Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 1.djvu/62

38 cious pretext of abolishing human sacrifices, the emperors Tiberius and Claudius suppressed the dangerous power of the druids : but the priests themselves, their gods and their altars, subsisted in peaceful obscurity till the final destruction of paganism.

Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with subjects and strangers from every part of the world, who all introduced and enjoyed the favourite superstitions of their native country. Every city in the empire was justified in maintaining the purity of its ancient ceremonies; and the Roman senate, using the common privilege, sometimes interposed to check this inundation of foreign rites. The Egyptian superstition, of all the most contemptible and abject, was frequently prohibited; the temples of Serapis and Isis demolished, and their worshippers banished from Rome and Italy. But the zeal of fanaticism prevailed over the cold and feeble efforts of policy. The exiles returned, the proselytes multiplied, the temples were restored with increasing splendour, and Isis and Serapis at length assumed their place among the Roman deities. Nor was this indulgence a departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and iEsculapius had been invited by solemn embassies ; and it was customary to tempt the protectors of besieged cities, by the promise of more distinguished honours than they possessed in