«Introduction to Astrology» by Paul of Alexandria: features of structure and content

The paper is devoted to the analysis of one of the most interesting works in the field of early Byzantine paranoscience – «Introduction to astrology» by Paul of Alexandria. The paper examines the structural and substantive content of the work, determines the connection of the work by Paul of Alexandria with the system of modern Western astrology, the famous work by Ptolemy and the directions of Eastern (in particular, Indian) astrology. The paper proves the idea that Paul of Alexandria’s «Introduction to Astrology» directly affected the formation of Western astrology, which is most obviously manifested in Paul’s use of key concepts for Western astrological schools – houses, sects, degrees, directorates, transits, etc. Paul’s work is also of particular value because it contains a detailed division of the signs of the zodiac horoscope according to various criteria (by gender, by habitat, by exaltation, by trigons, by parts of the human body, by the nature of the sign). The author of the paper carries out an idea that Paul in the work «Introduction to Astrology» demonstrated an example of a classical late-Antique-early Byzantine astrologer, who simultaneously acts as a professional scientist, capable of expressing the essence of astrological science, which, in the period under review, is part of astronomical and mathematical knowledge, by extremely professional language even if it is not the most stylistically designed.