8. Among Teutons and Celts

strongly infused with magic elements which had reached a degree of refine went and complexity unknown to the popular Teutonic witchcraft. This was due in great part to the organized priesthood of the Druids (q.v.), who were especially skilled in medical magic.

In Greece magic was an important religious factor even in the Homeric and early post-Homeric periods, as is clear from the story of Media in Argonautic legend, Circe in the Odyssey, the magic goddess Hecate, Hermes the protecting herald of the gods and giver of dreams, and all other patron deities. That these ancient Hellenic traditions of magic were native in origin and not borrowed from the East is shown by abundant 9. In Greece. evidence, especially that which alludes either to Thrace or Thessaly as the early home of witchcraft. Yet at an early time foreign magic found its way into Greece both from Egypt and Babylonia or Persia. Nor did the refinement of Greek civilization prevent the warmest welcome and the moat varied imitations of the magic arts of oriental "barbarians." The medical magic of Egypt found no bar to its en trance, and neither the rationalism of the followers of Hippocrates nor the mockeries of Lucian could shake the pseudo-philosophy of the wizards of the Nile who flocked to Greece in increasing numbers. Equally successful was the divination of Persia and Babylon. All forms of prophecy, by astrology, the raising of the dead, psychomancy, invocation of the gods, clidomancy, hydromancy, lecanomancy, and anthropomancy, were in constant use; while the defense of "Persian" magicians as priestly sages by Aristotle, Dio Chrysostom, Apuleius, and Celsus shows the esteem and influence enjoyed by these adepts of eastern occult art among the Greeks during the dynasty of the Diadochi and the Roman period.

Rome also possessed its magic and divination, which in their beginnings reached back to the regal epoch and were domiciled among the tribes living on the banks of the Tiber. The Etruscans introduced the cult of the Dii Averrecm"i. and all forms of auguries into Rome, although other neighboring peoples, such as the Marsi, likewise contributed their quota. The introduction of 10. In Rome. eastern magic was bitterly opposed by legislation as early as the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, and Claudius, while Caracalla condemned magicians to be burned alive or thrown to the beasts. Nevertheless the occult wisdom of the East was irresistible, and the diatribes of Pliny and Tacitus proved unavailing. Even the emperors favored magic; Nero accepted invitations to magic feasts, and Otho was a pronpunced patron of magic, while Vespasian, Hadrian, and Marcus Aurelius were at least tolerant toward it and Alexander Severus gave it official subvention. In the reign of the latter and his immediate predecessors magic reached its climax in Rome, and not till the triumph of Christianity was it checked, and even then not extirpated.