triumph. Although astrology was always fought by the
church, it had nevertheless prepared the minds for the dogmas the church
was to proclaim.

* * * * *

{135}

PERSIA.

The dominant historical fact in western Asia in ancient times was the
opposition between the Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations, which was
itself only an episode in the great struggle that was constantly in
progress between the Orient and the Occident in those countries. In the
first enthusiasm of their conquests, the Persians extended their dominion
as far as the cities of Ionia and the islands of the AEgean Sea, but their
power of expansion was broken at the foot of the Acropolis. One hundred and
fifty years later, Alexander destroyed the empire of the Achemenides and
carried Hellenic culture to the banks of the Indus. After two and a half
centuries the Parthians under the Arsacid dynasty advanced to the borders
of Syria, and Mithradates Eupator, an alleged descendant of Darius,
penetrated to the heart of Greece at the head of his Persian nobility from
Pontus.

After the flood came the ebb. The reconstructed Roman empire of Augustus
soon reduced Armenia, Cappadocia and even the kingdom of the Parthians to a
kind of vassalage. But after the middle of the third century the Sassanid
dynasty restored the power of Persia and revived its ancient pretensions.
From that time until the triumph of Islam it was one long {136} duel
between the two rival states, in which now one was victorious and now the
other, while neither was ever decisively beaten. An ambassador of king
Narses to Galerius called these two states "the two eyes of the human
race."[1]

The "invincible" star of the Persians might wane and vanish, but only to
reappear in greater glory. The political and military strength displayed by
this nation through the centuries was the result of its high intellectual
and moral qualities. Its original culture was always hostile to such an
assimilation as that experienced in different degrees by the Aryans of
Phrygia, the Semites of Syria and the Hamites of Egypt. Hellenism and
Iranism--if I may use that term--were two equally noble adversaries but
differently educated, and they always remained separated by instinctive
racial hostility as much as by hereditary opposition of interests.

Nevertheless, when two civilizations are in contact for more than a
thousand years, numerous exchanges are bound to occur. The influ