An indecent proposal
In Rome, the Egyptian cults had come especially with the slaves and the cult of the Goddess Isis had soon made many followers among the people, but these cults were strongly opposed by the patricians and an episode is emblematic of this attitude. During the reign of Tiberius there was a fact about the indecent proposal that the patrician Decius Mundo did to the matron Paolina, wife of Sentius Saturninus; the knight offered two hundred thousand drachmas to the matron to spend a night of love with her; but Paolina refused each proposal and then the knight decided to resort to a stratagem worthy to Jupiter.
Paolina was an adept of the cult of Isis and frequented the Temple that stood near the Via Lata; Decius Mundo organized a deception agreed with the priests who did believe the matron that the God Anubis was in love with her and wanted to meet her alone in the temple at night. Josephus Flavius, the historian of Flavian period, relates that after confided with her friends and with her husband, Paolina decided to go to the meeting with God Anubis. The matron passed the night with whom she thought was the God Anubis but in the morning, Decius took off the costume of Anubis and revealed the deception for which he had the assistance of priests for a much lower sum of two hundred thousand drachmas.
Paolina offended and angry went to tell everything to her husband Saturninus who went to seek justice even to the Emperor Tiberius of which he knew well the willingness to eradicate the Egyptian worship from Rome.
Tiberius intervened decisively; Decius Mundo was exiled but the priests of Isis suffered a terrible condemnation: all were crucified, the rites of Isis prohibited in Rome, the temple of the goddess in the Campus Martius, the Iseo Campense, was devastated, and the statue of Isis thrown into the Tiber.
The punishment of Tiberius could not erase the cult of Isis in Rome because it was now spread even among the patricians fascinated by its mysteries of the cult; The "Mysteries" were the rituals that, under the guidance of the priests, adepts had to do to approach to the goddess, the most powerful of the mothers.
The rituals of the cult was addictive; every day the statue of the god was awakened, washed, perfumed, dressed and adorned, then served with meals and exposed to the worship of the devotees finally stored for the night. The followers lived their lives waiting for the priests, only for through which the goddess manifested itself, would grant them access to the rites of the highest spirituality. It was not about bloody rites but of experiences that were at the same time physical and mystical, and of which has also provided a description of Apuleius in the Metamorphoses (XI) where he tells of young Lucius, transformed into a donkey, and returned to human form by means of the Mystery ceremonies.
Nothing strange about that Pauline had believed what they had asked the priests of Isis, for her meeting with Anubis, the son of Isis, was only a step towards salvation Isiac and hers rebirth ...
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by M.L. ©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED (Ed 1.0 - 21/03/2017)