The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism Part 11

106.

7. Mitteis, _Reichsrecht und Volksrecht in den ostlichen Provinzen_, 1891, pp. 8 ff.

8. Mommsen, _Gesammelte Schriften_, II, 1905, p. 366: "Seit Diocletian ubernimmt der ostliche Reichsteil, die _partes Orientis_, auf allen Gebieten die Fuhrung. Dieser spate Sieg des h.e.l.lenismus uber die Lateiner ist vielleicht nirgends auffalliger als auf dem Gebiet der juristischen Schriftstellerei."

9. De Vogue and Duthoit, _L'Architecture civile et religieuse de la Syrie centrale_, Paris, 1866-1877.

10. This result is especially due to the researches of M. Strzygowski, but we cannot enter here into the controversies aroused by his publications: _Orient oder Rom_, 1911; _h.e.l.las in des Orients Umarmung_, Munich, 1902, and especially _Kleinasien, ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte_, Leipsic, 1903; [cf. the reports of Ch. Diehl, _Journal des Savants_, 1904, pp. 236 ff. = _Etudes byzantines_, 1905, pp. 336 ff.; Gabriel Millet, _Revue archeolog._, 1905, I, pp. 93 ff.; Marcel Laurent, _Revue de l'Instr. publ.

en Belgique_, 1905, pp. 145 ff.]; _Mschatta_, 1904, [cf. _infra_, Ch. VI, n. 12].--M. Brehier, "Orient ou Byzance?" (_Rev. archeol._, 1907, II, pp.

396 ff.), gives a substantial summary of the question.--In his last volume, _Amida_ (1910), M. {216} Strzygowski tries to find the source of medieval art in Mesopotamia. For this controversy see Diehl's _Manuel d'art byzantin_, 1910.

11. See also Pliny, _Epist. Traian._, 40: "Architecti tibi [in Bithynia]

deesse non possunt ... c.u.m ex Graecia etiam ad nos [at Rome] venire soliti sint."--Among the names of architects mentioned in Latin inscriptions there are a great many revealing Greek or Oriental origin (see Ruggiero, _Dizion.

epigr._, s. v. "Architectus"), in spite of the consideration which their eminently useful profession always enjoyed at Rome.

12. The question of the artistic and industrial influences exercised by the Orient over Gaul during the Roman period, has been broached frequently--among others by Courajod (_Lecons du Louvre_, I, 1899, pp. 115, 327 ff.)--but it has never been seriously studied in its entirety.

Michaelis has recently devoted a suggestive article to this subject in connection with a statue from the museum of Metz executed in the style of the school of Pergamum (_Jahrb. der Gesellsch. fur lothring. Geschichte_, XVII, 1905, pp. 203 ff.). By the influence of Ma.r.s.eilles in Gaul, and the ancient connection of that city with the towns of h.e.l.lenic Asia, he explains the great difference between the works of sculpture discovered along the upper Rhine, which had been civilized by the Italian legions, and those unearthed on the other side of the Vosges. This is a very important discovery, rich in results. We believe, however, that Michaelis ascribes too much importance to the early Ma.r.s.eilles traders traveling along the old "tin road" towards Brittany and the "amber road" towards Germany. The Asiatic merchants and artisans did not set out from one point only. There were many emigrants all over the valley of the Rhone. Lyons was a half-h.e.l.lenized city, and the relations of Arles with Syria, of Nimes with Egypt, etc., are well known. We shall speak of them in connection with the religions of those countries.

13. Even in the bosom of the church the Latin Occident of the fourth century was still subordinate to the Greek Orient, which imposed its doctrinal problems upon it (Harnack, _Mission und Ausbreitung_, II, p. 283, n. 1).

14. The sacred formulas have been collected by Alb. Dieterich, _Eine Mithrasliturgie_, pp. 212 ff. He adds [Greek: Doie soi Osiris to psuchron hudor], {217} _Archiv fur Religionswiss_., VII, 1905, p. 504, n. 1. [Cf.

_infra_, ch. IV, n. 90.] Among the hymns of greatest importance for the Oriental cults we must cite those in honor of Isis, discovered in the island of Andros (Kaibel, _Epigr._, 4028) and elsewhere (see ch. IV, n. 6).

Fragments of hymns in honor of Attis have been preserved by Hippolytus (_Philosoph._, V, 9. pp. 168 ff.) The so-called orphic hymns (Abel, _Orphica_, 1883), which date back to a rather remote period, do not seem to contain many Oriental elements (see Maas, _Orpheus_, 1893, pp. 173 ff.), but this does not apply to the gnostic hymns of which we possess very instructive fragments.--Cf. _Mon. myst. de Mithra_, I, p. 313, n. 1.

15. Regarding the imitations of the stage, see Adami, _De poetis scen.

Graecis hymnorum sacrorum imitatoribus_, 1901. Wunsch has shown the liturgic character of a prayer to Asklepios, inserted by Herondas into his mimiambi (_Archiv fur Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, pp. 95 ff.) Dieterich believes he has found an extensive extract from the Mithraic liturgy in a magic papyrus of Paris (see _infra_, ch. VI, Bibliography). But all these discoveries amount to very little if we think of the enormous number of liturgic texts that have been lost, and even in the case of ancient Greece we know little regarding this sacred literature. See Ausfeld, _De Graecorum precationibus_, Leipsic, 1903; Ziegler, _De precationum apud Graecos formis quaestiones selectae_, Breslau, 1905; H. Schmidt, _Veteres philosophi quomodo iudicaverint de precibus_, Giessen, 1907.

16. For instance, the hymn "which the magi sung" about the steeds of the supreme G.o.d; its contents are given by Dion Chrysostom, Oral., x.x.xVI, 39 (see _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I. p. 298; II, p. 60).

17. I have in mind the hymns of Cleanthes (Von Arnim, _Stoic. fragm._, I, Nos. 527, 537), also Demetrius's act of renunciation in Seneca, _De Provid._, V, 5, which bears a surprising resemblance to one of the most famous Christian prayers, the _Suscipe_ of Saint Ignatius which concludes the book of Spiritual Exercises (Delehaye, _Les legendes hagiographiques_, 1905, p. 170, n. 1).--In this connection we ought to mention the prayer translated in the _Asclepius_, the Greek text {218} of which has recently been found on a papyrus (Reitzenstein, _Archiv fur Religionswiss._, VII, 1904, p. 395). On pagan prayers introduced into the Christian liturgy see Reitzenstein and Wendland, _Nachrichten Ges. Wiss._, Gottingen, 1910, pp.

325 ff.

18. This point has been studied more in detail in our _Monuments relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra_, from which we have taken parts of the following observations (I, pp. 21 ff.).

19. Lucian's authorship of the treatise [Greek: Peri tes Suries theou] has been questioned but wrongly; see Maurice Croiset, _Essai sur Lucien_, 1882, pp. 63, 204. I am glad to be able to cite the high authority of Noldeke in favor of its authenticity. Noldeke writes me on this subject: "Ich habe jeden Zweifel daran schon lange aufgegeben.... Ich habe lange den Plan gehabt, einen Commentar zu diesem immerhin recht lehrreichen Stuck zu schreiben and viel Material dazu gesammelt. Aus der Annahme der Echtheit dieser Schrift ergiebt sich mir, da.s.s auch das [Greek: Peri astronomias]

echt ist."

20. Cf. Frisch, _De compositione libri Plutarchei qui inscribitur_, [Greek: Peri Isidos], Leipsic, 1906, and the observations of Neustadt, _Berl.

Philol. Wochenschr._, 1907, p. 1117.--One of Plutarch's sources is the [Greek: Ioudaika] by Apion.--See also Scott Moncrieft, _Journ. of h.e.l.l.

Studies_, XIX, 1909, p. 81.

21. See ch. VII, pp. 202-203.

22. Cf. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 75, p. 219.--For Egypt see Georges Foucart, "L'art et la religion dans l'ancienne Egypte," _Revue des idees_, Nov. 15, 1908.

23. The narrative and symbolic sculpture of the Oriental cults was a preparation for that of the Middle Ages, and many remarks in Male's beautiful book _L'Art du XIII^e siecle en France_, can be applied to the art of dying paganism.

II. WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Boissier, _La religion romaine d'Auguste aux Antonins_, especially Bk. II, ch. II.--Jean Reville, _La religion a Rome sous les Severes_, Paris, 1886.--Wissowa, _Religion und Cultus der Romer_, Munich, 1902, pp. 71 ff., 289 ff.--Samuel Dill, _Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius_, London, 1905.--Bigg, _The Church's Task Under the Roman Empire_, {219} Oxford, 1905.--Cf. also Gruppe, _Griech. Mythologie und Religionsgeschichte_, 1906, pp. 1519 ff.--Wendland, _Die h.e.l.lenistisch-romische Kultur in ihren Beziehungen zum Judentum und zum Christentum_, Tubingen, 1907, pp. 54 f.--The monographs will be cited in connection with the different cults which they treat.

1. _Melanges Fredericq_, Brussels, 1904, pp. 63 ff. (_Pourquoi le latin fut la seule langue liturgique de l'Occident_); cf. the observations of Lejay, _Rev. d'hist. et litt. relig._, XI, 1906, p. 370.

2. Holl, _Volkssprache in Kleinasien_ (_Hermes_, 1908, pp. 250 ff.).

3. The volume of Hahn, _Rom und Romanismus im griechisch-romischen Osten bis auf die Zeit Hadrians_ (Leipsic, 1906) discusses a period for the most part prior to the one that interests us. On the period following we have nothing but a provisional sketch by the same author, _Romanismus und h.e.l.lenismus bis auf die Zeit Justinians_ (_Philologus_, Suppl. X), 1907.

4. Cf. Tacitus, Annales, XIV, 44: "_Nationes in familiis habemus quibus diversi ritus, externa sacra aut nulla sunt._"

5. S. Reinach, _Epona_ (Extr. _Rev. archeol._). 1895.

6. The theory of the degeneration of races has been set forth in particular by Stewart Chamberlain, _Die Grundlagen des XIX. Jahrhunderts_, 3d. ed., Munich, 1901, pp. 296 ff.--The idea of selection by retrogression, of the _Ausrottung der Besten_, has been defended, as is well known, by Seeck in his _Geschichte des Untergangs der antiken Welt_, which outlines the religious consequence (II, p. 344). His system is developed in the third volume which appeared in 1909.

7. Apuleius, _Metam._, XI, 14 ff. See Preface. Manilius said of the divine stars (IV, 910; cf. II, 125),

"_Ipse vocat nostros animos ad sidera mundus_."

8. Hepding, _Attis_, pp. 178 ff., 187.

9. The intimate connection between the juridical and religious ideas of the Romans has left numerous traces even in their language. One of the most curious is the double meaning of the term _supplicium_, which stands at the same time for a supplication addressed to the G.o.ds and a punishment {220} demanded by custom, and later by law. In regard to the development of this twofold meaning, see the recent note by Richard Heinze, _Archiv fur lateinische Lexicographie_, XV, pp. 90 ff. Sematology is often synonymous with the study of customs.

10 Reville, _op. cit._, p. 144.

11 On ecstasy in the mysteries in general, cf. Rohde, _Psyche_, 2d ed., pp.

315-319; in the Oriental religions cf. De Jong, _De Apuleio Isiacorum mysteriorum teste_, 1900, p. 100; De Jong, _Das antike Mysterienwesen_, Leyden, 1909. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 323.

12 Firmicus Maternus mentioned this in _De errore prof. relig._, c. 8.

13 For Babylonia, cf. Strab., XVI, 1, -- 6, and _infra_, ch. V, n. 51; for Egypt, _id._, XVII, 21, -- 46. From the very interesting account Otto has written of the science of the Egyptian priests during the h.e.l.lenistic period (_Priester und Tempel_, II, pp. 211 ff.; 234), it appears that it remained quite worthy of consideration although progress had ceased.

14 Strabo, _loc. cit._: [Greek: Anat.i.theasi de toi Hermei pasan ten toiauten sophian]; Pliny, _Hist. nat._, VI, 26, -- 121: "(Belus) _inventor fuit sideralis scientiae_"; cf. Solinus, 56, -- 3; Achilles, _Isag._, 1 (Maa.s.s, _Comm. in Arat._, p. 27): [Greek: Beloi ten heuresin anathentes].

Let us remember that Hammurabi's code was represented as the work of Marduk.--In a general way, the G.o.ds are the authors of all inventions useful to humanity; cf. Reitzenstein, _Poimandres_, 1904, p. 123; Deissmann, _Licht von Osten_, 91 ff. Likewise in the Occident: _CIL_, VII, 759 = Bucheler, _Carm. epigr._, 24: "(Dea Syria) ex quis muneribus nosse contigit deos," etc., cf. Plut., _Cra.s.s._, 17.--"Religion im Sinne des Orients ist die Erklarung alles dessen was ist, also eine Weltauffa.s.sung"

(Winckler, _Himmelsbild der Babylonier_, 1903, p. 9).

15 _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 312.--Manicheism likewise brought a complete cosmological system from Babylonia. Saint Augustine criticizes the book of that sect for containing long dissertations and absurd stories about matters that have nothing at all to do with salvation; see my _Recherches sur le manicheisme_, 1908, p. 53.

16 Cf. Porphyry, _Epist. Aneb._, 11; Jambl., _De myst._, II, 11. {221}

17 This upright character of the Roman religion has been thoroughly expounded by G. Boissier (_op. cit._, I, 30 ff, 373 ff). See also the remarks by Bailey, _Religion of Ancient Rome_, London, 1907, pp. 103 ff.

18 Varro in Augustine _De civ. Dei_, IV, 27; VI, 5; cf. Varro, _Antiq.

rerum divin._, ed. Aghad, pp. 145 ff. The same distinction between the religion of the poets, of the legislators and of the philosophers has been made by Plutarch, _Amatorius_, 18, p. 763 C. The author of this division is Posidonius of Apamea. See Diels, _Doxographi Graeci_, p. 295, 10, and Wendland, _Archiv fur Gesch. der Philos._, I, pp. 200 ff.

19 Luterbacher, _Der Prodigienglaube der Romer_, Burgdorf, 1904.

20 Juvenal, II, 149; cf. Diodorus, I, 93, -- 3. Cf. Plutarch also in speaking of future punishment (_Non posse suaviter vivi_, c. 26, p. 1104 C-E: _Quo modo poetas aud._, c. 2, p. 17 C-E; _Consol. ad Apollon._, c. 10, p. 106 F), "nous laisse entendre que pour la plupart de ses contemporains ce sont la des contes de nourrice qui ne peuvent effrayer que des enfants"

(Decharme, _Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs_, 1904, p. 442).

21 Aug., _Civ. Dei_, VI, 2; Varro, _Antiqu._, ed. Aghad, 141; "Se timere ne (dii) pereant non incursu hostili sed civium neglegentia."