Phaleg is the Mars-associated Olympic governor named in the Arbatel. The 1575 Basel print and Turner’s later English version preserve different forms of his account.
- Planetary category
- Mars ♂
- 1575 province line
- 35
- Source passage
- Aphorisms 16–17
Place in the seven-name list
Phaleg appears third in Aphorism 16, with 35 provinces in the Basel print. Aphorism 17 connects him to the things attributed to Mars and then calls him a prince of peace. The apparent tension is in the source itself: the following sentence speaks of raising a person to high rank in warlike affairs. A reader should retain both phrases rather than replacing one with a modern shorthand such as “spirit of war.” The distinctive juxtaposition may be part of what a Renaissance writer wanted the Mars office to mean.
What the book attributes
Compared with Aratron, Bethor, or Och, Phaleg receives a remarkably short individual paragraph. The source does not enumerate legions, hidden treasures, cures, or a long ladder of subordinate ranks for him here. Many online summaries fill that silence with traits borrowed from generic planetary magic. The narrow Aphorism 17 record should remain separate from broader Mars symbolism. The planetary connection is explicit in the Arbatel; any further ritual correspondence or psychological profile needs a separately identified later source.
The printed record
The 35 in the province list fits the descent from 49 by sevens if Bethor is corrected to 42. The original page’s mathematical inconsistency comes from Bethor’s printed 32, not Phaleg’s position. Looking at the group as an actual printed table helps avoid accidentally “correcting” the wrong figure. The Basel leaf shows the Latin name and numeral; Turner’s 1655 translation supplies later English wording. The two sources are close enough to compare but not interchangeable physical books.
