No. V. — Temple of Jupiter Ser apis. 265 



Here we have an admirable guide to the date of the inscrip- 

 tion ; for the consuls therein mentioned, P. Rutilius and Cn. 

 Manlius (or Mallius, or Manilius, as have sometimes been put 

 in place of it), held their office, as appears from the Fasti Con- 

 sulares^^ in the year of Rome 648. But farther, we have the 

 direction A Colonia deducta an. XC. It appears from the tes- 

 timony of Livy,-[- that this colonization of Puteoli took place 

 in A. V. c. 559, + so that the consular year above indicated cor- 

 responds to the 90th subsequent year. This train of proof, 

 therefore, satisfactorily indicates the early period at which the 

 worship of Serapis was introduced into Italy, — a point much 

 mistaken by authors, since it has been asserted that Antoni- 

 nus Pius was the first who, in a. d. 146, introduced it ; for not 

 merely had Vespasian, § and his sons, Titus and Domitian, || 

 introduced Serapis on their coins, but Dio informs us ^ that in 

 Rome, A. V. c. 699, the senate, to check the introduction of 

 foreign deities, ordered the destruction of all private temples 

 of Serapis ; and the inscription before us shows that half a 

 century before, this divinity was not new to the south of Italy. 

 It is, however, certain that Antoninus Pius and M. Aurelius 

 were great promoters of the worship of Serapis, as appears by 

 the various inscriptions in his honour, erected by these empe- 

 rors,** which have been preserved ; and in the ruins of thePu- 

 teolan temple inscriptions of the latter emperor, and of Septi- 

 mus Severus, have, as we have observed already, been found, 

 indicating that to them the edifice owes its incontestible marks 

 of splendour, and therefore the inscription of a. v. c. 648, 

 bears no evidence to the advancement of the arts in Rome at 

 that early period, as was falsely imagined. These inscriptions 



* Consult Hook's Roman History y 4to, vol. iv. 



-)- L. xxxiv. 24. 



X See the note on the last quoted passage in Drachenborch's Livy. 4to. 

 V. iv. p. 853. — Morcelli makes it 560, but by some the consulship of Ru- 

 tilius and Manlius is placed in 649, which equalizes the difference. See 

 Morcelli de Stilo Inscript. Lat. (Edit. Patav. 4 vols. 4to, 1819.) i. 56. 



§ Fenuti, Coll, Antiq. Rom. folio. 



II Middleton, Germana Antiq. Mon. quoted in Phil. Trans. 1757. 



% Dio, 1. xl. See Freinshemins Supp. in Liv.Mh. cvi. c. 23. 

 *• Gruter, page Ixxxv. where there are three of Marcus Aurelius and 

 two of Antoninus Pius. 



