Denar OVER THE ORIGINS OF HELLENISTIC ASTROLOGY 33 In a footnote to the term “inventors,” Holden defended the sudden invention hypothesis: One of my valued colleagues objects to the word “inventors.” He points out that Greek horoscopic astrology, even in its early second century form, was anew and very complicated system, and he thinks it doubtful that it could have been “invented” by one or more individuals all at once. He would prefer me to say that horoscopic astrology “appeared” at that time, My rejoinder is that Euclid, who lived perhapsa century before the Alexandrian astrologers, wrote the elements of geometry in a comprehensive and nearly perfect form, and ifhe could do that all at once, there seems to be no reason why some later Alexandrians or perhaps two generations of them could not have created horoscopic astrology.” ‘Thus, from our vantage point, the sudden invention argument explains why this new system of astrology seems to appear somewhat abruptly around the first century BCE. Gradual Development Argument Recently there has been a countertrend that has called into question the sudden invention hypothesis, advocating instead what I call the “gradual development argument”? Proponents of the gradual development argument generally maintain that (1) there was a great deal of diversity in the techniques and/or philosophies associated with Hellenistic astrology, thus negating the idea that itall could have come from a singular source or set of sources, and (2) because many basic techniques and concepts originated in the earlier Mesopotamian and Egyptian traditions, many other techniques that we only first see in the Hellenistic tradition may have originated earlier, and the apparent suddenness of their introduction is only the result of the loss of so many texts from the last few centuries BCE. ‘The strength of the gradual development argument lies in the fact that there is ample evidence for continuous traditions of astrology in Mesopotamia and Egypt for hundreds of years prior to the Hellenistic tradition, and it % Holden, A History of Horoscopic Astrology, p. 12, n.2 The primary proponents of the gradual development argument at this point in time are Robert Hand, Nicholas Campion (A History of Western Astrology, vol. 1, pp. 203-223), and Greenbaum and Ross (“The Role of Egypt,” pp. 146-182). Hand's argument was outlined in a special evening lecture at a Kepler College symposium on April 16, 2005, in Seattle, Washington. The argument has not yet appeared in print, although I attended it in person that evening and took extensive notes from a recording.