he
official diviner, employing the urim and thummim. Prophets and dreamers
are mentioned together as persons of the same class and as sometimes
employing their arts for purposes contrary to the national religion;
various classes of diviners are mentioned as existing among the
Israelites in the seventh century B.C., but the distinctions between
them are not given.[1707] From a statement in Isaiah ii, 6, it may
perhaps be inferred that some form of divination was imported into
Israel in the eighth century or earlier from the more developed
Philistines and from the countries east of the Jordan;[1708] and the
passage just referred to in Deuteronomy probably reveals Assyrian
influence. While the Egyptian documents have much to say of magic, they
give little information with regard to the existence of a class of
diviners; but it appears, according to a Hebrew writer,[1709] that the
art of divination might belong to any prominent person--Joseph is
represented as divining from a cup.

+931+. The greatest development of the office of the diviner in ancient
times was found among the Greeks and Romans.[1710] The Greek word
_mantis_ appears to have been a general term for any person, male or
female, who had the power of perceiving the will of the gods. The early
distinction between the _mantis_ and the _prophetes_ is not clear.
Plato, indeed, distinguishes sharply between the two terms:[1711] the
_mantis_, he says, while in an ecstatic state cannot understand his own
utterances, and it is, therefore, the custom to appoint a _prophetes_
who shall interpret for him; some persons, he adds, give the name
_mantis_ to this interpreter, but he is only a _prophetes_. We find,
however, that the terms are frequently used interchangeably; thus the
Pythia is called both _mantis_ and _prophetis_. Whatever may have been
the original sense of these terms, the office of diviner in Greece was
in the main separate from that of priest. It is found attached to
families and was hereditary. It was recognized by the State from an
early time and became more and more influential. According to Xenophon
Socrates believed in and approved divination.[1712] Plato held that it
was a gift of the gods, and that official persons so gifted were to be
held in high esteem.

+932+. In Rome, in accordance with the genius of the nation, soothsaying
was at a comparatively early period organized and taken in charge by the
State. There were colleges of augurs,[1713] stand