Corinth,
&c., the conduct of Verres, in Cicero, (Actio ii. Orat. 4,) and the
usual practice of governors, in the viiith Satire of Juvenal.]

[Footnote 11: Seuton. in Claud.--Plin. Hist. Nat. xxx. 1.]

[Footnote 12: Pelloutier, Histoire des Celtes, tom. vi. p. 230--252.]

Rome, the capital of a great monarchy, was incessantly filled with
subjects and strangers from every part of the world, [13] who all
introduced and enjoyed the favorite superstitions of their native
country. [14] 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. [141] 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. [15] 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 splendor, and Isis and Serapis at length
assumed their place among the Roman Deities. [151] [16] Nor was this
indulgence a departure from the old maxims of government. In the purest
ages of the commonwealth, Cybele and Aesculapius had been invited by
solemn embassies; [17] and it was customary to tempt the protectors of
besieged cities, by the promise of more distinguished honors than they
possessed in their native country. [18] Rome gradually became the common
temple of her subjects; and the freedom of the city was bestowed on all
the gods of mankind. [19]

[Footnote 13: Seneca, Consolat. ad Helviam, p. 74. Edit., Lips.]

[Footnote 14: Dionysius Halicarn. Antiquitat. Roman. l. ii. (vol. i. p.
275, edit. Reiske.)]

[Footnote 141: Yet the worship of foreign gods at Rome was only guarantied
to the natives of those countries from whence they came. The Romans
administered the priestly offices only to the gods of their fathers.
Gibbon, throughout the whole preceding sketch of the opinions of the
Romans and their subjects, has shown through what causes they were free
from religious hatred and its consequences. But, on the other hand the
internal state of these religions, the infidelity and hypocrisy of the
upper orders, the indifference towards all religion, in even the better
part of the common people, during the last days of the republic, and
under the Caesars, and the co