in astrology, persons who erect horoscopes or pretend to foretell what shall befall a man by means of the stars which presided at his nativity. The word is formed of the Greek *γενεθλια*, origin, generation, nativity.

The ancients called them *Chaldei*, and by the general name *mathematici*: accordingly, the several civil and canon laws, which we find made against the mathematicians, only respect the *genethliaci* or astrologers.

They were expelled Rome by a formal decree of the senate; and yet found so much protection from the credulity of the people, that they remained therein unmolested. Hence an ancient author speaks of them as *hominum genus, quod in civitate nostra semper et vetabatur, & retinebatur*.