at Apollonia; and if so, some time in the course of the first six months after the death of Julius Cæsar, when Cæsar Octavianus, as he was called at that time, and we may presume Agrippa, were actually both at Apollona 1. It appears from Dio also m that Augustus some time or other published his own Horoscope: Καίτοι οὕτως οὐδὲν τῷ Αὐγούστῳ τῶν καθ ̓ ἑαυτὸν ἔμελεν ὥστε καὶ ἐκ προγραφῆς πᾶσι τὴν τῶν ἀστέρων διάταξιν ὑφ' ὧν ἐγεγέννητο φανερῶσαι. Suetonius attests this also, adding that he was born in Capricornk: Tantam mox fiduciam fati Augustus habuit ut thema suum vulgaverit, numumque argenteum nota sideris Capricorni quo natus est percussit. And coins so struck by him with this impress are actually still in existence ". This circumstance of his nativity however, that he was born in Capricorn, does not rest on the testimony of Suetonius only; nor is he the oldest authority for it. It is attested by Manilius, who was writing in the lifetime of Augustus himself; between the date of the destruction of Varus and the legions in Germany U. C. 762 A. D. 9 and that of the death of Augustus U. C. 767 A. D. 14°. Contra Capricornus in ipsum* Convertit visus. quid enim mirabitur ille Majus? in Augusti felix cum fulserit ortum P. It is confirmed by Germanicus Cæsar also; whose poetical version or paraphrase of Aratus, as this very testimony implies, must have been composed between U. C. 767 the year of the death of Augustus, and U. C. 772 in which he died himself q. Cochlidis inventor cum vis Titania flatu * That is, In se ipsum. 1 Dio, xlv. 3. Appian, B. C. iii. 9. m lvi. 25. k Loc. cit. n Eckhel, Doctrina Namorum Vett. vi. 109. • Astronomica, i. 894-901: cf. 904- Tacitus, Annales, ii. 72. 59. For that Pan or Capricorn is meant in this allusion follows not only from the double form, (that of the goat, and that of the human figure,) but also from the invention ascribed to him, that of the Cochlis, or Trumpet of shell; which the mythology of antiquity referred to Pan, in the war of the Gods and Titans. Οὗτος δὲ (sc. Capricorn as the same with Pan) δοκεῖ εὑρεῖν τὸν κόχλον, ἐν ᾧ τοὺς συμμάχους καθώπλισε, διὰ τὸ τοῦ ἤχου πανικὸν καλούμενον· ὁ οἱ Τιτάνες ἔφευγον. iv. On the Regia Genitura ascribed to Augustus. It appears further from Suetonius, (if the truth of the statement may be depended on,) that in the year of the birth of Augustus something of the nature of a prodigy occurred at Rome, which was interpreted to imply that the birth of a king was at hand. Auctor est Julius Marathus, ante paucos quam nasceretur menses prodigium Romæ factum publice, quo denuntiabatur regem populo Romano naturam parturire: Senatum exterritum censuisse ne quis illo anno genitus educaretur: eos qui gravidas uxores haberent quo ad se quisque spem traheret curasse ne senatus consultum ad ærarium deferretur. Both he at least and Dio record an anecdote, from which it appears that he was supposed to have had a Regia Genitura; that from the moment of his birth the stars had destined him to be a king. u. Somniavit et pater Octavius utero Atiæ jubar solis exortum. quo natus est die cum de Catilinæ conjuratione ageretur in curia, et Octavius ob uxoris puerperium serius adfuisset, nota ac vulgata res est P. Nigidium comperta moræ caussa ut horam quoque partus acceperit affirmasse dominum terrarum orbi natum "Αρτι τε ὁ παῖς ἐγεγέννητο, καὶ Νιγίδιος Φίγουλος βουλευτὴς παραχρῆμα αὐτῷ τὴν αὐταρχίαν ἐμαντεύσατο. ἄριστα γὰρ τῶν καθ' ἑαυτὸν τήν τε τοῦ πόλου διακό σμησιν καὶ τὰς τῶν ἀστέρων διαφορὰς, ὅσα τε καθ' ἑαυτοὺς γιγνόμε νοι καὶ ὅσα συμμίγνυντες ἀλλήλοις ἔν τε ταῖς ὁμιλίαις καὶ ἐν ταῖς ἀποστάσεσιν ἀποτελοῦσι, διέγνω, ... οὗτος οὖν τότε τὸν Οκταούτον βραδύτερον ἐς τὸ συνέδριον διὰ τὸν τοῦ παιδὸς τόκον (ἔτυχε γὰρ βουλὴ οὖσα) ἀπαντήσαντα ἀνήρετο διὰ τί ἐβράδυνε ; καὶ μαθὼν • Eratosthenes, Καταστερισμοί, cap. 27 : cf. Hyginus Poetican Astronomicon xxviii. t Cf. Vita, xliv. 3: lxxix. τὴν αἰτίαν ἀνεβόησεν ὅτι Δεσπότην ἡμῖν ἐγέννησας. καὶ αὐτὸν ἐκταραχθέντα ἐπὶ τούτῳ καὶ διαφθεῖραι τὸ παιδίον ἐθελήσαντα ἐπέσχεν, εἰπὼν ὅτι 'Αδύνατόν ἐστι τοιοῦτόν τι αὐτὸ παθεῖν. τότε μὲν δὴ ταῦτ ̓ ἐλέχθη **. * Publius Nigidius Figulus, mentioned in the preceding anecdote, in the opinion of the Romans of his own times and of after-times also passed for the most learned of their countrymen next to Varro; and in some respects was thought to be superior even to Varro. .... Nigidius Figulus, homo ut ego arbitror juxta M. Varronem doctissimus 1 — M. Varronem et P. Nigidium, viros Romani generis doctissimos 2-P. Nigidii quem M. Cicero ingenii doctrinæque nomine summe reveritus est 3 Etas M. Ciceronis et C. Cæsaris præstanti facundia viros paucos habuit: doctrinarum autem multiformium variarumque artium quibus humanitas erudita est columina habuit M. Varronem et P. Nigidium. sed Varronis quidem monumenta rerum ac disciplinarum quæ per litteras condidit in propatulo frequentique usu feruntur. Nigidianæ autem commentationes non proinde in vulgus exeunt: et obscuritas subtilitasque earum tamquam parum utilis derelicta est. sicuti sunt quæ paullo ante legimus in commentariis ejus quos Grammaticos inscripsit 4- Nigidius autem solus est post Varronem: licet Varro præcellat in theologia hic in communibus litteris: nam uterque utrumque scripserunt 5. In astronomy at least, (or rather astrology,) he was allowed to be Facile princeps among his contemporaries; for which reason he is the person whom Lucan introduces, at the beginning of his Pharsalia, forecasting from the positions and aspects of the planets and of the rest of the heavenly bodies the impending calamities of the war. At Figulus, cui cura deos secretaque cœli Nosse fuit, quem non stellarum Ægyptia Memphis Æquaret visu, numerisque moventibus astra, Aut hic errat ait &c. 6 An absurd story is on record of the reason for which he obtained the surname of Figulus, which properly means a Potter. But though it is referred to by Augustin7 and others we need not hesitate to reject it. The surname of Figulus was much older than his time. We learn from Jerome, in Chronico, that in philosophy Nigidius belonged to the sect of the Pythagoreans, as Varro on the contrary did to the Academy: and that was probably the reason why Cicero dedicated to his memory his translation of the Timæus of Plato 8, the idea of which seems to have been suggested by their meeting at Ephesus on some occasion when Nigidius was returning from Asia Ex legatione, and Cicero was going to Cilicia; 1 A. Gellius, iv. 9. 3 xi. II. 2 iv. 16. 4 xix. 14. 6 i. 639 cf. 658-665. 5 Servius, ad Æn. x. 175. Dio, xlv. 1: cf. Zonaras, x. 13. 494 B. C. This fact then being assumed that the horoscope of Augustus was such as on the principles of the received astrology implied that he was destined to be a king; then the fact already ascertained from testimony that he was born in Capricorn must have been connected in some manner or other with this destination. It must have been understood that those who were born in Capricorn were destined to be kings. Julius Firmicus, a writer on the judicial astrology of antiquity, of the age of the second Christian emperor, Constantius, shews accordingly that these two things were connected. But first of all it is necessary to explain what was meant by the horoscope in a particular instance. And this we shall do in his own words. Ortus est pars horoscopi quæ in omnis genituræ tempore ab orientali parte primum emergit, ac per triginta deinceps partes educitur, quæ a Græcis 'Avaroλǹ appellatur *—Primus est locus, id est illa pars in qua horoscopus est constitutus. in hoc loco vita hominum et spiritus continetur. ex hoc loco totius genituræ fundamenta nascuntur. hic locus ab ea parte in qua fuerit horoscopus vires suas per residuas partes i. e. B. C. 51. He was certainly an intimate friend of Cicero's; and one of his constant counsellors in his consulate U. C. 691 B. C. 63: 'Opoiws δὲ καὶ Κύϊντος ὁ ἀδελφὸς καὶ τῶν ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας ἑταίρων Πόπλιος Νιγίδιος, ᾧ τὰ πλεῖστα καὶ μέγιστα παρὰ τὰς πολιτικὰς ἐχρῆτο πράξεις 3: and he was one of the senators, commissioned by Cicero to examine the Indices or informers against the conspirators 10. A letter from Cicero to him is extant 11, which proves that he must always have been on the most intimate terms with him. Nigidius was then in banishment; from which we must infer that he shared in the misfortunes of Pompey and of the rest who embraced his side, from B. C. 48 to the death of Cæsar at least. We learn in fact from Jerome that he died in banishment, either B. C. 45 or 44 for in his Chronicon, Ad ann. 1972 Olymp. clxxxiii. 4, he has this entry: Nigidius Figulus, Pythagoreus et Magus, in exsilio moritur. And when Cicero wrote the Preface to his Timæus, (a fragment of which is still extant,) he appears to have been then dead. And as he refers to his Academica in this Preface; it was later than the Academica, written B. C. 45. We may conclude then that Nigidius died in B. C. 45. 9 Plutarch, Cicero, xx: cf. An Seni sit gerenda Respublica? xxvii. 42. 10 Oratio xxv. Pro P. Sulla, 14, 41. 11 Ad Fam. iv. 43. * Lib. ii. cap. xviii. Genituræ Cardines. triginta extendit. est autem cardo primus et totius genituræ compago atque substantia quæ reliquis aditum præbety. It thus appears that though the horoscope, in the utmost extent of its meaning, was commensurate with a twelfth part of the ecliptic or zodiac, a space of 30 degrees, yet in its most proper and specific sense it was synonymous with a single degree; it meant some one part of the horoscope itself, the most important of all, because the hinge, the origin, the substance of all the 29 besides, which depended upon it: from which each of them derived not only its proper place in the order of succession, but even its proper power and virtue. In one word it was the first of the 30 degrees which went by the name of the horoscope in general. Now this being the case, if Augustus was born in Capricorn, and if he was supposed to have been born in Capricorn under such circumstances as to have had a regia genitura, to have been designated as a future king by the power and virtue of his horoscope itself; we must necessarily infer both that it was understood he had been born in the first degree of Capricorn, and that those who were born in the first degree of Capricorn were predestinated thereby to be kings. Firmicus confirms this inference also, by telling us subsequently that such was actually the peculiar significancy and virtue attached to the first degree of Capricorn in particular. Prima pars Capricorni si in horoscopo fuerit inventa regem faciet ac principem, et cui maxima conferantur insignia potestatis: a description which accords so exactly to the case of Augustus as to leave no doubt that this particular degree of the ecliptic either actually was in the ascendant at the time of his birth, or actually was believed to have been so: and that it was this very coincidence itself which designated and pointed out his future fortunes from the moment of his birth, in a manner so remarkably verified by the event. y Ibid. cap. xxii. De Locorum xii. potestatibus. Cf. our Fasti Catholici, iii. 453. 458 note. Lib. viii. cap. 28. p. 237. Partium Capricorni Myriogenesis. |