§ 14. REVOLUTION OF RELIGIOUS MODES OF THINKING UNDER THE EMPERORS. C. Meiners Gesch. des Verfalls der Sitten, der Wissenchaften und Sprache der Römer in den ersten Jahrhunderten nach Christi Geburt. Wien v. Leipzig 1791, 8, S. 268 ff. P. E. Müller De hierarchia et studio vitae asceticae in sacris et mysteriis Graecorum Romanorumque latentibus. Hafu. 1803, 8. (translated in the neuen Biblioth. der schönen Wissensch. Bd. 69 u. 70). To this topic belongs the first section, viz. Origin of the superstition-till the time of Domitian. In the reign of the emperors the national deities, who were illos velut ruina liberari a se dicit, et in memoria bonorum per hujusmodi libros recondi atque servari. He also distinguishes (1. c. vi. 5) tria genera theologiae, namely, mythicon, quo maxime utuntur poëtae, physicon, quo philosophi, civile, quo populi. Primum, quod dixi, in eo sunt multa contra dignitatem et naturam immortalium ficta. Secundum genus est, quod demonstravi, de quo multos libros philosophi reliquerunt. In quibus est: dii qui sint, ubi, quod genus caet. (Augustine adds: Nihil in hoc genere culpavit. Removit tamen hoc genus a fore i. e. a populis : scholis vero et parietibus clausit. Illud autem primum mendacissimum atque turpissimum a civitatibus non removit.) Tertium genus est, quod in urbibus cives, maxime sacerdotes, nosse atque administrare debent. In quo est, quos deos publice colere, quae sacra et sacrificia facere quemquam par sit. Prima theologia maxime accommodata est ad theatrum, secunda ad mundum, tertia ad urbem. (Plutarch also, Amator, c. 18, and De placitis philosoph. i. 6, distinguishes this threefold theology, To μυθικόν, τὸ φυσικόν and τὸ πολιτικόν.) Respecting the religion of the Roman state, Varro, as reported by Augustine, 1. c. iv. 31 said: non se illa judicio suo sequi, quae civitatem Romanam instituisse commemorat; ut, si eam civitatem novam constitueret, ex naturae potius formula deos nominaque deorum se fuisse dedicaturum non dubitet confiteri. Sed jam quoniam in vetere populo essent accepta, ab antiquis nominum et cognominum historiam tenere ut tradita est debere se dicit, et ad eum finem illam scribere ac perscrutari, ut potius eos magis colere, quam despicere vulgus velit. L. c. vii. 6: Dicit ergo idem Varro adhuc de naturali theologia praeloquens, Deum se arbitrari esse animam mundi, quem Graeci vocant кóσuov, et hunc ipsum mundum esse Deum. Hic videtur quoquo modo confiteri unum Deum, sed ut plures etiam introducat, adjungit, mundum dividi in duas partes, caelum et terram; et caelum bifariam in aethera et aëra, terrem vero in aquam et humum. Quas omnes quatuor partes animarum esse plenas, in aethere et aëre immortalium, in aqua et terra mortalium: a summo autem circuitu caeli usque ad circulum lunae aethereas animas esse astra ac stellas, eosque caelestes deos non modo intelligi esse, sed etiam videri. Inter lunae obliged to divide their honours with the most miserable of men,' sank by degrees still lower in the faith of the people. The attachment to traditional customs and institutions, decaying along with liberty, could no longer afford these gods a protection. Politics and habit secured them nothing more than a lukewarm, external worship.3 The relations of the times did not lead men away from the error that had been committed, towards a somewhat purer religion, but to a still grosser superstition. The cowardly weaklings, which were the offspring of a luxury surpassing all bounds, must have stood open to every superstition, especially as dangers daily threatened them from those in power. Curiosity, and an inordinate longing for the secret and the awful, con vero gyrum et nimborum ac ventorum cacumina aëreas esse animas, sed eas animo, non oculis videri, et vocari heroas, et lares, et genios. Haec est videlicet breviter in ista praelocutione proposita theologia naturalis, quae non huic tantum, sed et multis philosophis placuit. Tertullian's second book, ad Nationes, is directed against this theology of Varro. Comp. Hartung, i. 274. Krahner, S. 49. 1 According to Polybius, 5, the custom of honouring benefactors with sacrifices and altars appeared first among the Asiatics, the Greeks, and Syrians. Similar honours were frequently paid to proconsuls in their provinces. (Cicero ad Atticum, v. 21. Sueton. Oct. c. 52. Mongault in the Mémoires de l'Acad. des Inscr. T. i. p. 353 ss.) Cæsar caused these honours to be decreed to him by the senate in Rome also. (Suet. Caes. 76.) Augustus accepted in the provinces temples and colleges of priests (Tacit. Annal. i. 10. Suet. Oct. c. 52); and so did all his successors, with the single exception of Vespasian. Domitian even began his letters with: Dominus et Deus noster hoc fieri jubet (Suet. Domit. 13.) J. D. Schoepflini comm. de apotheosi s. consecratione Impp. Romanorum (in Ejusd. commentt. hist. et. crit. Basil. 1741, 4. p. 1 ss). 2 Senecae Ep. 24. Juvenal. Satyr. ii. v. 149: Esse aliquos manes, et subterranea regna Nec pueri credunt, nisi qui nondum aere lavantur. 3 Seneca de superstitionibus apud Augustin. de civit. Dei, vi. c. 10: Quae omnia sapiens servabit tanquam legibus jussa, non tanquam Diis grata. Omnem istam ignobilem Deorum turbam, quam longo aevo longa superstitio congessit, sic adorabimus, ut meminerimus, cultum ejus magis ad morem quam ad rem pertinere. Juven. Sat. vi. 292-300: Nunc patimur longae pacis mala. Saevior armis Et Sybaris colles, hinc et Rhodos et Miletos, Atque coronatum et petulans madidumque Tarentum Intulit, et turpi fregerent secula luxu Divitiae molles. Comp. Meiners, 1. c. §. 95. tributed to increase the superstition. To this must be added the decline of the earnest study of the sciences (law and juridical eloquence being almost the only studies of the time); but, above all, the excessive corruption of the age. Cowardly vice sought partly to make magical rites subservient to its will, while it was, in part, driven to more powerful purifications by the stings of conscience. Already had the religions of the east, by their mysterious, fantastic worship, and the asceticism of their priests, made an impression on the superstitious disposition of the Romans, so that they had been restricted and opposed by the laws. But the current of the time that set in now broke through all laws. Foreign modes of worship and priests found their way into the state with a power that could not be repressed. In addition to them, a great number of astrologers (mathematici), who pretended to be initiated into the sacred sciences of the east, interpreters of dreams, and magicians, spread themselves through the empire.7 The object of such persons was to turn Б Compare especially the satires of Persius and Juvenal. Seneca de ira, ii. 8: Omnia sceleribus ac vitiis plena sunt: plus committitur, quam quod possit coërcitione sanari. Certatur ingenti quodam nequitiae certamine: major quotidie peccandi cupiditas, minor verecundia est. Expulso melioris aequiorisque respectu, quocunque visum est, libido se impingit. Nec furtiva jam scelera sunt: praeter oculos eunt: adeoque in publicum missa nequitia est, et in onnium pectoribus evaluit, ut innocentia non rara, sed nulla sit. Numquid enim singuli aut pauci rupere legem? undique, velut signo dato, ad fas nefasque miscendum coorti sunt. Non hospes ab hospite tutus, Non socer a genero. Fratrum quoque gratia rara est. (from Ovid. Metam. i. v. 144 ss.) Et quota pars ista scelerum est! &c. Comp. ejusd. Epist. 95. Pauli epist. ad Rom. i. 21 ss. Comp. Corn. Adami de malis Romanorum ante praedicationem Evangelii moribus (in his Exercitationes exegeticae, Groening. 1712, 4. the fifth exercit.) Meiners a. a. O. Schlosser's universalhist. Uebersicht der Gesch. der alten Welt, iii. i. 122 ff. 326 ff. Hoeck's röm. Gesch. vom Verfall der Republik biz zur Vollendung der Monarchie unter Constantin. i. ii. 301 ff. 6 Diodorus Sic. bibl. hist. xx. c. 43, p. 755: Aeloidalμoves yàp oi μéλλοντες ἐγχειρεῖν ταῖς παρανόμοις καὶ μεγάλαις πράξεσι. 7 Of foreign deities Serapis and Isis (43 B. c) were the first who had a temple in the city. The fruits of superstition were shared among the priests of Isis, who was particularly reverenced, the Galli, the priests of Dea Syra, the Magi, Chaldai (s. Genethliaci, qui de motu deque positu stellarum dicere posse, quae futura sunt, profitentur, Gellius Noct. Att. the prevailing superstition as much as possible to their own advantage, and at the same time to strengthen it. The laws of the first emperors against foreign customs were of less avail, because they themselves believed in their efficacy, followed them in private, and were only afraid that they should be abused to the prejudice of their own persons.8 This superstition was promoted in no slight degree by philosophy making it subservient to its purpose. The more boldly philosophical scepticism had attacked not only the popular religions, but also the general truths of religion, so much the more zealously did the later philosophy endeavour to put together systems framed in part from earlier ones, and in part from the materials themselves of the popular religion. In these newlyinvented systems every superstition found shelter. Under Augustus, the long forgotten doctrines of Pythagoras were suddenly xiv. 1, where a copious refutation of these arts may be found), Mathematici (genus hominum potentibus infidum, sperantibus fallax, quod in civitate nostra et vetabitur semper, et retinebitur. Tacit. hist. i. 22), and even the vagrant Jews. Comp. Diet. Tiedemann disputat. de quaestione, quae fuerit artium magicarum origo, &c., Marburg 1787, 4. p. 56 ss. Hoeck, i. ii. 378. How much the female sex, in particular, was given to this superstition is strikingly described by Juvenal. Sat. vi. 510-555. Cf. Strabo vii. c. 3, § 4: Απαντες τῆς δεισιδαιμονίας ἀρχηγοὺς οἴονται τὰς γυναῖκας. αὗται δὲ καὶ τοὺς ἄνδρας παρακαλοῦνται πρὸς τὰς ἐπίπλεον θεραπείας τῶν θεῶν, καὶ ἑορτὰς καὶ ποτνιασμούς. σπάνιον δε, εἴ τις ἀνὴρ καθ ̓ αὑτὸν ζῶν εὑρίσκεται τοιοῦτος. On the superstition of this period generally, see Plinii nat. hist. ii. c. 5: Vix prope est judicare, utrum magis conducat generi humano, quando aliis nullus est Deorum respectus, aliis pudendus. Externis famulantur sacris, ac digitis Deos gestant monstra quoque, quae colunt, damnant et excogitant cibos, imperia dira in ipsos, ne somno quidem quieto, irrogant. Non matrimonia, non liberos, non denique quidquam aliud nisi juvantibus sacris deligunt. Alii in Capitolio fallunt, ac fulminantem pejerant Jovem : et hos juvant scelera, illos sacra sua poenis agunt. Meiners, 1. c. S. 276 ff. The example of the elder Pliny shows how unbelief and superstition united in the educated class. He says, Nat. hist. ii. c. 5: Irridendum vero, agere curam rerum humanarum illud quicquid est summum. Anne tam tristi atque multiplici ministerio non pollui credamus dubitemusve? vii. c. 56: Omnibus a suprema die eadem, quae ante primum: nec magis a morte sensus ullus aut corpori aut animae, quam ante natalem. He speaks, however, in his Second Book in a very believing tone respecting portenta, ex. gr. cap. 86: Nunquam urbs Roma tremuit, ut non futuri eventus alicujus id praenuntium esset. Comp. Tacit. ann. vi. c. 22. Tzschirner Fall des Heidenthums, Bd. 1, S. 127 ff. D revived in the most wonderful form by Anaxilaus, who was soon followed by the still more adventurous Apollonius of Tyana.10 While these men endeavoured to restore, out of their own resources, the Pythagorean philosophy, as if it had proceeded from the mysteries of Egyptian priests, and looked upon Platonism as an efflux of the doctrine of Pythagoras, a singular heterogeneous philosophy of religion grew up under their hands, in which all popular religions, no less than all magic arts, found their justification. From this time onward even the Platonic school forsook the scepticism of the new academy, attaching itself to those modern Pythagoreans, though it sought to assimilate its dogmatism to other systems also, particularly the Aristotelian. The mode of life among the Pythagoreans was not attractive to many, 19 Apollonius lived from 3 B. c. till 96 A.D. Celsus does not name him among the wonder-workers (Aristeas, Abaris, &c.), whom he compares with Christ (Origen against Celsus, iii.) In the second century Lucian (in Alexander) and Apuleius (Apologia, Opp. ed. Elmenhorst, p. 331) describe him as a famous magician. In the same light did he also appear to his oldest biographer, Möragenes, who speaks besides of his influence with the philosophers (Origenes c. Cels. vi. ed. Spencer, p. 302), so that he appears to have given a philosophical basis to magic. From the beginning of the third century, when a religious interest gathered around him, the memory of Apollonius became prominent. Caracalla dedicated a sanctuary to him (Dio Cassius, lxxvii. 18); Severus Alexander set him up in his collection of household gods (Aelius Lamprid. in vita Sev. Al. c. 29). Julia Mammaea, in particular, was a great admirer of him. Into her hands came the Memorabilia of Damis, a companion of Apollonius, which Philostratus the elder, in his life of Apollonius (Philostratorum Opera, gr. et lat. ed. G. Olearius, Lips. 1709, fol.), wished to bring into a more acceptable form (vita Ap. i. 3) by using a work of Maximus of Aege. Here Apollonius appears as a wise man and a favourite of the gods, furnished with wonderful powers in working miracles, and commissioned by the gods themselves to reform the popular religions. On the other hand, the older representation of Möragenes is designated as almost useless. Dio Cassius, how. ever, continually enumerates Apollonius among the magicians and impostors. That the work of Damis is spurious, and originated probably in the third century, may be proved not only from the absurdity of the contents, but also from anachronisms (Prideaux's Connection, Hug's Introduction to the N. T.). Cf. Mosheim de existimatione Apollonii Tyanaei (in his Commentationes et orationes varii argumenti, ed. J. P. Miller, Hamburgi 1751, 8. p. 347, de scriptis A. T. (1. c. p. 453). de imaginibus telesticis A. T. (1. c. p. 465). Apollonius v. Tyana u. Christus, od. d. Verhältnitz d. Pythagoreismus zum Christenthum von Dr Baur (in the Tübingen Zeitschr. f. Theol. 1832, Heft. 4, also printed separately). |