Res Gestae

Therefore Media abounds in rich cities, in villages built up like towns, and in a great number of inhabitants; it is (to speak briefly) the richest residence of the kings.

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,[*](Ax. 371, D; Isoc. ii. 28, 227 A.) the most eminent author of lofty ideas, magic, under the mystic name of hagistia,[*](ἁγιστεία, (ritual, holy rites. ) 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[*](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.) made many contributions, and after him the wise king Hystaspes,[*](Hystaspes was not king. Others regard a much earlier Hystaspes as the teacher of magic.) the father of Darius.

When Zoroaster had boldly made his way into the unknown regions of Upper India, he reached a wooded wilderness, whose calm silence the lofty intellects of the Brahmins control. From their teaching he learned as much as he could grasp of the laws regulating the movements of the earth and the stars, and of the pure sacrificial rites. Of what he had learned he communicated something to the understanding of the Magi, which they, along with the art of divining the future, hand on from generation to generation to later times.

From that time on for many ages down to the present a large class of men of one and the same descent have devoted themselves to the service of the gods.[*](Their priesthood was hereditary, handed on from father to son.) The Magi also say (if it is right to believe them) that they guard on ever-burning braziers a fire sent down from heaven in their country, and that a small portion of it, as a good omen, used to be carried before the Asiatic kings.

The number of Magi of this origin in old times was very small, and the Persian potentates made regular use of their services in the worship of their gods. And it was sin to approach an altar, or touch a sacrificial victim, before one of the Magi, with a set form of prayer, poured the preliminary libations. But they gradually increased in number and became a strong clan, with a name of their own; they possessed country residences, which were protected by no great walls,[*](I.e. without walls.) and they were allowed to live in accordance with their own laws, and through respect for religion were held in high esteem.