Vettius Valens
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Vettius Valens (c. 120- c. 175) was a second-century Hellenistic astrologer, a somewhat younger contemporary of Claudius Ptolemy.
Valens is known to us because of his major work, Anthologiae, a multi-volume work in Greek which was written roughly within the period 150 to 175, and is a very comprehensive textbook of the astrology of that period. Unlike Ptolemy, Valens was a working professional astrologer, and one of great curiosity. He appears to have traveled widely in Egypt, where very accurate working astrologers of the older Babylonian, Greek and Egyptian traditions (generally called Chaldeans by their contemporaries) could still be found. He published much of what he learned in his Anthologiae, and, in addition, included over 100 astrological chart examples. This gives the Anthologiae great value in piecing together the actual working techniques of the period. It also makes the material much easier to understand.
The works attributed to pharaoh Nechepso and the high priest Petosiris (pseudopigraphal authors of the second century BC Hermetic tradition) survived mainly in this "anthology".
Although the version we have of the Anthologiae is a copy from several centuries after Valens' death, the text is still quite reliable and complete.
Although Ptolemy, the astronomer, mathematician and astrologer of ancient Alexandria, and author of Tetrabiblos, (the most influential astrological text ever written), was generally regarded as the colossus of Hellenistic period astrology in the many centuries following his death, it is most likely that the actual practical astrology of the period resembled the methods elaborated in Valens' Anthologiae. Modern scholars tend to counterpoise the two men, since both were roughly contemporary and lived in Alexandria; yet Valens' work elaborated the more divinatory practices that arose from ancient religion, while Ptolemy, very much the scientist, tended to exclude them. The balance given by Valens' Anthologiae is therefore very instructive. No other Hellenistic author has contributed as much to our understanding of the everyday, practical astrological methods of the early Roman era.
[edit] References
- J. Komorowska, Vettius Valens of Antioch: An Intellectual Monography (Cracow: Ksiegarnia Akademicka, 2004; ISBN 83-7188-721-3.)
- Neugebauer, O. and Van Hoesen, H.B. Greek Horoscopes, (Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1959).
- Vettius Valens. Anthologiarum libri novem, ed. David Pingree (Leipzig, 1986).
- Vettius Valens d'Antioche. Anthologies Livre 1, translation and commentary (in French) by J.Fr. Bara (Leiden: Brill, 1989).
- Vettius Valens. The Anthology. Book III. [translated by Robert Schmidt and edited by Robert Hand.] Project Hindsight, Greek Track, Vol. VIII (The Golden Hind Press, Berkeley Springs, WV, 1994).
