ASTROLOGY
21
ASTROLOGY
his younger days had busied himself ^vith astrologj',
protested vigorously, but without success, against
it in his work " De Divinatione". The Emperor
Augustus, on the other hand, believed in astrology
and protected it. The first Roman work on astrology
was dedicated to him; it was the "Astronomica
«Titten about 45 B. c. by JIarcus Manilius, who was
probably a Chaldean by birth. In five books this
poem gives an outline of the astrologj^ of the zodiac
and constellations. The fifth book is devoted to
the spluera harbarica. It is a curious fact that the
poem does not take up the astrology of the planets.
In spite of repeated attempts to suppress it, as in the
reigns of Claudius and Vespasian, astrology main-
tained itself in the Roman Empire as one of the lead-
ing forms of culture. The lower the Romans sank
in religion and morals the more astrology became
entwined with all action and belief. Under Tiberius
and Nero the two astrologers named Thrasyllus, who
were father and son, held high political positions.
The most distingui.shed astronomer of antiquity,
Claudius Ptolemseus, was also a zealous astrologer.
His "Opus Quadripartitum, seu de apotelesmatibus
et judiciis astrorum, libri IV" is one of the chief
treatises on astrologj- of earlier times and is a detailed
account of astrological teachings. This work occu-
pied in astrologj- as important a position as that
which the same author's MevaX?; Sy^rafis (also called
"Almagest"), held in the science of astronomj' before
the appearance of the Copernican theory. It is a
striking fact that Ptolemy sought, in the second book
of the "Opus Quadripartitum", to bring the psychi-
cal and bodilj- differences of the various nations into
relation with the phj-sical conditions of their native
lands, and to make these conditions, in their turn,
depend on the positions of the stars. The Roman
astrologers wTOte their manuals in imitation of
Ptolemy, but with the addition of mystic phantasies
and predictions. After the death of Marcus Aurelius,
the Chaldeans were alwaj-s important personages at
the imperial court. As late as the time of Constan-
tine the Great the imperial notary Julius Firmicus
Maternus, who later became a Christian, wrote on
"Mathematics, or the power and the influence of the
stars" eight books which were the chief authority in
astrology until the Renais.sance. With the overthrow-
of the old Roman Empire and the victorj' of Chris-
tianity, astrology lost its importance in the centres
of Christian civilization in the West. The last known
astrologer of the old world was Johannes Laurentius
(sometimes called Lj-dus), of Philadelphia in Lydia,
who lived a. d. 490-565.
AsTROLOGV Under Chrlstianity. — From the start the Christian Church strongly opposed the false teachings of astrologj-. The Fathers energetically demanded the expulsion of the Chaldeans who did .so much harm to the State and the citizens by em- ploying a fantastic mysticism to plaj' upon the in- eradicable impulses of the common people, keeping their heathen conceptions alive, and fostering a .soul- perplexing cult which, with its fatalistic tendencies, created difficulties in the di.scemment of right and wrong and weakened the moral foundations of all human conduct. There was no room in the early Christian Church for followers of this pseudo-science. The noted mathematician Aquila Ponticus was ex- pelled from the Christian communion, about the year 120, on account of his astrological heresies. The early Cliristians of Rome, therefore, regarded the astrologers as their bitterest and, unfortunately, their too powerful enemies; and the astrologers probably did their part in stirring up the cruel persecutions of the Christians. As Christianity spread, the a.s- trologers lost their influence and reputation, and gradually sank to the position of mere quacks. The conversion of Constantine the Great put an end to the importance of this .so-called science, which for
five hundred years had ruled the public life of Rome.
In 321 Constantine issued an edict threatening all
Chaldeans, Magi, and their followers with death.
Astrology now disappeared for centuries from the
Christian parts of Western Europe. Only the Arabic
schools of learning, especially those in Spain after
the Moors had conquered the Iberian peninsula, ac-
cepted this dubious inheritance from the wisdom of
classic times, and among the Arabs it became an in-
centive to pure astronomical research. Arabian and
Jewish scholars were the representatives of astrology
in the Middle Ages, while both Church and State in
Christian countries rejected and persecuted this false
doctrine and its heathen tendencies. Unfortunately,
at the same time the development of astronomy was
checked, excepting so far as it was needed to estab-
lish certain necessary astronomic principles and to
calculate the date of Easter. Yet early Christian
legend distinguished between astronomy and as-
trology by ascribing the introduction of the former
to the good angels and to Abraham, while the latter
was ascribed to Cham. In particular, St. Augustine
("De civitate Dei", VIII, xix, and in other places)
fought against astrology and sought to prevent its
amalgamation with pure natural science. Once more
the East prepared a second period of prosperity for
astrology. The Jews, very soon after they were
driven into Western Europe, busied themselves with
astrological questions, being stimulated thereto by
the Talmud. Jewish scholars had, moreover, a knowl-
edge of the most important works of classic times
on astrology and they became the teachers of the
Arabs. These latter, after the rapid spread of Mo-
hammedanism in Western Asia and North Africa,
and their defeat in Western Europe by Charles Mar-
tel, began to develop a civilization of their own. The
mystical books which appeared in Jewish literature
after the time of theTalmud, that is. the books called
the " Sefer Zohar " and the "Sefer Yezirah" (Book
of Creation), are full of riiles of divination dealing
especially with astrological meanings and calculations.
The high reputation of the Talmud and the Cabbala
among the Jews in the Middle Ages explains their
fondness for astrological speculations; but at a verj-
early date, it should be noted, they distinguished
between astronomy, " the science of reading the stars ' '.
and astrology, "the .science of divination".
Caliph Al-Mansur, the builder of Bagdad, was, like his son, the famous Harun-al-Rashid, a promoter of learning. He was the first caliph to call Jewish scholars around him in order to develop the study of the mathematical sciences, especially astronomj-. in his empire. In the year 777 the learned Jew Jacob ben Tarik founded at Bagdad a school for the studj- of astronomy and astrology which soon had a high reputation; amon^ those trained here was Alchindi (Alkendi), a noted astronomer. It was one of Al- chindi's pupils, Abumassar (.\bu Mashar), from Balkh in Chorassan, born about the year 805, whom the Middle Ages regarded as the greatest of Arabian as- trologers. Astrology being regarded by the caliphs as the practical application of astronomy, all the more important Arabic and Jewish astronomers who were attached to that court, or who taught in the Moorish schools were also astrologers. Among the noteworthy Jewish astrologers may be mentioned Sahl ben Bishr al-Israel (about S20); Rabban al-Ta- ban, the well-known cabbalist and Talmudic scholar: Shabbethai Donalo (913-970), who wrote a commen- tary on the astrology of the "Sefer Yezirah" which Western Europe later regarded as a standard work; and, lastly, the Jewish lyric poet and mathematician Abraham ibn Ezrah. Among the noted Arabic as- tronomers were Massah Allah Albategnius, Alpe- tragius, and others. The Arabo-Judaic astrologj- of the Middle Ages pursued the path indicated by Ptolemy, and his teachings were apparently the in>-
