her had a daughter, whom the oracle recommended to Rutilianus. "Rutilianus, who was at the
time sixty years old, at once complied with the divine injunction, and celebrated his marriage by
sacrificing whole hecatombs to his celestial mother-in-law." *
More important than the career of Alexander the Paphlagonian was the reign of the Emperor
Elogabalus or Heliogabalus ( A.D. 21822), who was, until his elevation by the choice of the
army, a Syrian priest of the sun. In his slow progress from Syria to Rome, he was preceded by
his portrait, sent as a present to the Senate. "He was drawn in his sacerdotal robes of silk and
gold, after the loose flowing fashion of the Medes and Phoenicians; his head was covered with a
lofty tiara, his numerous collars and bracelets were adorned with gems of inestimable value. His
eyebrows were tinged with black, and his cheeks painted with an artificial red and white. The
grave senators confessed with a sigh, that, after having long experienced the stern tyranny of
their own countrymen, Rome was at length humbled beneath the effeminate luxury of Oriental
despotism." †Supported by a large section in the army, he proceeded, with fanatical zeal, to
introduce in Rome the religious practices of the East; his name was that of the sun-god
worshipped at Emesa, where he had been chief priest. His mother, or grandmother, who was the
real ruler, perceived that he had gone too far, and deposed him in favour of her nephew
Alexander ( 222-35), whose Oriental proclivities were more moderate. The mixture of creeds
that was possible in his day was illustrated in his private chapel, in which he placed the statues
of Abraham, Orpheus, Apollonius of Tyana, and Christ.
The religion of Mithras, which was of Persian origin, was a close competitor of Christianity,
especially during the latter half of the third century A.D. The emperors, who were making
desperate attempts to control the army, felt that religion might give a much needed stability; but
it would have to be one of the new religions, since it was these that the soldiers favoured. The
cult was introduced at Rome, and had much to commend it to the military mind. Mithras was a
sun-god, but not so effeminate as his Syrian colleague; he was a god concerned with war, the
great war between good and evil which
* Benn, The Greek Philosophers, Vol. II, p. 226.â
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Gibbon, Ch. VI.