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

PERSIA. 141
and showed its superiority over the neighboring em
pire that was then torn by factions, thrown upon the
mercy of manifestoes, and ruined economically and
morally. The studies now being made in the history
of that period show more and more that debilitated
Rome had become the imitator of Persia.
In the opinion of contemporaries the court of Dio
cletian, prostrating itself before a master who was
regarded as the equal of God, with its complicated
hierarchy and crowd of eunuchs that disgraced it, was
an imitation of the court of the Sassanides. Galerius
declared in unmistakable terms that Persian absolutism
must be introduced in his empire, 11 and the ancient
Csesarism founded on the will of the people seemed
about to be transformed into a sort of caliphate.
Recent discoveries also throw light upon a powerful
artistic school that developed in the Parthian empire
and later in that of the Sassanides and which grew up
independently of the Greek centers of production.
Even if it took certain models from the Hellenic
sculpture or architecture,
it combined them with Ori
ental motives into a decoration of exuberant richness.
Its field of influence extended far beyond Mesopotamia
into the south of Syria where it has left monuments of
unequalled splendor. The radiance of that brilliant
center undoubtedly illuminated Byzantium, the bar
barians of the north, and even China. 12
The Persian Orient, then, exerted a dominant in
fluence on the political institutions and artistic tastes
of the Romans as well as on their ideas and beliefs.
The propagation of the religion of Mithra, which al
ways proudly proclaimed its Persian origin, was ac
companied by a number of parallel influences of the