It is known that philosophers of the Neopythagorean and Neoplatonic schools, as well as Gnostic and Hermetic groups, used magical books and hence must have possessed copies.
The religious beliefs and practices of most people were identical with some form of magic, and the neat distinctions we make today between approved and disapproved forms of religion-calling the former "religion" and "church" and the latter "magic" and "cult" - did not exist in antiquity except among a few intellectuals. The papyri themselves testify to this by the constantly recurring admonition to keep the books secret. Betz states:Īs a result of these acts of suppression, the magicians and their literature went underground. And on the account of Suetonius, Augustus ordered the burning of 2,000 magical scrolls in 13 BC. Betz notes book burnings in regards to texts such as the Greek Magical Papyri, when he cites Ephesus in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 19: 10). Īccording to one source magic in general was held in low esteem and condemned by speakers and writers. Pliny paints them in a particularly bad light. In Plato's Symposium (202e), the Athenian identified them as maleficent, allowing however a measure of efficacy as a function of the god Eros. individual magians – as charlatans or frauds. Accordingly, the more skeptical writers then also identified the "magicians" – i.e. Herodotus, Xenophon, Plutarch – did use magos in connection with their descriptions of (Zoroastrian) religious beliefs or practices, the majority seem to have understood it in the sense of "magician". See also: Destruction of the Library of Alexandria § Decree of Theodosius, Christian destruction of the Serapeum in 391 and Paganism
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