Dorotheus of Sidon

Definition

Dorotheus of Sidon was a Greek-speaking astrologer active in the late 1st century CE, possibly into the early 2nd. His five-book teaching poem, written in hexameter verse — the Pentateuch, also titled *Carmen Astrologicum*, "Astrological Poem" — became a foundational work for birth-chart astrology, for electional astrology (choosing favourable moments to begin things), and for question-based astrology, in both the Hellenistic and the later Arabic-Persian traditions. Firmicus Maternus and Michael the Italian identify him as a man of Sidon; the Arabic tradition variously calls him an Egyptian and even a king of Egypt.

In Tradition

Dorotheus is a primary classical authority across several traditions. Hellenistic editors group him with Ptolemy and Valens as one of the three main surviving comprehensive Greek authors. Arabic and Persian astrologers cite him alongside Hermes and Ptolemy, and Bonatti, Sahl, and Masha'allah follow his scheme of triplicity rulers — the planets governing each elemental group of signs — over Ptolemy's. Dykes' introduction describes the Pentateuch as covering principles, birth-chart interpretation, length of life, illness, the annual techniques (solar returns, profections, transits), and elections.

In Practice

Dorotheus reaches us today through four layers of transmission. First, surviving Greek hexameter fragments preserved by Hephaestio of Thebes in the 5th century CE. Second, a Pahlavi (Middle Persian) version commissioned under Shapur I, around 240–270 CE. Third, the Arabic translation by ʿUmar ibn al-Farrukhan al-Tabari, around 791 CE — the version usually called *Carmen Astrologicum*. Fourth, modern English editions: David Pingree's 1976 critical Greek-Arabic edition (Teubner) and Benjamin Dykes' English translation (2017, 2nd ed. 2019). Astrologers use Dorotheus mainly for his triplicity rulers (the Day-Lord, Night-Lord, and Participating-Lord scheme), for elections, and for the bound-distribution method of estimating length of life.

Historical Origin

Dykes dates Dorotheus from horoscopes embedded in chapter I.26 of the *Carmen*, placing his activity in the reign of Domitian and possibly those of Nerva and Trajan. Pingree cites Firmicus Maternus, *Mathesis* II.29.2, and Michael the Italian as identifying him as a man of Sidon. The Greek original survives only in fragments; the main witness is ʿUmar al-Tabari's Arabic translation (c. 791 CE), itself made from a Pahlavi intermediary. Pingree (1976, Teubner) is the standard scholarly edition, Dykes 2017/2019 the standard English working edition. The Greek and Arabic originals are public-domain; modern translations are copyrighted.

Further Reading

• Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum (trans. Benjamin N. Dykes)
• Dorotheus of Sidon, Carmen Astrologicum (ed. David Pingree, Teubner 1976)
• James H. Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology