AST 



AST 



ai\vonom5- itfelf : while t!ie ancient AfiTyrians, whofc fcrene 

 liiicloudcJ Qiy favoured their cclcitial obfervatioii';, were 

 intent on tracing the paths and periods of t!ic htavenly 

 bodies, they difcovered a conilai!t fettled relation of analogy 

 between them and things below ; and hence were led to 

 conclude thele to be the Purer, the Dellinies, fo much 

 talked ot, which prefidc at our births, and difpofe of our 

 future fate. 



" The laws therefore of this relation being afcertained, by 

 a Itries of obfervations, and the fliare each planet has there- 

 in ; by knowing the precife time of any pcrfon's nativity, 

 they were enabled, from their knowledge in aihonomy, to 

 erect a fchemc or horofcope of the fituation of the planets, 

 at that point of time ; and hence by confidering their degrees 

 of power and influence, and how each was cither ftrengthened 

 or tennpered by fome other, to compute what mull be the 

 refnlt thereof." 



Judicial albology is commonly faid to have been invent- 

 ed in Chaldsea, and thence tranfmitted to the Egyptians, 

 Gre;ks, and Romans; though fome will have it of Egyp- 

 tian origin, and afcribe the invention to Cham. 13ut it is to 

 the Arabs that we owe it. Of the firll invention of a fan- 

 ciful Icie'ice which very generally prevailed, it is not very 

 eafy to afcertain the original inventors. The principles on 

 which it was founded, were veiy extenfive in their difTemina- 

 tion. The Clialdxans and the Egyptians, and indeed almoll 

 all the nations of antiquity, were infatuated with the chimxras 

 of allrology. That of the Chaldoeans originated in the notion, 

 that the ilars have an influence, either beneficial or malig- 

 nant, upon the affairs of men, which may be difcovered, 

 and made the ground of certain prediction, in particular 

 cafes : and the whole art confifted in applying allronomical 

 obfervations to this fanciful purpofe, and by fuch means im- 

 pofmg upon the credulity of the vulgar. The Egyptian 

 priefts would not negUft the cultivation of an artj- which 

 together with that of magic, would give them fuch an irre- 

 firtible fway over an ignorant and fuperllitious populace. 

 Diodorus Siculus (1. i. p. 51.) relates, that the Chaldaeans 

 learned thefe arts from the Egyptians ; and he would not 

 have made this affertion, if there had not been at leall a ge- 

 neral tradition that they were praclifed from the earlicll times 

 in Egypt. Among the Arabians, and in the eaftern courts, 

 the truths of fcience could be recommended only by ig- 

 norance and folly, and the allronomer would have been 

 difregarded, had he not debafed his honeily by the vain 

 predictions of allrology. The truth of this art was allowed 

 by Album.azar (fee Albumazar), and the bell of the 

 Arabian aftronomers, who draw tlieirmoft certain predictions, 

 not from Venus and Mercury-, but from Jupiter and the 

 fun. Abulphaiag. Dynall. p. iTji — 16^. 



At Rome, the people were fo infatuated .with this art, 

 that the allrologers, or, as they were then called, the ma- 

 thematicians, maintained their ground in fpite of all the 

 edicts of the emperors to expel them from the city. Tibe- 

 rius (A. D. 4.) founded his hopes of the empire to which he 

 afpired, on the predictions of Thrafylhis, who had been v>ith 

 him during his abode at Rhodes. However he v.ould not 

 repofe any confidence in his art till he had put him to a 

 trial in which feveral had mifcarrled and fallen victims. Ac- 

 cordinglv, one of his freedmen conducted the allrologer 

 through ileep and difficult paths to a centr)--box fixed on 

 the top of a houfe, erected on a ileep rock cl ofe to the fea. 

 If Tiberius fufpeiSlcd fraud or falfity in the predictions of 

 thofe who praftifed the art, they were thrown into the fea 

 that beat againit the rock on whicli this houfe of trial ftood. 

 Thrafyllus was condutted to this place, and had the good 

 fortune to pleafe Tiberius, by pvomifing him the empire, 



and by the injfenious tum he gave to every thing he faid. Ti- 

 berius ;.flad him, whether he could draiv his own horofcope, 

 and wheth.er by comparing the time of his birth with the 

 prefent ilate of the heavens, he could tell what he was to 

 dread or hope for at that inftant. The allrologer, without 

 doubt apprized of the fate of his prcdeceffors, looked at the 

 ilars and (huddcred ; the more he confidered them the more 

 he trembled ; and at length exclaimed that he was threatened 

 with great and imminent danger. Tiberius, convinced of 

 his Ikill by this experiment, embraced him and admitted him 

 into the number of his confidential friends. His anfwers, 

 when he was coiifulted, Tiberius regarded as oracular ; and 

 he determined to Itarn the fcience himfelf. At Rhodes he 

 had leifure to receive leffons from Thrafyllus, and profited 

 by them to fuch a degree, that he had the honour in a cre- 

 dulous age of having delivered predictions that were verified 

 by the event. Augullus, however (A. D. 11.), revived 

 the ancient law againll allrologers ; and to exprefs his con- 

 tempt for their pretended ikill, and to (hew how much he 

 dilregarded any of their predictions, he publilhed and 

 polled up at Rome the theme of his own nativity, or a 

 ilate of the pofition of the ilars at the inflant of his birth. 

 In the year 16, the old ordinances againll allrologers were 

 again revived ; two of them were capitally punilhed, and 

 the reil baniihed from Italy. But Tiberius, who believed 

 in allrology, and frequently recurred to it, prevented the 

 rigorous execution of the decree ; and thofe who promiled 

 to renounce their art were permitted to flay at Rome. The 

 old laws againll allrologers were again enforced in the year 

 52, and the fenate paffcd a very fcvere decree againll them ; 

 but thefe meafures were ineffectual to their fupprcllion. In 

 the year 6g, Vitelhus, though he inchned to credit their 

 predictions, iffued an edict againfl them, commanding them 

 to leave Italy within a hmitcd time ; but fo great was their 

 confidence at this time in their own fecunty, that they 

 polled up a placart againll his order, and commanded the 

 emperor to leave the world before the day appointed for 

 their baniihmcnt. The emperor Domitian, though he 

 iirmly beheved in their delufive arts, paffed an edict by 

 which they were all banilhed from Rome. His credulity 

 proved an occafion of cillrefiing terror to him towards the 

 ch'fe of his reign, for an allrologtr, called Afclitario, is 

 faid to have predicted the dav and manner of his death. 

 The emperor Adrian was very much addiiEtcd to both allro- 

 logy and divination ; and thus, occafionally protected and en- 

 couraged, and fometimes profcribedandbaniflied them. The 

 allrologers maintained their iniluence at Rome to the 

 time ol St. Auguftin, for the fubject of one of his homi- 

 lies (in Ff. Ixi. p. ■^2. ed. Erobcn. 1556) is the reconcilia- 

 tion of one of thefe pretended mathcmatieiani with the 

 church. See Gesethliaci. 



The curious may find fartiicr information concerning this 

 vifionar)' and pernicious art, as it was practifed among the 

 ancients, in Sext. Emp. adv. Mathem. 1. v. p. 339. Diod. 

 Sic. 1. ii. p. B3. Manilius, 1. ii. v. 456. Jarablich. de Myth. 

 9" 8. c. 4. Eab. Bibl. Once. v. ii. p. 494. VolTius de The- 

 olo"-. Gent. 1. ii. c. 47. We (hall only add in this place the 

 feiifible refleftion of Horace, lib. I. od. xi. I. 



" Tu ne quxfieris (fcire nefas) qjem mihi, quern tibi 

 Finem L)ii dederint, Lciiccnoe, neu Babyhinios 

 Tentaris nunuros : ut melius, quidqiiid erit, pati." 

 " Aflc not — "tis impious to inquire — what date 

 The limit of your life is fixed by fate ; 

 Nor vainly Babylonian numbers tr)'. 

 But wifely wait your lot, to hve or die." 

 The Bramins, who introduced and practifed this art 

 among the Indians, have hereby made therafclve$ the arbi- 

 ters 



