The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism

Оглавление

Franz Valery Marie Cumont. The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism

The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

PREFACE

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION

ROME AND THE ORIENT

WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD

ASIA MINOR

EGYPT

SYRIA

PERSIA

ASTROLOGY AND MAGIC

THE TRANSFORMATION OF ROMAN PAGANISM

NOTES

INDEX

Отрывок из книги

Franz Valery Marie Cumont

Published by Good Press, 2019

.....

But if we extend our researches to the history of that notion, we shall find that, at least under the empire, the mystics of Isis were also regarded as forming sacred cohorts enlisted in the service of the goddess, that previously in the Stoic philosophy human existence was frequently likened to a campaign, and that even the astrologers called the man who submitted to destiny and renounced all revolt a "soldier of fate."[6]

This conception of life, especially of religious life, was therefore very popular from the beginning of our era. It was manifestly prior both to Christianity and to Mithraism. It developed in the military monarchies of the Asiatic Diadochi. Here the soldier was no longer a citizen defending his country, but in most instances a volunteer bound by a sacred vow to the person of his king. In the martial states that fought for the heritage of the Achemenides this personal devotion dominated or displaced all national feeling. We know the oaths taken by those subjects to their deified kings.[7] They agreed to defend and uphold them even at the cost of their own lives, and always to have the same friends and the same enemies as they; they dedicated to them not only their actions and words, but their very thoughts. Their duty was a complete abandonment of their personality in favor of those monarchs who were held the equals of the gods. The sacred militia of the mysteries was nothing but this civic morality viewed from the religious standpoint. It confounded loyalty with piety.

.....