No Babylonian interpretation of this particular conjunction is extant—surely because of the great rarity of the event—but we know that interpretations of planetary conjunctions were based on an analysis of the astrological significance of the planets and the accompanying circumstances, particularly the zodiacal sign in which the conjunction took place. The fact that Mars, the star of Nergal, the god of war, e joined the conjunction in its final phase signified that the new king was to come from the West, specifically, from Syria-Palestine, for Mars was the star of Amurru or the West (Syria-Palestine) in the Babylonian system. The prediction of such a king would have held wide interest in 7 B.C.E., when a power vacuum of sorts prevailed in the Near East. The Seleucid empire created by the successors of Alexander the Great had collapsed in 64 B.C.E., and its remnants, which included Judea, had been annexed to Rome as a province named Syria. The power of Rome had not yet been consolidated in the area, however. Even after Augustus changed Rome into an autocratic monarchy in 27 B.C.E., his authority was questioned in the East, for the Roman emperor, unlike the Seleucid kings and their predecessors, did not derive his authority from God. For this reason, many people considered Roman rule illegitimate and hoped that a local Near Eastern king appointed by God would drive the Romans out of the country and create a better world. These messianic expectations are recorded by Josephus and reflected in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The conjunction of 7 B.C.E. would have been interpreted as a portent of the birth of precisely this kind of king. The political vistas opened by it would not have escaped the attention of any Babylonian astrologer; Parpola 2001 Bringing the Ancient World to Life - Biblical Archaeology Society
Ad esempio, secondo Giuseppe De Cesaris, l'evento centrale ebbe luogo il primo ottobre. Simo Parpola, invece, afferma che i tre eventi ebbero luogo rispettivamente il 27 maggio, 6 ottobre e 1º dicembre; Ashgrove, Triple Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, su public.iastate.edu. URL consultato il 5 giugno 2008.
