250 
4. Further Classical References to Zoroaster. 
Ere turning to purely Oriental ground, a few other classical 
allusions to Zoroaster may be mentioned. According to Plato, 
in Persia it was usual to commit the heir-apparent to the cus- 
tody of four chosen men, the first of whom instructed “him in 
the magianism of Zoroaster, the son of Oromasus, which is the 
worship of the gods.”* * * § Here the sage is described as the son 
of his divinity, the Parsi Ormazd, the Achasmenian Aura- 
mazda, the Zoroastrian Ahuramazda. Berosus makes Zoroaster 
a king of Babylon and the founder of a dynasty of seven Chal- 
dean monarchs,t a complete error ; whilst J ustin, copying the 
statement of Ivtesias, court physician to Artaxerxes Mnemon, 
has preserved the tradition that “Ninus, king of the Assy- 
rians, who first made war upon his neighbours,” made “ his 
last war with Zoroaster, king of the Bactrians, who is said to 
have been the first that invented magic arts, and to have inves- 
tigated with great attention the origin of the world and the 
motions of the stars. ”J According to Justin, Ninus, who is 
a personification of the Akkadian Nin, ‘ Lord ’ or ‘Lady/ 
killed Zoroaster. With this tradition Arnobius is in exact 
accordance, and asserts that “ between the Assyrians and 
Bactrians, under the leadership of Ninus, and Zoroaster of old, 
a struggle was maintained not only by the sword and by phy- 
sical power, but also by magicians [on the Bactrian side], and 
by the mysterious learning of the Chaldeans ”§ on the Assy- 
rian. Here Zoroaster is placed in his true abode, Bakhdhi 
(Baktria), and the tradition is doubtless founded upon facts, 
and refers to great prehistoric contests between Aryan, Tura- 
nian and Semite. In another passage, || Arnobius sneers at 
some statement of Hermippos to the effect that “ the Magian 
Zoroaster ” had crossed a mysterious fiery zone ; and legends 
existed which described him as appearing to a multitude “from 
a hill blazing with fire, that he might teach them new cere- 
monies of worship.”^] Clement of Alexandria observes that 
Pythagoras showed that “ Zoroaster the Magus ” was a Per- 
sian,** and identifies him ft with “ Er, the son of Anninius,” 
who, according to the story in Plato,];]: having been slain in 
battle, came to life again and related to his friends the destiny 
of the soul and its journey after death. The legendary con- 
* Alcibiades, i. apud Jowett, The Dialogues of Plato, ii. 472. 
t Chaldaika, ii. Fragment, 9. 
]; Hist. i. 1. So Moses of Chorene, i. 6. 
§ Arnobius, Adversus Oentes, i. 5. || Ibid. i. 52. 
IT Bryce, Arnobius adversus Oentes, 43, note 2. 
** Stromateis, i. 15. ft Ibid. v. 14. 1+ Republic, x. 
