DB> Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire suggests that, while the
 DB> government and the population regarded pagan belief as equally true, the
 DB> philosophers regarded it as equally false, and the Roman emperors as
 DB> equally useful.  St. Paul's succeess with Christianity was in making it
 DB> a little *more* useful.
   I don't think anybody really knows what kind of experience of order
permitted the Pontifex Maximus to continue to celebrate the official Roman
religious rites while as philosophers not subscribing to the various 
eligions
of the "people."  It seems to be obvious, though, that these rites had quite
convenient points of merger with the dominant sect.
Sincerely, 
                                     Frank
                                                                              
                                                       
--- PPoint 2.05
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