nth century and to draw from them a few conclusions
that will, possibly, be provisional. The invasion of the Oriental religions
that destroyed the ancient religions and national ideals of the Romans also
radically transformed the society and government of the empire, and in view
of this fact it would deserve the historian's attention even if it had not
foreshadowed and prepared the final victory of Christianity.

* * * * *

{20}

WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD.

When, during the fourth century, the weakened empire split asunder like an
overburdened scale whose beam is broken, this political divorce perpetuated
a moral separation that had existed for a long time. The opposition between
the Greco-Oriental and the Latin worlds manifests itself especially in
religion and in the attitude taken by the central power toward it.

Occidental paganism was almost exclusively Latin under the empire. After
the annexation of Spain, Gaul and Brittany, the old Iberian, Celtic and
other religions were unable to keep up the unequal struggle against the
more advanced religion of the conquerors. The marvelous rapidity with which
the literature of the civilizing Romans was accepted by the subject peoples
has frequently been pointed out. Its influence was felt in the temples as
well as in the forum; it transformed the prayers to the gods as well as the
conversation between men. Besides, it was part of the political program of
the Caesars to make the adoption of the Roman divinities general, and the
government imposed the rules of its sacerdotal law as well as the
principles of its public and civil law upon its new subjects. The municipal
laws prescribed the election of pontiffs and augurs in common with the
judicial duumvirs. In Gaul druidism, with its oral traditions embodied in
{21} long poems, perished and disappeared less on account of the police
measures directed against it than in consequence of its voluntary
relinquishment by the Celts, as soon as they came under the ascendency of
Latin culture. In Spain it is difficult to find any traces of the
aboriginal religions. Even in Africa, where the Punic religion was far more
developed, it maintained itself only by assuming an entirely Roman
appearance. Baal became Saturn and Eshmoun AEsculapius. It is doubtful if
there was one temple in all the provinces of Italy and Gaul where, at the
time of the disappearance of idolatry, the ceremonies were celebrat