clined to go to Rome, and invited his Roman contemporary to Persia.[1] One of the five kings of this royal house that bore the name Vologeses, ordered a collection to be made of the scattered fragments of the manuscript material that might have survived the period that for nearly five centuries threatened the utter destruction of the sacred scriptures of Zoroaster's faith and menaced even that which was preserved in oral tradition.[2] Nevertheless, Dinkart informs us that all that could be recovered of the lost Zoroastrian canon at this time was only as much as could be retained by any one Dastur in his memory.[3]
Classical references to Zoroastrianism during this period. Our knowledge about the state of Zoroastrianism during this period is very scanty, and the occasional references made by the classical writers of this time to the religious practices of the Zoroastrians help us in gaining some more information of the religious history of the faith. We have often referred in earlier pages to the works of Strabo and Diogenes Laertius, who draw their material from the early Greek writers as well as base their statements on their personal investigation. We gather some more particulars on the subject from the incidental references of other writers. Porphyry (a.d. 233–306) mentions on the authority of Eubulus that the Magi are divided into three classes, the first and the most learned of which neither kill nor eat anything living.[4] Diogenes Laertius states that vegetables, cheese, and bread form their food, and they content themselves with the plain ground for their bed.[5] Clement of Alexandria (a.d. third century) mentions a sect of the Magi that observed the life of celibacy.[6] Speaking about the designation by which the Zoroastrian priests were known in Cappadocia in his days, Strabo relates that in addition to their usual name of the Magi, the priests were called puraithoi, the equivalent of the Avestan designation athravan, or fire-priest.[7]
Zoroastrianism spreads its influence abroad. The Magi had established themselves during the Parthian period in large numbers in eastern Asia Minor, Galatia, Phrygia, Lydia, and even in
