HOMEPAGE

THE CHALDEAN MAGI

According to Ancient Sources

Ammianus Marcellinus, Apuleius, Arnobius, Augustine, Bardasenes, Callisthenes, Chaldean Oracles, Clement of Alexandria, Commodian, Cosmas of Jerusalem, Ctesias, Damascius, Derveni Papyrus, Dio Chrysostom Diodorus of Sicily, Diogenes Laertes, Dionysius the Areopagite, Dion Cassius, Eudemus of Rhodes, Duris, Eunapius, Eusebius, Firmicus Maternus, Gregory Nazianzus, Herodotus, Himerius, Hippolytus, Iamblichus, Jerome, Julian the Emperor, Justin Martyr, Lactantius Placidus, Lampridius, Lucian, Martian, Mithras Liturgy Nonnus, Nonnus the Mythographer, Origen, Philo of Alexandria, Philo of Byblos, Pliny the Elder, Plutarch, Porphyry, Proclus, Prudentius, Quintus Curtius, Saint Basil, Socrates, Sozomen, Strabo, Tertullian, Xenophon, Zosimus of Panopolis,

ARYAN MYTH

BABYLON

ANCIENT GREECE

HELLENISTIC AGE

MUSLIM WORLD

HOLY GRAIL

MODERN EUROPE

MY BILBLIOGRAPHY

CHALDEAN MAGI

Apuleius. Apologia sive de Magica . 26:

Do you hear, you who so rashly accuse the art of magic? It is an art acceptable to the immortal gods, full of all knowledge of worship and of prayer, full of piety and wisdom in things divine, full of honour and glory since the day when Zoroaster and Ahura Mazda established it, high-priestess of the powers of heaven. Nay, it is one of the first elements of princely instruction, nor do they lightly admit any chance person to be a magician, any more than they would admit him to be a king. Plato -- if I may quote him again -- in another passage dealing with a certain Zalmoxis, a Thracian and also a master of this art has written that magical charms are merely beautiful words. If that is so, why should I be forbidden to learn the fair words of Zalmoxis or the priestly lore. of Zoroaster?

Apuleius. Apologia sive de Magica , 27:

But it is a common and general error of the uninitiated to bring the following accusations against philosophers. Some of them think that those who explore the origins and elements of material things are irreligious, and assert that they deny the existence of the gods. Take, for instance, the cases of Anaxagoras, Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus, and other natural philosophers. Others call those magicians who bestow unusual care on the investigation of the workings of providence and unusual devotion on their worship of the gods, as though, forsooth, they knew how to perform everything that they know actually to be performed. So Epimenides, Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Ostanes were regarded as magicians, while a similar suspicion attached to the purifications of Empedocles, the `demon' of Socrates and the `good' of Plato. I congratulate myself therefore on being admitted to such distinguished company.

Apuleius. Apologia sive de Magica , 90:

If you can discover one trivial reason that might have led me to woo Pudentilla for the sake of some personal advantage, if you can prove that I have made the very slightest profit out of my marriage, I am ready to be any magician you please -- the great Carmendas himself or Damigeron or Moses, or Jannes or Apollobex or Dardanus himself or any sorcerer of note from the time of Zoroaster and Ostanes till now.