This thesis is presented with a special dedication for Osthanes, in case she didn?t know,


Censorinus and his Work De die Natali
Author: Forisek, P?ter
Language: Hungarian


I am reproducing the abstract

CENSORINUS? work is an important collection of the scientific knowledge of classical antiquity. Although owing to its length it carries considerably less information as compared to other authors? works, yet it has some quite valuable additions to ancient medicine, Presocratic philosophy and ancient chronology. However, the De die natali is not a mere compilation compendiating former works, since numerology plays a particularly important role in CENSORINUS. This is what the characteristic conception of the work is built on: the author wrote such a birthday congratulation, in which he gave an outline of his peculiar anthropological and chronological views. At the laudatio of Q. CAERELLIUS CENSORINUS makes it perfectly clear that the celebrated person is just holding his 49th birthday-fest (i.e. seven times seven. It is quite natural that the author, who is well acquainted both with the medicine and astrology of the day, wishes to please his prestigious patron, thus conludes that in human life it is those years that are critical that consist of the multiplications of the numbers 7 and 9: i.e. the 49th (7 times 7), the 63th (7 times 9) and the 81st (9 times 9) birthdays. As CAERELLIUS completed the critical 49th year (for he celebrated his birthday), therefore now he is to live a old age, since until the 63th year of age nothing could endanger him, in addition, at the age of 63 much less people die than either at the age of 49, or 81. To prove this, the author makes a quite lengthy enumeration of those notable persons who passed over this critical age. Unfortunately, it is not known whether the prophecy of CENSORINUS was at all realized, since we have no knowledge of the life of Quintus CAERELLIUS apart from this citation.


The link:
http://ganymedes.lib.unideb.hu:8080/dea ... 2437/79618

I have to thank MarkC for making me a present of this book some time back, in the English translation by Holt N. Parker. The English translation is published in a lovely little volume by Chicago, under the title 'The Birthday Book?. It is one of my favourite books because it is not heavily focussed on astrology but there are some unexpected gems of information in it. You get a really good sense of how astrology was perceived by the public in the 3rd century in Rome. And it is great for calendrical symbolism.

Sashi, thanks for keeping us so well informed on these new translations.

The pleasure is on my side.

What is good is that the last 10 years brought things that were unimaginable before in this field. I myself collected so many works, in so many languages that I wonder if 7 lives will be sufficient to read them only once.