destroyer of Iran. As in Zoroastrian tradition, in the Sistan cycle texts Goshtasp is succeeded by Esfandiar's son, Bahman (< MP Wahman). The identification of Bahman with 'Ardashir' (see above) reappears in the Sistan cycle texts as well. In Greek and Roman thought The name "Visthaspa" is "Hystaspes" in the Greek and Latin texts of the Hellenistic era. Besides referring to historically attested persons named Vishtaspa, it was also applied to Zoroaster's patron, who the Greeks and Romans imagined to be a sage of great antiquity, and the putative author of a set of prophecies written under his name. Although the works attributed to Pseudo-Hystaspes draw on real Zoroastrian sources, the Greek and Roman portraits of his person are just as fanciful as those of the other two les Mages hellénisés, Pseudo-Zoroaster and Pseudo-Ostanes. While Pseudo-Zoroaster was identified as the "inventor" of astrology, and Pseudo-Ostanes was imagined to be a master sorcerer, Pseudo-Hystaspes seems to have been stereotyped as an apocalyptic prophet. None of the works attributed to him are still extant, but quotations and references have survived in the works of others, especially in those of two early Christian writers – Justin Martyr (ca. 100-165 CE) in Samaria and the mid-3rd century Lactantius in North Africa – who drew on them by way of confirmation that what themselves held to be revealed truth had already been uttered. Only one of these pseudepigraphic works – referred to as the Book of Hystaspes or the Oracles of Hystaspes or just Hystaspes – is known by name. This work (or set of works) of the first century BCE is referred to by Lactantius, Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Lydus, and Aristokritos, all of whom describe it as foretelling the downfall of the Roman empire, the return of rule to the east, and of the coming of the saviour. Lactantius provides a detailed summary of the Oracles of Hystaspes in his Divinae Institutiones (Book VII, from the end of chapter 15 through chapter 19). It begins with Hystaspes awaking from a dream, and needing to have it interpreted for him. This is duly accomplished by a young boy, "here representing, according to convention, the openness of youth and innocent to divine visitations. " As interpreted by the boy, the dream "predicts" the iniquity of the last age, and the impending destruction of the wicked by fire. The divine fire will burn both the