ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses Astrology and Freedom: The Case of Firmicus Maternus. The Alexandrian Claudius Ptolemaeus is the one predecessor of Firmicus who takes note of them, and his strategy is not so much to refute them as to embrace them as modifications to his own system. He accepts that, like any science, astrology is in part stochastic: an astrologer can ascertain what will probably come to pass, but his predictions are no more infallible than a doctor's remedies. Immanent causality and causation from above this coincide without remainder, and a pattern of life can be set before the soul without any abridgement of its freedom. The details of this hybrid speculation remain obscure, but it is evident that, whatever was taught in Egypt, this philosopher is a Platonist, for whom virtue is the only measure of freedom but our freedom to be virtuous is constrained by circumstances that we have little power to mend in the present life.
