Adrastus of Cyzicus () is an individual who is mentioned along with Dion of Naples () in a work of
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...
. He was apparently an
ancient Roman
In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...
astronomer. Although, from Augustine's brief and second-hand account, we can know very little of his life or works, he was cited as an authoritative astronomical observer from antiquity.
According to Augustine's ''
De Civitate Dei contra Paganos'',
Varro (116 BC – 27 BC) the
Roman scholar and writer, cited Adrastus and Dion as authorities for the dating of an astronomical phenomenon involving
Venus, describing them as ''mathematici nobiles'' (distinguished astronomers, or possibly astrologers). Again according to Augustine, Varro recorded this in his work ''De gente populi Romani''.
[Augustine. '' De Civitate Dei''. Book XXI, Chapter 8] Although Varro's writing is now lost, Augustine quoted from it:
Augustine used these ancient astronomical reports to further his what has been called his "
epistemic theory of miracles". Here, Augustine argued that if Varro called the phenomenon that Adrastus and Dion reported, a "
portent", then it could not be contrary to nature, but must simply be inexplicable under our current understanding of nature.
In antiquity,
Cyzicus was an important commercial town in
Mysia in
Anatolia.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adrastus of Cyzicus
Ancient Roman astronomers