Greece and Rome

The conquest of Asia by Alexander the Great exposed the Greeks to ideas from Syria, Babylon,
Persia and central Asia.!"# Around $%& B'(, Berossus, a priest of Bel from Babylon, mo)ed to
the Greek island of *os, teachin+ astrolo+y and Babylonian culture.!$# By the "st century B'(,
there ,ere t,o )arieties of astrolo+y, one usin+ horoscopes to describe the past, present and
future- the other, theur+ic, emphasisin+ the soul.s ascent to the stars.!!# Greek influence played
a crucial role in the transmission of astrolo+ical theory to Rome.!/#
The first definite reference to astrolo+y in Rome comes from the orator 'ato, ,ho in "0& B'(
,arned farm o)erseers a+ainst consultin+ ,ith 'haldeans,!1# ,ho ,ere described as
Babylonian .star2+a3ers..!0# Amon+ both Greeks and Romans, Babylonia 4also kno,n as
'haldea5 became so identified ,ith astrolo+y that .'haldean ,isdom. became synonymous ,ith
di)ination usin+ planets and stars.!6# The $nd2century Roman poet and satirist 7u)enal
complains about the per)asi)e influence of 'haldeans, sayin+ 8Still more trusted are the
'haldaeans- e)ery ,ord uttered by the astrolo+er they ,ill belie)e has come from 9ammon.s
fountain8.!%#
:ne of the first astrolo+ers to brin+ 9ermetic astrolo+y to Rome ,as Thrasyllus, astrolo+er to the
emperor Tiberius,!/# the first emperor to ha)e had a court astrolo+er,!;# thou+h his predecessor
Au+ustus had used astrolo+y to help le+itimise his <mperial ri+hts./&#