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

NOTES WHY THE ORIENTAL RELIGIONS SPREAD. 221
17. This upright character of the Roman religion has been
thoroughly expounded by G. Boissier (op. cit., I, 30 ff, 373 ff).
See also the remarks by Bailey, Religion of Ancient Rome,
London, 1907, pp. 103 ff.
18. Varro in Augustine De civ. Dei, IV, 27 ; VI, 5 ; cf. Varro,
Antiq. rerum divin., ed. Aghad, pp. 145
tion between the religion of the poets, of the legislators and
ff. The same distinc
of the philosophers has been made by Plutarch, Amatorius,
18, p. 763 C. The author of this division is Posidonius of
Apamea. See Diels, Doxographi Graeci, p. 295, 10, and Wend-
land, Archiv fur Gesch. der Philos., I, pp. 200 ff.
19. Luterbacher, Der Prodigienglaube der Romer, Burgdorf,
1904.
20. Juvenal, II, 149; cf. Diodorus, I, 93, 3. Cf. Plutarch
also in speaking of future punishment (Non posse suaviter vivi,
c. 26, p. 1104 C-E: Quo modo poetas aud., c. 2, p. 17 C-E; Con-
sol, ad Apollon., c. 10, p. io6F), "nous laisse entendre que
pour la plupart de ses contemporains ce sont la des contes de
nourrice qui ne pen vent effrayer que des enfants" (Decharme,
Traditions rcligieuses chez les Grecs, 1904, p. 442).
21. Aug., Civ. Dei, VI, 2; Varro, Antiqu., ed. Aghad, 141;
"Se timere ne (dii) pereant non incursu hostili sed civium
neglegentia."
22. I have developed this point in my Mon. myst. Mithra. I,
pp. 279 ff.
23. In Greece the Oriental cults expanded much less than in
any other religion, because the Hellenic mysteries, especially
those of Eleusis, taught similar doctrines and satisfied the re
ligious needs.
24. The development of the "ritual of purification" has been
broadly expounded in its entirety, by Farnell in The Evolution
of Religion, 1905, pp. 88 ff.
25. We shall mention this subject again when speaking of
the taurobolium in ch. Ill, pp. 67 ff.
26. We cannot dwell here upon the various forms assumed
by that purifying rite of the Oriental mysteries. Often these
forms remained quite primitive, and the idea that inspired
them is still clear, as where Juvenal (VI, 521 f.) pictures the