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Vettius Valens

Vettius Valens

c. 120 CE–c. 175 CE · Alexandria

Vettius Valens (c. 120-c. 175 CE) was a Greek astrologer, author of the Anthologies, one of the most substantial surviving astrological treatises of antiquity. The work draws on numerous example horoscopes, making it an important source both for ancient astrological practice and, through its dated charts, for the history of astronomy.

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AlexandriaEgypt

We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.

About Alexandria

Alexandria is the main Mediterranean port of northern Egypt and the country's second city. Founded by Alexander the Great in 331 BCE, it became the capital of the Ptolemies, whose Museum and Great Library made it the leading centre of Hellenistic learning. It also held one of the largest Jewish communities of antiquity, where the Greek Bible translation known as the Septuagint was produced and Philo wrote. Church tradition traces its patriarchate to Mark the Evangelist, and its catechetical school was led by Clement and Origen. Arab forces under Amr ibn al-As took the city in 641, and it remained a commercial and scholarly hub of the Islamic world; the Sufi master Ibn Ata Allah al-Iskandari was born there.

In Alexandria at the same time

Plutarch, Aretaeus of Cappadocia, Dionysius Periegetes, Appian of Alexandria, Claudius Ptolemaeus, Harpocration

Across the traditions, in Alexandria at the same time

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Vettius Valens’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

Across the traditions

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Vettius Valens’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works(1)