Roman Stoicism being lectures on the history of the Stoic...

[1] See below, § 441.

[2] Diog. L. Prooem. 1.

[3] Gomperz, Greek Thinkers, ii p. 161; and below, § 94.

[4] ‘principes Chaldaei, qui in patentibus campis colebant, stellarum motus et vias et coetus intuentes, quid ex his efficeretur observaverunt’ Gellius, N. A. xiv 1, 8.

[5] Sir E. Walter Maunder, in the Nineteenth Century for September 1900.

[6] ‘quinque stellarum potestates Chaldaeorum observatio excepit’ Seneca, N. Q. ii 32, 6.

[7] This is well described by Cicero, translating from a Stoic source: ‘cum fato omnia fiant, si quis mortalis possit esse, qui colligationem causarum omnium perspiciat animo, nihil eum profecto fallat. qui enim teneat causas rerum futurarum, idem necesse est omnia teneat quae futura sint’ Div. i 56, 127. It seems reasonable to suppose that this general conception of ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’ is deduced from the unchanging movements of the heavenly bodies.

[8] ‘videbis quinque sidera diversas agentia vias; ex horum levissimis motibus fortunae populorum dependent’ Sen. Dial. vi 18, 3.

[9] ‘aiunt quadringenta septuaginta milia annorum in periclitandis experiundisque pueris, quicunque essent nati, Babylonios posuisse’ Cic. Div. ii 46, 97. I assume that the original tradition named the smaller number suggested above.

[10] ‘duo apud Chaldaeos studuisse se dicunt, Epigenes et Apollonius Myndius’ Sen. N. Q. vii 4, 1; ‘Diogenes Stoicus [Chaldaeis] concedit, aliquid ut praedicere possint’ Cic. Div. ii 43, 90. Seneca concludes against their authority, observing (i) that a proper horoscope should include all the stars in the heaven at the moment of birth, and (ii) that twins should always have the same fortune, which is obviously untrue; see N. Q. ii 32, 6 to 8, Ben. vii 1, 5.

[11] ‘tu ne quaesieris (scire nefas), quem mihi, quem tibi | finem di dederint, Leuconoe, nec Babylonios | temptaris numeros’ Hor. C. i 11, 1-3.

[12] See the interesting tale of Thrasyllus and Tiberius in Tac. Ann. vi 21, to which the author affects to give some credit.

[13] e.g., ‘seu Libra seu me Scorpios adspicit | formidulosus, pars violentior | natalis horae, seu tyrannus | Hesperiae Capricornus undae, | utrumque nostrum incredibili modo | consentit astrum’ Hor. C. ii 17, 17-22.

[14] ‘Eudoxus, qui inter sapientiae sectas clarissimam utilissimamque [artem magicam] intellegi voluit, Zoroastrem hunc sex millibus annorum ante Platonis mortem fuisse prodidit: sic et Aristoteles’ Pliny, N. H. xxx 2, 1; cf. Diog. L. Prooem. 2 and 8.

[15] Williams-Jackson, Zoroaster, p. 161.

[16]ib. p. 174.

[17] K. Geldner, Encycl. Brit. ed. x, article ‘Zoroaster.’

[18] Williams-Jackson, p. 7.

[19] ‘Magiam ... cuius scientiae saeculis priscis multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres’ Amm. Marc. xxiii 6, 32.

[20] [Zoroastres] ‘primus dicitur mundi principia siderumque motus diligentissime spectasse’ Justinus, Hist. Phil. i 1, 9 (Williams-Jackson, p. 237): ‘astris multum et frequenter intentus’ Clem. Rom. Recogn. iv 27.

[21] ‘tradunt Zoroastrem in desertis caseo vixisse’ Pliny, N. H. xi 97.

[22] ‘[Ahura Mazdā] created the paths of the sun and the stars; he made the moon to wax and wane’ (Yasna 43, 3); ‘he made the light and the darkness’ (ib. 5); ‘he is the father of the good’ (ib. 46, 2).

[23] ‘Ζωροάστρης ὁ μάγος ... προσαπεφαίνετο, τὸν μὲν ἑοικέναι φωτὶ μάλιστα τῶν αἰσθητῶν, τὸν δ’ ἔμπαλιν σκότῳ καὶ ἀγνοίᾳ’ Plut. Isid. et Osir. 46.

[24] ‘Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia:—all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord, the God of heaven, given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem’ Ezra i 2.

[25] See the interesting papyri records recently discovered in Elephantine, and published by Dr Sachau of Berlin. A general account of them is given by Prof. Driver in the London Guardian for Nov. 6, 1907.

[26] Cicero rightly appreciated the religious character of the Persian invasions: ‘delubra humanis consecrata simulacris Persae nefaria putaverunt; eamque unam ob causam Xerxes inflammari Atheniensium fana iussisse dicitur, quod deos, quorum domus esset omnis hic mundus, inclusos parietibus contineri nefas esse duceret’ Rep. iii 9, 14. So Themistocles as represented by Herodotus: ‘the gods and heroes grudged that one man should become king both of Asia and of Europe, and he a man unholy and presumptuous, one who made no difference between things sacred and things profane, burning and casting down the images of the gods’ History viii 109 (Macaulay’s translation).

[27] See below, § 41.

[28] ‘Images and temples and altars they do not account it lawful to erect, nay, they even charge with folly those who do these things; and this, as it seems to me, because they do not account the gods to be in the likeness of men, as do the Hellenes. But it is their wont to perform sacrifices to Zeus, going up to the most lofty of the mountains, and the whole circle of the heavens they call Zeus: and they sacrifice to the Sun and the Moon and the Earth, to Fire and to Water and to the Winds; these are the only gods to whom they have sacrificed ever from the first’ History i 131 (Macaulay’s translation).

[29] Cic. Sen. 22, 79 to 81, after Xen. Cyr. viii 7.

[30] In the hymns of Zarathustra we can only trace the beginnings of this system, as in the following: ‘All-wise Lord, all-powerful one, and thou Piety, and Righteousness, Good Mind and the Kingdom, listen ye to me and prosper my every beginning’ Yasna 33, 11.

[31]Yasht xix 15, 16. The translation follows Geldner, Drei Yasht aus dem Zendavesta, p. 15.

[32] Ancient Greek hymn, φῶς ἱλαρὸν ἁγίας δόξης, translated by J. Keble.

[33] J. H. Newman.

[34] ‘Zoroaster taught the Persians neither to burn their dead, nor otherwise to defile fire.’ Xanthos (B.C. 465-425), as quoted by Nicolaus of Damascus (1st century B.C.).

[35] See § 10, note 28; Strabo xv 3, 16.

[36] ‘Zarathustra said:—the earthly demon is water derived from earth; the heavenly demon is fire mixed with air’ Origen, contra haereses, i col. 3025.

[37] ‘The Persians first worshipped fire as a god in heaven’ Clemens Romanus, Hom. ix 4 f.

[38] ‘Zoroaster the Magian says:—God is the primal, the incorruptible, the eternal, the unbegotten, the indivisible, the incomparable, the charioteer of all good, he that cannot be bribed, the best of the good, the wisest of the wise; he is also the father of good laws and justice, the self-taught, the natural, perfect, and wise, the only discoverer of the sacred and natural’ Euseb. Praep. ev. i 10.

[39] ‘From the writings of Zoroaster it is inferred that he divided philosophy into three parts, physics, economics, and politics’ Schol. on First Alcibiades, p. 122 A (Williams-Jackson, p. 231).

[40] ‘They educate their children, beginning at five years old and going on till twenty, in three things only; in riding, in shooting, and in speaking the truth’ Herod. i 136.