CHANGES IN RELIGION

=The Greek Gods.=—­The Roman gods bore but a slight resemblance to the Greek gods, even in name; yet in the majority of the divinities of Rome the Greeks recognized or believed they recognized their own.  The Roman gods up to that time had neither precise form nor history; this rendered confusion all the easier.  Every Roman god was represented under the form of a Greek god and a history was made of the adventures of this god.

The Latin Jupiter was confounded with the Greek Zeus; Juno with Hera; Minerva, the goddess of memory, with Pallas, goddess of wisdom; Diana, female counterpart of Janus, unites with Artemis, the brilliant huntress; Hercules, the god of the enclosure, was assimilated to Herakles, the victor over monsters.  Thus Greek mythology insinuated itself under Latin names, and the gods of Rome found themselves transformed into Greek gods.  The fusion was so complete that we have preserved the custom of designating the Greek gods by their Latin names; we still call Artemis Diana, and Pallas Minerva.

=The Bacchanals.=—­The Greeks had adopted an oriental god, Bacchus, the god of the vintage, and the Romans began to adore him also.  The worshippers of Bacchus celebrated his cult at night and in secret.  Only the initiated were admitted to the mysteries of the Bacchanals, who swore not to reveal any of the ceremonies.  A woman, however, dared to denounce to the Senate the Bacchanalian ceremonies that occurred in Rome in 186.  The Senate made an inquiry, discovered 7,000 persons, men and women, who had participated in the mysteries, and had them put to death.

=Oriental Superstitions.=—­Already in 220 there was in Rome a temple of the Egyptian god Serapis.  The Senate ordered it to be demolished.  As no workman dared to touch it, the consul himself had to come and beat down the doors with blows of an axe.

Some years after, in 205, during the war with Hannibal, it was the Senate itself that sent an ambassador to Asia Minor to seek the goddess Cybele.  The Great Mother (as she was called) was represented by a black stone, and this the envoys of the Senate brought in great pomp and installed in Rome.  Her priests followed her and paced the streets to the sound of fifes and cymbals, clad in oriental fashion, and begging from door to door.

Later, Italy was filled with Chaldean sorcerers.  The mass of the people were not the only ones to believe in these diviners.  When the Cimbri menaced Rome (104), Martha, a prophetess of Syria, came to the Senate to offer it victory over the barbarians; the Senate drove her out, but the Roman women brought her to the camp, and Marius, the general in chief, kept her by him and consulted her to the end of the war.  Sulla, likewise, had seen in vision the goddess of Cappadocia and it was on her advice that he took his way to Italy.