Away in the East Cyrus had been succeeded in 529 B.C. by Cambyses, who had annexed Egypt and on whose death in 522 a Magian impostor, Gaumata, had seized the throne.
The real name of the usurper was, as Darius tells us, Gaumata, a Magian priest from Media; this name has been preserved by Justin i.
His death was annually celebrated in Persia by a feast called "the killing of the magian," at which no magian was allowed to show himself (Herod.
For occidental writers, Zoroaster is always the Magus, or the founder of the whole Magian system (Plut.
He gives a faithful sketch of the doctrines, mythology and dualistic system of the Magian Zoroaster.