The Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism [1911] - Get a Free Blog

THE
PERSIA.
dominant historical fact in western Asia in
ancient times was the opposition between the
Greco-Roman and Persian civilizations, which was it
self only an episode in the great struggle that was
constantly in progress between the Orient and the
Occident in those countries. In the first enthusiasm
of their conquests, the Persians extended their do
minion as far as the cities of Ionia and the islands
of the ^Egean Sea, but their power of expansion was
broken at the foot of the Acropolis. One hundred and
fifty years later, Alexander destroyed the empire of
the Achemenides and carried Hellenic culture to the
banks of the Indus. After two and a half centuries
the Parthians under the Arsacid dynasty advanced to
the borders of Syria, and Mithradates Eupator, an
alleged descendant of Darius, penetrated to the heart
of Greece at the head of his Persian nobility from
Pontus.
After the flood came the ebb. The reconstructed Ro
man empire of Augustus soon reduced Armenia, Cappadocia
and even the kingdom of the Parthians to a
kind of vassalage. But after the middle of the third
century the Sassanid dynasty restored the power of
Persia and revived its ancient pretensions. From
that time until the triumph of Islam it was one long