the Roman state), and was honored by Julius
Caesar and others as Venus Genetrix. The old Roman moral feeling appears
in the dedication of a temple (114 B.C.) to Venus Verticordia as
atonement for the unchastity of three Vestals.[1396] In general the
later functions and cult of Venus were reproductions or imitations of
those of Aphrodite. Such a divine figure, it seems, the Romans would
never have developed out of their own resources.

+810+. The general characteristics of the great ancient national
religions are indicated in the preceding descriptions. In the
sacrificial cult and the general apparatus of worship there is no
important difference between them, but they differ notably among
themselves in the construction of the divine world. The simplest
theistic system is the Chinese, which regards the world as order
controlled by Heaven. The western cults fall into two divisions, the
Egypto-Semitic and the Indo-European. The Egyptian and the Semitic,
though they differ in collateral points (divinization of kings, idea of
the future life), agree in lacking a true pantheon. On the other hand,
notwithstanding resemblances between the Hebrew and the Persian, the
difference between the Semitic group and the Indo-European is
well-defined. This difference may be indicated by pointing out certain
peculiarities of the Semitic theistic system.

+811+. _Features of Semitic theism._ 1. Paucity of departmental gods and
absence of highly specialized gods. Of this latter class, so prominent
in Greece and Rome, there is no clear trace in Semitic cults.[1397]
Departmental deities are not found in Arabia, Canaan (including Israel
and Phoenicia), and Syria. The Hebrew Yahweh obviously controls all
departments of nature and life. The Phoenician Eshmun (a name of
uncertain meaning) was identified by the Greeks with their Asklepios as
god of healing, but no special function of this sort is attributed to
him in Semitic records. As he was somehow connected with the Kabiri, the
"great gods," it is probable that he was a local divinity credited with
general powers.[1398] There is more ground for recognizing real
departmental gods in Babylonia and Assyria, though even there the
evidence is not quite satisfactory. The great gods, Ea, Bel, Sin,
Shamash, Marduk, Ishtar, Ashur, preside over all human interests. Nabu
stands for agriculture as well as for wisdom, and Ea for wisdom as well
as for the great deep. Nergal is not the only god of war. Perha