Logos

ally in the hands of the priests and their allies who of Isis and its priesthood provoked the disastrous seriescontrolled the thousands of temples. Each temple _ of the so-called Punic Wars between Rome andwould also serve as a bank, controlling the credit and Carthage as a ploy to divide those two powers andtrade mechanism for a specific area. Then, the re- encourage the growth of Rome as a proto-imperialgional cults, administered by the oligarchy and the power in the western Mediterranean as a counterbalpriesthood,would be handed the franchise to collect ance against Carthaginian influence. Hannibal, thetaxes by the Roman military and the provincial great general of Carthage, sought to establish a formgovernor, of geopolitical alliance against what was now becom-The Roman system of tax-farming came to rep- ing a Roman-Egyptian axis, and he proposed to formresent for empires to come the very model of an a pact with the Syrian General Antiochus III towardefficient looting machine. With the exception of the end of the Third Century B.C. in an effort tominor improvements in architectural science and break the power of Egypt and its cult allies in Asiaimprovements in fields of military technology, the Minor.centuries-long contribution of Rome to posterity was It was during this period that the Egyptian cultsvirtually nil. In the provinces, only an efficient system and the pseudo-scientific notions of the Artistoteliansof roads and bridges--necessary for purposes of mill- and Stoics gained hegemony in Rome, and the finaltary transport--can be singled out as representing defeat of Carthage and Hannibal's flight to Syriaeven the slightest form of "internal improvements." marked the permanent rise to power of Rome. ButOtherwise, only lavish temples to the emperor and Rome, now, was a puppet state of the Egyptianthe pantheon of gods stood as the fruits of Roman ideological warriors of the cult of Isis.labors.Also during this period, the cult's priests of EgyptIn science, the Roman period of history cannot be began to sink their claws into the Jewish elite. Syria,said to have contributed any significant break- under Antiochus III and Antiochus IV Epiphanes,throughs in any field. In art, Rome contented itself battled constantly with Egypt--and often the bone ofwith mere imitations of the magnificent art of Greece, contention and battleground for this rivalry wasoften with banal or pornographic overtones. Palestine. For this reason, the Egyptians sought anThe history of the emergence of Rome into prom- alliance with the Jews of Judea and the east, and theyinence accounts for the type of rule that marked the sought to encourage anti-Syrian uprisings by theperiod of the empire. From the beginning, the Greek Jews. The translation of the Jewish Bible from Heinfluencein the western Mediterranean--especially brew into Greek the famous "Septuagint"--octhecultural impact of the Platonic Academy found curred during this period of conflict as a Ptolemaicitself concentrated in Sicily and southern Italy, at a effort to win a following of Jew-turned-Isistimewhen Rome was merely a provincial village in worshippers.the central Italian peninsula. With the collapse and Thus, gradually, the Roman aristocracy was takenfragmentation of Alexander the Great's empire after over first by the Greek cults and then, increasinglyhis assassination 3al_d the subsequent decline of Greek with the beginning of the second century, by the Isispolitical power and influence, a tenuous axis emerged cults of Egypt and the Orient. These cults made itbetween Rome and the North African, city of Car- more and more difficult for remaining pockets ofthage, an axis that, under other circumstances, might scientific inquiry and reason to continue their frailhave produced a new power center committed to existence, and, by the time of Philo and the earlyprogress and development. For Carthage represented Christians the flickering lights had virtually all beena tangential product of the great Phoenician scientific stamped out. Not actually disappearing, they wereculture that was a remnant of the civilization of the driven underground or were forced to adopt a seem-"Atlantis period." ingly innocuous or eccentric pose in order to survive.But the consolidation of power in Egypt by the From the beginning, the various cults arrangeddynasty of the Ptolemies, who established a separate themselves into secret societies and brotherhoods, andstate there after Alexander's death, allowed the cults it was through these societies that the inner workingsof Egypt and the Orient to flourish and expand theirworldwide influence. The intellectual naivet_ andof Roman politics were determined. To be powerfulin Rome meant that one must become a member oflarge manpower resources of the area around Rome one of the ruling brotherhoods, or perhaps several,made that unfortunate city the early target of the which would be accompanied by an initiation intoEgyptian cult, which sought a means to infiltrate the rites and mysteries of one of the cults.Rome and thus undermine from within the emergent Some of these societies, such as the well-knownRome-Carthage axis. Arval Brotherhood, lasted many centuries. The ArvalAt least one hypothesis' is that the Egyptian cult Brotherhood, which reportedly began at the found-22 August 1980 / CAMPAIGNER