14. Libanius, Or., XI, 114 (I, p. 473 Förster). Cf. Drexler in Roscher, _op. cit._, col. 378.
15. Pausan., I, 18, 4: [Greek: Sarapidos hon para Ptolemaiou theon eisêgagonto]. Ruhl (op. cit., p. 4) attaches no historic value to this text, but, as he points out himself, we have proof that an official Isis cult existed at Athens under Ptolemy Soter, and that Serapis was worshiped in that city at the beginning of the third century.
16. Dittenberger, _Or. gr. inscr. sel._, No. 16.
18. Thus it is found to be the case from the first half of the third century at Thera, a naval station of the Ptolemies (Hiller von Gärtringen, _Thera_, III, pp. 85 ff.; cf. Ruhl, _op. cit._, p. 59), and also at Rhodes (_Rev. archéol._, 1905, I, p. 341). Cult of Serapis at Delos, cf. _Comptes rendus Acad. inscr._, 1910, pp. 294 ff.
19. A number of proofs of its diffusion have been collected by Drexler, _loc. cit._, p. 379. See Lafaye, "Isis" (cf. _supra_), p. 577; and Ruhl, _De Sarapide et Iside in Graecia cultis_, 1906.
20. This interpretation has already been proposed by Ravaisson (_Gazette archéologique_, I, pp. 55 ff.), and I believe it to be correct, see _Comptes Rendus Acad. Inscr._, 1906, p. 75, n. 1.
21. The power of the Egyptian cult in the Oriental half of the empire has been clearly shown by von Domaszewski (_Röm. Mitt._, XVII, 1902, pp. 333 ff.), but perhaps with some exaggeration. All will endorse the restrictions formulated by Harnack, _Ausbreitung des Christentums_, II, p. 274.
22. The very early spread of Orphic doctrines in Magna Graecia, evidenced by the tablets of Sybaris and Petilia (Diels, { 232} _Vorsokratiker_, II^2, p. 480) must have prepared the way for it. These tablets possess many points in common with the eschatological beliefs of Egypt, but, as their latest commentator justly remarks (Harrison, _Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion_, p. 624), these new ideas are fairly overwhelmed in the old mythology. The mysteries of Isis and Serapis seemed to offer a revelation that had been a presentiment for a long time, and the affirmation of a truth foreshadowed by early symbols.
25. Wissowa, _op. cit._, p. 292-3; cf. Seeck, _Hermes_, XLIII, 1908, p. 642.
26. Manicheism was later persecuted on a similar pretext, see _Collat. Mos. et Rom. leg._, 15, 3, § 4: "De Persica adversaria nobis gente progressa."