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The Magus School of Astronomy

Khaîre, young visitor. Please enter. This is the Magus School of Astronomy, the science of the stars and planets. The School is run by Mandanos Sargon, known in the scientific world as Magus; you may read a brief summary of his qualifications here. Lectures will be given in Greek, afternoons and evenings, every day except holy days.

The subjects covered in the lectures will be: History of Astronomy, How to Measure Time, The Movements of the Stars and the Planets, the Teachings of the Greek Astronomers. Application and inscription in the School are free of charge, by decree of the Roman praefectus. However, admission to the lectures is by selection. If you would like to apply for admission, please take the Entrance Examination below. When you have finished, give me your examination paper and you will be announced to the Master for an interview. Here are some papyrus sheets and a stylus for the exam. Take a seat anywhere in the next room. Good luck!

Please help yourself to a complimentary specimen of our School Pin. Take it home as a souvenir of your visit here. use image 131929

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Entrance Examination for the Magus School of Astronomy * * * Below is a list of fifteen propositions pertaining to astronomy. Eleven of the propositions are true, four are false. Identify the four erroneous propositions and explain their mistake. Write your answers in legible script here. For example, “Propositions __, __, __ and __ are false.” Once you have handed in your papyrus sheet, the Master will interview you to consider your application. I. A “day” is the lapse of time spanning sunrise to the next consecutive sunrise. II. A “day” is the lapse of time spanning sunset to the next consecutive sunset. III. In the years after the fall of Sumer[i], Babylonian astronomers recorded on clay tablets their observations of the planet Venus. IV. The sexagesimal system of measurement for degrees, minutes, seconds, etc. was invented by the Babylonians. V. The “zodiac” is the imaginary band in the heavens that marks the path of the movement of the five planets, the sun and the moon. VI. Anaximander of Miletus[ii] taught that the earth had the form of a short cylinder whose depth was one-third of its breadth. VII. Pythagoras of Samos is said to have taught that the earth had a spherical form. VIII. The city of Athens condemned Anaxagoras of Clazomenae[iii] for teaching that the sun and the stars were hot fiery stones. IX. In the days of the promulgation of the Law of the Twelve Tables[iv], the Roman year counted 10 months totalling 304 days. X. Heraclides of Pontus, a pupil of Plato, taught that the planets Mercury and Venus revolved around the sun. XI. Callisthenes, Aristotle’s nephew, discovered that the duration of the cycle of lunar eclipses is 299 lunar months. XII. At the time of the conquest of Alexander, Egypt was using a solar year counting twelve months and 355 days. XIII. Julius Caesar’s reform of the Roman calendar was based on the work of the Egyptian astronomer Sosigenes. XIV. Julius Caesar reformed the Roman calendar the year before his death by adding the months of January and February for a total of 12 months counting 361 days in the year. XV. In the days of Antony and Cleopatra, the month of February in the Roman calendar counted 29 days in ordinary years, 30 days in leap years. [i] Circa 1950 B.C. [ii] Circa 611 – 546 B.C. [iii] Circa 500 - 430 B.C. [iv] Circa 450 B.C.

Images :
Page background : "traceries" at Eos Development. Property icon adapted from a Babylonian clay tablet at Maverick Science. (In the ancient Babylonian religion, three deities were represented with symbols from the sky: Shamash [in Sumerian, Utu], the solar disk with radiating lines; Sin, the crescent moon; Ishtar, the eight-point star that stands for the planet Venus.)
Venus in the night sky from CalTech’s Cosmos for Kids. School Pin adapted from a diary of pilgrims to Compostella. Exam table image from a Knubbledesign desktop image.

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