I have often wondered what the ordinary person thought during the strange epoch when people thought the sun was revolving around the earth. Indeed, in my mind, I associate the idea of an earth centered universe as being particularly Roman in character.
This is because in Roman times there were human beings who seriously thought that they were a god and at the center of the universe. My hero is Emperor Vespasian because I understand that he was not carried away with such vanity. He probably held a very dim view of people who thought that he was like a Caesar, and as a Caesar, was a god. In his history of Appolonius, Philostratus gives us some insight into the nature of Vespasian as seen by someone close to his time. In many respects, the history of Appolonius and Jesus of Nazareth are connected. We see that there may have been wisdom of such Masters/Prophets/God passed on to Vespasian.
No! I think Vespasian realized that there is something around us that works in mysterious ways and may hold us to our fate, but that we cannot be gods. By his belief in fate, Vespasian, was acknowledging a much higher and more mysterious realm that went about determining outcomes. If he was like many of his period, Vespasian may have thought that his story had already been told and that he was just ignorant of what that story was. In a sense, this means that his ancient mind accepted that the past, present and future were as a whole already determined, and that he had very little control over outcomes.
This notion, nevertheless, flies in the face of what we see Vespasian accomplishing throughout his life.