The origins of the god Serapis are not given in any Roman 83 authorities.  The high-priests of Egypt give the following account:  King Ptolemy, who was the first of the Macedonians to put the power of Egypt on a firm footing,[452] was engaged in building walls and temples, and instituting religious cults for his newly founded city of Alexandria, when there appeared to him in his sleep a young man of striking beauty and supernatural stature, who warned him to send his most faithful friends to Pontus to fetch his image.  After adding that this would bring luck to the kingdom, and that its resting-place would grow great and famous, he appeared to be taken up into heaven in a sheet of flame.  Impressed by this miraculous prophecy, Ptolemy revealed his vision to the priests of Egypt, who are used to interpreting such things.  As they had but little knowledge of Pontus or of foreign cults, he consulted an Athenian named Timotheus, a member of the Eumolpid clan,[453] whom he had brought over from Eleusis to be overseer of religious ceremonies, and asked him what worship and what god could possibly be meant.  Timotheus found some people who had travelled in Pontus and learnt from them, that near a town called Sinope there was a temple, which had long been famous in the neighbourhood as the seat of Jupiter-Pluto,[454] and near it there also stood a female figure, which was commonly called Proserpine.  Ptolemy was like most despots, easily terrified at first, but liable, when his panic was over, to think more of his pleasures than of his religious duties.  The incident was gradually forgotten, and other thoughts occupied his mind until the vision was repeated in a more terrible and impressive form than before, and he was threatened with death and the destruction of his kingdom if he failed to fulfil his instructions.  He at once gave orders that representatives should be sent with presents to King Scydrothemis, who was then reigning at Sinope, and on their departure he instructed them to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi.  They made a successful voyage and received a clear answer from the oracle:  they were to go and bring back the image of Apollo’s father but leave his sister’s behind.

On their arrival at Sinope they laid their presents, their 84 petition, and their king’s instructions before Scydrothemis.  He was in some perplexity.  He was afraid of the god and yet alarmed by the threats of his subjects, who opposed the project:  then, again, he often felt tempted by the envoys’ presents and promises.  Three years passed.  Ptolemy’s zeal never abated for a moment.  He persisted in his petition, and kept sending more and more distinguished envoys, more ships, more gold.  Then a threatening vision appeared to Scydrothemis, bidding him no longer thwart the god’s design.  When he still hesitated, he was beset by every kind of disease and disaster:  the gods were plainly angry and their hand was heavier upon him every day.