Note 62 — PART II

Speaking of the effects which the conquest of Babylon by the Persians produced upon the religion of the latter, Professor Dill remarks: ‘The conquerors, as so often happens, were to some extent subdued by the vanquished. Syncretism set in; the deities of the two races were reconciled and identified. The magical arts and the astrolatry of the valley of the Euphrates imposed themselves on the purer Mazdean faith and never released their hold, although they failed to check its development as a moral system.’—Roman Society from Nero to Marcus Aurelius, 1904, p. 587, where the author cites Cumont, Monuments relatifs aux Mystères de Mithra, and Gasquet, Le culte de Mithra.