(V.) HISTORY - Pervasive Planets

For those who found astrology suspect, and were properly outraged by the superstitious dependence upon it of the unthinking, there came something of a respite for a year or two after AD 96, when Nerva succeeded Domitian as Emperor; although the senators are said to have consulted his horoscope before electing him, his interest in the subject was marginal.



Trajan, who succeeded Nerva in 98, was even less interested, although he seems to have been in touch with the grandson of Balbillus, who turned up in Athens. C. Julius Antiochus Epiphanes Philopappus (the ruins of whose monument still stand in Athens) was born during Nero's reign, and grew up safely at the court of his paternal grandfather Antiochus IV, last King of Commagene, at Samosata. Trajan not only made Philopappus a member of the imperial guard, but a consul. The nature of their relationship is unknown, however.

With the accession of Hadrian in 117, astrology once more approached the throne - indeed, mounted it, for the new Emperor was himself an astrologer, whose interest in the subject seemed to stem from his early teens, spent studying Greek and Roman culture in Rome, before being sent into the army by his guardian Trajan. He cordially disliked army life, and consulted at least two astrologers to ask for confirmation of the prediction apparently made at his birth, when his great-uncle Aelius Hadrianus, an astrologer, had promised he would one day be emperor. Confirmation was enthusiastically given.

Hadrian is the first Roman emperor whose complete horoscope has survived (in several manuscript copies among a selection of horoscopes kept by Antigonus of Nicaea, where they were found by Hephaestion of Thebes in the 4th century). We know that Hadrian was born with the Sun, Moon and Jupiter in Aquarius, Saturn and Mercury in Capricorn, Venus and Mars in Pisces - suggesting, among other things, great ambition and a preoccupation with power, arrogance and obstinacy, a high sense of justice, and a tendency to be ruled entirely by the emotions in personal relationships, which would tend to be unconventional. Interestingly, those with the Moon in Aquarius are traditionally said to have a flair for astrology.