[89]
"But let us dismiss our witnesses and employ
reasoning. Those men who defend the natal-day
prophecies of the Chaldeans, argue in this way:
' In the starry belt which the Greeks call the Zodiac
there is a certain force of such a nature that every
part of that belt affects and changes the heavens in a
different way, according to the stars that are in
this or in an adjoining locality at a given time.
This force is variously affected by those stars which
are called 'planets' or 'wandering' stars. But
when they have come into that sign of the Zodiac
under which someone is born, or into a sign having
some connexion or accord with the natal sign, they
form what is called a 'triangle' or 'square.'1 Now
since, through the procession and retrogression of
the stars, the great variety and change of the
seasons and of temperature take place, and since
the power of the sun produces such results as are
before our eyes, they believe that it is not merely
probable, but certain, that just as the temperature
of the air is regulated by this celestial force, so also
[p. 473]
children at their birth are influenced in soul and
body and by this force their minds, manners, disposition, physical condition, career in life and
destinies are determined.
1 See Moser, Div., ad loc., note on “triangle” and “square”; cf. Sext. Empir. Adv. mathem. v. 39.
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