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

280 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS.
71. The majority of the magical formulas attributed to
Democritus are the work of forgers like Bolos of Mendes
(cf. Diels, Fragmente der Vorsokratiker,
I 2
, pp. 440!), but
the authorship of this literature could not have been attrib
uted to him, had not these tendencies been so favorable.
72. On Jewish magic see: Blau, Das altjudische Zauber-
wesen, 1898; cf. Hubert, loc. cit., p. 1505.
73- Pliny, //. N., XXX, i, 6; Juvenal, VI, 548 ff. In
Pliny s opinion these magicians were especially acquainted
with veneficas artes. The toxicology of Mithridates goes back
to that source (Pliny, XXV, 2, 7). Cf. Horace, Epod., V, 21 ;
Virgil, Buc. VIII, 95, etc.
74. Cf. supra, pp. 151 ff.
75. Minucius Felix, Octavius, 26; cf. supra, ch. VI, p. 152.
76. In a passage outlining the Persian demonology (see
supra, n. 39), Porphyry tells us (Dc Abst., II, 41) :
(sc. roi)f tiaifiovas) //d/Wra KCU rbv Trpoecrura avruv (c. 42, /
avruv dvvafii^= Ahriman) f.KTtij.uaiv ol TO. KO.KO. did. TUV yorj-
TTpaTTOfievoL K. T. A. Cf. Lactantius, Divin. Inst., II, 14
(I, p. 164, 10, Brandt ed.) ; Clem, of Alexandria, Stromat.,
Ill, p. 46 C, and supra, n. 37. The idea that the demons sub
sisted on the offerings and particularly on the smoke of the
sacrifices agrees entirely with the old Persian and Babylonian
ideas. See Yasht V, XXI, 94: What "becomes of the liba
tions which the wicked bring to you
after sunset?" "The
devas receive them," etc. In the cuneiform tablet of the
deluge (see i6off.), the gods "smell the good odor and gather
above the officiating priest like flies." (Dhorme, Textes rcli-
gieux assyro-babyloniens, 1907, p. 115; cf. Maspero, Hist. anc.
des peuples de V Orient, I, p. 681.).
7. Plut, De Iside, c. 46.
78. The druj Nasu of the Mazdeans ; cf. Darmesteter, Zend-
Avesta, II, p. xi and 146 ff.
79.
Cf. Lucan, Phars., VI, 520 ff.
80. Mommsen, Strafrecht, pp. 639 ff. There is no doubt that
the legislation of Augustus was directed against magic, cf.
Dion, LII, 34, 3. Manilius (II, 108) opposes to astrology the