and Greek awareness of their Babylonian inheritance is indicated by mention of Orchenoi
(P.Oxy. 4139, line 8: Jones [1999]), “people of Uruk,” whom Strabo ̄n identified as
“astronomical Khaldaeans” (16.1.6).
The Babylonian paradigm for calculating the rising times of the zodiacal signs (Greek
anaphorai) significantly influenced Hellenistic astronomy. The evidence for zodiacal ris-
ing times is embedded in the column for generating length of daylight in Babylonian
ephemerides. The calculation for the length of daylight is derived from the sum of the
rising times for the appropriate half of the zodiac rising on the day in question beginning
with the position of the Sun. The direct connection between the position of the Sun in the
ecliptic and the length of daylight is therefore expressed. Two such schemes are attested,
and their values are constrained by a 3:2 ratio of longest to shortest daylight, assumed in
Hellenistic astronomy as the canonical value for the klima of Babylo ̄n (latitude 32.5 ̊).
Furthermore, the ancient Mesopotamian celestial science of genethlialogy significantly
shaped Hellenistic astrology. Natal omens are attested in cuneiform texts of the mid- to late
first millennium. By ca 500 BCE the celestial signs visible at birth were noted, and such
divination was soon followed by the earliest horoscope, i.e., a collection of the positions
of the planets, Moon, and Sun at the moment of birth. Most Babylonian horoscopes
come from the city of Babylo ̄n. Others are known from Uruk and one from Nippur. They
date from the 3rd to the 1st c. BCE, excepting two 5th c. BCE documents. Because it was
necessary to obtain the positions of all planets at the arbitrary moment of birth, methods
to compute these positions were critical. As horoscopes begin to appear, so do a variety of
methods to compute astronomical data. It is unknown whether the schemes attested in the
ephemerides were used for this purpose. Certainly the astronomical diaries and almanacs
were a source for the scribes who prepared horoscopes.
ACT; H. Hunger, Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings (1992); Idem and D.E. Pingree, Astral Sciences
in Mesopotamia (1999); Francesca Rochberg, Babylonian Horoscopes (1998); Eadem, The Heavenly Writing:
Divination, Horoscopy, and Astronomy in Mesopotamian Culture (2004); Eadem, “A Babylonian Rising-Times
Scheme in Non-Tabular Astronomical Texts,” in Ch. Burnett, J. Hogendijk, K. Plofker, and
M. Yano, edd., Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree (2004) 56–94.
Francesca Rochberg
Baito ̄n (335 – 305 BCE)
Recorded Alexander’s itinerary, giving data on peoples, plants, and the heavens along
the route, preserved in P 6.61–62, 6.69, and 7.11; cf. D E and
P K. The apparently unattested name Baito ̄n may be Egyptian,
meaning “hawk” (Heuser 1929: 14, 20). Compare perhaps Bato ̄n in D L
6.99 (3rd c. BCE), LGPN 3A.89 and 3B.85 (4th c. BCE), and Baitis of Larissa (LGPN 3B.84),
3rd c. BCE.
FGrHist 119.
PTK
Bakkheios Gero ̄n (ca 300 – 400 CE?)
Author of a small musical catechism preserved under the title of Introduction to the art
of music, usually (though not always) followed in the MSS by a second distinct treatise.
The MSS regularly apply the same title and author to the second treatise, due to the
BAITO ̄N