try where
the Mithra worship had spread considerably seems to me to refer to this.
See Minuc. Felix, _Octav._, 26: "Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus
Hostanes angelos, id est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit
assistere." St. Cypr., "Quod idola dii n. s.," c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel):
"Ostanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros sedi eius
dicit adsistere." Cf. Tertullian, _Apol._, XXIII: "Magi habentes
invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem;" Arnobius,
II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid); Aug., _Civ. Dei_, X, 9, and the texts
collected by Wolff, _Porphyrii de philos. ex orac. haurienda_, 1856, pp.
223 ff.; Kroll, _De orac. Chaldaicis_, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, _Die
Hebdomadenlehre der griech. Philosophen_, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt,
_Apuleius und die Zauberei_, Giessen, 1909, p. 256.

39. Porphyry, _De Abstin._, II, 37-43, expounds a theory about the demons,
which, he says, he took from "certain Platonists" ([Greek: Platonikoi
tines], Numenius and Cronius?). That these authors, whoever they were,
helped themselves freely to the doctrines of the magi, seems to appear
immediately from the whole of Porphyry's exposition (one could almost give
an endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean books) and in
particular from the mention that is made of a power commanding the spirits
of evil (see _supra_, n. 37). This conclusion is confirmed by a comparison
with the passage of Arnobius cited above (n. 36), who attributes similar
theories to the "magi," and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (_De
mysteriis_, III, 31) which develops analogous beliefs as being those of
"Chaldean prophets."--Porphyry also cites a "Chaldean" theologian in
connection with the influence of the demons, _De regressu animae_ (Aug.,
_Civ. Dei_, X, 9).

I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the book attributed
to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the second century of our era by
Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian (_supra_, n. 38), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p.
138; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false
logic to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above
everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic theories
of the Greeks (see for instance the communications of Messrs. Stock and
Glover: _Transactions of the Congress of {268} History of Rel._, Oxford,
1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence of the popular Hellenic or fore