Constellations Centaurus & Bestia Eighteenth century hand coloured engraving of constellational Centaurus dangling Bestia based on the illumination in the 9th century Aratea manuscript in Leiden which is itself based on the Latin translation of the original Greek of Aratus written in the first century of our era. Aratus was born in about 315 BC in Soli on the south coast of present Turkey and is said to have written his phaenomena for the ruler of Macedonia Antigonus Gonatas