The phrase "star-led" first appears in John Milton's poem, "On The Morning Of Christ's Nativity."
The statement in the poem is based, and wholly dependent, upon Michael Grant's definition of the ancient meaning of the phrase "in the east," described on p. xvii of his biography of Cleopatra. Grant does not connect this phrase to its use in Matthew 2; but I think the connection is entirely obvious if, as Grant seems to suggest, the phrase "in the east" meant the east from the vantage point of Rome. This would solve at least two difficulties in contemporary interpretations of Matthew's account.
