the shrill accompaniment of their Syrian flutes they turned round and
round, and with their heads thrown back fluttered about and gave vent to
hoarse clamors until vertigo seized them and insensibility was complete.
Then they flagellated themselves wildly, struck themselves with swords and
shed their blood in front of a rustic crowd which pressed closely about
them, and finally they took up a profitable collection from the wondering
spectators. They received jars of milk and wine, cheeses, flour, bronze
coins of small denominations and even some silver pieces, all of which
disappeared in the folds of their capacious robes. If opportunity presented
they knew how to increase their profits by means of clever thefts or by
making commonplace predictions for a moderate consideration.

This picturesque description, based on a novel by {105} Lucius of Patras,
is undoubtedly extreme. It is difficult to believe that the sacerdotal
corps of the goddess of Hierapolis should have consisted only of charlatans
and thieves. But how can the presence in the Occident of that begging and
low nomadic clergy be explained?

It is certain that the first worshipers of the Syrian goddess in the Latin
world were slaves. During the wars against Antiochus the Great a number of
prisoners were sent to Italy to be sold at public auction, as was the
custom, and the first appearance in Italy of the _Chaldaei_[2] has been
connected with that event. The _Chaldaei_ were Oriental fortune-tellers who
asserted that their predictions were based on the Chaldean astrology. They
found credulous clients among the farm laborers, and Cato gravely exhorts
the good landlord to oust them from his estate.[3]

Beginning with the second century before Christ, merchants began to import
Syrian slaves. At that time Delos was the great trade center in this human
commodity, and in that island especially Atargatis was worshiped by
citizens of Athens and Rome.[4] Trade spread her worship in the
Occident.[5] We know that the great slave revolution that devastated Sicily
in 134 B. C. was started by a slave from Apamea, a votary of the Syrian
goddess. Simulating divine madness, he called his companions to arms,
pretending to act in accordance with orders from heaven.[6] This detail,
which we know by chance, shows how considerable a proportion of Semites
there was in the gangs working the fields, and how much authority Atargatis
enjoyed in the rural centers. Being too poor to build