At _Pella_ in _Macedonia_, the Royal Seat, and _Alexander_’s Birth-place, were _Dragons_ of a large Bulk, but of a gentle Nature, maintain’d at the Expence of the Government, as Creatures bearing a _sacred Character_, and worthy of the publick Regard. Because many tame Serpents were kept in that Place, the fabulous Poets said, _Alexander was born of a Serpent_. The People of _Argos_ in _Greece_, had Serpents in such great Veneration, that nobody was suffer’d to kill them with impunity[406]. The _Pagan Temples_ were wont to be haunted with Serpents, in so much that it grew into a Phrase of Speech, the _sacred Serpent_[407]. And thus Serpents are deified and solemnly enrolled among the Gods. Footnote 406: _Ælian._ lib. xii. cap. 34. Footnote 407: Sacer anguis. _SANCHONIATHON_, a _Phœnician Historiographer_, and _Philo Biblius_, who translated his Antiquities, have left us a full Account of the Origin of the _Apotheosis_, or _Canonization of Serpents_[408]; which leads me to say something of what the Ancients called _Apotheosis of departed Souls_, and the Strange Ceremonies used in the _Apotheosis_ or _Deification_ of the deceased Emperor, who had deserved well of their Country. Footnote 408: _Sanchoniathon_ is supposed by some to be cotemporary with _Gideon_. _APOTHEOSIS_ among the Ancients was a Pagan Ceremony whereby Emperors and great Men were placed among the Gods, called also _Deification_, and _Consecration_: Temples and Altars were erected to the new Deities, _viz._ Serpents and Men, Sacrifices offered to them; and for that end, Colleges of Priests were instituted for the Honour of these Demi-Gods. It was one of the Doctrines of _Pythagoras_, which he borrowed from the _Chaldeans_, that useful and virtuous Persons, after their Death, were raised into the _Order of the Gods_. Hence the Ancients _deified_ all the Inventors of Things that were beneficial to Mankind, and those who had done Services of Importance to their Country. By degrees these _new Gods_ grew very numerous. One of their own Poets rallying them for frequent Deifications, introduces poor _Atlas_, who is said to _bear the Heavens on his Shoulders_, complaining, that he was ready to sink under the Number and Weight of so many _new Gods_, as were every day coin’d, and added to the Heavens, which made his Shoulders to warch. _N. B._ _Atlas_ in Anatomy is the Name of the first _Vertebra_ of the Neck, which supports the Head, and is the highest, so called in allusion to the famous Mountain _Atlas_ in _Africa_, suppos’d to be the highest in the World, so that it seems to hold up the Heavens; and also to the Fable that makes _Atlas_ King of _Mauritania_ in that Country, to bear up the visible Heavens. I now proceed to the Description which we have in _Herodian_, a _Greek_ Historian in the third Century, who in speaking of the _Apotheosis_ of the Emperor _Severus_, gives us a very full Account of that strange Ceremony, _viz._