How did Romans view the stars?

Answer 1

The view of the Roman lower classes on the stars were influenced by Greek Astrology, particularly that of the Greek who had ruled Egypt. They, in turn, had been influenced by Babylonian astrology and Egyptian Decanic astrology. The Greeks combined these and linked them to the planets to the Greek system of planetary Gods and the four (Greek) elements (fire, water, earth and air). In doing so they created Horoscopic astrology. Of particular importance was the work of Ptolemy, the Greek geographer, astronomer and astrologer who lived in Alexandria of Egypt when Egypt was under Roman rule. Ptolemy laid the basis of the Western astrological tradition.

The Roman educated elites, instead, frowned on astrology and considered it to be the ideas of the Chaldeans (Babylonian star-gazers). The elites were more interested in Ptolemy's astronomical work. He had taken the work of earlier Greek astronomers and that of Babylonian ones to produce a new and more elaborate model to calculate the motion of the planets and their past, present and future positions. He devised tables to compute the positions of the Sun, Moon and planets, the rising and setting of the stars, and eclipses of the Sun and Moon. He also produced a catalogue of 48 constellations. He also had a view of the universe as a set of nested spheres. He used the epicycles of his planetary model to calculate the dimensions of the universe and he estimated the Sun was at an average distance of 1,210 Earth radii, while the radius of the sphere of the fixed stars was 20,000 times the radius of the Earth.