O astrólogo vai a Roma: a trajetória de Tibério Cláudio Balbilo e as interconexões político-culturais no Mediterrâneo romano (séc. I d. C.)

Abstract

this paper looks at the career of Tiberius Claudius Balbillus, an astrologer born in Alexandria and a man whose life in the first century AD shows a remarkable process of political and cultural interconnectivity in the Roman Mediterranean. From the time of Claudius (41-54 AD) and onwards, Balbillus built a successful career in Rome's political circles, not only as an astrologer in close contact with the imperial power, but also as an intellectually renowned member of the equestrian order. By studying central aspects of his origins and offices, our aim is to show the impressive political and cultural cosmopolitanism of Balbillus, a man whose identity complexities hardly fit into generic categorizations (Roman, Greek, Egyptian etc.) that are excessively restrictive when separated, but which together reveal the richness of the globalizing phenomenon of Antiquity.