A Survey of Vettius Valens Mark Riley California State University Sacramento, CA 95819 The Anthologiae of Vettius Valens presents us with the longest, and at the same time the most difficult, text surviving from the astrological literature of antiquity. Valens’s exotic methods, many unparalleled in other astrological works, and the vicissitudes of the text itself, which was written over a period of many years and which was thereafter in constant use from late antiquity to the Renaissance, make interpretation of this work difficult. 1 The Anthologiae is, however, important for the study of ancient astrology: it presents some 125 actual horoscopes whose interpretation illuminates ancient astrological doctrines during the first centuries of our era. These horoscopes also give brief life histories of the clients, from which some demographic information can be derived. The Anthologiae also illustrates astronomical calculation of the pre- Ptolemaic type and gives tables that predate the Almagest and the Handy Tables. 2 One hundred years of research into the methods of ancient astrology, the fruits of which can be found in CCAG, and the labors of editors and commentators, particularly Kroll, Neugebauer, Pingree, and Bara, have illuminated many dark corners. This work has uncovered Valens’s century, perhaps even his birthdate, and has gone far toward restoring his text to its state in the fifth century AD, the date of the archetype of the extant tradition. This paper will survey what can be learned of Valens’ biography, will compare his methods and goals with those of the other surviving astrological writers, particularly Ptolemy, whose Tetrabiblos became this art’s undisputed classic, and will outline what can be gained from the text with further research: information about astrologers whose works are lost but who are quoted in the Anthologiae; pre-Ptolemaic mathematical and graphical methods for astronomical calculations; and glimpses into the everyday world of the practicing astrologer.