300 B. C. and 300 A. D.

by Ernest L. Martin

At this juncture we should briefly mention the later influence of Levantine Syrians (those who were not taken as slaves to the West). It is not too much to say that they played one of the most influential of parts in making the Roman Empire great. For one thing, the major part of Roman wealth was in the East. Nearly all manufacturing, industry, and culture remained eastern — the West being predominant only in agriculture and soldiery. The Syrians, being in the very center of this prosperous region, capitalized on their propitious situation, manufactured goods and delicacies from the further east were wanted and needed in the West. The Syrians being the natural heirs of the old Syro-Phoenician trading system, stepped into the shoes of their forefathers and became the giants of commerce throughout the Empire — they practically had a monopoly in the enterprise! These Syrians established many trading colonies in all the Roman world — every major port had colonies of Levantine Syrians (we are not now speaking of the freed Syrians who were making up the general population of Italy and Sicily). The influence of these trading Syro-Phoenicians cannot be over emphasized. The effect they played on later Roman history, particularly in the history of the Middle Ages, was of lasting influence.

Let us now observe what scholars say about these Syrian traders who monopolized trade in the Roman world. Dr. Cumont, who is the recognized authority on comparative religions in Rome, gives an excellent and correct rundown. “At the beginning of our Era the Syrian merchants undertook a veritable colonization of the Latin provinces. The Levantine traffic attained a development previously unknown. We can trace the history of the Syrian establishments in the Latin provinces from the first to the seventh century, and recently we have begun to appreciate their economic, social and religious importance at its true value.

“The Syrians’ love of lucre was proverbial. Active, compliant and able, frequently a little scrupulous, they knew how to conclude first small deals, then larger ones, everywhere. Using the special talents of their race to advantage, they succeeded in establishing themselves ON ALL COASTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN, even in Spain The Italian ports where business was especially active, attracted them in great numbers. But they did not confine themselves to the seashore; they penetrated far into the interior of the countries, wherever they hoped to find profitable trade. They followed the commercial highways and traveled up big rivers. By the way of the Danube they went as far as Pannonia, by the way of the Rhone they reached Lyons.

In Gaul they were especially numerous. (Dr. Tarn says that Southern Gaul and up the Rhone was especially Oriental in race, not Greek or Gallic.) In this new country (Gaul) that had just been opened to commerce fortunes could be made rapidly. The Syrians traveled over the entire province (of Gaul) as far as Treves, where they had a strong colony. Not even the barbarian invasions of the fifth century stopped their immigration. Saint Jerome describes them traversing the entire Roman world amidst the troubles of invasion, prompted by the lust of gain to defy all dangers. In the barbarian society the part played by this civilized and city-bred element was even more considerable. Under the Merovingians in about 591 they had sufficient influence at Paris to have one of their number elected bishop and to gain possession of ALL ecclesiastical offices. (It may be remarked that Syrians also gave the Papacy several popes in the eighth century and even an archbishop of Canterbury, as an example of their commercial importance in England, was a Syrian.)

“Those establishments [commercial colonies] exercised a strong influence upon the economic and material life of the Latin provinces, especially in Gaul. As bankers, the Syrians concentrated a large share of the money business in their hands and monopolized the importing of the valuable Levantine commodities as well as of the articles of luxury. Their moral and religious influence was not less considerable: for instance, it has been shown that they furthered the development of monastic life during the Christian period, (these transplanted Syrians were responsible for developing the monastic system — the system which virtually governed Medieval Europe for over two hundred years), and that the devotion to the crucifix was introduced into the Occident by them. During the first five centuries Christians felt an unconquerable repugnance to the representation of the Saviour of the world nailed to an instrument of punishment more infamous than the guillotine of today. The Syrians were the first to substitute reality in all its pathetic horror for a vague symbolism” (Oriental Religions, pp. 107-109).

Dr. Cumont stops in the eighth century with the story of these commercial peoples. Actually, some of their most important functions came later, for the later commercial cities of Venice, Genoa, Pisa, and Marseilles, and the banking centres of Italy and France, which in the Middle Ages dominated the whole character of European life, were the heirs to and the descendants of these early Syro-Phoenicians. Even the Crusades were brought about, it has been maintained by some historians, by the wish of these commercial cities to open up again traffic into the East. Everyone knows that the Crusades were motivated more by greed and lucre than by the religious spirit. By the end of crusading times, there was some Jewish influence being felt in these commercial cities along with the Syrians.

We have, however, gone too far ahead in the story of how peoples from Syria (by SYRIA we mean the whole Levantine area: Chaldeans, Phoenicians, Samaritans, etc.), so radically changed the character of the later Roman world. We now have to go back to earlier times, for there is still very many important things to be said!

The first chapter showed how Italy was taken over by Orientals — mainly coming from Syria. Now we have seen the Biblical evidence which shows that Babylonians came into Syria at the same time they were being placed in Samaria. But later, under the Seleucid kingdom — the new Babylonian kingdom — there were further migrations from Babylon westward. Upon the fall of Syria to the Romans, these Babylonians (for multitudes of them were outright Babylonians) were taken to Italy where they finally took over, with a little racial mixing, the whole of the country. THUS, from the clear records of history, we should have no problem in showing that new Babylon is literally located on the seven-hilled city of Rome.

In closing, it is interesting to note that the prophet Daniel spoke about the Babylonian image as legs and feet of iron and clay. The image is very top heavy and unstable, but it is one image! Babylon was the head of gold. The Persians, however, inherited all the Babylonian traditions and even established their winter headquarters at Babylon. This was the silver portion of the image. Alexander and his successors were the brass portion of the one image. Their headquarters was also at Babylon — the “resurrection” of Babylonia occurred. Seleucus moved “political” Babylon and Babylonian people to Antioch. Daniel, from this time onward, calls this government “the Kingdom of the North” (by this time the Babylonian system had moved directly north of Jerusalem). But the Babylonians later moved or were transported to Italy. Rome — the kingdom of iron and clay — assumed the role as the last political head, the new Babylon!

Thus, Daniel spoke of one image — one society and culture — one real political power. There was, of course, a Persian veneer in the silver portion, and a Greek one in the brass, but by later Roman times there was a clear reversal to the original Babylonian society. So we see that the same people were predominant in all sections of the image. No wonder that Daniel saw only one image, not four!

We have seen that the new Romans brought with them Oriental religions which, to early Latins would have been utterly repugnant to their nature. But, there was a race change in Italy. The new race was mainly Easterners who felt right at home in the old Babylonian sun-cults and mystery religions. It is hardly any wonder that Rome went over to Babylonianism — as Dr. Frank says:

The Mystery cults permeated the city, Italy and the western provinces only to such an extent as the city, Italy and the provinces were permeated BY THE STOCK THAT HAD CREATED THOSE RELIGIONS (American Historical Review, vol. 21, p. 707).

Understanding that these new Romans only accepted those beliefs which appealed to their temperaments, it will pay us to review the philosophies which the Oriental Romans accepted. The origin of the later Roman philosophies were directly in the East — primarily and basically from Syria!

Take for example the one philosophical belief which had practically universal acceptance by the whole of Roman society in the first and second centuries of our era — the Stoic philosophy!

Stoicism is one of the most interesting philosophies that ever came out of the East. It has been compared as the most ‘Christian’ of all philosophies. Many books have been written endeavouring to show the remarkable parallels between Stoicism and Christianity (especially Roman Catholicism). There is some definite agreement between Catholicism and this philosophy. Let us notice what it basically taught.

The philosophy taught the universal brotherhood of man, the doing away with national barriers, intermarriage, one law over all. They called the ideal state as one governed by a central city — the city of God! When the Roman Empire came along, all the Stoic philosophers saw in the Empire all the physical state. Because of this, and other reasons, the philosophy was taught in profusion over the Empire, and nowhere was it accepted more, and with a type of religious crusading spirit, than in Italy. Platonism had gone by the board, it was too etherial and sceptical; the Aristotelian position was abandoned because his teaching was not universal enough; Epicureanism, the only possible rival of Stoicism, was too selfish, anti-religious and not conducive to universal brotherhood. Only one philosophy suited the Roman temperament of the first and second centuries — that was STOICISM.

Stoicism was the one philosophy that did not, in one way or another, repudiate the pagan gods. It agreed that they should definitely be retained for man, for his happiness needs religion. So, the Stoic philosophers encouraged to a great degree paganism. The religion that the later Stoics advocated was generally the Roman variety because their utopian city of world rule was Rome. Only by acknowledging Rome could they hope to achieve their universal state. And they achieved their world-state to a remarkable degree through the Empire. It is little wonder why most of the noble Romans accepted the doctrines of Stoicism in deference to all other philosophies — no philosophy suited the temperaments nor the grandiose design of the later Romans than this one of Eastern origin.

It has often been believed by most ordinary people that Greece was the home of philosophy, and to a certain extent that is true — all philosophies are basically Grecian in origin with the exception of STOICISM!

Dr. Lightfoot, writing about the two philosophies which gained more adherents after the time of Aristotle — Epicureanism and Stoicism — says:

These two later developments of Greek philosophy both took root and grew to maturity in Greek soil. But while the seed of the one (Epicureanism) was strictly Hellenic, the other (Stoicism) was derived from an Oriental stock. Epicunts was a Greek of the Greeks, a child of Athenian parents. Zeno (the founder of Stoicism) on the other hand, a native of Citium, a Phoenician colony in Crete, and probably of Shemitic race, for he is commonly called ‘the Phoenician.’ Babylon, Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, reared some of his most illustrious of his successors. Not a single Stoic of any name was a native of Greece proper (Philippians p. 273).

The Stoic philosophy was entirely foreign to the pure Greek, as it would have been to the early Roman — their temperament would not have sustained all the teachings of Stoicism. Not a single Greek of pure stock joined the ranks of its teachers. They were all Orientals.

The principal Stoic teachers all came from the East, and that therefore their language and thought must in a greater or less degree have some the stamp of their Oriental origin. We advance a step further towards the object of our search, if we remember that the most famous of them were not only Oriental but Shemitic, Babylonia, Phoenicia, Syria, Palestine, are their homes (ibid., p. 299).

Yes, none of the Stoic teachers were Greeks — the teaching was too Oriental for the Greeks, but it wasn’t too Oriental for the later Romans, for they accepted it as their national philosophy.

It was not however among the Greeks, to whose national temper the genius of Stoicism was alien, that this school achieved its proudest triumphs. . . . The Romans offered a more congenial sphere for its influence. And here again it is worth observing, that their principal instructors were almost all Easterners. Posidonius for instance, the familiar friend of many famous Romans and the most influential missionary of Stoic doctrine in Rome, was a native of Syrian Apamea (ibid., p. 310).

The truth is, the Chaldeans could not be outdone in the field of philosophy. When, during the Greek period, the religions in Greece took a back seat to the study of philosophy, and many influential people were abandoning their ancient religious allegiances, the Chaldeans entered the new field by creating a philosophy of their own — a philosophy which would retain the gods and at the same time be attractive to intellectuals. Thus, Stoicism was born.

Stoicism readily agreed also with the determinism of the Chaldeans, founded, as it was, upon the regularity of the sidereal movements. Thus it was that this philosophy made remarkable conquests not only in Syria but far as Mesopo­tamia. “I recall,” says Dr. Cumont, “only the fact that one of the masters of Stoicism, the successor of Zeno of Tarsus at Athens, was Diogenes of Babylon and that, later on, another distinguished Stoic, Archidemus, founded a famous school at Babylon itself” (Astrology in Greece & Rome, p. 70).

In the empire of the Seleucids alongside ‘Chaldaism’, Hellenism had established itself in a commanding position: Above the old native beliefs the doctrines of STOICISM in particular exercised dominion over men’s minds. It has been often observed that the masters of the Stoic school are for the most part Orientals. The leading representatives of these doctrines — were all Syrians. In a certain sense it may be said that STOICISM was a Semitic philosophy (ibid., pp. 81, 82).

And indeed it was. Stoicism was the Babylonian reaction to Greek philosophy. Stoicism was the philosophy designed for the Orientals — the philosophy designed to maintain Chaldeanism in an age which looked like Greek secular philosophy might take the place of religion. Thus, Stoic philosophy was invented to retain Chaldeanism amongst the intellectuals — and it succeeded remarkably. The whole Roman world virtually succumbed to it.

Speaking of Babylonian astrological beliefs, Dr. Cumont says:

We shall be struck with the power of this sidereal theology, founded on ancient beliefs of Chaldean astrologies, transformed in the Hellenistic age under the twofold influence of astronomic discoveries AND STOIC THOUGHT, and promoted, after becoming a pantheistic Sun-worship, to the rank of official religion of the Roman Empire (ibid., p. 99).

What a revelation! Babylonian doctrines and religion came to be the official Roman religion, and one of the big helps in bringing it there was STOICISM. This was the philosophy that did not ridicule the gods, but felt they were ever necessary for true philosophy. In fact, STOICISM can be said to be the saviour of Babylonian paganism among the intellectual classes.

The Chaldeans were the first to conceive the idea of necessity dominating the universe. This is also one of the ruling ideas of the STOICS (ibid., p. 153).

Certain profound affinities reconciled STOICISM with CHALDEAN doctrines (ibid., p. 69).

And perhaps it will now be in order to quote from the Cambridge Ancient History on the agreement of STOICISM AND BABYLONIANISM.

As early as the Seleucids, Zeno of Citium and many of his chief disciples, such as Diogenes of Babylon and Antipater of Tarsus, had been Orientals, and it may be said that STOICISM was largely a Semitic philosophy not only in respect of its teachers but of its doctrines also. Its pantheism which defies all the elements of Nature, and its acceptance of the fatalism of astrology side by side with the retention of belief in the active intervention of God in earthly matters, link the Porch (Stoicism) with the Syro-Babylonian temples. Later there were many Syrians among the leading savants who initiated the Romans into the precepts of the various schools (vol. XI, p. 641).

It is so clear that Stoicism is Babylonian philosophy. Its teachings and doctrines were accepted open-armed in Italy, and why? The answer should be plain. Just as the new Romans brought their religions with them — religions which suited, their temperaments — so, they brought their philosophical beliefs with them. Stoicism made no headway among the secular-minded Greeks, and the ancient Roman would have laughed it to scorn, but the new class of Romans who were themselves Orientals accepted it lock, stock and barrel. In fact, the real development happened in Italy.

Though the germ of Stoicism was derived from the East, its systematic development and its practical successes were attained by its transplantation into western soil. In this respect its career, as it traveled westward, presents a rough but instructive parallel to the progress of the (Roman) Christian Church. The fundamental ideas, derived from Oriental parentage, were reduced to a system and placed on an intellectual basis by the instrumentality of Greek thought (Lightfoot, ibid., p. 276).

What an interesting and true remark! The Catholic Church, which Lightfoot calls the Christian Church, developed on the same lines as Stoicism — the Chaldean philosophy. Some of the very doctrines of the Stoics went directly into Catholicism.

One of the famous Stoics of the Roman world was Seneca — a Shemite himself. The Catholics continue to call him “our Seneca” and greatly praise his work, even though he was a firm advocate of paganism. Most of the famous Romans were Stoics.

Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Plutarch could not think or speak otherwise than as they did because the philanthropic ideas of Stoicism have become an integral and essential part of their nature (Historian’s History, vol. 6, p. 311).

Thus was Stoicism, the philosophy of the Oriental Romans. The widespread acceptance of this normally alien philosophy is proof enough that the Romans who accepted it are in themselves aliens to the old Roman stock. And it also proves that these new Romans must be basically Babylonian because they accepted a philosophy designed for Babylonians.

The histories are so full of information about the Orientalization of later Rome that we need not linger long on the subject — it is so plainly proved. As we have seen, in the first chapter, there was a complete change of race in Italy between the republican period and that of the later Empire. This race change accounts, in a primary sense, for the enormous difference in Roman government, religion and culture — in a word, for the strange difference in Roman civilization. The newer people coming in from the East completely revolutionized the whole of Roman society. But, the change took time: it didn’t happen overnight! It is now for us to see briefly how this change took place.

There is much to say about our subject from the time of Augustus to the time of the Antonines, but to make a very long story shorter, we will look at events in the Roman Empire from the time of the Severi — that is, from 193 A. D. to Constantine.

By this time Orientalization had gone a long way: the emperors were now being deified as the old Babylonians had been (this was not done in ancient Rome until the time of Augustus); Chaldeans had already become advisors to the Emperors, and the religions from the East were making tremendous headway amongst the now Orientalized society of Italy. But with the Severi, we can say that Rome became, from this time onwards, especially Oriental. Let us see why this was the case.

First, Septimus Severus was the first Roman Emperor who was not of Roman extraction — he was a Phoenician from North Africa. As a matter of fact, he was so completely Phoenician that he never learned Latin until being taught it in school.

Later, when his sister visited him in Rome, her Latin was so “Phoenician” that he was ashamed for her to talk in public. He was not, however, ashamed of his Phoenician ancestry — far from it, he gloried in it.

After becoming Emperor, to show his independence of the old Roman institutions, and to bring a thoroughly Eastern flavour into his government, he went to Syria and there married the daughter of the high priest of Emesa — the priest of the Babylonian Sun-god. Her name was Julia Domna — the priestess of the Sun. Why was this marriage concluded? Simply in order to make a Syro-Phoenician hierarchy to rule the Roman Empire. “That Septimus now chose to ally himself with Julia Domna is the clearest possible indication that his authority should depend on his own race. Rome had defeated Carthage, Rome had dominated Syria. Now, Carthage would unite with Syria to dominate Rome” (Perowne, Caesars and Saints, p. 51).

This union was highly propitious to the spread of Chaldeanism on a large scale in Rome — now the gates were wide open. In fact, Severus was told by his Chaldean advisors to marry Julia — great things were awaiting him and his race if he did (Historians’ History, vol. 6. p. 388).

Julia was a sagacious and domineering woman. She had two desires: one, was the elevation of her two sons by Severus to the purple, and secondly, the glorification of her own race — it was to be Syria and Syrians to rule the whole Empire, and under the Severi it came just to that. “Severus and Julia now wished to demonstrate that it was from Africa and from Asia that the life and leadership of the Roman Empire had sprung. Phoenician Syria still spoke and wrote the Phoenician language, just as Severus’ own Africa did. Syria, therefore, was to be the scene of a magnificent rulership, of the revival of an ancient race” (ibid., p. 77). And indeed, Syria and the Syro-Phoenician race became the top peoples in the Empire. Severus made Antioch the capital of the whole empire for over five years, and when he was asked about his estimation of Rome, retorted that it was just one more province, like the rest. However, many benefits came to the inhabitants of Italy as they conformed to his policies — and in most cases they were completely willing to do so.

Severus was followed to the throne by his two sons, who reigned for a while together then successively. The throne later came to two grandsons. In all, the Syro-Phoenicians dominated the Roman Empire from 193 A.D. to 235 A. D. And during this period, Rome underwent a revolution in society — this begins the time of the real Orientalization of the whole system.

The two sons of Septimus Severus carried on their father’s policies, but from our present study let us look at the reign of his grandson — Emperoror Elagabalus (218-222 A. D.). This young man was a full-pledge priest of the sun-god in his native country of Syria. As Gibbon describes him, he was “consecrated to the honourable ministry of the high priest of the Sun; and this holy vocation contributed to raise the Syrian youth to the empire of Rome” (Decline and Fall, ch. 6).

Yes, it was his priesthood in the temple of the Sun which brought him to the purple. Gibbon continues telling how this came about. “The soldiers who resorted in crowds to the temple of the Sun, beheld with veneration and delight the elegant dress and figure of a young Pontiff, they recognized or they thought that they recognized, the features of Caracalla (the recently deposed emperor), whose memory they now adored.

His artful mother noticed the awe of the soldiers as they beheld her son performing the rituals, and then she proclaimed him the natural son of the murdered Caracalla.

With this knowledge, the eastern army proclaimed him emperor and very soon after he legally mounted the throne of the Empire. Thus, for the first time, a Syrian pontiff assumed the purple. We can imagine what such an ascendancy did to Roman Civilization — he carried religious reforms throughout the Empire to enormous proportions.

Let us again read Gibbon’s account of Emperor Elagabalus’ reforms: “The Sun was worshipped at Emesa (in Syria) under the name of Elagabalus, under the form of a black conical stone, which, as it was universally believed, had fallen from heaven on that sacred place. To this protecting deity, Emperor Elagabalus, not without some reason, ascribed his elevation to the throne. The display of superstitious gratitude was the only serious business of his reign. The triumph of the god of Emesa over all religions of the earth, was the real object of his zeal and vanity: and the appellation of Elagabalus (for he presumed as pontiff and favourite to adopt that sacred name) was dearer to him than all the titles of Imperial greatness. In a solemn procession through the streets of Rome, the way was strewed with gold dust; the black stone, set in precious gems, was placed on a chariot drawn by six milk-white horses richly caparisoned. The pious emperor held the reigns, and, supported by his ministers, moved slowly backwards, that he might perpetually enjoy the felicity of the divine presence. In a magnificent temple raised on the Palatine Mount, the sacrifices of the god Elagabalus were celebrated with every circumstance of cost and solemnity. Around the altar a chorus of Syrian damsels performed their lascivious dances to the sound of barbarian music, while the gravest personages of the state and the army, clothed in long Phoenician tunics, officiated in the meanest functions, with affected zeal” (ibid.).

The whole government at Rome was becoming, literally, an Oriental court. The people were dressing in long robe-like Syro-Phoenician garb. The Emperor himself dressed like a Babylonian pontiff with full regalia. Or, as Gibbon puts it: “He was drawn in his sacerdotal robes of silk and gold, after the loose flowing fashion of the Medes and Phoenicians (clearly Chaldean): his head was covered with a lofty tiara, his numerous collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of an inestimable value.”

What a description! Here was an Emperor — a pontiff himself — dressed exactly like the Popes today — tiara on the head, richly flowing robes and precious jewels, carried about from place to place. He elevated his own Syrian priests to the official priesthood at Rome (Historians’ History, vol. 6, p. 398). And what is interesting, he commanded everyone to address him as Sardanapolis (Asshur-banipal) and claimed that the Roman Empire was, under him, a revival of the Assyro-Babylonian Empire (ibid., p. 378). He was surnamed “the Assyrian” because of his pretensions (ibid., p. 398). These incidents are all important, for it shows that this priest-emperor was thoroughly Oriental — that is, Chaldean.

The next reign was that of Elagabalus’ cousin, Alexander Severus. His nature was not as extreme in religion as was his predecessor, even though he was likewise a pontiff of the sun-god. Alexander sought to conciliate some of the peoples in the Empire who were a little upset over Elagabalus’ abruptness in endeavouring to change the character of religion. Alexander did away with the most odious forms of Elagabalus’ religious fervour, but retained some of the essential elements in sun-worship. It is said that he, endeavouring, to conciliate all the religions in his empire, erected in his private chapel the images of Jupiter, Solon, Plato, Abraham and Christ. He was the first emperor who made an effort in syncretizing the religions in his domain. He was not quite successful.

In looking over the five reigns of these Phoenician and Syrian emperors, we read from the Historians’ History: “The Syrian emperors, as far as political traditions are concerned, inasmuch as they were not Romans and had none of the Roman prejudices, often give proof of an openness of mind which would have been impossible to the great emperors of the second century, all of whom were intensely conservative. They flung the doors of the empire wide open. It was in religion above all that these Syrian emperors inaugurated a liberality of mind and a tolerance unknown before. The Syrian women of Emesa, Julia Domina, Julia Maesa, Julia Mamaea, Julia Soaemias, (the mothers or wives of the emperors), beautiful, intelligent, venturous to the point of utopianism, are hampered by no Roman tradition or conventionality. They dared to do what no Roman woman had ever done; they entered the senate, took part in the deliberations, and practically governed the empire, dreaming of Semiramis and Nitocris” (vol. 6, p. 404).

From the end of the Syrian rulers, the next group of emperors, all the way to Constantine, were soldiers and not one of them was Roman, in fact, not a single one was even Italian. Most came from humble origins in the Balkans (by the way, the Balkan region was a strong-hold of Mithraic sun-worship which can be proved to have come out of Babylon). One emperor in this period was a Moor, and one was even an Arab. These emperors were all keenly interested in the new Oriental religions which were now completely infiltrated the Empire. One of these emperors, Aurelian, who reigned from 270 to 275 A. D., was from the Balkans. His father was a farmer while his mother, like the Syrian emperors’ mothers, was a priestess of the Sun (ibid., vol. 6, p. 421). He grew up as an adherent of Oriental Sun-worship. It is no wonder, as we have already seen in chapter two of this work, that when he went to Syria, after having become emperor, he brought back with him the Babylonian Sun-god and its official priesthood to Rome and established that sun-god as the protector of the Empire. In fact, the later Claudian emperors stated that this Babylonian god was the author of their race.

With all this Babylonian sun-god worshipping going on, we can well imagine how the Roman world was turning into an Oriental one. It was progressively getting more Oriental all the time. The complete transformation, however, came with Diocletian, the predecessor of Constantine. The Historian’s History informs us: “Diocletian permanently introduced Eastern forms of government. Until his time the outward appearance of the emperor had only a passing air of Orientalism, but with Diocletian this character of government was established for all time to come. From Diocletian the white bandeau or diadem, borrowed from the East, became the distinctive sign of the ruler, whilst formerly the purple raiment had been the sole sign. Diocletian and his next successor (Constantine) introduced the remaining Oriental regal ornaments. The emperor Aurelian had, indeed, set them the example here” (vol. 6, p. 435). “The Asiatic pomp, which had been adopted by Diocletian, assumed an air of softness and effeminacy in the person of Constantine” (ibid., p. 456).

Why yes, the whole court by the time of Constantine was completely Orientalized it was an Eastern monarchy now in the West. It is interesting that Dr. Shotwell of Columbia University, speaking about the times of Diocletian and Constantine, said: “The tongue of Greece gave free access to the philosophy of the Orient, and its pantheon was filled with all the gods of the world, Rome’s thought became the reflex of that of the Hellenized east (that is, the thought of Syria and Egypt). If Rome conquered the ancient world, it was made captive in return. The Roman government and society WERE NO LONGER ROMAN IN ANYTHING BUT NAME. The administration of the empire had become a Persian absolutism (inherited from Babylon), and its society was verging towards Oriental caste” (ibid., vol. 7, pp. XIII, XIV).

With Constantine we find the real completion of the Chaldean movement to Rome and Italy, By now, not only the people, but the religion, philosophy and even the government of old Babylon had been transferred to the West. And, with the accepting of a form of Christianity — that type promulgated by Simon Magus, himself a Babylonian — the force had now arisen which was to govern the future Western world, a force which is still effecting us today, and a force which will effect us even more in the next few years.

Reprinted, 2001, by Giving & Sharing. For a printed copy, please send $4 to: Giving & Sharing, PO Box 100, Neck City, MO 64849.