Arnouphis Explained

Arnouphis or Harnouphis was an Egyptian who, according to Dio Cassius, saved the Roman legion XII Fulminata during a campaign against the Quadi in about AD 172 by calling up a rainstorm.^[1] Dio Cassius calls Arnouphis a magos, originally a term for Zoroastrian priests. David Frankfurter says that Arnouphis was an Egyptian priest, but he was called a magos because Romans regarded priests from many Near Eastern cultures as fitting a single stereotype of exotic magicians.^[2]

In popular culture

• In the series 20s A Difficult Age created by Marcus Orelias, the main protagonist, Harnuphis is named after Arnouphis.^[3]

Further reading

• Book: Kovács, Peter . Marcus Aurelius' Rain Miracle and the Marcomannic Wars . 2008 . Brill . 978-90-47-44326-1 . none.

Notes and References

1. Web site: The rain miracle . www.livius.org . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20020529042444/http://www.livius.org/le-lh/legio/rain.html . 2002-05-29.
2. Frankfurter, David (1998). Religion in Roman Egypt: Assimilation and Resistance. Princeton University Press. pp. 236–237.
3. Web site: Harnuphis . www.becomix.me . Be Comix . 11 February 2022.