Note 187 — Chapter V · Belief in Magic in the Empire

Ammianus Marcellinus, however, writing during the latter fourth century, says of Egypt: “Hic primum homines longe ante alios ad varia religionum incunabula, ut dicitur, pervenerunt et initia prima sacrorum caute tuentur condita scriptis arcanis.” Bk. xxii, ch. xvi, sec. 20. Again, in bk. xxii, ch. xiv, sec. 7, Ammianus speaks of the Egyptian mystical books as still extant.