A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Paulina, wife of Saturninus
PAULINA,
A Roman lady of exquisite beauty, and great wealth and virtue, lived in the reign of Tiberius, about the year 30. She was married to Saturninus, a husband worthy of her. Decius Mundus, a Roman knight, fell desperately in love with her, and tried every means, in vain, to obtain her affections. He even offered her two hundred thousand drachmæ. At length Ide, a female domestic of his father's, offered to enable him to accomplish his object for fifty thousand drachmæ, which he gave her. This woman, knowing Paulina's great veneration for Isis, bribed several of the priests of this goddess, who went to Paulina, and told her that the god Anubis was passionately enamoured of her, and that she must visit him. Elated with this honour, Paulina communicated the desire to her husband, who, confiding in her virtue, cheerfully granted the request. She went to the temple, and, being shut up in the dark, Mundas was introduced to her as Anubis. Upon the third day after this, Mundos met Paulina, and, in a keen and sarcastic speech, ridiculed her for her credulity, and informed her of her mistake. Paulina, in the greatest distress, hastened to her husband, and urged him vehemently not to suffer such an indignity to pass unpunished. Saturninus appealed to Tiberius, who caused Ide and the priests of Isis to be crucified for sacrilege, the temple of Isis to be thrown down, and her statue cast into the Tiber. Mundus was simply banished.