Mundus, being in love with
Paulina, the eldest of the priestesses of Isis, went and told her that
the god Anubis, being passionately fond of her, commanded her to give
him a meeting. She was afterwards shut up in a dark room, where her
lover Mundus (whom she believed to be the god Anubis,) was concealed.
This imposture having been discovered, Tiberius ordered those detestable
priests and priestesses to be crucified, and with them Iolea Mundus's
free woman, who had conducted the whole intrigue. He also commanded the
temple of Isis to be levelled with the ground, her statue to be thrown
into the Tiber, and, as to Mundus, he contented himself with sending him
into banishment.
Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, not only destroyed the temples of the
gods, but discovered the cheats of the priests, by shewing that the
statues, some of which were of brass, and others of wood, were hollow
within, and led into dark passages made in the wall.
Lucius in discovering the impostures of the false prophet Alexander,
says, that the oracles were chiefly afraid of the subtilties of the
Epicureans and Christians.
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