e offices.

Soon this foreign god gained the favor of high functionaries and of the
sovereign himself. At the end of the second century Commodus was initiated
into the mysteries, a conversion that had a tremendous effect. A hundred
years later Mithra's power was such that at one time he seemed about to
eclipse both Oriental and Occidental rivals and to dominate the {150}
entire Roman world. In the year 307 Diocletian, Galerius and Licinius met
in a solemn interview at Carnuntum on the Danube and dedicated a sanctuary
there to Mithra, "the protector of their empire" (_fautori imperii
sui_).[32]

In previous works on the mysteries of Mithra we have endeavored to assign
causes for the enthusiasm that attracted humble plebeians and great men of
the world to the altars of this barbarian god. We shall not repeat here
what any one who has the curiosity may read either in a large or a small
book according to his preferences,[33] but we must consider the problem
from a different point of view. Of all Oriental religions the Persian cult
was the last to reach the Romans. We shall inquire what new principle it
contained; to what inherent qualities it owed its superiority; and through
what characteristics it remained distinct in the conflux of creeds of all
kinds that were struggling for supremacy in the world at that time.

The originality and value of the Persian religion lay not in its doctrines
regarding the nature of the celestial gods. Without doubt Parseeism is of
all pagan religions the one that comes closest to monotheism, for it
elevates Ahura Mazda high above all other celestial spirits. But the
doctrines of Mithraism are not those of Zoroaster. What it received from
Persia was chiefly its mythology and ritual; its theology, which was
thoroughly saturated with Chaldean erudition, probably did not differ
noticeably from the Syrian. At the head of the divine hierarchy it placed
as first cause an abstraction, deified Time, the Zervan Akarana of the
Avesta. This divinity regulated the revolutions of the stars and in
consequence was the absolute master of {151} all things. Ahura Mazda, whose
throne was in the heavens, had become the equivalent of _Ba'al Samin_, and
even before the magi the Semites had introduced into the Occident the
worship of the sun, the source of all energy and light. Babylonian
astrology and astrolatry inspired the theories of the mithreums as well as
of the Semitic temples, a fact that explains the inti