Astrology and the Roman Emperors 150 Years after Cumont. History Series, Volume 5.
University Press of Liège| N° d'inventaire | 25785 |
| Format | 16 x 24 |
| Détails | 178 p., paperback. |
| Publication | Liège, 2022 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782875623188 |
Resulting from the conference held at the University of Liège on June 20-21, 2018, 150 years after Franz Cumont received his happy birth chart from some oriental divinity, this work has two objectives: to highlight the importance of the Belgian historian in the development of a historical approach to astrology; to shed light on some paradoxes and ambiguities in the relationships between astrology, astrologers and imperial power. The first part helps to explain why a science as suspect as astrology was of such interest to the historian of religions that Franz Cumont was, by situating his astrological research in the general economy of his work and in the evolution of his thought, then by highlighting, through his correspondence, his important undertaking of the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum . The second part assesses the paradoxical weight of astrological signs and astrologers at the court of the Roman emperors: why did Roman historians exploit so little the aesthetic, dramatic and symbolic potential of astral predictions? Why was the use of horoscopes and other astrological signs always a double-edged sword, both for emperors and those 'destined for power' and for opponents? Was it really to his quality as an expert that Thrasyllus, "Tiberius's astrologer" according to Franz Cumont, owed his influence at the imperial court? The third part examines the contexts in which astrologers were expelled and astrological practices condemned by the imperial power: in what circumstances do ancient authors mention these condemnations? Are the collective bans of astrologers part of a recurring repressive pattern from the establishment of the imperial regime? So many reasons to dwell, after Franz Cumont, on some of the "astrological nonsense" of the Roman emperors, whose attachment to astrology is a fascinating historical reality.
Resulting from the conference held at the University of Liège on June 20-21, 2018, 150 years after Franz Cumont received his happy birth chart from some oriental divinity, this work has two objectives: to highlight the importance of the Belgian historian in the development of a historical approach to astrology; to shed light on some paradoxes and ambiguities in the relationships between astrology, astrologers and imperial power. The first part helps to explain why a science as suspect as astrology was of such interest to the historian of religions that Franz Cumont was, by situating his astrological research in the general economy of his work and in the evolution of his thought, then by highlighting, through his correspondence, his important undertaking of the Catalogus Codicum Astrologorum Graecorum . The second part assesses the paradoxical weight of astrological signs and astrologers at the court of the Roman emperors: why did Roman historians exploit so little the aesthetic, dramatic and symbolic potential of astral predictions? Why was the use of horoscopes and other astrological signs always a double-edged sword, both for emperors and those 'destined for power' and for opponents? Was it really to his quality as an expert that Thrasyllus, "Tiberius's astrologer" according to Franz Cumont, owed his influence at the imperial court? The third part examines the contexts in which astrologers were expelled and astrological practices condemned by the imperial power: in what circumstances do ancient authors mention these condemnations? Are the collective bans of astrologers part of a recurring repressive pattern from the establishment of the imperial regime? So many reasons to dwell, after Franz Cumont, on some of the "astrological nonsense" of the Roman emperors, whose attachment to astrology is a fascinating historical reality.