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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;ancient coin hunter, post: 4493196, member: 87200&quot;]Two comments:</p><p><br /></p><p>The destruction of the temple of Serapis is recounted here (public domain content):</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/serapeum.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/serapeum.html" rel="nofollow">https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/serapeum.html</a></p><p><br /></p><p>The destruction of the Temple of Serapis (the Serapeum) at Alexandria is related in the ecclesiastical histories of the church fathers. Encouraged by the imperial edict addressed to the prefect of Rome prohibiting pagan worship (<i>Codex Theodosius</i>, XVI.10.10), Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, took the cult objects that had been found during the conversion of a pagan temple and contemptuously paraded them in the street, holding them up to ridicule. A riot was provoked and Christians killed. Just four months after promulgating his first edict in February AD 391, Theodosius I was obliged to reiterate the prohibition against pagan worship (CTh. XVI.10.11), this time in a rescript addressed to the prefect and military governor in Egypt.</p><p><br /></p><p>Taking refuge in the Serapeum, the pagans of Alexandria fortified it against attack, forcing Christians who had been captured to sacrifice there and torturing them if they refused. Writing in AD 402, Rufinus, who may have been witness to some of the events he describes, says that the Serapeum was elevated on an enormous platform, a hundred or more steps high. &quot;In it there was a statue of <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/serapis.html" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/serapis.html" rel="nofollow">Serapis</a> so large that its right hand touched one wall and its left the other [built to house only the statue, the temple itself was not very large]; this monster is said to have been made of every kind of metal and wood. The interior walls of the shrine were believed to have been covered with plates of gold overlaid with silver and then bronze, the last a protection for the more precious metals&quot; (<i>Ecclesiastical History</i>, XI.23)</p><p>----------</p><p>With regard to the Egyptological question, there are good reasons to believe that the tomb robbery was an established practice, with generations of higher officials acting as &quot;fences&quot; for stolen goods. One of the problems with absconding of such high value grave goods and precious metals for an average thief was the difficulty of disposing of the items. One could not simply walk into the marketplace with a gold scepter and exchange it for sacks of grain. Since Egypt was a non-monetary society where everything was in-kind, cashing out of newfound wealth was a major challenge. Hence, most modern Egyptologists believe that officials were paid off to look the other way and that even higher layers of the society were actively involved in the plundering, as you suggest.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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