Capitolo 39
portion of the commerce of that quarter of the world.
The Serapis of Sinope was considered as the divinity that protects of sailors,
and the navigators that came and they went to and from the done city
sacrifices to him, and he/she offered him offers and prayers, while believing that
they was, in a great measure, dependent on some mysterious and
inscrutable power that he practiced for their safety in storms. Them
brought the knowledge of his/her name and histories of his imaginary
interpositions, to all the places that they has visited; and so the fame
some god was wide, before, to all the coasts of the Euxine Sea,
and accordingly to distant provinces and kingdoms. The Serapis of
Sinope started to every to be considered where as the tutelar god of sailors.
Accordingly, when the first one of the Ptolemies was forming his various
plain for decorating and to magnify Alexandria, he received, he said,
a night, a divine announcement in a dream that he was to get the
statue of Serapis from Sinope, and it put above it to Alexandria, in a
appropriate temple that he was of bad duration to erect in the honor of the
god. It is obvious that very great advantages to the city would result
from the completion of this sketch. In the first place, a temple to
the god Serapises would be a new distinction for him in the minds of the
rural population that he/she would undoubtedly suppose that divinity honored
from him them really ancient god was. Then the whole maritime and nautical
interest of the world that had been accustomed to adore the god of
Sinope, would turn him to Alexandria as the great center of religious
attraction, if their revered idol could be brought and you/he/she could have put in a new
and magnificent temple built there expressly for him. Alexandria was able
is never the I bring naval and principal and station of the world, unless it
contained the sanctuary and shrine of the god of sailors.
Ptolemy sent accordingly to the King of Sinope and proposed to purchase
the idol. However, the embassage was without success. The king refused
you abdicate the god. The negotiations were continued for two years but everybody