45. Cf. my article on _L'éternité des empereurs_ (_Rev. hist. litt.
relig._, I), 1898, pp. 445 ff.
46. Reitzenstein, to whom belongs the credit of having shown the strength
of this astrological fatalism (see _infra_, n. 57), believes that it
developed in Egypt, but surely he is wrong. In this connection see the
observations of Bousset, _Götting. gel. Anzeigen_, 1905, p. 704.
47. The most important work is unfortunately lost: it was the [Greek: Peri
heimarmenês] by Diodorus of Tarsus. Photius has left us a summary (_cod._
223). We possess a treatise on the same subject by Gregory of Nyssa (_P.
G._, XLV, p. 145). They were supported by the Platonist Hierocles (Photius,
_cod._ 214, p. 172 b.).--Many attacks on astrology are found in St.
Ephraim, _Opera syriaca_, II, pp. 437 ff.; St. Basil (_Hexaem._, VI, 5),
St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Methodus (_Symp., P. G._, XVII, p. 1173);
later in St. John Chrysostom, Procopus of Gaza, etc. A curious extract from
Julian of Halicarnassus has been published by Usener, _Rheinisches Mus._,
LV, 1900, p. 321.--We have spoken briefly of the Latin polemics in the
_Revue d'hist. et de litt. relig._, VIII, 1903, pp. 423 f. A work entitled
De Fato (Bardenhewer, _Gesch. altchr. Lit._, I, p. 315) has been attributed
to Minucius Felix; Nicetas of Remesiana (about 400) wrote a book _Adversus
genethlialogiam_ (Gennadius, _Vir. inl._, c. 22), but the principal
adversary of the _mathematici_ was St. Augustine (_Civ. Dei_, c. 1 ff.;
_Epist._, 246, ad Lampadium, etc.). See also Wendland, _Die
hellenistisch-römische Kultur_, p. 172, n. 2.
48. The influence of the astrological ideas was felt by the Arabian
paganism before Mohammed; see _supra_, ch. V, n. 57. {276}
49. Dante, _Purg._, XXX, 109 ff.--In the _Convivio_, II, ch. XIV, Dante
expressly professes the doctrine of the influence of the stars over human
affairs.--The church succeeded in extirpating the learned astrology of the
Latin world almost completely at the beginning of the Middle Ages. We do
not know of one astrological treatise, or of one manuscript of the
Carlovingian period, but the ancient faith in the power of the stars
continued in secret and gained new strength when Europe came in contact
with Arabian science.