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ANCIENT ASTROLOGY SCIENCES OF ANTIQUITY Series Editor: Roger French Director, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Cambridge Sciences of Antiquity is a series designed to cover the subject matter of what we call science. The volumes discuss how the ancients saw, interpreted and handled the natural world, from the elements to the most complex of living things. Their discussions on these matters formed a resource for those who later worked on the same topics, including scientists. The intention of this series is to show what it was in the aims, expectations, problems and circumstances of the ancient writers that formed the nature of what they wrote. A consequent purpose is to provide historians with an understanding of the materials out of which later writers, rather than passively receiving and transmitting ancient ‘ideas’, constructed their own world view. ANCIENT ASTROLOGY Tamsyn Barton ANCIENT NATURAL HISTORY Histories of nature Roger French COSMOLOGY IN ANTIQUITY M.R.Wright ANCIENT ASTROLOGY Tamsyn Barton London and New York First published 1994 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © 1994 Tamsyn Barton All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress ISBN 0-203-41071-8 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-71895-X (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0-415-08066-5 (hbk) ISBN 0-415-11029-7 (pbk) CONTENTS List of illustrations viii General series introduction x Preface xxiv INTRODUCTION 1 1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: MESOPOTAMIA, EGYPT AND GREECE 9 Introduction 9 Early Mesopotamian evidence 10 The great omen-series: Enuma Anu Enlil 12 Astronomical observations 13 Babylonian horoscopes 14 Theoretical texts 17 Babylon and Greece 18 Ancient Egypt 19 The Greek background 21 Ptolemaic Egypt 23 Summary 30 2 GREECE AND ROME 32 Introduction: the beginnings in Rome 32 Greek culture and the Roman elite 33 From Republic to Empire 38 Astrology under the Principate 41 Emperors and astrology 44 Astrology and the law 49 Doubt and disbelief 52 Astrological literature under the Early Empire 57 Summary 62 v CONTENTS 3 THE TRIUMPH OF CHRISTIANITY 64 Introduction 64 Astrology and the law under Christian emperors 64 Jewish attitudes towards astrology 68 Christian attitudes towards astrology 71 Astrology under threat 78 Astrological literature under the Christian Empire 80 Summary 84 4 THE PRINCIPLES OF ASTROLOGY 86 Introduction: astronomy and astrology 86 Basic principles of ancient astrology 92 Notions of astral influence: the natural-philosophical background 102 Notions of influence: Ptolemy’s explanations 107 Notions of influence: the divine stars and the soul 109 The stars as gods 111 Summary 113 5 ASTROLOGICAL PRACTICE: CASTING A HOROSCOPE 114 Introduction: the astrologers 114 Firmicus Maternus 115 Dorotheus of Sidon 125 An ancient parallel 131 Some explanations 134 Summary 141 6 THE SOCIAL WORLD OF THE ASTROLOGERS 157 Introduction: the context of predictions in the treatises 157 The poorer classes 160 Occupations: jobs for the boys 162 Sex: polymorphous perversity 163 Death: varieties of violence 166 Cameo lives 169 Astrology in everyday life 172 Summary 178 7 REFLECTIONS AND RAMIFICATIONS 179 Introduction 179 Chorography: mundane astrology 179 Astrology and medicine 185 Astrology and magic 191 Astrology and cult theology: the Unconquered Suns 197 Summary 206 vi CONTENTS CONCLUSION 208 Glossary 212 Notes 215 Bibliography 229 Index 235 vii ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURES 1 Horoscope from Rhetorius for the year 497 CE. 83 2 Ecliptic and equator. 87 3 Ecliptic and equator against the visible sky. 87 4 Latitude and longitude. 88 5 The solstices. 89 6 The direction of the Sun’s diurnal movement. 89 7 The orbit of the Earth. 91 8 The Sun seen against the zodiac. 92 9 Positions of the planets in their orbits relative to Earth. 93 10 The same positions represented in the birth chart. 93 11 Diagram from first-century CE papyrus. 94 12 Types of diagrams in manuscripts. 94 13 The cardines (as at the equator). 95 14 Zodiacal houses of the planets. 96 15 The decans. 97 16 The Places. 98 17 The antiscia. 99 18 Opposition. 100 19 Square. 100 20 Trine. 101 21 Sextile. 101 22 Horoscope of Prince Charles. 116 23 Figures of the thirty-six decans from a manuscript. 192 24 Housesteads: schema of Mithraic birth-scene. 201 viii ILLUSTRATIONS PLATES (between pp. 142 and 157) 1 Venus tablet of Ammisaduqa. 2 Part of the ceiling of the Sepulchral Hall of the tomb of King Seti I. 3 Sandstone relief of the zodiac on a ceiling in Dendera, Egypt. 4 Thoth, The Egyptian god identified with Hermes Trismegistus. 5 Coins of Augustus illustrating his use of his zodiac sign, Capricorn, in conjunction with different political messages. 6 The first Greek horoscope found on an original document, identified as the coronation-horoscope of Antiochus of Commagene, of 7 July 62 BCE. 7 Celestial globe, supported by Atlas, Roman, first century CE. 8 Octagonal altar from Roman Gaul. 9 Mosaic from the centre of the floor of an excavated synagogue of the first half of the sixth century CE. 10 Gnostic relief, showing the goddess of the sky, second or third century CE. 11 Part of the papyrus known as the ‘Old Coptic Horoscope’. 12 One of the earliest printed maps of the world, done to illustrate Ptolemy’s Geography in 1478. 13 Impressions from magical seal-stones with astral emblems. 14 Restored Mithraeum in Ostia, known as Sette Sfere. 15 Scene of the birth of Mithras out of an egg, from Housesteads on Hadrian’s Wall. 16 Front face of an altar to the Sun-god. ix