Celsus’ own judgment is given a little later: “To dissect a living body is both cruel and unnecessary; to dissect dead bodies is necessary.”
It is to be noted, says Professor Murray, that Herophilus and Erasistratus were not living in a Greek city state, but under an oriental despot.
[205] Mahaffy.
[206] It has been suggested that new books were perhaps dictated to a roomful of copyists, and so issued in a first edition of some hundreds at least. In Rome, Horace and Virgil seem to have been issued in quite considerable editions.
[207] See Ferguson’s Hellenistic Athens.
[208] Serapis sounds like a compound of Apis and Osiris, but there is reason for supposing that the name is really of Chaldean origin. See Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism.
[209] Legge, Forerunners and Rivals of Christianity.
[210] See for much light on the syncretic religions before Christianity Franz Cumont, Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism. This is a very able and thoroughly interesting book.
[211] Rhys Davids’ Buddhism and other writings by him have been our chief guide here.
[212] Pronounced Ashoka.