Dorotheus of Sidon

Five books; more commonly known in the Western world as Carmen Astrologicum), surviving in Greek fragments and an Arabic translation by Omar Tiberiades. • Illustration — A first century fresco of life in Alexandria, roughly contemporary to Dorotheus Very little is known about Dorotheus himself. Dorotheus most likely lived and worked in Alexandria, in Egypt, which, in addition to being the most important scholastic center in the Hellenistic world, was also the main location where the oldest Mesopotamian, Greek and Egyptian astrological techniques were synthesized together in order to create horoscopic astrology. According to Firmicus Maternus, Dorotheus was originally a native of the city of Sidon (Firmicus, Mathesis, 2, 29: 2).

The Pentateuch has come down to us mainly from an Arabic translation dating from around 800 AD carried out by Omar Tiberiades (which has been suggested to be a translation of a Middle Persian translation from the original Greek, although this matter is disputed and it is possible that the Arabic translation was indeed done from an original Greek manuscript). The Arabic text, however, does contain interpolations by later Persian hands, but, nevertheless, remains one of our best sources for the practice of astrology during Hellenistic and Roman times, and it was a work of great influence on later Christian, Persian, Arab and medieval astrologers.

Dorotheus of Sidon is recorded as astronomer, astrologer and writer.