Why do Jews and Christians conflate Gnosticism or dualism with paganism. It doesn't make sense, they have very different roots. "Dualism" is usually traced back to Zoroastrianism, which was a rejection of the Vedas and the pantheon of the Daevas. Gnosticism is hard to pin down since they popped up at various times in history for different reasons, but originally most of them were ethnic Jews who rejected the Old Testament because they thought Yahweh was the evil Demiurge. They weren't Roman polytheists, all their literature is apocryphal Gospels. Dualism or a constant good vs. evil battle didn't exist for the most part in paganism. Zeus vanquished Chronos and imprisoned the Titans, and that was the end of the story for the most part. Hades or Pluto weren't feared like Satan, in fact Pluto was a popular cthonic deity in Rome. Rome even rehabilitated Chronos as Saturn and had a huge feast in his celebration.
