Natal-day prophecies (1)

Text
Scylax of Halicarnassus repudiates the Chaldean method of foretelling the future.

Cicero, De Divinatione 2.89:
But let us dismiss our witnesses and employ reasoning. Those men who defend the natal-day prophecies of the Chaldeans, argue in this way: ‘In the starry belt which the Greeks call the Zodiac there is a certain force of such a nature that every part of that belt affects and changes the heavens in a different way, according to the stars that are in this or in an adjoining locality at a given time. This force is variously affected by those stars which are called ‘planets’ or ‘wandering’ stars. But when they have come into that sign of the Zodiac under which someone is born, or into a sign having some connection or accord with the natal sign, they form what is called a ‘triangle’ or ‘square’. Now since, through the procession and retrogression of the stars, the great variety and change of the seasons and of temperature take place, and since the power of the sun produces such results as are before our eyes, they believe that it is not merely probable, but certain, that just as the temperature of the air is regulated by this celestial force, so also children at their birth are influenced in soul and body and by this force their minds, manners, disposition, physical condition, career in life and destinies are determined.

Source (list of abbreviations) (source links will open in a new browser window)
Cicero, De Divinatione 2.89

Bibliography

Amar Annus

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