Manilius likewise gives an account of this people, and their activity; wherein may be observed some remains of the original institution:
[[861]]Ad numeros etiam ille ciet cognata per artem
Corpora, quæ valido saliunt excussa petauro:
Membraque per flammas orbesque emissa flagrantes,
Delphinûmque suo per inane imitantia motu,
Et viduata volant pennis, et in aëre ludunt.
I have shewn, that the Pateræ, or Priests, were so denominated from the Deity styled Pator; whose shrines were named Patera, and Petora. They were oracular temples of the Sun; which in aftertimes were called Petra, and ascribed to other Gods. Many of them for the sake of mariners were erected upon rocks, and eminences near the sea: hence the term πετρα, petra, came at length to signify any rock or stone, and to be in a manner confined to that meaning. But in the first ages it was ever taken in a religious sense; and related to the shrines of Osiris, or the Sun, and to the oracles, which were supposed to be there exhibited. Thus Olympus near Pisa, though no rock, but a huge mound, or hill ([[862]]Περι γαρ τον Κρονιον ΛΟΦΟΝ αγεται τα Ολυμπια) was of old termed Petra, as relating to oracular influence. Hence Pindar, speaking of Iämus, who was supposed to have been conducted by Apollo to Olympia, says, that they both came to the Petra Elibatos upon the lofty Cronian mount: there Apollo bestowed upon Iämus a double portion of prophetic knowledge.
[[863]]Ἱκοντο δ' ὑψηλοιο Πετραν
Αλιβατου Κρονιου,
Ενθ' ὁι ωπασε θησαυρον