A Brief History of Ancient Astrology
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loginIn setting out to write ‘‘a brief history of ancient astrology’’ I am ineffect making four initial commitments. The first, brevity, will be easyenough to meet; and if I do not meet it myself, my editors will meet itfor me. The third and fourth, defining the book’s subject matter,‘‘ancient astrology,’’ are not very difficult either. ‘‘Antiquity,’’ for ourpurposes, spans roughly the last centurybceand the first four centuriesce.Classicalantiquity is intended: that is, the culture – or cultures – ofthe Mediterranean basin and Europe west of the Rhine and south of theDanube in the period indicated. Politically, that vast area was unifiedunder Roman rule; culturally, it was diverse, but the predominant formwas Greek, as was the language in which cultural forms were commu-nicated. Thus ‘‘ancient astrology’’ means essentially ‘‘Greek astrology,’’although most of its practitioners and clients were not Greeks in anymeaningful ethnic sense. Rome’s empire, to its credit, was multi-ethnicand multi-cultural.
