The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

188 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS.
clergy ; they invoked the aid of the state gods in their
incantations, and their sacred science was as highly
esteemed as haruspicy in Etruria. The immense pres
tige that continued to surround it, assured its persist
ence after the fall of Nineveh and Babylon. Its tra
dition was still alive under the Caesars, and a number
of enchanters rightly or wrongly claimed to possess
the ancient wisdom of Chaldea. 66
And the thaumaturgus, who was supposed to be the
heir of the archaic priests, assumed a wholly sacerdotal
appearance at Rome. Being an inspired sage who
received confidential communications from heavenly
spirits, he gave to his life and to his appearance a
dignity almost equal to that of the philosopher. The
common people soon confused the two, 67 and the Orien
talizing philosophy of the last period of paganism
actually accepted and justified all the superstitions of
magic. Neo-Platonism, which concerned itself to a
large extent with demonology, leaned more and more
towards theurgy, and was finally completely absorbed
by it.
But the ancients expressly distinguished, "magic,"
which was always under suspicion and disapproved
of, from the legitimate and honorable art for which
the name 68 was invented. The term "theurgy"
"magi
cian,"* which applied to all performers of miracles,
properly means the priests of Mazdaism, and a well
attested tradition makes the Persians 6^ the authors of
the real magic, that called "black magic" by the Middle
Ages. If they did not invent it because it is as old
as humanity they were at least the first to place it
upon a doctrinal foundation and to assign to it a place