Even art looked there for
inspiration and depicted the stellar deities. At Rome and in the provinces
architects erected sumptuous _septizonia_ in the likeness of {165} the
seven spheres in which the planets that rule our destinies move.[8] This
Asiatic divination was first aristocratic[9]--because the obtaining of an
exact horoscope was a complicated matter, and consultations were
expensive--but it promptly became popular, especially in the urban centers
where Oriental slaves gathered in large numbers. The learned
genethlialogers of the observatories had unlicensed colleagues, who told
fortunes at street-crossings or in barnyards. Even common epitaphs, which
Rossi styles "the scum of inscriptions," have retained traces of that
belief. The custom arose of stating in epitaphs the exact length of a life
to the very hour, for the moment of birth determined that of death:

_Nascentes morimur, finisque ab origine pendet._[10]

Soon neither important nor small matters were undertaken without consulting
the astrologer. His previsions were sought not only in regard to great
public events like the conduct of a war, the founding of a city, or the
accession of a ruler, not only in case of a marriage, a journey, or a
change of domicile; but the most trifling acts of every-day life were
gravely submitted to his sagacity. People would no longer take a bath, go
to the barber, change their clothes or manicure their fingernails, without
first awaiting the propitious moment.[11] The collections of "initiatives"
([Greek: katarchai]) that have come to us contain questions that make us
smile: Will a son who is about to be born have a big nose? Will a girl just
coming into this world have gallant adventures?[12] And certain precepts
sound almost like burlesques: he who gets his hair cut while {166} the moon
is in her increase will become bald--evidently by analogy.[13]

The entire existence of states and individuals, down to the slightest
incidents, was thought to depend on the stars. The absolute control they
were supposed to exercise over everybody's daily condition, even modified
the language in every-day use and left traces in almost all idioms derived
from the Latin. If we speak of a martial, or a jovial character, or a
lunatic, we are unconsciously admitting the existence, in these heavenly
bodies (Mars, Jupiter, Luna) of their ancient qualities.

It must be acknowledged, however, that the Grecian spirit tried to combat
the folly t