Negotiating the body: Between religious investment and narratological strategies. Paulina, Decius Mundus and the priests of Anubis

According to Josephus’ Antiquities of the Jews (18.65–80), Decius Mundus, a man of equestrian rank, seduced a noble woman (Paulina) in an Isiac temple-complex at Rome during the reign of Tiberius by bribing the priests and pretending to be Anubis in person. Against a recent suggestion that the encounter is to be understood as an example of an institutionalised ritual involving actual sexual intercourse between a priest wearing a jackal-mask and and a female worshipper, this paper argues that the entire story is probably a fiction, one not necessarily invented by Josephus, but at any rate used by him mainly as a ploy to discredit the new cult of Christ. Just as in the case of the claimed resurrection of the latter, Josephus fixes on the body (in this case female) as his focus in this vignette of the exploitation of the gullible in the name of religion. The choice of Anubis is explained on the basis of his visual prominence in the Egyptian cults, which was an easily available ‘index’ both of Isiac identity and of the deviant ‘otherness’ represented by the trope of ‘demented Egypt’.

wheretobearecurrent feature of the Isiac cultsand to have contributed materiallytotheir wide success. Thiscontrast invites questions relating to the political and authorial interests served by these rather special literary accounts.
What is probablyt he earliest story of this kind concerns Marcus Volusius, ap lebeian aedile proscribed by the Triumvirs in 43 BCE (after Caesar'sa ssassination), who escaped from Rome by wearinganIsiac linen garment and amask in the form of an Anubis-head, items lent him by friend who wasamembero f the cult.² This story however Im ust defer to another occasion.³ My concern here is with the much more famous story told by Josephus in his Antiquitates .⁴ The protagonists of the story,set in Rome during the reign of Tiberius,are the young,rich and virtuous Paulina, her husband Saturninus, and the eques Decius Mundus.

Plot, Settinga nd Chronologyo ft he Story
Josephus' account can be summarised as follows. DeciusMundus fell so heavily in lovewith Paulina that,when she refusedpoint-blank to consider his proposal (despite the promise of 200,000 Attic drachmaef or as ingle night'ss ex), he vowed to starveh imself to death. In order to prevent this,a nd (on the model of the clevers tage-slave)a tt he samet ime help him out,M undus' freedwoman Ided evised ap lan. With 50,000 drachmaef rom Mundus,s he bribed the priests (ἱερεῖς)o fI sis, to whose worship Paulina wash ighlyd evoted, and gave them careful instructions.
It was the eldest priest who set the trap, persuading Paulina that Anubis himself had fallen in lovew ith her and wanted her to share supper and his own bed (εὐνή). Paulina'sh usband gave his consent and the trap was sprung. After Paulina had eatenher dinner inside the temple and the doors been closed, DeciusM undus stepped out of hiding and, in the guise of Anubis,enjoyed Paulina'sfavours (ὁμιλία)all night long.Not all the Isiac priests wereinvolvedinthe conspiracy,s oM undus left earlyt he following morning before anyone stirred, while Paulina went back homet oh er husband and her friends, proudlyp roclaiming to everyone her nocturnal encounter with agod. These friends were evidentlyp uzzled (which itself says something about contemporary attitudes to such ac laim), but it seems that Paulina'sa ccount wass tudiously vaguea bout what actuallyh appened inside the temple, the event being represented as ad ivine epiphany( ἐ πιφάνεια).
But truth will out.After acouple of days,Mundus happened to meet Paulina and boasted of his subterfuge.Once aware of the real identity of the person with whom she had spent the night,P aulina immediatelyconfessed to her husband. HereJ osephus givest he impression that she told him not onlya bout Mundus but about the real (amorous) nature of his 'epiphany'.S aturninus immediately reported the episode to Tiberius,w ho, after careful investigation, pronounced Ideand the Isiac priestsguilty.Whereupon the priests werecrucified, while Decius Mundus, in consideration of his legal status, was simplyb anished. The Emperor also gave orders to demolish the temple (ναός)a nd to throw the statue (ἄγαλμα)o fI sis into the Tiber.
Between religious investment and narratological strategies main Isiac sanctuary of earlyImperial Rome, and that the episode of Paulina and DeciusM undus was supposed to have takenp lace there.¹⁰ The Tiber is not particularlyc lose to that temple (or to anyo ft he other known Isiac temples of the period, for thatm atter), ap oint thatf urther underlines the symbolism of throwingt he cult-statue into the river. Isis evidentlys uffered the damnatio or deletio memoriae sporadicallyapplied in particularlyserious cases under the Republic (e. g. Tiberius and Caius Gracchus) and into the late Empire (Elagabalus, MaximinusT hrax, etc.).¹¹ In effect,Tiberius declared Isis a public enemy.¹² In this context,i ti sw orth remembering thatc rucifixion was a punishment reserved for enemies of the state (such as brigands and pirates), peregrini, liberti and slaves, and that Romancitizens wereusuallyexempt from it.¹³ The clear implication is thatt he Isiac priestso ft he Iseum Campense were peregrini as well as publice nemies.¹⁴ There is ag eneral consensus thatt he Paulina incident took place in 19 CE. Immediatelya fter his account of Paulina and Decius Mundus,J osephus tells as imilar story about an event that occurred "about the samet ime",c on-cerningaJew( Ant. Jud. 18.81-84). There was awicked man in Rome who "professed to instruct men in the wisdomo ft he laws of Moses",the samel awst hat he had himself previouslyt ransgressed in Judaea, as ar esulto fw hich he had been banished.¹⁵ With the complicity of ac ouple of friends of like character, he persuaded Fulvia (a woman of great dignitya nd fervent Jewishd evotion) to entrust him with aquantity of purple stuffs and gold, to be broughttothe temple of Jerusalem, whereupon they simplya ppropriated bothg oods and money.F ulvia'shusband, aman named Saturninus(like the husband of Paulina), promptly informed Tiberius,who ordered all Jews to be banished from Rome.¹⁶ The consuls drew up al ist of four thousand men, and packed them off to Sardinia. Manyw ere, however,p unished for refusingt ob ecome soldiers on the grounds that this was against their religion.
The measures taken against the Isiac cultsa nd the Jews are, however,a ssigned aq uite different context by bothS uetonius and Tacitus. Suetonius (Tib. 36) says thati nt he year 19 CE the Emperor: […]abolished foreign cults, especiallythe Egyptian and the Jewish rites, compellingall who wereaddicted to such superstitions to burn their religious vestments and all their paraphernalia. Those of the Jews whow ere of military ageh ea ssigned to provinceso fl ess healthy climate, ostensiblytoserveinthe army; the others of that same race or of similar beliefs he banished from the city,o np ain of slavery for life if they did not obey (transl. J.C. Rolfe).
Accordingt oT acitus (Ann.2 .85.5): […]another debatedealtwith the proscription of the Egyptian and Jewish rites, and asenatorial edict directed that four thousand descendants of enfranchised slaves, tainted with that superstition and suitable in point of age, weretobeshipped to Sardinia and thereemployed in suppressing brigandage: 'if they succumbed to the pestilential climate, it was a cheaploss'.The rest had orders to leave Italy, unless they had renounced their impious ceremonial by ag iven date ( transl. JJ ackson) It is probablythis episode to which Seneca (4 BCE -65 CE) refers when he states that "[t]he days of my youth coincided with the earlypart of the reign of Tiberius Caesar. Someforeign rites(sacraalienigena)wereatthat time being inaugurated, and abstinence from certain kinds of animal food was set down as aproof of interest in the strangec ult (superstitio)".¹⁷ 2. Interpreting the source 2.1. The amorous affair as ar ecurring ritual?
Before proceedingf urther,i ti sp erhaps necessary to sayafew words about the recent interpretationo ft he Paulina episodeb yD avid Klotz, who claims that Josephus' account is basedo na ctual ritual events.¹⁸ The sole item of evidence he can adducei sp art of aw all-painting found by Friedrich vonB issing in the Roman-period 'Tomb of 1897' at Akhmim (Panopolis/Chemmis) in upper Egypt,which wasrediscovered in the 1980s ( fig. 2). On the left side of the fresco, there is aman facing left,with upraised hands, adoring afalcon-headed Horus, who holds the feather of Ma'at.Ont he right,there is as cene described by Marjorie S. Venit in the following terms: Av iolent encounterb etween ad emon and ah uman figure […]. The demon pushes the human figure backwardw ith his left hand and thrusts it further off balanceb yg rasping its right foot with his right hand, as he leans forwardt ok neel on the altar.T hough the imagei sb adlyd amaged, based on the grey, intestine-likec oilt hat he seems to suck into his mouth, the demon appears to be eviscerating his victim.¹⁹ Klotz, however,completelyignoringthe left-hand scene, interprets the scene as a sexual encounter between Anubis and awoman on aGraeco-Roman style klinê.²⁰ Combining it with the episode of Paulina in Rome, he takes it as evidence for an authentic religious practice, widespread in Rome and Roman Egypt,²¹ whereby priestswearinganAnubis mask had sexual intercourse with women inside temples.²² If ind this interpretation both sensationalist and extremelyi mplausible. Ia lso think we need to look closer at the episodea nd re-contextualise it properly.
Klotz attempts to justify his interpretation by emphasising the jackal'sreputation in ancientE gypt for promiscuity and Anubis' involvementi nr itual banquets.²³ Nonetheless, this leads us nowhere. Equallyf eeble is the idea, for which thereisnoevidence whatsoever and can onlybedescribed as voyeuristic, that the priestsw earingt he Anubis-mask, who are usuallyr epresented as dressed in an all-enveloping cloak covering bodya nd hands( fig. 3), "should be understood to be naked under their robes,r eadyt op erform ar itual hieros gamos".²⁴ Even more so are the two Latin literary parallels invoked to support the hypothesis.The first is Tertullian'sa llusion (Apol. 15.1)t oa dulterous Anubis (moechus Anubis): The rest of your licentious wits also work for your pleasures through the dishonour of the gods. Examine the farces of the Lentuli and Hostilii, and consider whetheritisthe buffoons or your gods whose jokes and tricks youa re laughing at; such subjects as an adulterous Anubis,amasculine Moon, Diana scourged, the will of the deceased Jupiter read aloud, and threes tarvingH erculeses held up to ridicule (tr.A .S outer).  Venit (2010,116). All the references in this passagea re of course to 'Atellan' farces,w hose plots wered eliberatelyb urlesque,afact which in turn implies that Anubis ordinarily was not at all perceiveda sa dulterous.
The second is ap assageb yJ uvenal( 6.532 -541): It'sAnubis,therefore, whoreceivesthe best and highesthonour,/Runningalong,mocking the lamentations of the crowd for Osiris,/Surrounded by his shaven-headed creatures,i n their linen robes. /H e ' st he one whop etitions on your wife'sb ehalf, when she fails /T o refrain from sex on the holyd ays, owing af ine for violation/Of the bed. After the silver asp has been seen to raise its head, /I t'shis tears and professional mutteringthat guarantees Osiris /W on'tr efuse to pardon her transgression, provided, of course, /H e ' sb ribed, with af at goose and al arge slice of sacrificial cake( tr.A .S. Kline).
But again this is satire (cf. 9.22-26), fusing the sexual abstinence imposed on women at the Isia with Anubis' role in the Inventio Osiridis. Itshistorical accuracy can be gauged from the representation of asacrifice as a 'bribe' (ansere magno … et tenuip opano corruptusO siris).²⁵ These are not the onlypassages that Klotz misrepresents. He alsoclaims that "[a]lthough inconceivable to modern readers,neither Paulina, her husband, nor anyofher friends weresurprised by her encounter with Anubis. In other words, the scandala rose not from the fact that Anubis (or an official priest dressed as Anubis) seduced anoble woman in atemple setting,but because this event transpired underdeceitful pretences".²⁶ But this is not exactlywhat Josephus says.In fact,wea re told that Paulina'sf riends werei nclined to disbelieveh er story but werea tthe same time surprised, givenh er modesty and virtue ( § 76). Evidently, the reason whya tl east some of them, to sayn othing of her husband,a ccepted the story washer stainless reputation. But the detail that she stayed in the temple all night 'at the service' of Anubis (the term here employed is διακονέω)was perhaps suspicious; we mayn ot be too far off the mark in thinkingr ather of adultery.
The incredulity of some of Paulina'sfriends had good grounds.The practice of sexual abstinencep receding the festival of the Isia and the representation of the Isiac deitiesa sp aradigms of marital lovea nd fidelity were well-known at Rome. Moreover,a sH erodotus alreadyp ointed out, "the Egyptians weret he first who made it ap oint of religion not to lie with women in temples,n or to  Smelik andHemelrijk (1984,1965) suggested that Juvenal'sscorn for Egyptian religion (note also Sat. 15,whose theme is Egyptian animal-worship) mayhavebeen connectedtohis putative exile to Egypt by Domitian. Though 15.45s hows that Juvenal had visited Egypt,asatirist'sd enunciation of Egyptian religion requiresn os uch special explanation.  Klotz (2012,3 84).
Between religious investment and narratological strategies enter into temples after going away from women without first bathing" (2.64). Similarly,C haeremon (ap. Porphyry, De abst. 4.7. 6), Plutarch (De Is. et Os. 2,351f and 8, and Apuleius (Met. 11.6;11.19) all stress the chastity of the Egyptian priestsa nd their abstinencef rom the lusts of the flesh. In view of all this, the idea of an actual institution of 'sacred marriage' in the context of an Isiac cult is entirelyi mplausible.
It is, thus, franklyimpossible to agree with Klotz' claim that "by identifying the progenitor [sic]with Anubis, an otherwise taboo extramarital couplingcould have been elevated to am orallya cceptable religious experience. Such an arrangement would explain the Decius Mundus affair,a nd account for the popularity and surprising efficacy [sic]ofincubation sessions".²⁷ As he himself recognises, "the role of paramour is unexpectedf or Anubis, who is otherwise almost exclusivelya ssociated with mortuary functions, such as mummification, guarding the netherworld, and directingt he deceased as ap sychopomp".²⁸ If Klotz' hyper-realist readingo ft he Decius Mundus affairi su nacceptable, what alternativesare there? To my mind, the most promisingstrategyisprecisely to re-embed Josephus' narrative in its rightfuln arratological context.

Josephus' narratological strategy
Irrespective of the historicity of the Paulina incident,the evidence of Suetonius and Tacitus surelyc onfirms that the measures against Isiac and Jewish superstitiones are historical. Forh is part,J osephus links them to specific instances of deception practisedo nh igh-status Roman women (Fulvia, Paulina) by unscrupulous men. These men took advantage of the women'sg enuine religious devotion to servep rivatee nds (money;s ex), using ar eligious script. Now,t he passaget hati mmediatelyp recedes these two incidents (Ant.Jud. 18.63 -64) is the well-known, albeit controversial, description of Jesus' wonderful works and the community of Jesus-followers thatg rew up after his resurrection, the so-called 'testimonium Flavium' or 'Flavianum': About this time, therelived Jesus, awise man, if indeed one ought to call him aman. Forhe was one whowroughtsurprisingfeats and was ateacher of such people as accept the truth gladly.Hewon over manyJ ews and manyofthe Greeks.Hewas the Messiah. When Pilate,  Klotz (2012,396). The reference to Isiac incubation is misplaced, since it seems not to be attested either at Rome or in the entireW estern Mediterranean: Renberg( 2006,1 16). Cf. Gordon and Gasparini (2014, 41).  Klotz (2012,3 88). upon hearingh im accused by men of the highest standinga mongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those whoh ad in the first placec ome to loveh im did not give up their affectionfor him. On the third day, he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvellous thingsabouthim. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this daynot disappeared (tr.L.H. Feldman).
At this point,i ti se ssential to sayafew words about the scholarlyr eception of these passages. Manyscholars have had strong doubts about the authenticity of the testimonium Flavium.²⁹ Some maintain thatthe entire passageisauthentic;³⁰ afew would excise it completelyasaChristian interpolation,³¹ while most scholars think it is original but interspersed with later (Eusebian?) interpolations.³² Similarly,s ome scholars have dismissed Paulina'ss tory as mere invention or street gossip,³³ while others have been more inclined to accept its historicity. Alfred Grimme vens uggested that some sculptural fragments found in the Tiber (now in Munich) might be the remains of the cult-statue of Isist hatw as thrown into the river.³⁴ Very few scholars, however,h avev iewed the Jewish and Isiac episodes in conjunction with the Christian passageq uoteda bove (and vice versa).

Between religious investment and narratologicals trategies
Jesus-followers are to be condemned, exactlyasJ esus himself was by Pilate and the Isiac priests and the Jews were by Tiberius.F urther,wem ay note the rather ironic and sceptical tone of the passage, and especiallythe derogatory reference to "the tribe (φῦλον)o fC hristians".I na ll likelihood, this represents Josephus' hostility to the idea of humans assuming or acquiringd ivinei dentitieso rq ualities. Intendingt od iscredit the figure of Jesus,³⁷ Josephus likens Christ-proselytism to the misuse or perversion of 'noble' religions,such as that of the Jews (embraced by Josephus himself)a nd the cult of Isis (embraced by the Flavian dynasty at Rome). Such narratives enabled Josephus to place the rising numbers of Jesus-followers' within the framework of the historicale pisode of the expulsion of the 'foreign' cults in 19 CE, as described by Suetonius and Tacitus. Regardless of whether they are historical or fictional (on balance Ii ncline to the latter view), these anecdotal accounts recast Christ-proselytismi nt erms of what Seneca himself described as sacraa lienigena and superstitiones.³⁸ And this bringsu sb acko nce again to the issue of Roman reception of 'foreign' and specificallyI siac cults.³⁹ Examining closer Josephus' narratological strategyg ives us am uch more plausible readingo ft he Paulina and Decius episode than that proposed by Klotz, and suggests to go on in this direction. Let us start our analysis by pinpointing the literary topoi of the story.

Women and dogs: between fidelity and untrustworthiness
As Ih avea lreadyp ointed out,t here is no serious evidence to support the hypothesis that the Paulina episode could reflect an authentic religious practice taking place inside temples of Isis in Rome. On the contrary,t he story is full of literary topoi,w hich surelys upports the idea that the episode is entirelyo r largely fictitious.
There is first the topos of the resourceful but unscrupulous slave or freedman, which is deployed twice, in the figureo fI de the clever freedwoman, and that of the senior Isiac priest,who actuallyc onvinces Paulina thatA nubis has  Josephus also alludes to the 'so-called Christ' at AJ 20.200,whose authenticity most scholars accept,e.g. Evans(1998, 469 -477); Dunn (2003,141); van Voorst (2003); and Painter (2004,132-133). Contra, Rajak (2002, 131 n.73)a nd Carrier (2012).  See p. 389 above.  Cf. Esther Eidinow'sc ontribution to this volume (Chapter1 0). fallen in lovew ith her.T he figureo fP aulina on the other hand drawso nt he topos of the virtuous innocent abroad. She is depicted as very beautiful, aristocratic, young,r ich yetm odest: Josephus twice stresses her σωφροσύνη,p rudence, and discretion. Chastity, marital lovea nd fidelity are ac onstant feature of the depiction in Latine legy of women devoted to the cult of Isis.⁴⁰ Tibullus (1.3.23-32), around 26-25 BCE, lamentsthe ritual lustrations and the sexual abstinence which his belovedDelia periodicallyunderwent.Around the sametime, Propertius (2.33.1-6) complains that his muse,Cynthia, is busy celebrating Isis' tristia sollemnia -an ironic allusion to the Hilaria,w hich evidentlyi nvolveda ten-dayperiod of sexual abstinence.⁴¹ In his amatory poetry Ovid too repeatedly complains about the absence of Corinna, leaving him in an emptybed while she is busy with her rituals.⁴² Av ariant of the topos,I sis as protector of women's chastity,i sf ound in the Greek novels.⁴³ The story however also drawsonaquite different topos,which can be traced throughout Greek and Latinl iterature.⁴⁴ Female adultery was of course morally quite unacceptable; alreadyinHomer an unfaithful wife was associated with the fawningb itch.⁴⁵ The bitch symbolises women'su ntrustworthiness and inability to control bodily impulses, thus naturalising the subordinate position of women in am ale-centred society.⁴⁶ One epithet for an adulterous wife, notably Helen of Troy,who abandoned her husband Menelaus for Paris, thus provoking the Trojan War, was thus 'bitch-eyed' (κυνῶπις).⁴⁷ " As the paradigmaticallys educible figure -the wife who abandons her husband and givesh er companionship to another man -Helen is well suited to don the maskoftraitorous dog […]. Whatever the means by which the woman is seduced -whether loveorrichesor power -the mask of the dog traitor is as pectre of uncontrolled feminine mobility".⁴⁸ Rather than Klotz' idea of ar itual hieros gamos,⁴⁹ the narrative implies  Alvar (2008, 177-192).  The motif recurs at .  Am.1 .8.73 -74;2.2.25; 2.13.7-18;3 .9.33 -34 (written between 23 and 14 BCE).  Cf. Heyob (1975,66-68).  Cf. Franco( 2014,99-108).  Franco (2014, 104).  Franco (2014, 158 -159).  E. g. Hom. Il. 3.180; Od.4.145 (both self-descriptions of Helen); cf. δολοφρονέουσα at Il. 3.405.  Franco (2014, 103 and 106). It is not at all clear to me whyF ranco'sAmerican translatorprefers the word 'dog' heret o' bitch';but the quality of the translation will be apparent even from this brief excerpt.  The term kynogamia, 'Dog-wedding',coined by Crates the Cynic, neatlycombines areference to yetanother offensive habitofdogs, copulation in the street,with Crates' own philosophy, cf. Dutsch (2015).

Between religious investment and narratological strategies
that,for all her modesty,Paulina is incomprehensibly foolishor, worse still, misusing the Isiac 'ethical code' in order to commit adultery.
But what of Anubis?S trictlys peaking,J osephus says that Decius Mundus simplypretended to be Anubis: no dressing-up is actuallymentioned, he just appeared in the temple whenall was dark and enjoyed the girl. We must be reminded of the (apocryphal) story of Tyrannus, priest of 'Saturn' at Alexandria, who supposedlymade ahabit of enteringthe temple by asecret passageand making as trange 'divine' noise while hiding behind the bronze statue of the god; when the lamps weree xtinguished, he would have sex with the woman he had appointed to meet.⁵⁰ Nothings uggests that Decius Mundus was wearinga nA nubis-mask while he was with Paulina: darkness was disguise enough.D arkness represented ap erfect setting for erotic epiphanies,⁵¹ and femaler ites in honour of male deities during a pannychis werewidelyp erceiveda sc loselylinked to illicit sex and, consequently, to illegitimate pregnancies.⁵² Whether Mundus was actually disguised as Anubis duringt he sexual encounter is however of little importance here. But the idea of someone impersonating Anubis, with the complicity of Isiac priests, must surelyh avee voked the role of anubophori,p ersons wearingj ackal-masks, in the Roman cult of Isis.

Between religious investment and narratological strategies
Anubis-mask (figs. 6a -c).⁶² The Pelizaeus Museumi nH ildesheim possesses a somewhat similar late-Egyptian Anubis-mask weighing8kg (6 th -4 th cent. BCE) ( fig.7).⁶³ It is surelyt his visual prominencei np rocessions of followers of Isis impersonating Anubis, the deity who more than anyotherstood in the Graeco-Roman world for the unacceptable face of 'demented Egypt',that explains how as candalous story involving such priests could find such readya cceptance. And this bringsustothe third, and final, requirement for agood interpretation of the Paulina episode.

The historico-religious context: animal worship and Egyptian religious 'indexicality'
Aproper socio-historical contextualisation of these topoi requires at least af ew words devoted to the Roman reception of 'Egyptian' cultsu nder the Julio-Claudians, the period at which the Paulina episodes upposedlyt ook place. Firstly, the story needs to be considered in the light of the social context of 19 CE, that is at the very end of ap eriod markedb yA ugustus' legislation against bribery and adultery,viz. the lex Iulia de ambitu (18 BCE), the lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus (18 BCE), the lex Iulia de adulteriis coercendis (17B CE), and, finally, the lex Papia Poppaea (9 CE). This legislation in fact represented acontinuation of the late Republican process of 'democratisation' of elite ethics that effected ag radual moralisation of social and sexual conduct.T he complaints of the Augustan elegists (26 -14 BCE), immediatelya fter the years when the Iseum Campense was dedicated, seem to confirm the willingness of elite women to undergo voluntary periodic sexual abstinencei nt he protective context of the cult of Isis.
Thus the (at least partial) theriomorphism of Anubis and his anubophori represented avery peculiarreligious 'index' (in Peirce'st erminology), which points to the culturalothernessofthe god'shomeland Egypt.AsGiulia Sfameni Gasparro argues, for Roman authors and later Christian polemicists, the dog-headedgod is the most obvious 'identity mark' ad extra of the Isiac cults,i na ll their mythical, theological and ritual as-pects… The goda ppeared as the most immediatea nd specific expression within the Roman religious landscape of Egyptian cultic identity.T his featuret hen became the main targetofC hristian polemicists in their condemnation of the pagan cults.I nt his documentation … the active role of the performer whop layedA nubis within the ritual reconstructingthe dramatic quest and the joyful inventio Osiridis,was seen as the most representative signo fE gyptian religious identity … .⁷² Givenall this background, it becomes plausible to suppose that the Decius Mundus story was adroitlyconstructed on the basis of such stereotypes. Presumably the earliest formofthe story considerablyantedates Josephus, though he himself was perfctlycapable of elaborating the details. Forelsewhere, in his attack upon Apion, the head of the Alexandrian library,h ee asilyr allied Greek, Romana nd Judean prejudices against animal worship by arguing thatApion "has been gifted  Cf. Gordon (2008, 75) Smelik and Hemelrijk (1984;1929w ith n.486).  Smelik andHemelrijk (1984,1932). See also Becher (1970).  Sfameni Gasparro( 2017)( my transl.). Cf. also Rosati (2009).

Between religious investmenta nd narratologicals trategies
with the mind of an ass and the impudenceofthe dog,which his countrymen are wont to worship".⁷³

Conclusion
It is time now to sum up the results of this brief analysis of the story of Paulina and DeciusM undus.
Josephus -aJew operatingunder the aegis of the Flavian dynasty,protected in its turn by the Isiac deities -chose twoepisodesinvolving the moral depravity of Jewish and Isiac priests and devotees duringt he reign of Tiberius, around 19 CE. The probable setting of the story is the Iseum Campense in the Campus Martius, built in 43 BCE and in all likelihood dedicated just before the Augustan decrees of 28 and 21 BCE (which excluded the Isiac cults from the area of the pomerium). It washere that Vespasianand Titus spent the night before their triumph in June 71 CE, thus invoking the protection of Isis and Serapis for the new dynasty.The conclusion of the story of Decius Mundus,bycontrast, featuresT iberius, the Julio-Claudian, declaring Isis apublic enemyand throwingher statue into the Tiber.
In Josephus' version, the story drawsheavilyonliterary (comic and satirical) topoi (the cunning freedman, the devious old man, the credulous woman, the faithless wife). The story alsoshows knowledge of the requirementsofsexual abstinence and marital fidelity demanded by the Isiac cults,a nd of deep-rooted Roman beliefs and anxieties about Egyptian religious practices.
We can dismiss out of hand the idea that priestsw earing an Anubis mask had sexual intercourse with women inside Isiac temples.T he plausibilityo f the story derives rather from the familiarity at Rome of Anubis and the anubophori,w hich acted as an ambivalent indexical sign both of Isiac identity and of the deviant 'otherness' represented by the trope of 'demented Egypt'.I ti s probablynocoincidencethat the story is set in 19 CE, when Germanicuswas visiting Egypt but failed to ask permission beforehand, thus arousingTiberius' suspicions (Tac. Ann.2 .59).
Both of Josephus' stories,o fP aulina and of Fulvia, wereg enerated in the force-field between the moralp rogramme of the earlyP rincipate on the one hand and the forced dichotomyb etween 'foreign' and 'Roman' religion on the other.F oreign priests exploit helpless Roman women. Beyond that,h owever,I  Joseph. ContraA pionem 2.85 (but see also 1.224a nd 2.139), cf. Smelik andHemelrijk (1984, 1912). have suggested that the context within which Josephus develops the story of Paulina implies thatt he real target here is the gullibilityofp eople in the face of religious trickery,a nd in particulart he Judeans who are attracted by the figure of Jesusa nd his supposed martyrdom and resurrection. Paulina yields her chaste bodyt oD ecius Mundus thanks to priestly trickery;J ews have defrauded Fulvia of her wealth; then what are the Judean sectarians up to with the bodyofJ esus?