the high-priest of the Persian Magi or worshippers of fire. He resided in the highest fire-temple; which was held in the same veneration with them as the temple of Mecca among the Mahometans. Zoroastres first settled it at Balch; but after the Mahometans had over-run Persia in the 7th century, the Archimagus was forced to remove from thence into Kerman, a province of Persia, lying on the southern ocean, where it hath continued to this day. Darius Hystaspes took upon himself the dignity of Archimagus: for Prophry tells us, he ordered before his death, that, among the other titles, it should be engraven on his monument, that he had been Master of the Magi; which plainly implies that he had borne this office among them, for none but the Archimagus was master of the whole feet. From hence it seems to have proceeded, that the kings of Persia were ever after looked on to be of the sacerdotal tribe, and were always initiated into the sacred order of the Magi, before they took on them the crown, and were inaugurated into the kingdom.