Arnobius

“ For we do not press it, and inquire what they profess to do, nor in what kind of acts all their learning and experience are wont to be comprised. For who is not aware that these men either study to know beforehand things impending, which, whether they will or not, come of necessity as they have been ordained? ”

“ Or if they seem to attempt anything useful, to be able to do it not by their own power, but by the might of those deities whom they invoke.
Footnotes ↑ Magus, almost equivalent to sorcerer.↑ Arnobius uses nomina, “names,” with special significance, because the Magi in their incantations used barbarous and fearful names of angels and of powers, by whose influence they thought strange and unusual things were brought to pass.↑ All these different effects the magicians of old attempted to produce: to break family ties by bringing plagues into houses, or by poisons ”