Oriental Religions in Roman Paganism

This study by the great Belgian historian Franz Cumont describes one aspect of the cultural meeting of east and west in the early Roman empire. It describes the great pagan religions of the orient, and tells how their religious thought and ceremonies permeated, altered, and revivified Roman paganism.It provides a coverage of all the more important eastern religions of the time, from their first appearance in Rome, 204 B.C., when the great Mother of the Gods was first imported from Syria:The ecst