 The Roman use of the term was similar to that of the Greeks, but placed greater emphasis on the judicial application of it.Within the Roman Empire, laws would be introduced criminalising things regarded as magic.In ancient Roman society, magic was associated with societies to the east of the empire; the first century CE writer Pliny the Elder for instance claimed that magic had been created by the Iranian philosopher Zoroaster, and that it had then been brought west into Greece by the magician Osthanes, who accompanied the military campaigns of the Persian King Xerxes.