Astronomica

It was so necessary for the Chaldeans to have existed, that all practitioners of that art—or rather, that madness—regardless of their actual nation, have been called "Chaldeans" from the most remote antiquity until now. I will remain silent regarding the Holy Bible, in which there exist clear proofs of the name and the art of the Chaldeans. The author likely refers to the Book of Daniel or the Magi, where "Chaldean" is synonymous with astrologer or wise man. Yet, the supporters of the Chaldeans and Egyptians cannot deny that even the most ancient Greeks used a form of astrology; though they used it only for the signaling of storms and for the proper times for plowing and sowing. They observed the rising of the Dog Star original: "Caniculæ"; the star Sirius and were accustomed to predict the harvest of crops from it—a practice we have fully indicated elsewhere as being common among the people of Ceos and Cilicia.

Furthermore, the forty-nine celestial formations The traditional constellations belong not only to the Greeks, but even to the most ancient among them, whereas other formations belonged to the Indians, others to the Persians, and others even to the Chaldeans themselves. Indeed, in Homer we find the Wagon original: "ἅμαξαν" (hamaxan); the Big Dipper or Ursa Major, which consists of seven stars; the Hyades and the Pleiades, which consist of the same number each; and Orion, which consists of many more. In Hesiod, besides these same stars—which he describes in the same verse as Homer—we find the rising of Arcturus sixty days after the winter solstice original: "brumæ sidere" has passed: that is, sixty degrees from the beginning of Capricorn.

However, Euctemon placed that same rising at 14 degrees of Pisces, seventy-three parts from the winter solstice. Therefore, from the time of Hesiod to Euctemon, an addition original: "πρόσθεσις" (prosthesis); an adjustment or increment of 14 parts had been made, in the 345th year of Iphitus, in which Meton and Euctemon made those observations—