T.F. Royds, The Beasts, Birds and Bees of Virgil (1918); J.J. Sargeaunt, The Trees, Shrubs and Plants of Virgil
(1920); D. Comparetti, Vergil in the Middle Ages (1929); L.P. Wilkinson, The Georgics of Virgil. A Critical
Survey (1969); KP 5.1190–1200 (#5), K. Büchner; P.R. Hardie, Virgil’s Aeneid. Cosmos and Imperium
(1986); R.A.B. Mynors, Virgil. Georgics (1990); NP 12/2.42–60 (#4) W. Suerbaum; OCD3 1602 – 1607,
D.P. and P.G. Fowler.
Philip Thibodeau
Vettius Valens (Med.) (ca 35 – 48 CE)
Lover of Messalina, and founder of a new medical sect, which apparently died with him
upon his execution in 48 by Claudius (T, Ann. 11.30, 35; P 29.8, 20). Identified
with the “Valens,” teacher of S L (Moog), but the imperial-era cognomen
Valens is very frequent, and there is no other reason to equate them; see instead
M. T V.
F.P. Moog, “Kaiserlicher Leibarzt und einziger römische Schulgründer,” Würzburger medizinhistorische
Mitteilungen 20 (2001) 18–35; NP 12/2.151–152.
PTK
Vettius Valens of Antioch (150 – 180 CE)
Wrote a Greek astrological treatise in nine books, the Anthologiai. The numerous horoscopes
of unnamed individuals and details of their lives reveal the author as a working astrologer
with an extensive practice as well as a teacher of his science. The birth years deducible
from the horoscopes range from 50– 150 CE; if we add to each birth year the greatest age of
the individual that Valens reports, we find a great concentration through the 150s and until
the 160s, which presumably reflects the interval during which he was hardest at work on
his opus, but he continued to add new material into the 170s. He repeatedly adduces a
horoscope cast for February 8, 120 CE, plausibly identified as his own birth-date.
The earlier books of the Anthologiae show some effort to cover basic topics of horoscopic
astrology systematically. As the work progresses, however, it becomes increasingly devoted to
specialized topics such as the precise forecasting of length of life. While drawing (sometimes
without acknowledgement) on earlier authorities, Valens frequently claims elements of
interpretative technique as his own inventions. He often criticizes unidentified contempor-
ary astrologers, and occasionally pronounces on broader philosophical issues, for example
arguing for a hard-line deterministic view of horoscopic predictions. Professing to aim at
clear presentation, Valens was not successful; his Greek style is characterized by a penchant
for rare vocabulary, not invariably used with precision. The authorial obscurities were
exacerbated, moreover, by extensive textual corruption and tampering in later transmission.
Nevertheless the Anthologiae is enormously valuable for its focus on astrological practice,
without rival in the surviving Greco-Roman astrological literature. It is also an important
source on contemporary astronomical resources, ranging from crude rules of thumb to
arithmetically structured theories of ultimately Babylonian origin, comparable to methods
known from Roman-period papyri and from early Indian astronomy.
Ed.: D.E. Pingree, Vettii Valentis Antiocheni Anthologiarum Libri Novem (1986).
O. Neugebauer, “The Chronology of Vettius Valens’ Anthologiae,” HThR 47 (1954) 65–67;
Neugebauer and van Hoesen (1959); Neugebauer (1975) 793–801, 823–829; J. Komorowska, Vettius
Valens of Antioch: An Intellectual Monography (2004); Riley (n.d.).
Alexander Jones
VETTIUS VALENS OF ANTIOCH