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28 - Roman History- The Early Empire by William Wolfe Capes · Roman History- The Early Empire

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  Speaker 1: Section twenty eight of Roman History The Early Empire by
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  Speaker 1: William wolf Capes. This LibriVox recording is in the public
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  Speaker 1: domain recording by Pamel and Agami, Chapter nineteen, The Revival
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  Speaker 1: of religious sentiment. Toward the end of the Republic, religious
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  Speaker 1: sentiments seemed to have almost lost its hold on the
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  Speaker 1: world of fashion and of letters. The legends borrowed long
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  Speaker 1: ago from the arts and poetry of Greece had never
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  Speaker 1: flourished upon Roman soil. The product of a people's childlike thought,
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  Speaker 1: they could have little charm for colder minds in a
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  Speaker 1: later stage of national growth, and Greek philosophy helped to
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  Speaker 1: destroy what Greek fancy had created. Cicero and others of
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  Speaker 1: his time prized the honors of the priesthood, observed the
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  Speaker 1: forms of national worship, thought them useful for the masses,
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  Speaker 1: but cared little for its hopes or fears, And in
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  Speaker 1: familiar correspondence they seldom speak of it at all. It
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  Speaker 1: was part of the policy of Augustus to do honor
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  Speaker 1: to the national religion and to strengthen his own imperial
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  Speaker 1: dynasty by a sort of closer union between church and state.
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  Speaker 1: He had shown little piety in earlier days, and was
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  Speaker 1: said even to have taken part in a blasphemous parody
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  Speaker 1: of an Olympian banquet. But now at his bidding, the
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  Speaker 1: temples rose on all sides from their ruins. The ancient
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  Speaker 1: rites were celebrated with the magnificence long disused, and he
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  Speaker 1: became himself the highest functionary of the old religion. His
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  Speaker 1: successors were careful to follow in his steps, and the
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  Speaker 1: members of the Flavian family, though they sought seemingly a
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  Speaker 1: sort of consecration from the priests and soothsayers of the East,
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  Speaker 1: did not on that account neglect the worship of their fathers.
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  Speaker 1: Did religion really gain from this official sanction, we cannot tell,
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  Speaker 1: but we do see enduring traces of reviving faith. One,
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  Speaker 1: it is true that we still hear caustic jibes at
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  Speaker 1: the old myths, and juvenile tells us that none but
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  Speaker 1: children believed the legends of the poets, but it was
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  Speaker 1: possible to give them up without much loss of reverence
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  Speaker 1: and faith. They had never had much hold upon the
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  Speaker 1: Latin mind, whose earlier creed was one of simple naturalism,
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  Speaker 1: or dealt with the abstractions of pure thought rather than
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  Speaker 1: with forms of personifying fancy. The venerable hymns and rituals
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  Speaker 1: still appealed to the devotion of the people and did
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  Speaker 1: not shock the inquiring reason. Polytheism is naturally so loose
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  Speaker 1: and undogmatic in its creeds, that all were free to
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  Speaker 1: choose the elements that satisfied their thought or inclination, and
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  Speaker 1: none were driven into unbelief by the sweeping claims and
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  Speaker 1: threats of an intolerant priesthood. Two. There is this also
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  Speaker 1: to be noted that the current philosophy of the early
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  Speaker 1: Empire was not revolutionary and flippant, as it often had
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  Speaker 1: been in the schools of Greece. It did not encourage
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  Speaker 1: a balance and suspension of judgment like the academic thought
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  Speaker 1: of Cicero, but was in the mouths of stoic teachers,
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  Speaker 1: grave and earnest and devout, leading men to ponder on
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  Speaker 1: the great problems of life and to justify the ways
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  Speaker 1: of providence. It saw elements of truth in all religious
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  Speaker 1: forms and language, and could find even in poetic fancies
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  Speaker 1: many a valuable symbol of the unseen world of faith
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  Speaker 1: and duty. It was soon to be more tolerant and
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  Speaker 1: comprehensive still to harmonize all creeds and systems with one
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  Speaker 1: great exception, and by the help of mystic reveries and allegory,
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  Speaker 1: to breathe a new spirit into the worn out forms
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  Speaker 1: of paganism, and to do battle only with the Christian faith. Three. Meantime,
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  Speaker 1: the peaceful union of the nations brought with it an
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  Speaker 1: into change and fusion of devotional rights, and the gates
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  Speaker 1: of Rome could not be long closed against the strange
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  Speaker 1: deities that claimed the rights of citizenship and a niche
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  Speaker 1: in the imperial pantheon. The Senate and magistrates of the
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  Speaker 1: Republic had more than once tried in vain to close
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  Speaker 1: the portals, and now the attempt was wholly given up,
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  Speaker 1: as new fashions and religion flocked from every land to
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  Speaker 1: find a home within the city. Sometimes it seemed little
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  Speaker 1: more than a mere change of name, when attributes and
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  Speaker 1: ceremonies were like those of home grown But it was
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  Speaker 1: far otherwise with the Eastern Mythris and Astarte, the Egyptian
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  Speaker 1: Isis and Osiris, the strange rights of the Corrobants, and
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  Speaker 1: the mystic orgies of Cotito. These helped to naturalize new
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  Speaker 1: thoughts and feelings on Italian soil religious moods that passed
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  Speaker 1: from mysterious gloom to enthusiastic fervor. The idea of penitence
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  Speaker 1: and ascetic self devotion as the condition of a higher
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  Speaker 1: life and of closer union with the divine. They answered
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  Speaker 1: seemingly to some deep seated cravings that had not been
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  Speaker 1: satisfied elsewhere. They spread rapidly and became quite a power
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  Speaker 1: in social life without disturbing the existing faiths. For the
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  Speaker 1: old and new lived peacefully together side by side, as
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  Speaker 1: saints newly canonized may take their place without prejudice to
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  Speaker 1: other venerable names. Under such influences, the belief in a
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  Speaker 1: world unseen grows in intensity and earnestness. Dreams and omens
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  Speaker 1: of all kinds have power to stir the credulous fancy. Soothsayers,
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  Speaker 1: astrologers and diviners reap their golden harvests and meet a
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  Speaker 1: widespread want. Four The literary tone, which a century before
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  Speaker 1: had been worldly, skeptical, and careless, becomes earnest and oftentimes devout,
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  Speaker 1: and familiar. Letters show that religion was with most of
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  Speaker 1: them matter of serious concern and a real motive force
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  Speaker 1: in action. Among the historians, Tacitus shows some recognition of
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  Speaker 1: the divine power that guides the world and the will
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  Speaker 1: that sends its signs to warn us. Suetonius and dion
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  Speaker 1: Cassius indicate the progressive fullness of belief and weary us,
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  Speaker 1: often with their long detail of constantly recurring portance. In
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  Speaker 1: other writers, there is much talk of a spirit world
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  Speaker 1: of ghostly visitors who go and come in startling guise
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  Speaker 1: and haunt the homes of murdered men. They believe, seemingly
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  Speaker 1: in the power of magic to constrain the forces of
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  Speaker 1: the unseen world and make them use a fatal influence
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  Speaker 1: on the souls and bodies of the living. Numberless gradations
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  Speaker 1: are imagined between the infinite God and finite man, till
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  Speaker 1: all the universe is peopled with an endless hierarchy of
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  Speaker 1: supernatural agents. Five we have an another source of evidence
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  Speaker 1: of the extent of popular belief, and the numerous inscriptions
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  Speaker 1: which enshrine many of the most cherished feelings of every
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  Speaker 1: social class and race. They point to the countless thank
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  Speaker 1: offerings that grateful piety had yet to give. Temples, altars,
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  Speaker 1: votive tablets were set up for centuries by pagan hands,
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  Speaker 1: statues and pictures of the gods were still the objects
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  Speaker 1: of religious veneration. The worship of domestic laris, or the
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  Speaker 1: ancestral spirits of the house, leaves its trace on every
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  Speaker 1: monumental stone. The epitaphs attest in every variety of tone,
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  Speaker 1: the hopes and fears of a life beyond the grave,
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  Speaker 1: and the yearning sympathy of those still left behind. Even
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  Speaker 1: the old fancies of the poets, the legendary forms of Chern, Cerberus,
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  Speaker 1: and Pluto, linger still in popular memory and leave their
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  Speaker 1: trace in the language of the tombs. Many of the
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  Speaker 1: popular beliefs were strong enough to resist for ages the
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  Speaker 1: spread of Christian thought. Even when they seemed to yield,
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  Speaker 1: they only changed their language and their symbols, and noiselessly
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  Speaker 1: maintained their ground in the service of devotional art. For
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  Speaker 1: when the final struggle came, the religions of paganism died hard.
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  Speaker 1: With the early Empire, a strong reaction had set in,
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  Speaker 1: growing constantly in intensity from the greater spiritual depth of
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  Speaker 1: Eastern creeds and from the mystical and moralizing tone of
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  Speaker 1: philosophic thought. End of section twenty eight recording by Pamelinagami
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  Speaker 1: in Encino, California, December twenty eighteen. End of Roman History
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  Speaker 1: the Early Empire from the assassination of Julius Caesar to
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  Speaker 1: that of Domician by William Wolf Capes