care of his reputation, which was exposed to the eyes CHAP.
of the universe, restrained the philosophic monarch_XVIII.
from violating the laws of justice and toleration,
which he himself had so recently established. But
the provincial ministers of his authority were placed
in a less conspicuous station. In the exercise of
arbitrary power, they consulted the wishes, rather
than the commands, of their sovereign; and ventured
to exercise a secret and vexatious tyranny against the
sectaries, on whom they were not permitted to confer
the honours of martyrdom. The emperor, who dis-
sembled as long as possible his knowledge of the in-
justice that was exercised in his name, expressed his
real sense of the conduct of his officers, by gentle
reproofs and substantial rewards.

condemned

the Pagan

temples.

The most effectual instrument of oppression, with They are which they were armed, was the law that obliged the to restore Christians to make full and ample satisfaction for the temples which they had destroyed under the preceding reign. The consecrated lands, which had increased the patrimony of the sovereign or of the clergy, were clearly defined, and easily restored. But on these lands, and on the ruins of Pagan superstition, the Christians had frequently erected their own religious edifices and as it was necessary to remove the church before the temple could be rebuilt, the justice and piety of the emperor were applauded by one party, while the other deplored and execrated his sacrilegious violence *. After the ground was cleared, the restitution of those stately structures, which had been levelled with the dust; and of the precious ornaments, which had been converted to Christian uses; swelled into a very large account of damages and debt. The authors of the injury had neither the ability nor

*If we compare the gentle language of Libanius (Orat. Parent. c. 60. p. 286.) with the passionate exclamations of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87.), we may find it difficult to persuade ourselves, that the two orators are really describing the same

events.

СНАР.

the inclination to discharge this accumulated demand: XVIII. and the impartial wisdom of a legislator would have been displayed in balancing the adverse claims and complaints, by an equitable and temperate arbitration. But the whole empire, and particularly the East, was thrown into confusion by the rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan magistrates, inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous privilege of the Roman law, which substitutes, in the place of his inadequate property, the person of the insolvent debtor. Under the preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa, had laboured in the conversion of his people with arms more effectual than those of persuasion. 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 sus pended, in a net, between heaven and earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and the rays of a Syrian sun*. From this lofty station, Mark still persisted to glory in his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his persecutors. persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and dismissed to enjoy the honour of his divine triumph. The Arians cele brated the virtue of their pious confessor; the Catholics ambitiously claimed his alliance; and the Pagans, who might be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred from the repetition of such unavailing cruelty. Julian spared his life; but if the bishop of

* 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. Μαρκος εκεινος κρεμάμενος, και μαςιγωμενος, και το πωγωνος αυτῷ τιλλομενα, παντα ενέγκων ανδρείως νυν ισοθεός εστι ταις τιμαις, και φανη πως περιμαχητος ευθυς. Epist. 730. p. 350, 351. Edit. Wolf. Amstel.

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

225

Arethusa had saved the infancy of Julian, posterity CHAP. will condemn the ingratitude, instead of praising the XVIII. clemency, of the

emperor.

and sacred

At the distance of five miles from Antioch, the The temple Macedonian kings of Syria had consecrated to Apollo grove of one of the most elegant places of devotion in the Daphne. Pagan world. A magnificent temple rose in honour of the god of light; and his colossal figure 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. In the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege, 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. 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

CHAP. 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 soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided the temptation of this sensual paradise; where pleasure, assuming the character of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the Ermness 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.

When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, Dupane. hastened to adore the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the highest pitch of eagerness and im patience. 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 kecatombs 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 inha bitant of this decayed temple. The altar was de serted, the oracle had been reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the introduction of Christian and funeral rites. After Babylas (a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, body, by the order of the Cæsar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the grove of Daphne. A

his

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

XVIII.

the dead

magnificent church was erected over his remains; a CHAP. - 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 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. The scene of infection was purified, according to the forms of ancient rituals: the bodies were decently removed; and the ministers of the Removal of church were permitted to convey the remains of St. bodies, and Babylas to their former habitation within the walls of conflagraAntioch. The modest behaviour which might have temple. 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 idolaters. 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. Julian without evidence, but with some colour of probability, imputes the fire of Daphne to the

tion of the