the high priest of the Persian Magi or worshippers of fire. Darius Hystaspes took upon himself the dignity of Archimagus; for Porphyry 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 sect. 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.