17. Cf. _Rev. hist. litt. rel._, VIII, 1903, pp. 429 ff.--Until the end of the fifth century higher education in the Orient remained in the hands of the pagans. The life of Severus of Antioch, by Zachariah the Scholastic, preserved in a Syrian translation [_supra_, ch. VII, n. 81], is particularly instructive in this regard. The Christians, who were opposed to paganism and astrology, consequently manifested an aversion to the profane sciences in general, and in that way they became responsible to a serious extent for the gradual extinction of the knowledge of the past (cf. _Rev. hist. litt. rel._, _ibid._, p. 431; Royer, _L'enseignement d'Ausone a Alcuin_, 1906, p. 130 ff.). But it must be said in their behalf that before them Greek philosophy had taught the vanity of every science that did not have the moral culture of the ego for its purpose, see Geffcken, _Aus der Werdezeit des Christentums_, p. 7, p. 111. 18. _Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 294. Cf. _supra_, pp. 175 f. {284} 19. Ambrosiaster, _Comm. in Epist. Pauli_, p. 58 B: "Dicentes per istos posse ire ad Deum sicut per comites pervenire ad regem" (cf. _Rev. his. lit. rel._, VIII, 1903, p. 427).--The same idea was set forth by Maximus of Turin (_Adv. pag._, col. 791) and by Lactantius (_Inst. div._, II, 16, Sec. 5 ff., p. 168 Brandt); on the celestial court, see also Arnobius, II, 36; Tertullian, _Apol._, 24.--Zeus bore the name of king, but the Hellenic Olympus was in reality a turbulent republic. The conception of a supreme god, the sovereign of a hierarchical court, seems to have been of Persian origin, and to have been propagated by the magi and the mysteries of Mithra. The inscription of the Nemroud Dagh speaks of [Greek: Dios Oromasdou thronous] (_supra_, ch. VI, n. 26), and, in fact, a bas-relief shows Zeus-Oramasdes sitting on a throne, scepter in hand. The Mithra bas-reliefs likewise represent Jupiter Ormuzd on a throne, with the other gods standing around him (_Mon. myst. Mithra_, I, p. 129; II, p. 188, fig. 11); and Hostanes pictured the angels sitting around the throne of God (_supra_, ch. VI, n. 38; see Rev. iv). Moreover, the celestial god was frequently compared, not to a king in general, but to the Great King, and people spoke of his satraps; cf. Pseudo-Arist., [Greek: Peri kosmou], c. 6, p. 398 _a_, 10 ff. = Apul., _De mundo_, c. 26; Philo, _De opif. mundi_, c. 23, 27 (p. 24, 17; 32, 24, Cohn); Maximus of Turin, X, 9; and Capelle, _Die Schrift von der Welt_ (_Neue Jahrb. fuer das klass. Altert._, VIII), 1905, p. 556, n. 6. Particularly important is a passage of Celsus (Origen, _Contra Cels._, VIII, 35) where the relation of this doctrine to the Persian demonology is shown. But the Mazdean conception must have combined, at an early date, with the old Semitic idea that Baal was the lord and master of his votaries (_supra_, p. 94 ff.). In his _Neutestamentliche Zeitgeschichte_, (2d. ed., 1906, p. 364 ff.), Holtzmann insists on the fact