Antiochus of Athens

Antiochus of Athens was an influential Hellenistic astrologer, although there is some disagreement as to when he lived and wrote. Some date him as early as the 1st century BCE, while others date him as late as the end of the 2nd century CE.David Pingree, "Antiochus and Rhetorius", Classical Philology, Vol. 72, No. 3, July, 1977, pp.203-223. [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0009-837X%28197707%2972%3A3%3C203%3AAAR%3E2.0.CO%3B2-L] ] The works ascribed to him are a "Thesaurus" and possibly an introduction to astrology. Intact writings have not survived, although he is extensively quoted or paraphrased by later writers, particularly the Neoplatonist Porphyry, and Rhetorius of Egypt. There is also a later Byzantine epitome, or summary, of his work.

Antiochus' work was highly influential among later astrologers, with parts of his text being used as the basis for Porphyry's third-century "Introduction to the Tetrabiblos of Ptolemy", as well as being quoted at length by Hephaistio of Thebes (380 A.D.), and being referenced by Julius Firmicus Maternus (c. 336 A.D.).

Antiochus' work is particularly useful because it mainly consists of definitions of terminology, which are seldom defined in the works of later astrologers. For example, Porphyry relies heavily on him for definitions of technical terms which Ptolemy uses in his Tetrabiblos, but never defines. Antiochus has one of the earliest references to astrological reception, and provides detailed explanations of the subtleties of Hellenistic aspect doctrine, which includes both sign-based aspects and degree-based aspects.

References

Further reading

*Antiochus of Athens, "The Thesaurus", Project Hindsight Greek Track, translated by Robert Schmidt, edited by Robert Hand, 1993.
*Marilynn Lawrence (West Chester U. of Penn.) in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Hellenistic Astrology [http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/astr-hel.htm] -- section on Porphyry.
*Bill Johnston, article on Oktotopos for Association for Young Astrologers, retrieved January 6, 2006 [http://www.youngastrologers.org/pow_archive/7-3-2005.htm]
*Robert Schmidt, Project Hindsight [http://www.projecthindsight.com/reference/catalog.html] -- on Antiochus and Porphyry.
*Deborah Houlding at Skyscript [http://www.skyscript.co.uk/reception2.html] -- article on reception.