Cilicia, its former history and present state; with an account of the idolatrous worship prevailing there previous to the introduction of Christianity . w, it is nota little remarkable that theEmperor Caius Caligula,when he had reigned Avithmoderation for about twoyears, took a fancy for ho-nours of a higher kind, andordered his statue to beerected in all the cities ofthe empire. Josephus givesa full account of the in-flexible resistance of theJews, and of the dangersincurred by it, and of theirhappy deliverance by thedeath of the tyrant. The commander who was entrusted Avith thecarrying out o
Cilicia, its former history and present state; with an account of the idolatrous worship prevailing there previous to the introduction of Christianity . w, it is nota little remarkable that theEmperor Caius Caligula,when he had reigned Avithmoderation for about twoyears, took a fancy for ho-nours of a higher kind, andordered his statue to beerected in all the cities ofthe empire. Josephus givesa full account of the in-flexible resistance of theJews, and of the dangersincurred by it, and of theirhappy deliverance by thedeath of the tyrant. The commander who was entrusted Avith thecarrying out of this edict came from Syria, and it is not likely thathe would find the priests of Antioch and Cihcia quite so scrupidousupon the subject. Images of Caligula must have been in great demand during theshort-lived divine honours which w^ere universally paid to him through-out the provinces of the enslaved empire. And it is not totally impos-sible that these figures of a deified person in Roman armour, or, at allevents, of a Roman armed chief, admitted among the Lares and Penatesof Tarsus, may have some reference to the canonisation of KO. -BUST OV CAIUS CALIGULA WITH THELQIUCA. 224 LARES AND PENATES. We come now to a more delicate subject, but one which is so inti-mately interwoven with all the ancient religious systems of the East,that a mere mawkish regard for modern prudery should not exclude itsconsideration ffom our pages. It is part of the great philosophy ofnature, and reappears in a hundred different forms in the Pantheons ofAssyria, Babylonia, India, and Egypt, and at all the first cradles ofthought, sentiment, and worship. In the Cilician forms we find therudest representation of the mysterious principle of fecundity mixed upwith that of the well-known fish-god of the East—the Dagon of thePhilistines, of Ashdod, and the Annedoti of the Babylonians, whichLayard found as a man-god (Oannes ?) at Khorsabad, and the Avorshipof which was afterwards associated
Size: 1377px × 1814px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860, bookidciliciaitsfo, bookyear1862
