sun, {252} the moon, and
the stars (see Deut. iv. 19; Job xxxi. 25), especially the planet Venus,
but this cult was of secondary importance only (see W. Robertson Smith,
_op. cit._, p. 135, n. 1), although it grew in proportion as the Babylonian
influence became stronger. The polemics of the Fathers of the Syrian Church
show how considerable its prestige was in the Christian era (cf. Ephrem,
_Opera Syriaca_, Rome, 1740, II, pp. 447 ff.; the "Assyrian" Tatian, c. 9
ff., etc.).

58. Humann and Puchstein, _Reise in Klein-Asien und Nord-Syrien_, 1890, pl.
XL; _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 188, fig. 8; Bouche-Leclercq, _Astrol. gr._,
p. 439.

59. Cf. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p. 306-7.--On the temple of Bel at Palmyra,
cf. Sobernheim, _Palmyrenische Inschriften_ (_Mitt. der vorderasiat.
Gesellsch._, X), 1905, pp. 319 ff.; Lidzbarski, _Ephemeris_, I, pp. 255
ff., II, p. 280.--Priests of Bel: Clermont-Ganneau, _Recueil d'arch.
orient._, VII, p. 12, 24, 364. Cf. _supra_, n. 54. The power of Palmyra
under Zenobia, who ruled from the Tigris to the Nile, must have had as a
corollary the establishment of an official worship that was necessarily
syncretic. Hence its special importance for the history of paganism.
Although the Babylonian astrology was a powerful factor in this worship,
Judaism seems to have had just as great an influence in its formation.
There was at Palmyra a large Jewish colony, which the writers of the Talmud
considered only tolerably orthodox (Chaps, _Gli Ebrei di Palmira_ [_Rivista
Israelitica_, I], Florence, 1904, pp. 171 ff., 238 f. Cf. "Palmyra" in the
_Jewish Encycl._; Jewish insc. of Palmyra; Euting, _Sitzb. Berl. Acad._,
1885, p. 669; Landauer, _ibid._, 1884, pp. 933 ff.). This colony seems to
have made compromises with the idolaters. On the other hand we see Zenobia
herself rebuilding a synagogue in Egypt (_Revue archeologique_, XXX, 1875,
p. III; _Zeitschrift fuer Numismatik_, V, p. 229; Dittenberger, _Orientis
inscript._, 729). This influence of Judaism seems to explain the
development at Palmyra of the cult of [Greek: Zeus hupsitos kai epekoos],
"he whose name is blessed in eternity." The name of Hypsistos has been
applied everywhere to Jehovah and to the pagan Zeus (_supra_, p. 62, 128)
at the same time. The text of Zosimus (I, 61), according to which Aurelian
brought from Palmyra to Rome the statues of [Greek: Heliou te kai Belou]
(this has been wrongly changed to read [Greek: tou kai Belou]), proves that