[52]. Suetonius, Tib., 69: "Circa deos ac religiones neglegentior, quippe addictus mathematicae, plenusque persuasionis cuncta fato agi." Cf. Manilius, IV.
[53]. Vettius Valens, IX, 11 (Cat. codd. astr., V, 2, p. 51, 8 ff. = p. 355, 15. Kroll ed.), cf. VI, prooem. (Cat., p. 33 = p. 240, Kroll).
[54]. "Si tribuunt fata genesis, cur deos oratis?" reads a verse of Commodianus (I, 16, 5). The antinomy between the belief in fatalism and this practice did not prevent the two from existing side by side, cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 120, 311; Revue d'hist. et de litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 431.—The peripatetic Alexander of Aphrodisias who fought fatalism in his Περὶ εἱμαρμένης, at the beginning of the third century, and who violently attacked the charlatanism and cupidity of the astrologers in another book (De anima mantissa, p. 180, 14, Bruns), formulated the contradiction in the popular beliefs of his time (ibid., p. 182, 18):
Ποτὲ μὲν ἄνθρωποι τὸ τῆς εἱμαρμένης ὑμνοῦσιν ὡς ἀναγκαῖον, ποτὲ δὲ οὐ πάντῃ τὴν συνέχειαν αὐτῆς πιστεύουσι σώζειν· καὶ γὰρ οἱ διὰ τῶν λόγων ὑπὲρ αὐτῆς ὡς οὔσης ἀναγκαίας διατεινόμενοι σφόδρα καὶ πάντα ἀνατιθέντες αὐτῇ, ἐν ταῖς κατὰ τὸν βίον πράξεσιν οὐκ ἐοίκασιν αὐτῇ πεπιστευκέναι·
Τύχην γοῦν πολλάκις ἐπιβοῶνται, ἄλλην ὁμολογοῦντες εἶναι ταύτην αἰτίαν τῆς εἱμαρμένης· ἀλλὰ καὶ τοῖς θεοῖς οὐ διαλείπουσιν εὐχόμενοι, ὡς δυναμένον τινὸς ὑπ' αὐτὼν διὰ τὰς εὐχὰς γενέσθαι καὶ παρὰ τὴν εἱμαρμένην· ... καὶ μαντείαις οὐκ ὀκνοῦσι χρῆσθαι, ὡς ἐνὸν αὐτοῖς, εἰ προμάθοιεν, φυλάξασθαί τι τῶν εἱμαρμένων ... ἀπιθανώταται γοῦν εἴσιν αὐτῶν αἱ πρὸς τὴν τούτων συμφωνίαν εὑρησιλογίαι. Cf. also De Fato, c. 2 (p. 165, 26 ff. Bruns).
[55]. Manilius, II, 466: "Quin etiam propriis inter se legibus astra | Conveniunt, ut certa gerant commercia rerum, | Inque vicem praestant visus atque auribus haerent, | Aut odium, foedusque gerunt," etc.—Signs βλέποντα and ἀκούοντα: cf. Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 139 ff.—The planets rejoice (χαίρειν) in their mansions, etc.—Signs φωνήεντα, etc.: cf. Cat., I, pp. 164 ff.; Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 77 ff. The terminology of the driest didactic texts is saturated with mythology.
[56]. Saint Leo, In Nativ., VII, 3 (Migne, P. L., LIV, col. 218); Firmicus, I, 6, 7; Ambrosiaster, in the Revue d'hist. et litt. relig., VIII, 1903, p. 16.
[57]. Cf. Reitzenstein, Poimandres, pp. 77 ff., cf. p. 103, where a text of Zosimus attributes this theory to Zoroaster. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-röm. Kultur, 1907, p. 81. This is the meaning of the verse of the Orac. Chaldaïca: Οὐ γὰρ ὑφ' εἱμαρτὴν ἀγέλην πίπτουσι θεοῦργοι (p. 59 Kroll). According to Arnobius (II, 62, Cornelius Labeo) the magi claimed "deo esse se gnatos nec fati obnoxios legibus."
[58]. Bibliography. We have no complete book on Greek and Roman magic. Maury, La magie et l'astrologie dans l'antiquité et au moyen âge, 1864, is a mere sketch. The most complete account is Hubert's art. "Magia" in the Dict. des antiquités of Daremberg, Saglio, Pottier. It contains an index of the sources and the earlier bibliography. More recent studies are: Fahz, De poet. Roman. doctrina magica, Giessen, 1903; Audollent, Defixionum tabulae, Paris, 1904; Wünsch, Antikes Zaubergerät aus Pergamon, Berlin, 1905 (important objects found dating back to the third century, A. D.); Abt, Die Apologie des Apuleius und die Zauberei, Giessen, 1908.—The superstition that is not magic, but borders upon it, is the subject of a very important article by Riess, "Aberglaube," in the Realenc. of Pauly-Wissowa. An essay by Kroll, Antiker Aberglaube, Hamburg, 1897, deserves mention.—Cf. Ch. Michel
in the Revue d'hist. et litt. rel., VII, 1902, p. 184. See also infra, nn. [64], [65], [72].