Part 30

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

76. Diodorus, II, 30: [Greek: Chaldaioi ten tou kosmou phusin aidion phasin einai k. t. l.]; cf. Cicero, Nat. deor., II, 20, Sec. 52 ff.; Pliny, H. N., II, 8, Sec. 30. The notion of eternity was correlative with that of [Greek: heimarmene]; 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 Voguee, 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 {258} relation to heaven here remained apparent. See Somn. Scip., III, 4; IV, 3.

79. Cf. Rev. archeol., 1888, I, pp. 184 ff.; Pauly-Wissowa, s. v. "Aeternus," and Festschrift fuer 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 [Hebrew: MR' `LM'] 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 [Greek: aion] and [Greek: kosmos]). At Palmyra, too, the title "lord of all" is found, [Hebrew: MR' KL] (Lidzbarski, loc. cit.); cf. Julian, Or., IV, p. 203, 5 (Hertlein): [Greek: Ho basileus ton holon Helios], 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. Noeldeke has been good enough to write me as follows on this subject: "Daran kan kein Zweifel sein, dass [Hebrew: `LM] zunaechst (lange Zeit) Ewigkeit heisst, und dass die Bedeutung 'Welt' secundaer ist. Ich halte es daher fuer so gut wie gewiss dass das palmyrenische [Hebrew: MR' `LM'], wenn es ein alter Name ist, den 'ewigen' Herrn bedeutet, wie ohne Zweifel [Hebrew: 'L `WLM], Gen., xxi. 33. Das biblische Hebraeisch kennt die Bedeutung 'Welt' noch nicht, abgesehen wohl von der spaeten Stelle, Eccl. iii. 11. Und, so viel ich sehe, ist im Palmyrenischen sonst [Hebrew: `LM'] immer 'Ewigkeit,' z.B. in der haeufigen Redensart [Hebrew: LBRYK SHMCH L`LM']. Aber das daneben vorkommende palmyr. [Hebrew: MR' KL] fuehrt allerdings darauf, dass die palmyrenische Inschrift auch in [Hebrew: MR' `LM'] den 'Herrn der Welt' sah. Ja der syrische Uebersetzer sieht auch in jenem hebraeischen [Hebrew: 'L `WLM] 'den Gott der Welt.' Das Syrische hat naemlich einen formalen Unterschied festgestellt zwischen '[=a]l[)a]m, dem Status absolutus, 'Ewigkeit,' und '[=a]lm[=a] [[=a]l^em[=a]] dem Status emphaticus 'Welt.'--Sollte uebrigens die {259} Bedeutung Welt diesem Worte erst durch Einfluss griechischer Speculation zu Teil geworden sein? In der Zingirli-Inschrift bedeuted [Hebrew: BTSLM] noch bloss 'in seiner Zeit.'"

81. Cf. CIL, III, 1090 = Dessau, Inscr., 2998: "Divinarum humanarumque rerum rectori." Compare ibid., 2999 and Cagnet, Annee epigr., 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, Mel. faculte 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 fuer Religionsw., loc. cit., p. 335, n. 1 and infra, ch. VIII, n. 20.

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

86. Macrobius, Sat., I, 23, Sec. 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, Sec. 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:

88. We are here recapitulating some conclusions of a study on La theologie solaire du paganisme romain published in Memoires des savants etrangers presentes a l'Acad. des Inscr., XII, 2d part, pp. 447 ff., Paris, 1910. {260}

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.

VI. PERSIA.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: We shall not attempt here to give a bibliography of the works devoted to Mazdaism. We shall merely refer the reader to that of Lehmann in Chantepie de la Saussaye, Lehrbuch der Religionsgeschichte, II, p. 150. We should mention, in the first place, Darmesteter, Le Zend Avesta, 1892 ff., with introductions and commentary.--In my Textes et monuments relatifs aux mysteres de Mithra (2 vols., 1894-1900), I, pp. xx ff., I have furnished a list of the earlier works on this subject; the conclusions of the book have been published separately without the notes, under the title: Les Mysteres de Mithra, (2d ed., Paris and Brussels, 1902; English translation, Chicago, 1903). See also the article "Mithra" in the Dictionnaire des antiquites of Daremberg and Saglio, 1904.--General outlines of certain phases of this religion have been since given by Grill, Die persische Mysterienreligion und das Christentum, 1903; Roeses, Ueber Mithrasdienst, Stralsund, 1905; G. Wolff, Ueber Mithrasdienst und Mithreen, Frankfort, 1909; Reinach, La morale du mithraisme in Cultes, mythes, II, 1906, pp. 220 ff.; Dill, op. cit., pp. 594-626; cf. also Bigg, op. cit. [p. 321], 1905, p. 46 ff.; Harnack, Ausbreitung des Christent., II, p. 270. Among the learned researches which we cannot enumerate here, the most important is that of Albrecht Dieterich, Eine Mithrasliturgie, 1903. He has endeavored with some ingenuity to show that a mystical passage inserted in a magic papyrus preserved at Paris is in reality a fragment of a Mithraic liturgy, but here I share the skepticism of Reitzenstein (Neue Jahrb. f. das class. Altertum, 1904, p. 192) and I have given my reasons in Rev. de l'Instr. publ. en Belg., XLVII, 1904, pp. 1 ff. Dieterich answered briefly in Archiv f. Religionswis., VIII, 1905, p. 502, but without convincing me. The author of the passage in question may have been more or less accurate in giving his god the external appearance of Mithra, but he certainly did not know the eschatology of the Persian mysteries. We know, for {261} instance, through positive testimony that they taught the dogma of the passage of the soul through the seven planetary spheres, and that Mithra acted as a guide to his votaries in their ascension to the realm of the blessed. Neither the former nor the latter doctrine, however, is found in the fantastic uranography of the magician. The name of Mithra, as elsewhere that of the magi Zoroaster and Hostanes, helped to circulate an Egyptian forgery., cf. Wendland, Die hellenistisch-roemische Kultur, 1907, p. 168, n. 1. See on this controversy Wuensch's notes in the 2d ed. of the Mithrasliturgie, 1910, pp. 225 ff.--A considerable number of new monuments have been published of late years (the mithreum of Saalburg by Jacobi, etc.). The most important ones are those of the temple of Sidon preserved in the collection of Clercq (De Ridder, Marbres de la collection de C., 1906, pp. 52 ff.) and those of Stockstadt published by Drexel (Der obergerm. Limes, XXXIII, Heidelberg, 1910). In the following notes I shall only mention the works or texts which could not be utilized in my earlier researches.

1. Cf. Petr. Patricius, Excerpta de leg., 12 (II, p. 393, de Boor ed.).

2. Cf. Chapot, Les destinees de l'hellenisme au dela l'Euphrate (Mem. soc. antiq. de France), 1902, pp. 207 ff.

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

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

5. Friedlaender (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 Ptolemaeische Staatspost (Klio, VII, p. 241), that of the secret police (Friedlaender, I, p. 427).--On the Mazdean Hvareno who became [Greek: Tuche basileos], then Fortuna Augusti, cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 284 ff.--Even Mommsen (Roem. Gesch., V, p. 343), although {262} 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 roemischen Caesaren wiederkehren und vielleicht zum Teil von diesen der aelteren Grossherrschaft entlehnt sind."--Cf. also infra, ch. VIII, n. 19.

6. Friedlaender, loc. cit., p. 204; cf. p. 160.

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

8. Cf. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 21 ff.

9. Cf. infra, ch. VII, pp. 188 ff.

10. Mon. myst. Mithra, I, pp. 9 ff., pp. 231 ff.

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