In conclusion, it is necessary to make a brief reference to the type of Hellenism which grew up in Syria, for this, too, is a matter of some importance. Attention has already been drawn to the syncretism which was a characteristic of the Hellenistic period; one of the results of this was the absorption of many oriental elements by Hellenism whereby it was affected for the worse; and the Hellenism of the east became a very different thing from the Hellenism of Greece. It was especially in Syria that in course of time a degenerate form of Hellenism prevailed; we have reason to believe, says Bevan, “that it was just in Syria that Hellenism took a baser form. The ascetic element which saved its liberty from rankness tended here more than anywhere else to be forgotten. The games, the shows, the abandonment of a life which ran riot in a gratification of the senses, grosser or more refined, these made up too much of the Hellenism which changed the face of Syria in the last centuries before Christ. ‘The people of these cities,’ a historian wrote, about a hundred years before Christ, ‘are relieved by the fertility of their soil from a laborious struggle for existence. Life is a continuous series of social festivities. Their gymnasiums they use as baths, where they anoint themselves with costly oils and myrrhs. In the _grammateia_ (such is the name they give the public eating-halls) they practically live, filling themselves there for the better part of the day with rich foods and wine; much that they cannot eat they take away home. They feast to the prevailing music of strings. The cities are filled from end to end with the noise of harp-playing.’ Very likely that picture is over-coloured.... The man who wrote it, Posidonius, a man of huge literary industry, and a philosopher of the nobler school, was himself a Syrian Greek; but it cannot be altogether untrue.”[43] Considerably earlier than this, extraneous influences were already affecting the Jews, for Hecatæus of Abdera (B.C. 306-283) bears witness of how many Jews were influenced by foreign ways. He says: “Under the dominations which were established in later times [he has been writing about Mosaic times], namely that of the Persians, and that of the Macedonians who overthrew the Persian rule, the Jews greatly modified their traditional ordinances through their contact with strangers.”[44] Oriental and Hellenistic influences were thus both at work in influencing the Jews of Palestine in many directions; the fusion of these two influences took place, and the result was that a debased form of Hellenism was produced. On the one hand, then, Hellenism, with the many good qualities which were inherent in it, brought a beneficial influence to bear upon the Jews of Palestine; but, on the other hand, its effect, for the reason given, was evil; so that when the great reaction against Hellenism took place, it was fostered by ethical as well as religious considerations. II. THE ESSENES