The Sequence Of Each House
1. Now we ought to know which of these twelve houses precede and which follow, that is, which are the first houses, which the second, so that we may investigate everything in the most careful way. 2. The ascendant precedes the descendant, the Medium Caelum comes before theImum Caelum. The eleventh house, that is, the Bonus Daemon, comes before the Bona Fortuna the ninth house, that is, Deus, before the third place, that is, Dea. Anafora, that is, the second place, is before Epicatafora. The...
Unaspected Houses
1. The remaining four houses are all feeble and debilitated because of the fact that they are not aspected to the ascendant. The first of these remaining four houses, however, which is located in the second house from the ascendant, is called the Gate of Hell, or the Anafora rising up from the Underworld . The house which is diametrically opposite to this house, that is, the eighth from the ascendant, is called the Epicatafora casting down into the Underworld . The last of the four are those of...
Matutine And Vespertine Planets
1. The five planets, that is, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, are either matutine, vespertine, occiduales setting , or absconsae hidden, i.e., by the Sun's rays . These the Greeks call afaneis hidden , synodicae in conjunction with the Sun , or acronyctae at nightfall . How they came to have such characteristics and why they are given their names we shall now explain. Matutine planets are those which in their rising precede the Sun. Vespertine or evening planets are those which in rising...
Astrological Terminology
Astrological predictions are based on the movements of the planets seven at the time of Firmicus, including the Sun and Moon . To the naked eyes these are seen to move against, and actually to become part of, the set of twelve constellations called the zodiac which lies along the path of the Sun at an angle to the equator. Although in reality these constellations are of different sizes, it became conventional very early to assume that each was one-twelfth of the circle, i.e., 30 degrees each,...
Acknowledgements
My thanks are due to Professor Larissa Bonfante Warren who inspired this project. I am also grateful to Professor Claireve Grandjouan for her encouragement and to Dr. Tamara Green, Mr. William Mayer, Mrs. Eirene Christodoulou, and Miss Karen Snyder for their help in verifying and proofreading the text. Miss Serinity Young very kindly read the translation and checked it for modern astrological terminology. To Miss Gretchen Clumpner, finally, my deepest thanks for her able deciphering and typing...
The Development Of Astrological Methods
Numerous Hellenistic works on astrology were available to Firmicus as source material. Several Manetho, Dorotheos of Sidon, Antiochos of Athens see list of ancient authors have come down to us only in fragments. One, almost complete, is a kind of diary of a practicing astrologer of the Near East, Vettius Valens. Almost contemporary with Vettius was the great work of Ptolemy known as Tetrabiblos, a sequel to his astronomical Syntagma Almagest . Ptolemy's work gives a brief theoretical background...
The Author
Julius Firmicus Maternus is known to us as the author of two works of the fourth century A.D. The first, Matheseos Libri VIII Eight Books of the Mathesis, or Theory of Astrology stands as the final, as well as the most complete, work on astrology of the Classical world. The other fie Errore Profanarum Religionum , written about ten years later, is a bitter attack on the mystery religions from a Christian point of view. Since the astrological work is strongly imbued with pagan philosophical...