The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism.

"Ἐν δὲ [τε] τεθνειοῖσιν ὁμηγύρι [έσ] γε πέλουσιν

δοιαί· τῶν ἑτέρη μὲν ἐπιχθονίη πεφόρηται,

ἡ δ' ἑτέρη τείρεσσι σὺν αἰθερίοισι χορεύει,

ἠς στρατιῆς εἶς εἰμί, λαχὼν θεὸν ἡγεμονῆα."

It is the same term that Julian used (Césars, p. 336 C) in speaking of Mithra, the guide of souls: ἡγεμόνα θεόν. Cf. also infra, n. 66 and ch. VIII, n. 24.

64. The Babylonian origin of the doctrine that the souls returned to heaven by crossing the seven planetary spheres, has been maintained by Anz (Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung des Gnostizismus, 1897; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I. pp. 38 ff., p. 309; Bousset, Die Himmelsreise der Seele [Archiv für Religionsw., IV], 1901, pp. 160 ff.) and "Gnosis" in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyclopädie, col. 1520. It has since been denied by Reitzenstein (Poimandres, p. 79; cf. Kroll, Berl. philol. Wochensch., 1906, p. 486). But although it may have been given its precise shape and been transformed by the Greeks and even by the Egyptians, I persist in believing that it is of Chaldean and religious origin. I heartily agree with the conclusions recently formulated by Bousset, (Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, 1905, pp. 707 ff.). We can go farther: Whatever roots it may have had in the speculations of ancient Greece (Aristoph., Pax, 832, Plato, Tim., 42B, cf. Haussoullier, Rev. de philol., 1909, pp. 1 ff.), whatever traces of it may be found in other nations (Dieterich, Mithrasliturgie, pp. 182 ff.; Nekyia, p. 24, note; Rohde, Psyche, II, p. 131, n. 3), the idea itself of the soul rising to the divine stars after death certainly developed under the influence of the sidereal worship of the Semites to a point where it dominated all other eschatological theories. The belief in the eternity of souls is the corollary to the belief in the eternity of the celestial gods (p. 129). We cannot give the history of this conception here, and we shall limit ourselves to brief observations. The first account of this system ever given at Rome is found in "Scipio's Dream" (c. 3); it probably dates back to Posidonius of Apamea (cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur, p. 85, 166, n. 3, 168, n. 1), and is completely impregnated with mysticism and astrolatry. The same idea is found a little later in the astrologer Manilius (I, 758; IV, 404, etc.). The shape which it assumed in Josephus (Bell. Judaic., V, 1, 5, § 47) is also much more religious than philosophical and is strikingly similar to a dogma of Islam (happiness in store for those dying in battle; a Syrian [ibid., § 54] risks his life that his soul may go to heaven). This recalls the inscription of Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, Recueil, No. 735, l. 40):

Σῶμα πρὸς οὐρανίους Διὸς Ὠρομάσδου θρόνους θεοφιλῆ ψυχὴν προπέμψαν εἰς τὸν ἄπειρον αἰῶνα κοιμήσεται.

It must be said that this sidereal immortality was not originally common to all men; it was reserved "omnibus qui patriam conservaverint adiuverint, auxerint" (Somn. Scip. c. 3, c. 8; cf. Manil., I, 758; Lucan, Phars., IX, 1 ff.; Wendland, op. cit., p. 85 n. 2), and this also is in conformity with the oldest Oriental traditions. The rites first used to assure immortality to kings and to make them the equals of the gods were extended little by little as a kind of privilege, to the important persons of the state, and only very much later were they applied to all who died.

Regarding the diffusion of this belief from the beginning of the first century of our era, see Diels, Elementum, 1899, p. 73, cf. 78; Badstübner, Beiträge zur Erklärung Senecas, Hamburg, pp. 2 ff.—It is expressed in many inscriptions (Friedländer, Sitteng., III, pp. 749 ff.; Rohde, Psyche, p. 673, cf. 610; epitaph of Vezir-Keupru, Studia Pontica, No. 85; CIL. III (Salone), 6384; supra, n. 63, etc.) It gained access into Judaism and paganism simultaneously (cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter, 1903, p. 271, and, for Philo of Alexandria, Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 397 and p. 297).—During the third century it was expounded by Cornelius Labeo, the source of Arnobius and Servius (Nieggetiet, De Cornelio Labeone [Diss. Munster], 1908, pp. 77-86). It was generally accepted towards the end of the empire; see infra, n. 25.—I hope soon to have the opportunity of setting forth the development of this sidereal eschatology with greater precision in my lectures on "Astrology and Religion in Antiquity" which will appear in 1912 (chap. VI).

65. According to the doctrine of the Egyptian mysteries the Elysian Fields were in the under-world (Apul., Metam., XI, 6).—According to the astrological theory, the Elysian Fields were in the sphere of the fixed stars (Macrobius, Comm. somn. Scip., I, 11, § 8; cf. infra, chap. VIII, n. 25). Others placed them in the moon (Servius, Ad Aen., VI, 887; cf. Norden, Vergils Buch, VI, p. 23; Rohde, Psyche, pp. 609 ff.). Iamblichus placed them between the moon and the sun (Lydus, De mens., IV, 149, p. 167, 23, Wünsch).

66. The relation between the two ideas is apparent in the alleged account of the Pythagorean doctrine which Diogenes Laertius took from Alexander Polyhistor, and which is in reality an apocryphal composition of the first century of our era. It was said that Hermes guided the pure souls, after their separation from the body, εἰς τὸν Ὕψιστον (Diog. Laert., VIII, § 31; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 106, n. 2).—On the meaning of Hypsistos, cf. supra, p. 128. It appears very plainly in the passage of Isaiah, xiv, 13, as rendered by the Septuagint:

Ἐις τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβήσομαι, ἐπάνω τῶν ἀστέρων θήσω τὸν θρόνον μου ... ἔσομαι ὅμοιος τῷ Ὑψίστῳ.

67. Originally he was the thunder-god, in Greek Κεραυνός. Under this name he appeared for instance on the bas-relief preserved in the museum of Brussels (Dussaud, Notes, p. 105). Later, by a familiar process, the influence of a particular god becomes the attribute of a greater divinity, and we speak of a Ζεὺς Κεραύνιος (cf. Usener, Keraunos, Rhein. Museum, N. F., LX, 1901).—This Zeus Keraunios appears in many inscriptions of Syria (CIG, 4501, 4520; Le Bas-Waddington, 2195, 2557 a, 2631, 2739; cf. Roscher, Lexikon Myth., s. v. "Keraunos").

He is the god to whom Seleucus sacrificed when founding Seleucia (Malalas, p. 199), and a dedication to the same god has been found recently in the temple of the Syrian divinities at Rome (supra, n. 10).—An equivalent of the Zeus Keraunios is the Zeus Καταιβάτης—"he who descends in the lightning"—worshiped at Cyrrhus (Wroth, Greek Coins in the British Museum: "Galatia, Syria," p. 52 and LII; Roscher, Lexikon, s. v.)

68. For instance the double ax was carried by Jupiter Dolichenus (cf. supra, p. 147). On its significance, cf. Usener, loc. cit., p. 20.

69. Cf. Lidzbarski, Balsamem, Ephem. semit. Epigr., I, p. 251.—Ba‘al Samaïn is mentioned as early as the ninth century B. C. in the inscription of Ben Hadad (Pognon, Inscr. sémit., 1907, pp. 165 ff.; cf. Dussaud, Rev. archéol., 1908, I, p. 235). In Aramaic papyri preserved at Berlin, the Jews of Elephantine call Jehovah "the god of heaven" in an address to a Persian governor, and the same name was used in the alleged edicts of Cyrus and his successors, which were inserted in the book of Esdras (i. 1; vi. 9, etc.)—If there were the slightest doubt as to the identity of the god of thunder with Baalsamin, it would be dispelled by the inscription of Et-Tayibé, where this Semitic name is translated into Greek as Ζεὺς μέγιστος κεραύνιος; cf. Lidzbarski, Handbuch, p. 477, and Lagrange, op. cit., p. 508.

70. On the worship of Baalsamin, confused with Ahura-Mazda and transformed into Caelus, see Mon. myst. Mithra, p. 87.—The texts attesting the existence of a real cult of heaven among the Semites are very numerous. Besides the ones I have gathered (loc. cit., n. 5); see Conybeare, Philo about the Contemplative Life, p. 33, n. 16; Kayser, Das Buch der Erkenntniss der Wahrheit, 1893, p. 337, and infra, n. 75. Zeus Οὐράνιος: Le Bas-Waddington, 2720 a (Baal of Bétocécé); Renan, Mission de Phénicie, p. 103.—Cf. Archiv für Religionswissenschaft, IX, 1906, p. 333.

71. Coins of Antiochus VIII Grypus (125-96 B. C.); Babelon, Rois de Syrie, d'Arménie, 1890, p. CLIV, pp. 178 ff.

72. All these qualities ascribed to the Baals by astrological paganism (ὕψιστος, παντοκράτωρ, etc.), are also the attributes which, according to the doctrine of Alexandrian Judaism, characterized Jehovah (see supra, n. 66). If he was originally a god of thunder, as has been maintained, the evolution of the Jewish theology was parallel to that of the pagan conceptions (see supra, n. 69).

73. On this subject cf. Jupiter summus exsuperantissimus (Archiv f. Religionsw., IX), 1906, pp. 326 ff.

74. Ps.-Iamblichus, De mysteriis, VI, 7 (cf. Porph., Epist. Aneb., c. 29), notes this difference between the two religions.

75. Apul., Met., VIII, 25. Cf. CIL, III, 1090; XII, 1227 (= Dessau, 2998, 4333); Macrobius, Comm. somn. Scipionis, I, 14, § 2: "Nihil aliud esse deum nisi caelum ipsum et caelestia ipsa quae cernimus, ideo ut summi omnipotentiam dei ostenderet posse vix intellegi."—Ἥλιος παντοκράτως: Macrob., I, 23, 21.

76. Diodorus, II, 30: Χαλδαῖοι τὴν τοῦ κόσμου φύσιν ἀΐδιόν φασιν εἶναι κ. τ. λ.; cf. Cicero, Nat. deor., II, 20, § 52 ff.; Pliny, H. N., II, 8, § 30. The notion of eternity was correlative with that of εἱμαρμενη; cf. Ps.-Apul., Asclep., 40; Apul., De deo Socratis, c. 2: "(The planets) quae in deflexo cursu ... meatus aeternos divinis vicibus efficiunt."—This subject will be more fully treated in my lectures on "Astrology and Religion" (chaps. IV-V).

77. At Palmyra: De Vogüé, Inscr. sem., pp. 53 ff., etc.—On the first title, see infra, n. 80.

78. Note especially CIL, VI, 406 = 30758, where Jupiter Dolichenus is called Aeternus conservator totius poli. The relation to heaven here remained apparent. See Somn. Scip., III, 4; IV, 3.

79. Cf. Rev. archéol., 1888, I, pp. 184 ff.; Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. "Aeternus," and Festschrift für Otto Benndorf, 1898, p. 291.—The idea of the eternity of the gods also appeared very early in Egypt, but it does not seem that the mysteries of Isis—in which the death of Osiris was commemorated—made it prominent, and it certainly was spread in the Occident only by the sidereal cults.

80. The question has been raised whether the epithet מרא עלמא means "lord of the world" or "lord of eternity" (cf. Lidzbarski, Ephemeris, I, 258; II, 297; Lagrange, p. 508), but in our opinion the controversy is to no purpose, since in the spirit of the Syrian priests the two ideas are inseparable and one expression in itself embraces both, the world being conceived as eternal (supra, n. 76). See for Egypt, Horapoll., Hieroglyph., I (serpent as symbol of the αἰών and κόσμος). At Palmyra, too, the title "lord of all" is found, מרא כל (Lidzbarski, loc. cit.); cf. Julian, Or., IV, p. 203, 5 (Hertlein): Ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν ὅλων Ἥλιος, and infra, n. 81; n. 87. Already at Babylon the title "lord of the universe" was given to Shamash and Hadad; see Jastrow, Religion Babyloniens, I, p. 254, n. 10. Nöldeke has been good enough to write me as follows on this subject: "Daran kan kein Zweifel sein, dass עלם zunächst (lange Zeit) Ewigkeit heisst, und dass die Bedeutung 'Welt' secundär ist. Ich halte es daher für so gut wie gewiss dass das palmyrenische מרא עלמא, wenn es ein alter Name ist, den 'ewigen' Herrn bedeutet, wie ohne Zweifel אל עולם, Gen., xxi. 33. Das biblische Hebräisch kennt die Bedeutung 'Welt' noch nicht, abgesehen wohl von der späten Stelle, Eccl. iii. 11. Und, so viel ich sehe, ist im Palmyrenischen sonst עלמא immer 'Ewigkeit,' z.B. in der häufigen Redensart לבריך שמח לעלמא. Aber das daneben vorkommende palmyr. מרא כל führt allerdings darauf, dass die palmyrenische Inschrift auch in מרא עלמא den 'Herrn der Welt' sah. Ja der syrische Uebersetzer sieht auch in jenem hebräischen אל עולם 'den Gott der Welt.' Das Syrische hat nämlich einen formalen Unterschied festgestellt zwischen ‘ālăm, dem Status absolutus, 'Ewigkeit,' und ‘ālmā [āl^emā] dem Status emphaticus 'Welt.'—Sollte übrigens die Bedeutung Welt diesem Worte erst durch Einfluss griechischer Speculation zu Teil geworden sein? In der Zingirli-Inschrift bedeuted בצלם noch bloss 'in seiner Zeit.'"

81. Cf. CIL, III, 1090 = Dessau, Inscr., 2998: "Divinarum humanarumque rerum rectori." Compare ibid., 2999 and Cagnet, Année épigr., 1905, No. 235: "I. O. M., id est universitatis principi." Cf. the article of the Archiv cited, n. 73. The Asclepius says (c. 39), using an astrological term: "Caelestes dii catholicorum dominantur, terreni incolunt singula."

82. Cf. W. Robertson Smith, 75 ff., passim. In the Syrian religions as in that of Mithra, the initiates regarded each other as members of the same family, and the phrase "dear brethren" as used by our preachers, was already in use among the votaries of Jupiter Dolichenus (fratres carissimos, CIL, VI, 406 = 30758).

83. Renan mentioned this fact in his Apotres, p. 297 = Journal Asiatique, 1859, p. 259. Cf. Jalabert, Mél. faculté orient. Beyrout, I, 1906, p. 146.

84. This is the term (virtutes) used by the pagans. See the inscription Numini et virtutibus dei aeterni as reconstructed in Revue de Philologie, 1902, p. 9; Archiv für Religionsw., loc. cit., p. 335, n. 1 and infra, ch. VIII, n. 20.

85. CIL, VII, 759 = Bücheler, Carm. epig., 24.—Cf. Lucian, De dea Syria, 32.

86. Macrobius, Sat., I, 23, § 17: "Nominis (Adad) interpretatio significat unus unus."

87. Cicero, Somnium Scip., c. 4: "Sol dux et princeps et moderator luminum reliquorum, mens mundi et temperatio." Pliny, H. N., II, 6, § 12: "Sol ... siderum ipsorum caelique rector. Hunc esse mundi totius animam ac planius mentem, hunc principale naturae regimen ac numen credere decet," etc. Julian of Laodicea, Cat. codd. astr., I, p. 136, l. 1:

Ἥλιος βασιλεὺς καὶ ἡγεμὼν τοῦ σύμπαντος κόσμου καθεστώς, πάντων καθηγούμενος καὶ πάντων ὢν γενεσιάρχης.

88. We are here recapitulating some conclusions of a study on La théologie solaire du paganisme romain published in Mémoires des savants étrangers présentés à l'Acad. des Inscr., XII, 2d part, pp. 447 ff., Paris, 1910.

89. The hymns of Synesius (II, 10 ff., IV, 120 ff., etc.) contain peculiar examples of the combination of the old astrological ideas with Christian theology.

2. Cf. Chapot, Les destinées de l'hellénisme au delà l'Euphrate (Mém. soc. antiq. de France), 1902, pp. 207 ff.

3. Humbert in Daremberg and Saglio, Dictionnaire, s. v. "Amici," I, p. 228 (cf. 160). Cf. Friedländer, Sittengesch., I, pp. 202 ff.

4. Cf. L'Eternité des empereurs romains (Rev. d'hist. et de litt. relig., I), 1896, p. 442.

5. Friedländer (loc. cit., p. 204) has pointed out several instances where Augustus borrowed from his distant predecessors the custom of keeping a journal of the palace, of educating the children of noble families at court, etc. Certain public institutions were undoubtedly modeled on them; for instance, the organization of the mails (Otto Hirschfeld, Verwaltungsbeamten, p. 190, n. 2; Rostovtzev, Klio, VI, p. 249 (on angariae)); cf. Preisigke, Die Ptolemäische Staatspost (Klio, VII, p. 241), that of the secret police (Friedländer, I, p. 427).—On the Mazdean Hvareno who became Τύχη βασιλέως, then Fortuna Augusti, cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 284 ff.—Even Mommsen (Röm. Gesch., V, p. 343), although predisposed to look for the continuity of the Roman tradition, adds, after setting forth the rules that obtained at the court of the Parthians: "Alle Ordnungen die mit wenigen Abminderungen bei den römischen Caesaren wiederkehren und vielleicht zum Teil von diesen der älteren Grossherrschaft entlehnt sind."—Cf. also infra, ch. VIII, n. 19.

7. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutestam. Zeitalter, 1903 (2d ed. 1906), pp. 453 ff., passim.

11. Lactantius, De mort. persec., 21, 2; cf. Seeck, Gesch. des Untergangs der antiken Welt, II, pp. 7 ff.

12. Cf. Strzygowski, Mschatta (Jahrb. preuss. Kunstsammlungen, XXV), Berlin, 1904, pp. 324 ff., 371 ff.—From a communication made to the Congress of Orientalists at Copenhagen (1908) by Father Lammens, it would appear that the façade of Mschatta is the work of an Omaiyad kalif of Damascus, and Strzygowski's conclusions would, therefore, have to be modified considerably; but the influence of Sassanid art in Syria is nevertheless certain; see Dussaud, Les Arabes en Syrie avant l'Islam, 1907, pp. 33, 51 ff.

Ξενὰς δὲ θυσίας ἔθυον αὐτοὶ τὰς ἐν Ὀλύμπῳ καὶ τελετάς τινας ἀπορρήτους ἐτέλουν, ὤν ἡ τοῦ Μίθρου καὶ μέχρι δεῦρο διασώζεται καταδειχθεῖσα πρῶτον ὑπ' ἐκείνων.

15. Lactantius Placidus ad Stat., Theb. IV, 717: "Quae sacra primum Persae habuerunt, a Persis Phryges, a Phrygibus Romani."

16. In the Studio Pontica, p. 368, I have described a grotto located near Trapezus and formerly dedicated to Mithra, but now transformed into a church. We know of no other Mithreum. A bilingual dedication to Mithra, in Greek and Aramaic, is engraved upon a rock in a wild pass near Farasha (Rhodandos) in Cappadocia. Recently it has been republished with excellent notes by Henri Grégoire (Comptes Rendus Acad. des Inscr., 1908, pp. 434 ff.), but the commentator has mentioned no trace of a temple. The text says that a strategus from Ariaramneia ἐμάγευσε Μίθρῃ. Perhaps these words must be translated according to a frequent meaning of the aorist, by "became a magus of Mithra" or "began to serve Mithra as a magus." This would lead to the conclusion that the inscription was made on the occasion of an initiation. The magus dignity was originally hereditary in the sacred caste; strangers could acquire it after the cult had assumed the form of mysteries. If the interpretation offered by us is correct the Cappadocian inscription would furnish interesting evidence of that transformation in the Orient. Moreover, we know that Tiridates of Armenia initiated Nero; see Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 239.

17. Strabo, XI, 14, § 9. On the studs of Cappadocia, cf. Grégoire, Saints jumeaux et dieux cavaliers, 1905, pp. 56 ff.

18. Cf. C. R. Acad. des Inscr., 1905, pp. 99 ff. (note on the bilingual inscription of Aghatcha-Kalé); cf. Daremberg-Saglio-Pottier, Dict. Antiqu., s. v. "Satrapa."

19. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 10, n. 1. The argument undoubtedly dates back to Carneades, see Boll, Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus, 1894, pp. 181 ff.

20. Louis H. Gray (Archiv für Religionswiss., VII, 1904, p. 345) has shown how these six Amshaspands passed from being divinities of the material world to the rank of moral abstractions. From an important text of Plutarch it appears that they already had this quality in Cappadocia; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, II, p. 33, and Philo, Quod omn. prob. lib., 11 (II, 456 M).—On Persian gods worshiped in Cappadocia, see Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 132.

21. See supra, n. 16 and 18.—According to Grégoire, the bilingual inscription of Farasha dates back to the first century, before or after Christ (loc. cit., p. 445).

23. Comparison of the type of Jupiter Dolichenus with the bas-reliefs of Boghaz-Keui led Kan (De Iovis Dolicheni cultu, Groningen, 1901, pp. 3 ff.) to see an Anatolian god in him. The comparison of the formula ubi ferrum nascitur with the expression ὅπου ὁ σίδηρος τίκτεται, used in connection with the Chalybians, leads to the same conclusion, see Revue de philologie, XXVI, 1902, p. 281.—Still, the representations of Jupiter Dolichnus also possess a remarkable resemblance to those of the Babylonian god Ramman; cf. Jeremias in Roscher, Lexikon der Myth., s. v. "Ramman," IV, col. 50 ff.

25. Herod., I, 131.—On the assimilation of Baalsamin to Ahura-Mazda, cf. supra, p. 127, and infra, n. 29. At Rome, Jupiter Dolichenus was conservator totius poli et numen praestantissimum (CIL, VI, 406 = 30758).

26. Inscription of King Antiochus of Commagene (Michel, Recueil, No. 735), l. 43:

Πρὸς οὐρανίους Διὸς Ὠρομάσδου θρόνους θεοφιλῆ ψυχὴν προπέμψαν; cf. l. 33: Οὐρανίων ἄγχιστα θρόνων.

28. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 333.—An inscription discovered in a mithreum at Dorstadt (Sacidava in Dacia, CIL, III, 7728, cf. 7729), furnishes, if I rightly understand, another proof of the relation existing between the Semitic cults and that of the Persian gods. It speaks of a "de[orum?] sacerdos creatus a Pal[myr]enis, do[mo] Macedonia, et adven[tor] huius templi." This rather obscure text becomes clear when compared with Apul., Metam., XI, 26. After the hero had been initiated into the mysteries of Isis in Greece, he was received at Rome in the great temple of the Campus Martius, "fani quidem advena, religionis autem indigena." It appears also that this Macedonian, who was made a priest of their national gods (Bel, Malakbel, etc.) by a colony of Palmyrenians, was received in Dacia by the mystics of Mithra as a member of their religion.

29. At Venasa in Cappadocia, for instance, the people, even during the Christian period, celebrated a panegyric on a mountain, where the celestial Zeus, representing Baalsamin and Ahura-Mazda, was formerly worshiped (Ramsay, Church in the Roman Empire, 1894, pp. 142, 457). The identification of Bel with Ahura-Mazda in Cappadocia results from the Aramaic inscription of Jarpuz (Clermont-Ganneau, Recueil, III, p. 59; Lidzbarski, Ephemeris für semit. Epigraphik, I, pp. 59 ff.). The Zeus Stratios worshiped upon a high summit near Amasia was in reality Ahura-Mazda, who in turn probably supplanted some local god (Studia Pontica, pp. 173 ff.).—Similarly the equation Anahita = Ishtar = Ma or Cybele for the great female divinity is accepted everywhere (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 333), and Ma takes the epithet ἀνίκητος like Mithra (Athen. Mitt., XVIII, 1893, p. 415, and XXIX, 1904, p. 169). A temple of this goddess was called ἱερὸν Ἀστάρτης in a decree of Anisa (Michel, Recueil, No. 536, l. 32).

30. The Mithra "mysteries" are not of Hellenic origin (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 239), but their resemblance to those of Greece, which Gruppe insists upon (Griech. Mythologie, pp. 1596 ff.) was such that the two were bound to become confused in the Alexandrian period.

31. Harnack (Ausbreitung des Christentums, II, p. 271) sees in this exclusion of the Hellenic world a prime cause of the weakness of the Mithra worship in its struggle against Christianity. The mysteries of Mithra met the Greek culture with the culture of Persia, superior in some respects. But if it was capable of attracting the Roman mind by its moral qualities, it was too Asiatic, on the whole, to be accepted without repugnance by the Occidentals. The same was true of Manicheism.

34. As Plato grew older he believed that he could not explain the evils of this world without admitting the existence of an "evil soul of the world" (Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, II, p. 973, p. 981, n. 1). But this late conception, opposed as it is to his entire system, is probably due to the influence of Oriental dualism. It is found in the Epinomis (Zeller, ibid., p. 1042, n. 4), where the influence of "Chaldean" theories is undeniable; cf. Bidez, Revue de Philologie, XXIX, 1905, p. 319.

35. Plutarch, De Iside, 46 ff.; cf. Zeller, Philos. der Griechen, V, p. 188; Eisele, Zur Demonologie des Plutarch (Archiv für Gesch. der Philos., XVII), 1903, p. 283 f.—Cf. infra, n. 40.

36. Arnobius, who was indebted to Cornelius Labeo for some exact information on the doctrines of the magi, says (IV, 12, p. 150, 12, Reifferscheid): "Magi suis in accitionibus memorant antitheos saepius obrepere pro accitis, esse autem hos quosdam materiis ex crassioribus spiritus qui deos se fingant, nesciosque mendaciis et simulationibus ludant." Lactantius, the pupil of Arnobius, used the same word in speaking of Satan that a Mazdean would have used in referring to Ahriman (Inst. divin., II, 9, 13, p. 144, 13, Brandt): "Nox quam pravo illi antitheo dicimus attributam"; he is the aemulus Dei.—Heliodorus who has made use in his Aethiopica of data taken from the Mazdean beliefs (see Monuments relatifs aux mystères de Mithra, volume I, p. 336, n. 2) uses the Greek word in the same sense, (IV, 7, p. 105, 27, Bekker ed.): Ἀντίθεός τις ἔοικεν ἐμποδίζειν τὴν πρᾶξιν.—The Ps.-Iamblichus, De myster., III, 31, § 15, likewise speaks of δαίμονες πονηροὺς οὓς δὴ καὶ καλοῦσιν ἀντιθέους. Finally the magical papyri also knew of the existence of these deceiving spirits (Wessely, Denksch. Akad. Wien, XLII, p. 42, v. 702: Πέμψον μοι τὸν ἀληθινὸν Ἀσκληπιὸν δίχα τινὸς ἀντιθέου πλανοδαίμονος).

37. In a passage to which we shall return in note 39, Porphyry (De Abstin., II, 42), speaks of the demons in almost the same terms as Arnobius: Τὸ γὰρ ψεῦδος τούτοις οἱκεῖον· Βούλονται γὰρ εἶναι θεοὶ καὶ ἡ προεστῶσα αὐτῶν δύναμις δοκεῖν θεὸς εἶναι ὁ μέγιστος (cf. c. 41: Τούτους καὶ τὸν προεστῶτα αὐτῶν); likewise Ps.-Iamblichus, De myst., III, 30, 6: Τὸν μέγαν ἡγεμόνα τῶν δαιμόνων.—In the De philos. ex orac. haur. (pp. 147 ff. Wolff), an early work in which he followed other sources than those in De Abstinentia, Porphyry made Serapis (= Pluto) the chief of the malevolent demons. There was bound to be a connection between the Egyptian god of the underworld and the Ahriman of the Persians at an early date.—A veiled allusion to this chief of demons may be contained in Lucan, VI, 742 ff., and Plutarch who, in De Iside, 46, called Ahriman Hades (supra, p. 190; cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, II, p. 131, No. 3), says elsewhere (De latenter viv., 6, p. 1130): Τὸν δὲ τῆς ἐναντίας κύριον μοίρας, εἴτε θεὸς εἴτε δαίμων ἐστίν, Ἄιδην ὀνομάζουσιν. Cf. Decharme, Traditions religieuses chez les Grecs, 1904, p. 431, n. 1.

38. The dedication Diis angelis recently found at Viminacium (Jahresh. Instituts in Wien, 1905, Beiblatt, p. 6), in a country where the Mithra worship had spread considerably seems to me to refer to this. See Minuc. Felix, Octav., 26: "Magorum et eloquio et negotio primus Hostanes angelos, id est ministros et nuntios Dei, eius venerationi novit assistere." St. Cypr., "Quod idola dii n. s.," c. 6 (p. 24, 2, Hartel): "Ostanes et formam Dei veri negat conspici posse et angelos veros sedi eius dicit adsistere." Cf. Tertullian, Apol., XXIII: "Magi habentes invitatorum angelorum et daemonum adsistentem sibi potestatem;" Arnobius, II, 35 (p. 76, 15, Reifferscheid); Aug., Civ. Dei, X, 9, and the texts collected by Wolff, Porphyrii de philos. ex orac. haurienda, 1856, pp. 223 ff.; Kroll, De orac. Chaldaïcis, 1894, pp. 53; Roscher, Die Hebdomadenlehre der griech. Philosophen, Leipsic, 1906, p. 145; Abt, Apuleius und die Zauberei, Giessen, 1909, p. 256.

39. Porphyry, De Abstin., II, 37-43, expounds a theory about the demons, which, he says, he took from "certain Platonists" (Πλατωνικοί τινες, Numenius and Cronius?). That these authors, whoever they were, helped themselves freely to the doctrines of the magi, seems to appear immediately from the whole of Porphyry's exposition (one could almost give an endless commentary on it with the help of the Mazdean books) and in particular from the mention that is made of a power commanding the spirits of evil (see supra, n. 37). This conclusion is confirmed by a comparison with the passage of Arnobius cited above (n. 36), who attributes similar theories to the "magi," and with a chapter of the Ps.-Iamblichus (De mysteriis, III, 31) which develops analogous beliefs as being those of "Chaldean prophets."—Porphyry also cites a "Chaldean" theologian in connection with the influence of the demons, De regressu animae (Aug., Civ. Dei, X, 9).

I conjecture that the source of all this demonology is the book attributed to Hostanes which we find mentioned in the second century of our era by Minucius Felix, St. Cyprian (supra, n. 38), etc.; cf. Wolff, op. cit., p. 138; Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 33. As a matter of fact it would be false logic to try to explain the evolution of demonology, which is above everything else religious, by the development of the philosophic theories of the Greeks (see for instance the communications of Messrs. Stock and Glover: Transactions of the Congress of History of Rel., Oxford, 1908, II, pp. 164 ff.). The influence of the popular Hellenic or foreign ideas has always been preponderant here; and the Epinomis, which contains one of the oldest accounts of the theory of demons, as proved supra, n. 34, was influenced by the Semitic notions about genii, the ancestors of the djinns and the wélys of Islam.

If, as we believe, the text of Porphyry really sets forth the theology of the magi, slightly modified by Platonic ideas based on popular beliefs of the Greeks and perhaps of the barbarians, we shall be able to draw interesting conclusions in regard to the mysteries of Mithra. For instance, one of the principles developed is that the gods must not be honored by the sacrifice of animated beings (ἔμψυχα), and that immolation of victims should be reserved for the demons. The same idea is found in Cornelius Labeo, (Aug., Civ. Dei, VIII, 13; see Arnobius, VII, 24), and possibly it was the practice of the Mithra cult. Porphyry (II, 36) speaks in this connection of rites and mysteries, but without divulging them, and it is known that in the course of its history Mazdaism passed from the bloody to the bloodless sacrifice (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 6).

Ἐμοὶ δὲ δοκοῦσι πλείονας λῦσαι ἀπορίας οἱ τὸ τῶν δαιμόνων γένος ἐν μέσῳ θέντες θεῶν καὶ ἀνθρώπων καὶ τρόπον τινὰ τὴν κοινωνίαν ἡμῶν συνάγον εἰς ταὐτὸ καὶ σύναπτον ἐξεύροντες· εἴτε μάγων τῶν περὶ Ζωροάστρην ὁ λόγος οὖτος ἐστι, εἴτε Θρᾴκιος....

41. Cf. Minucius Felix, 26, § 11: "Hostanes daemonas prodidit terrenos vagos humanitatis inimicos." The pagan idea, that the air was peopled with evil spirits against whom man had to struggle perpetually, persisted among the Christians; cf. Ephes., ii. 2, vi. 12, see also Prudentius, Hamartigenia, 514 ff.

42. Cf. Minucius Felix, loc. cit.: "Magi non solum sciunt daemonas, sed quidquid miraculi ludunt, per daemonas faciunt," etc. Cf. Aug., Civ. Dei, X, 9 and infra, ch. VII, n. 76.

45. Cf. Bousset, Die Religion des Judentums im neutest. Zeitalter, 1903, pp. 483 ff.

46. Julian, Caesares, p. 336 C. The term ἐντολαί is the one also used in the Greek Church for the commandments of the Lord.

51. Mithra is sanctus (Mon. myst. Mithra, II, p. 533), like the Syrian gods; cf. supra, ch. V, n. 47.

52. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 309 ff. The eschatology of orthodox Mazdaism has been expounded recently by Söderblom, La vie future d'après le mazdéisme, Paris, 1901.

54. We have explained this theory above, p. 125. It was foreign to the religion of Zoroaster and was introduced into the mysteries of Mithra with the Chaldean astrology. Moreover, ancient mythological ideas were always mixed with this learned theology. For instance, it was an old Oriental belief that souls, being regarded as material, wore clothing (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 15, n. 5; Bousset, Archiv für Religionswiss., IV, 1901, p. 233, n. 2; Rev. hist. des relig., 1899, p. 243, and especially Böklen, Die Verwandtschaft der jüdisch-christlichen und der parsischen Eschatologie, Göttingen, 1902, pp. 61 ff.) Thence arose the notion prevalent to the end of paganism, that the soul in passing through the planetary spheres, took on the qualities of the stars "like successive tunics." Porphyry, De abstin., I, 31: Ἀποδυτέον ἄρα τοὺς πολλοὺς ἡμῖν χιτῶνας κ. τ. λ.; Macrobius, Somnium Sc., I, 11, § 12: "In singulis sphaeris aetherea obvolutione vestitur"; I, 12, § 13: "Luminosi corporis amicitur accessu"; Proclus, In Tim., I, 113, 8, Diehl ed.: Περιβάλλεσθαι χιτῶνας, Procl., Opera, Cousin ed., p. 222: "Exuendum autem nobis et tunicas quas descendentes induti sumus"; Kroll, De orac. Chaldaïcis, p. 51, n. 2: Ψυχὴ ἑσσαμένη νοῦν; Julian, Or., II, p. 123, 22, (Hertlein). Cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-römische Kultur, p. 168 n. 1. Compare what Hippolytus, Philos., V, I, says of Isis (Ishtar?) in connection with the Naasenians. She is ἑπτάστολος, because nature also is covered with seven ethereal garments, the seven heavens of the planets; see Ps.-Apul., Asclepius, 34 (p. 75, 2 Thomas): "Mundum sensibilem et, quae in eo sunt, omnia a superiore illo mundo quasi ex vestimento esse contecta." I have insisted upon the persistence of this idea, because it may help us to grasp the significance attributed to a detail of the Mithra ritual in connection with which Porphyry relates nothing but contradictory interpretations. The persons initiated into the seven degrees were obliged to put on different costumes. The seven degrees of initiation successively conferred upon the mystic were symbols of the seven planetary spheres, through which the soul ascended after death (Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 316), the garments assumed by the initiates were probably considered as emblems of those "tunics" which the soul put on when descending into the lower realms and discarded on returning to heaven.

56. Anatole France, Le mannequin d'osier, p. 318. Cf. Reinach, op. cit. [p. 260], p. 232.

Bibliography: Bouché-Leclercq's book L'astrologie grecque (Paris, 1899) makes it unnecessary to refer to the earlier works of Saumaise (De annis climactericis, 1648), of Seiffarth (Beiträge sur Lit. des alten Aegypten, II, 1883), etc. Most of the facts cited by us are taken from that monumental treatise, unless otherwise stated.—A large number of new texts has been published in the Catalogus codicum astrologorum Graecorum (9 vols. ready, Brussels, 1898).—Franz Boll, Sphaera (Leipsic, 1903) is important for the history of the Greek and barbarian constellations (see Rev. archéol., 1903, I, p. 437).—De la Ville de Mirmont has furnished notes on L'astrologie en Gaule au V^e siècle (Rev. des Etudes anciennes, 1902, pp. 115 ff.; 1903, pp. 255 ff.; 1906, p. 128). Also in book form, Bordeaux, 1904. The principal results of the latest researches have been outlined to perfection by Boll, Die Erforschung der antiken Astrologie (Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altert., XI), 1908, pp. 104 ff.—For the bibliography of magic, cf. infra, notes, 58 ff.

1. Stephan. Byzant. (Cat. codd. astr., II, p. 235), I, 12: Ἐξοχωτάτη καὶ πάσης ἐπιστήμης δέσποινα. Theophil. Edess., ibid., V, 1, p. 184: Ὅτι πασῶν τιμιωτέρα τεχνῶν. Vettius Valens, VI, proem. (ibid., V, 2, p. 34, 7 = p. 241, 19, Kroll ed.): Τίς γὰρ οὐκ ἂν κρίναι ταύτην τὴν θεωρίαν πασῶν προύχειν καὶ μακαριωτάτην τυγχάνειν.

4. Kroll, Aus der Gesch. der Astrol. (Neue Jahrb. für das klass. Altertum, VII), 1901, pp. 598 ff. Cf. Boll, Cat. codd. astr., VII, p. 130.

5. The argumentation of Posidonius, placed at the beginning of the Tetrabiblos, inspired the defense of astrology, and it has been drawn upon considerably by authors of widely different spirit and tendencies, see Boll, Studien über Claudius Ptolemäus, 1894, pp. 133 ff.

8. On these edifices, cf. Maass, Tagesgötter, 1902. The form "Septizonia" is preferable to "Septizodia"; cf. Schürer, Siebentägige Woche (Extr. Zeitschr. neutestam. Wissensch., VI), 1904, pp. 31, 63.

9. Friedländer, Sittengesch., I, p. 364. It appears that astrology never obtained a hold on the lower classes of the rural population. It has a very insignificant place in the folklore and healing arts of the peasantry.

10. Manilius, IV, 16.—For instance CIL, VI, 13782, the epitaph of a Syrian freedman: "L. Caecilius L. l(ibertus) Syrus, natus mense Maio hora noctis VI, die Mercuri, vixit ann. VI dies XXXIII, mortuus est IIII Kal. Iulias hora X, elatus est h(ora) III frequentia maxima." Cf. Bucheler, Carm. epigr., 1536: "Voluit hoc astrum meum."

11. Chapter Περὶ δείπνου: Cat. codd. astr., IV, p. 94. The precept: "Ungues Mercurio, barbam Iove, Cypride crinem," ridiculed by Ausonius, (VII, 29, p. 108, Piper) is well known. There are many chapters Περὶ ὀνύχων, Περὶ ἱματίων, etc.

12. Cat. codd. astr., V, 1 (Rom.) p. 11, cod. 2, f. 34: Περὶ τοῦ εἰ ἔχει μέγαν ῥῖνα ὁ γεννηθείς. Πότερον πόρνη γένηται ἡ γεννηθεῖσα.

13. Varro, De re rustica, I, 37, 2; cf. Pliny, Hist. nat., XVI, 75, § 194. Olympiod, Comm. in Alcibiad Plat., p. 18 (ed. Creuzer, 1821): Τοὺς ἱερατικῶς ζῶντας ἔστιν ἰδεῖν μὴ ἀποκειρομένους αὐξούσης τῆς σελήνης. This applies to popular superstition rather than to astrology.

14. CIL, VI, 27140 = Bücheler, Carmina epigraph., 1163: "Decepit utrosque | Maxima mendacis fama mathematici."

17. Vettius Valens, V, 12 (Cat. codd. astr., V, 2, p. 32 = p. 239, 8, Kroll ed.); cf. V, 9 (Cat., V, 2, p. 31, 20 = p. 222, 11 Kroll ed.).

18. Cf. Steph. Byz., Cat. codd. astr., II, p. 186. He calls both στοχασμὸς ἔντεχνος. The expression is taken up again by Manuel Comnenus (Cat., V, 1, p. 123, 4), and by the Arab Abou-Mashar [Apomasar] (Cat., V, 2, p. 153).

19. The sacerdotal origin of astrology was well known to the ancients; see Manilius, I, 40 ff.

20. Thus in the chapter on the fixed stars which passed down to Theophilus of Edessa and a Byzantine of the ninth century, from a pagan author who wrote at Rome in 379; cf. Cat. codd. astrol., V, 1, pp. 212, 218.—The same observation has been made in the manuscripts of the Cyranides, cf. F. de Mély and Ruelle, Lapidaires grecs, II, p. xi. n. 3.—See also Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 31 ff.; Boll, Die Erforsch. der antiken Astrologie, pp. 110 ff.

21. In Vettius Valens, III, 12 (p. 150, 12 Kroll ed.) and IX, prooem. (p. 329, 20); cf. VI, prooem. (p. 241, 16); Riess, Petosiridis et Necheps. fragm., fr. 1.

22. Vettius Valens, IV, 11 (Cat. codd, astr., V, 2, p. 86 = p. 172, 31 ff., Kroll ed.), cf. V, 12, (Cat., ibid., p. 32 = p. 238, 18 ff.), VII prooem. (Cat., p. 41 = p. 263, l. 4, Kroll ed. and the note).

23. Firmicus Maternus, II, 30, VIII, prooem. and 5. Cf. Theophilus of Edessa, Cat., V, 1, p. 238, 25; Julian of Laod., Cat., IV, p. 104, 4.

25. Souter, Classical Review, 1897, p. 136; Ramsay, Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, II, p. 566, 790.

26. On the Stoic theory of sympathy see Bouché-Leclercq, pp. 28 ff., passim. A brilliant account will be found in Proclus, In remp. Plat., II, 258 f., Kroll ed. Cf. also Clem. Alex., Strom., VI, 16, p. 143 (p. 504, 21, Stähelin ed.)—Philo attributed it to the Chaldeans (De migrat. Abrahami, 32, II, p. 303, 5, Wendland):

Χαλδαῖοι τῶν ἄλλων ἀνθρώπων ἐκπεπονηκέναι καὶ διαφερόντως δοκοῦσιν ἀστρονομίαν καὶ γενεθλιαλογικήν, τὰ ἐπίγεια τοῖς μετεώροις καὶ τὰ οὐράνια τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς ἁρμοζόμενοι καὶ ὥσπερ διὰ μουσικῆς λόγων τὴν ἐμμελεστάτην συμφωνίαν τοῦ παντὸς ἐπιδεικνύμενοι τῇ τῶν μερῶν πρὸς ἄλληλα κοινωνίᾳ καὶ συμπαθείᾳ, τόποις μὲν διεζευγμένων, συγγενείᾳ δὲ οὐ διῳκισμένων.