Julia'nus or Julia'nusTheurgus

(Ἰουλιανός), literary.

1. A Chaldaean, surnamed Theurgus, i. e. the magician, lived in the time of the emperor M. Aurelius, whose army he is said to have saved from destruction by a shower of rain, which he called down by his magic power. Suidas (s. v.) attributes to him also several works, viz. Δεουργικά, τελεστικά, and a collection of oracles in hexameter verse. His pursuits show that he was a New Platonist, and it would seem that he enjoyed a great reputation, since Porphyrius wrote upon him a work in four books, which is lost. A. Mai has discovered in Vatican MSS. three fragments relating to astrological subjects (Nova Script. Class. Collect. ii. p. 675), and attributed to one Julianus of Laodiceia, whom Mai considers to be the same as Julianus the Magician.