premature, but it was in
keeping with the aspirations of the time, and it must be remembered that
the imperial policy could find the support of powerful Syrian colonies not
only at Rome but all over the empire.

Half a century later Aurelian[27] was inspired by the same idea when he
created a new worship, that of the "Invincible Sun." Worshiped in a
splendid temple, by pontiffs equal in rank to those of ancient Rome, having
magnificent plays held in his honor every fourth year, _Sol invictus_ was
also elevated to the supreme rank in the divine hierarchy, and became the
special {115} protector of the emperors and the empire. The country where
Aurelian found the pattern he sought to reproduce, was again Syria. Into
the new sanctuary he transferred the images of Bel and Helios, taken from
Palmyra, after it had fallen before his arms.

* * * * *

The sovereigns, then, twice attempted to replace the Capitoline Jupiter by
a Semitic god and to make a Semitic religion the principal and official
religion of the Romans. They proclaimed the fall of the old Latin idolatry
and the accession of a new paganism taken from Syria. What was the
superiority attributed to the creeds of that country? Why did even an
Illyrian general like Aurelian look for the most perfect type of pagan
religion in that country? That is the problem to be solved, but it must
remain unsolved unless an exact account is given of the fate of the Syrian
beliefs under the empire.

That question has not as yet been very completely elucidated. Besides the
superficial opuscule of Lucian on the _dea Syria_, we find scarcely any
reliable information in the Greek or Latin writers. The work by Philo of
Byblos is a euhemeristic interpretation of an alleged Phoenician cosmogony,
and a composition of little merit. Neither have we the original texts of
the Semitic liturgies, as we have for Egypt. Whatever we have learned we
owe especially to the inscriptions, and while these furnish highly valuable
indications as to the date and area of expansion of these religions, they
tell us hardly anything about their doctrines. Light on this subject may be
expected from the excavations that are being made in the great sanctuaries
of Syria, and also from a more exact interpretation {116} of the sculptured
monuments that we now possess in great numbers, especially those of Jupiter
Dolichenus.

Some characteristics of the Semitic paganism, however, are kn