Page:Greek and Roman Mythology.djvu/183

 THE ROMAN GODS 169 changed by the Romans ; Dls is dives (' the rich ') a translation of Pluto. 218. In the year 204 B.C. the sacred stone of the Magna Mater Idaea, i.e. of Ma or Ammas, was brought from Pessinus to Rome. In 186 B.C. the worship of Bac- chus, which had degenerated on account of its excesses, was of necessity forcibly suppressed. Then Isis and Sara- pis came in from Alexandria; and, finally, among many less important systems of worship, the Mysteries ( ( secret worship') of the Persian sun god Mithras were intro- duced, into which had already been incorporated many of the ideas and usages of Christianity, which was by this time victoriously advancing. Thus Christianity it- self, as in Greece, so also in Rome, found a soil well pre- pared for its vigorous growth. Sibylla: Ovid, Met. xiv. 104, 154; Vergil, Aen. vi. 98, 176; Pope, Dunciad iii. 15 : A slip-shod Sibyl led his steps along. Shak., Taming of the Shrew i. 2, 70, Othello iii. 4, 70.