DOCSLIB.ORG

In the Path of the Moon Brill’Sstudies Series in Ancientin Jewish Magic Studies and Divination

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
In the Path of the Moon Brill’Sstudies Series in Ancientin Jewish Magic Studies and Divination In the Path of the Moon Brill’sStudies Series in Ancientin Jewish Magic Studies and Divination General Editor David S. Katz (Tel Aviv) Editors tzvi abusch – ann guinan – nils heeßel francesca rochberg – f. a. m. wiggermann VOLUME 40 VOLUME 6 The Babylonian image of the “man in the moon,” conceived as a hero vanquishing a lion, from a Seleucid Uruk tablet in the Vorderasiatsches Museum, Berlin (VAT 7851). In the Path of the Moon Babylonian Celestial Divination and Its Legacy By Francesca Rochberg LEIDEN • BOSTON 2010 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rochberg, Francesca, 1952– In the path of the Moon : Babylonian celestial divination and its legacy / by Francesca Rochberg. p. cm. — (Studies in ancient magic and divination) ISBN 978-90-04-18389-6 (hard cover : alk. paper) 1. Astrology, Assyro-Babylonian. 2. Astronomy, Assyro-Babylonian 3. Omens—Iraq—Babylonia. 4. Horoscopes— Iraq—Babylonia. 5. Akkadian language—Texts. 6. Cuneiform inscriptions, Akkadian. 7. Philosophy, Ancient. 8. Science—Greece—History. 9. Science—Rome—History. I. Title. II. Series. BF1714.A86R64 2010 133.5’9235—dc22 2010002805 ISSN 1566-7952 ISBN 978 90 04 18389 6 © Copyright 2010 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands For Mims and Mitzi CONTENTS List of Figures ............................................................................. ix List of Tables .............................................................................. xi Abbreviations .............................................................................. xiii Acknowledgments ....................................................................... xvii Preface ......................................................................................... xxi Introduction ................................................................................ 1 Chapter One Fate and Divination in Mesopotamia .............. 19 Chapter Two New Evidence for the History of Astrology .... 31 Chapter Three Canonicity in Cuneiform Texts ..................... 65 Chapter Four The Assumed 29th Aû Tablet of Enūma Anu Enlil ......................................................................................... 85 Chapter Five TCL 6 13: Mixed Traditions in Late Babylonian Astrology ................................................................................. 113 Chapter Six Benefi c and Malefi c Planets in Babylonian Astrology ................................................................................. 135 Chapter Seven Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology ............................................................... 143 Chapter Eight Babylonian Seasonal Hours ............................ 167 Chapter Nine Babylonian Horoscopy: The Texts and Their Relations ................................................................................. 189 Chapter Ten Continuity and Change in Omen Literature ... 211 viii contents Chapter Eleven The Babylonian Origins of the Mandaean Book of the Zodiac ................................................................. 223 Chapter Twelve Scribes and Scholars: The upšar Enūma Anu Enlil ......................................................................................... 237 Chapter Thirteen Lunar Data in Babylonian Horoscopes .... 257 Chapter Fourteen A Babylonian Rising Times Scheme in Non-Tabular Astronomical Texts .......................................... 271 Chapter Fifteen Old Babylonian Celestial Divination ........... 303 Chapter Sixteen The Heavens and the Gods in Ancient Mesopotamia: The View from a Polytheistic Cosmology ..... 317 Chapter Seventeen A Short History of the Waters above the Firmament ............................................................................... 339 Chapter Eighteen Periodicities and Period Relations in Babylonian Celestial Sciences ................................................ 355 Chapter Nineteen Conditionals, Inference, and Possibility in Ancient Mesopotamian Science ............................................. 373 Chapter Twenty “If P, then Q”: Form and Reasoning in Babylonian Divination ............................................................ 399 Chapter Twenty-One Divine Causality and Babylonian Divination ............................................................................... 411 Bibliography ................................................................................ 425 Index ........................................................................................... 439 LIST OF FIGURES Chapter Two New Evidence for the History of Astrology Figure 1. Trine aspect and four triplicities .............................. 41 Figure 2. BM 36746 obv. (Photo) ............................................ 50 Figure 3. BM 36746 obv. ......................................................... 50 Figure 4. BM 36746 rev. (Photo) ............................................. 52 Figure 5. BM 36746 rev. .......................................................... 52 Chapter Four The Assumed 29th Aû Tablet Enūma Anu Enlil Figure 1. Photo K.3563+ obv. ................................................ 98 Figure 2. Photo K.3563+ rev. ................................................. 100 Chapter Five TCL 6 13: Mixed Traditions Figure 1. Brightness of Stars/Planets ..................................... 129 Figure 2. Months and planets in a “trine” arrangement ........ 131 Chapter Seven Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology Figure 1. Exaltations (+) and depressions (–) .......................... 154 Figure 2. Dodekatemoria ........................................................ 156 Figure 3. Trine aspect ............................................................ 162 Figure 4. Quartile aspect ........................................................ 162 Figure 5. Sextile aspect ........................................................... 163 Figure 6. Opposition .............................................................. 163 Chapter Eleven The Babylonian Origins of the Mandaean Book of the Zodiac Figure 1. Correspondence between the four triplicities and the four elements .................................................................. 230 Chapter Fourteen A Babylonian Rising Times Scheme in Non-Tabular Astronomical Texts Figure 1. Zodiacal signs divided into twelfths called zittu (A.LA) “portion” ............................................................... 273 Figure 2. Rising time scheme according to micro-zodiac texts ...................................................................................... 300 x list of figures Chapter Eighteen Periodicities and Period Relations in Babyonian Celestial Sciences Figure 1. Risings times of the zodiac ...................................... 365 LIST OF TABLES Chapter Two New Evidence for the History of Astrology Table 1. Names of Zodiacal Constellations ............................ 36 Table 2. Schematic Table for BM 36746 ................................ 40 Table 3. Lords of the Triplicities ............................................. 44 Table 4. Terms (ὅρια) .............................................................. 46 Table 5. Triplicities and Winds ............................................... 48 Chapter Five TCL 6 13: Mixed Traditions Table 1. Scheme for Brightness/Dimness and DUR .............. 116 Table 2. Planetary Positions with Positive/Negative Predictions ............................................................................ 130 Table 3. (based on Figure 2) .................................................... 132 Chapter Seven Elements of the Babylonian Contribution to Hellenistic Astrology Table 1. Exaltations of the Planets ......................................... 155 Table 2. BRM 4 19:1–4 Schemata .......................................... 158 Chapter Eight Babylonian Seasonal Hours Table 1. Lunar Data for BM 33018 ........................................ 178 Table 2. Planetary Data for BM 33018 ................................... 181 Table 3. Planetary Data for BM 38104 ................................... 184 Chapter Nine Babylonian Horoscopy: The Texts and Their Relations Table 1. Planetary Data from Babylonian Horoscopes .......... 197 Table 2. Errors in Planetary Longitudes Given in Babylonian Horoscopes ........................................................................... 198 Table 3. Lunar Eclipses Predicted in the Horoscopes ............. 203 Table 4. Solstice/Equinox Dates in Relation to Birthdates ... 204 Table 5. Data Comparison in Horoscopes and Almanacs ...... 206 Chapter Fourteen A Babylonian Rising Times Scheme in Non-Tabular Astronomical Texts Table 1. Relation between mešu Stars of Micro-Zodiac Texts and Astrolabe ....................................................................... 279 xii list of tables Table 2. Ziqpu Stars
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In the Wake of the Compendia Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Cultures
    In the Wake of the Compendia Science, Technology, and Medicine in Ancient Cultures Edited by Markus Asper Philip van der Eijk Markham J. Geller Heinrich von Staden Liba Taub Volume 3 In the Wake of the Compendia Infrastructural Contexts and the Licensing of Empiricism in Ancient and Medieval Mesopotamia Edited by J. Cale Johnson DE GRUYTER ISBN 978-1-5015-1076-2 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-0250-7 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0252-1 ISSN 2194-976X Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2015 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin Typesetting: Meta Systems Publishing & Printservices GmbH, Wustermark Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com Notes on Contributors Florentina Badalanova Geller is Professor at the Topoi Excellence Cluster at the Freie Universität Berlin. She previously taught at the University of Sofia and University College London, and is currently on secondment from the Royal Anthropological Institute (London). She has published numerous papers and is also the author of ‘The Bible in the Making’ in Imagining Creation (2008), Qurʾān in Vernacular: Folk Islam in the Balkans (2008), and 2 (Slavonic Apocalypse of) Enoch: Text and Context (2010). Siam Bhayro was appointed Senior Lecturer in Early Jewish Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Exeter, in 2012, having previously been Lecturer in Early Jewish Studies since 2007.
    [Show full text]
  • Reposs #8: Mean Motions in the Almagest out of Eclipses
    RePoSS: Research Publications on Science Studies RePoSS #8: Mean Motions in the Almagest out of Eclipses Kristian Peder Moesgaard May 2010 Centre for Science Studies, University of Aarhus, Denmark Research group: History and philosophy of science Please cite this work as: Kristian Peder Moesgaard (May 2010). Mean Motions in the Al- magest out of Eclipses. RePoSS: Research Publications on Sci- ence Studies 8. Aarhus: Centre for Science Studies, University of Aarhus. url: http://www.css.au.dk/reposs. Copyright c Kristian Peder Moesgaard, 2010 1 Mean Motions in the Almagest out of Eclipses by Kristian Peder Moesgaard* 1.1: Synodic period relations for the five planets go with eclipse intervals.. p. 2 1.2: A relation for Mercury out of two solar eclipses.................................... p. 3 1.3: For the remaining planets eclipses emerge from similar relations.......... p. 3 2: Suggestions for the move from eclipses to the synodic relations............... p. 5 3: Evaluating the genesis of the Almagest planetary tables ............................ p. 6 4: Mean motions of Moon and Sun............................................................... p. 10 5: The crime(?) of Hellenistic astronomy...................................................... p. 12 6: From mean to true motion of the Sun........................................................ p. 16 7: Overview and outlook................................................................................ p. 18 8: References.................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 4 – the Diffusion of Chaldean Astrology
    CHAPTER 4 The Diffusion of Chaldean Astrology HALDEAN astrology was diffused far and wide before the fall of Babylon in the sixth century B. C., and it long survived that historic event. Before the beginning of the Christian Era, Babylonian astrological notions had spread into Egypt, Greece, and Rome. W. F. Albright, in the following statement, gives a very brief and comprehensive summary of the facts about it: “The scientific importance of the Chaldaean astronomical records was well known to Aristotle, who commissioned his pupil Callisthenes to investigate them, which he did in the year 331 B. C. In the following decades the Babylonian scholar Berossus, who founded a Greek astrological school at Cos about 280 B. C., made the first translations of Babylonian astronomical texts into Greek, followed probably by others, since it has been lately shown by Schnabel and Schaumberger that Geminus (of Tyre?), the pupil of Posidonius, published Greek versions of Babylonian astronomical tables in the early first century B. C. About 250 B. C. a distinguished Chaldaean astrologist and writer, named Sudines (Shum-iddin), was active at Pergamum. Apparently Chaldaean astrology was favorably received from the outset in most Greek philosophical circles, and even Hipparchus became an adept. “The first Greek to popularize it in Egypt may have been Critodemus, and it was embraced there with such extraordinary ardor that Egypt became the classical land of astrological „research,‟ in the second century B. C. (Cumont, L’Egypte des Astrologues, Brussels, 1937), thanks to the activity of two native Egyptians, Nechepso and Petosiris (c. 150 B. C.).
    [Show full text]
  • Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission
    CAS® e SERIES Nummer 4 / 2010 Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley) Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission Herausgegeben von Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München Center for Advanced Studies®, Seestr. 13, 80802 München www.cas.lmu.de/publikationen/eseries Nummer 4 / 2010 Babylonian Astral Science in the Hellenistic World: Reception and Transmission Francesca Rochberg (Berkeley) In his astrological work the Tetrabiblos, the astronomer such as in Strabo’s Geography, as well as in an astrono- Ptolemy describes the effects of geography on ethnic mical text from Oxyrhynchus in the second century of character, claiming, for example, that due to their specific our era roughly contemporary with Ptolemy [P.Oxy. geographical location „The ...Chaldeans and Orchinians 4139:8; see Jones 1999, I 97-99 and II 22-23]. This have familiarity with Leo and the sun, so that they are astronomical papyrus fragment refers to the Orchenoi, simpler, kindly, addicted to astrology.” [Tetr. 2.3] or Urukeans, in direct connection with a lunar parameter Ptolemy was correct in putting the Chaldeans and identifiable as a Babylonian period for lunar anomaly Orchinians together geographically, as the Chaldeans, or preserved on cuneiform tablets from Uruk. The Kaldayu, were once West Semitic tribal groups located Babylonian, or Chaldean, literati, including those from in the parts of southern and western Babylonia known Uruk were rightly famed for astronomy and astrology, as Kaldu, and the Orchinians, or Urukayu, were the „addicted,” as Ptolemy put it, and eventually, in Greco- inhabitants of the southern Babylonian city of Uruk. He Roman works, the term Chaldean came to be interchan- was also correct in that he was transmitting a tradition geable with „astrologer.” from the Babylonians themselves, which, according to a Hellenistic Greek writers seeking to claim an authorita- Hellenistic tablet from Uruk [VAT 7847 obv.
    [Show full text]
  • Print This Article
    Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections EGYPT ’S ROLE IN THE ORIGINS OF SCIENCE : A N ESSAY IN ALIGNING CONDITIONS , EVIDENCE , AND INTERPRETATIONS David A. Warburton Topoi, Berlin ABSTRACT The author argues that the evidence of observation in Egyptian third millennium BCE medicine and astronomy should allow ancient Egypt an important place in the history of science. The argument is primarily based on the absence of evidence of scientific observation in Mesopotamia preceding the Egyptian material, which renders the Egyptian obser - vations of the movements of celestial bodies and trauma the earliest signs of science. While assigning “predictions” and “mathematical astronomy” a more important place, Assyriologists also date what they can document to long after the Egyptian observations and predictions, highlighting the chronological precedence of Egypt. Furthermore, the author stresses a complicated discourse involving the exchange of ideas that was ultimately stymied by the growing importance of religion and magic. Yet the development was not as linear as the usual versions suggest. INTRODUCTION be “born” at any given specified date (whether in the first This paper aims to put two very important themes on the millennium BCE or in the European Renaissance or table and link them. Firstly, if Assyriologists, following, Enlightenment), effectively blocking the way to e.g., Steele, contend that “it seems very unlikely that [the understanding the origins of science, with the earliest, mid-second millennium BCE, Mesopotamian] “discoverers” then affecting surprise at this immaculate eclipse omens refer to specific events in the past,” 1 then it conception. In fact, however, there is a long history of follows that any evidence of Egyptian astronomical observation that is documented in Egypt long before the observations in the third and early second millennia earliest Mesopotamian evidence that the Assyriologists would be of great importance to the history of science.
    [Show full text]
  • Serious Original Babylonian Astronomy
    Establishment Mealticket Hoax: Serious Original Babylonian Astronomyo Latest Case of THE EXPERTS Insisting Eternally on the Obvious Truth's 180 Opposite: FlatEarth Occultists as the SecretRigorouslyScientific Source of High Greek Astronomy?! www.dioi.org/jb.pdf Dennis Rawlins 2020 March 20 [email protected] A Traditional History of Ancient Astronomy A1 Politically dominant historians of ancient mathematical science have glorified Babylonian astronomy & Claudius Ptolemy for most of a century: [1] claiming the former was originator of the three 1s­accurate monthlengths of high Hellenistic astronomy (e.g., xB2 below; Yale University's Asger Aaboe 1955 Centaurus 4:122­125; Princetitute's Otto Neugebauer Exact Sciences in Antiquity 2nd ed. 1957 p.157), and [2] ranking Ptolemy, compiler of the geocen­ trist&astrological bible, the Almajest, as “The Greatest Astronomer of Antiquity”: Harvard's Owen Gingerich Science 193:476­477 (1976/8/6) & Isis 93.1:70­74 (2002/3), copying Neugebauer History of Ancient Mathematical Astronomy 1975 p.931, verbatim. So: which was the greatest primary astronomy, Babylonian or Ptolemaic? Answer: neither. Each's main astronomy was utterly derivative. Ptolemy we have dispensed with elsewhere: www.dioi.org/pg.pdf, showing that his Almajest, which the most influential historians deem “one of the greatest pieces of scientific analysis ever written” (Neugebauer 1957 p.191), was instead just an able mathematician's mimickry of science, computationally deriving all Almajest celestial elements from faked allegedly­outdoor “observations”
    [Show full text]
  • Pliny's Defense of Empire Thomas Raymond Laehn Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected]
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2010 Pliny's defense of empire Thomas Raymond Laehn Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Political Science Commons Recommended Citation Laehn, Thomas Raymond, "Pliny's defense of empire" (2010). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 3314. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/3314 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. PLINY’S DEFENSE OF EMPIRE A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Political Science by Thomas Raymond Laehn B.A., Drake University, 2004 M.A., Louisiana State University, 2008 December 2010 © Copyright 2010 Thomas Raymond Laehn All rights reserved ii Crescat scientia; vita excolatur. ~ Paul Shorey iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A lengthy list of acknowledgments is a particularly appropriate beginning for an essay on the Elder Pliny. Pliny himself begins the text of his Natural History with a detailed list of his sources, and he thereby affirms one of the text’s central messages – namely, that at any point in human history, a man’s individual achievements are dependent upon the achievements of the human species as a whole and upon the antecedent efforts of the members of the previous generation to pass on the collective patrimony of the human race.
    [Show full text]
  • Index More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-41955-0 — Between Greece and Babylonia Kathryn Stevens Index More Information INDEX Abnu Šikinšu, 273–4 Antimenidas, brother of Alcaeus, 16 Adapa, 98n.12, 99 Antioch on the Orontes, 28, 244, 246 Aḫ’ûtu family, Uruk, 226–7, 320, 324–6 in Akkadian texts, 256n.6, 259–60, 290, Akesines river, 286–7, 301, 309 293, 297, 306 akītu festival, 224, 321 library at, 164 Akkadian language, 4 Antiochus Cylinder, from Borsippa, 26, disappearance of, 370–1 198, 220–3, 251, 258 loan-words into Greek, 17 Antiochus I of Commagene, 72 transcriptions in Greek alphabet, 56–7, Antiochus I Soter 95, 117–19, 268. See also and Berossus, 114–17, 270 Graeco-Babyloniaca land grants in Babylonia, 358 usage in Hellenistic Babylonia, 25 patronage of Babylonian culture, 198, Alexander Balas, 206, 208, 244 220–4, 361–2 Alexander of Aetolia, 205 patronage of Greek intellectual culture, Alexander Polyhistor, 96, 106, 163 206–7, 214, 244, 247 Alexander the Great, 233, 283, 287 Antiochus II Theos, 116, 155, 201, 325, interactions with Chaldaeans, 86, 358 229–31 Antiochus III Megas, 227, 366 Alexandria, 27 patronage of Babylonian culture, 224–5 astrology at, 86 patronage of Greek intellectual culture, astronomy at, 86, 145 206, 242, 244, 246 Library and Museum. See Library of Antiochus VIII Epiphanes, 216 Alexandria; Museum of Alexandria Antiochus IX Eusebes Cyzicenus, 212 Almanacs, 49, 370, 378 antiscion, 72 ammatu. See cubit Anu (god), 321, 323, 326, 352, 354, Amurru, 264 378 Anaxandridas of Delphi, 335–6, 342 elevation in Uruk pantheon,
    [Show full text]
  • On the Intersection of Power and Prediction: Aspects of Divination in Early China and Greece Lisa Raphals University of California, Riverside
    On the Intersection of Power and Prediction: Aspects of Divination in Early China and Greece Lisa Raphals University of California, Riverside This material is part of an extensive comparative study of the roles of divination in the formative cultures of China and Greece.1 By divination I mean a deliberate search for understanding of the hidden significance of events in the future, present or past. (If it were obvious, there would be no need to divine.) As a set of coherent reasonable technologies for predicting (and potentially controlling) the future, divination emerges as a major constitutive element in both Chinese and Greek thought and social practice, but its importance only begins with predicting the future. Divination was also used to interpret the hidden causes or significance of events, variously understood as the will of the gods, patterns of change, or cosmic principles. It affected the development of medicine, law, philosophy, politics, and the history of science.2 Recent research stresses the dual aspect of divination, as both a set of mental attitudes and a set of social institutions. A series of studies over the past two decades have focused on important sociological and epistemological dimensions of divination, both in antiquity and in the present. Recognition of the importance of the social role of divination invites many other questions. What domains of society were under the authority of divination, and where were diviners in the hierarchy of members of a society who wield the power of decision, such as kings, priests, or judges? The possibility and act of prophecy themselves created important choices that determined decisions on both public and private matters.
    [Show full text]
  • 9780521830102.Pdf
    P1:GDZ/FFX P2:GDZ/FFX QC: GDZ/FFX T1:GDZ CB735-FM CB735-Rochberg-v1 July 6, 2004 10:7 This page intentionally left blank P1:GDZ/FFX P2:GDZ/FFX QC: GDZ/FFX T1:GDZ CB735-FM CB735-Rochberg-v1 July 6, 2004 10:7 THE HEAVENLY WRITING In antiquity, the expertise of the Babylonians in matters of the heavens was legendary, and the roots of both western astronomy and astrology are trace- able in cuneiform tablets going back to the second and first millennia b.c. The Heavenly Writing discusses Babylonian celestial divination, horoscopy, and astronomy, the differentiations and interconnections within them, and their place in Mesopotamian intellectual culture. Focusing chiefly on celes- tial divination and horoscopes, it traces the emergence of personal astrology from the tradition of celestial divination and the way astronomical methods were employed for horoscopes. It further takes up the historiographical and philosophical issue of the nature of these Mesopotamian “celestial sciences” by examining elements traditionally of concern to the philosophy of science (empiricism, prediction, and theory) in relation to the Babylonian material without sacrificing the ancient methods, goals, and interests to a modern image of science. This book will be of particular interest to those concerned with the early history of science and the problems introduced by modern distinctions among science, magic, and religion for the study and understanding of ancient cultures. Francesca Rochberg is Professor of History at the University of California, Riverside, and the recipient of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship.
    [Show full text]
  • Studies in the Greek Astronomers
    Eudoxian Topics Huxley, George Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1963; 4, 2; ProQuest pg. 83 Studies in the Greek Astronomers George Huxley I Eudoxian Topics T IS OBVIOUS THAT EUDOXUS OF CNIDUS occupies a distinguished I position in the intellectual life of Greece in the fourth century B.C.: he was a mathematician, an astronomer, a lawgiver, and a geo­ grapher, and the interests of this astonishing man reached into medicine and philosophy. As an associate of Plato and a friend of Aristotle, Eudoxus repays examination by Platonists and Aristotel­ ians, but he is hardly less interesting for himself and his own work. He still awaits a biographer, but the range of his interests was so great and the evidence for his work is so fragmentary that it is doubtful whether a definitive biography could be written. In this essay we consider a few only of the outstanding problems concerning his life and work. The Chronology of Eudoxus' Life The attempt to determine the dates of his birth has given rise to a number of estimates ranging from 420 to about 390 B.C.! All make use of the statement of Apollodorus2 that Eudoxus died in his fifty-third year and flourished in the 103rd Olympiad (368 to 365 B.C.). If Apollo­ dorus placed his floruit in his fortieth year then he lived from ca. 408 B.C. to ca. 355 B.C., and these dates are given for his lifespan in many textbooks. However, we do not know that Apollodorus assumed that Eudoxus was forty in 368 B.C., and if Eudoxus died in 355 then he predeceased Plato; but a passage in Pliny shows clearly that Eudoxus 1 Among the dates suggested for his birth have been: 390, Fr.
    [Show full text]
  • The Military Dimension of Hellenistic Kingship: an Achaemenid Inheritance?
    1 This paper was submitted in December 2008 for publication in Orient und Okzident: Antagonismus oder Konstrukt?, the proceedings of a conference held in Würzburg in April 2008. Final proofs were corrected in May 2012. It has now (July 2013) been announced that the volume will not be published. It remains to be seen whether publication of the complete volume can be undertaken by a different press or individual items will have to appear in separate locations. Whatever the outcome, the present contribution will be published in some form, but in the meantime it I feel entitled to post it here. For the time being, the paper (below) can be referred to as: http://www.achemenet.com/document/TUPLIN_Military_dimension_of_hellenistic_kingship_08_2013.pdf The Military Dimension of Hellenistic Kingship: An Achaemenid Inheritance? Christopher Tuplin (Liverpool) Introduction In a paper presented in Athens in 2006 I argued that, although the Seleucid idea of ruling Anatolia and Western Asia from a Syro-Mesopotamian centre and through a largely Greco- Macedonian ethno-classe dominante is hard to imagine without the Achaemenid project of ruling a similar area from an Irano-Mesopotamian centre through a largely Persian ethno-classe dominante and although Seleucid stress on Macedonian identity might be said to echo Achaemenid stress on Persian identity, the interest lies in the differences between the two dispensations.1 In that paper I devoted only a few lines to the military dimension and, when the invitation to Würzburg came, I thought it might be worth exploring it further, especially in view of the imminent release of the Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Warfare.
    [Show full text]