an men of letters, even the discharged soldiers of the
three legions cantoned in the valley of the Nile contributed to its
diffusion. It entered Africa by way of Carthage, and the Danubian countries
through the great emporium of Aquileia. The new province of Gaul was
invaded through the valley of the Rhone. At that period many Oriental
emigrants went to seek their fortunes in these new countries. Intimate
relations existed between the cities of Arles and Alexandria, and we know
that a colony of Egyptian Greeks, established at Nimes by Augustus, took
the gods of their native country thither.[28] At the beginning of our era
there set in that great movement of conversion that soon established the
worship of Isis and Serapis from the outskirts of the Sahara to the vallum
of Britain, and from the mountains of Asturias to the mouths of the Danube.

The resistance still offered by the central power could not last much
longer. It was impossible to dam in this overflowing stream whose
thundering waves struck the {84} shaking walls of the _pomerium_ from every
side. The prestige of Alexandria seemed invincible. At that period the city
was more beautiful, more learned, and better policed than Rome. She was the
model capital, a standard to which the Latins strove to rise. They
translated the works of the scholars of Alexandria, imitated her authors,
invited her artists and copied her institutions. It is plain that they had
also to undergo the ascendancy of her religion. As a matter of fact, her
fervent believers maintained her sanctuaries, despite the law, on the very
Capitol. Under Caesar, Alexandrian astronomers had reformed the calendar of
the pontiffs, and Alexandrian priests soon marked the dates of Isis
holidays upon it.

The decisive step was taken soon after the death of Tiberius. Caligula
erected the great temple of Isis Campensis on the Campus Martius probably
in the year 38.[29] In order to spare the sacerdotal susceptibilities, he
founded it outside of the sacred enclosure of the city of Servius. Later
Domitian made one of Rome's most splendid monuments of that temple. From
that time Isis and Serapis enjoyed the favor of every imperial dynasty, the
Flavians as well as the Antonines and the Severi. About the year 215
Caracalla built an Isis temple, even more magnificent than that of
Domitian, on the Quirinal, in the heart of the city, and perhaps another
one on the Coelian. As the apologist Minucius Felix states, the Egyp