Magian Sentence Examples

Away in the East Cyrus had been succeeded in 529 B.C. by Cambyses, who had annexed Egypt and on whose death in 522 a Magian impostor, Gaumata, had seized the throne.

The real name of the usurper was, as Darius tells us, Gaumata, a Magian priest from Media; this name has been preserved by Justin i.

He gives a faithful sketch of the doctrines, mythology and dualistic system of the Magian Zoroaster.

But, whatever may have been his date, he was their teacher and instructor in the Magian religion, modified their former religious customs, and introduced a variegated and composite belief."

Darius, in fact, entered Babylon as a conqueror; after the murder of the Magian it had recovered its independence under Nidinta-Bel, who took the name of Nebuchadrezzar III., and reigned from October 521 B.C. to August 520 B.C., when the Persians took it by storm.

In 608 Magian influence was so strong in Persia that the Christians were persecuted and the office of catholicus was vacant for 20 years, being filled again by Jesu-Jabus, during whose patriarchate the Mahommedan invasion overran Persia.

It also may therefore have come to Mani through Magian channels.

When, however, we turn to the numerous fragments of authentic Manichaean liturgies and hymns lately discovered in Turfan in East Turkestan, Mani's direct indebtedness to the cycle of Magian legends rather than to Chaldaic sources (as Kessler argued) is clearly exhibited.

Elect are these - Jesus and Vahman."The above examples bear out Mani's own declaration, as reported by the Fihrist, that his faith was a blend of the old Magian cult with Christianity.

The valley is connected with many early Magian traditions, according to which Zoroaster dwelt at Balkh, where, in the 7th century B.C., his proselytizing efforts first came into operation.

The highest rank was held by the descendants of the six great families, whose heads stood by Darius at the killing of the Magian.

He even sought to emancipate himself from the Magian Church, put an end to the persecutions, and allowed the Persian Christians an individual organization.

The crown-prince, Chosroes, was, on the other band, wholly orthodox; and, towards the close of his fathers reign, in conjunction with the chief Magian, he carried through a sacrifice of the Mazdakites, who were butchered in a great massacre (528).

Hormizd had not the ability to retain the authority of his father, and he further affronted the Magian priesthood by declining to proceed against the Christians and by requiring that, in his empire, both religions should dwell together in peace.

Meanwhile in Persia a usurper, the Magian Gaumata, arose in the spring of 522, who pretended to be the murdered Bardiya (Smerdis).

Ardashir, who was a zealous worshipper of Ahuramazda and in intimate connexion with the magian priests, established the orthodox Zoroastrian creed as the official religion of his new kingdom, persecuted the infidels, and tried to restore the old Persian empire, which under the Achaemenids had extended over the whole of Asia from the Aegean Sea to the Indus.

Magian Adjective from Magi (sing. Magus) referring to a member of the Zoroastrian priestly caste in Ancient Persia.