Smerdis Reigned seven months, and in the eighth month being discovered, was slain, with a great number of the Magi; so the Persians called their Priests, and in memory of this kept an anniversary day, which they called, The slaughter of the Magi__.  Then Reigned Maraphus and Artaphernes a few days, and after them Darius the son of Hystaspes, the son of Arsamenes, of the family of Achaemenes, a Persian, being chosen King by the neighing of his horse:  before he Reigned his [479] name was Ochus.  He seems on this occasion to have reformed the constitution of the Magi, making his father Hystaspes their Master, or Archimagus; for Porphyrius tells us, [480] that the Magi_ were a sort of men so venerable amongst the Persians, that Darius the son of Hystaspes wrote on the monument of his father_, amongst other things, that he had been the Master of the Magi__.  In this reformation of the Magi, Hystaspes was assisted by Zoroastres:  so Agathias; The Persians_ at this day say simply that Zoroastres lived under Hystaspes_:  and Apuleius; Pythagoram, aiunt, inter captivos Cambysae Regis [ex AEgypto Babylonem abductos]_ doctores habuisse Persarum Magos, & praecipue Zoroastrem, omnis divini arcani Antistitem_.  By Zoroastres’s conversing at Babylon he seems to have borrowed his skill from the Chaldaeans; for he was skilled in Astronomy, and used their year:  so Q.  Curtius; [481] Magi proximi patrium carmen canebant:  Magos trecenti & sexaginta quinque juvenes sequebantur, puniceis amiculis velati, diebus totius anni pares numero:  and Ammianus; Scientiae multa ex Chaldaeorum arcanis Bactrianus addidit Zoroastres.  From his conversing in several places he is reckoned a Chaldaean, an Assyrian, a Mede, a Persian, a Bactrian. Suidas calls him [482] a Perso-Mede, and saith that he was the most skilful of Astronomers, and first author of the name of the Magi_ received among them_.  This skill in Astronomy he had doubtless from the Chaldaeans, but Hystaspes travelled into India, to be instructed by the Gymnosophists:  and these two conjoyning their skill and authority, instituted a new set of Priests or Magi, and instructed them in such ceremonies and mysteries of Religion and Philosophy as they thought fit to establish for the Religion and Philosophy of that Empire; and these instructed others, ’till from a small number they grew to a great multitude:  for Suidas tells us, that Zoroastres gave a beginning to the name of the Magi__:  and Elmacinus; that he reformed the religion of the Persians_, which before was divided into many sects_:  and Agathias; that he introduced the religion