve him. He has obtained
the might of a divinity (d iv in i numittis') and of immortal
freedom, and is ranked in the forefront of the gods.337
Such incense was sweet perfume for even a pro-
Christian emperor’s nostrils. Let those inclined to dis­
miss Firmicus’ rantings as empty rambling of hoary
rhetoric compare these passages with some of the ad­
dresses tendered in our presumably more enlightened
era to heads of totalitarian states. A ring of ominous
similarity must be audible for those at least who have
ears to hear. Aware of the possibility that his argu­
ments might still fail to persuade a prospective client
of the folly of trying to obtain information about the
emperor, Firmicus realized the dilemma in which such
inquiry placed the astrologer. Should he save his own
skin by denouncing a stubborn client to the authorities
who held death in store for such criminals ? “ No,”
said Firmicus. For a true astrologer was a man both
priestly and humane;
Therefore, I do not want you to frighten with a truculent
and stern reply anyone who may have asked something
about the emperor, but persuade him with learned speech
that no one is able to ascertain anything about the life of
the emperor, so that, the error of his mind corrected, he
may, impressed by your arguments, abandon the white heat
of his boldness. Nor do I want you to denounce anyone who
may have inquired about something else in an evil manner,
lest, when he is subjected to a death sentence on account of
the illicit desires of his mind, you appear to have been the
cause of his death. For this is improper for a man in a
priest-like position.388
In short, Firmicus insisted that no astrologer should
denounce violators of the edict of a . d . 1 1 , even if their
very inquiries constituted the crime of maiestas. Pro­
tecting his own innocence by refusing to answer for-
130 See K. Ziegler, Zum Zeushymnus des Kallimachos, Rhein.
331Firmicus Maternus, Mathesis 2, 30, 6.
’“ Ibid., 30, 7.
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST RICT IO N S OF A ST RO LO G Y
bidden questions, the astrologer nevertheless would run
a very grave risk if and when the authorities should
subsequently discover that he had been approached on
forbidden topical matters. The astrologer’s position
was put on a par with that of a Catholic priest learning
of a crime through the confessions of the wrongdoer,
or of a physician discovering in his professional capacity
a violation of existing laws. Actually the Augustan
edict became obsolete within half a century after Firmi­
cus wrote his treatise. From then on any professional
divinatory activity, not only those banned by Augustus,
was strictly forbidden. Although secret consultations
of astrologers about political matters continued at least
CONCLUSION
We have reached the end of the first stage of our
labors. Before our eyes the panorama of four centuries
has unfolded, four hundred years of Roman history seen
from one specific angle only. Not the dust of battle,
the heat of political debate or of civil conflict, nor the
evolution and decline of Latin literature has been our
concern. The task set was simply this: To what extent
and in what way did astrology, born in Babylon, fully de­
veloped in the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean world,
especially in Egypt — to what extent then, and in what
way did this pseudo-scientific offshoot of astronomy in­
fluence the course of Roman history until the end of
the principate ? Both the catarchic and fatalistic branch
of astrology were important, but fatalistic astrology had
the more profound impact. For it required a Weltan­
schauung of so stern, so uncompromising a character
that only the bravest— or the most easy going coward—
would accept it. It presupposed on the part of its de­
votees an absolute surrender of any belief in free will.
No decision whatever remained in human hands. In ­
stead the constellation prevailing at the moment of con­
ception or birth once and for all predetermined the
future of the conceived, or at least the new-born child.
The truly frightening consequences of applying such a
creed to the realm of ethics and morality were fully
recognized. They aroused the passionate opposition of
the leaders of the New Academy. Together with Epi­
cureans, Cynics, and Peripatetics the Academicians ham­
mered away at the belief in an inexorable Fate. The
Stoics alone remained to champion, fatalism and fatal­
istic astrology, and in the second century b . c . even they
wavered for a time. But no matter how many times
modifications of astrological claims became necessary,
the astrologers never declared themselves defeated and
succeeded in surmounting all objections to their craft.
From Epicurus to Carneades, from Carneades to Alex­
ander of Aphrodisias and Setft-us Empiricus the foes of
fatalism launched attack after attack, only to see their
opponents with exasperating resiliency retreat to other
281
until the age of Justinian I (d. 565) and probably
beyond it, they were now punishable under the terms
of a general empire wide ban of astrology and all other
forms of divination. The merely restrictive Augustan
edict of a . d . 11 therefore was important chiefly during
the principate, when it expressed the sum total of
limitations imposed on divination throughout the em­
pire. It was then the only permanently enforced Roman
law of its kind, implemented occasionally by regional
measures outlawing all astrological and other divinatory
practices in Rome and or Italy. Such legislation was,
however, enacted and enforced only during brief periods
of unrest in the political heart of the empire.
positions, without, however, abandoning their main tenet.
What was it that made fatalist astrology survive in the
face of so persistent, so long continued onslaughts from
the best minds of the Greek world ? The source of the
stamina of the Stoics and their allies, the fatalist astrolo­
gers, was a faith, as deep as the scepticism of their
enemies. It was the faith in reason. No other Greek
sect had committed itself so firmly to the concept that
reason alone ruled the universe and every atom in it,
as had the Stoics. Descending through the ages ever
since the creation of the world, an unending chain of
cause and effect relations obeyed only the immutable
laws of nature which not even a deity could contravene.
Not a single exception whatever from the law of causal­
ity, no “ miracle ” was possible. The cosmos func­
tioned — as the eighteenth and even nineteenth century
western scientists assumed once more — like a supremely
well designed machine constructed on rational princi­
ples and governed by the rational “ laws of nature ”
alone.
It was a universe made for scientists and enthusiastic­
ally accepted by them. Without committing themselves
to the details of Stoic speculations the great astronomers
and physicists, the physicians and chemists found in
rational fatalism that faith in reason which scientists of
all ages have always consciously or subconsciously
longed for: the philosophical assurance that their own
concept of the nature of things, their own axiom of a
causal order was not merely a scientific necessity, but
also possessed cosmic validity. Ancient scientists be­
came the main supporters of fatalism, and most of them
championed fatalistic astrology enthusiastically. Their
logic was irrefutable. The influence of some stars, for
example the sun and the moon, was unquestionable.
There were five other stars, which also moved in cal­
culable orbits across the heavens. Were not. these
planets, too, likely to influence mundane affairs? The
signs of the zodiac, the “ houses ” of the sun — were
they not also to be reckoned with? Moreover, natural
 A ST RO LO G Y IN R O M A N L A W U N T IL THE EN D OF T H E P R IN C IP A T E
282
phenomena like the equinoctial storms occurred at defi­
nite periods when certain constellations were rising on
the horizon. Why should there not be a connection
between such constellations and the weather? Was it
not a fact that whenever Sirius, the Dog-star, was most
visible the summer heat reached a peak, the “ dog-days ”
having arrived?
It was therefore no strange blindness of the scientific
mind which rallied scientists to the cause of astrology,
but, on the contrary, their awareness of the very real,
or at least their very probable link between astral causal­
ity and mundane effects. From Hipparchus to Ptolemy,
and, for that matter, from Ptolemy to Kepler and even
to Newton, fatalist (or at least catarchic) astrology
found its staunchest advocates among the great scientists.
If they led the way, what believer in reason could be
expected to hold out ? But that was not all. The falli­
bility of astrologers was in many cases painfully obvious.
Instead of probing the matter, however, to see whether
human frailty, or the axiomatic foundations of astrology
were at fault, most people were inclined to assign all
blame to mortal fallibility. Time and again astrologers
were compared with physicians, and who would question
medical science, even if a physician made a wrong diag­
nosis, or failed to cure all diseases! The fundamental
weakness of fatalist astrology was well perceived by its
foes: the body of scientific “ facts,” concerning the spe­
cific influence of each star and constellation. These
“ facts ” were mere hypotheses. They did not rest on
prolonged observations, or often on any observations
whatever. What was accepted as proven fact by fatal­
istic astrologers and their champions were but axioms
whose validity was unquestioningly accepted by the
faithful. In addition the margin of human error re­
mained so large that believers in astrology could never
be forced to admit this unsoundness of the supposedly
rational basis of the entire discipline.
The long standing feud between the friends and foes
of astrology ended in a stalemate, as could have been
expected. By about a . d . 200 both sides were faced
with the growing power of a common foe, religious
mysticism. All rationalists had come to agree more or
less that, irrespective of whether one believed in Fate
or not, the traditional worship of innumerable deities
was meaningless. If Fate ruled, then all prayers and
sacrifices were senseless. If, on the other hand, one
admitted the existence of deities, the growing compre­
hension of the immensity, or even infinity of cosmic
space made it more than dubious that such exalted
beings would bother with taking an active interest in
human beings and their petty doings. Sextus Empiri­
cus might flatter himself to have “ demolished ” fatalistic
astrology, but he had also helped to undermine all faith
in the knowledgeability of anything whatever. Nor was
the argument any more valid that human responsibility
for one’s actions was morally necessary, if one were
not to blame the stars rather than oneself for crimes
committed. To assume free will axiomatically, merely
in order to defend the morality of human justice and
social taboos, could convince neither the Stoics nor their
foes, the Sceptics. Rationalism thus could not conquer
the belief in the revelatory, if not fate making, power of
the stars. Only a religious revolution of the first magni­
tude could do that. But during the principate it was
not yet forthcoming. A loveless monotheism with an
inexorable Fate as the ultimate supreme power may
appeal to scientists of all ages. It will never satisfy the
deep seated emotional hunger of the mass of men.
The short-lived coup of Elagabalus showed, however,
the writing on the wall. The solar monotheism, intro­
duced by an edict in 218, ran counter to too many vested
interests. The organized priesthoods of countless cults
still numbered too many religious devotees in their ranks.
What follower of Isis would relegate the beloved god­
dess to the background, or deny her entirely? Rome
was still the center of political and social influence in
the empire. The Greek contempt for the “ barbarian ”
ritual of the sun god of Emesa, the Roman aversion
against public orgies even in the guise of religious rites,
these were factors which, combined, proved too mi^ch
for the revolutionary movement. The death of its leader
meant its collapse. Thereafter the sober regime of
Severus Alexander made one more brave effort to
camouflage the bankruptcy of rationalism in the Graeco-
Roman world, but with Maximinus Thrax (235-238)
the illiterate dregs of Mediterranean society came to the
top for the first time. The fine spun arguments of
friends and foes of astrology were not for them. Some
deity which would lead them to victory over their rivals,
which would stave off the sword of the assassin, that
was what, the barrack emperors of the third century
sought after. On them catarchic astrology might retain
some hold, but the rationalist charms of fatalistic astrology
had little or no appeal for such men.
For the Latin west astrology from the very beginning
was part of that Hellenistic civilization to which Romans
began to be attracted to an ever increasing extent from
the middle of the third century b . c . onward. Before
even the growing number of educated Roman noblemen
became seriously aware of astrology, the vanguard of
astrologers from the east had overrun Italy, where un­
scrupulous quacks turned a quick penny by imposing
on simple country folk or hovering around the gates of
the Roman circus. Men of this type clearly did not
inspire respect for their craft among Roman humanists.
Moreover, the second century b . c . witnessed a remarka­
ble counter offensive on the part of Greek thinkers
against the doctrines of the Stoics on which astrology
was chiefly based. The enthusiasm with which Greek
sceptics were greeted in Rome, was indicative of the
negative attitude which educated Romans of that time
held with regard to astrology. That Panaetius, the most
influential Stoic at Rome during this period, joined in
the reluctant Stoic retreat from uncompromising fatal­
E M P IR E W ID E LEGAL R EST RICT IO N S OF A STROLOGY
ism to the extent of rejecting himself the claims of horo­
scopal, i. e. fatalistic astrology, created a deep impression
in Roman circles. Soon afterwards, however, the tide
began to turn. Posidonius rehabilitated and rejuvenated
the Stoic faith in Fate and with it the belief in astrology.
With Stoicism becoming the favorite creed of Roman
intellectuals and political leaders, astrology now began
to acquire a devoted following among the leaders of
Roman society. The masses, on the other hand, never
treated it as anything but one more method of divina­
tion, without bothering about the theories on -which
astrology rested.
The earliest definite evidence of astrology’s rise to
influence and power survives from the days of Marius
and Sulla. Soon afterwards the first practicing Roman
astrologers began to appear. The illustrious leader of
this small band of pioneers was the senator P. Nigidius
Figulus. From then on the battle between friends and
foes of astrology, which hitherto had been a prerogative
of Greek intellectuals, came to be fought in Rome also.
Lucretius and Cicero for example combatted the astro­
logical tenets, championed by Nigidius Figulus and M.
Terentius Varro. But the Roman rationalists fought a
losing battle. With the accession of Octavianus Au­
gustus an era began in which astrology gained a firm
hold on the rulers of the empire. Soon scholarly Greek
astrologers like Thrasyllus of Alexandria began to exer­
cize an unprecedented influence at the imperial court
and in Roman society. Not until the death of Hadrian
( a . d . 138) was this hold relaxed, although not yet
broken. A rebirth of scepticism both in the east and
west during the second century a . d . contributed once
more to a mellowing of Stoic fatalism. This change
was well reflected in the teachings of Epictetus and the
writings of M. Aurelius.
On the imperial throne in turn the reigns of Anto­
ninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius were — with the possi­
ble exception of Trajan’s — the first period in which
again a more moderate attitude towards divination in
general and astrology in particular prevailed. But soon
afterwards, for the last time, an upsurge of fanatical
faith in astrology reached the imperial throne with the
accession of Septimius Severus in 193. Throughout his
reign and that of his son no trace of the scepticism which
the second century had come to espouse was manifest.
Divination of all kinds, indeed, had rarely found more
passionate, not to say frantic, adherents on the throne
283
than Severus and Caracalla. No longer, however, was
the court discriminating between astrology as the scien­
tific method of divination, on the one hand, and the
standard religious divinatory techniques on the other.
Astrology had now become for Roman rulers but one
of many kinds of divination. The violent religious revo­
lution, which soon after Caracalla’s death was unleashed
by Elagabalus, undermined the position of “ scientific ”
astrology in Rome still further. For a sun god, clamor­
ing for sacrifice and rites, and even for a heavenly bride,
was irreconcilably opposed to the basic tenets of astrology.
The brevity of Elagabalus’ reign prevented the outbreak
of an open conflict between “ scientific ” and religious
astrology. And the last ruler of the principate more
than redressed the balance. Severus Alexander’s fever­
ish attempt to restore the general cultural pattern of the
earlier principate was also extended to astrology, whose
last practitioner on the throne the young ruler was
destined to be.
It may seem inconceivable to modern minds that
highly cultured Greeks and Romans succumbed to the
spell of what to us cannot but seem a monstruous web
of truth and fiction. Yet unless we try to place our­
selves as best we can into the spirit of a given historical
period, we cannot hope to understand it. The two
premises on which the fascination of astrology for many
of the best minds of Rome was based were these: (1) by
the use of the proper techniques the future can be ascer­
tained; (2) astrology alone is a truly scientific method
to accomplish this. Today we no longer subscribe to
these tenets, but most of us still believe that anything
rationally possible is at least theoretically attainable
through scientific, i. e. rational means. Whether or not
a fallacy lurks in this assumption need not be discussed
here. But starting from the two premises, stated above,
the rulers of the principate and their advisers arrived
“ inevitably,” i. e. logically at their profound respect for
astrology. The depths to which that faith led many of
them has been described at length. But in condemning
both their belief and their actions one must in fairness
to them also remember their glowing faith in reason, a
belief which perhaps is the last living faith today within
the western world. May those who feel free from any
fear of the surging ideological emotionalism of our era
cast the first stone on those Roman champions of
astrology whose noblest poet so fondly assumed that
“ reason conquers all ” (ratio omnia vincit).

Abonoteichus, 201
Abraham, 14
Abulpharagius, 186
Academic (neo-), 58, 148
Academy (new), 20, 28, 50, 53, 55, 68, 69,
70, 71, 72, 93, 126, 148, 178, 194, 195,
200, 217, 281
Academy (old), 58, 148
Achilles, 207
Achinapolus, astrologer, 14, 19, 84
Acilius Attianus, a guardian of Hadrian,
163, 170, 172, 176
Acilius, C., 46, 53
Acoreus, priestly astrologer, 122
Acratus, 264
Acropolis, 153
Actium, 117
Aelia Paetina, 112, 116, 126, 260
Aelian family, 162
Aelius. See Hadrian, emperor, and Aelius
Strabo
Aelius, Hadrian’s great-grandfather, 152
Aelius, Hadrian’s grandfather, 152, 162
Aelius Hadrianus, expert astrologer, Ha­
drian’s great-uncle, 152, 162, 164, 168
Aelius Hadrianus Afer, Hadrian’s father,
152, 162, 163, 190
Aelius Sextus, 48
Aelius Tubero, Q., 49, 57, 60, 61, 77, 139,
140
Aelius Verus. See L. Ceiomus Commodus
Aemilia Lepida, 103, 145, 255, 257, 259, Antigenes of Enna, 59
260, 262
Aemilia Pudentilla, 218
Aemilius. See M. and Mamercus Aemi­
lius Scaurus
Aemilius Laetus, 211, 212
Aemilius Paulus, L., victor of Pydna, 48,
49, 50, 60
Aemilius Paulus, L., husband of Au­ Antinous, 171, 172, 192, 212
gustus’ granddaughter Julia, 91, 92
Aeneas, 73, 87
Aeschrion, 189
Aethon, 157
Agathodaimon, 205
Aglaonice, 196
Agricola, Cn. Julius, Tacitus father-in-
law, 161
Agrippa I, king of Judaea, 136
Agrippa II, king of Judaea, 136
Agrippa. See M. Vipsanius Agrippa
Agrippa Postumus, grandson of Augustus,
86, 90 . . ,
Agrippina the Elder, 86, 91, 104, 105, 106,
112, 116, 257, 262
Agrippina the Younger, 91, 95, 108, 110,
111, 112, 115, 116, 117, 126, 127, 129,
130, 134, 145, 168, 260, 261, 262, 263,
264
Aka (?) of Commagene, 13, 94, 95, 136 Antiochus, king of the Syrians. See
Akhnaton. See Amenophis IV
Alba, Mount, 71
Albinus. See A. Postumius Albinus
Albinus, pretender, 212, 213
Alcestis, 172
IN D E X 285
Aristotle, 9, 13, 18, 26, 28, 48, 53, 61, 204, grandfather of Severus Alexander, em­ Caesar = Augustus, 96; — Claudius, 114;
215 peror, 225 = Nero, 265; = Domitian, 155, 157,
Arles, 148, 161, 195, 197, 201 Azizus, king of Emesa, 136 158; = Aelius Verus, 178; = emperor,
Armenia, 136 180
INDEX Arnobius, 221 Babylon, 9, 68, 88, 89, 146, 154, 194, 218, Caesar. See C. Julius Caesar
Arnuphis, 183, 221 224, 281 Caesennius Paetus, 137
Alexander of Abonoteichus, 201 Antonines, 138, 199, 200, 213, 214, 224
Arria, 88 Babylonia (n), 7, 13, 14, 26, 28, 146, 178 Caius. See Caligula, emperor
Alexander of Aphrodisias, 61, 148, 195, Antoninus, 215, 216, 225. See also Cara­ Arrian (us), Flavius, 10, 180 Babyloniaka, 14 Calabria, 263
calla, emperor
199, 200, 215, 224, 281 Arruntius Stella, 127 Babylonians, 202 Caligula, C., son of Germanicus and the
Alexander Polyhistor, 14 Antoninus Pius, T. Aurelius Fulvus Boi-
Artemidorus, author of the Oneirocritica, Bacchanal (ia), 28, 47 older Agrippina, emperor, 81, 82, 91,
Alexander Severus. See Severus Alex- onius Arrius, emperor, 146, 147, 148, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111,
214 Bacchus, 44, 47, 235
ander, emperor 173, 176, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 192, 112, 113, 115, 116, 125, 127, 130, 132,
Artemidorus, Caesar’s warner, 78 Baebius Macer, 79
Alexander the Great, 5, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 194, 197, 224, 247, 268, 269, 278, 283 133, 135, 136, 145, 146, 168, 231, 257,
Artemidorus, Stoic, son-in-law of Mu- Baebius Marcellinus, 214, 270
18, 69, 88, 111, 148, 154, 180, 185, 207, Antoninus, twin brother of Commodus,
sonius Rufus, 245 Baetica, 209 260, 263, 265, 271, 272, 275, 280
230 emperor, 183 Callinicus, son of Antiochus IV of Com­
Artemis, 54 Bajae, 106, 111
Alexandria (n), 3, 11, 75, 93, 108, 109, Antonius, L., rebel against Domitian, 143, Asclation, astrologer, 82, 112, 143, 144, Balasi, 5 magene, 136, 137
110, 113, 116, 125, 127, 130, 133, 145, 246, 267 Balbilla, Julia, great-granddaughter of Ti. Callisthenes, 18
145, 215, 273, 274, 279
169, 173, 174, 180, 187, 188, 190, 191, Antonius (Antony), M., triumvir, 58, 67, Ascleparius (Ascletarius). See Asclation Claudius Thrasyllus, astrologer, and Calpurnia, Julius Caesar’s last wife, 74
68, 81, 83, 97, 236, 237, 248
215, 216, 271, 283 Asclepius, astrologer. See Asclation granddaughter of Ti. Claudius Balbil­ Calpumius, L., 235
Alexandria, University of, 169 Anubio(n), astrologer, 185, 187 Cancer, constellation, 25, 27, 88, 120, 124,
Asclepius, god, 17, 44, 45, 46, 47, 123, 184, lus, astrologer, 82, 95, 136, 152, 161, 171,
Alexianus Bassianus. See Severus Alex­ Anubis, 103, 208 188, 189, 216-217 172, 201 205
Apamea, 58, 59, 62
ander, emperor Asharidu, 5 Balbillea (Balbilleia, Barbillea), 138, 173 Canidia, witch, 79
Allia 134 244 Aphrodisias, 61, 148, 195, 199, 200, 215, Balbillus, Ti. Claudius, astrologer, son of Cannae 48, 72
Aspasius, 173
Almagest of Ptolemy, 192, 193, 204 224, 281 Asses, constellation, 27 Ti. Claudius Thrasyllus, astrologer, 2, Capito. See Fonteius
Aphrodite, goddess, 73
Ambracium, 120 Assisi, 88 82, 95, 108, 109, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, Capitol of Rome, 54, 79
Amenophis III, 172, 173 Aphrodite, planet, 4, 68 117, 118, 119, 121, 125, 126, 127, 128, Cappadocia (n), 102, 180, 222
Assyria, 76
Amenophis IV (Akhnaton), 140, 222 Apicata, wife of Sejanus, 112, 116, 126, Astraea (Virgo), constellation, 120 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 135, 136, 137, Capri, 99, 105, 106, 107, 109
258
Anaxagoras, 8. Astrampsychus, astrologer, 185 138, 139, 140, 141, 152, 153, 161, 162, Capricorn, constellation, 27, 67, 83, 87, 88,
Anaxilaus of Larissa, 85, 86, 140 Apion, 125 Astris, de, of Julius Caesar, 26, 76, 77 171, 172, 173, 240, 244, 248, 265, 267, 97, 120, 124, 165
Anchialus, astronomer, 57, 72 Apollinarius, 92 Astronomica of Manilius, 26, 87, 95, 96, 273, 279 Caracalla, Antoninus Bassianus, emperor,
Anonymus of a . d 379, astrologer, 184,185, Apollo, 54, 201 97, 98, 100, 186 Balearic islands, 258 147, 148, 168, 210, 214, 215, 216, 221,
190, 191, 273 Apollo, Clarian, 260 Ateius Capito, 100 Barea Soranus, 264 224, 225, 227, 231, 283
Anteia, wife of Helvidius Priscus 266 Apollonia, 83, 209 Athenaeum, 173, 174, 229, 230, 248, 279 Basilius, 67 Cardinal Points (Sectors), 20, 169, 205,
Anteius Rufus, P., 130, 131, 242, 264, 265, Apollonius. See Molo Athenio(n), 59 Bassianus, father of Julia Domna, 210, 206
Apollonius, astrologer, 111, 112, 271, 272,
266, 267, 272 Athenodorus, 159 222 Carneades of Cyrene, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56,
Anthologiae of Vettius Valens, 81, 188, 273, 275, 279 Athens, 7, 13, 26, 50, 53, 56, 57, 68, 69, 70, Bassianus. See Caracalla, emperor 57, 58, 71, 72, 73, 93, 125, l'78, 195.
191 Apollonius of Myndus, 15, 19, 121 148, 152, 170, 185, 186, 187, 199, 217, 219 Bedriacum, 137 198, 206, 217, 236, 281
Apollonius of Tyana, 149, 150, 151, 210,
Athyr, 172, 173 Bel (us), 10, 120, 209 Carrhae, 216
Antigonus Gonatas, 11, 69 221, 222, 223, 224, 242, 245 Atlas, 15 Beneventum, 128 Carthage, 57, 217, 227
Antigonus of Nicaea, physician-astrologer, Apotelesmata of Manetho, 186, 187
Attalids, 13 Berenice, 13 Carthaginian(s), 226, 252
148, 164, 165, 168, 169, 170, 176, 177, Appian road, 254 Attalus I, king of Pergamon, 13, 14, 90 Berenice, Lock of, constellation, 13, 121, Cassander, astronomer, 57, 72
185, 187, 190, 248, 268 Apronianus. See Popilius Pedo Aproni- Attalus II, king of Pergamon, 52 172 Cassiodorus, 67, 232
anus
Anti-Mesuranema, 20, 127, 205. See also Attalus III, king of Pergamon, 60 Berenice, mistress of Vespasian’s son Cassius. See Dio Cassius
Hypogaeum and imum coeli Apuleius of Madaura, 148, 208, 217, 218, Attalus of Rhodes, 27 Titus, 200, 245 Cassius Asclepiodotus, 265
Antinoe (Antinoupolis, Besa). See Besa 219 Attianus. See Acilius Attianus Berossus, Chaldaean scholar, 13, 14, 18, Cassius Longinus, C., 97, 236, 241
Aquarius, constellation, 124, 143, 165, 177,
Atticus. See T. Pomponius Atticus 19, 25, 26, 84, 120, 121, 139, 220 Castor, 157
Antioch, 190, 215, 247 205, 207 Augusta = empress, 260 Berytus, 265 Catasterism (catasterized), 78, 79, 82, 87,
Antiochus of Ascalon, 70 Aquillius, M., 59 Augusta Bilbilis, 157 Besa, 171, 172 88, 98, 117, 118, 151, 158, 172
Antiochus of Athens, astrologer, 17, 18, Aquincum (Budapest), 164 Augustinus, 27, 67 Bethlehem, star of, 79, 117 Catilina (Catiline), 63, 71, 254
26, 145, 148, 185, 186, 187, 188, 248 Aquinum, 160 Augustus, Octavius Octavianus, triumvir, Biothanatoi, 20
Catilius Severus, 176
Antiochus I, king of Commagene, 13 Arab, 146 later emperor, 3, 16, 63, 67, 68, 78, 79, Bithynia(n), 171, 172, 180, 265
Cato, M. Porcius, the Elder, 28, 46, 47,
Antiochus III, king of Commagene, 95, Arabians, 224 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, Blossius, 60
48, 54, 56, 85
102, 135, 136 Aratus of Soli, 13, 26, 27, 51, 69, 74, 76, 91, 92, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 102, 106, Bolos of Mendes, 85 Cato, M. Porcius, the Younger, 58, 77.
Antiochus IV, Epiphanes, king of Com­ 85, 95, 100, 140 112, 114, 116, 118, 126, 130, 132, 136, Bootes, constellation, 157
146
magene, 13, 82, 114, 135, 136, 137, 152, Area Caesarea, 230 139, 144, 145, 146, 151, 154, 157, 161, Borsippa, 90 Catti, 134
171, 173 Archelaus, king of Cappadocia, 102 168, 171, 173, 179, 191, 209, 211, 231, Borsippeni, 90
Antiochus Epiphanes, C. Julius, son of Archibius, Ti. Claudius, Alexandrian am­ Celts, 245
232, 236, 237, 248, 249, 250, 251, 252, Brahmans, 218 Censorinus, 66, 148, 217, 219, 220
Antiochus IV, 82, 95, 114, 136, 137, 139, bassador in a . d . 41, 113 253, 255, 256, 257, 258, 260, 277, 278, Britain, 95, 113, 114, 214, 266
142, 152, 173 Centiloquium, falsely ascribed to Claudius
Archytas, 218 280, 281, 283 Britannicus, son of the emperor Claudius
Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus, C. and Messalina, 112, 114, 115, 116, 127, Ptolemaeus, 192
Arcturus, star, 13, 45, 48, 76, 77 Aulus, astrologer, 123
Julius, grandson of Antiochus IV and Arellius Fuscus, 88 263 Chaeremon, Egyptian scholar in the
Aulus Gellius. See Gellius
son of Antiochus Epiphanes, C. Julius, Aurelian(us), emperor, 221 British, 212 'twenties b . c., 82
Ares, planet, 4, 68
82, 95, 136, 139, 142, 152, 153, 171 Aurelius, M., emperor, 146, 176, 178, 179, Bruttium, 47 Chaeremon, ambassador from Alexandria
Aries, constellation, 124, 189. See also
Antiochus, king of Macedon, 26 180, 182, 183, 184, 189, 191,194,197, 203, Brutus, M., 97, 236, 241 to Claudius in a . d . 41, 113, 117
Ram
Antiochus I, Seleucid king, 14 204, 208, 209, 210, 221, 226, 231, 233, Bullutu, 5 Chaeremon, possibly identical with pre­
Aristarchus of Samos, physicist and cos- ceding Ch., tutor of Nero, 82, 116, 118,
mologer, 84 234, 247, 254, 268, 269, 278, 283 Burrus, 130, 266, 267
Eunus Ausonia, 158 Burytus of Tarentum, 218 123, 124, 145, 248, 273
Aristobulus, 10
Antipater, 54, 56 Avidius Cassius, rebel against M. Aure­ Byzantine, 154, 183, 213 Chaeronea, 195
Aristonicus, 60
Antipatrus, astrologer, 14, 19, 84 lius, 209, 247, 278 Byzantium, 15, 18, 19, 121, 139, 140 Chaldaean(s), 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14,
Antistius Sosianus, 130, 266, 272 Aristophanes, 8, 48 15, 18, 20, 25, 27, 28, 48, 54, 57, 62, 68,
Avitus Bassianus. See Elagabalus, em­
Antonia, oldest daughter of Claudius, 126 Aristotelians, 5, 50, 73 peror Caelestis. See Tanit (Urania) 69, 72, 74, 75, 84, 88, 89, 90, 101, 120,
121, 126, 132, 139, 142, 146, 160, 183,
Avitus, Julius, father of Mamaea and Caerellius, Q., 219
284
 IN D E X IN D E X 287
286
Diocletian, emperor, 233, 238, 247, 279, Ephesus, 26, 63; 30, 133, 138 Gemini, constellation, 16, 122, 124 Herodes Atticus, 152
205, 211, 213, 217, 218, 220, 221, 235, Copernicus, 84 Herodianus, historian, 148, 211, 215, 216,
Corbulo, Cn. Domitius, 136, 137 280 Epictetus, Stoic philosopher, 174, 179, 180, Geminus of Rhodes, 27, 52
. 238, 239, 243, 244, 254, 269, 272 Diodorus, historian, 10, 11, 18, 59, 68, 69 184, 194, 250 Gemonian stairs, 258 225, 231
Chaldaika, 14 Cordoba, 121 Germanicus. See emperors Claudius and Herodotus, 8, 171
Diodotus, Stoic philosopher, 69 Epicurus (Epicure), 58, 73, 198, 201, 204,
Charybdis, 120 Corinth, 218, 222 Hesiod, 3
Cornelia, half-sister of Augustus, 91 Diogenes of Babylon, Stoic philosopher, 236 Titus
Chilo, 46 51, 52, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 62, 178, 194 Epigenes of Byzantium, 15, 18, 19, 121, Germanicus, son of Tiberius’ brother Hierapolis, 178
Chiron, Centaur, 45 Cornelius, accuser of Mamercus Scaurus,
Diogenes Laertius, 56, 203 129, 140 Drusus, 26, 91, 95, 99, 100, 101, 102, 104, Hierocles, 93
Christ, 79, 118, 222, 223 259 Hindu, 222
Cornelius Hispalus, Cn., 235 Diogenes of Oeoanda, 148, 195, 198, 199 Epiphanes. See Antiochus IV of Com­ 105, 106, 107, 112, 116, 220, 221, 256,
Chrysippus, 51, 54, 71, 72, 74, 178, 194, Diogenes, rhetorician at Rhodes, 94 magene, or his son C. Julius, or his 257, 260, 262, 264 Hipparchus, 18, 19, 26, 27, 57, 72, 92, 140,
199, 200 Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus, P., 50, 53,
Diogenianus, 148, 195, 198 grandson C. Julius . . . Philopappus German (y), 97, 117, 133, 144, 151, 211, 204, 282
Cicero, M. Tullius, 9, 11, 18, 26, 46, 47. 54, 57, 58, 60, 61 Hippocrates, 183, 188, 189
Cornelius, Scipio Africanus, P., 46, 49, 50 Dionean star, 79 Eratosthenes, 84, 85 230, 246, 257, 274, 275
48, 49, 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, Esna, 13 Gessius Marcianus, husband of Mamaea Hispania Tarraconensis, 132, 154, 157
Cornutus, mentor of Persius, 122 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 66
63, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, Esquiline gate, 238 and father of Severus Alexander, em­ Hispal(l)us. See Cn. Cornelius Hispal(l)us
Corsica (n), 142, 267 Diophanes, astrologer, 219
75, 77, 78, 80, 83, 84, 89, 90, 92, 117, Dipper, Big, constellation, 13, 120, 126 Ethiopian (s), 202, 207 peror, 225 Homer, 52, 171, 197
126, 140, 146, 198, 204, 207, 217, 220, Cos, 13, 14, 26 Horace, 58, 79, 87, 89
Cosmocrator, 169 Dog, Little, constellation, 77 Etruscan, 79, 98 Geta, younger son of L. Septimius Se­
221, 236, 276, 283 Dog star, 18, 20, 61, 72, 76, 189, 195. Euclid, 26 verus, emperor, 147, 210, 214 Horasis, 14, 17
Cicero, Q. Tullius, brother of Marcus, 54, Cossutianus, 266
See also Sirius and Sothis. Eudemus, physician, 258 Gilgamesh, 120 Horops, 87
63, 70, 73 Crab, constellation, 76
Domitius. See Lord of House(s) Eudoxus of Cnidus, 8, 9, 26, 27, 72, 121 Glaucon, 3 Horos of Babylon, 87, 88
Cidenas (Kidinnu), 90 Crantor, 60 Horoscopal Point (also Horoscopus), 20,
Crassus, M. Licinius, triumvir, 62, 72, 207, Domitia, wife of the emperor Domitian, Eumenes, 52 Gracchi, i. e. Ti. Sempronius Gracchus,
Cilicia(n), 63 Eunus, Syrian slave-leader in Sicily, 59 58, 60, 74, 235, 236, 248; and his 25, 97, 129, 165, 169, 177, 205, 206, 211,
236 150
Cincius Alimentus, L., 46 Domitia Lepida, 108, 115, 116, 145, 263, Euripides, 8, 52 younger brother C., 58, 60, 74, 248 213
Cinna, L. Cornelius, 61 Crates of Mallos, 52, 53, 56
264 Eurysthenes, 54 Horoscopal Sector, 169, 177
Claudia, daughter of the astrologer Ti. Cremutius Cordus, 117
Domitia Paulina, mother of the emperor Eusebius, 14, 85, 221, 223, 246 Habinnas, 125 Horse, constellation, 76
Claudius Thrasyllus, 95 Cretan, 203
Hadrian, 152, 162 Hades, 80, 81 Horus, 140
Claudia, first defendant in maiestas case, Crete, 120
Critodemus, astrologer, 14, 15, 17, 18, 138, Domitia Paulina, Hadrian’s sister, 152, Fabius, 64 Hadrian (us), P. Aelius, emperor, 2, 16, Hyginus, C. Julius, 84, 85
259 163, 267, 268 Fabius, M., 85 82, 83, 123, 136, 146, 147, 148, 149, Hypogaeum, 20, 127, 205. See also imum
Claudia Capitolina, granddaughter of Ti. 185, 191 caeli or Anti-Mesuranema
Domitian(us), T. Flavius, emperor, 63, Fabius Pictor, 46 152, 153, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165,
Claudius Thrasyllus, daughter of his Critolaus of Phaselis, 52, 53
81, 82, 104, 112, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, Faenius Rufus, 127 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 176, Hypsoma, 169
son, the astrologer Ti. Claudius Bal­ Croesus, 200 177, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 190, 192,
Crown, constellation, 76 144, 145, 146, 149, 150, 151, 155, 157, Fasti Amiternini, 254
billus, 82, 95, 115, 136, 139, 142, 152 158, 159, 160, 161, 163, 164, 168, 169, Faunus, 87 195, 197, 198, 209, 212, 213, 214, 216, Iarchas, 223
Claudia Pulchra, 105, 145, 256-257, 259, Curtius Rufus, Q., 159 Iatromathematical, 194
171, 215, 222, 223, 231, 234, 245, 246, Faustina, daughter of Antoninus Pius, 229, 230, 247, 248, 261, 267, 268, 269, 283
260 Cybele (of Pessinus), 44, 46, 226 Iatromathematicians, 194
247, 261, 267, 272, 273, 274, 275, 280 wife of M. Aurelius, 182, 183 Hadrianus, rhetorician, 173
Claudius, brother of Germanicus and em­ Cyclades, 160 Halicarnassus, 57 Iatromathematics, 188
Cyllarus (in constellation Leda), 157 Domitius. See Cn. Domitius Corbulo Favorinus or Arles, 148, 161, 195, 197,
peror, 45, 81, 82, 95. I ll, 112, 113, 114, 198, 200, 201, 202, 208 Hammon, 160 Ibis, 89
Cynics, 143, 146 Domitius Afer, 257
115, 117, 118, 123, 125, 126, 129, 130, Domitius Ahenobarbus, Cn. father of the Felix, governor of Judaea, 136 Hannibal, 46, 48; and slave, 142 Illyricum, 230
132, 135, 145, 146, 151, 168, 234, 237, Cyniscus, 203, 219 India, 218, 222, 224
emperor Nero, 108, 115, 263 Festus Avienus, 27, 366 Harpocration, 45
240, 241, 251, 259, 260, 261, 262, 263, Cyprus, 13 Hecato(n) of Rhodes, 60 Iotape, wife of Antiochus IV of Com­
Cyrene, 13, 218 Domitius, L., his son. See Nero, emperor Figulus. See P. Nigidius Figulus
264, 272, 275 Domitius Ulpianus. See Ulpianus Firmicus Maternus, 14, 25, 26, 27, 76, 98, Hegetor, 196 magene, 136
Claudius Maximus, 218 Domna. See Julia Domna 174, 186, 187, 191, 279, 280, 281 Helenus, 87 Iotape, daughter of Antiochus IV of
Claudius Ptolemaeus. See Ptolemaeus Dacia, 143 Helice, 183 Commagene, 136
Dacians, 246 Dorotheus of Sidon, astrologer, 185, 186, Firmius Catus, 101, 254
(Ptolemy, Claudius) 187 Fish. See Pisces Helicon, 96 Ishaq- ben—Hunein, 195
Cleander, 208, 210, 269 Dalmatia, 265 Heliodorus, contemporary of Epictetus, Ishtar—Shumerish, 5
Damis, 221, 223 Drusilla, daughter of king Agrippa I of Flaccus Avilius, 110, 111
Cleanthes, 51, 54, 62 Judaea, 136 Flaminian road, 224 174 Isidorus of Seville, 67, 85
Cleon, slave leader, 59 Damnatio memoriae, 255 Isis, 44, 48, 102, 103, 208, 216, 217, 219,
Drusus, brother of the emperor Tiberius, Flavian(s), also dynasty or era), 141, Heliodorus, astrologer, 275
Cleopatra, 58, 67, 81, 236, 237 Damophilus, 59 Heliogabalus. See Elagabalus, emperor 221, 235, 282
Darius III, king of Persia, 10 86, 89, 99, 116 142, 144, 144, 146, 149, 154, 155, 157,
Climacteric (days, years) , 91, 92, 191 Drusus, son of the emperor Tiberius, 158, 160, 161, 179, 246 Heliopolis, 60 Italica, 162
Climata, 90 Decani, 20, 146, 189
100, 103, 104, 238, 249, 253, 256, 257, Flavius, M., 75, 76 Helios, 4, 68, 170, 173. See also sun
Clio, 154 Decimus Junius, 160 Helle, 158 Jambulus, 60
258 Flavius Sabinus, T., 246
Clodius Albinus, 147 Delphic oracle, 160 Hellespont (us), 111 Jehovah, 44, 235
Drusus, son of Germanicus, grandson of Floralia, 75
Clotho, 203 Delphic oracles of Plutarch, 196 Helvidius, son of Helvidius Priscus, 143 Jerome, 27, 85, 234, 245, 246
Tiberius’ brother Drusus, 104, 105, 106, Florus, 59
Clouds of Aristophanes, 48 Demetrius, son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, Helvidius Priscus, 143, 146, 246, 266 Jerusalem, 131
110, 111, 112 Fonteius Agrippa, 101
Clutorius Priscus, 253 13 Drusus. See Scribonius Libo Drusus Fonteius Capito, C., 67, 68, 140 Hemerology, 4 Jesus, 4, 79, 118, 222. See also Christ
Cocceius, M., grandfather of the emperor Demetrius Poliorcetes, 13 Fortuna, 74, 77, 97, 127, 140, 158, 177, Hephaestio(n) of Thebes, astrologer, 1, Josephus, Flavius, historian, 14
Dys(e)is, 20, 25, 98, 127, 205
Nerva, 149 Democritus of Abdera, 8, 73, 83, 93, 200 179, 196, 203, 205, 213, 216, 223, 225. 15, 93, 165, 177, 186, 187, 190, 191, 268 Judaea, 135, 136
Cocceius. See M. Cocceius Nerva, em­ Demonax, 200, 201 Sec also Tyche Heptazonos, 95, 212. See also Septizonium Jugurtha, king of Numidia, 252
Edessa, 216
peror Demophilus, 195 Egnatius Celer, P., 265 Fratres Arvales, 153 Heracles (Hercules), 4, 120, 158 Julia, daughter of Augustus, 90, 91, 92,
Columella, 76, 123, 125, 126 Demotic, 16 Ekpyros(e)is, 25, 50, 54, 62, 64, 68, 73, Fulcinius Trio, 101 Heraclides of Pontus, 9 116
Comet (s), 78, 79, 99, 117, 118, 127, 128, Denderah, 13 Furius Camillus. See Scribonianus, Fu­ Herculanum, 56, 183 Julia, her daughter from M. Vipsanius
122, 140, 207
135, 136, 137, 139, 148, 152, 153, 171, Derkyllides, 93 Elagabalus, emperor (Heliogabalus), 147, rius Camillus Hercules. See Heracles Agrippa, 86, 91
201 Diadumenianus, son of Opellus Macrinus 148, 149, 210, 217, 224, 225, 226, 227, Fuscus. See father and son Pedanius Hercules = constellation Leo, 157 Julia, daughter of Livilla and Drusus, son
Commodus, L. Ceionius Verus, father of (emperor), 147 Fuscus Herennius Picens, 92 of Tiberius, 105, 258
229, 231, 282
L. Verus (co-ruler with M. Aurelius), Dicius Mundus, 102, 103 Elagabalus, god, 210, 216, 225, 226, 227, Herennius Rufinus, 218 Julia Balbilla, great-granddaughter of Ti.
172, 175, 176, 178, 268 Didius Julianus, emperor, 147, 212, 224 Gadara, 148, 195, 200 Herennius Senecio, 143, 246 Claudius Thrasyllus, astrologer, and
228, 229, 230
Commodus, L. Ceionius Verus Antoninus. Emesa (Emesus), 132, 210, 225, 282, 283 Gaius, jurist, 148 Hermes (also Trismegistus), god, 14, 17, granddaughter of Ti. Claudius Balbil­
See L. Verus Dido, 171 lus, astrologer, 82, 95, 136, 139, 152,
Dio Cassius, historian,. 63, 75, 78, 79, 83, Ennia Thrasylla, 82, 95, 99, 103, 104, 105, Galba, Servius Sulpicius, emperor, 81, 82, 45, 89, 93, 114, 188, 189, 194
Commodus, L. Aelius Aurelius, emperor, 106, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 136, 137, Hermes, 4, 25, 68. See also Mercury, 161, 171, 172, 173, 201
92, 101, 106, 107, 109, 112, 117, 131, 134, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 127
147, 182, 183, 204, 208, 209, 210, 211, 145, 154, 155, 158, 160, 168, 242, 267, planet Julia Domna, second wife of the emperor
148 154, 170, 174, 176, 178, 183, 207, Ennius, poet, 46, 48, 58
224, 227, 261, 269 Ennius, L., Roman knight, father of Ennia 269, 272, 279 Hermetic, 80 Septimius Severus, 210, 214, 216, 221,
211 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 225, 226,
Conon, 13, 121 Thrasylla, 95, 99, 100, 105, 108 Galen(us), 18, 123, 148, 185, 188, 189, Hermoclides, 123 222, 224, 225, 269
Constantine I, emperor, 4, 174, 184, 279, 234^ 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 244,
Enoptron , 26 190, 203 Hermogenes, 127, 128 Julian calendar, 28, 63, 76
245, 246, 249, 250, 254, 260, 264, 267,
280 Gaul, 133, 197, 209 Hermon, 26 Juliani. See father and son Julianus, the-
268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274, 275 Epanaphora, 177 ,
Constantinople, 247 Gellius, A., 66, 67, 148, 197 Hermoupolis, 17 urgians
Dio Chrysostomus, 216 Epaphroditus, 179
Constant!us II, emperor, 4, 238
 IN D E X 289
288 IN D E X
Naples, 124 Palatine library, 84 Philopappus. See Antiochus, C. Julius . . .
Julia Soaemis. See Soaemis, Julia Lex Julia ( o f 46 b . c . ) , 252, 254 Marcius, P., 102, 270, 271 Narni, 149 Palchus, astrologer, 1, 127, 128, 145, 186, Philopappus
Julian(us) the Apostate, emperor, 95, 186, Lex maiestatis (in general),.249 Marcomanni, 226, 246 Nearchus, 10 187, 190, 191 Philostratus, biographer of Apollonius of
Lex Mamilia, 252 Marius, C., 61, 283 Nechepso, mythical royal astrologer, 14, Palestine, 130, 136 Tyana, 148, 149, 150, 210, 221, 222, 223,
200
Julianus the Chaldaean, theurgian, 183, Lex Varia, 252 Mars, god, 23 17, 18, 19, 25, 67, 80, 93, 123, 139, 165, Palingenes(e)is, 25, 50, 54, 62, 64, 68, 73, 224, 242, 245, 276
Liber, 47 Mars, planet, 4, 16, 27, 68, 88, 89, 123, 184, 186, 187, 188, 191, 280 87, 140 Phnaes, 190
217, 221
Libo Drusus, M. Scribonius, 101, 102, 103, 127, 165, 177, 194, 270 Nectanebos, 10 Palladium, 226 Phoenicia, 225
Julianus of Laodicea, 1
Julianus, theurgian and son of. Julianus 237, 238, 240, 241, 254, 255, 260, 268, Marsian augurs, 48 Nemea, 158 Pammenes, astrologer, 82, 130, 145, 242, Phoenicians, 89
270 Martial(is), M. Valerius, poet, 150, 154, Nemean lion, 157 265, 266, 272, 273, 274 Phoenissae of Euripides, 259
the Chaldaean, 183, 217, 221
Julius Bassianus. See Bassianus, Julius Libra, constellation, 25, 87, 97, 122, 124 157, 158 Nero, son of Germanicus and the older Pamphilus, 189 Phoenix, 106 1
Julius Caesar, C., 1, 26, 28, 58, 61, 62, 63, Libya, 120, 245 Martianus Capella, 67 Agrippina, 104, 106, 112, 127 Panaetius of Lindus, 52, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, Phosphorus, planet, 157
64, 67, 71, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, Libyan(s), 202 Masgabas, 99 Nero, L. Domitius, son of Domitius 60, 61, 62, 72, 73, 89, 92, 125, 178, 179, Phrygia, 179
82, 83, 86, 87, 88, 90, 92, 96, 98, 117, Licinius Sura, 159 Maternianus, 215, 216, 225 Ahenobarbus and the younger Agrip­ 194, 282 Pinax of Thrasyllus, 15, 93
Liguria, 266 Mathesis of Firmicus Maternus, 27, 279 pina, adopted by the emperor Claudius, Pandataria, 105 Pisces, 25, 76, 88, 124, 165. See also Fish,
1-22, 132, 139, 140, 146, 148, 151, 161,
207, 216, 233, 236, 239, 240, 250-251, Lindus (Lindos), 52, 56, 57 Matidia, niece of Trajan, 152 2, 13, 15, 45, 81, 82, 91, 95, 105, 108, Pannonia(n)(s), 100, 174, 211, 230, 269 constellation
Livia, last wife of Augustus, 86, 87, 91, Matidia, her daughter, 152 112, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, Pantheon, 83, 87 Piso, Cn. Calpurnius, antagonist of Ger­
252'
Julius, C., son of M. Vipsanius Agrippa 106, 168 Mauretania, 224 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, Papinianus, Aemilius, jurist, 214, 215 manicus, 100
and grandson of Augustus, 86, 90, 91, Livilla, wife of Tiberius’ son Drusus, 103, Maximinus Thrax, emperor, 282 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, Paranatellonta, 20, 21, 27, 146 Piso, C., Calpurnius Licinianus, heir
104, 105, 112, 253, 258 Maximus, L., 143 138, 143, 145, 146, 151, 152, 154, 157, Parapegma, 76 designate of the emperor Galba, 132,
94, 101 Maximus of Tyre, 148, 196, 197
Julius, L., son of M. Vipsanius Agrippa, Livius (Livy), T., historian, 96, 142, 235, 159, 160, 161, 162, 168, 170, 171, 179, Parnassus, 188 133, 158, 159
grandson of Augustus, 86, 90, 91, 92, 267 Maximus, Valerius. See Valerius Maxi­ 207, 223, 227, 229, 231, 234, 241, 242, Parthenius, 144 Piso, C. Calpurnius, conspirator against
Livius Andronicus, 46 mus 245, 246, 260, 261, 263, 264, 265, 266, Parthian(s), 16, 83, 230 Nero, 118, 128, 157, 264, 266
94, 101, 255 Medium coeli. See Mesuranema
Junia Claudilla, first wife of Caligula, Locusta, 277 270, 272 Parthian kingdom, 102 Pitenios, Titos, 26
Lollia Paulina, second wife of Caligula, Megalensian Games, 98 Nerva, Cocceius, emperor, 81, 146, 147, Paulina. See Lollia Paulina Pituanius, L., 102, 238, 239, 270, 271
107, 109 Memmius Regulus, P., 260
Junius, necromancer, 255 111, 116, 145, 240, 259, 260, 261, 264 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 160, 168, Paulina, 102, 103, 217 Plato(n), 3, 5, 8, 9, 13, 26, 27, 28, 62, 93,
Junius Arulenus Rusticus, 143, 146, 245, Lord ( domitius) of a House, 25. See Memnon, 157, 172, 173, 201 170, 182, 222, 247, 254, 269, 274, 275 Paulina, Hadrian’s sister. See Domitia 96, 162, 189, 196, 204, 207, 217, 218, 219
dominus Mercury, god, 115, 194. See also Hermes Nicomedia, 225, 247 Paulina Platonism (and neo-), 68, 71, 93, 125, 195,
246 Mercury, planet, 16, 25, 27, 68, 88, 165,
Junius Rufus, (M. Mettius?), 82, 95, 114, Lord of Action, 194 Nicopolis, 179 Paul(us), apostle, 71, 222, 272 217, 218
Lords of horoscopes, 186 169,170,177,194, 202. See also Hermes Nigidius Figulus, P., 25, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, Paul(us) of Alexandria, astrologer, 187 Platorius Nepos, Aulus, 174
136, 142 Messalina, Valeria, third wife of Claudius,
Juno, 120 Lucian, 148, 195, 200, 202, 204, 219 68, 69, 70, 78, 80, 83, 86, 139, 140, 145, Paulus, Julius, jurist, 214, 222, 229, 276, Plato Tiburtinus, 195
Jupiter (Jove), 25, 45, 48, 68, 88, 209, Lucifer (Venus), planet, 89 112, 116, 127, 128, 260 168, 221, 222, 236, 283 277, 278, 279 Plautia Urgulanilla, second wife of the
226. See also Zeus, god Lucilius, writer of satires, 57 Messina, 59, 127 Nonius, 6 Pausanias, sophist, 173 emperor Claudius, 112
Jupiter (Jove), planet, 4, 16, 25, 27, 87, Lucius, hero of Apuleius* Golden Ass, Mesuranema, 20, 127, 169, 177, 205 Pedanius Fuscus, son of Hadrian’s Plautianus, 224, 270
88, 89, 162, 165, 169, 177, 202 219, 221 Metellus, M., 53 Octavia, daughter of Claudius and Nero’s nephew Pedanius Fuscus Salinator, 152, Plautus, 45, 46, 48, 148
Jupiter Sabazios, 58, 217, 235, 252 Lucretius, 58, 63, 69, 73, 74, 80, 84, 96, Meteors, 192 first wife and Messalina, 112, 115, 126, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 190, 213, 268, Pleiads, constellation, 76
97, 140, 146, 236, 283 Mettius Pompusianus, 138, 141, 142, 145, 129, 130, 263 269 Plinius (Pliny) Secundus, C. (the Elder),
Justinian I, emperor, 2, 184, 190, 273, 281
Lugdunum (Lyon), 209, 278 151, 267 Octavianus. See Augustus, emperor Pedanius Fuscus Salinator, nephew of 14, 15, 66, 67, 75, 76, 77, 78, 85, 139,
Justinian code, 232
Juvenalis, Decimus Junius, poet, 135, 148, Lukillios, poet, 123, 124, 125, 128, 146 Milan, 247, 248 Octavius, consul 87/86 b . c., 61, 62, 236 the emperor Hadrian, 152, 176, 267 140, 141, 145, 146, 154, 158, 188, 208
154, 159, 161, 171, 174 270, 272, 273 Lusitania, 272 Milky Way, constellation, 27 Octavius, father of Augustus, 63 Peloponnesus, 70 Plinius (Pliny), C. Secundus (the
Juvenalis Flavianus, 210 Lycurgus, 96 Minerva, 155 Octavius (Octavianus). See Augustus Pelusium, 192 Younger), 148, 149, 152, 154, 155, 157,
Lydus, John, 67, 68, 76, 184, 190, 219, 273 Minos, 203 Oenomaus (Oinomaus) of Gadara, 148, Perduellio, 252, 255, 271 158, 159, 162, 245, 246, 267
Lyon. See Lugdunum Misenum, 129 195, 200 Peregrinus Proteus, 201 Plotina, wife of the emperor Trajan, 152,
Kakodaimon, 205 Mithradates (Mithridates), 69, 118
Kepler, Johannes, 92, 282 Lyre, constellation, 76, 77 Oeoanda (Oioanda), 148, 195, 198, 199 Perennis, 208, 209, 269 153, 170, 176, 178, 198
Mithras, 44, 208, 216, 248, 262, 279 Olympias, 10 Pergamenic school, 52 Plotinus, 68, 93
Kids, constellation, 77
Macedonians, 137 Mnester, actor, 128 Olympic Games, 223 Pergamon (Pergamum), 14, 52, 60, 114, Plutarch, 11, 46, 52, 54, 65, 75, 77, 132,
Kite, constellation, 76
Kronos, god, 25. See also Saturn Macrinus, Opellus, emperor, 147, 148, 215, Moeragenes, 223 Olympus, Mount, 45, 226 189 148, 152, 173, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188,
216, 224, 225 Moesia(n) inferior, 164, 168, 169 Olympus, prophet, 123 Pericles, 8 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197,
Kronos, planet, 4, 25, 68, 221. See also
Macro, C. Naevius Sertorius, 95, 105, 106, Molo, Apollonius, 61, 69, 70 Omar-ben-Farchan, Arabic astrologer, 186 Perseus, king of Macedon, 49 198, 200, 202, 204, 205, 206, 207
Saturn Monumentum Ancyranum (res gestae
107, 259 Orfitus, 149 Persia, 222 Polybius, 50, 57, 234
Macrobius, 66 divi Augusti), 91 Orion, constellation, 76, 77 Persians, 10, 67, 207 Pompei, 183
Lacedaemonians, 54
Laelius, C., consul 140 b . c ., 50, 54, 57, 58, Madaura, 217 Moon cult, 226 Orion's Belt, part of the constellation, 76 Persius, poet, 122 Pompeian, 237
Maecenas, 87 Moon, goddess, 226 Oropus, 53 Pertinax, emperor, 147, 211, 224 Pompeia Plotina. See Plotina, wife of the
61, 80 Moon, satellite, 7, 27, 54, 67, 71, 74, 78,
Laetus. See Aemilius Laetus Maesa, grandmother of Elagabalus and Orpheus, 14, 140, 202 Pescennius Niger, 147, 212, 213 emperor Trajan
Severus Alexander, 224, 225, 227, 229 79, 84, 88, 89, 127, 135, 143, 158, 162, Orphic, 80 Petosiris, mythical astrologer, 14, 17, 18, Pompeius Capito, Q., 153
Lagids, 13 165, 169, 177, 181, 192, 193, 195, 196,
Lamettrie, 73 Mago, a slave, 142 Osthanes, 8 19, 25, 67, 80, 93, 123, 139, 160, 161, Pompeius (Pompey), Cn., 13, 62, 72, 78,
Maja, 89 205, 216, 217, 221, 222, 227, 281 Ostqrius Sabinus, 264 165, 184, 187, 188, 191, 280 96, 122, 207, 236, 248, 255, 262
Lamprias, 196
Larginus Proculus (Proclus), 144, 151, Mamaea, mother of Severus Alexander, Mosaic laws, 238 Ostorius Scapula, M., 130, 131, 242, 264, Petronius, arbiter elegantiae, 124, 125, Pompeius Macer, 84
emperor, 225, 227, 229, 230 Mother, Great. See Cybele (of Pessinus) 265, 266, 267, 269, 272 128, 145 Pompeius, Sextus, son of Cn. Pompeius,
215, 272, 274, 275, 279
Manetho, Egyptian historian, 185 Mucianus, 135 Ostorius Scapula, P., father of M. Os­ Phaedrus, 70 96
Larissa, 85
Latinus, an actor, 144, 274 Manetho, astrologer, 17, 186, 187, 191 Munna, 158 torius Scapula, 266 Phaenomena of Eudoxus, versified by Pomponius Atticus, Titus, 70, 73, 158
Laws of Cicero, 47, 75 Manilius, author of the Astronofnica, 4, Murgentium, 59 Otho, M. Salvius, emperor, 81, 82, 129, Aratus of Soli, 26, 27, 69, 74, 76, 85, Pomponius Flaccus, L., 238
26 84, 87, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 117, Musaios (Musaeus), 153 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136,137,145,158, 95, 100 Pomponius Mela, 10
Leda, 157
Leo (Lion), constellation, 13, 77, 88, 120, 145, 178, 186, 199, 221, 248 Museion of Alexandria, 116, 173, 192 160, 161, 168, 242, 244, 267, 272, 279 Phamenoth. See Amenophis I I I Pontia, 105
124, 157, 189, 205, 207 Marathon, 207 Museion of Athens, 153 Ovid(ius) Naso, P., poet, 26, 78, 84, 88, 89, Pharsalus, 74 Pontianus, 218
Leonidas, an Alexandrian, 110 Marcella, niece of Augustus, 86 Musonius Rufus, C., knight and Stoic, 258 Phase(i)s of Ptolemy, 192 Popilius Laenas, M., 235
Marcellinus. See Baebius Marcellinus 128, 241, 245 Philagrius, 173 Popilius Pedo Apronianus, 213, 214, 269,
Lepidus, Manius, 256
Lepidus, M., triumvir and pontifex maxi­ Marcellus, M. Claudius, conqueror of Myndus, 15, 19, 121 Pacatus, legate, 278 Philip, king of Macedon, 10 270
Syracuse, 48 Myriogenesis, 21 Paccia Marciana, first wife of L. Septi­ Philip of Opus (or Medma), 9 Poppaea Sabina, 128
mus, 67, 81, 86, 255
Marcia, Commodus’ concubine, 212 mius Severus, emperor, 209 Philippi, 81, 117, 236 Poppaea Sabina, Nero’s second wife, 128,
Leptis, 208, 209, 269 Philo(n), 69, 71
Marcia, daughter of Cremutius Cordus, Nabuachiriba, 5 Pacharius, 195 129, 130, 133, 145
Lex Apuleia, 252
Lex Cornelia, 252, 257; Cornelia de si- 117 Naburianos, 90 Paetus. See Thrasea Paetus Philo(n) of Alexandria, 108, 109, 110, 125, Porcius Cato, M., the Elder and the
Marcianus, jurist, 277 Nabu-shumishku, 5 Palatine hill, 226 126, 146, 271 Younger. See Cato
cariis et veneficis, 277
Marcianus. See Gessius Marcianus Naevius, 46
Lex Gabinia, 252
 IN D E X IN D E X 291

Servilia, daughter of Barea Soranus, 264, 210, 225, 226, 228, 229, 243, 265, 269, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, Vascones, 230
Porphyry, 92, 93, 165, 188, 190 Sallustius, 64, 67 275 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, Vatinius, 64
Posidonius, 51, 52, 54, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, Saline schniaka ( Salnteschoiniaka, Sal- 265
Servius, commentator of Vergil, 65 Syrus, friend of Claudius Ptolemaeus, 192 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 116, 117, 118, Velleius Patercules, 155, 254
62, 63, 64, 69, 70, 71, 80, 92, 98, 178, mesachanaka), 16, 17, 19 125, 126, 128, 131, 132, 134, 135, 145, Venus, goddess, 25, 73, 74, 78, 79, 80, 83,
Setting Point. See Dyse(i)s Syrus, island, 247, 278
283 Salonius Patruinus, C., brother-in-law of 149, 151, 155, 161, 162, 168, 169, 171, 96
Trajan, 152 Severus Alexander, emperor, 2, 146, 147,
Postumius Albinus, A., 46, 54 Tacitus P. or C. Cornelius, 49, 92, 100, 209, 213, 235, 237, 238, 239, 240, 249, Venus Genetrix, 118
Salvius. See M. Salvius Otho 148, 174, 184, 210, 225, 226, 227, 228,
Procles, king of Sparta, 54 101, 106, 107, 116, 127, 128, 129, 131, 250, 251, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, Venus, planet, 4, 5, 16, 25, 27, 68, 88, 89,
Salvius, i.e. “ king Trypho,” slave leader, 229, 230, 247, 279, 280, 282, 283
Proclus, 28, 195, 221 132, 134, 137, 148, 154, 155, 160, 161, 259, 270, 278, 279 96, 160, 165, 169, 177, 194. See also
59 Seville, 67, 85
Procyon, 76 162, 174, 233, 234, 238, 239, 240, 241, Tiberius Gemellus, grandson of the em­ Aphrodite
Proditio, 252
Samosata, capital of Commagene, 13, 137, Sextia, last wife of Mamercus Aemilius
Scaurus, 258 243, 244, 249, 254, 255, 256, 260, 262, peror Tiberius, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, Verania, widow of Galba’s heir-designate
Pronoia, 62. See also Providence 148, 152, 195, 201 108, 110, 111, 115, 253, 257 Piso, 158, 159
Sextus Empiricus, 148, 195, 203, 204, 205, 263, 264, 267, 270, 271
Propertius, 87, 88, 91 Sardinia, 46, 102, 269 Tibullus, 58 Vergil, 58, 64, 79, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 117,
206, 207, 224, 281, 282 Tages, 67
Proscynesis, 169 Saturn, god, 25 Tigellinus, 131, 241, 265, 266 170, 171
Saturn, planet, 4, 16, 25, 27, 46, 68, 79, 88, Sibyl, 14, 102 Tanaquil, 160
Providence, 180, 184 Sibylline Books, 45, 46, 249 Tanit (Urania, Caelestis), 224, 226, 227 Timaeus, astrologer, 17, 139, 140, 145, Verginius Rufus, 149
Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) I, king of Egypt, 89, 122, 123, 124, 127, 160, 162, 165, 169,
Sicily, 59, 64, 210, 211, 222, 234, 269 Tantalus, 203 248, 273 Verus, L., Ceionius Aelius Commodus,
177, 189, 270
10> 11 Sicinius Aemilianus, 218 Tarchon, 67 Timaeus of Plato, 27, 62, 189 co-ruler with M. Aurelius, 176
Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) III, king of Egypt, Saturninus, knight, husband of Paulina, Tarentum, 46, 149, 218 Titan, 172 Vespasian(us), T. Flavius, emperor, 2, 81,
102, 103 Sicyonians, 53
13, 75 Sidon, 89, 185, 187 Tarquitius Priscus, 67, 262 Titus, emperor, 81, 82, 137, 139, 140, 141, 82, 95, 130, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139,
Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy), Claudius, 18, 19, Saturninus, disciple of Sextus Empiricus, Tarraco(nensis). See Hispania Tarraco- 142, 145, 146, 151, 152, 157, 161, 168, 140, 141, 142, 143, 145, 149, 151, 153,
67, 76, 92, 169, 173, 184, 185, 186, 187, 203-204 Sidus Julium, 79, 80
Silanus, C. Junius, 258, 263 nensis 171, 200, 245, 247, 267 157, 161, 163, 168, 170, 171, 183, 200,
188 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 198, Saul(us), 71 Tarsus, 137, 222 Tityus, 124 212, 230, 234, 241, 243, 244, 245, 246,
200* 202, 204, 205, 206, 230, 248 Scapula. See M. and P. Ostorius Scapula Simplicius, 18 • 267, 273
Sirius (Dog star), 16, 20, 61, 72, 76, 282. Tarutius Firmanus, L., gentleman-astrolo- Tivoli, 171
Ptolemaeus (Ptolemy) (Seleucus), as­ Scaurus, Mamercus Aemilius, 256, 257, ger, 11, 65, 66, 72, 78, 139, 145 Toth, 17, 45. See also Hermes Vesta, 226
258, 259 See also Sothis
trologer, 82, 129, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, Tatian, 14 Trajan, emperor, 81, 82, 146, 147, 148, Vestinus, Julius, 127
141, 148, 158, 159, 160, 161, 162, 170, Scaurus, M. Aemilius, 257 Sisyphus, 203
Soaemis, Julia, 225 Taurobolium, 226 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155, 157, Vesuvius, Mount, 56, 139
244, 267, 269, 272. 273, 279, 282 Scholia Sangermannensia, 220
Taurus, constellation, 74, 124 159, 160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 168, 176, Vettius Valens, astrologer, 14, 15, 18, 26,
Scipio. See P. Cornelius Scipio and P. Socrates, 3, 5, 8, 57, 96, 207, 218
Ptolemais, 192 Soli, 51 Terentia, Cicero’s wife, 63 178, 180, 182, 183, 184, 198, 247, 267, 92, 145, 148, 184, 185, 187, 190, 191, 206,
Ptolemies, 13 Cornelius Scipio Aemilianus 283 212, 221, 248, 279
Scorpio, constellation, 76, 87, 124, 165, 177 Sol Invictus, 208, 248 Terentius. See Varro
Punic war, second, 46, 162 Terentius Gentianus, 174 Tralles, 123, 146 Vibia (Vibidia?, Junia?), mother of F.
Scribonia, first wife of Augustus, 86 Solon, 96, 216
Pupius Piso, M., 70 Sosianus. See Antistius Sosianus Tertullian, 234, 247 Triangle(s), 169 Camillus Scribonianus, 240, 262, 273
Scribonianus, F. Camillus, 240, 241 Trier, 247 Vibia Sabina, daughter of Trajan’s niece
Puteoli, 111 Tetrabiblos ( Quadripartitus ) of Ptolemy,
Pydna, 49, 50, 60, 100, 114 Scribonius. See M. Scribonius Libo Sosigenes, 75, 76, 77, 139, 140
Sostratus, 203 184, 188, 189, 190, 192, 195, 204, 206, 230 Trimalchio, C. Pompeius, 124, 125, 128 Matidia, 152
Pyrrho, 204 Drusus Teucrus of Babylon, astrologer, 26, 145, Trojan, 73 Vibius, C., 101
Scribonius, astrologer, 168 Sothis, star. See Sirius
P y th a g o ras, 8, 84, 86, 140, 188, 218, 276 161, 162 Trojan Game, 236 Vibius, L., husband of Trajan’s niece
Scylax of Halicarnassus, astronomer, 57, Sozomen, 221 Troy, 207
P y th a g o re a n ism (a n d neo-), 80, 91, 93,
Spain, 132, 154, 157, 162, 164, 209, 224 Thales, 3 Matidia, 152
222 72 Thebes (Egypt), 1, 15, 93, 165, 177, 186, Trypho, Salvius, 59 Vibius Serenus, 254
Pythagoreans (and neo-), 8, 46, 64, 66, Scylla, 120 Sparta, 137
Sphaera Barbarica, 25, 26, 65 187, 191 Tubero. See Q. Aelius Tubero Victor, Aurelius, 174
69, 70, 85, 86, 93, 97, 139, 218 Scythia, 245 Thema mundi, 25, 95 Tullius, M. and Quintus. See M. and Q. Vinicius, 128
Scythica, 209 Sphaera Graecanica, 25, 26, 65, 146
Themistocles, 96 Tullius Cicero Vintager, constellation, 76
Sejanus, 103, 104, 105, 108, 109, 112, 118, Spurinna, haruspex, 74, 77, 78, 216 Tuscus, 258
Quadi, 183 Statilia Messalina, daughter of Statilius Theodorus of Cyrene, 218 Vipsania, Agrippa’s daughter by earlier
Quadripartit(us) of Ptolemy. See Tetra­ 128, 257, 258, 259 Tyana, 151, 221, 222 marriage, 90
Taurus, 263 Theodosian Code, 232
biblos Seleuse(i)a, 11, 146 Theodosius I, 261, 277 Tyre, 148, 196, 197, 229 Vipsanius Agrippa, M., 83, 85, 86, 87, 90,
Statilius Taurus, T., 262, 264
Quintilian(us), M. Fabius, father of the Seleucids, 13 Theogenes (Theagenes), 83, 209 Tzetzes, 145 99, 116, 117, 236, 237, 276.
Seleucus Nicanor, king, 14, 69 Status Coeli, 189
famous rhetorician, 154 Theon, 207 Virgo, constellation, 13, 25, 97, 120, 124,
Stephanus, 144
Quintilian(us)), M. Fabius, tutor to the Seleucus, Ptolemy, astrologer, 82, 120, Theophilus, 191 Ulpia, aunt of the emperor Trajan, 152 205, 207
Flavian family, 27, 154, 155, 156, 157, 130, 132, 133, 134, 135, 138, 141, 148, Stoa, 51 Ulpia Marciana, sister of Trajan, 152 Vitellius, A., emperor, 81, 82, 130, 133,
Theophrastus, 28
160, 161, 162, 244, 267, 269, 272, 273, Strabo(n), 52, 89, 90 Ulpian( house), 152, 162 134, 135, 137, 143, 168, 223, 241, 242,
160 . . , Strabo, Aelius, oldest son of Sejanus, 258 Thersites, 207
Quirinus, P. Sulpicius, 94, 255, 256 279 Thesattroi of Antiochus of Athens, 187 Ulpianus, Domitius, jurist, 148, 214 229, 243, 244, 245, 270, 272, 273, 275
Seleucus of Seleucia, scientist, 90 Subdecani, 21
Sudines, astrologer, 13, 14, 19, 90, 139, Thessalus, physician, 18, 45, 123, 145, 146, 234, 235, 238, 239, 247, 270, 278, 279 Vitruvius Pollio, architect, 14, 83, 84, 85
Ravenna, 247 Sempronius. See Gracchi Ulpius. See Trajan, emperor Vologeses, Parthian king, 135, 137
Seneca, Annaeus, rhetor, 84, 88, 154 140, 189
Regulus, M. Aquilius, 158, 159 Thessaly, 85, 196 Ulpius, grandfather of Trajan, 152 Votienus Montanus, 258
Republic of Cicero, 48, 49, 50, 54, 61, 70 Seneca, L. Annaeus, son of Seneca rhetor, Suetonius, Tranquillus, C., 52, 66, 67, 83, Ulpius Julianus, 215, 225
85, 86, 92, 106, 107, 108, 109, 111, 128, Thomas, St., of Aquinas, 160 Vulcatius, soothsayer, 79
Republic of Plato, 162, 196 15, 51, 67, 95, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, Ulpius, M., father of Trajan, 152
120, 121, 126, 127, 128, 130, 140, 141, 131, 132, 133, 148, 154, 160, 161, 162, Thrasea Paetus, 146, 241, 246, 264, 265
Res Gestae Divi Augusti. See Monumen- Thrasybulus, astrologer, 230 Urania (Caelestis). See Tanit Xanthus, 157
154, 157, 178, 180, 197, 241, 254, 264, 174, 209, 212, 234, 239, 242, 243, 244,
tum Ancyranum 246, 254, 255, 256, 267, 273, 274, 275 Thrasylla, Ennia, granddaughter of Ti. Urania, Muse, 71 Xenophon, 57
Rhetorius, astrologer, 1, 186, 187, 191 266 Claudius Thrasyllus, the astrologer, 82, Ursus, 120 Xerxes 111
Suidas, 145, 183, 221, 245, 246
Rhodes, 52, 56, 60, 61, 62, 69, 70, 91, 92, Septimius Severus, emperor, 10, 147, 148, 95, 99, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, Ursus. See L. Julius Ursus Servianus Xiphilinus, 176, 178, 183, 242, 243, 245,
168, 199, 204, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, Sulla, astrologer, 112
93, 94, 97, 131 110, 111, 112, 118, 127 250
213, 214, 215, 216, 221, 224, 225, 261, Sulla, L., 257, 258
Romulus, 65 Sulla, L. Cornelius, dictator, 62, 69, 214, Thrasyllus, Ti. Claudius of Alexandria, 2, Valens, emperor, 275
Royal Star (in Leo, constellation), 77 269, 270, 283 13, 14, 82, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, Valeria. See Messalina Zaratas (Zoroaster), 5, 140
Septizonium, 219. See also heptazonos 236, 248, 255, 283
Rubellius Blandus, 127 Sulpicius Gallus, C., 48, 49, 50, 139 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, Valerius Maximus, 96, 151, 155, 233 Zeno(n), 13, 26, 28, 50, 51, 58, 70, 199
Rubellius Plautus, 241, 264 Serapa, astrologer, 124
Sun (Helios), 7, 17, 20, 27, 54, 67, 68, 108, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 118, Valerius Maximus, M., priest of Mithras, Zeus catechized of Lucian, 201, 202
Rudens of Plautus, 45, 48
Serapeum of Alexandria, 114 125, 128, 130, 131, 132, ,135, 136, 137, 248
71, 74, 84, 88, 89, 97, 99, 127, 140, 165, Zeus, god, 25, 124, 202, 203, 209, 219
Serapio (Sarapio), astrologer, 188 139 140, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 149, Valerius Messala Corvinus, 262
Rudiae, 48 169, 172, 177, 189, 192, 193, 195, 196, Zeus, planet, 4, 25, 68
Serapio (Sarapio), astrologer, perhaps 153! 160, 161, 162, 168, 171, 173, 186, Varius Marcellus, father of the emperor Zodiac, 8, 19, 20, 25, 27, 84, 87, 124, 200,
Rufius Crispinus, 129 197, 205, 208, 212, 217, 220, 222, 281
identical with preceding astrologer, 215,
Ruprilius, P., 59 Sun cult, 140, 149, 210, 221. 222, 224, 226 239, 244, 248, 249, 259, 267, 273, 379, Elagabalus, 225 205 281
216 Varro, M. Terentius, 11, 64, 65, 66, 67, Zodiacal, 5, 11, 13, 16, 20, 25, 27, 87, 95,
Sun priest, 149, 210, 225, 226 283
Sabina. See Poppaea Sabina Seriphus, 160 68, 69, 70, 71, 78, 83, 84, 139, 222, 283 189, 205, 206, 207, 220
Serpent, Northern, constellation, 141 Swallow, constellation, 76 Thyatira, 138
Sabina, wife of Hadrian, 82, 136, 161, 170, Tiber, 45 Varro, P. Terentius Atacinus, 26 Zonaras, 134, 240, 242
Serpent, Southern, constellation, 141 Sybaris, 102
171, 172, 173, 174, 183 Tiberius, emperor, 2, 14, 49, 81, 82, 86, Varus, Quintilius, 19, 97, 117, 257 Zoroaster. See Zaratas
Servianus, L. Julius Ursus, brother-in-law Sympatheia (sympathy), 62, 205
• Sachmet, 16 of Hadrian, 152, 163, 174, 175, 177, 178, Syracuse, 48
Sagittarius, constellation, 16, 124, 205
267, 268 Syria(n), 13, 16, 67, 102, 135, 171, 201, 209,
Salii, 226
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