[43]. Vettius Valens, IX, 8 (Cat. codd. astr., V, 2, p. 123 = p. 346, 20, Kroll ed.), VI, prooem. (Cat., ibid. p. 34, p. 35, 14 = p. 242, 16, 29, Kroll ed.); cf. the passages of Philo collected by Cohn, De opificio mundi, c. 23, p. 24, and Capelle, loc. cit.
[44]. Manilius, IV, 14.
[45]. Cf. my article on L'éternité des empereurs (Rev. hist. litt. relig., I), 1898, pp. 445 ff.
[46]. Reitzenstein, to whom belongs the credit of having shown the strength of this astrological fatalism (see infra, n. [57]), believes that it developed in Egypt, but surely he is wrong. In this connection see the observations of Bousset, Götting. gel. Anzeigen, 1905, p. 704.
[47]. The most important work is unfortunately lost: it was the Περὶ εἱμαρμένης by Diodorus of Tarsus. Photius has left us a summary (cod. 223). We possess a treatise on the same subject by Gregory of Nyssa (P. G., XLV, p. 145). They were supported by the Platonist Hierocles (Photius, cod. 214, p. 172 b.).—Many attacks on astrology are found in St. Ephraim, Opera syriaca, II, pp. 437 ff.; St. Basil (Hexaem., VI, 5), St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Methodus (Symp., P. G., XVII, p. 1173); later in St. John Chrysostom, Procopus of Gaza, etc. A curious extract from Julian of Halicarnassus has been published by Usener, Rheinisches Mus., LV, 1900, p. 321.—We have spoken briefly of the Latin polemics in the Revue d'hist. et de litt. relig., VIII, 1903, pp. 423 f. A work entitled De Fato (Bardenhewer, Gesch. altchr. Lit., I, p. 315) has been attributed to Minucius Felix; Nicetas of Remesiana (about 400) wrote a book Adversus genethlialogiam (Gennadius, Vir. inl., c. 22), but the principal adversary of the mathematici was St. Augustine (Civ. Dei, c. 1 ff.; Epist., 246, ad Lampadium, etc.). See also Wendland, Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur, p. 172, n. 2.
[48]. The influence of the astrological ideas was felt by the Arabian paganism before Mohammed; see supra, ch. V, n. [57].
[49]. Dante, Purg., XXX, 109 ff.—In the Convivio, II, ch. XIV, Dante expressly professes the doctrine of the influence of the stars over human affairs.—The church succeeded in extirpating the learned astrology of the Latin world almost completely at the beginning of the Middle Ages. We do not know of one astrological treatise, or of one manuscript of the Carlovingian period, but the ancient faith in the power of the stars continued in secret and gained new strength when Europe came in contact with Arabian science.
[50]. Bouché-Leclercq devotes a chapter to them (pp. 609 ff.).
[51]. Seneca, Quaest. Nat., II, 35: "Expiationes et procurationes nihil aliud esse quam aegrae mentis solatia. Fata inrevocabiliter ius suum peragunt nec ulla commoventur prece." Cf. Schmidt, Veteres philosophi quomodo iudicaverint de precibus, Giessen, 1907, p. 34.—Vettius Valens, V, 9, (Catal. codd. astr., V, 2 p. 30, 11 = p. 220, 28, Kroll ed.), professes that Ἀδύνατόν τινα εὐχαῖς ἢ θυσίαις ἐπινικῆσαι τὴν ἐξ ἀρχῆς καταβολήν κ. τ. λ., but he seems to contradict himself, IX, 8 (p. 347, 1 ff.).