[2]
Now I am aware of no people, however refined and
learned or however savage and ignorant, which does
not think that signs are given of future events,
and that certain persons can recognize those signs
and foretell events before they occur. First of all—to seek authority from the most distant sources—the
Assyrians, on account of the vast plains inhabited by
them, and because of the open and unobstructed
view of the heavens presented to them on every
[p. 225]
side, took observations of the paths and movements
of the stars, and, having made note of them,
transmitted to posterity what significance they
had for each person. And in that same nation
the Chaldeans—a name which they derived not
from their art but their race1 —have, it is thought,
by means of long-continued observation of the constellations, perfected a science which enables them
to foretell what any man's lot will be and for what
fate he was born.
The same art is believed to have been acquired
also by the Egyptians through a remote past extending over almost countless ages. Moreover, the
Cilicians, Pisidians, and their neighbours, the Pamphylians—nations which I once governed—think
that the future is declared by the songs and flights
of birds, which they regard as most infallible signs.
1 Cicero adds this because Chaldaei had come to be used =“astrologers.” They were the ruling class among the Babylonians.
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