At the same time with Apuleius lived Alexander the Paphlagonian, of
whom so extraordinary an account is transmitted to us by Lucian. He
was the native of an obscure town, called Abonotica, but was endowed
with all that ingenuity and cunning which enables men most effectually
to impose upon their fellow-creatures. He was tall of stature, of an
impressive aspect, a fair complexion, eyes that sparkled with an
awe-commanding fire as if informed by some divinity, and a voice to
the last degree powerful and melodious. To these he added the graces
of carriage and attire. Being born to none of the goods of fortune, he
considered with himself how to turn these advantages to the greatest
account; and the plan he fixed upon was that of instituting an oracle
entirely under his own direction. He began at Chalcedon on the
Thracian Bosphorus; but, continuing but a short time there, he used it
principally as an opportunity for publishing that Aesculapius, with
Apollo, his father, would in no long time fix his residence at
Abonotica. This rumour reached the fellow-citizens of the prophet, who
immediately began to lay the foundations of a temple for the reception
of the God. In due time Alexander made his appearance; and he so well
managed his scheme, that, by means of spies and emissaries whom he
scattered in all directions, he not only collected applications to his
prophetic skill from the different towns of Ionia, Cilicia and Galatia,
but presently extended his fame to Italy and Rome. For twenty years
scarcely any oracle of the known world could vie with that of
Abonotica; and the emperor Aurelius himself is said to have relied for
the success of a military expedition upon the predictions of Alexander
the Paphlagonian.
Lucian gives, or pretends to give, an account of the manner in which
Alexander gained so extraordinary a success. He says, that this young
man in his preliminary travels, coming to Pella in Macedon, found that
the environs of this city were distinguished from perhaps all other
parts of the world, by a breed of serpents of extraordinary size and
beauty. Our author adds that these serpents were so tame, that they
inhabited the houses of the province, and slept in bed with the
children. If you trod upon them, they did not turn again, or shew
tokens of anger, and they sucked the breasts of the women to whom it
might be of service to draw off their milk. Lucian says, it was
probably one of these serpents, that was found in the bed of Olympias,
and gave occasion to the tale that Alexander the Great was begotten by
Jupiter under the form of a serpent. The prophet bought the largest
and finest serpent he could find, and conveyed it secretly with him
into Asia. When he came to Abonotica, he found the temple that was
built surrounded with a moat; and he took an opportunity privately of
sinking a goose-egg, which he had first emptied of its contents,
inserting instead a young serpent just hatched, and closing it again
with great care. He then told his fellow-citizens that the God was
arrived, and hastening to the moat, scooped up the egg in an egg-cup
in presence of the whole assembly. He next broke the shell, and shewed
the young serpent that twisted about his fingers in presence of the
admiring multitude. After this he suffered several days to elapse, and
then, collecting crowds from every part of Paphlagonia, he exhibited
himself, as he had previously announced he should do, with the fine
serpent he had brought from Macedon twisted in coils about the
prophet's neck, and its head hid under his arm-pit, while a head
artfully formed with linen, and bearing some resemblance to a human
face, protruded itself, and passed for the head of the reptile. The
spectators were beyond measure astonished to see a little embryo
serpent, grown in a few days to so magnificent a size, and exhibiting
the features of a human countenance.
Having thus far succeeded, Alexander did not stop here. He contrived
a pipe which passed seemingly into the mouth of the animal, while the
other end terminated in an adjoining room, where a man was placed
unseen, and delivered the replies which appeared to come from the
mouth of the serpent. This immediate communication with the God was
reserved for a few favoured suitors, who bought at a high price the
envied distinction.
The method with ordinary enquirers was for them to communicate their
requests in writing, which they were enjoined to roll up and carefully
seal; and these scrolls were returned to them in a few days, with the
seals apparently unbroken, but with an answer written within,
strikingly appropriate to the demand that was preferred.--It is further
to be observed, that the mouth of the serpent was occasionally opened
by means of a horsehair skilfully adjusted for the purpose, at the
same time that by similar means the animal darted out its biforked
tongue to the terror of the amazed bystanders.
REVOLUTION PRODUCED IN THE HISTORY OF NECROMANCY AND WITCHCRAFT UPON
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CHRISTIANITY.
It is necessary here to take notice of the great revolution that took
place under Constantine, nearly three hundred years after the death of
Christ, when Christianity became the established religion of the Roman
empire. This was a period which produced a new era in the history of
necromancy and witchcraft. Under the reign of polytheism, devotion was
wholly unrestrained in every direction it might chance to assume. Gods
known and unknown, the spirits of departed heroes, the Gods of heaven
and hell, abstractions of virtue or vice, might unblamed be made the
objects of religious worship. Witchcraft therefore, and the invocation
of the spirits of the dead, might be practised with toleration; or at
all events were not regarded otherwise than as venial deviations from
the religion of the state.
It is true, there must always have been a horror of secret arts,
especially of such as were of a maleficent nature. At all times men
dreaded the mysterious power of spells and incantations, of potent
herbs and nameless rites, which were able to control the eternal order
of the planets, and the voluntary operations of mind, which could
extinguish or recal life, inflame the passions of the soul, blast the
works of creation, and extort from invisible beings and the dead the
secrets of futurity. But under the creed of the unity of the divine
nature the case was exceedingly different. Idolatry, and the worship
of other Gods than one, were held to be crimes worthy of the utmost
abhorrence and the severest punishment. There was no medium between
the worship of heaven and hell. All adoration was to be directed to
God the Creator through the mediation of his only begotten Son; or, if
prayers were addressed to inferior beings, and the glorified spirits
of his saints, at least they terminated in the Most High, were a
deprecation of his wrath, a soliciting his favour, and a homage to his
omnipotence. On the other hand sorcery and witchcraft were sins of the
blackest dye. In opposition to the one only God, the creator of heaven
and earth, was the "prince of darkness," the "prince of the power of
the air," who contended perpetually against the Almighty, and sought
to seduce his creatures and his subjects from their due allegiance.
Sorcerers and witches were supposed to do homage and sell themselves
to the devil, than which it was not in the mind of man to conceive a
greater enormity, or a crime more worthy to cause its perpetrators to
be exterminated from the face of the earth. The thought of it was of
power to cause the flesh of man to creep and tingle with horror: and
such as were prone to indulge their imaginations to the utmost extent
of the terrible, found a perverse delight in conceiving this
depravity, and were but too much disposed to fasten it upon their
fellow-creatures.