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being somehow in the middle of cold and heat, and of dryness and moisture, and mediating between the summer and the winter solstice, having dryness from the summer, and cold from the winter; for it is cold and dry, and is naturally productive of black bile. This again is an equinoctial season, having twelve hours for the day and the night. And this extends from September 25th until December 25th. And as the sun descends to the smaller and lower, that is, the southern rising, the winter solstice takes over, being cold and moist, and mediating between the autumnal and the vernal, having the cold from the autumnal, and possessing the moist from the vernal. This has the shortest day, being nine hours, and the longest night, being fifteen hours, and this is productive of phlegm. And it extends from December 25th until March 21st. For the Creator wisely provided, so that we might not, by coming from extreme cold or heat or moisture or dryness to the opposite extreme quality, fall into grievous sicknesses; for reason knows that sudden changes are dangerous. Thus, then, the sun produces the seasons and through them the year, and it also constitutes the days and nights, the former by rising and being above the earth, the latter by setting beneath the earth and yielding its light to the other luminaries, the moon and the stars. They say also that there are twelve constellations of stars in the heaven, having a motion contrary to the sun and the moon and the other five planets, and that the seven pass through the twelve constellations. The sun, then, completes one month in each constellation and passes through the twelve constellations in twelve months. And the names of the twelve constellations are these, and their months. Aries #213 receives the sun on the 21st of the month of March, Taurus #219 on the 23rd of April, Gemini #215 on the 23rd of May, Cancer #216 on the 24th of June, Leo #212 on the 25th of July, Virgo #203 on the 25th of August, Libra #214 on the 25th of September, Scorpio #202 on the 25th of October, Sagittarius #205 on the 25th of November, Capricorn #211 on the 25th of December, Aquarius #218 on the 20th of January, Pisces #217 on the 20th of February. And the moon passes through the twelve constellations each month, being lower and traversing them more quickly; for just as, if you make a sphere inside another sphere, the inner sphere will be found to be smaller, so also the course of the moon, being lower, is shorter and is completed more quickly. The Greeks, then, say that all our affairs are governed by the rising and setting and conjunction of these stars, the sun and the moon; for astrology is concerned with these things. But we say that from them come signs of rain and drought, of cold and heat, of moisture and dryness, and of winds and the like, but in no way of our actions; for we, having been made with free will by the Creator, are masters of our own actions. For if we do all things from the movement of the stars, we do what we do by necessity; and what is done by necessity is neither virtue nor vice. And if we possess neither virtue nor vice, we are worthy neither of praise and crowns, nor of blame or punishments; and God will also be found unjust, giving good things to some, and afflictions to others. But neither will God have governance nor providence for His own creatures, if all things are led and borne along by necessity. And the rational faculty in us will be superfluous; for being masters of no action, we deliberate superfluously. But the rational faculty has certainly been given to us for the sake of deliberation; wherefore every rational being also has free will. But we say that they are not themselves causes of anything that happens, neither of the generation of things that come to be, nor of the destruction of things that perish, but are rather signs of rains and of the change of the air. And perhaps someone might say that they are not causes of wars either, but signs, and that the quality of the air, being made one way and another by the sun and moon and stars, constitutes different temperaments and states and dispositions. But the states are among the things in our power;

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μέση πως ἔχουσα ψύξεώς τε καὶ θέρμης ξηρότητός τε καὶ ὑγρότητος καὶ μεσιτεύουσα τῇ τε θερινῇ καὶ τῇ χειμερινῇ τροπῇ, ἐκ μὲν τῆς θερινῆς τὸ ξηρόν, ἐκ δὲ τῆς χειμερινῆς τὸ ψυχρὸν ἔχουσα· ψυχρὰ γάρ ἐστι καὶ ξηρὰ χολῆς τε μελαίνης αὐξητικὴ πέφυκεν. Αὕτη πάλιν ἰσημερινὴ τροπὴ ὑπάρχει δώδεκα ὡρῶν τήν τε ἡμέραν καὶ τὴν νύκτα ἔχουσα. ∆ιατείνει δὲ αὕτη ἀπὸ Σεπτεμβρίου κεʹ μέχρι ∆εκεμβρίου κεʹ. Τοῦ δὲ ἡλίου ἐπὶ τὴν μικροτέραν καὶ χθαμαλωτέραν ἤτοι μεσημβρινὴν ἀνατολὴν κατιόντος ἡ χειμερινὴ ἐπιλαμβάνεται τροπή, ψυχρά τε καὶ ὑγρὰ τυγχάνουσα καὶ μεσιτεύουσα τῇ τε μετοπωρινῇ καὶ τῇ ἐαρινῇ, ἐκ μὲν τῆς μετοπωρινῆς τὸ ψυχρὸν ἔχουσα, ἐκ δὲ τῆς ἐαρινῆς τὸ ὑγρὸν κεκτημένη. Αὕτη δὲ σμικροτάτην μὲν τὴν ἡμέραν ἔχει ἐννέα ὡρῶν ὑπάρχουσαν, τὴν δὲ νύκτα μεγίστην ὡρῶν ὑπάρχουσαν πεντεκαίδεκα, φλέγματος δὲ αὕτη ὑπάρχει αὐξητική. ∆ιατείνει δὲ ἀπὸ κεʹ ∆εκεμβρίου μέχρις καʹ Μαρτίου. Σοφῶς γὰρ ὁ δημιουργὸς προενοήσατο, ὡς ἂν μὴ ἐξ ἄκρας ψυχρότητος ἢ θερμότητος ἢ ὑγρότητος ἢ ξηρότητος ἐπὶ τὴν ἄκραν ἐναντίαν ἐρχόμενοι ποιότητα χαλεποῖς περιπέσωμεν ἀρρωστήμασι· σφαλερὰς γὰρ τὰς αἰφνιδίους μεταβολὰς οἶδεν ὁ λόγος. Οὕτω μὲν οὖν ὁ ἥλιος τὰς τροπὰς καὶ δι' αὐτῶν τὸν ἐνιαυτὸν ἀπεργάζεται, καὶ τὰς ἡμέρας δὲ καὶ νύκτας, τὰς μὲν ἀνατέλλων καὶ ὑπὲρ γῆν γινόμενος, τὰς δὲ ὑπὸ γῆν δύνων καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις φωστῆρσι, σελήνῃ τε καὶ ἄστρασι, τὴν φαῦσιν παραχωρῶν συνίστησι. Φασὶ δὲ καὶ δώδεκα ζῴδια ἐξ ἀστέρων εἶναι ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, ἐναντίαν κίνησιν ἔχοντα τῷ τε ἡλίῳ καὶ τῇ σελήνῃ καὶ τοῖς ἄλλοις πέντε πλανήταις, καὶ διὰ τῶν δώδεκα ζῳδίων παρέρχεσθαι τοὺς ἑπτά. Ὁ μὲν οὖν ἥλιος καθ' ἕκαστον ζῴδιον ἀποτελεῖ μῆνα ἕνα καὶ διὰ τῶν δώδεκα μηνῶν τὰ δώδεκα ζῴδια διέρχεται. Τῶν δὲ δώδεκα ζῳδίων τὰ ὀνόματά ἐστι ταῦτα καὶ οἱ τούτων μῆνες. Κριὸς #213 μηνὶ Μαρτίῳ καʹ δέχεται τὸν ἥλιον, Ταῦρος #219 Ἀπριλλίῳ κγʹ, ∆ίδυμοι #215 Μαΐῳ κγʹ, Καρκῖνος #216 Ἰουνίῳ κδʹ, Λέων #212 Ἰουλίῳ κεʹ, Παρθένος #203 Αὐγούστῳ κεʹ, Ζυγὸς #214 Σεπτεμβρίῳ κεʹ, Σκορπίος #202 Ὀκτωβρίῳ κεʹ, Τοξότης #205 Νοεμβρίῳ κεʹ, Αἰγόκερως #211 ∆εκεμβρίῳ κεʹ, Ὑδροχόος #218 Ἰανουαρίῳ κʹ, Ἰχθύες #217 Φεβρουαρίῳ κʹ. Ἡ δὲ σελήνη καθ' ἕκαστον μῆνα τὰ δώδεκα ζῴδια διέρχεται κατωτέρα οὖσα καὶ ταχύτερον ταῦτα διοδεύουσα· ὡς γάρ, ἐὰν ποιήσῃς πόλον ἔνδον ἄλλου πόλου, ὁ ἔνδον πόλος μικρότερος εὑρεθήσεται, οὕτως καὶ ὁ δρόμος τῆς σελήνης κατωτέρας οὔσης ὀλιγώτερός ἐστι καὶ ἀνύεται τάχιον. Οἱ μὲν οὖν Ἕλληνες διὰ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων τούτων ἡλίου τε καὶ σελήνης ἀνατολῆς καὶ δύσεως καὶ συγκρούσεώς φασι πάντα διοικεῖσθαι τὰ καθ' ἡμᾶς· περὶ ταῦτα γὰρ ἡ ἀστρολογία καταγίνεται. Ἡμεῖς δέ φαμεν, ὅτι σημεῖα μὲν ἐξ αὐτῶν γίνονται, ὄμβρου καὶ ἀνομβρίας, ψύξεώς τε καὶ θέρμης, ὑγρότητος καὶ ξηρότητος καὶ ἀνέμων καὶ τῶν τοιούτων, τῶν δὲ ἡμετέρων πράξεων οὐδαμῶς· ἡμεῖς γὰρ αὐτεξούσιοι ὑπὸ τοῦ δημιουργοῦ γενόμενοι κύριοι τῶν ἡμετέρων ὑπάρχομεν πράξεων. Εἰ γὰρ ἐκ τῆς τῶν ἄστρων φορᾶς πάντα πράττομεν, κατ' ἀνάγκην πράττομεν, ἃ πράττομεν· τὸ δὲ κατ' ἀνάγκην γινόμενον οὔτε ἀρετὴ οὔτε κακία ἐστίν. Εἰ δὲ μήτε ἀρετὴν μήτε κακίαν κεκτήμεθα, οὔτε ἐπαίνων καὶ στεφάνων, οὔτε ψόγων ἢ κολάσεων ὑπάρχομεν ἄξιοι· εὑρεθήσεται δὲ καὶ ὁ θεὸς ἄδικος τοῖς μὲν ἀγαθά, τοῖς δὲ θλίψεις διδούς. Ἀλλ' οὐδὲ κυβέρνησιν οὐδὲ τῶν ἑαυτοῦ κτισμάτων ὁ θεὸς ποιήσεται πρόνοιαν, εἰ κατ' ἀνάγκην ἄγονται τὰ πάντα καὶ φέρονται. Καὶ τὸ λογικὸν δὲ περιττὸν ἐν ἡμῖν ἔσται· μηδεμιᾶς γὰρ ὄντες πράξεως κύριοι περιττῶς βουλευόμεθα. Τὸ δὲ λογικὸν πάντως τῆς βουλῆς ἡμῖν ἕνεκεν δέδοται· ὅθεν πᾶν λογικὸν καὶ αὐτεξούσιον. Ἡμεῖς δέ φαμεν, ὅτι οὐκ αὐτὰ αἴτιά τινός εἰσι τῶν γινομένων οὔτε γενέσεως τῶν γινομένων οὔτε τῶν φθειρομένων φθορᾶς, σημεῖα δὲ μᾶλλον ὄμβρων τε καὶ τῆς τοῦ ἀέρος μεταβολῆς. Ἴσως δ' ἄν τις εἴποι, ὅτι καὶ πολέμων οὐκ αἴτια, ἀλλὰ σημεῖα, καὶ ἡ ποιότης δὲ τοῦ ἀέρος ποιουμένου ὑπὸ ἡλίου καὶ σελήνης καὶ τῶν ἀστέρων ἄλλως καὶ ἄλλως διαφόρους κράσεις καὶ ἕξεις καὶ διαθέσεις συνίστησιν. Αἱ δὲ ἕξεις τῶν ἐφ' ἡμῖν·