[506]. Juppiter Dolichenus was a local deity of Doliche in Commagene, whose worship was spread over all parts of the Empire by soldiers recruited from that region; the tablet dedicated to him which is in the British Museum was found, for example, near Frankfurt-on-Main.
Sol Invictus is the Roman official form of Mithras. Troop-movements and trade spread his worship, like that of Juppiter Dolichenus, over the Empire.—Tr.
[507]. To whom the inhabitants of “Roman” Carthage managed to attach even Dido.—Tr.
[508]. Wissowa, Kult. und. Relig. d. Römer (1912), pp. 98 et seq.
[509]. Wissowa, Relig. u. Kult. der Römer (1912), p. 355.
[510]. The symbolic importance of the Title, and its relation to the concept and idea of the Person, cannot here be dealt with. It must suffice to draw attention to the fact that the Classical is the only Culture in which the Title is unknown. It would have been in contradiction with the strictly somatic character of their names. Apart from personal and family names, only the technical names of offices actually exercised were in use. “Augustus” became at once a personal name, “Cæsar” very soon a designation of office. The advance of the Magian feeling can be seen in the way in which courtesy-expressions of the Late-Roman bureaucracy, like “Vir clarissimus,” became permanent titles of honour which could be conferred and cancelled. In just the same way, the names of old and foreign deities became titles of the recognized Godhead; e.g., Saviour and Healer (Asklepios) and Good Shepherd (Orpheus) are titles of Christ. In the Classical, on the contrary, we find the secondary names of Roman deities evolving into independent and separate gods.
[511]. Diagoras, who was condemned to death by the Athenians for his “godless” writings, left behind him deeply pious dithyrambs. Read, too, Hebbel’s diaries and his letters to Elise. He “did not believe in God,” but he prayed.
[512]. See Vol. II, p. 376.
[513]. See Vol. II, p. 244.
[514]. Livy XL, 29.—Tr.