MANILIUS. - In the manuscripts also Mallius, Manlius, with the praenomen M. and C., a Latin poet who lived at the end of the reign of Augustus. Nothing is known of him, except the composition of a poem in five books, in hexameters, dedicated to Augustus, entitled Astronomicon, but in reality astrological in content (v. ASTROLOGY).
Of the five books the first, more properly astronomical, treats of the origins of the world, of the geocentric cosmic system, of the celestial spheres, etc.; the second describes the signs of the Zodiac: form, instincts, divinities connected with them, mutual relations with other constellations; the third teaches the way to cast a horoscope, that is, to observe which stars are on the horizon at the moment of birth, which is done by turning to the East and determining the position of the sun and of the planets, above all of the star that rises at the precise moment of birth: twelve are the fundamental influences to which the individual is subject, corresponding to the number of the zodiacal signs; but also the other stars associated with the zodiacal ones can give partial influences; the fourth describes the influences that emanate from each star, both on individuals (temperament, aptitudes, profession, fortune or misfortune) and on the earth (climate, race, civilization, seasons, tides, etc.); the fifth is dedicated to the extra-zodiacal constellations that rise together with the sign of the Zodiac: for example, with the zodiacal sign of Leo rises the constellation of the Dog, and whoever is born under it will be violent and quarrelsome.
The whole poem is pantheistic at bottom and of rigorously deterministic inspiration. The fates rule the world with immutable law, and the destiny of men is fixed from the moment of birth: «nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet» (Astron., IV, 14-22).
Better than a useless rebellion, therefore, according to M., is it to steep oneself in astronomical science, the only one which, by teaching us to submit to the cosmic law, will free us from the weight of destiny.
It is understandable that a determinism so inexorable and contrary to the sentiment of hope that always lives in the heart of man could not find acceptance among the people, who sought escape from the grip of destiny either with prayer to the divinity that can succor the misery of the individual or with the practices of magic which claims by his arts of mastering the course of fate: this explains the spread, in the imperial age, of mystical cults and theurgic practices.
Bibliography2 works
Nicola Turchi