Epigenes of Byzantium

Epigenes of Byzantium (Greek: Έπιγένης ὁ Βυζάντιος; unknown-circa 200 BC) was a Greek astrologer. He seems to have been an earlier supporter of astrology, which, though derided by many Greek intellectuals, came to be accepted after Alexander the Great conquered major parts of the Near East.[1]

For other people with the same name, see Epigenes (disambiguation).

The sources for the life of Epigenes are Seneca the Younger (c 65 AD), Pliny the Elder (c. 77 AD), and Censorinus (c. 238 AD).[2]

Epigenes' claims to have been educated by the Chaldeans comes from the writings of Seneca.[3] Pliny the Elder writes that Epigenes attests to the fact that the Chaldeans preserved astral observations in inscriptions upon brick tiles (coctilibus laterculis) extending to a period of 720 years. Pliny calls Epigenes a writer of first-rate authority (gravis auctor imprimis).[4] Smith interprets this to mean that Epigenes came before Berossus.[2]

It is unclear when Epigenes lived - he may have lived about the time of Augustus; some conjecture that he lived centuries earlier - but he is known to have refined the study of his chosen field, defining Saturn, for example, as "cold and windy." Along with Apollonius of Myndus and Artemidorus of Parium,[5] he boasted of having been instructed by the Chaldean priest-astrologers.[6]

The 55-km lunar crater Epigenes is named after him.

References
  1. Beck R., A Brief History of Ancient Astrology, Blackwell, 2007, p.15. Gilbert Murray has written earlier 'astrology fell upon the Hellenistic mind as a new disease falls upon some remote island people' (Five Stages of Greek Religion, NY:Doubleday, 1955, p177)
  2. W. Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1867), " Epigenes of Byzantium", Vol. II, page 36. Perseus
  3. Seneca, Nat. Quaest., vii.3.
  4. Pliny, Historia Naturalis, vii.(56).193.
  5. Nothing is known about Artemidorus of Parium other than what Seneca the Younger says in Naturales quaestiones', book I, chapter IV and book VII, chapters XIII and XIV.
  6. Cumont, Franz (1912). Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans. Vol. 1. Library of Alexandria. p. 33. doi:10.2307/4386691. hdl:2027/mdp.39015014125911. JSTOR 4386691. S2CID 170659380. Also at Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans

See also
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