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

216 THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS.
gowski tries to find the source of medieval art in Mesopotamia.
For this controversy see Diehl s Manuel d art bysantin, 1910.
11. See also Pliny, Epist. Traian., 40: "Architect! tibi [in
Bithynia] deesse non possunt. .. .cum ex Graecia etiam ad nos
[at Rome] venire soliti sint." Among the names of architects
mentioned in Latin inscriptions there are a great many reveal
ing Greek or Oriental origin (see Ruggiero, Dision, epigr.,
s. v. "Architectus"), in spite of the consideration which their
eminently useful profession always enjoyed at Rome.
12. The question
of the artistic and industrial influences
exercised by the Orient over Gaul during the Roman period,
has been broached frequently among others by Courajod (Le-
<;ons du Louvre, I, 1899, pp. 115, 327 ff.) but it has never been
seriously studied in its entirety. Michaelis has recently de
voted a suggestive article to this subject in connection with a
statue from the museum of Metz executed in the style of the
school of Pergamum (Jahrb. der Gesellsch. fur lothring. Geschichte,
XVII, 1905, pp. 203 ff.). By the influence of Mar
seilles in Gaul, and the ancient connection of that city with
the towns of Hellenic Asia, he explains the great difference
between the works of sculpture discovered along the upper
Rhine, which had been civilized by the Italian legions, and
those unearthed on the other side of the Vosges. This is a
very important discovery rich in results. We believe, how
ever, that Michaelis ascribes too much importance to the
early Marseilles traders traveling along the old "tin road"
towards Brittany and the "amber road" towards Germany.
The Asiatic merchants and artisans did not set out from one
point only. There were many emigrants all over the valley
of the Rhone. Lyons was a half-Hellenized city, and the
relations of Aries with Syria, of Nimes with Egypt, etc., are
well known. We shall speak of them in connection with the
religions of those countries.
13. Even in the bosom of the church the Latin Occident of
the fourth century was still subordinate to the Greek Orient,
which imposed its doctrinal problems upon it (Harnack, Mis
sion und Ausbreitung, II, p. 283, n. i).
14. The sacred formulas have been collected by Alb. Diete-
rich, Einc Mithrasliturgie, pp. 212 ff. He adds Aofy aol
"