The History of Astrology -- Another View

by Robert Hand

Part I

Introduction



The material presented here originally was an introduction that I wrote to a volume of Project Hindsight translations called "The Record of the Early Sages in Ancient Greek." It consisted of fragments and quotations that either were directly from the oldest sources in Middle Eastern and Western astrology, or were paraphrases of material that *derived from these sources.



Since there has recently been posted on alt.astrology an article called "A Brief Introduction to the History of Astrology" which contains a large number of factual errors. We at Project Hindsight thought it a good idea to present another view. We do not expect everyone to accept the views presented in this paper, but the readers should be aware that these views are close to those shared by the majority of responsible scholars in the history of astrology. (No, I am not calling all who disagree with these views irresponsible, although no doubt some may be.)



For those who may not be aware of it, Project Hindsight is a project which aims at nothing less than the translation of the entire corpus of surviving Greek astrology as well as the translation of as much of the Medieval Latin tradition as is practical. We are and will be also doing translations from Hebrew, Sanskrit, and we hope Arabic. At this point I believe that we can say that our collective work represents the largest available body of material on the History of Astrology in English today. Therefore I believe we have some idea of what we are talking about even while recognizing we may have to change our views based on what further research brings forth. We can be contacted at



The Golden Hind Press

P.O. Box 002

Berkeley Springs, WV 25411

Tel. (304) 258-5873



Or http://www.projhind.com





The Paper

Mesopotamian Origins

1792-1750 B.C.E. Hammurabi unifies the area around Babylon.





1350 B.C.E. The rise of the Assyrian Empire.





730-650 B.C.E. Assyrian Empire controls all of Mesopotamia, parts of Persia, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. This is also notable as the first time that Egypt and Babylon were under the same regime.





612 B.C.E. The fall of Assyria and the rise of the Second Babylonian Empire. The Babylonian people that brought this about were also known as Chaldeans, hence the term Chaldean Empire.





539 B.C.E. The conquest of Babylonia by Persia. For a second time Egypt and Babylon were under one regime.





331 B.C.E. The conquest of Mesopotamia by Alexander the Great. The entire area becomes dominated by Greek language and culture. The Seleucid dynasty descended from Alexander's general Seleukos ruled the area including Mesopotamia.





126 B.C.E. The Parthians, a Persian tribe, conquered Mesopotamia.





227 C.E. The Sassanids, a people from the central area of Persia, overthrow the Parthians and establish the Second Persian Empire, or Sassanid Empire.





635 C.E. The Moslem Arabs overthrow the Sassanid Empire and Mesopotamia comes under the rule of various Caliphates.

3200 B.C.E. First evidence of strong political forces in the Nile basin. Also the earliest hieroglyphic writings. Evidence of a fairly high culture in the area precedes this by several centuries.





c.2755-2255 B.C.E. The Old Kingdom. The pyramids date from this time. The first solar calendar was developed.





c.2255-2134 B.C.E. Interregnum.





c.2134-1668 B.C.E. The Middle Kingdom.





c.1668-1570 B.C.E. The second interregnum, the period of the Hyksos, a race of probable Semites dominated Egypt during this period.





1570-1070 B.C.E. The New Kingdom. This is the period of the Kings Amenhotep, Akhnaten, Tutankhamem, and the various Kings Rameses. The exodus of the Israelites is widely believed to have occurred in this period.





1070 - 671 B.C.E. The third interregnum. Various regional dynasties ruled. In 671 B.C.E. the Assyrians conquered Egypt for a time.





525 B.C.E. The Persians overthrew the last native ruler of Egypt.





332 B.C.E. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt. It then came under the rule of the Ptolemies descended from Ptolemy I, another of Alexander's generals.





30 B.C.E. Cleopatra, the last of the Ptolemies, dies and the Romans take over.

Subsequently Egypt fell under Arabic rule at about the same time as the Sassanid Empire was overthrown.

Copyright 1996 © by Robert Hand.



Our thanks to tees.reitsma@astronet.idn.nl (Tees Reitsma) for initiating contact with Mr. Hand and securing his permission to post this material to the Oracle-a list. And our thanks to Mr. Hand for giving us permission to post his material here.



Mr. Hand has been doing translations of ancient and medieval astrology texts now for almost three years with Project Hindsight and that effort has published over 2000 pages of translations and commentary. If anyone is interested in further information on Project Hindsight, they have a web page at Project Hindsight. Small warning: have your modem at maximum speed. The graphics take a long time to load.



Microsoft® and Encarta® are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

Click your BACK BUTTON to return to the Astrology Deepartment



AccessNewAge Home Page Looking Deeper Magazine