conversion of his people with arms more effectual than those of persuasion.99 The magistrates required the full value of a temple which had been destroyed by his intolerant zeal: but as they were satisfied of his poverty, they desired only to bend his inflexible spirit to the promise of the slightest compensation. They apprehended the aged prelate, they inhumanly scourged him, they tore his beard; and his naked body, anointed with honey, was suspended, in a net, between heaven and earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and the rays of a Syrian sun.100 From this lofty

station, Mark still persisted to glory in his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and dismissed to enjoy the honour of his divine triumph. The Arians celebrated the virtue of their pious confessor; the Catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance 101; and the Pagans, who might be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred from the repetition of such unavailing cruelty.102 Julian spared his life: but if the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of Julian 103, posterity will condemn the ingratitude, instead of praising the clemency, of the emperor.

The temple

At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the Maceand sacred donian kings of Syria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most elegant places of devotion in the Pagan world. 10 A magnificent temple rose in honour of the god of light; and his

grove of Daphne.

104

peculiar æra dates from the year of Rome 685; according to the medals of the city. In the decline of the Seleucides, Emesa and Arethusa were usurped by the Arab Sampsiceramus, whose posterity, the vassals of Rome, were not extinguished in the reign of Vespasian. See D'Anville's Maps and Geographie Ancienne, tom. ii. p. 134. Wesseling. Itineraria, p. 188. and Noris. Epoch. Syro-Macedon. p. 80. 481, 482.

99 Sozomen, 1. v. c. 10. It is surprising, that Gregory and Theodoret should suppress a circumstance, which, in their eyes, must have enhanced the religious merit of the confessor.

100 The sufferings and constancy of Mark, which Gregory has so tragically painted (Orat. iii. p. 88-91.), are confirmed by the unexceptionable and reluctant evidence of Libanius. Μάρκος ἐκεῖνος κρεμάμενος, καὶ μαστιγούμενος, καὶ τοῦ πώγωνος αὐτῷ τιλλομένου, πάντα ἐνεγκὼν ἀνδρείως νῦν ἰσόθεός ἐστι ταῖς τιμαῖς, κἂν φανῇ που, περιμáxητos Evous.. Epist. 730. p. 350, 351. Edit. Wolf. Amstel. 1798.

101 Пеρμáxптоs, certatim eum sibi (Christiani) vindicant. It is thus that La Croze and Wolfius (ad loc.) have explained a Greek word, whose true signification had been mistaken by former interpreters, and even by Le Clerc (Bibliothèque Ancienne et Moderne, tom. iii. p. 371.). Yet Tillemont is strangely puzzled to understand (Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. p. 1309.) how Gregory and Theodoret could mistake a Semi-Arian bishop for a saint.

109 See the probable advice of Sallust (Greg. Nazianzen, Orat. iii. 90, 91.). Libanius intercedes for a similar offender, lest they should find many Marks; yet he allows, that if Orion had secreted the consecrated wealth, he deserved to suffer the punishment of Marsyas; to be flayed alive (Epist. 730. p. 349-351.).

103

Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 90.) is satisfied that, by saving the apostate, Mark had deserved still more than he had suffered.

104 The grove and temple of Daphne are described by Strabo (1. xvi. p. 1089, 1090. edit. Amstel. 1707.), Libanius (Nænia, p. 185-188. Antiochic. Orat. xi. p. 380, 381.), and Sozomen (1. v. c. 19.). Wesselling (Itinerar. p. 581.) and Casaubon (ad Hist. August. p. 64.) illustrates this curious subject.

colossal figure 105 almost filled the capacious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and gems, and adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists. The deity was represented in a bending attitude, with a golden cup in his hand, pouring out a libation on the earth; as if he supplicated the venerable mother to give to his arms the cold and beauteous DAPHNE: for the spot was ennobled by fiction; and the fancy of the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale from the banks of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient rites of Greece were imitated by the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of prophecy, which rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic oracle, flowed from the Castalian fountain of Daphne.106 In the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege 107, which had been purchased from Elis; the Olympic games were celebrated at the expense of the city; and a revenue of thirty thousand pounds sterling was annually applied to the public pleasures. 108 The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators insensibly formed, in the neighbourhood of the temple, the stately and populous village of Daphne, which emulated the splendour, without acquiring the title, of a provincial city. The temple and the village were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and cypresses, which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every hill, preserved the verdure of the earth, and the temperature of the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and aromatic odours; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like Apollo, the object of his desires; and the blushing maid was warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly of unseasonable coyness. The soldier and the philosopher

105 Simulacrum in eo Olympiaci Jovis imitamenti æquiparans magnitudinem. Ammian, xxii. 13. The Olympic Jupiter was sixty feet high, and his bulk was consequently equal to that of a thousand men. See a curious Memoire of the Abbé Gedoyn

(Academie des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 198.).

106 Hadrian read the history of his future fortunes on a leaf dipped in the Castalian stream; a trick, which, according to the physician Vandale (de Oraculis, p. 281, 282.), might be easily performed by chymical preparations. The emperor stopped the source of such dangerous knowledge; which was again opened by the devout curiosity of Julian,

107 It was purchased, A. D. 44, in the year 92 of the æra of Antioch (Noris. Epoch. Syro- Maced. p. 139-174.) for the term of ninety Olympiads. But the Olympic games of Antioch were not regularly celebrated till the reign of Commodus. See the curious details in the Chronicle of John Malala (tom. i. p. 290. 320. 372—381.), a writer whose merit and authority are confined within the limits of his native city.

108 Fifteen talents of gold, bequeathed, by Sosibius, who died in the reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the Syrian cities, in the age of Constantine, are compared in the Expositio totius Mundi, p. 6. (Hudson, Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.).

wisely avoided the temptation of this sensual paradise 109; where pleasure, assuming the character of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of manly virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages to enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers; the privileges of the holy ground were enlarged by the munificence of succeeding emperors; and every generation added new ornaments to the splendour of the temple.110

Neglect

ation of

111

When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened and profan- to adore the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to Daphne. the highest pitch of eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of libations, and of incense; a long procession of youths and virgins, clothed in white robes, the symbol of their innocence; and the tumultuous concourse of an innumerable people. But the zeal of Antioch was diverted, since the reign of Christianity, into a different channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the tribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity, the emperor complains that he found only a single goose, provided at the expense of a priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this decayed temple. The altar was deserted, the oracle had been reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the introduction of Christian and funereal rites. After Babylas 112 (a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body, by the order of Cæsar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the grove of Daphne. A magnificent church was erected over his remains; a portion of the sacred lands was usurped for the maintenance of the clergy, and for the burial of the Christians of Antioch, who were ambitious of lying at the feet of their bishop; and the priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemed to restore the fortune of Paganism, the church of St. Babylas was demolished, and new buildings were added to the mouldering edifice which had

109 Avidio Cassio Syriacas legiones dedi These are the words of the emperor Marcus by his biographer in Hist. August. p. 41. who was seen at Daphne.

luxuriâ diffluentes et Daphnicis moribus. Antoninus, in an original letter preserved Cassius dismissed or punished every soldier

110 Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit (Pompey), quo lucus ibi spatiosior fieret; delectatus amœnitate loci et aquarum abundantia. Eutropius, vi. 14. Rufus, de Provinciis, c. 16.

Sextus

Julian (Misopogon, p. 361, 362.) discovers his own character with that naïveté, that unconscious simplicity, which always constitutes genuine humour.

112 Babylas is named by Eusebius in the succession of the bishops of Antioch (Hist. Eccles. 1. vi. c. 29. 39.). His triumph over two emperors (the first fabulous, the second historical) is diffusely celebrated by Chrysostom (tom. ii. p. 536-579. edit. Montfauçon). Tillemont (Mém. Eccles. tom. iii. part ii. p. 287-302. 459–465.) becomes almost a sceptic.

The

Removal

of the dead conflagra

bodies, and

tion the

been raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But the first and most serious care of Julian was to deliver his oppressed deity from the odious presence of the dead and living Christians, who had so effectually suppressed the voice of fraud or enthusiasm.113 scene of infection was purified, according to the forms of ancient rituals; the bodies were decently removed; and the ministers of the church were permitted to convey the remains of St. Babylas to their former habitation within temple. the walls of Antioch. The modest behaviour which might have assuaged the jealousy of an hostile government, was neglected on this occasion by the zeal of the Christians. The lofty car, that transported the relics of Babylas, was followed, and accompanied, and received, by an innumerable multitude; who chanted, with thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive of their contempt for idols and idolators. The return of the saint was a triumph; and the triumph was an insult on the religion of the emperor, who exerted his pride to dissemble his resentment. During the night which terminated this indiscreet procession, the temple of Daphne was in flames; the statue of Apollo was consumed; and the walls of the edifice were left a naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians of Antioch asserted, with religious confidence, that the powerful intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the lightnings of heaven against the devoted roof: but as Julian was reduced to the alternative of believing either a crime or a miracle, he chose, without hesitation, without evidence, but with some colour of probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the Galilæans.114 Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved, might have justified the retaliation, which was immediately executed by the order of Julian, of shutting Julian the doors, and confiscating the wealth, of the cathedral of shuts the Antioch. To discover the criminals who were guilty of of Antioch, the tumult, of the fire, or of secreting the riches of the church, several of the ecclesiastics were tortured 115; and a Presbyter, of

cathedral

113 Ecclesiastical critics, particularly those who love relics, exult in the confession of Julian (Misopogon, p. 361.) and Libanius (Lænia, p. 185.) that Apollo was disturbed by the vicinity of one dead man. Yet Ammianus (xxii. 12.) clears and purifies the whole ground, according to the rites which the Athenians formerly practised in the isle of Delos.

114 Julian (in Misopogon, p. 361.) rather insinuates, than affirms, their guilt. Ammianus (xxii. 13.) treats the imputation as levissimus rumor, and relates the story with extraordinary candour.

115 Quo tam atroci casû repente consumpto, ad id usque imperatoris ira provexit, ut quæstiones agitare juberet solito acriores (yet Julian blames the lenity of the magistrates of Antioch), et majorem ecclesiam Antiochiæ claudi. This interdiction was performed with some circumstances of indignity and profanation: and the seasonable death

the name of Theodoret, was beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the East. But this hasty act was blamed by the emperor; who lamented, with real or affected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his ministers would tarnish his reign with the disgrace of persecution. 116

The zeal of the ministers of Julian was instantly checked by the frown of their sovereign; but when the father of his country declares himself the leader of a faction, the licence of popular fury cannot easily be restrained, nor consistently punished. Julian, in a public composition, applauds the devotion and loyalty of the holy cities of Syria, whose pious inhabitants had destroyed, at the first signal, the sepulchres of the Galilæans; and faintly complains, that they had revenged the injuries of the gods with less moderation than he should have recommended.117 This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the ecclesiastical narratives; that in the cities of Gaza, Ascalon, Cæsarea, Heliopolis, &c. the Pagans abused, without prudence or remorse, the moment of their prosperity. That the unhappy objects of their cruelty were released from torture only by death; that as their mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were pierced (such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks, and the distaffs of enraged women; and that the entrails of Christian priests and virgins, after they had been tasted by those bloody fanatics, were mixed with barley, and contemptuously thrown to the unclean animals of the city.118 Such scenes of religious madness exhibit the most contemptible and odious picture of human nature; but the massacre of Alexandria attracts still more attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of the victims, and the splendour of the capital of Egypt.

George of

George 119, from his parents or his education, surnamed Cappadocia the Cappadocian, was born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a

of the principal actor, Julian's uncle, is related with much superstitious complacency by the Abbé de la Bleterie. Vie de Julien, p. 362-369.

118 Besides the ecclesiastical historians, who are more or less to be suspected, we may allege the passion of St. Theodore, in the Acta Sincera of Ruinart, p. 591. The complaint of Julian gives it an original and authentic air.

117 Julian. Misopogon, p. 361.

118 See Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. iii. p. 87.). Sozomen (1. v. c. 9.) may be considered as an original, though not impartial, witness. He was a native of Gaza, and had conversed with the confessor Zeno, who, as bishop of Maiuma, lived to the age of an hundred (1. vii. c. 28.). Philostorgius (1. vii. c. 4. with Godefroy's Dissertations, p. 284.) adds some tragic circumstances, of Christians, who were literally sacrificed at the altars of the gods, &c.

119 The life and death of George of Cappadocia are described by Ammianus (xxii. 11.). Gregory of Nazianzen (Orat. xxi. p. 382. 385. 389, 390.), and Epiphanius (Hæres. lxxvi.). The invectives of the two saints might not deserve much credit, unless they were confirmed by the testimony of the cool and impartial infidel.