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according to this unalterable 34 apportionment, one man should devote himself to the higher life in a possessionless and free existence, while another should be a tomb-robber or a pirate or a profligate or be effeminated by the life of a courtesan. And going through all such things, he thought he had shown a strong reason for not accepting our doctrine, that it is not in our power to choose authoritatively whatever we may wish, but that it is necessary to await that necessity, and when it provides the impulse towards such a course of action, it is absolutely necessary to assent to the doctrine even unwillingly, but that without it, even for one who strongly desires it, it is not possible for it to happen. But as he was going through these and similar things, I asked him if he thought there was some god who has power over all things, who is called by the name of fate, by whose will he believed that all individual things are governed. But he, condemning my great foolishness in the question, "You do not seem to me," he said, "to have understood anything of the heavenly bodies. For otherwise you would have known the power of fate, from where and how the power of things that happen unalterably in a sequence was apprehended." But when I was perplexed by this account and asked to learn something clearer, whether he imagines fate to be some power of choice, absolute and masterless, seen in some transcendent authority, or if he supposed something other than this, taking up the same argument again, "He who has considered the motion of the heavenly bodies," he says, "both the zodiac circle and the twelve sections in it, separated equally from each other by the 35 outline of the constellations observed within, and has understood the power of each of the stars, what strength each has by itself from its nature, and what their conjunction produces from their particular mixture with one another, as the peculiar quality of the power of each of them is mixed by its approach to another and separated by its distance, and again what the sub-position of the lower one produces and what the eclipse of the one above during its passage, and again its restoration, and the varied configuration of those coming together and separating, being delineated in triangular or scalene figures or forming some other of the figures observed in geometry; he who has understood these and such things," he says, "will know the meaning of fate, that what is necessarily brought to pass by some unalterable sequence according to the particular combination of the stars is explained by the name of fate." But since this also perplexed me again (for I understood nothing of what was said, being uneducated in this discipline), I asked him to make what was said clear to me by means through which it was possible for me to know the meaning of fate. For that the starry circles lie one within another and that the contrary motion to the revolution of the fixed stars unwinds within, and that all these are spun within the zodiac circle, these things I said I had heard 36 also from others and from what follows did not doubt that the rays of the luminaries, according to the circular motion peculiar to each of the poles, approach and recede, and that the lower one goes under and the one above is hidden from our sight, if it should be behind the one that goes under, and all that it is reasonable to infer from what follows; whether some figure is formed by these things, when the circle by its own motion brings around the star placed upon it, so as either to be in a straight line with the one above or to be at an angle during its passage, whether the period of each of these happens in a short interval of time or in a longer one, the revolution necessarily happening more quickly or more slowly according to the magnitude of the proportion of each of the circles.

I asked him to be silent about all these and similar things, but only to reveal to me clearly the power of fate, if it is some god who is understood by the name of fate and who holds the power of the universe and all things by authority to the

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κατὰ τὴν ἀπαράβατον 34 ταύτην ἀποκλήρωσιν τὸν μὲν τῇ ὑψηλοτέρᾳ προσανέχειν ζωῇ ἐν ἀκτήμονι καὶ ἐλευθεριάζοντι βίῳ, ἕτερον δὲ τυμβωρυχεῖν ἢ πειρατεύειν ἢ ἀσωτεύεσθαι ἢ τῷ ἑταιρικῷ βίῳ ἀπο θηλύνεσθαι. καὶ πάντα τὰ τοιαῦτα διεξιὼν ἰσχυρὰν ᾤετο τοῦ μὴ παραδέξασθαι τὸν λόγον ἡμῶν αἰτίαν ἐπιδεδεῖχθαι τὸ μὴ ἐφ' ἡμῖν εἶναι ὅπερ ἂν θέλωμεν κατ' ἐξουσίαν αἱρεῖσθαι, ἀλλὰ δεῖν ἀναμεῖναι τὴν ἀνάγκην ἐκείνην, ἧς τὸ ἐνδόσιμον πρὸς τὴν τοιαύτην ὁρμὴν παρασχούσης ἐπάναγκες εἶναι προσθέσθαι τῷ λόγῳ καὶ μὴ βουλόμενον, ἄνευ δὲ ἐκείνης καὶ σφόδρα προαιρουμένου μὴ δυνατὸν εἶναι γενέσθαι. Ἐγὼ δὲ ταῦτα αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα διεξιόντος ἠρόμην αὐτὸν εἰ θεόν τινα οἴεται εἶναι τὸν τὸ κατὰ πάντων ἔχοντα κράτος τὸν τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς εἱμαρμένης ἀποκαλούμενον, οὖ τῷ βουλήματι τὰ καθ' ἕκαστον οἰκονομεῖσθαι πεπίστευκεν. ὁ δὲ πολλήν μου καταγνοὺς ἀβελτηρίαν ἐν τῷ ἐρωτήματι Οὔ μοι δοκεῖς κατανενοηκέναι, φησί, τῶν οὐρανίων οὐδέν. ἧ γὰρ ἂν ἔγνως τῆς εἱμαρμένης τὴν δύναμιν, ὅθεν καὶ ὅπως κατελήφθη τῶν καθ' εἱρμὸν ἀπαραβάτως γινομένων ἡ δύναμις. ἐμοῦ δὲ καὶ πρὸς τοῦτον ξενοφωνουμένου τὸν λόγον καί τι σαφέστερον ἀξιοῦντος μαθεῖν, πότερον δύναμίν τινα προαιρετικὴν αὐτοκρατῆ τε καὶ ἀδέσποτον ἐν ὑπερκειμένῃ τινὶ ἐξουσίᾳ θεωρουμένην τὴν εἱμαρμένην εἶναι φαντάζεται ἢ ἄλλο τι παρὰ τοῦτο ὑπείληφε, πάλιν τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπαναλαβὼν λόγον Ὁ τῶν οὐρανίων, φησίν, ἐπεσκεμμένος τὴν κίνησιν, τόν τε ζῳ διοφόρον κύκλον καὶ τὰ ἐν αὐτῷ δυοκαίδεκα τμήματα τῇ 35 περιγραφῇ τῶν ἐνθεωρουμένων ζῳδίων δι' ἴσου ἀπ' ἀλλήλων διεστηκότα, ἑκάστου τε τῶν ἄστρων τὴν δύναμιν κατανοήσας, τίνα μὲν ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ ἕκαστον ἐκ φύσεως ἰσχὺν ἔχει, τί δὲ ἡ σύνοδος αὐτῶν ἐκ τῆς ποιᾶς πρὸς ἄλληλα κράσεως ἀπεργάζεται τῆς κατὰ τὴν δύναμιν ἑκάστου αὐτῶν ἰδιότητος μιχθείσης τε τῷ προσεγγισμῷ πρὸς τὴν ἑτέραν καὶ ἀποκριθείσης διὰ τῆς ἀποστάσεως, τί τε πάλιν ἡ τοῦ κατωτέρου ὑπόβασις ἐργάζεται καὶ τί ἡ τοῦ ὑπερκειμένου κατὰ τὴν πάροδον ἔκλειψις καὶ πάλιν ἀποκατάστασις ὅ τε ποικίλος τῶν συνιόντων τε καὶ ἀφισταμένων σχηματισμὸς ἐν τριγώνοις ἢ σκαληνοῖς καταγραφόμενος σχήμασιν ἢ καὶ ἄλλο τι τῶν κατὰ γεωμετρίαν θεωρουμένων σχημάτων ἀποτελῶν· ὁ ταῦτα, φησί, καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα κατανοήσας εἴσεται τῆς εἱμαρμένης τὸ σημαινόμενον, ὅτι τὸ εἱρμῷ τινι ἀπαραβάτῳ κατὰ τὴν ποιὰν συμπλοκὴν τῶν ἀστέρων ἀναγκαίως ἀποτελούμενον τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς εἱμαρμένης διερμηνεύεται. ἐπεὶ δέ με καὶ τοῦτο πάλιν ἐξένιζεν (οὐ γὰρ συνίειν τῶν λεγομένων οὐδὲν ἅτε μὴ πεπαιδευμένος ταύτην τὴν παίδευσιν), ἠξίουν δι' ὧν ἦν μοι δυνατὸν γνῶναι τὴν τῆς εἱ μαρμένης διάνοιαν, διὰ τούτων μοι φανερὸν ποιεῖν τὸ λεγόμενον· τοὺς γὰρ ἀστρῴους κύκλους ἄλλον ἄλλῳ ἐγκεῖσθαι καὶ τὴν ἐναντίαν κίνησιν τῇ ἀπλανεῖ περιφορᾷ κατὰ τὸ ἐντὸς ἀνελίσσεσθαι καὶ πάντας τούτους τῷ ζῳδιακῷ ἐνδινεῖσθαι κύκλῳ, ταῦτα καὶ παρ' ἑτέρων εἶπον ἀκηκοέναι 36 καὶ ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου μὴ ἀμφιβάλλειν τὰς τῶν φωστήρων αὐγὰς κατὰ τὴν ἰδιάζουσαν ἑκάστῳ τῶν πόλων κυκλοφορίαν προσεγγίζειν τε καὶ ἀφίστασθαι, καὶ ὑποβαίνειν τὸν κατώτερον καὶ κρύπτεσθαι τὸν ὑπερκείμενον ἀπὸ τῶν ἡμετέρων ὄψεων, εἰ κατὰ νώτου γένοιτο τοῦ ὑποβαίνοντος, καὶ πάντα ὅσα εἰκὸς ἐκ τοῦ ἀκολούθου λογίσασθαι· εἴτε τι σχῆμα διὰ τούτων ἀποτελεῖται, ὅταν ὁ κύκλος περιάγῃ διὰ τῆς ἰδίας κινήσεως τὸ ἐφ' ἑαυτοῦ κείμενον ἄστρον, ὥστε ἢ κατ' εὐθεῖαν τοῦ ὑπερκειμένου γενέσθαι ἢ πλαγιάσαι κατὰ τὴν πάροδον, εἴτε δι' ὀλίγου τοῦ χρονικοῦ διαστήματος εἴτε διὰ πλείονος ἑκάστου τούτων ἡ περίοδος γίνεται κατὰ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς καθ' ἕκαστον τῶν κύκλων ἀναλογίας ἀναγκαίως ἢ θᾶττον ἢ βράδιον τῆς ἀναστροφῆς γινομένης.

Ταῦτα πάντα καὶ τὰ τοιαῦτα σιγᾶν ἠξίουν, μόνον δέ μοι σαφῶς ἐκκαλύπτειν τῆς εἱμαρμένης τὴν δύναμιν, εἰ θεός τίς ἐστιν ὁ τῷ ὀνόματι τῆς εἱμαρμένης νοούμενος καὶ ὁ τοῦ παντὸς ἐξημμένος τὸ κράτος καὶ πάντα κατ' ἐξουσίαν τῷ