ASTROLOGY
Beyond marking the seasons, the chief interests that
actuated the Babylonian astronomer in his observations
were astrological. After quoting Diodorus to the
effect that the Babylonian priests observed the position
of certain stars in order to cast horoscopes, Thompson
tells us that from a very early day the very name
Chaldean became synonymous with magician. He
adds that "from Mesopotamia, by way of Greece and
Rome, a certain amount of Babylonian astrology made
its way among the nations of the west, and it is quite
probable that many superstitions which we commonly
record as the peculiar product of western civilization
took their origin from those of the early dwellers on the
alluvial lands of Mesopotamia. One Assurbanipal,
king of Assyria B.C. 668-626, added to the royal library
at Nineveh his contribution of tablets, which included
many series of documents which related exclusively
to the astrology of the ancient Babylonians, who in
turn had borrowed it with modifications from the
Sumerian invaders of the country. Among these must
be mentioned the series which was commonly called
`the Day of Bel,' and which was decreed by the learned
to have been written in the time of the great Sargon I.,
king of Agade, 3800 B.C. With such ancient works as
these to guide them, the profession of deducing omens
from daily events reached such a pitch of importance
in the last Assyrian Empire that a system of making
periodical reports came into being. By these the king
was informed of all the occurrences in the heavens and
on earth, and the results of astrological studies in respect
to after events. The heads of the astrological
profession were men of high rank and position, and
their office was hereditary. The variety of information
contained in these reports is best gathered from the
fact that they were sent from cities as far removed
from each other as Assur in the north and Erech in the
south, and it can only be assumed that they were despatched
by runners, or men mounted on swift horses.
As reports also came from Dilbat, Kutba, Nippur, and
Bursippa, all cities of ancient foundation, the king was
probably well acquainted with the general course of
events in his empire.''
[22]
From certain passages in the astrological tablets,
Thompson draws the interesting conclusion that the
Chaldean astronomers were acquainted with some
kind of a machine for reckoning time. He finds in one
of the tablets a phrase which he interprets to mean
measure-governor, and he infers from this the existence
of a kind of a calculator. He calls attention also to the
fact that Sextus Empiricus
[23]
states that the clepsydra was known to the Chaldeans, and
that Herodotus asserts that the Greeks borrowed certain
measures of time from the Babylonians. He finds further corroboration
in the fact that the Babylonians had a time-measure by
which they divided the day and the night; a measure
called kasbu, which contained two hours. In a report relating
to the day of the vernal equinox, it is stated that
there are six kasbu of the day and six kasbu of the night.
While the astrologers deduced their omens from all
the celestial bodies known to them, they chiefly gave
attention to the moon, noting with great care the shape
of its horns, and deducing such a conclusion as that
"if the horns are pointed the king will overcome whatever
he goreth,'' and that "when the moon is low at its
appearance, the submission (of the people) of a far
country will come.''[24] The
relations of the moon and sun were a source of constant observation,
it being noted whether the sun and moon were seen together
above the horizon; whether one set as the other rose,
and the like. And whatever the phenomena, there was
always, of course, a direct association between such
phenomena and the well-being of human kind—in
particular the king, at whose instance, and doubtless
at whose expense, the observations were carried out.
From omens associated with the heavenly bodies it
is but a step to omens based upon other phenomena of
nature, and we, shall see in a moment that the Babylonian
prophets made free use of their opportunities in
this direction also. But before we turn from the field
of astronomy, it will be well to inform ourselves as to
what system the Chaldean astronomer had invented in
explanation of the mechanics of the universe. Our
answer to this inquiry is not quite as definite as could
be desired, the vagueness of the records, no doubt,
coinciding with the like vagueness in the minds of the
Chaldeans themselves. So far as we can interpret the
somewhat mystical references that have come down
to us, however, the Babylonian cosmology would seem
to have represented the earth as a circular plane
surrounded by a great circular river, beyond which rose
an impregnable barrier of mountains, and resting upon
an infinite sea of waters. The material vault of the
heavens was supposed to find support upon the outlying
circle of mountains. But the precise mechanism
through which the observed revolution of the heavenly
bodies was effected remains here, as with the Egyptian
cosmology, somewhat conjectural. The simple fact
would appear to be that, for the Chaldeans as for the
Egyptians, despite their most careful observations of
the tangible phenomena of the heavens, no really
satisfactory mechanical conception of the cosmos was
attainable. We shall see in due course by what faltering
steps the European imagination advanced from
the crude ideas of Egypt and Babylonia to the relatively
clear vision of Newton and Laplace.