Book 2: Introduction, signs, domiciles, exaltations, falls, decans, degrees, diurnal/nocturnal sects, matutine & vespertine, rising times, signs & winds, dodecatemoria, life cycles, houses, angles, aspects, human body, length of life, chronocrators, antiscia, etc.
Book 3: Planets in houses, Mercury/planet conjunctions, moon in houses, moon with Part of Fortune.
Book 4: Moon applying to planets, moon void of course, moon translating light from planets, Parts of Fortune & Spirit, Lord of the geniture, climacteric years, vocational indicator, full & void degrees in decans, masculine & feminine degrees, angular lunar conjunctions, etc.
Book 5: Angles by sign, ascendant by terms & conjoined planets, Saturn & Jupiter by sign, Mercury & Moon by terms or decans, advice on interpretation.
Book 6: Bright stars, planets in trine, square, opposition & conjunction, lunar configurations before birth, unfortunate nativities, sexual proclivities, planets as chronocrators, etc.
Book 7: Astrologer's oath, exposed infants, twins, monstrous births, infirmities, parental death, orphans, number of marriages, homosexuality, murder of spouse, infertility & celibacy, royal genitures, violent death, criminal nativities, eunuchs, hermaphrodites & perverts, occupations, etc.
Book 8: Astrologer's creed, Enenecontameris (90th degree), beholding & hearing signs, degrees in zodiacal constellations, extra-zodiacal constellations, the Myrogenesis (degrees of the zodiac), bright stars, advice on interpretation, conclusion.
Appendices: Translator's notes, Index of occupations, List of ancient astrologers, Bibliography, Glossary, Index.
Comment: Julius Firmicus Maternus, a native of Sicily, was a Roman lawyer of the senatorial class. He lived from c.280 to c.360. He was a student of Greek astrology, which forms the basis of this book. Firmicus wrote for his patron, one Quintus Flavius Maesius Lollianus Egnatius, known in the book as Mavortius.
Firmicus differs from Ptolemy (two centuries earlier) in that he employs houses & his work is practical, where Ptolemy is theoretical. Recent study has shown Firmicus's Matheseos to be a more comprehensive survey of Greek astrology than Ptolemy's earlier Tetrabiblos.
Roman civilization faded soon after Firmicus, his manuscript lay ignored for centuries. The Matheseos, along with many other Classical works, was rediscovered in the Middle Ages. It was studied by generations of astrologers, from around 1000 AD, to the astrological twilight of the late 1600's. The celebrated English astrologer, William Lilly (1602-1681), had a copy in his library. Jean Rhys Bram's 1975 translation was a precursor of the astrological revival that started in the mid-1990's & continues to the present. This is also one of the best-translated books we have seen. The English is modern, clear & direct.
