“Be not afraid of the signs of heaven.” Let us see also a second argument, how the stars cannot be causative, but if anything, are significant. For from as many nativities as possible, it is possible to derive the facts about one man; and this we say hypothetically, conceding that knowledge of them can be apprehended by men. For come now, if one is to say that a certain man will suffer a certain fate, and will die by falling among robbers and being killed, they say it is possible to derive this both from his own nativity and, if he happens to have several brothers, from the nativity of each of them. For they think that the nativity of each contains a brother who will die by robbers, likewise also that 12.76 of the father and that of the mother, and that of his wife, and of his sons, and of his servants, and of his dearest friends, and perhaps also of his very murderers. How then is it possible for one who is contained in so many nativities—to grant them this—to be brought about by the configuration of the stars from this nativity rather than from those? For it is also absurd to claim that the configuration in the particular nativity of this man caused these things, while the one in the nativity of these others did not cause them, but only signified them; for it is foolish to say that the nativity of all of them contained in each case the causative power for this particular man to be killed, so that in, I say hypothetically, fifty nativities, the killing of this certain man is contained. And I do not know how they will be able to save the argument that for nearly all in Judea, the configuration at their nativity is such that they receive circumcision on the eighth day, being mutilated and wounded, and falling into inflammation and injuries, and at the same time as their entry into life being in need of physicians; and that for the Ishmaelites in Arabia, it is such that all are circumcised at thirteen years of age; for this is recorded about them, and again that for certain people in Ethiopia, the kneecaps are removed, and for the Amazons, one of their breasts. For how do the stars do these things to these nations? 12.77 I think that if we were to pay attention, we would not even be able to establish anything true to say about them. But with so many methods of prognostication being current, I do not know how people have run aground on the notion of saying that augury and divination by sacrifice do not contain the causative agent, but only signify, and astrology as well, but not genethlialogy. For if it is known—let us grant that it is known—and what happens comes from the source from which knowledge is derived, why will future events come more from the stars than from birds? and more from birds than from the entrails of sacrificial victims, or from shooting stars? These things, therefore, will suffice for the present for the refutation of the idea that the stars are causative of human affairs. But what we have conceded, for it did not harm the argument, namely that men are able to comprehend the celestial configurations and the signs, and of what they are signs, let us now examine whether this is true. Accordingly, those skilled in these matters say that one who is going to truly comprehend the things pertaining to genethlialogy must know not only in which twelfth part the so-called star is, but also in which degree of the twelfth part, and in which sixtieth part; and the more precise ones say, also in which sixtieth of the sixtieth. And this, they say, one must do for each of the planets, examining its relation 12.80 to the fixed stars. Again, concerning the eastern horizon, it will be necessary, they say, to see not only what twelfth part was upon it, but also the degree, and the sixtieth part of the degree, the first or the second sixtieth. How then, when an hour broadly speaking contains half a twelfth part, can anyone grasp the sixtieth part, not having the proportion for the division of hours, so as, for instance, to know that so-and-so was born in the fourth hour, and a half hour, and a quarter, an eighth, a sixteenth, and a thirty-second? For they say that the things signified vary greatly due to the ignorance not of the whole hour, but even of the

«Ἀπὸ τῶν σημείων τοῦ οὐρανοῦ μὴ φοβεῖσθε.» Ἴδωμεν καὶ δεύτερον ἐπιχείρημα, πῶς οὐ δύναν ται οἱ ἀστέρες εἶναι ποιητικοὶ, ἀλλ' εἰ ἄρα σημαντι κοί. Ἀπὸ τῶν πλείστων γὰρ ὅσων γενέσεων ἔστι λαβεῖν τὰ περὶ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου· τοῦτο δὲ καθ' ὑπόθε σιν λέγομεν, συγχωροῦντες τὸ ἐπιστήμην αὐτῶν ἀνα λαμβάνεσθαι ὑπ' ἀνθρώπων δύνασθαι. Φέρε γὰρ εἰ πεῖν περὶ τοῦ τόνδε πείσεσθαι τόδε, καὶ τεθνήξεσθαι περιπεσόντα λῃσταῖς καὶ ἀναιρεθέντα, φασὶ δύ νασθαι λαμβάνειν ἀπό τε τῆς ἰδίας αὐτοῦ γενέσεως, κἂν τύχῃ ἔχων ἀδελφοὺς πλείονας, ἀπὸ τῆς ἑκάστου αὐτῶν. Περιέχειν γὰρ οἴονται τὴν ἑκάστου γένεσιν ἀδελφὸν ὑπὸ λῃστῶν τεθνηξόμενον ὁμοίως καὶ τὴν 12.76 τοῦ πατρὸς καὶ τὴν τῆς μητρὸς, καὶ τὴν τῆς γαμετῆς, καὶ τῶν υἱῶν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τῶν οἰκετῶν, καὶ τῶν φιλ τάτων, τάχα δὲ καὶ αὐτῶν τῶν ἀναιρούντων. Πῶς οὖν δυνατὸν τὸν τοσαύταις γενέσεσιν, ἵνα αὐτοῖς τοῦτο συγχωρηθῇ, ἐμπεριεχόμενον γίνεσθαι ὑπὸ τοῦ σχη ματισμοῦ τῶν ἀστέρων, τῆσδε μᾶλλον τῆς γενέσεως ἢ τῶνδε; Ἀπίθανον γὰρ καὶ τὸ φάσκειν, τὸν σχη ματισμὸν τὸν ἐν τῇ ἰδίᾳ τοῦδέ τινος γενέσει ταῦτα πεποιηκέναι, τὸν δὲ ἐν τῇ τῶνδε γενέσει μὴ πεποιη κέναι, ἀλλὰ σεσημαγκέναι μόνον· ἠλίθιον γὰρ τὸ εἰ πεῖν, ὅτι ἡ πάντων γένεσις περιεῖχε καθ' ἕκαστον ποιητικὸν τοῦ τόνδε ἀναιρεθῆναι, ὥστε ἐν γενέ σεσιν, καθ' ὑπόθεσιν λέγω, πεντήκοντα περιέχεσθαι τὸ τόνδε τινὰ ἀναιρεθῆναι. Οὐκ οἶδα δ' ὅπως δυνή σονται σῶσαι τὸ, τῶν μὲν ἐν Ἰουδαίᾳ σχεδὸν πάντων τοιόνδε εἶναι τὸν σχηματισμὸν ἐπὶ τῆς γενέσεως, ὡς ὀκταήμερον αὐτοὺς λαμβάνειν περιτομὴν, ἀκρωτη ριαζομένους καὶ ἑλκουμένους, καὶ φλεγμονῇ περιπεσομένους καὶ τραύμασι, καὶ ἅμα τῇ εἰς τὸν βίον εἰσόδῳ ἰατρῶν δεομένους· τῶν δὲ ἐν Ἰσμαηλί ταις τοῖς κατὰ τὴν Ἀραβίαν τοιόνδε, ὡς πάντας περιτέμνεσθαι τρισκαιδεκαετεῖς· τοῦτο γὰρ ἱστόρηται περὶ αὐτῶν, καὶ πάλιν τῶνδέ τινων τῶν ἐν Αἰθίοψι, τοῖσδε τὰς κόγχας τῶν γονάτων περιαιρεῖσθαι, καὶ τῶν Ἀμαζόνων τοὺς ἑτέρους τῶν μαστῶν. Πῶς γὰρ ταῦτα ποιοῦσιν οἱ ἀστέρες τοῖσδε τοῖς ἔθνεσιν; 12.77 Οἶμαι, ὅτι, εἰ ἐπιστήσαιμεν, οὐδὲ μέχρι τοῦ στῆ σαι δυνησόμεθά τι ἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν περὶ αὐτῶν. Το σούτων δὲ φερομένων ὁδῶν προγνωστικῶν, οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἐξώκειλαν οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐπὶ τὸ τὴν μὲν οἰωνιστι κὴν καὶ τὴν θυτικὴν μὴ λέγειν περιέχειν τὸ ποιοῦν αἴτιον, ἀλλὰ σημαίνειν μόνον, καὶ τὴν ἀστεροσκοπι κὴν, οὐκ ἔτι δὲ τὴν γενεθλιαλογικήν. Εἰ γὰρ ἐπι γινώσκεται, ἵνα καὶ χαρισώμεθα τὸ γινώσκεσθαι, γί νεται δὲ ἐκεῖθεν ὅθεν ἡ γνῶσις λαμβάνεται, τί μᾶλλον ἀπὸ τῶν ἀστέρων ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν οἰωνῶν ἔσται τὰ γινόμενα; καὶ μᾶλλον ἀπὸ τῶν οἰωνῶν, ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν σπλάγχνων τῶν θυομένων, ἢ ἀπὸ τῶν διαττόντων ἀστέρων; Ταῦτα μὲν οὖν ἐπὶ τοῦ παρόντος ἀρκέσει εἰς ἀναίρεσιν τοῦ ποιητικοὺς εἶναι τοὺς ἀστέρας τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων. Ὅπερ δὲ συγκεχωρήκαμεν, οὐ γὰρ ἐλύπει τὸν λό γον, ὡς τῶν ἀνθρώπων δυναμένων καταλαμβάνειν τοὺς οὐρανίους σχηματισμοὺς καὶ τὰ σημεῖα, καὶ ὧν ἐστι σημεῖα, τοῦτο φέρε νῦν ἐξετάσωμεν εἰ ἀληθές ἐστι. Φασὶ τοίνυν οἱ περὶ ταῦτα δεινοὶ, τὸν μέλλοντα τὰ κατὰ τὴν γενεθλιαλογικὴν ἀληθῶς καταλαμβάνειν εἰδέναι οὐ μόνον τὸ κατὰ πόστου δωδεκατημορίου ἐστὶν ὁ καλούμενος ἀστὴρ, ἀλλὰ καὶ κατὰ ποίας μοί ρας τοῦ δωδεκατημορίου, καὶ κατὰ ποίου ἑξηκοστοῦ· οἱ δὲ ἀκριβέστεροι καὶ κατὰ ποίου ἑξηκοστοῦ τοῦ ἑξηκοστοῦ. Καὶ τοῦτό φασι δεῖν ποιεῖν ἐφ' ἑκάστου τῶν πλανωμένων ἐξετάζοντα τὴν σχέσιν τὴν πρὸς 12.80 τοὺς ἀπλανεῖς. Πάλιν αὖ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἀνατολικοῦ ὁρίζον τος δεήσει, φασὶν, ἰδεῖν οὐ μόνον τὸ δωδεκατημόριον ποῖον ἦν ἐπ' αὐτοῦ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν μοῖραν, καὶ τὸ ἑξηκοστὸν τῆς μοίρας, τὸ πρῶτον ἢ τὸ δεύτερον ἑξη κοστόν. Πῶς τοίνυν, τῆς ὥρας πλατεῖ λόγῳ ἥμισυ δω δεκατημορίου περιεχούσης, δύναταί τις λαβεῖν τὸ ἑξηκοστὸν, μὴ ἔχων τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς διαιρέσεως τῶν ὡρῶν, ὥστε, φέρε εἰπεῖν, εἰδέναι, ὅτι γεγέννη ται ὁ δεῖνα ὥρᾳ τετάρτῃ, καὶ ἡμίσει ὥρας, καὶ τε τάρτῳ, ὀγδόῳ, καὶ ἑκκαιδεκάτῳ, καὶ δυοτριακοστῷ; παραπολὺ γάρ φασι παραλλάττειν τὰ σημαινόμενα παρὰ τὴν ἀγνωσίαν οὐ τῆς ὅλης ὥρας, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῦ