Epigenes of Byzantium ( el, Έπιγένης ὁ Βυζάντιος; unknown-circa 200 BC) was a

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 ...

astrologer. He seems to have been an earlier supporter of

astrology Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Di ...

, which, though derided by many Greek intellectuals, came to be accepted after

Alexander the Great Alexander III of Macedon ( grc, Ἀλέξανδρος, Alexandros; 20/21 July 356 BC – 10/11 June 323 BC), commonly known as Alexander the Great, was a king of the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon. He succeeded his father Philip II to ...

conquered major parts of the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

. The sources for the life of Epigenes are

Seneca the Younger Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Younger (; 65 AD), usually known mononymously as Seneca, was a Stoic philosopher of Ancient Rome, a statesman, dramatist, and, in one work, satirist, from the post-Augustan age of Latin literature. Seneca was born ...

(c 65 AD),

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic ' ...

(c. 77 AD), and

Censorinus Censorinus was a Roman grammarian and miscellaneous writer from the 3rd century AD. Biography He was the author of a lost work ''De Accentibus'' and of an extant treatise ''De Die Natali'', written in 238, and dedicated to his patron Quintus C ...

(c. 238 AD).W. Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1867)'', " Epigenes of Byzantium", Vol. II, page 36
Perseus
/ref> Epigenes' claims to have been educated by the Chaldeans comes from the writings of Seneca.

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''). Smith interprets this to mean that Epigenes came before

Berossus Berossus () or Berosus (; grc, Βηρωσσος, Bērōssos; possibly derived from akk, , romanized: , "Bel is his shepherd") was a Hellenistic-era Babylonian writer, a priest of Bel Marduk and astronomer who wrote in the Koine Greek language ...

. Epigenes refined the study of his chosen field, defining

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...

, for example, as "cold and windy." Along with

Apollonius of Myndus Apollonius ( grc, Απολλώνιος) of Myndus lived at the time of Alexander the Great, that is, the 4th century BCE, and was particularly skilled in explaining horoscopes. He professed to have learned his art from the Chaldeans. His statements ...

and Artemidorus of Parium, he boasted of having been instructed by the

Chaldea Chaldea () was a small country that existed between the late 10th or early 9th and mid-6th centuries BCE, after which the country and its people were absorbed and assimilated into the indigenous population of Babylonia. Semitic-speaking, it was ...

n priest-astrologers. Also a
Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans
/ref> The 55-km

lunar crater Lunar craters are impact craters on Earth's Moon. The Moon's surface has many craters, all of which were formed by impacts. The International Astronomical Union currently recognizes 9,137 craters, of which 1,675 have been dated. History The w ...

Epigenes is named after him.

References

External links

Dictionary of Roman and Greek Biography and Mythology
* Franz Cumont (1905
''Astrology and Religion Among the Greeks and Romans''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Epigenes Of Byzantium Ancient Greek astrologers Ancient Byzantines Byzantine astrologers Hellenistic astrology Chaldea

See also

References

External links