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perhaps be fairly judged from a curious incident in a later century[1] . In the reign of Zeno A.D. 484 a rebel general named Leontius had himself crowned and proclaimed Emperor at sunrise on the 27th of June. He had chosen the time on skilled astrological advice. The sun was in Cancer 26°, Venus in Gemini 27°, and so on for the other planets with other astronomical data. The general conjunction was eminently favourable. All the same the attempt was a complete fiasco, and the astrologers were much disconcerted. Further consideration, however, led to the reflection that no account had been taken of the fact that the hour chosen was the first hour of Wednesday, when Mercury is regent of both hour and day; Mercury's position was apparently unfavourable in itself and might therefore be regarded as outweighing the other favourable elements. Thus the science was vindicated though at the expense of the unhappy Leontius. In this story the week appears as a sort of inferior ally, whose assistance in ordinary cases may be dispensed with, but may be called in in emergencies to save the situation.
- ↑ I take this story from Bouché-Leclercq, L'Astrologie Grecque, pp. 514, 515. He gets it from a manual written by an astrologer named Palchus, which I have not seen. This manual, which apparently is more or less contemporary with the incident described, has been edited by Cumont (v. Bouché-Leclercq, p. xiv). I should add that Palchus found another flaw in the calculation of the astrologers, which does not concern our subject.
