Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, John C. Rolfe (Translator), 23.6.32

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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 Zoroaster³ made many contributions, and after him the wise king Hystaspes,⁴ the father of Darius.

Res Gestae. Ammianus Marcellinus. John C. Rolfe (Translator). Cambridge, MA. 1935-1940.

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Current edition Perseus

History (English) (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., translator. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).)

Editions (1)

Res Gestae Perseus (Ammianus Marcellinus. Ammianus Marcellinus, with an English translation, Vols. I-III. Rolfe, John C., editor. Cambridge, MA; London: Harvard University Press; W. Heinemann, 1935-1940 (printing).) — 23.6.32 focus

[32] In his tractibus Magorum agri sunt fertiles, super quorum secta studiisque, quoniam huc hue incidimus, pauca conveniet expediri. Magiam opinionum insignium auctor amplissimus Plato, hagistiam¹ esse verbo mystico docet, divinorum incorruptissimum cultum, cuius scientiae saeculis priscis multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres, deinde Hystaspes rex prudentissimus, Darei pater.

Notes on the current edition

History

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 Res Gestae 23.6.32

John C. Rolfe (Translator)

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