e revolutions of the heavens according to infinite cycles
of years. It had taught them at the same time the worship of the sun, the
radiant source of earthly life and human intelligence.

The learned doctrines of the Babylonians had also imposed themselves upon
the Persian mysteries of Mithra which considered time identified with
heaven as the supreme cause, and deified the stars; but they had
superimposed themselves upon the ancient Mazdean creed without destroying
it. Thus the essential principles of the religion of Iran, the secular and
often successful rival of Greece, penetrated into the Occident under cover
of Chaldean wisdom. The Mithra worship, the last and highest manifestation
of ancient paganism, had Persian dualism for its fundamental dogma. The
world is the scene and the stake of a contest between good and evil, Ormuzd
and Ahriman, gods and demons, and from this primary conception of the
universe flowed a strong and pure system of ethics. Life is a combat;
soldiers under the command of Mithra, invincible heroes of the faith, must
ceaselessly oppose the undertakings of the infernal powers which sow
corruption broadcast. This imperative ethics was productive of energy and
formed the characteristic {200} feature distinguishing Mithraism from all
other Oriental cults.

Thus every one of the Levantine countries--and that is what we meant to
show in this brief recapitulation--had enriched Roman paganism with new
beliefs that were frequently destined to outlive it. What was the result of
this confusion of heterogeneous doctrines whose multiplicity was extreme
and whose values were very different? How did the barbaric ideas refine
themselves and combine with each other when thrown into the fiery crucible
of imperial syncretism? In other words, what shape was assumed by ancient
idolatry, so impregnated with exotic theories during the fourth century,
when it was finally dethroned? It is this point that we should like to
indicate briefly as the conclusion to these studies.

However, can we speak of _one_ pagan religion? Did not the blending of the
races result in multiplying the variety of disagreements? Had not the
confused collision of creeds produced a division into fragments, a
communication of churches? Had not a complacent syncretism engendered a
multiplication of sects? The "Hellenes," as Themistius told the Emperor
Valens, had three hundred ways of conceiving and honoring deity, who takes
pleasure in such div