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

NOTES ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC. 279
servations of Goldziher, Studien, Theodor Noldeke gewidmet,
1906, I, pp. 302 ff. The Assyrio-Chaldean magic may be com
pared profitably with Hindu magic (Victor Henry, La Magic
dans I Inde antique, Paris, 1904).
66. There are many indications that the Chaldean magic
spread over the Roman empire, probably as a consequence of
the conquests of Trajan and Verus (Apul., De Magia, c. 38;
Lucian, Philopseudes, c. n; Necyoin., c. 6, etc. Cf. Hubert,
loc. cit. ) Those most influential in reviving these studies
seem to have been two rather enigmatical personages, Julian
the Chaldean, and his son Julian the Theurge, who lived under
Marcus Aurelius. The latter was considered the author of the
Ao7ta XaXSafaa, which in a measure became the Bible of the
last neo-Platonists.
67. Apul., De Magia, c. 27. The name 0tX6oro0oj, philosophus,
was finally applied to all adepts in the occult sciences.
68. The term seems to have been first used by Julian, called
the Theurge, and thence to have passed to Porphyry (Epist.
Aneb., c. 46; Augustine, Civ. Dei, X, 9-10) and to the neo-
Platonists.
69. Hubert, article cited, pp. 1494, n. I ; 1499 f. ; 1504. Ever
since magical papyri were discovered in Egypt, there has been
a tendency to exaggerate the influence exercised by that
country on the development of magic. Tt made magic prom
inent as we have said, but a study of these same papyri proves
that elements of very different origin had combined with the
native sorcery, which seems to have laid special stress upon the
importance of the "barbarian names," because to the Egyp
tians the name had a reality quite independent of the object
an effective force of its own
denoted by it, and possessed
(supra, pp. 93, 95). But that is, after all, only an incidental
theory, and it is significant that in speaking of the origin of
magic, Pliny (XXX, 7) names the Persians in the first place,
and does not even mention the Egyptians.
70. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 230 ff. Consequently Zoro
aster, the undisputed master of the magi, is frequently con
sidered a. disciple of the Chaldeans or as himself coming from
Babylon. The blending of Persian and Chaldean beliefs ap
pears clearly in Lucian, Xccyoin., 6 ff.