Cassius Dio describes shortly Septimius Severus’ journey in Egypt and says that he collected all the secret books he discovered in local temples and brought them to Rome. This simple fact accounts for the dating of the majority of the known magical papyri. As they were written after this historical episode, the magical papyri known to us were probably substitutes for more ancient collections. They were not only the result of speculations on the Egyptian religion but a compound of many religious streams, and especially Judaism, Greek, and Egyptian religion, and they testify to the result of merging them and creating new religious phenomena typical of the Imperial Age.
Septimius Severus and Egyptian Magical Books
Mastrocinque
2019-01-01
Abstract
Cassius Dio describes shortly Septimius Severus’ journey in Egypt and says that he collected all the secret books he discovered in local temples and brought them to Rome. This simple fact accounts for the dating of the majority of the known magical papyri. As they were written after this historical episode, the magical papyri known to us were probably substitutes for more ancient collections. They were not only the result of speculations on the Egyptian religion but a compound of many religious streams, and especially Judaism, Greek, and Egyptian religion, and they testify to the result of merging them and creating new religious phenomena typical of the Imperial Age.
I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
