428 
pliny's natiteal histokt. 
[Book XXX. 
superstition, however barbarous and ferocious the rites which 
it sanctions, that is not more tolerant than the imaginations 
which he conceived, and owing to which, by a series of blood- 
stained crimes, our abodes were peopled with ghosts. 
CHAP. 6. — THE SUBTERFUGES PRACTISED BY THE MAGICIAN^S. 
The magicians, too, have certain modes of evasion, as, for 
instance, that the gods will not obey, or even appear to, persons 
who have freckles upon the skin. Was this perchance the 
obstacle^^ in Nero's way ? As for his limbs, there was^^ nothing 
deficient in them. And then, besides, he was at liberty to 
make choice of the days prescribed by the magic ritual : it 
was an easy thing for him to make choice of sheep whose 
colour was no other than perfectly black : and as to sacrificing 
human beings, there was nothing in the world that gave him 
greater pleasure. The Magian Tiridates** was at his court, 
having repaired thither, in token of our triumph over Armenia, 
accompanied by a train which cost dear to the provinces through 
which it passed. For the fact was, that he was unwilling to 
travel by water, it being a maxim with the adepts in this art 
that it is improper to spit into the sea or to profane that element 
by any other of the evacuations that are inseparable from the 
infirmities of human nature. He brought with him, too, 
several other Magi, and went so far as to initiate the emperor 
in the repasts'*^ of the craft ; and yet the prince, for all he had 
bestowed a kingdom upon the stranger, found himself unable 
to receive at his hands, in return, this art. 
"We may rest fully persuaded then, that magic is a thing 
detestable in itself. Frivolous and lying as it is, it still bears, 
however, some shadow of truth upon it ; though reflected, in 
reality, by the practices of those who study the arts of secret 
poisoning, and not the pursuits of magic. Let any one picture 
to himself the lies of the magicians of former days, when he 
learns what has been stated by the grammarian Apion,*^ a 
*2 Suetonius says that his body was fuU of foul spots. 
It was probably a doctrine of Magic, that an adept must not be de- 
ficient in any of his limbs. 
After being conquered by the Roman general, Corbulo, he received 
the crown of Armenia from Nero, a,d. 63. 
*5 All vegetable substances were divided, according to their doctrine, into 
the pure and the impure, the rule being strictly observed at their repasts. 
See end of this Book. 
