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Book XIV: Constantius and Gallus
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Book XXXI
The Anonymus Valesianus, First Part: The lineage of the Emperor Constantine
The Anonymus Valesianus, latter part: The History of King Theodoric
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[32] In these parts are the fertile fields of the Magi, about whose sects and pursuits—since we have chanced on this point—it will be in place to give a few words of explanation. According to Plato, 1 the most eminent author of lofty ideas, magic, under the mystic name of hagistia, 2 is thepurest worship of the gods. To the science of this, derived from the secret lore of the Chaldaeans, in ages long past the Bactrian Zoroaster 3 made many contributions, and after him the wise king Hystaspes, 4 the father of Darius. [p. 369]
1 Ax. 371, D; Isoc. ii. 28, 227 A.
2 ἁγιστεία, (“ritual,” “holy rites.”
3 For Zarathustra, the founder of the Perso-Iranian native religion, which prevailed from 559 B.C. to A.D. 636. The Greek and Roman writers assign his birth to various places, into which his religion was introduced; it was probably Bactria, or western Iran. His date is also uncertain; Aristotle put it 6000 years before the death of Plato (Pliny, N.H. xxx. 3), others 1000 B.C.
4 Hystaspes was not king. Others regard a much earlier Hystaspes as the teacher of magic.
Ammianus Marcellinus. With An English Translation. John C. Rolfe, Ph.D., Litt.D. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1935-1940.
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Citation URI: http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0023.stoa001.perseus-eng1:23.6.32
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