This article points out that Spenser's descriptions of the battle of the stars and of the Golden Age in the Proem to Book V are derived from the Latin texts of the Senecan tragedies Thyestes and Octavia. However, it is argued that Spenser's interpretation of the battle as the precession of the equinoxes reflects the contemporary belief that signs of the end were to be found in both nature and prophecy, in that it offers a natural fulfilment of the prophetic account of the battle of the stars in the Sibylline Oracles. As the Senecan and Sibylline texts all make reference to Virgo, it is suggested that Spenser conjoins these traditions in order to present a persuasive picture of the dawn of a new age under Virgo/Astraea.