ABSTRACT
Plato is only one of several intellectual giants cited by Ammianus as being profoundly influenced by Egyptian thought: he later refers to Solon, the philosopher Pythagoras and the natural scientist Anaxagoras. Arrunianus is not alone in this opinion. In Herodotus, Lucian, Pliny and many other classical writers, Egypt appears as the awesome font of an arcane knowledge of immense antiquity, and its priests as guardians of a profound esoteric mysticism. As Ammianus hints, however, this is only one side of the coin. Along with these authors' respect for some aspects of Egypt's culture and its antiquity went a hearty distaste for other aspects of it. The Egyptians' worship of animal-headed gods comes in for special
Encountering many who believed themselves to be deceived by the practices of divination, I quickly considered it necessary, in order that no danger should ensue upon their foolishness, clearly herein to enjoin all people to abstain from this hazardous inquisitiveness. Therefore let no man through oracles, that is, by means of written documents supposedly granted under divine influence, nor by means of the parade of images or suchlike charlatanry, pretend to know things beyond human perception and profess (to know) the obscurity of things to come.
