e to provide
for her own support; while the other countries of Europe were hardly out of
barbarism; Asia Minor, Egypt and Syria gathered the rich harvests Roman
peace made possible. Their industrial centers cultivated and renewed all
the traditions that had caused their former celebrity. A more intense
intellectual life corresponded with the economic activity of these great
manufacturing and exporting countries. They excelled in every profession
except that of arms, and even the prejudiced Romans admitted their
superiority. The menace of an Oriental empire haunted the imaginations of
the first masters of the world. Such an empire seems to have been the main
thought of the dictator Caesar, and the triumvir Antony almost realized it.
Even Nero thought of making Alexandria his capital. Although Rome,
supported by her army and the right of might, retained the political
authority for a long time, she bowed to the fatal moral ascendency of more
advanced peoples. Viewed from this standpoint the history of the empire {3}
during the first three centuries may be summarized as a "peaceful
infiltration" of the Orient into the Occident.[2] This truth has become
evident since the various aspects of Roman civilization are being studied
in greater detail; and before broaching the special subject of these
studies we wish to review a few phases of the slow metamorphosis of which
the propagation of the Oriental religions was one phenomenon.

In the first place the imitation of the Orient showed itself plainly in
political institutions.[3] To be convinced of this fact it is sufficient to
compare the government of the empire in the time of Augustus with what it
had become under Diocletian. At the beginning of the imperial regime Rome
ruled the world but did not govern it. She kept the number of her
functionaries down to a minimum, her provinces were mere unorganized
aggregates of cities where she only exercised police power, protectorates
rather than annexed countries.[4] As long as law and order were maintained
and her citizens, functionaries and merchants could transact their
business, Rome was satisfied. She saved herself the trouble of looking
after the public service by leaving broad authority to the cities that had
existed before her domination, or had been modeled after her. The taxes
were levied by syndicates of bankers and the public lands rented out.
Before the reforms instituted by Augustus, even the army was not an organic
and pe