CONCEPTS OF DEAD AMONG ANCIENT CIVILIZATION 37 



tice served to unite the diverse peoples and religions of the Em- 

 pire, but other gods also existed in their lives. 



Attis, an Oriental god, from ancient Phrygia, central and 

 northern Asia Minor, became an outstanding figure because he 

 gave the Romans hope for a life beyond death. What men and 

 women began to think of was salvation for their souls. Even more 

 influential was the religion centering around the Egyptian god- 

 dess, Isis, carried into Italy by merchants and seamen as early as 

 105 B.C. In spite of disfavor by the authorities, it thrived and 

 spread; it became the most civilized of the various Roman re- 

 hgions and offered the possibility of a blessed immortality and 

 the hope of a new life which were welcomed by the common 

 man. 



Another Asiatic religion which gained a foothold in the Ro- 

 man Empire, was the worship of Mithras, an old Indo-Iranian 

 deity. It spread rapidly by means of lip service of Roman sol- 

 diers; in many regions, it became the chief rival of Christianity. 

 That deity was a god of light, and in the moral world, god of 

 truth and good faith, a righteous and heroic judge. He was re- 

 garded as a champion of every good cause, a defender of the up- 

 right in their conflict with the human and devilish powers of 

 darkness and had the power to rescue their souls at death from 

 the assaults of demons. Its big attraction, however, was its con- 

 cept of salvation. 



Finally, Christianity, another Oriental mystery, was intro- 

 duced to the Romans. It offered nothing new in the way of rites 

 with its gospel of the cross and resurrection, baptismal initiation, 

 sacrament of bread and wine, body and blood of the Redeemer, 

 and its hierarchical organization of the clergy. It differed from 

 other religions and cults in its intolerant attitude toward other 

 ways of salvation (Moore, '13). In the 2nd and 3rd Centuries after 

 Christ, persecutions became common. By the 5th Century, the 

 demise of heathenism occurred and the older, competing religions 

 decayed and disappeared. 



