Alexis said:

“I really appreciate how you introduced me to an aspect of third century Roman history I had been unaware of, especially how a Baal worshipping cult overthrew the old Roman religion. (Although Elagabalus was unsuccessful, Emperor Aurelian succeeded half a century later.)…”

My perspective on Ancient Rome is mainly as a coin collector. When one collects ancient Roman coins, one becomes aware of emperors who produced cheap coins.

Have you ever heard of Gordian the Third? He wasn’t an important emperor. However if you go to a coin show, you’ll usually find lots of cheap coins that were struck during his reign.

I’ve tried to limit myself to the 12 Caesars. Once in a while I’ll see something that is irresistibly cheap struck under a later emperor and I’ll buy it, e.g. I have a couple ugly bronze coins that were struck under Constantine. Truth to tell, I’m a philhellene and prefer Greek coins over Roman (but they’re so damned expensive!). Also denarii of the Roman Republic tend to be more interesting (though uglier) than coins of the Roman Empire.

Alexis raised the point about religion during the Roman Empire. The official state Roman religion pretty much became meaningless after Cladius. The silliness of declaring a dead emperor “Divus” destroyed what little shred of credibility remained in the old religion. As an aside, you can tell if an emperor was declared a god if you see the word “Divus” on a coin with the emperor’s portrait, e.g. Divus Augustus.

People are programmed almost at a DNA level to need religion. I suspect this need comes from the awareness of our own mortality along with a very basic instinct that rejects this ugly truth. I also suspect that many insane people lost their minds because they realized at a very fundamental level the truth of their own mortality (all “sane” people at some level are in denial about their own mortality).

Because the old religion had become a pathetic joke, the Roman people were desperate to find believable alternatives. Consequently, there were many religions that the Romans flirted with, e.g.

The cult of Isis and Osiris
The cult of Dionysius (Bacchus)
Mithraism
Sun worship
Gnosticism
Christianity
etc.

The Romans became fully aware of Judaism after they conquered the Selucid Kingdom (the early Selucid kings produced some very nice coins and I own a few). I believe the Romans were very impressed by the Jews and their religion. Unfortunately for the Romans, Judaism was a “Jews only thing” in ancient times. Also the requirement of circumcision was considered by the Romans a horrific form of mutilation. Christianity in its earliest form was merely a Jewish cult that included all of the standard Jewish restriction, e.g. circumcision, honoring the Sabbath, dietary restrictions, etc. These standard Jewish restrictions made the earliest forms of Christianity inaccessible to the ancient Romans. Then Paul of Tarsus came along and reinvented Christianity. Paul removed the standard Jewish restrictions and made this new form of Judaism accessible to anyone who wanted to convert. Of course the removal of the Jewish religious restrictions transformed Christianity from a Jewish cult to a completely separate religion thus making Christianity even more accessible to non-Jews.

–different topic–

Doug said:

“Six Thousand, Three Hundred, and Thirty Three Words.”

and a funny thing, I didn’t read one of them…