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

NOTES.
PREFACE.
1. We are indebted for more than one useful suggestion to
our colleagues Messrs. Charles Michel and Joseph Bidez, who
were kind enough to read the proofs of the French edition.
2. An outline of the present state of the subject will be found
in a recent volume by Gruppe, Griechische Mythologie, 1906,
pp. 1606 ff., whose views are sharply opposed to the negative
conclusions formulated, with certain reservations, by Harnack,
Ausbreitung dcs Christentums, II, pp. 274 ff. Among the latest
studies intended for the general reader that have appeared on
this subject, may be mentioned in Germany those of Geffcken
(Aus der Werdezcit dcs Christcntums, Leipsic, 1904, pp. 114 ff.),
and in England those of Cheyne (Bible Problems, 1904), who
expresses his opinion in these terms : "The Christian religion
is a synthesis, and only those who have dim eyes can assert
that the intellectual empires of Babylonia and Persia have
fallen." Very useful is the new book of Clemen, Rcligions-
geschichtliche Erkldrung dcs Neuen Testaments, Giessen, 1909.
3. Man. myst. Mithra, I, p. 342, n. 4; see the new texts com
mented on by Usener, Rhcin. Museum, LX, 1905, pp. 466 ff. ;
489 ff., and my paper "Natalis Invicti," C. R. Acad. des inscr.,
1911.
4. See page 70. Compare also Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 341.
The imitation of the church is plain in the pagan reform at
tempted by the emperor Julian.
5. See Harnack, Militia Christi, 1905.
6. I have collected a number of texts on the religious "mili
tias" in Mon. myst. Mithra, I, p. 317, n. i. Others could cer
tainly be discovered : Apuleius, Metam., XI, 14 : E
cohorte re-