Rhetorius of Egypt ( el, Ῥητόριος) was the last major classical astrologer from whom we have any excerpts. He lived in the sixth or early seventh century, in the early

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

era. He wrote an extensive compendium in

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

of the techniques of the

Hellenistic In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...

astrologers who preceded him, and is one of our best sources for the work of

Antiochus of Athens Antiochus of Athens ( grc-gre, Ἀντίοχος ὁ Ἀθηναῖος) was an influential Hellenistic astrologer who flourished sometime between the late 1st and mid 2nd century AD. There is some disagreement as to when he lived and wrote. Franz ...

. Although no intact original manuscript survives of his work, we do have several late Byzantine versions of it. Rhetorius provides important confirmation of the survival of the more obscure astrological techniques of

Vettius Valens Vettius Valens (120 – c. 175) was a 2nd-century Hellenistic astrologer, a somewhat younger contemporary of Claudius Ptolemy. Valens' major work is the ''Anthology'' ( la, Anthologia), ten volumes in Greek written roughly within the period 150 t ...

, the practicing astrologer whose tradition is somewhat at variance with the more well-known methods of

Claudius Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; grc-gre, Πτολεμαῖος, ; la, Claudius Ptolemaeus; AD) was a mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist, who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were of importance ...

; for example, in his treatment of the Lot of Fortune as a '' horoskopos'', much as Valens treated Lots, and in his use of

sect A sect is a subgroup of a religious, political, or philosophical belief system, usually an offshoot of a larger group. Although the term was originally a classification for religious separated groups, it can now refer to any organization that b ...

with lots. In addition, Rhetorius discusses the late-Roman systems of time lords, a topic which came to be heavily developed by the

Persians The Persians are an Iranian ethnic group who comprise over half of the population of Iran. They share a common cultural system and are native speakers of the Persian language as well as of the languages that are closely related to Persian. ...

Arabs The Arabs (singular: Arab; singular ar, عَرَبِيٌّ, DIN 31635: , , plural ar, عَرَب, DIN 31635, DIN 31635: , Arabic pronunciation: ), also known as the Arab people, are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in Wester ...

and

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

Europeans. Rhetorius provides an informative link between the earlier Hellenistic tradition and the Arab and medieval practices that followed him.

Sources

* ''Rhetorius qui dictur: Compendium astrologicum: Libri Vi et VI'', edited by David Pingree, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, 2007. * Rhetorius the Egyptian, ''Astrological Compendium'' (Tempe, Az.: A.F.A., Inc., 2009.) translated by James Herschel Holden.
Robert Schmidt, Project Hindsight
*Dorian Gieseler Greenbaum (translation and commentary). Late Classical Astrology: Paulus Alexandrinus and Olympiodorus (with the Scholia of later Latin Commentators). ARHAT, 2001.
Rhetorius of Egypt on The Hellenistic Astrology website

External links

6th-century births 7th-century deaths Byzantine writers Byzantine astrologers 6th-century Byzantine writers 7th-century Byzantine writers 6th-century Byzantine people 7th-century Byzantine people 6th-century astrologers 7th-century astrologers 6th-century Byzantine scientists 7th-century Byzantine scientists {{sci-hist-stub