We taught them that their Hesus was none but Bacchus,
their Freya our Venus, their Thor our Jupiter Tonans. But could we do
this with the Gaels, who had nothing in common with us, whose
meaningless rites could have no part in the beliefs of the commonwealth?
No. Did we therefore give them the privileges of citizenship, the right
to hold offices of priesthood and State, which we gave to those Goths
and Saxons who came among us peaceably? No. We made Saxons our allies
against alien gods, and we did wisely. They fought side by side with us,
they tilled our lands, and were our equals. And so long as the old faith
was among us, all was well. For to my mind, what I shall tell you, and
nothing else, is the secret of Rome's power. Armies alone can hold a
captive people for no longer than steel is bared, and Rome knew this.
But her religion took up the work where her armies had left it. Being
eclectic, it embraced all gods,--although this is not to say that every
Roman worshipped all of these,--and those peoples whom she conquered
were not ravished with violence from their creeds and forced to kneel at
unlike altars. Each nation might find a parallel for its gods in Rome's
pantheon, and so might be brought without shock into Rome's fold. For,
take a man's gods from him, whatsoever they may be that he worships, and
give him nothing in return to which he can hold, and at once you take
from him all that anchors him to the rationalities of life.

"Therefore I say that so long as the old faith endured, it was well with
us. But the worship of the Emperor's divinity was instituted; and it was
something in which these people could find no parallel to their own
gods. They said: 'Why should we worship one of whose powers we know
nothing? Your gods, which it seems after all are our gods under new
names, are well enough. We want no other, who is no god of ours. How may
this Emperor of yours be god as well as man?' But we Romans upheld this
new religion, with powers of government, with grants of land, with the
erection of new temples, with all manner of benefices, for those who
would think as we thought. To those who would not, we said: 'Worship as
we worship, or it will be the worse for you.' Who reaped the benefits of
this change? We, the Augustans, who had conformed to it. Who paid the
penalty? Those who clung to the old order, and so defied us, becoming
insurgent. Romans became divided even as Goths, taking part with them
against their o