I look at the complexity and accuracy of Stonehenge (not part of the "ancient world," I know) and have to say I really don't believe what you're saying. Moreover, the Greeks were simply obsessed with measurement and precision, and with mathematics in general. It's the basis of Plato's whole Theory of Forms.
There was no contradiction between astrology and astronomy, either in their minds or in practice, since the accuracy of your astrological predictions depended on the accuracy of your reading the positions of the heavenly bodies.
--- Dennis Claxton <ddclaxton at earthlink.net> wrote: Before modern scientific methods were developed astrology and astronomy overlapped and I'd say that in the middle ages astrology trumped astronomy. Medieval intellectual pursuits were about love and law and poetry, to borrow a phrase from Morrissey.
Empirical quantification and measurement were then gleams in the eye of philosophers studying optics and were widwifed by double entry
bookkeeping.
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