The Major World Powers
The late 2nd century AD sees the classical world at its apogee. The Roman Empire is at the height of its power extending for over 5 million square kilometers, ruled by the emperor Septimius Severus, who has won the imperial throne after the Year of the Five Emperors (in 193 AD), which was a period of heavy turmoil following the murder of the hated Commodus (1). Subsequently the Praetorian Guard had proclaimed Pertinax, who was however murdered by the Praetorians themselves. The office of the Emperor was then auctioned to Didius Julianus, who was however executed upon senatorial orders.
Septimius Severus is believed to have been the ally of Pertinax, and to secure the imperial throne he had had to defeat two other rivals, Pescennius Niger, the governor of Syria, and Clodius Albinus, who drew his support base from Spain and Gaul.
A bust of Septimius Severus
During the reign of Septimius Severus, the borders of the Roman Empire in Europe run roughly on the Rhine and the Danube, but also include Trajan´s addition – Dacia (2). In Britain, the Empire is shielded from Caledonian attacks by Hadrian´s Wall (3) and pushed even further northwards to the Antonine Wall (54; the borders in the Orient extend to the Upper Euphrates and upper Tigris rivers, which are the borders with Armenia.
Being of African origin from Leptis Magna (5), he later became commander of the legions garrisoned in Pannonia; however once emperor this African vector could still be seen in his policies - he has built a memorial over the tomb of Hannibal, but more importantly, he led also some campaigns against the Garamantes (6).
Arc of Septimius Severus in Leptis Magna
The Roman Empire is domineering over its one major rival, the Parthian Empire, by securing the frontier with garrison-cities such as Nisibis (7) and Singara (8). Under his rule the military expenditures form a large burden for the treasuries, and resulted also in a significant debasement of the currency.
As mentioned, the major contender to Rome is he Parthian Empire, which cannot be regarded as a centralized realm per se. The Parthians themselves were an Iranian nomadic people, arriving into north-eastern Iran from the regions between the Caspian and the Aral Sea, conquering large parts of the earlier Seleucid Empire. By the year 200 AD they rule directly over large parts of the northern and central Iranian Plateau, extending to Makran (9) and Parthia proper (10). This area is surrounded by a handful of autonomous kingdoms, such as Caucasian Iberia (11), Aghbania, Armenia, Atropatene (12), Adiabene (13), Hatra (14), Characene (15), Elymais (16) and Persis. These bordering realms were tied to the Parthians through the authority and person of the Sassanid king; and of course also through the military might of Parthia based upon fielding a considerable force of heavy cavalry, known as the cataphracts.
Even further east, in the regions extending from Bactria through Gandhara as far the upper Ganges Valley, the northwest of the Indian Subcontinent is dominated by the Kushans, an empire founded by a nomadic Indo-European steppe people, possibly related to the Yuezhi or the Saka. However, they soon adopted Greek and Bactrian as their main languages of administration as they came to rule over much of India. It is the Kushns who can be attributed the spread of Mahayana Buddhism northwards across the Pamir.
Further eastwards in China, the ruling dynasty is named Han and controls areas as far apart as Vietnam, Korea and the Tarim Basin. Those are the four major powers in the world at this point in time; of course there are a handful of other realms such as Funan of the Khmers, Himyar, Axum or Meroe deserving to be named, as well as various dynasties of the Indian Subcontinent. In large and gross, this is the world as how it looks like in the 2nd century AD.
Religious Environment in the Classical World
Roman Empire
Neither Parthia nor Rome are religiously unified empires with an established state religion at this point.
In the Roman Empire, Christians are subject to sporadic persecution, based upon their unwillingness to worship the Roman gods and the Emperor. They were not specifically targeted for being Christian, rather the persecution was based upon them not upholding the “Roman way of life”.
Many Roman deities were equated with Greek ones, such as Jupiter and Zeus or Mars and Ares. This practice was known as
interpretation graeca. In general the ancient Roman religion has grown very similar to the Late Greek religion, to such an extent that the two have practically merged and were known as the Hellenistic religion.
The Roman pantheon, comprising of traditional deities such as Jupiter or Mars, was an inclusive one and gradually cults of other deities from all corners of the empire have come to be worshipped. Among the popular ones were those of Serapis, Cybele, Isis (17), Mithras and Sol Invictus, which were becoming more and more popular throughout the Empire, as they were diffused by merchants, legionaries.
Gradually, the ancient Hellenistic religion as getting into deep crisis, and it branches out into three major religious currents: firstly, there is the imperial cult, which evolves out of the ancient Greek hero cults, the Egyptian veneration of their Pharaohs, partially also influenced by the Ptolemaic cult of Alexander the Great. The second current was centred upon various currents of esoteric philosophy, such as Neoplatonism, and thirdly, there was the branch of Greco-Roman mystery cults.
These three branches reflected the tripartite division of theology according to Varro: Civil theology, embodied by the Imperial cult, natural theology in the form of esoteric philosophy and thirdly mythical theology, which demonstrated itself in various mystery cults. These three currents were not in direct competition with each other; rather they supplemented one another, and thus one was most likely be an adherent of all three.
It is important to note here, that both the esoteric philosophy and the mystery cults have had a profound impact on Gnosticism.
Roman statue of Isis, 2nd century
The Greco-Roman mysteries were cults of accessible only to initiates, and thus were not public. The initiation ceremony was deeply emotional, and initiation was theoretically open to all social classes. Mostly, the rituals occurred at night and there was some preliminary purification before that. As these gatherings were voluntary, members were required to pay a certain fee, and were promised a reward in this or a future life. In fact, in its early days, Christianity was considered to be one of these mystery religions as well.
The major mystery religions reflected some ancient aspects of the Old Indo-European religions, among the wider known were the Eleusian mysteries, an old agrarian cult highly influenced by Orphism, and were based on the myth of Persephone and Demeter; then we have the Samothracian mysteries, Cult of Cybele, the Great Mother of Anatolia.
Other very popular cults were the Isaic Mysteries, centred on the cycle of life and rebirth, with Isis originally an Egyptian goddess, and was very popular at this time.
The tauroctonic (bull-slaying scene, very common in Mithraea
Lastly the Mithraic mysteries were another cult based upon the Iranic hero-god Mithras and was very popular especially among the garrisons of the Roman limes. The cult had its own underground temples (
mithraeum), and is depicted as having been born from a rock, slaughtering a bull and dining with the sun. The initiates in this cult had a strict hierarchy, which could be perhaps compared to military ranks.
The third major current present in the Hellenistic religion were esoteric philosophies – the major ones being Hermeticism, apocrypha associated with Hermes Trismegistus, then we have Epicureanism, Neoplatonism and Pythagoreanism. The latter three originated as philosophical currents, but had a religious aspect as well. Many of these philosophical religions were actually monotheistic, expressing belief in theistic monism.
Neoplatonism actually had a significant impact on later gnostic cosmogonies, with having a One supreme god, then the concept of emanations, a world-soul and a Demiurge.
Parthia
The Parthian Empire throughout its existence remains a very pluralistic society, with still some Hellenistic cultural legacies, although the Hellenistic vector was decreasing in influence in favour of an Iranian Renaissance.
Most Parthians were polytheistic, and Iranian gods were often equated with their Greek counterparts – Zeus with Ahura Mazda, Hades with Angra Mainyu, Hera and Aphrodite with Anahita, Apollo with Mithra and Hermes with Shamash. The Arsacid rulers have also humbly established an imperial cult of themselves as well.
Parthian votive relief from Khuzestan
Parthian rulers also patronized many local cults connected with the individual satrapies, such as Armenia, but more importantly the cult of Marduk, Ishtar, Ashur, or even more ancient ones such as Duranki or Enki.
Zoroastrianism remains an important part of the religious scene in Parthia, although since the fall of Achaemenid Empire the religion gave way to Hellenism as the prominent current, at least in the major cities. The religion receives however royal patronage and its priests are known as the magi; however it does not mean that it is a state religion actively promoted by the kings.
The Zoroastrian faith speaks of an eternal battle between the forces of Good (advocated by Ahura Mazda) and the forces of Evil led by Angra Mainyu. Initial Zoroastrianism taught aout the free will of each one to choose between good and evil, and the beleivers ought to focus on good thoughts, good words and good deeds.
It has been speculated to what extent and whether Buddhism was present within the borders of the Parthian realm; many modern scholars believe that it was primarily confined to the Kushan realm, and made little, if any, inroads into the Parthian realm
Apart from that there were also communities of Jews (largely in Mesopotamia), early Christians in the empire as well, also considerable Gnostic communities.
Of Christianity and Gnosticism
A religion named Christianity was fast in gaining new converts in the 2nd century. It was based upon the teachings of a well-known Jewish
rabbi, known as Jesus of Nazareth, who himself claimed to be Messiah. Having been crucified in the early 1st century, his disciples claimed that He has been resurrected on the third day after dying on the cross. The message he taught was that of mercy and compassion, and his disciples were given the mission to preach his word to every nation, people and tongue.
By the 2nd century AD, the Gospels – stories about the life of Jesus written by his followers, and speaking also of his miracles, teaching, death and resurrection - were circulating in many different versions, and the church of Jesus was getting followers outside of Judea – the other major centres being Antioch, western Asia Minor, Cyprus, Alexandria, Thessaloniki, Corinth, Athens, Nicopolis in Epirus, Crete, and Cyrene in the eastern Mediterranean; the western Mediterranean basin had significant Christian concentration in Rome, Milan, Aquilea, Salonea, but also Carthage and environs in North Africa, southern Gaul and Seville.
Outside of the Empire, Christianity has become deep entrenched in Georgia, Armenia and Ethiopia; in fact Armenia was one of the first countries in the world to declare Christianity as its official religion. The first country to do so, according to the tradition was Osroene, home to Edessa (Urfa), whose king Abgar has been suffering to a certain disease and offered Jesus asylum and wished to become his follower, and believed he would cure him. According to the tradition, one of Jesus´ disciples later cured the king and he converted to Christianity. Be it as it was, Edessa has nevertheless become an important centre of early Christianity, from where the message reached also into Mesopotamia and as far east as Parthia, Media and Bactria.
Nevertheless Christianity during this period has greatly diversified, and the stories of the Gospels (which themselves were very numerous and involved a large number of apocrypha as well) were subject to a broad spectrum of interpretations:
A schematic representation of early Christological currents in the 2nd century
So these were the main currents existing in Christianity, trying at first to figure out the relationship between the human and the divine element, a dispute which will mark the early theological disputes for quite a few centuries.
One of the Gnostic diagrams of the Universe
The Gnostic movements were very strong in this period, and were most likely influenced by the existence of earlier Hellenistic philosophical traditions, namely Platonism, but also ancient Egyptian religion, Greco-Roman mysteries (namely Orphism) and the dualistic elements of Zoroastrism.
However the major defining element of Gnosticism is its alternative interpretation of the story in the Genesis, which as mentioned, was largely inspired by Hellenistic philosophy. This claims that Yahweh, the creator in Genesis is not the supreme God; rather the highest deity has remained unbeknown to the Jews.
Essential in Gnostic tradition was the concept of a hidden “inner message”, a form of esoteric wisdom, which is passed on to a selected number of initiates. While mainstream Christianity was focused on “quantity”, being open to practically anyone, Gnosticism has taken a more “qualitative” approach, putting emphasis not on gaining a large number of converts, but on passing on the secret knowledge to those worthy of it.
Other major concepts were “emmanations”, a sophisticated and elaborated cosmogony and the concept of demiurge
Among the earliest Gnostic currents was that of Simon Magus, originally a Samaritan, who has a female companion named Helena, a former prostitute. Among his disciples were Menandros and Satornilos. These sects were formed by the followers of John the Baptist; another Samaritan Baptist sect were the Basilidians, who could be found in the Nile Delta.
A second major grouping of Gnosticism were the Sethites and Barbelotes, named after Sett, one of the sons of Adam.
Valentinians were a major current in early western Christianity and viewed themselves as the elite inner core of the Christian church – and were to outsiders almost indistinguishable from mainstream Christians, apparently one of the most successful Gnostic movements. However while seeking to bridge the gap between Christians and Gnostics, his teaching was the most dangerous to the early church.
. I think with the Hephtalites picking the religion (pulling a Constantine) we could eventually see some changes in Persia, and well the Uyghur Khanate is most likely to make the choice it did...