A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

ZOROASTER. ZOSIMUS. 1333
was an entirely different person from Dareius equal discrepancy in the Greek and Roman writers
Hystaspis. respecting the time at which he was said to have
Other dates have likewise been assigned to lived. Thus Aristotle and Eudoxus stated that he
Zoroaster by modern scholars; but sound criticism lived 6000 years before the death of Plato (Plin.
compels us to come to the conclusion that it is It>. N. xxxi. i. s. 2), and Hermippus that he lived
quite impossible to determine the time at which he 5000 years before the Trojan war (Plin. 1. c.;
lived. All we learn from the Zendavesta is that Diog. Lairt. i. 2); while others assign to him a
he was the subject of a king named Gushtasp, who much later date, making him a contemporary of
belonged to the dynasty of the Kkvja, or as they Cyrus (Arnob. i. 52) or Pythagoras (Clem. Alex.
are called in the modern Persian, the Kayanians. Strom. i. p. 357; Appuleius, Florid. ii. p. 231).
The history of the dynasty has come down to us in We only quote these statements as instances of
a mutilated form; but it would appear that the the discrepancies in the Greek and Roman writers
kings of this race reigned in eastern Iran, and respecting the age and country of Zoroaster, and
more particularly Bactria, at a period anterior to of showing the hopelessness of attempting to conthat of the Median and Persian kings. The Bac- struct any theory from such contradictory accounts.
trian origin of Zoroaster is alluded to by several of There were extant in the later Greek literature
the Greek and Roman writers, who obtained their several works bearing the name of Zoroaster, and
information from Oriental sources. Thus Ammia- which are quoted under the titles of Ahyla, iepol
nus Marcellinus (xiii. 6. ~ 32) calls Zoroaster a Ao'yol, &7roKacAdVeLS, LBAeor a7ro'Kpv4pot ZcopoBactrian, and his testimony is of considerable im- der-pov, 7repi cp oews, repl EOn,'rMCltioaI, aor~Tepo.
portance because he must have received the in- Keofrrlus, a7roTreAeheL4arKca, &c. Some of these
formation from the Persians themselves, when he works were in existence as early as the time of
attended the emperor Julian in his campaign Pliny, who relates that Hermippus wrote commen..
against the Parthians. Ctesias likewise, who re- taties on two million lines of Zoroaster. (Plin. I. c.;
sided long at the court of Artaxerxes Mnemon, Suidas, s. sa. Zcp.) These writings however must
calls Zoroaster a king of Bactria (Ctesias, pp. 79, not be regarded as translations from the Zenda91, ed. Lion, copied byJustin, i. 1); and the same vesta, to which they bore no resemblance, as is
statement occurs in Moses of Chorene (i. 6). The evident from the extracts preserved from them by
tradition which represents Zoroaster of Median Clemens Alexandrinus, Eusebius, and others.
origin sprang up at a later time, when the chief seat (Clem. Alex. Strom. v. 14, p. 710; Euseb. Pxaep.
of his religion was in Media, and no longer in the Ev. i. 10; IDion Chrysost. Or. 36.) They were,
further East. We may therefore conclude that the on the contrary, forgeries of a later age, and belong
religion of Zoroaster first appeared in Bactria, and to the same class of writings as the works of
from thence spread eastward; but further than Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, &c. There is still
this we cannot venture to go. As the founder of extant a collection of oracles ascribed to Zoroaster,
the Magian religion he must be placed in remote which were published for the first time with the
antiquity, and it may even be questioned whether commentaries of Gemistus Pletho [GEMISTVs],
such a person ever existed. Niebuhr regards him under the title of MayLKat A;OyLa rEsV anrb ToO
as a purely mythical personage (KleineSchriften, vol. Zwpoa'orpov Mdycwv, by Tiletanus, Paris, 1538,
i. p. 200); but it is worthy of remark that we find 4to. They have also been edited by Patricius in
no trace in the Zendavesta of the various wonders his Nova de Uniaersis Philosophia, &c., Ferraand miracles which are connected with his name in riae, 1591, and Venet. 1593, foll.; by Morell,
the Persian and Greek and Roman writers. It is Paris, 1595, 4to., and also in Latin; by Obsopaeus,
unnecessary to repeat these stories, but we may Paris, 1507, 8vo., and by others. It would be
mention as a specimen two tales related by Pliny. ridiculous in the present day to enter into any
It is said that he laughed on the day of his birth, argument to prove the spuriousness of these oracles.
and that his brain palpitated so violently as to Every thing known respecting the reputed works
heave up the hand that was placed upon his head; of Zoroaster is collected by Fabricius (Bibl. Graec.
and that he lived in the desert for twenty years on vol. i. p. 304, foll.).
cheese, in consequence of which he was preserved An account of the religious system of Zoroaster
from feeling old age. (Plin. H. N. vii. 16. s. 15, does not fall within the scope of the present work;
xi. 42. s. 97.) It would be idle to attempt to but the reader will find abundant information on
make even an approximation to the date of Zoro- the subject in the works quoted below. Mr. Milaster from the statements of the Greek and R6man man has given an excellent summary of the leading
writers; for the most learned among thefn could tenets of the Zoroastrian system. (Hyde, VeterlLe
not come to any agreement as to the time at which Persarum et Miagorum Religionis Historia, Oxford,
he lived, and many supposed that there were seve- 1700 and 1760; Prideaux, Connection of the Hisral persons of this name, who lived at widely dif- tory of the Old and New Testament, Part i. vol. i.
ferent times and in very different countries. Thus p. 299, foll.; Anquetil du Perron, Zendavestac;
we find him called not only a Bactrian, but a Me- Kleuker, Zendavesta; Rhode, Die Heilige Sage des
dian (Clem. Alex. Strom. i. p. 399), a Chaldaean Zendvolks; Heeren, Historical Researches, &c.
(Porphyr. Vit. Pythag. 12), a Persomedian (Suidas, Asiatic NTationss, vol. i. p. 367, foll.; Gibbon, Des. v. Zwpoio'P7rpE), a Persian (Diog. Lairt. Praef), cline and Fall, vol. i. c. 8; Milman, History of
an Armenian (Arnob. i. 12), a Pamphylian (Arnob. Christianity, vol. i. p. 65, foll.; Georgii, in Real1. c.), and even a native of Proconnesus. (Plin. Encyclopiidie des classichesn Alterthumswissenschaft,
19. N. xxx. 1. s. 2.) Many of these various state- s. v. Magi; Lassen, Indische Alterthumskunde,
ments probably arose from the circumstance that vol. i. p. 752, foll.)
the Magian religion was introduced into these ZORZINES, king of the Siraci, a people in the
countries and places; and it is only in this way neighbourhood of the Caucasus, in the reign of the
that we can explain the strange account in Pliny emperor Claudius. (Tac. Ann. xii. 15, 17, 19.)
that he was a native of Procounesus. WNe find ZO'SIMUS (Zio-qtose). 1. A learned freedman
4Q 3