Rhetorius of Egypt

From HellenisticWiki

Rhetorius of Egypt (Ῥητόριος ὁ Αἰγύπτιος) was one of the latest astrologers in the Hellenistic tradition, flourishing in either the early 6th or early 7th century CE.

The Dating of Rhetorius

Pingree dated Rhetorius to the early 7th century, just before the Muslim conquest of Egypt, due to a chart contained in his work which he dated to February 24, 601 CE.[1] However, Holden has recently challenged Pingree’s dating by arguing that this example is a hypothetical chart with arbitrary positions rather than an actual datable nativity, seeing as how neither the position of the ascendant nor any facts about the native’s life are given in that chapter.[2] Holden points out that the majority of the internal evidence within Rhetorius’ Compendium points to an early 6th century dating, and when the legitimacy of the aberrant 7th century horoscope is called into question it makes the earlier dating the only tenable solution.

While Holden appears to have more evidence in favor of his argument for a 6th century dating of Rhetorius, it is not necessarily clear that the 7th century chart is hypothetical, and thus the dating of Rhetorius must still be left as an unresolved issue.

Translation Project

Portions of Rhetorius' Compendium are currently being translated in the Rhetorius of Egypt Translation Project on this wiki.

Endnotes

• 1. David Pingree, Classical and Byzantine Astrology in Sassanian Persia, pg. 232.
• 2. James Holden, Rhetorius the Egyptian, pg. 158.