Alexander the Great and the Hellenistic Age 237 government, and language, it was true especially of religion. National boundaries were gradually wiped out in such matters, and even before Alexander's day the xthenians had a ship en- gaged in carrying Greeks across the Mediterranean, that they might land at Cyrene, penetrate the Sahara, and consult the Egyp- tian Amon in his desert shrine (see map, p. 80, and Fig. 100). Men thus grew accustomed to strange gods and no longer looked askance at foreign usages in religion. It was only in such a world that Christianity was later able to pass as a foreign religion from land. to land. There was now complete freedom of conscience — far more freedom, indeed, than the later Chris- tian rulers of Europe granted their subjects. The teachings of Fig. 104. A Letter written on Papyrus, folded, SEALED, AND ADDRESSED Among the ruins of sun-dried brick houses of the Hellenistic Age in Egypt great quantities of such papers are now being found (p. 236). Their preservation is due to the rainless climate of Eygpt. See Ancient Times, pp. 215, 630 f., and 662 Socrates would no longer have caused his condemnation by his Athenian neighbors. From Babylonia the mysterious lore of the Chaldean astrologers was spreading widely through the Mediterranean. It was received and accepted in Egypt, and even Greek science did not escape its influence. In this connection let us not misunderstand the meaning of intrusion the Greek repulse of Persia. Marathon and Salamis were iiifluence^s of enormous importance in quickening the life of Greece and i" '^^ ^^^^^" ^ ^ <=* terranean especially of Athens, and in arousing it to a development which resulted in the highest creations of Greek genius (see pp. 184- 194). But it is a great mistake to suppose that Marathon and Salamis once and for all banished the influence of the Orient from the Mediterranean, as a huge irrigation dam keeps back a body of water. The great oriental populations in Asia and
