1. Timeline for the Antiquity

.
Quoted from Astro-Charts Astrology

30000 BC

Beginning of Cro-Magnon culture. Marks are made in reindeer bones to possibly record lunar cycles.

4242 BC

Earliest recorded date in history. (in ancient Egypt). Egyptian calendar which is regulated by Sun and Moon has 360 days with 12 months of 30 days.

4000 BC

Astrology begins in Mesopotamia. Sumerians build ziggurats, the first astrological observatories. The Sun, Moon and 5 visible planets are used. Astrological knowledge is recorded in cuneiform on clay tablets.

3761 BC

First day of Jewish calendar (according to Jewish sources).

3500 BC

Systematic astronomical observations in Mesopotamia, Egypt and China. Sumerian numerical system is based on 6 and 12.

3000 BC

Egypt refines calendar to 365 days.

2700 BC

The Great Pyramid of Khufu is built in accordance with astronomical factors.

2350 BC

Akkadians record solar & lunar eclipses according to tablets of Sargon of Akkad. Sargon summarizes astrological records of his era into 70 tablets. His heirs add their findings to this data base and call it the Namman-Bel.

2000 BC

Sumeria is replaced by Babylonia. Babylonian astrologers introduce zodiac signs and devise more accurate astronomical calculations.

1250 BC

Rameses II fixes 4 cardinal points using Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn.

1200 BC

Babylonian Boundary stones contain much astrological imagery

700 BC

Babylonian priests create ecliptic divided into 12 30-degree sections or zodiac divisions (Mul.APIN).

670 BC

King Assurbanipal of Assyria expands astrological library in Ninevah.

600 BC

Babylonian astrology spreads to Egypt Greece and other parts of Middle East.

535 BC

Pythagoras sets up esoteric colony near Crotona in southern Italy where scholars learn about numerology, astrology and the occult arts, which Pythagoras learned during his 20 years of travels in Babylon and Egypt.

475 BC

Empedocles of Agrigentum introduces the 4 elements, Fire, Earth, Air and Water, into astrology, as the 4-fold root of all things. He discovered the idea that nothing can be destroyed (or created) only transformed.

420 BC

Democritus popularizes astrology for all. Xeno founder of the Stoics, gives zodiac signs Greek names.

409 BC

Date of oldest Babylonian horoscope.

380 BC

Babylonians begin to use 19 year cycle.

370 BC

Eudoxus of Cnidus devises calendars using zodiac with 12 equal zodiac signs. Invents geometrical theory of proportion.

350 BC

Petosiris, chief administrator of the Temple of Khumunu (Hermes) near Hermopolis becomes known for mastering egyptian esoteric astrology.

330 BC

Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) helps to spread astrology from Babylon and Egypt throughout the Middle East.

Greek Philosophers exposed to new occult ideas from Egypt and Babylon. Astrology is personalized in Greece.

Alexander founds Library of Alexandria.

300 BC

Greek model of Astrology reaches India.

290 BC

Alexandria in Egypt becomes center of astrological research. Eratosthenes, Arristyllus and Timocharis are its leading astrologers.

280 BC

Berosus, a Chaldean astrologer and priest of Bel Marduk at Babylon moves to Greek island of Cos where he sets up a school of astrology for Greek astrologers. Berosus writes The Babylonica, an enormous work about the history of astrology and life in Babylonia. He writes The Eye of Bel, based on the 70 tablets in the library of Assurbanipal, and uses it as text to teach Greek astrologers.

275 BC

The famous poem Phainomena written by Aratus in 275 BC further popularizes astrology and becomes common reading material for generations of Greeks.

250 BC

Antipatrus and Achinapolus continue the work of Berosus at Cos and teach medical astrology. They are the first astrologers to experiment with the moment of conception rather than birth for the casting of a horoscope.

220 BC

First known picture of zodiac in Egypt is created north of Esna.

200 BC

Predictive astrology spreads to Rome.

150 BC

Esoteric form of astrology based on the teachings of Hermes or Thoth circulates in numerous works under such titles as: Astrologoumena, Hermaikai Diataxeis or Doctrines of Hermes, Apokotastasis, Liber Hermetis, Asklepios.

135 BC

Posidonius brings astrology to Roman intellectuals.

130 BC

Greek astronomer Hipparchus is credited for the discovering the precession of the equinoxes which was already known in Babylonia centuries earlier.

100 BC

Essenes develop Qabbalah and esoteric astrology.

60 BC

Nigidius Figulus starts first school of astrology in Rome and publishes books on astrological prediction. The Georgics of Virgil constitute astrological almanacs.

20 BC

Roman Emperor Augustus has coins stamped with his sign Capricorn.

7 BC

Three Wise Men or Magi from the East (astrologers from Chaldea or Persia) predict birth of Messiah (Jesus Christ) according to Gospels of New Testament.

17

Egyptian zodiac at Denderah is erected.

50

Astrology has prominent role in Roman literature such as in The Tragedies of Seneca and Thyestes. Fourth Roman Emperor Claudius becomes versed in astrology. In his reign, Rome is caught up in a frenzy of astrology.

117

Roman Emperor Hadrian, also an astrologer, casts his own horoscope and consults it regularly.

150

Ptolemy writes The Tetrabiblos, the most comprehensive work on astrology to date. Already aware of the precession of the equinoxes, Ptolemy cautions astrologers to use the tropical spring equinox as the start of the first zodiac sign. Other astrologers such as Hephaestion of Thebes and Julius Firmicus use it as seminal work.

188

Vettius Valens of Antioch, well-known astrologer amasses fine library of horoscopes and analyzes 100 in his Anthologiae.

222

Alexander Serverus sets up teaching posts in astrology which are subsidized by the imperial budget.

250

Plotinus declares that astrology indicates a possible future but does not shape it.

400

Library of Alexandria is destroyed with loss of many astrology texts.

450

Proclus writes paraphrase of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.

476

Astrology declines in Europe with the Fall of the Roman Empire.