tion will be supposed to be the horoscope, and in another the ascension [will be thought] the horoscope, according as the places come into view, being either lower or higher. Wherefore, also, from this quarter an accurate prediction will not appear, since many may be born throughout the entire world at the same hour, each from a different direction observing the stars.
But the supposed comprehension [of the period of parturition] by means of clepsydras[1] is likewise futile. For the contents of the jar will not flow out in the same time when it is full as when it is half empty; yet, according to their own account, the pole itself by a single impulse is whirled along at an equable velocity. If, however, evading the argument,[2] they should affirm that they do not take the time precisely, but as it happens in any particular latitude,[3] they will be refuted almost by the sidereal influences themselves. For those wlio have been born at the same time do not spend the same life, but some, for example, have been made kings, and others have grown old in fetters. There has been born none equal, at all events, to Alexander the Macedonian, though many were brought forth along with him throughout the earth; [and] none equal to the philosopher Plato. Wherefore the Chaldæan, examining the time of the birth in any particular latitude, will not be able to say accurately, whether a person born at this time will be prosperous. Many, I take it, born at this time, have been unfortunate, so that the similarity according to dispositions is futile.
Having, then, by different reasons and various methods, refuted the ineffectual mode of examination adopted by the Chaldæans, neither shall we omit this, namely, to show that
- ↑ The clepsydra, an instrument for measuring duration, was, with the sun-dial, invented by the Egyptians under the Ptolemies. It was employed not only for the measurement of time, but for making astronomic calculations. Water, as the name imports, was the fluid employed, though mercury has been likewise used. The inherent defect of an instrument of this description is mentioned by Hippolytus.
- ↑ Literally, "twisting, tergiversating."
- ↑ This seems the meaning, as deducible from a comparison of Hippolytus with the corresponding passage in Sextus Empiricus.
