The author of
Astronomica is neither
quoted nor mentioned by any ancient writer. Even his name is uncertain, but it was probably Marcus Manilius; in the earlier books the author is anonymous, the later give Manilius, Manlius, Mallius. The poem itself implies that the writer lived under
Augustus or
Tiberius, and that he was a citizen of and resident in Rome, suggesting that Manilius wrote the work during the 20s CE. According to the early 18th-century classicist
Richard Bentley, he was an
Asiatic Greek; according to the 19th-century classicist Fridericus Jacob, an
African. It has been suggested that he might hailed from
Roman Syria, or be a
Roman senator. His work is one of great learning; he had studied his subject in the best writers, and generally represents the most advanced views of the ancients on
astronomy (or rather
astrology). Manilius frequently imitates
Lucretius. Although his
diction presents some peculiarities, the style is metrically correct, and he could write neat and witty
hexameters. The astrological systems of
houses, linking
human affairs with the circuit of the
zodiac, have evolved over the
centuries, but they make their first appearance in
Astronomica. The earliest datable surviving horoscope that uses houses in its interpretation is slightly earlier, .
Claudius Ptolemy (100–170 CE) almost completely ignored houses (
templa as Manilius calls them) in his astrological text,
Tetrabiblos. ==Honors==