There was among them a priest of Saturn, Tyrannus by name. This man, as though by an oracle of the deity, when nobles and leading men whose wives had pleased his lust were worshipping in the temple, would say that Saturn had commanded him that such a man's wife should pass the night in the temple. Then the one who had heard this, rejoicing that his wife was being summoned by the favour of the deity, would send his wife to the temple, adorned more elegantly and moreover laden with gifts, lest forsooth she should be sent back empty. In the sight of all the matron was shut up within, and Tyrannus, having locked the doors and handed over the keys, would depart. Then, when silence had been made, through hidden and subterranean passages he would creep into the very image of Saturn through gaping cavities.
Now that image was hollowed out from behind and carefully fastened to the wall. And while lights were burning within the shrine, he would suddenly utter through the image of hollow bronze a voice to the intent and supplicating woman, so that the unhappy woman trembled with fear and joy, thinking herself worthy of the address of so great a deity. But after the impure 'deity' had discoursed whatever pleased him, whether for greater consternation or for the inciting of lust, by a certain device, the lights being covered over with linen cloths, all the lamps were suddenly extinguished. Then the adulterer, descending, would bring his deceit upon the stupefied and dismayed little woman with profane discourses.
When these things had now for a long time been carried on among all the wretched matrons, it happened that a certain woman of chaste mind shuddered at the crime, and observing more attentively, recognized the voice of Tyrannus, and returning home, disclosed to her husband the deceit of the crime. He, more ardently inflamed at the injury to his wife—or rather to himself—brought Tyrannus, registered, to the torments. When he had been convicted and had confessed, and the blind deceits revealed, all the shame and disgrace had pervaded the houses of the pagans, with adulterous mothers, incestuous fathers, and bastard children detected. When these things were divulged and exposed, in haste, along with the images and the shrines, the crimes too were demolished.