CHAP. 
VII. 
uj Kacotis. 
382 ALEXANDRIA. 
dead, they were consequently places of wor- 
ship, whose dark and subterraneous caverns 
were aptly suited to the ideas entertained of 
Hades, the invisible abode of departed spirits'. 
serapeum Of such a nature was the Setapeum of Racotis, 
described as of much earlier antiquity than the 
temple of the same name founded by one of the 
Ptolemies'^. Racotis was in ruins before the 
building of Alexandria'; and the Cry pice of Ne- 
cropolis, from their situation, can be attributed 
only to that antient city\ Having before shewn 
that the worship of Serapis in Egypt was long 
anterior to the introduction of an idol under 
that name by Ptolemy Soter\ as related by 
(1) VLxXiZfiii oi TOM alrlv touts* xoci 'Papain* TCf ai^n oriXotori. fTplt c> fnffir 
aiu vopiuirScu ra; •^v^a; tuv (iiucatTuv, ufiCToc xai iixaioraTa. " QueiU DOS 
alio nomine Serapim vocaiiius, et qui est uiltii, sub aspeetuui minimi 
cadens : ad quem Plato sublimes ait evehi illorum animas, qui (]uam 
optime justissimeque vixerunt." Juliamis Imp. Orut. iv.p. 136. fid. 
Jublomki Panth. ^gi/pt. torn. I. p. 2Z7. Franco/. 1750. 
(2) " Fuerat illic sacellum SerapiJi atque Isidi antiquitus sacratum." 
Titcit. Hist. lib. iv. c. 84. 
(3) ' Nam Racotis, quee postea nonni-^i suburbium Alexandrise fuit, 
diu ante urbem banc re^iam ab Alexaiidro erectam, illic steterat. fid, 
Juhlnjiski Panlhenn .^gyptiorum , torn- I. p. 231. Francof. 1750. Also 
the authors by bim cited. Pausanias, lib. v. p. 432. Strabo, lib. xvii. 
7'. .'545. Plinitis, lib.v. c. 10. Clemens Alexandrinus, Protreptico, p. Z\. 
Slejihanus Ethnicngraphus , in voce 'Vaxurvst ifc. ^"c. 
(4) t/ublonski, &c. ubi supra. 
(5) See Chap. V. p. 263, Note (5), of this volume. In addition to 
the evidence there offered for the antiquity of the worship of Serapis 
in Egypt, may be also cited the follo\vinj powerful argument, as urged 
by 
