| Early in this century, Franz Cumont's book Les Religions Orientales dans la Paganisme Romaine argued that by later antiquity, the eastern faiths wielded a greater allure than their western counterparts. The great old deities of the Graeco-Roman pantheon had become dry remnants of a tradition rapidly being supplanted by virile and living mystery cults. Since then, Cumont's assertion has been harshly criticized from many quarters. Most recently, Ramsey Macmullen has scorned the "Spiritual-Fortitude, Spiritual-Weakening" school of interpretation as simplistic and shallow.;His harsh tones are not well taken. A critical analysis of the extant evidence left by literary and archaeological sources reveals much truth in Cumont's 1906 thesis. The example left by the penetration of Isis and Sarapis into Rome is particularly germane in this regard. This process of diffusion clearly reveals an intense spiritual thirst among Rome's inhabitants. The sick and dying gods of the old age were no longer sufficient. |
