CHAPTER 23 PART 2 OF THE DECLINE OF FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE VOLUME II The inclination of Julian might prefer the gods of Homer and of the Scipios to the new faith which his uncle had established in the Roman Empire, and in which he himself had been sanctified by the sacrament of baptism. But, as a philosopher, it was incumbent on him to justify his descent from Christianity, which was supported by the number of its converts, by the chain of prophecy, the splendor of miracles, and the weight of evidence. The elaborate work which he composed admits the preparations of the Persian war contain the substance of those arguments which he had long revolved in his mind. Some fragments have been transcribed and preserved by his adversary, the Venoment Xero of Alexandria, and they exhibit a very singular mixture of wit and learning, of sophistry and fanaticism. The elegance of the style and the rank of the author recommend his writings to the public attention, and in the impious list of the enemies of Christianity the celebrated name of Porphyry was effaced by the superior merit or reputation of Julian. The minds of the faithful were either seduced or scandalized or alarmed, and the pagans who sometimes presumed to engage in the unequal dispute derived from the popular work of their imperial missionary and inexhaustible supply of fallacious objections. But in the assiduous prosecution of these theological studies the emperor of the Romans imbibed the ill-liberal prejudices and passions of oplemic divine. He contracted an irrevocable obligation to maintain and propagate his religious opinions, and whilst he secretly applauded the strength and dexterity with which he wielded the weapons of controversy, he was tempted to distrust the sincerity or to despise the understandings of his antagonists, who could obstinately resist the force of reason and of eloquence. The Christians who beheld with horror and indignation the apostasy of Julian had much more to fear from his power than from his arguments. The pagans who were conscious of his reverent zeal expected, perhaps with impatience, that the flames of persecution should be immediately kindled against the enemies of the gods, and that the ingenious malice of Julian would invent some cruel refinements of death and torture which had been unknown to the rude and inexperienced fury of his predecessors. But the hopes, as well as the fears of the religious factions, were apparently disappointed by the prudent humanity of a prince who was careful of his own fame. Of the public peace and of the rights of mankind. Instructed by history and by reflection, Julian was persuaded that if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor fire could eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind. The reluctant victim may be dragged to the foot of the altar, but the heart still abhors and disclaims the sacrilegious act of the hand. Religious obscenity is heartened and exasperated by oppression.  If Julian adopted the unsuccessful cruelty of Diocletian and his colleagues, he was sensible that he would stain his memory with the name of tyrant and add new glories to the Catholic Church, which had derived strength and increase from the severity of the pagan magistrates. Actuated by these motives, and apprehensive of disturbing the repose of an unsettled reign, Julian surprised the world by an edict with whose not unworthy of a statesman or a philosopher. He extended to all the inhabitants of the Roman world the benefits of a free and equal toleration, and the only hardship which he inflicted on the Christians was to deprive them of the power of tormenting their fellow subjects, whom they stigmatized with the odious titles of idolaters and heretics. The pagans received a gracious permission, or rather an express order, to open all their temples, and they were at once delivered from the oppressive laws and arbitrary vexations which they had sustained under the reign of Constantine and of his sons. At the same time the bishops and clergy, who had been banished by the Aryan monarch, were recalled from exile and restored to the respected churches, the Donatis, the Novatians, the Macedonians, and the Unomians, and those who, with a more prosperous fortune, adhered to the doctrine of the Council of Nice. Julian, who understood and derided their theological disputes, invited to the palace the leaders of the hostile sects that he might enjoy the agreeable spectacle of their furious encounters. The clamor of controversy sometimes provoked the emperor to exclaim, Hear me, the Franks have heard me, and the Alemani! But he soon discovered that he was now engaged with the more obstinate and implacable enemies, and though he exerted the powers of oratory to persuade them to live in concord, or at least in peace, he was perfectly satisfied before he dismissed them from his presence that he had nothing to dread from the union of the Christians. The impartial Amianus has subscribed this affected clemency to the desire of fermenting the intestine divisions of the church, and the insidious design of undermining the foundations of Christianity was inseparably connected with the zeal which Julian professed to restore the ancient religion of the empire. As soon as he ascended the throne, he assumed, according to the custom of his predecessors, the character of Supreme Pontiff. Not only as the most honorable title of imperial greatness, but as a sacred and important office, the duties of which he was resolved to execute with pious diligence. As the business of the state prevented the emperor from joining every day in the public devotions of his subjects, he dedicated a domestic chapel to his tutuludiety, the sun. His gardens were filled with statues and altars of the gods, and each apartment of the palace displayed the appearance of a magnificent temple. Every morning he saluted the parent of light with a sacrifice. The blood of another victim was shed at the moment when the sun sank below the horizon, and the moon, the stars, and the genie of the night received their respective and seasonable honors from the indefatigable devotion of Julian. On solemn festivals, he regularly visited the temple of the god or goddess to whom the day was peculiarly concentrated and endeavored to excite the religion of the magistrates and people by the example of his own zeal. Instead of maintaining the lofty state of a monarch, distinguished by the splendor of his purple, and encompassed by the golden shields of his guards, Julian solicited, with respectful eagerness, the meanest offices which contributed to the worship of the gods. Amidst the sacred but licentious crowd of priests, of inferior ministers, and of female dancers who were dedicated to the service of the temple, it was the business of the emperor to bring the wood, to blow the fire, to handle the knife, to slaughter the victim, and of thrusting his bloody hands into the bowels of the expiring animal to draw forth a heart or liver, and to read, with the consummate skill of a haruspex, the imaginary signs of future events. The wisest of the pagans censured this extravagant superstition, which affected to the spies that it restrained subprudence and decency. Under the reign of a prince who practiced the rigid maxims of economy, the expense of religious worship consumed a very large portion of the revenue, a constant supply of the scarcest and most beautiful birds were transported from distant climates to bleed on the altars of the gods. And hundred oxen were frequently sacrificed by Julian on one in the same day, and it soon became a popular jest that if you should return with conquest from the Persian war, the breed of horned cattle must infallibly be extinguished. Yet this expense may appear inconsiderable when it is compared with the splendid presents which were offered either by the hand or by the order of the emperor to all the celebrated places of devotion in the Roman world, and with the sums allotted to repair and decorate the ancient temples, which had suffered the silent decay of time, or the recent injuries of Christian rapin. Encouraged by the example, the exhortations, the liberality of their pyra sovereign, the cities and families resumed the practice of their neglected ceremonies. Every part of the world exclaimed, Lebanias, would avow transport. Displayed the triumph of religion and the grateful prospect of flaming altars, bleeding victims, the smoke of incense, and a solemn train of priests and prophets without fear and without danger, the sound of prayer and a music was heard on the tops of the highest mountains, and the same ox afforded a sacrifice for the gods and a supper for their joyous votaries. But the genius and power of Julian were unequal to the enterprise of restoring a religion which was destitute of theological principles, of moral precepts, and of ecclesiastical discipline, which rapidly hastened to the decay and disillusion and was not susceptible to any solid or consistent reformation. The jurisdiction of the Supreme Pontiff, more especially after that office had been united with the imperial dignity, comprehended the whole extent of the Roman Empire. Julian named for his vickers in several provinces the priests and philosophers whom he esteemed the best qualified to cooperate in the execution of his great design, and his pastoral letters, if we may use that name, still represent a very curious sketch of his wishes and intentions. He directs that in every city the sacrodotal order should be composed without any distinction of birth or fortune of those persons who are most conspicuous for their love of the gods and of men. If they are guilty, continues he, of any scandalous offense, they should be censured or degraded by the superior pontiff, but as long as they retain their rank they are entitled to the respect of the magistrates and people. Their humility may be shown in the plainness of the domestic garb, their dignity, in the pomp of holy vestments. When they are summoned in their return to officiate before the altar, they ought not, during the appointed number of days that depart from the precincts of the temple, nor should a single day be suffered to elapse without the prayers and the sacrifice which they are obliged to offer for the prosperity of the state and of individuals. The exercise of their sacred functions requires an immaculate purity both of mind and body, and even when they are dismissed from the temple to the occupations of common life, it is incumbent on them to excel in decency and virtue the rest of their fellow citizens. The priest of the gods should never be seen in theaters or taverns. His conversation should be chaste, his diet temperate, his friends of honorable reputation, and if he sometimes visits the forum or the palace he should appear only as the advocate of those who have vainly solicited either justice or mercy. His studies should be suited to the sanctity of his profession. The censious tales or comedies or satires must be banished from his library, which ought solely to consist of historical and philosophical writings, of history which is founded in truth, and of philosophy which is connected with religion. The impious opinions of the Epicureans and skeptics deserve his abhorrence and contempt, but he should diligently study the systems of Pythagoras, of Plato, and of the Stoics, which unanimously teach that there are gods, that the world is governed by their providence, that their goodness is the source of every temporal blessing, and that they have prepared for the human soul a future state of reward or punishment. The imperial pontiff inculcates, in the most persuasive language, the duties of benevolence and hospitality, exhorts his inferior clergy to recommend the universal practice of those virtues, promises to assist their indigents from the public treasury, and declares his resolution of establishing hospitals in every city, where the poor should be received without any invidious distinction of country or religion. Julian beheld with Envy the wise and humane regulations of the church, and he very frankly confesses his intention to deprive the Christians of the applause, as well as the advantage which they had acquired by the exclusive practice of charity and beneficence. The same spirit of imitation might dispose the emperor to adopt several ecclesiastical institutions, the use and importance of which were approved by the success of his enemies. But if these imaginary plans of reformation had been realized, the forced and imperfect copy would have been less beneficial to paganism than honorable to Christianity. The Gentiles who peacefully followed the customs of their ancestors were rather surprised than pleased with the introduction of foreign manners, and in the short period of his reign Julian had frequent occasions to complain of the want of fervor of his own party. The enthusiasm of Julian prompted him to embrace the friends of Jupiter as his personal friends and brethren, and though he partially overlooked the merit of Christian constancy, he admired and rewarded the noble perseverance of those Gentiles who had preferred the favor of the gods to that of the emperor. If they cultivated the literature as well as the religion of the Greeks, they acquired an additional claim to the friendship of Julian, who ranked them uses in the number of his tutular deities. In the religion which he had adopted, piety and learning were almost synonymous, and a crowd of poets, of rhetoricicians and of philosophers hastened to the imperial court to occupy the vacant spaces of the bishops who had seduced the credulity of Constantius. His successor esteemed the ties of common initiation as far more sacred than those of consanguinity. He chose his favorites among the sages who were deeply skilled in the occult sciences of magic and divination, and every imposter who pretended to reveal the secrets of futurity was assured of enjoying the present hour in honor and affluence. Among the philosophers, Maximus obtained the most eminent rank in the friendship of his royal disciple, who communicated with unreserved confidence his actions, his sentiments, and his religion's designs during the anxious suspense of the civil war. As soon as Julian had taken possession of the palace of Constantinople, he dispatched an honorable and pressing invitation to Maximus, who then resided at Sardis in Lydia, with Crescentius, the associate of his art and studies. The prudent and superstitious Crescentius refused to undertake a journey which showed itself, according to the rules of divination, with the most threatening and malignant aspect. But his companion, whose fanaticism was of a bolder caste, persisted in his interrogation still he had exhorted from the gods a seeming consent to his own wishes and those of the emperor. The journey of Maximus through the cities of Asia displayed the triumph of philosophic vanity, and the magistrates vied with each other in the honorable reception which they prepared for the friend of their sovereign. Julian was pronouncing an oration before the senate when he was informed of the arrival of Maximus. The emperor immediately interrupted his discourse, advanced to meet him, and after a tender embrace conducted him by the hand into the mist of the assembly, where he publicly acknowledged the benefits which he had derived from the instructions of the philosopher. Maximus, who soon acquired the confidence and influenced the councils of Julian, was insensibly corrupted by the temptations of a court. His dress became more splendid, his demeanor more lofty, and he was exposed, under a succeeding reign, to a disgraceful inquiry into the means by which the disciple of Plato had accumulated, in the short duration of his favor, a very scandalous proportion of wealth. Of the other philosophers and Sophists who were invited to the imperial residence by the choice of Julian, or by the success of Maximus, few were able to preserve their innocence or their reputation. The liberal gifts of money, lands, and houses were insufficient to satiate their rapacious avarice, and the indignation of the people was justly excited by the remembrance of their abject poverty and disinterested professions. The penetration of Julian could not always be deceived, but he was unwilling to despise the characters of those men whose talents deserved his esteem. He desired to escape the double reproach of imprudence and inconstancy, and he was apprehensive of degrading in the eyes of the profane, the honor of letters and of religion. The favor of Julian was almost equally divided between the pagans, who had firmly adhered to the worship of their ancestors, and the Christians who had prudently embraced the religion of their sovereign. The acquisition of new proselytites gratified the ruling passions of his soul, superstition and vanity, and he was hurried to declare with the enthusiasm of a missionary that he could render each individual richer than Midas and every city greater than Babylon. He should not esteem himself the benefactor of mankind, unless, at the same time, he could reclaim his subjects from the empires' revolt against the immortal gods. A prince who had studied human nature, and who possessed the treasures of the Roman Empire, could adapt his arguments, his promises, and his rewards to every order of Christians. And the merit of a seasonable conversion was allowed to supply the defects of a candidate, or even to expiate the guilt of a criminal. As the army is the most forcible engine of absolute power, Julian applied himself with peculiar diligence to corrupt the religion of his troops, without whose hearty concurrence every measure must be dangerous and unsuccessful. And the natural temper of soldiers made this conquest as easy as it was important. The legions of Gaul devoted themselves to the faith, as well as to the fortunes of their victorious leader. And even before the death of Constantius he had the satisfaction of announcing to his friends that they assisted with fervent devotion and voracious appetite at the sacrifices which were repeatedly offered in his camp of whole hecatomes of fat oxen. The armies of the east which have been trained under the standards of the cross and of Constantius required a more artful and expensive mode of persuasion. On the days of solemn and public festivals the emperor received the homage and rewarded the merit of his troops. His throne of state was encircled by the military ensigns of Rome and of the republic. The holy name of Christ was erased from the labyrinth, and the symbols of war, of majesty, and of pagan superstition were so dexterously blended that the faithful subject incurred the guilt of idolatry when he respectfully saluted the person or the image of a sovereign. The soldiers passed successfully in review and each of them before he received from the hand of Julian a liberal donative, proportioned to his rank and services was required to cast a few grains of incense into the flame which burnt upon the altar. Some Christian confessors might resist and others might repent, but the far greater number allured by the prospect of gold and awed by the presence of the emperor contracted the criminal engagement and their future perseverance and the worship of the gods was enforced by every consideration of duty and of interest. By the frequent repetition of these arts and at the expense of sums which would have purchased the service of half the nations of Skidia, Julian gradually adopted for his troops the imaginary protection of the gods and for himself the firm and effectual support of the Roman legions. It is indeed more than probable that the restoration and encouragement of paganism revealed a multitude of pretended Christians who for motives of temporal advantage had acquiesced in the religion of the former reign and who afterwards returned with the same flexibility of conscious to the faith which was professed by the successors of Julian. While devout monarch incessantly labored to restore and propagate the religion of his ancestors he embraced the extraordinary design of rebuilding the temple of Jerusalem in a public epistle to the nation or community of the Jews dispersed throughout the provinces, he pities their misfortunes, condemns their oppressors, praises their constancy, declares himself their gracious protector, and expresses a pious hope that after his return from the Persian war he may be permitted to pay his grateful vows to the Almighty in his holy city of Jerusalem. The blind superstition and abject slavery of those unfortunate exiles must excite the contempt of a philosophic emperor but they deserve the friendship of Julian by their implacable hatred of the Christian name. The barren synagogue abhorred and envied the fecundity of the rebellious church. The power of the Jews was not equal to their malice but their gravest rabbis approved the private murder of an apostate and their seditious climbers had often awakened the indolence of the pagan magistrates. Under the reign of Constantine the Jews became the subjects of the revolted children nor was it long before they experienced the bitterness of domestic tyranny. The civil immunities which have been granted or confirmed by Severus were gradually repealed by the Christian princes and a rash tumult excited by the Jews of Palestine seems to justify the lucrative modes of oppression which were invented by the bishops and eunuchs of the court of Constantius. The Christian patriarch who was still permitted to exercise a precarious jurisdiction held his residence at Tiberias and the neighboring cities of Palestine were filled with the remains of a people who finally adhered to the promised land. But the edict of Hadrian was renewed and enforced and they viewed from afar the walls of the holy city which were profaned in their eyes by the triumph of the cross and the devotion of the Christians. End of chapter 23 part 2 Chapter 23 part 3 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org In the mists of Iraqi and Baran country the walls of Jerusalem enclose the two mountains of Sion and Ekra within an oval figure of about three English miles. Towards the south the upper town and the fortress of David were erected on the lofty ascent of Mount Sion. On the north side the buildings of the lower town covered the spacious summit of Mount Akra and a part of the hill distinguished by the name of Moriah and leveled by human industry was crowned with the stately temple of the Jewish nation. After the final destruction of the temple by the arms of Titus and Hadrian a plowshare was drawn over the consecrated ground as a sign of perpetual interdiction. Sion was deserted and the vacant space of the lower city was filled with the public and private edifices of the Ailean colony which spread themselves over the adjacent hill of Calvary. The holy places were polluted with monuments of idolatry and either from design or accident a chapel was dedicated to Venus on the spot which had been sanctified by the death and resurrection of Christ. Almost 300 years after those stupendous events the profane chapel of Venus was demolished by an order of Constantine and the removal of the earth and stones revealed the holy sepulcher to the eyes of mankind. A magnificent church was erected on that mystic ground by the first Christian emperor and the effects of his pious magnificence were extended to every spot which had been consecrated by the footsteps of patriarchs, of prophets, and of the Son of God. The passionate desire of contemplating the original monuments of their redemption attracted to Jerusalem a successive crowd of pilgrims from the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and the most distant countries of the East. Their piety was authorized by the example of the Emperor Helena who appears to have united the credulity of age with the warm feelings of a recent conversion. Sages and heroes who have visited the memorable scenes of ancient wisdom or glory have confessed the inspiration of the genius of the place and the Christian who knelt before the holy sepulcher ascribed his lively faith and his fervent devotion to the more immediate influence of the divine spirit. The zeal, perhaps the avarice of the clergy of Jerusalem cherished and multiplied these beneficial visits. They fixed, by unquestionable tradition, the scene of each memorable event. They exhibited the instruments which had been used in the Passion of Christ, the nails and the lands that had pierced his hands, his feet, and his side, the crowd of thorns which was planted on his head, the pillar at which he was scourged, and, above all, they showed the cross on which he had suffered and which was dug out of the earth in the reign of those princes who inserted the symbol of Christianity in the banners of the Roman legions. Such miracles, as seemed necessary to account for its extraordinary preservation and seasonable discovery, were gradually propagated without opposition. The custody of the true cross, which on Easter Sunday was solemnly exposed to the people, was entrusted to the bishop of Jerusalem, and he alone might gratify the curious devotion of the pilgrims by the gift of the small pieces which they encased in gold or gems, and carried away in triumph to the respective countries. But, as this gainful branch of commerce must soon have been annihilated, it was found convenient to suppose that the marvelous wood possessed a secret power of vegetation, and that its substance, though continually diminished, were still remained entire and unimpaired. It might perhaps have been expected that the influence of the place and the belief of a perpetual miracle should have produced some salutary effects on the morals, as well as on the faith of the people. Yet, the most respectable of the ecclesiastical writers have been obliged to confess not only that the streets of Jerusalem were filled with the incessant tumult of business and pleasure, but that every species of ice, adultery, theft, idolatry, poisoning, murder, was familiar to the inhabitants of the holy city. The wealth and preeminence of the Church of Jerusalem excited the ambition of Arian, as well as Orthodox candidates, and the virtues of Cyril, who since his death had been honored with the title of saint, were displayed in the exercise rather than in the acquisition of his Episcopal dignity. The vain and ambitious mind of Julian might aspire to restore the ancient glory of the Temple of Jerusalem, as the Christians were firmly persuaded that a sentence of everlasting destruction had been pronounced against the whole fabric of the Mosaic Law. The imperial sophist would have converted the success of his undertaking into a specious argument against the faith of prophecy and the truth of revelation. He was displeased with the spiritual worship of the synagogue, but he approved the institutions of Moses, who would not disdain to adopt many of the rights and ceremonies of Egypt. The local and national deity of the Jews was sincerely endured by a polytheist who desired only to multiply the number of the gods, and such was the appetite of Julian for bloody sacrifice that his emulation might be excited by the piety of Solomon, who had offered at the feast of the dedication 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep. These considerations might influence his designs, but the prospect of an immediate and important advantage would not suffer the impatient monarch to expect the remote and uncertain event of the Persian war. He resolved to erect, without delay, on the commanding eminence of Moria, a stately temple which might eclipse the splendor of the Church of the Resurrection on the adjacent hill of Calvary, and to establish an order of priests whose interested zeal would detect the arts and resist the ambition of their Christian rivals, and to invite a numerous colony of Jews whose stern fanaticism would always be prepared to second and even to anticipate the hostile measures of the pagan government. Among the friends of the emperor, if the names of emperor and a friend are not incompatible, the first place was assigned by Julian himself to the virtuous and learned Ellipius. The humanity of Ellipius was tempered by severe justice and manly fortitude, and while he exercised his abilities in the civil administration of Britain, he imitated, in his poetical compositions, the harmony and softness of the odes of Sappho. This minister, to whom Julian communicated without reserve, his most careless levities, and his most serious councils, received an extraordinary commission to restore, in its pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem, and the diligence of Ellipius required and obtained the strenuous support of the governor of Palestine. At the call of their great deliverer, the Jews from all the provinces of the empire were assembled on the holy mountain of their fathers, and their insolent triumph alarmed and exasperated the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem. The desire of rebuilding the temple has, in every age, been the ruling passion of the children of Israel. In this propitious moment, the men forgot their avarice, and the women their delicacy. Spades and pickaxes of silver were provided by the vanity of the rich, and the rubbish was transported in mantels of silk and purple. Every purse was opened in liberal contributions. Overhand, claimed a share in the pious labor, and the commands of a great monarch were executed by the enthusiasm of a whole people. Yet, on this occasion, the joint efforts of power and enthusiasm were unsuccessful, and the ground of the Jewish temple, which is now covered by a Mohammedan mosque, still continued to exhibit the same edifying spectacle of ruin and desolation. Perhaps the absence and death of the emperor and the new maxims of a Christian reign might explain the interruption of an arduous work, which was attempted only in the last six months of the life of Julian. But the Christians entertained a natural and pious expectation that in this memorial contest the honor of religion would be vindicated by some signal miracle. An earthquake, a rural wind, and a fire re-eruption, which overturned and scattered the new foundations of the temple, are attested with some variation by contemporary and respectable evidence. This public event is described by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, in an epistle to the emperor Theodosius, which must provoke the severe amiadversion of the Jews, by the eloquent Chrysostom, who might appeal to the memory of the elder part of his congregation at Antioch, and by Gregory Nazianzen, who published his account of the miracle before the expiration of the same year. The last of these writers has boldly declared that this pre-natural event was not disputed by the infidels, and his assertion strange as it may seem is confirmed by the unacceptable testimony of Amianus Marcellinus. The philosophic soldier who loved the virtues without adopting the prejudices of his master has recorded in his judicious and candid history of his own times the extraordinary obstacles which interrupted the restoration of the temple of Jerusalem. Wylst Illypius, assisted by the governor of the province, urged with vigor and diligence the execution of the work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near the foundation with frequent and reiterated attacks, rendered the place from time to time inaccessible to the scorch and blasted workmen, and the victorious element continuing in this manner obstinately and resolutely bent, as it were to drive them to a distance, the undertaking was soon abandoned. Such authority should satisfy a believing and must astonish an incredulous mind, yet a philosopher may still require the original evidence of impartial and intelligent spectators. At this important crisis, any singular accident of nature would assume the appearance and produce the effects of a real prodigy. This glorious deliverance would be speedily improved and magnified by the pious arts of the clergy of Jerusalem, and the active credulity of the Christian world and at the distance of 20 years a Roman historian, careless of theological disputes, might adorn his work with the specious and splendid miracle. End of chapter 23, part 3. Chapter 23, part 4 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, volume 2. This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The restoration of the Jewish temple was secretly connected with the ruin of the Christian church. Julian still continued to maintain the freedom of religious worship without distinguishing whether this universal toleration proceeded from his justice or his clemency. He affected to pity the unhappy Christians, who were mistaken in the most important object of their lives, but his pity was degraded by contempt, his contempt was embittered by hatred, and the sentiments of Julian were expressed in a style of sarcastic wit, which inflicts a deep and deadly wound whenever it issues from the mouth of a sovereign. As he was sensible that the Christians gloried in the name of their Redeemer, he countenanced and perhaps enjoyed the use of the less honorable appellation of Galileans. He declared that, by the folly of the Galileans, whom he describes as a sect of fanatics, contemptible to men, and odious to the gods, the empire had been reduced to the brink of destruction, and he assinuates in a public edict that a frantic patient, might sometimes be cured by salutary violence. An ungenerous distinction was admitted into the mind and councils of Julian, that, according to the difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his subjects deserved his favor and friendship, while the other part was entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not refuse to an obedient people. According to a principal pregnant with mischief and oppression, the emperor transferred to the pontiffs of his own religion, the management of the liberal allowances, from the public revenue which had been granted to the church by the piety of Constantine and his sons. The proud system of clerical honors and immunities, which had been constructed with so much art and labor, was level to the ground. The hopes of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigors of the laws, and the priests of the Christian sect were confounded with the last and most ignominious class of the people. Such of these regulations as appeared necessary to check the ambition and avarice of the ecclesiastics were soon afterwards imitated by the wisdom of an orthodox prince. The peculiar distinctions which policy is bestowed or superstition has lavished on the sacroedotal order must be confined to those priests who profess the religion of the state. But the will of the legislator was not exempt from prejudice and passion, and it was the object of the insidious policy of Julian to deprive the Christians of all the temporal honors and advantages which rendered them respectable in the eyes of the world. Adjust and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and rhetoric. The motives alleged by the emperor to justify this partial and oppressive measure might command during his lifetime the silence of slaves and the applause of flatterers. Julian abuses the ambiguous meaning of a word which might be indifferently applied to the language and the religion of the Greeks. He contemptuously observes that the men who exalt the merit of implicit faith are unfit to claim or to enjoy the advantages of science. He vainly contends that if they refuse to adore the gods of Homer and Demosthenes, they ought to content themselves with expounding Luke and Matthew in the churches of the Galileans. In all the cities of the Roman world, the education of the youth was entrusted to masters of grammar and rhetoric, who were elected by the magistrates maintained at the public expense and distinguished by many lucrative and honorable privileges. The edict of Julian appears to have included the physicians and professors of all the liberal arts. And the emperor, who reserved to himself the approbation of the candidates, was authorized by the laws to corrupt or to punish the religious constancy of the most learned of the Christians. As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate teachers had established the unrivaled dominion of the pagan Sophists, Julian invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the public schools and adjust confidence that their tender minds would receive the impressions of literature and idolatry. If the greatest part of the Christian youth should be deterred by their own scruples or by those of their parents from accepting this dangerous mode of instruction, they must at the same time relinquish the benefits of a liberal education. Julian had reason to expect that, in the space of a few years, the church would relapse into its primeval simplicity and that the theologians, possessed an adequate share of the learning and eloquence of the age, would be succeeded by a generation of blind and ignorant fanatics incapable of defending the truth of their own principles or of exposing the various follies of polytheism. It was undoubtedly the wish and design of Julian to deprive the Christians of the advantages of wealth, of knowledge and of power. But the injustice of excluding them from all offices of trust and profit seems to have been the result of his general policy rather than the immediate consequence of any positive law. Superior merit might deserve and obtain some extraordinary exceptions, but the greater part of the Christian officers were gradually removed from their employments in the state, the army and the provinces. The hopes of future candidates were extinguished by the declared partiality of a prince who maliciously reminded them that it was unlawful for a Christian to use the sword either of justice or of war, and who studiously guarded the camp in tribunals with the ensigns of idolatry. The powers of government were entrusted to the pagans, who professed an ardent zeal for the religion of their ancestors, and as the choice of the emperor was often directed by the rules of divination, the favorites whom he preferred as the most agreeable to the gods did not always obtain the approbation of mankind. Under the administration of their enemies, the Christians had much to suffer and much to apprehend. The temper of Julian was adverse to cruelty and the care of his reputation, which was exposed to the eyes of the universe, restrained the philosophic monarch 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 honors of martyrdom. The emperor, who dissembled as long as possible his knowledge of the injustice which was exercised in his name, expressed his real sense of the conduct of his officers by gentle reproofs and substantial rewards. The most effectual instrument of oppression with which they were armed was the law that obliged the Christians to make full and ample satisfaction for the temples which they had destroyed under the preceding reign. The zeal of the triumphant church had not always expected the sanction of the public authority and the bishops who were secure of impunity had often marched at the head of their congregations to attack and demolish the fortresses of the prince of darkness. 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 consecrated his sacrilegious violence. After the ground was cleared the restitution of those stately structures which had been leveled 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 the inclination to discharge this accumulated demand and the impartial wisdom of the legislator would have been displayed in balancing the adverse claims and complaints by inequitable 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 Erethrusa had labored 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 age of Prelate they inhumanly scorched him they tore his beard his naked body anointed with honey was suspended in the 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 range of his persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands and dismissed to enjoy the honor of his divine triumph. The Aryans celebrated 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 Erethrusa had saved the infancy of Julian posterity will condemn the ingratitude instead of praising the clemency of the emperor. At the distance of five miles from Antioch the Macedonian kings of Syria had consecrated to Apollo one of the most elegant places of devotion in the pagan world. A magnificent temple rose in honor of the God of Light and his colossal figure almost filled the capacious sanctuary which was enriched with golden gems and endured 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 and if he supplicated the venerable mother to give to his arms the cold and mutuous Daphne for the spot was ennobled by fiction and the fancy of the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tales from the banks of the Peneas to those of the Arantes. The ancient rites of Greece were imitated by the royal colony of Antioch a stream of prophecy which rivaled the truth and reputation of the Delphic Oracle flowed from the Castilian Fountain of Daphne In the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege which had been purchased from Ellis. The Olympic games were celebrated at the expense of the city and a revenue of 30,000 pounds sterling was annually applied to the public pleasures. The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators insensibly formed in the neighborhood of the temple the stately and populous village of Daphne which emulated the splendor without acquiring the title of a provincial city. The temple and the village were deeply bosomed in the thick grove of laurels and cypresses which reached as far as a circumference of 10 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 verter of the earth and the temperature of the air. The senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and aromatic odors and the peaceful growth 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 coiness. The soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided the temptation of this sensual paradise 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 splendor of the temple. When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to the door the Apollo of Daphne his devotion was raised to the highest pitch of eeriness and impatience. His lively imagination anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of libations, of incense, a long procession of youths and virgins clothed in white robes, the symbol of their innocence, and the tumultual concourse of an innumerable people. But the zeal of Antioch was diverted since the reign of Christianity into a different channel.  The altar was deserted, the oracle had been reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the introduction of Christian and funeral rites. After Bobilas, Bishop of Antioch who died in prison in the persecution of Decius had rested near a century in his grave, his body by the odor of the Caesar gallus was transported into the mists 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 favor of paganism, the Church of Saint Bobilas was demolished, and new buildings were added to the moldering 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 and enthusiasm. The 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 Saint Bobilas to their former habitation within the walls of Antioch. The modest behavior which might have assuaged the jealousy of a hostile government was neglected on this occasion by the zeal of the Christians. The lofty car that transported the relics of Bobilas 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. The Christians of Antioch asserted with religious confidence that the powerful intercession of Saint Bobilas 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 color of probability to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the Galileans. Their offense had it been sufficiently proved might have justified the retaliation which was immediately executed by the order of Julian of shutting the doors and confiscating the wealth of the cathedral of Antioch. To discover the criminals who were guilty of the tumult of the fire or of secreting the riches of the church several ecclesiastics were tortured and a presbyter by the name of Theodorit 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 might tarnish his reign with the disgrace of persecution. End of Chapter 23 Part 4 Chapter 23 Part 5 of the Decline of Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org 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 license of popular fury cannot easily be restrained nor consistently punished. Julian in a public composition applaudings the devotion and loyalty of the holy cities of Syria whose pious inhabitants had destroyed at the first signal the sepulchres of the Galileans and faintly complains that they had revenged the injuries of the gods with less moderation than he should have recommended. This imperfect and reluctant confession may appear to confirm the ecclesiastical narratives that in the cities of Gaza Ascalon Caesarea Heliopolis etc. 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. 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 splendor of the capital of Egypt. George from his parents or his education surnamed the Cappadocian was born at Epiphania in Celesia in a fuller's shop from this obscure and servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite and the patrons whom he assiduously flattered procured for their worthless dependent a lucrative commission or contract to supply the army with bacon. His employment was mean he rendered it infamous. He accumulated wealth by the basis arts of fraud and corruption but his maled versions were so notorious that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits of justice. After this disgrace in which he appears to have saved his fortune at the expense of his honor he embraced with real or affected zeal the profession of arianism. From the love or the ostentation of learning he collected a valuable library of history rhetoric philosophy and theology and the choice of the prevailing faction promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance of the new archbishop was that of a barbarian conqueror and each moment of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant qualified by nature and education to exercise the office of persecution but he oppressed with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese. The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty station but he still betrayed the vices of his base in servile extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust and almost universal monopoly which he acquired of Niter, salt, paper, funerals, etc. and the spiritual father of a great people condescended to practice the vile and pernicious arts of an informer. The Alexandrians could never forget nor forgive the tax which he suggested on all the houses of the city under an obsolete claim that the royal founder had conveyed to his successors the Ptolemies and the Caesars the perpetual property of the soil. The pagans who had been flattered with the hopes of freedom and toleration excited his devout avarice. And the rich temples of Alexandria were either pillaged or insulted by the haughty prelate who exclaimed in a loud and threatening tone how long will these supprecurs be permitted to stand. Under the reign of Constantius he was expelled by the fury or rather by the justice of the people and it was not without a violent struggle that the civil and military powers of the state could restore his authority and gratify his revenge. The messenger who proclaimed at Alexandria the accession of Julian announced the downfall of the Archbishop. George with two of his obsequious ministers Count Deodorus and Dracantius master of the mint were ignominiously dragged in chains to the public prison. At the end of 24 days the prison was forced open by the rage of a superstitious multitude impatient of the tedious forms of judicial proceedings. The enemy of gods and men expired under their cruel insults. The lifeless bodies of the Archbishop and his associates were carried in triumph through the streets on the back of a camel and the inactivity of the Athanasian party was esteemed a shining example of evangelical patience. The remains of these guilty wretches were thrown into the sea and the popular leaders of the tumult declared their resolution to disappoint the devotions of the Christians and to intercept the future honors of these martyrs who had been punished like their predecessors by the enemies of their religion. The fears of the pagans were just their precautions ineffectual the meritorious death of the Archbishop obliterated the memory of his life. The rival of Athanasius was dear and sacred to the Arians and the seeming conversion of those sectaries introduced his worship into the bosom of the Catholic Church. The odious stranger disguising every circumstance of time and place assumed the rank of a martyr, a saint and a Christian hero, and the infamous George of Cappadocia has been transformed into the renowned Saint George of England the patron of arms of chivalry and of the garter. About the same time the Julian was informed of the tumult of Alexandria he received intelligence from Edessa that the proud and wealthy faction of the Arians had insulted the weakness of the Valentinians and committed such disorders as not to be suffered with impunity in a well-regulated state. Without expecting the slow forms of justice the exasperated Prince directed his mandate to the magistrates of Edessa by which he confiscated the whole property of the church the money was distributed among the soldiers the lands were added to the domain and this act of oppression was aggravated by the most ungenerous irony. I show myself says Julian the true friend of the Galileans their admiral Law has promised the kingdom of heaven to the poor and they will advance with more diligence in the paths of virtue and salvation when they are relieved by my assistance from the load of temporal possessions take care pursued the monarch in a more serious tone take care how you provoke my patience and humanity if these disorders continue I will avenge on the magistrates the crimes of the people and you will have a reason to dread not only confiscation and exile but fire and the sword the tumults of Alexandria were doubtless of a more bloody and dangerous nature but a Christian bishop had fallen by the hands of the pagans and the public epistle of Julian affords a very lively proof of the partial spirit of his administration his reproaches to the citizens of Alexandria are mingled with expressions of esteem and tenderness and he laments that on this occasion they should have departed from the gentle and generous manners which attested their Grecian extraction he gravely censures the offense which they had committed against the laws of justice and humanity but he recapitulates with visible complacency the intolerable provocations which they had so long endured from the impious tyranny of George of Cappadocia Julian admits the principle that a wise and vigorous government should chastise the insolent of the people yet in consideration of their founder Alexander and of Serapis their tutular deity he grants a free and gracious pardon to the guilty city for which he again feels the affection of a brother after the tumult of Alexandria had subsided Athanasius admits the public acclamations seated himself on the throne from whence his unworthy competitor had been precipitated and as the zeal of the archbishop was tempered with discretion the exercise of his authority tended not to inflame but to reconcile the minds of the people his pastoral labors were not confined to the narrow limits of Egypt the state of the Christian world was present to his active and capacious mind and the age the merit the reputation of Athanasius enabled him to assume in a moment of danger the office of ecclesiastical dictator three years were not yet elapsed since the majority of the bishops of the west had ignorantly or reluctantly subscribed to the confession of remedy they repented they believed but they dreaded the unseasonable rigor of their orthodox brethren and if their pride was stronger than their faith they might throw themselves into the hands of the Aryans to escape the indignity of a public penance which must degrade them to the condition of obscure laymen at the same time the domestic differences concerning the union and the distinction of the divine persons were agitated with some heat among the catholic doctors and the progress of this metaphysical controversy seemed to threaten a public and lasting division of the greek and latin churches by the wisdom of a select synod to which the name and presence of Athanasius gave the authority of a general council the bishops who had unwarily deviated into air were admitted to the communion of the church on the easy condition of subscribing the nicene creed without any formal acknowledgement of their past fault or any minute definition of their scholastic opinions the advice of the primate of Egypt had already prepared the clergy of Gaul and Spain of Italy and Greece for the reception of this salutary measure and notwithstanding the oppression of some ardent spirits the fear of the common enemy promoted the peace and harmony of the Christians the skill and diligence of the primate of Egypt had improved the season of tranquility before it was interrupted by the hostile edicts of the emperor Julian who despised the Christians honored Athanasius with his sincere and peculiar hatred for his sake alone he introduced an arbitrary distinction repugnant at least to the spirit of his former declarations he maintained that the Galileans whom he had recalled from exile were not restored by that general indulgence to the possession of the respective churches he expressed his astonishment that a criminal who had been repeatedly condemned by the judgment of the emperors should dare to insult the majesty of the laws and insolently usurp the arch Episcopal throne of Alexandria without expecting the orders of a sovereign as a punishment for the imaginary offense he again banished Athanasius from the city and he was pleased to suppose that this act of justice would be highly agreeable to his pious subjects the pressing solicitations of the people soon convinced him that the majority of the Alexandrians were Christians and that the greatest part of the Christians were firmly attached to the cause of their oppressed primate but the knowledge of their sentiments instead of persuading him to recall his decree provoked him to extend to all of Egypt this term of the exile of Athanasius the zeal of the multitude rendered Julian still more inexorable he was alarmed by the danger of leaving at the head of a tumultuous city a daring and popular leader in the language of his resentment discovers the opinion which he entertained of the courage and abilities of Athanasius the execution of the sentence was still delayed by the caution or negligence of Acticius the prefect of Egypt who was at length awakened from his lethargy by a severe reprimand though you neglect says Julian to write me on any other subject at least it is your duty to inform me of your conduct towards Athanasius the enemy of the gods my intentions have been long communicated to you I swear by the great Serapis that unless on the callons of December Athanasius is departed from Alexandria nay from Egypt the officers of your government shall pay a fine of 100 pounds of gold you know my temper I am slow to condemn but I am still slower to forgive the epistle was enforced by a short post script written with the emperor's own hand the contempt that is shown for all the gods fills me with grief and indignation there was nothing that I should see nothing that I should hear with more pleasure that the expulsion of Athanasius from all Egypt the abominable wretch under my reign the baptism of several Grecian ladies of the highest rank has been the effect of his persecutions the death of Athanasius was not expressly commanded but the prefect of Egypt understood that it was safer for him to exceed than to neglect the orders of an irritated master the archbishop prettily retired to the monasteries of the desert alluded with his usual dexterity the snares of the enemy and lived to triumph over the ashes of a prince who in the words of formidable import had declared his wish that the whole venom of the Galilean school were contained in the single person of Athanasius I have endeavored faithfully to represent the artful system by which Julian proposed to obtain the effects without incurring the guilt or reproach of persecution but if the deadly spirit of fanaticism perverted the heart and the understanding of a virtuous prince it must at the same time be confessed that the real sufferings of the Christians were inflamed and magnified by human passions and religious enthusiasm the meekness and resignation which had distinguished the primitive disciples of the gospel was the object of the applause rather than of the imitation of their successors the Christians who had now possessed above 40 years the civil and ecclesiastical governments of the empire had contracted the insolent vices of prosperity and the habit of believing that the saints alone were entitled to reign over the earth as soon as the enmity of Julian deprived the clergy of the privileges which had been conferred by the favor of Constantine they complained of the most cruel oppression and the free toleration of idolaters and heretics was the subject of grief and scandal to the orthodox party the acts of violence which were no longer countenanced by the magistrates were still committed by the zeal of the people at Pessinus the altar of Sabele was overturned almost in the presence of the emperor and in the city of Caesarea in Cappadocia the temple of fortune the sole place of worship which had been left to the pagans was destroyed by the rage of a popular tumult on these occasions a prince who felt for the honor of the gods was not disposed to interrupt the course of justice and his mind was still more deeply exasperated when he found that the fanatics who had deserved and suffered the punishment of incendiaries were rewarded with the honors of martyrdom the Christian subjects of Julian were assured of the hostile designs of their sovereign and to their jealous apprehension every circumstance of his government might afford some grounds of discontent and suspicion in the ordinary administration of the laws the Christians who formed so large a part of the people must frequently be condemned but their indigent brethren without examining the merits of the cause presumed their innocence allowed their claims and imputed with severity of their judge to the partial malice of religious persecution these present hardships intolerable as they might appear were represented as a single prelude of the impending calamities the Christians considered Julian as a cruel and crafty tyrant who suspended the execution of his revenge to as she returned victorious from the Persian war they expected that as soon as he had triumphed over the foreign enemies of Rome he should lay aside the irksome mask of dissimulation that the amphitheaters would stream with the blood of hermits and bishops that the Christians who still persevered in the profession of the faith would be deprived of the common benefits of nature and society every calamity that could wound the reputation of the apostate was credulously embraced by the fears and hatreds of his adversaries and their industry clamors provoked the temper of a sovereign who it was their duty to respect and their interest to flatter they still protested that prayers and tears were their only weapons against the impirous tyrant whose head they devoted to the justice of offended heaven but they insinuated with sullen resolution that their submission was no longer the effect of weakness and that in the imperfect state of human virtue the patience which is founded on principle may be exhausted by persecution it is impossible to determine how far the zeal of julian would have prevailed over his good sense in humanity but if we seriously reflect on the strength and spirit of the church we shall be convinced that before the emperor could have extinguished the religion of christ he must have involved his country in the horrors of a civil war end of chapter 23 part 5 chapter 24 the retreat and death of julian part 1 residence of julian at antheok his successful expedition against the persians passage of the tgris the retreat and death of julian election of jovian he saves the rogan army by a disgraceful treaty the philosophical fable which julian composed under the name of the ceasers is one of the most agreeable and instructive productions of ancient wit during the freedom and equality of the days of the saturnalia romulus prepared a feast for the deities of olympus where adopted him as a worthy associate and for the roman princes who had reigned over his martial people and vanquished nations of the earth the immortals were placed in just order on the throne so state and the table of the ceasers was spread below the moon in the upper region of the air the tyrants who would have disgraced the society of gods and men were thrown headlong by the inexorable nemesis into the tartary and abyss the rest of the ceasers successively advanced to their seats and as they passed the vices the defects the blemishes of their respective characters were maliciously noticed by old silenus a laughing moralist who disguised the wisdom of a philosopher under the mask of a bacchanal as soon as the feast was ended the voice of mercury proclaimed the will of Jupiter that a celestial crown should be the reward of superior merit Julius Caesar Augustus Trajan and Marcus Antoninus were selected as the most illustrious candidates the effeminate Constantine was not excluded from this honorable competition and the great Alexander was invited to dispute the price of glory with the roman heroes each of the candidates was allowed to display the merit of his own exploits but in the judgment of the gods the modest silence of Marcus pleaded more powerful than the elaborate orations of his haughty rivals when the judges of this awful contest proceeded to examine the heart and to scrutinize the springs of action the superiority of the imperial stoic appeared still more decisive and conspicuous Alexander and Caesar Augustus Trajan and Constantine acknowledged with a blush that fame or power or pleasure had been the important object of their labors but the gods themselves beheld with reverence and love a virtuous mortal were practiced on the throne the lessons of philosophy and who in a state of human imperfection had aspired to imitate the moral attributes of the deity the value of this agreeable composition the seizures of julian is enhanced by the rank of the author a prince who delineates with freedom the vices and virtues of his predecessors subscribes in every line the censure or approbation of his own conduct in the cool moments of reflection julian preferred the useful and benevolent virtues of antoninos but his ambitious spirit was inflamed by the glory of alexander and he solicited with equal ardor the esteem of the wise and the applause of the multitude in the season of life when the powers of the mind and body enjoy the most active vigor the emperor who was instructed by the experience and animated by the success of the german war resolved to signalize his reign by some more splendid and memorable achievement the ambassadors of the east from the continent of india and the isle of selen had respectfully saluted the roman purple the nations of the west esteemed and dreaded the personal virtues of julian both in peace and war he despised the trophies of a gothic victory and what satisfied that the rapacious barbarians of the danube would be restrained from any future violation of the fate of treaties by the terror of his name and the additional fortifications with which he strengthened the tracheand and illyrian frontiers the successor of cirrus and artaxerxes was the only rival whom he deemed worthy of his arms and he resolved by the final conquest of persia to chastise the notation which had so long resisted that insulted the majesty of rome as soon as the persian monarch was informed that the throne of constantius was filled by a prince of a very different character he condescended to make some artful or perhaps sincere overtures towards a negotiation of peace was the pride of sapor was astonished by the firmness of julian who sternly declared that he would never consent to hold a peaceful conference among the flames and ruins of the cities of mesopotamia and who added with a smile of contempt that it was needless to treat by ambassadors as he himself had determined to visit speedily the court of persia the impatience of the emperor urged the diligence of the military preparations the generals were named and julian marching from constantinople through the provinces of asia minor arrived at antioch about eight months after the death of his predecessor his ardent desire to march into the heart of persia was checked by the indispensable duty of regulating the state of the empire by his zeal to revive the worship of the gods and by the advice of his wisest friends who represented the necessity of allowing the salutary interwall of winter quarters to restore the exhausted strength of the legions of gole and the disciplined spirit of the eastern troops julian was persuaded to fix till the ensuing spring his residence at antioch among a people maliciously disposed to deride the haste and censure the delays of their sovereign if julian had flattered himself that his personal connection with the capital of the east would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and the people he made a very false estimate of his own character and of the manners of antioch the warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquility and opulence and the lively licentiousness of the greeks was blended with the hereditary softness of the syrians fashion was the only law pleasure the only pursuit and the splendor of dress and furniture was the only distinction of the citizens of antioch the arts of luxury were honored the serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridicule and the contempt for female modesty and reverent age announced the universal corruption of the capital of the east the love of spectacles was the taste or rather passion of the syrians the most skillful artists were procured from the adjacent cities a considerable share of their revenue was devoted to public amusement and the magnificence of the games of the theater and circus was considered as the happiness and the glory of antioch the rustic manners of a prince who disdained such glory and was insensible of such happiness soon disgusted the delicacy of his subjects and the effeminate orientals could neither imitate nor admire the severe simplicity which julian always maintained and sometimes affected the days of festivity consecrated my ancient custom to the honor of the gods were the only occasions in which julian relaxed his philosophic severity and those festivals were the only days in which the syrians of antioch could reject the allurements of pleasure the majority of the people supported the glory of the christian name which had been first invented by their ancestors they contended themselves with disobeying the moral precepts but they were scrupulously attached to the speculative doctrines of their religion the church of antioch was distracted by heresy and schism but the arians and the athanasians the followers of milletius and those of paulinos were actuated by the same pious hatred of the common adversary the strongest prejudice was entertained against the character of an apostate the enemy and successor of a prince who had engaged the affections of a very numerous sect and the removal of sent bebulas excited an implacable opposition to the person of julian his subjects complained with superstitious indignation that famine had pursued the emperor's steps from constantinople to antioch and the discontent of a hungry people was exasperated by the injudicious attempts to relieve their distress the inclemency of the season had affected the harvest of syria and the price of bread in the markets of antioch had naturally risen in proportion to the scarcity of corn but the fair and reasonable proportion was soon violated by the rapacious art of monopoly in this unequal contest in which the producer of the land is claimed by one party as his exclusive property is used by another as a lucrative object of trade and is required by the third for the daily and necessary support of life all the profits of the intermediate agents are accumulated on the head of the defenseless customers the hardships of their situation were exaggerated and increased by their own impatience and anxiety and the apprehension of a scarce city gradually produced the appearances of a famine when the luxurious citizens of antioch complained of the high price of poultry and fish julian publicly declared that a frugal city ought to be satisfied with the regular supply of wine, oil and bread but he acknowledged that it was his duty as a sovereign to provide for the subsistence of his people with this salutary view the emperor ventured on a very dangerous and doubtful step of fixing by legal authority the value of corn he enacted that in a time of scarcity it should be sold at a price which has seldom been known in the most plentiful years and that his own example might strengthen the laws he sent into the market 422,000 modi or measures which were drawn by his order from the granaries of hero polis of calquis and even of Egypt the consequences might have been foreseen and were soon felt the imperial wet was purchased by the rich merchants the proprietors of land or of corn withheld from the city the accustomed supply and the small quantities that appeared in the market were secretly sold at an advanced and illegal price julien still continued to applaud his own policy treated the complaints of the people as a vain and ungrateful murmur and convinced Antioch that he had inherited the obstinacy though not the cruelty of his brother gallus the remonstrances of the municipal senate served only to exasperate his inflexible mind he was persuaded perhaps with truth that the senators of Antioch who possessed lands or were concerned in trade had themselves contributed to the calamities of their country and he imputed the disrespectful boldness which they assumed to the sense not of public duty but of private interest the whole body consisting of 200 of the most noble and wealthy citizens were sent under regard from the palace to the prison and though they were permitted before the close of evening to return to their respective houses the emperor himself could not obtain the forgiveness which he had so easily granted the same grievances were still the subject of the same complaints which were industriously circulated by the wit and levity of the Syrian Greeks during the licentious days of the Saturnalia the streets of the city resounded with insolent songs which derided the laws the religion the personal conduct and even the beard of the emperor the spirit of Antioch was manifested by the connivance of the magistrates and by the applause of the multitude the disciple of Socrates was too deeply affected by these popular insults but the monarch endowed with a quick sensibility and possessed of absolute power refused his passions the gratification of revenge a tyrant might have proscribed without distinction the lives and fortunes of the citizens of Antioch and the unwarlike Syrians must have patiently submitted to the lust the rapaciousness and the cruelty of the faithful legions of Gaul a milder sentence might have deprived the capital of the east of its honors and privileges and the courtiers perhaps the subjects of Julian would have applauded an act of justice which asserted the dignity of the supreme magistrate of the republic but instead of abusing or exerting the authority of the state to revenge his personal injuries Julian contended himself with an inoffensive mode of retaliation which it would be in the power of few princes to employ he had been insulted by satires and libels in his turn he composed under the title of the enemy of the beard an ironical confession of his own faults and a severe satire on the licentious and effeminate manners of Antioch this imperial reply was publicly exposed before the gates of the palace and the misopogons still remains a singular manoeuvre of the resentment the wit the humanity and the indiscretion of Julian though he affected the laugh he could not forgive his contempt was expressed and his revenge might be gratified by the nomination of a governor worthy only of such subjects and the emperor forever renouncing the ungrateful city proclaimed his resolution to pass the ensuing winter at Tarsus in Cilicia Yet Antioch possessed one citizen whose genius and virtues might atone in the opinion of Julian for the vice and folly of his country the sophist Libanius was born in the capital of the east he publicly professed the arts of rhetoric and declamation at Nikke, Nicomedia, Constantinople, Athens and during the remainder of his life at Antioch his school was assiduously frequented by the Grecian youth his disciples who sometimes succeeded the number of 80 celebrated their incomparable master and the jealousy of his rivals who persecuted him from one city to another confirmed a favorable opinion which Libanius ostentiously displayed of his superior merit the preceptors of Julian had exhorted a rash but solemn assurance that he would never attend the lectures of their adversary the curiosity of the royal youth was checked and inflamed he secretly procured the writings of this dangerous sophist and gradually surpassed in the perfect imitation of his style the most laborious of his domestic pupils when Julian ascended the throne he declared his impatience to embrace and reward the Syrian sophist who had preserved in a degenerate age the Grecian purity of taste of manners and of religion the emperor's prepossession was increased and justified by the discreet pride of his favorite instead of pressing with the foremost of the crowd into the palace of Constantinople Libanius calmly expected his arrival at Antioch withdrew from court on the first symptoms of coldness and indifference required a formal invitation for each visit and taught his sovereign an important lesson that he might command the obedience of a subject but that he must deserve the attachment of a friend the sophists of every age despising or affecting to despise the accidental distinctions of birth and fortune to reserve their esteem for the superior qualities of the mind with which they themselves are so plentifully endowed Julian might disdain the acclamations of a venal court with the order imperial purple but he was deeply flattered by the praise the admonition the freedom and the envy of an independent philosopher who refused his favors loved his person celebrated his fame and protected his memory the voluminous writings of Libanius still exists for the most part they are the vain and idle compositions of an orator who cultivated the signs of words the productions of a recluse student whose mind regardless of his contemporaries was incessantly fixed on the Trojan War and the Athenian Commonwealth yet the sophist of Antioch sometimes descended from this imaginary elevation he entertained the various and elaborate correspondence he praised the virtues of his own times he boldly arranged the abuse of public and private life and he eloquently pleaded the course of Antioch against the just resentment of Julian and Theodosius it is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable but Libanius experienced the peculiar misfortune of surviving the religion and the sciences to which he had consecrated his genius the friend of Julian was an indignant spectator to the triumph of Christianity and his bigotry which darkened the prospect of the visible world did not inspire Libanius with any lively hopes of celestial glory and happiness end of chapter 24 part 1 recording by Monsbruck Helsingfors Finland chapter 24 part 2 of the deline and fall of the roman empire volume 2 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings in the public domain for more information auto-volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Monsbruck Helsingfors Finland chapter 24 the retreat and death of Julian part 2 the marshal impatience of Julian urged him to take the field in the beginning of the spring and he dismissed with contempt and reproach the senate of Antioch who accompanied the emperor beyond the limits of their own territory to which he was resolved never to return after a laborious marshal two days he halted at the third at Berea or Aleppo where he had the mortification of finding a senate almost entirely Christian who received with cold and formal demonstrations of respect the eloquent sermon of the apostle of paganism the son of one of the most illustrious citizens of Berea but embraced either from interest or conscience the religion of the emperor was disinherited by his angry parent the father and the son were invited to the imperial table Julian placing himself between them attempted without success to inculcate the lesson and example of toleration supported with affected calmness the indiscreet seal of the aged Christian who seemed to forget the sentiments of nature and the duty of a subject and at length turning towards the afflicted youth since you have lost the father said he for my sake it is incumbent on me to supply his place the emperor was received in a manner much more agreeable to his wishes at Batne a small town pleasantly seated in a grove of suppressors about 20 miles from the city of Berea Polis the Solomon rites of sacrifice were decently prepared by the inhabitants of Batne who seemed attached to the worship of their two taller deities Apollo and Jupiter but the serious piety of Julian was offended by the tumult of their applause and he too clearly discerned that the smoke which arose from their altars was the incense of flattery rather than of devotion the ancient and magnificent temple which had sanctified for so many ages the city of Berea Polis no longer subsisted and a consecrated wealth which afforded a liberal maintenance to more than 300 priests might have in its downfall yet Julian enjoyed the satisfaction of embracing a philosopher and a friend with religious firmness had withstood depressing and repeated solicitations or constantutes and gullus as often as those princes lodged at his house in their passage through Berea Polis in the hurry of military preparation and careless confidence of a familiar correspondence the seal of Julian appears to have been lively and uniform he had now undertaken an important and difficult war and the anxiety of the event rendered him still more attentive to observe and register the most trifling presages from which according to the rules of divination any knowledge of futurity could be derived he informed Libanus of his progress as far as Berea Polis by an elegant epistle which displays the faculty of his genius and his tender friendship for the sophist of Antioch Berea Polis situated almost on the banks of the Euphrates had been appointed for the general rendezvous of the Roman troops who immediately passed the Great River on a bridge of boats which was previously constructed if the inclinations of Julian had been similar to those of his predecessor he might have wasted this active and important season of the year in the circus of Samuelsata or in the churches of Edessa but as the warlike emperor instead of constantues had chosen Alexander for his model he advanced without delay to Carre He a very ancient city of Mesopotamia at the distance of four score miles from here of Polis the temple of the moon attracted the devotion of Julian but the halt of a few days was principally employed in completing the immense preparations of the Persian war the secret of the expedition had hitherto remained in his own breast but as Carre Heist the point of separation of the two great roads he could no longer conceal whether it was his design to attack the dominions of Sappor on the side of the Tigris or on that of the Euphrates the emperor detached an army of 30,000 men under the command of his kinsmen Procopius and of Sebastian would be in Duke of Egypt they were ordered to direct the march towards Nisibis and to secure the friendship from the desultory incursions of the enemy before they attempted the passage of the Tigris the subsequent operations were left to the discretion of the generals but Julian expected that after wasting with fire and soared the fertile districts of Medea and Adiabene they might arrive under the walls of Ctesiphon at the same time that he himself advancing which he will step along the banks of the Euphrates should besiege the capital of the Persian monarchy the success of this well-concerted plan depended in a great measure on the powerful and ready assistance of the king of Armenia who without exposing the safety of his own dominions might detach an army of 4,000 horse and 20,000 foot to the assistance of the Romans but the feeble Arsaceus Tirannus king of Armenia had degenerated still more shamefully than his father Kosseroes from the manly virtues of the great Tiridates and as the Pusilannemus monarch was averse to any enterprise of danger and glory he could disguise his timid indolence by the more decent excuses of religion and gratitude he expressed the pious attachment to the memory of Constantius from whose hands he had received in marriage Olympias the daughter of the prefect Ablavius and the alliance of a female who had been educated as the distant wife of the emperor Constance exalted the dignity of a barbarian king Tirannus professed the Christian religion he reigned over a nation of Christians and he was restrained by every principle of conscience and interest from contributing to the victory which would consummate the ruin of the church the alienated mind of Tirannus was exasperated by the indiscretion of Julian who treated the king of Armenia as his slave and as the enemy of the gods the haughty and threatening style of the imperial mandates awakened the secret indignations of a prince who in the humiliating state of dependence was still conscious of his royal descent from the Arsacides the lords of the east and the rivals of the roman power the military dispositions of Julian was skillfully contrived to deceive the spies and to divert the attention of Sappur the legions appeared to direct the march towards Nisibis and the Tigris on a sudden they wheeled to the right traversed the level and naked plain of Karhe and reached on the third day the banks of the Euphrates where the strong town of Nisephorium or Kalinnikum had been founded by the Macedonian kings from thence the emperor pursued his march above 90 miles along the winding stream of the Euphrates till it lost about one month after his departure from Antioch he discovered the towers of Kirkesium the extreme limit of the roman dominions the army of Julian the most numerous that any of the seizures had ever led against Persia consisted of 65,000 effective and well-disciplined soldiers the veteran vans of Cavalry and infantry of romans and barbarians had been selected from the different provinces and the just preeminence of loyalty and valor was claimed by the hardy Gauls who guarded the throne and person of the beloved prince a formidable body of ascuity and auxiliaries had been transported from another climate and almost from another world to invade a distant country of whose name and situation that were ignorant the love of rapine and war allured to the imperial standard several tribes of Saracens for roving Arabs whose service Julian had commanded while he sternly refused the payment to their customary subsidies the broad channel of the Euphrates was crowded by a fleet of 1,100 ships destined to attend the motions and to satisfy the wants of the Roman army the military strength of the fleet was composed of 50 armed Gauls and these were accompanied by an equal number of flat-bottomed boats which might occasionally be connected into the form of temporary bridges the rest of the ships partly constructed of timber and partly covered with raw hides were laden with an almost inexhaustible supply of arms and engines of utensils and provisions the vigilant humanity of Julian had embarked a very large magazine of vinegar and biscuit for the use of the soldiers but he prohibited the indulgence of wine and rigorously stopped the long string of superfluous camels that attempted to follow the rear of the army the river Kaboras falls into the Euphrates at Kirkesium and as soon as the trumpet gave the signal of march the Romans passed a little stream which separated two mighty and hostile empires the custom of ancient discipline required a military oration and Julian embraced every opportunity of displaying his eloquence he animated the impatient and attentive legions by the example of the inflexible courage and glorious triumph of their ancestors he excited the resentment by a lively picture of the insolence of the Persians and he exhorted them to imitate his firm resolution either to extirpate that perfidious nation or to devote his life in the cause of the Republic the eloquence of Julian was enforced by the native of 130 pieces of silver to every soldier and the bridge of the Kaboras was instantly cut away to convince the troops that they must place their hopes of safety in the success of their arms yet the prudence of the emperor induced him to secure a remote frontier perpetually exposed to the inroads of the hostile Arabs a detachment of 4000 men was left at Kirkesium which completed to the number of 10 000 the regular garrison of that important fortress from the moment that the Romans entered the enemy's country the country of an active and artful enemy the order of march was disposed in three columns the strength of the infantry and consequently of the whole army was placed in the center under the peculiar command of the master general Victor on the right the brave Nevitl led a column of several legions along the banks of the Euphrates and almost always inside of the fleet the left flank of the army was protected by the column of cavalry Hormizdas and Arinteus were appointed generals of the horse and the singular adventures of Hormizdas are not underserving of an iron urges he was a Persian prince of the royal race of the Sassanids who in the troubles of the minority of Sapor had escaped from prison to the hospitable court of the great Constantine Hormizdas at first excited the compassion and at length acquired the esteem of his new masters his valor and fidelity raised him to the military honors of the Roman service and though a Christian he might indulge the secret satisfaction of convincing his ungrateful country that an oppressed subject may prove the most dangerous enemy such was the disposition of the three principal columns the front and flanks of the army were covered by Lucienianus with the flying detachment of 1500 light armed soldiers whose active vigilance observed the most distant signs and conveyed the earliest notice of any hostile approach Dagelaipus and Secundinus Dukovasroheni conducted the troops of the rear guard the baggage securely proceeded in the intervals of the columns and the ranks from a motive either of use or ostentation were formed in such open order that the whole line of march extended almost 10 miles the ordinary post of Julian was at the head of the center column but as he preferred the duties of a general to the state of a monarch he rapidly moved with a small escort of light cavalry to the front the rear the flanks wherever his presence could animate or protect the march of the Roman army the country which they traversed from the Kavuras to the cultivated lands of Assyria may be considered as a part of the desert of Arabia a dry and barren waste which could never be improved by the most powerful arts of the human industry Julian marched over the same ground which had been trod above 700 years before by the footsteps of the younger cirrus and which is described by one of the companions of his expedition the sage and the heroic Xenophon the country was subplained throughout as even as the sea and full of wormwood and if any other kinds of shrubs or reeds grew there they had all an aromatic smell but no trees could be seen busters and ostriches antelopes and wild asses appeared to be the only inhabitants of the desert and the fatigues of the march were alleviated by the amusement of the chase the loose sand of the desert was frequently raised by the wind into clouds of dust and a great number of the soldiers of Julian with their tents were suddenly thrown to the ground by the violence of an unexpected hurricane the sandy plains of Mesopotamia were abandoned to the antelopes and wild asses of the desert but a variety of populous towns and villages were pleasantly situated on the banks of Euphrates and in the islands which are occasionally formed by that river the city of Anna or Anatol the actual residence of an Arabian emir is composed of two long streets which enclose within a natural fortification a small island in the midst and two fruitful spots on either side of the Euphrates the warlike inhabitants of Anatol showed a disposition to stop the march of a roman empire till they were diverted from such fatal presumption by the mild exhortations of prince or mistess and the approaching terrors of the fleet and army they implored and experienced the clemency of Julian who transplanted the people to an advantageous settlement near Kalkis in Syria and admitted Puseus the governor to an honorable rank in his service and friendship but the impregnable fortress of Tilluta could scorn the menace of a siege and the emperor was obliged to content himself with an insulting promise that when he had subdued the interior provinces of Persia Tilluta would no longer refuse to grace the triumph of the emperor the inhabitants of the open towns unable to resist and unwilling to yield fled with precipitation and their houses filled with spoiling provisions were occupied by the soldiers of Julian who massacred without remorse and without punishment some defenseless women during the march the Surenas or Persian general and Malek Rodosaches the renowned emir of the tribe of Ghassan incessantly hovered around the army every straggler was intercepted every detachment was attacked and the valiant Hormistas escaped with some difficulty from their hands but the barbarians were finally repulsed the country became every day less favorable to the operations of cavalry and when the Romans arrived at Makeprekta they perceived the ruins of the wall which had been constructed by the ancient kings of Assyria to secure their dominitions from the incursions of the Medes these preliminaries of the expedition of Julian appeared to have employed about 15 days and we may compute near 300 miles from the fortress of Kirkesium to the wall of Makeprekta the fertile province of Assyria which stretched beyond the Tigris as far as the mountains of Medea extended about 400 miles from the ancient walls of Makeprekta to the territory of Basra where the united streams of the Euphrates and Tigris discharged themselves into the Persian Gulf the whole country might have claimed the peculiar name of Mesopotamia as the two rivers which are never more distant than 50 approach between Bogdad and Babylon within 25 miles of each other a multitude of artificial canals dug without much labour in a soft and yielding soil connected the rivers and they intersected the plain of Assyria the uses of these artificial canals were various and important they served to discharge superfluous waters from one river into the other at the season of their respective inundations subdividing themselves into smaller and smaller branches they refreshed the dry lands and supplied the deficiency of rain they facilitated the intercourse of peace and commerce and as the dams could be speedily broken down they armed the despair of the Assyrians with the means of opposing a sudden deluge to the progress of an invading army the desolate climate of Assyria nature had denied some of her choicest gifts the vine, the olive and the fig tree but the food which supports the life of a man and particularly wheat and barley were produced with inexhaustible fertility and the husband man who committed his seeds to the earth was frequently rewarded with an increase of two or even of three hundred the face of the country was interspersed with grows of innumerable palm trees and the diligent natives celebrated either in verse or prose the three hundred and sixty uses to which the trunk, the branches, the leaves, the juice and the fruit were skillfully applied several manufacturers especially those of leather and linen employed the industry of innumerous people and afforded valuable materials for foreign trade which appears however to have been conducted by the hands of strangers Babylon had been converted into a royal park but near the ruins of the ancient capital new cities had successfully arisen and the populousness of the country was displayed in the multitude of towns and villages which were built of bricks dried in the sun and strongly cemented with bitumen the natural and peculiar production of the Babylonian soil while the successors of Syria reigned over Asia the province of Syria alone maintained during a third part of the year the luxurious plenty of the table and household of the great king four considerable villages were assigned for the subsystems of his Indian dogs 800 stallions and 16,000 mares were constantly kept at the expense of the country for the royal stables and as the daily tribute which was paid to the satrap amounted to one English bushel of silver we may compute the annual revenue of Syria at more than 1200,000 pounds sterling end of chapter 24 part 2 recording by Monsbruhe Helsingfors Finland