This should be no surprise really, because in fact this was extremely common in Rome at this time. There was a actually a huge semi-underground market in anonymous prophetic literature. Stories like the Gospels, as well a writings from supposed real prophets, were produced anonymously and sold to middle-men who made copies of them and sold them to wealthy patrons who would study them, believing them to actually be divine literature that could be used to predict the future. This wasn't small-time either. In fact senators, governors and emperors were among the patrons.