52
CHAP.
II.
THE DECLINE AND FALL
rius and Claudius suppressed the dangerouspower of the druidsbut the priests them-selves, their gods, and their altars, subsisted inpeaceful obscurity till the final destruction ofpaganism. 1 "
Rome , the capital of a great monarchy, wasincessantly filled with subjects and strangersfrom every part of the world,” who all intro-duced and enjoyed the favourite superstitionsof their native country.” Every city in the em-pire was justified in maintaining the purity ofits ancient ceremonies; and, the Roman senateusing the common privilege, sometimes inter-posed to check this inundation of foreign rites.The Egyptian superstition, of all the most con-temptible and abject, was frequently prohibit-ed; the temples of Serapis and Isis demolished,and their worshippers banished from Rome andItaly .” But the zeal of fanaticism prevailedover the cold and feeble efforts of policy. Theexiles returned, the proselytes multiplied, thetemples were restored with increasing splen-
1 Sueton. in Claud.—Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx, 1.m Pelloutier Histoire des Celtes, tom, vi, p. 230-252.n Seneca Consolat. ad Helviam, p. 74. Edit. Lips.
° Dionysius Halicarn. Autiquitat. Roman. 1. ii.p In the year of Rome 701, the temple of Isis and Serapis wasdemolished by the order of the senate (Dion. Cassius , 1. xl, p. 252),and even by the hands of the consul (Valerius Maximus , 1, 3). Afterthe death of Caesar, it was restored, at the public expence (Dion, 1.xlvii, p. 501). When Augustus was in Egypt , he revered the ma-jesty of Serapis (Dion. 1. li, p. 647); but in the Pomseriumof Rome,and a mile round it, lie prohibited the worship of the Egyptian gods(Dion. 1. liii. p. 679, 1. liv, p. 735). They remained, however, veryfashionable under his reign, (Ovid de Art. Amand. 1. i), and thatof his successor, till the justice of Tiberius was provoked to someacts of severity. (See Tacit. Annal. ii, 85, Joseph. Antiquit. 1.xviii, c. 3).