Category Archives: Persians / Iranians / Magians

Arabians: Herodotos on deities and lifestyle (late fifth century BCE)

Asian Albanians, Iberians, Mardians and others: Demodamas and Pliny the Elder on peoples in the Caucasus region and further east (third century BCE / first century CE)

Assyrian / Babylonian wisdom: Sibyl of Babylon on the superiority of the Judean people (second century BCE)

Assyrian wisdom: The Kyranides on a journey to learn from a foreign inscription (fourth century CE or earlier)

Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Celts, and others: The Cicero brothers on the nature and effectiveness of divination (mid-first century BCE)

Assyrians, Medes and Persians: Ktesias on Persian Matters via Diodoros and Photios (early fourth century BCE)

Assyrians: Trogus on the achievements of Ninos and Semiramis and on the extreme effeminacy of Sardanapalus (first century BCE)

Babylonian and Persian wisdom: Kleitarchos on Chaldeans and Magians (late fourth-third centuries BCE)

Babylonian wisdom: Lucian’s Menippos visits Mithrobarzanes the Chaldean / Magian wise man (late second century CE)

Babylonians and Assyrians: Herodotos on legendary queens and outstanding customs (mid-fifth century BCE)

Barbarian peoples: Nymphodoros, Nikolaos, and others with collections of paradoxical customs (third century BCE on)

Barbarian wisdom: Clement of Alexandria [VI] on barbarian and Hebrew philosophy (late second century CE)

Celts, Persians, and Amazons: Smaller statues of fighting and dying “barbarians” associated with Attalos of Pergamon (third-second century BCE / second century CE)

Celts: Pliny the Elder on medicine, rites and Magian skill among Druids (first century CE)

Eastern and northern peoples: Bardaisan of Edessa’s Book of the Laws of Countries and the Pseudo-Clementines on astrology and peoples (second-third centuries CE)

Egyptian perspectives: Oracles of the Lamb and the Potter on Greco-Macedonians and other foreigners (third-second centuries BCE)

Egyptian wisdom: Cicero, Diodoros and Valerius Maximus on Pythagoras’ and Plato’s supposed journeys to Egypt (first centuries BCE and CE)

Egyptians, Taurians, and Celts: Cicero’s Philus engages in ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (mid-first century BCE)

Egyptians: Cicero on superstition and animal-worship (mid-first century BCE)

Ethiopians: Herodotos on southern peoples at the ends of the earth (mid-fifth century BCE)

Ethnic diversity in Alexandria: Dio of Prusa on the cross-roads of the world (late first century CE)

Ethnic diversity in Libya / Africa: Sallust on legends of migration (mid-first century BCE)

Indians, Ethiopians, and Celts: Dio of Prusa critiques foreign imports and luxury (late first century CE)

Indians: Herodotos on eastern peoples at the ends of the earth (mid-fifth century BCE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos on Solomon as the ultimate wise man, controller of lower spirits, and healer (late-first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Pseudo-Clementines on Abraham the astrologer and legends of migration (second-fourth centuries CE)

Judean wisdom: Testament of Solomon on Solomon’s superiority in controlling lower spirits and in healing (first-third century CE)

Judean, Persian, and Indian wisdom: Philo on the freedom of Essenes and Kalanos (early first century CE)

Judeans, Syrians, Indians, and others: Porphyry of Tyre on abstinence from meat (third century CE)

Judeans: Poseidonios (?) and Strabo on decline after Moses (first century CE)

Kimmerians and Kolchians: Herodotos on other Pontic peoples (mid-fifth century BCE)

Libyan perspectives: Apuleius self-identifies as a barbarian and Numidian / Gaetulian (mid-second century CE)

Libyans: Herodotos on customs and colonization (fifth century BCE)

Lydians: Herodotos on king Croesus and Lydian customs (mid-fifth century BCE)

Mardians among Persians: Curtius Rufus on Alexander’s conquest of an uncivilized cave people (first century CE)

Medes, Assyrians, Baktrians, and others: Herodotos on the mixed composition of the Persian army under Xerxes (fifth century BCE)

Mediterranean peoples: Maximus of Tyre on images for the gods as ubiquitous among peoples (late second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Ovid on identifying personified peoples in art to impress a girl (early first century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Pausanias, ethnographic interests, and local traditions (mid-second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Sextus Empiricus engages with ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (second-third centuries CE)

Parthians and Scythians: Julius Africanus on barbarian military techniques (early third century CE)

Parthians, Medes, and Babylonians: Pliny the Elder (first century CE)

Persian wisdom: Ammianus Marcellinus on Zoroaster, Hystaspes, and the Magians (late fourth century CE)

Persian wisdom: Aristoxenos of Tarentum on Pythagoras and Zoroaster (fourth century BCE)

Persian wisdom: Eudemos of Rhodes on Magians (fourth century BCE)

Persian wisdom: Lactantius and others on the Oracles of Hystaspes the Mede (third century CE)

Persian wisdom: Plutarch’s story about Kleombrotos’ journeys (early second century CE)

Persian wisdom: Theopompos of Chios and Plutarch on Magians and Zoroaster (fourth century BCE and later)

Persian, Babylonian, and Scythian wisdom: Diogenes of Laertes refutes Magian and Chaldean origins for Greek philosophy (early third century CE)

Persian, Egyptian, Indian, and Celtic wisdom: Dio of Prusa on philosophers’ roles in leadership (late first century CE)

Persian, Indian, and Judean wisdom: Klearchos of Soloi on Magian precedence (fourth century BCE)

Persians and Egyptians: Pseudo-Clementines on the origins and nature of Magian skill (second-fourth centuries CE)

Persians and Medes: Herakleides of Kyme, Klearchos of Soloi, and others on royal banquets (fourth century BCE)

Persians and Medes: Herodotos on customs (mid-fifth century BCE)

Persians and Medes: Thucydides on Medizing (late-fifth century BCE)

Persians and neighbouring eastern peoples: Ammianus Marcellinus on Persian territories and lifestyles (late fourth century CE)

Persians, Hyrkanians, Armenians, Derbikians and others: Curtius Rufus on the mixed composition of the army of Darius III (first century CE)

Persians, Spartans, and Athenians: Platonic author on the superiority of the Persians (fourth century BCE)

Persians: Acts of Archelaos on Mani’s foreignness (early fourth century CE)

Persians: Apuleius of Madaura’s defence against the charge of harmful Magian actions (ca. 158 CE)

Persians: Clement of Alexandria [IV] on the elements among Greek philosophers and Persian Magians (late second century CE)

Persians: Curtius Rufus on Alexander of Macedon’s supposed decline into eastern ways (first century CE)

Persians: Curtius Rufus on military processions and royal luxury (first century CE)

Persians: Dio of Prusa on a supposedly Zoroastrian myth (late first century CE)

Persians: Emperor Diocletian on strange and monstrous Manicheans (ca. 300 CE)

Persians: God Mithras as a Roman representation of a Persian (second century CE)

Persians: Heresy-hunters on Simon Magus and other Magians (second-third centuries CE)

Persians: Irenaeus on Marcus the Valentinian Magian (late second century CE)

Persians: Matthew and Luke-Acts on two contrasting approaches to Magians (late first century CE)

Persians: Maximus of Tyre on “barbarizing” and the excesses of royal pleasure (late second century CE)

Persians: Plato on Persian decline into effeminacy and tyranny (early fourth century BCE)

Persians: Suda on Zoroaster and on expertise in Magian practice, wailing incantations, and potions (tenth century CE)

Persians: Trogus on Alexander of Macedon’s acculturation to eastern ways (first century BCE)

Persians: Vitruvius theorizes about Greek depictions of enemies in architectural contexts (first century BCE)

Persians: Xanthos on the Magians’ supposed incest and on Zoroaster’s date (fifth century BCE)

Persians: Xenophon and an anonymous author on royal customs and Cyrus (early fourth century BCE / second century BCE)

Phoenician, Egyptian and Babylonian wisdom: Porphyry of Tyre and Antonius Diogenes on Pythagoras (third century CE)

Phoenician, Egyptian and Persian wisdom: Iamblichos of Chalkis on Pythagoras (fourth century CE)

Romans, Egyptians, Persians, and others: Minucius Felix’s ethnographic defence of the Christian people (early third century CE)

Romans: Ammianus Marcellinus on the danger of decline into uncivilized lifestyles (late fourth century CE)

Romans: Dionysios on Roman origins and legends of Greek and Pelasgian migrations to Italy (late first century BCE)

Scythians and Getians: Dio of Prusa on inter-ethnic encounters at Olbia and on Getian Matters (late first century CE)

Scythians and other Pontic peoples: Herodotos on the “most ignorant peoples of all” (fifth century BCE)

Scythians, Amazons, and Hyperboreans: Diodoros on some northerners (mid-first century BCE)

Scythians, Amazons, and Persians: Isocrates on the superiority of the Athenian people (early fourth century BCE)

Thracians, Getians, Paionians, and others: Herodotos (mid-fifth century BCE)

Various peoples: Polybios on the mixed composition of Ptolemy IV’s and Antiochos III’s armies (second century BCE)