Chapter XXIII: Reign Of Julian.—Part IV

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 enjoined, the use of the less honorable
appellation of Galilæans. 85 He declared, that by the folly of
the Galilæans, 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 insinuates in a
public edict, that a frantic patient might sometimes be cured by
salutary violence. 86 An ungenerous distinction was admitted into
the mind and counsels of Julian, that, according to the
difference of their religious sentiments, one part of his
subjects deserved his favor and friendship, while the other was
entitled only to the common benefits that his justice could not
refuse to an obedient people. According to a principle, 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 levelled to the ground; the hopes
of testamentary donations were intercepted by the rigor 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 has bestowed, or superstition has lavished, on the
sacerdotal 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. 88

85 (return) [ Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 81. And this law was
confirmed by the invariable practice of Julian himself. Warburton
has justly observed (p. 35,) that the Platonists believed in the
mysterious virtue of words and Julian’s dislike for the name of
Christ might proceed from superstition, as well as from
contempt.]

86 (return) [ Fragment. Julian. p. 288. He derides the (Epist.
vii.,) and so far loses sight of the principles of toleration, as
to wish (Epist. xlii.).]

88 (return) [ These laws, which affected the clergy, may be found
in the slight hints of Julian himself, (Epist. lii.) in the vague
declamations of Gregory, (Orat. iii. p. 86, 87,) and in the
positive assertions of Sozomen, (l. v. c. 5.)]

A just and severe censure has been inflicted on the law which
prohibited the Christians from teaching the arts of grammar and
rhetoric. 89 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 Gatterers.
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; and 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 church
of the Galilæans. 90 In all the cities of the Roman world, the
education of the youth was intrusted 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. 91
As soon as the resignation of the more obstinate 92 teachers had
established the unrivalled dominion of the Pagan sophists, Julian
invited the rising generation to resort with freedom to the
public schools, in a just 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 primæval simplicity, and that the theologians,
who 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. 93

89 (return) [ Inclemens.... perenni obruendum silentio. Ammian.
xxii. 10, ixv. 5.]

90 (return) [ The edict itself, which is still extant among the
epistles of Julian, (xlii.,) may be compared with the loose
invectives of Gregory (Orat. iii. p. 96.) Tillemont (Mém. Eccles.
tom. vii. p. 1291-1294) has collected the seeming differences of
ancients and moderns. They may be easily reconciled. The
Christians were _directly_ forbid to teach, they were
_indirectly_ forbid to learn; since they would not frequent the
schools of the Pagans.]

91 (return) [ Codex Theodos. l. xiii. tit. iii. de medicis et
professoribus, leg. 5, (published the 17th of June, received, at
Spoleto in Italy, the 29th of July, A. D. 363,) with Godefroy’s
Illustrations, tom. v. p. 31.]

92 (return) [ Orosius celebrates their disinterested resolution,
Sicut a majori bus nostris compertum habemus, omnes ubique
propemodum... officium quam fidem deserere maluerunt, vii. 30.
Proæresius, a Christian sophist, refused to accept the partial
favor of the emperor Hieronym. in Chron. p. 185, edit. Scaliger.
Eunapius in Proæresio p. 126.]

93 (return) [ They had recourse to the expedient of composing
books for their own schools. Within a few months Apollinaris
produced his Christian imitations of Homer, (a sacred history in
twenty-four books,) Pindar, Euripides, and Menander; and Sozomen
is satisfied, that they equalled, or excelled, the originals. *
Note: Socrates, however, implies that, on the death of Julian,
they were contemptuously thrown aside by the Christians. Socr.
Hist. iii.16.—M.]

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. 94 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 and the tribunals with the ensigns of
idolatry. The powers of government were intrusted 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. 95 Under the administration of their enemies, the
Christians had much to suffer, and more to apprehend. The temper
of Julian was averse 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 that was
exercised in his name, expressed his real sense of the conduct of
his officers, by gentle reproofs and substantial rewards. 96

94 (return) [ It was the instruction of Julian to his
magistrates, (Epist. vii.,). Sozomen (l. v. c. 18) and Socrates
(l. iii. c. 13) must be reduced to the standard of Gregory,
(Orat. iii. p. 95,) not less prone to exaggeration, but more
restrained by the actual knowledge of his contemporary readers.]

95 (return) [ Libanius, Orat. Parent. 88, p. 814.]

96 (return) [ Greg. Naz. Orat. iii. p. 74, 91, 92. Socrates, l.
iii. c. 14. The doret, l. iii. c. 6. Some drawback may, however,
be allowed for the violence of _their_ zeal, not less partial
than the zeal of Julian]

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 congregation, 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 execrated his sacrilegious violence. 97 After
the ground was cleared, the restitution of those stately
structures which had been levelled with the dust, and of the
precious ornaments which had been converted to Christian uses,
swelled into a very large account of damages and debt. The
authors of the injury had neither the ability nor the inclination
to discharge this accumulated demand: and the impartial wisdom of
a legislator would have been displayed in balancing the adverse
claims and complaints, by an equitable and temperate arbitration.

But the whole empire, and particularly the East, was thrown into
confusion by the rash edicts of Julian; and the Pagan
magistrates, inflamed by zeal and revenge, abused the rigorous
privilege of the Roman law, which substitutes, in the place of
his inadequate property, the person of the insolvent debtor.
Under the preceding reign, Mark, bishop of Arethusa, 98 had
labored in the conversion of his people with arms more effectual
than those of persuasion. 99 The magistrates required the full
value of a temple which had been destroyed by his intolerant
zeal: but as they were satisfied of his poverty, they desired
only to bend his inflexible spirit to the promise of the
slightest compensation. They apprehended the aged prelate, they
inhumanly scourged him, they tore his beard; and his naked body,
annointed with honey, was suspended, in a net, between heaven and
earth, and exposed to the stings of insects and the rays of a
Syrian sun. 100 From this lofty station, Mark still persisted to
glory in his crime, and to insult the impotent rage of his
persecutors. He was at length rescued from their hands, and
dismissed to enjoy the honor of his divine triumph. The Arians
celebrated the virtue of their pious confessor; the Catholics
ambitiously claimed his alliance; 101 and the Pagans, who might
be susceptible of shame or remorse, were deterred from the
repetition of such unavailing cruelty. 102 Julian spared his
life: but if the bishop of Arethusa had saved the infancy of
Julian, 103 posterity will condemn the ingratitude, instead of
praising the clemency, of the emperor.

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

98 (return) [ Restan, or Arethusa, at the equal distance of
sixteen miles between Emesa (_Hems_) and Epiphania, (_Hamath_,)
was founded, or at least named, by Seleucus Nicator. Its peculiar
æra dates from the year of Rome 685, according to the medals of
the city. In the decline of the Seleucides, Emesa and Arethusa
were usurped by the Arab Sampsiceramus, whose posterity, the
vassals of Rome, were not extinguished in the reign of
Vespasian.——See D’Anville’s Maps and Geographie Ancienne, tom.
ii. p. 134. Wesseling, Itineraria, p. 188, and Noris. Epoch
Syro-Macedon, p. 80, 481, 482.]

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

100 (return) [ The sufferings and constancy of Mark, which
Gregory has so tragically painted, (Orat. iii. p. 88-91,) are
confirmed by the unexceptionable and reluctant evidence of
Libanius. Epist. 730, p. 350, 351. Edit. Wolf. Amstel. 1738.]

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

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

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

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. 104 A magnificent temple rose in
honor of the god of light; and his colossal figure 105 almost
filled the capacious sanctuary, which was enriched with gold and
gems, and adorned by the skill of the Grecian artists. The deity
was represented in a bending attitude, with a golden cup in his
hand, pouring out a libation on the earth; as if he supplicated
the venerable mother to give to his arms the cold and beauteous
Daphne: for the spot was ennobled by fiction; and the fancy of
the Syrian poets had transported the amorous tale from the banks
of the Peneus to those of the Orontes. The ancient rites of
Greece were imitated by the royal colony of Antioch. A stream of
prophecy, which rivalled the truth and reputation of the Delphic
oracle, flowed from the _Castalian_ fountain of Daphne. 106 In
the adjacent fields a stadium was built by a special privilege,
107 which had been purchased from Elis; the Olympic games were
celebrated at the expense of the city; and a revenue of thirty
thousand pounds sterling was annually applied to the public
pleasures. 108 The perpetual resort of pilgrims and spectators
insensibly formed, in the 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 a thick grove of laurels and
cypresses, which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles,
and formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable
shade. A thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every
hill, preserved the verdure of the earth, and the temperature of
the air; the senses were gratified with harmonious sounds and
aromatic odors; and the peaceful grove was consecrated to health
and joy, to luxury and love. The vigorous youth pursued, like
Apollo, the object of his desires; and the blushing maid was
warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly of unseasonable
coyness. The soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided the
temptation of this sensual paradise: 109 where pleasure, assuming
the character of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness
of manly virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages
to enjoy the veneration of natives and strangers; the privileges
of the holy ground were enlarged by the munificence of succeeding
emperors; and every generation added new ornaments to the
splendor of the temple. 110

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

105 (return) [ Simulacrum in eo Olympiaci Jovis imitamenti
æquiparans magnitudinem. Ammian. xxii. 13. The Olympic Jupiter
was sixty feet high, and his bulk was consequently equal to that
of a thousand men. See a curious _Mémoire_ of the Abbé Gedoyn,
(Académie des Inscriptions, tom. ix. p. 198.)]

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

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

108 (return) [ Fifteen talents of gold, bequeathed by Sosibius,
who died in the reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the
Syrian cities in the reign of Constantine, are computed in the
Expositio totius Murd, p. 8, (Hudson, Geograph. Minor tom. iii.)]

109 (return) [ Avidio Cassio Syriacas legiones dedi luxuria
diffluentes et _Daphnicis_ moribus. These are the words of the
emperor Marcus Antoninus in an original letter preserved by his
biographer in Hist. August. p. 41. Cassius dismissed or punished
every soldier who was seen at Daphne.]

110 (return) [ Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, (_Pompey_,)
quo lucus ibi spatiosior fieret; delectatus amœnitate loci et
aquarum abundantiz, Eutropius, vi. 14. Sextus Rufus, de
Provinciis, c. 16.]

When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to adore
the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the highest
pitch of eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination
anticipated the grateful pomp of victims, of libations and of
incense; a long procession of youths and virgins, clothed in
white robes, the symbol of their innocence; and the tumultuous
concourse of an innumerable people. But the zeal of Antioch was
diverted, since the reign of Christianity, into a different
channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the
tribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity the emperor
complains that he found only a single goose, provided at the
expense of a priest, the pale and solitary inhabitant of this
decayed temple. 111 The altar was deserted, the oracle had been
reduced to silence, and the holy ground was profaned by the
introduction of Christian and funereal rites. After Babylas 112
(a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the persecution of
Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body, by the
order of Cæsar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the
grove of Daphne. A magnificent church was erected over his
remains; a portion of the sacred lands was usurped for the
maintenance of the clergy, and for the burial of the Christians
at Antioch, who were ambitious of lying at the feet of their
bishop; and the priests of Apollo retired, with their affrighted
and indignant votaries. As soon as another revolution seemed to
restore the fortune of Paganism, the church of St. Babylas was
demolished, and new buildings were added to the mouldering
edifice which had been raised by the piety of Syrian kings. But
the first and most serious care of Julian was to deliver his
oppressed deity from the odious presence of the dead and living
Christians, who had so effectually suppressed the voice of fraud
or enthusiasm. 113 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 St. Babylas 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 Babylas, was followed, and accompanied,
and received, by an innumerable multitude; who chanted, with
thundering acclamations, the Psalms of David the most expressive
of their contempt for idols and idolaters. The return of the
saint was a triumph; and the triumph was an insult on the
religion of the emperor, who exerted his pride to dissemble his
resentment. During the night which terminated this indiscreet
procession, the temple of Daphne was in flames; the statue of
Apollo was consumed; and the walls of the edifice were left a
naked and awful monument of ruin. The Christians of Antioch
asserted, with religious confidence, that the powerful
intercession of St. Babylas had pointed the lightnings of heaven
against the devoted roof: but as Julian was reduced to the
alternative of believing either a crime or a miracle, he chose,
without hesitation, without evidence, but with some color of
probability, to impute the fire of Daphne to the revenge of the
Galilæans. 114 Their offence, had it been sufficiently proved,
might have justified the retaliation, which was immediately
executed by the order of Julian, of shutting 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 of the ecclesiastics
were tortured; 115 and a Presbyter, of the name of Theodoret, was
beheaded by the sentence of the Count of the East. But this hasty
act was blamed by the emperor; who lamented, with real or
affected concern, that the imprudent zeal of his ministers would
tarnish his reign with the disgrace of persecution. 116

111 (return) [ Julian (Misopogon, p. 367, 362) discovers his own
character with _naïveté_, that unconscious simplicity which
always constitutes genuine humor.]

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

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

114 (return) [ Julian (in Misopogon, p. 361) rather insinuates,
than affirms, their guilt. Ammianus (xxii. 13) treats the
imputation as _levissimus rumor_, and relates the story with
extraordinary candor.]

115 (return) [ Quo tam atroci casu repente consumpto, ad id usque
e imperatoris ira provexit, ut quæstiones agitare juberet solito
acriores, (yet Julian blames the lenity of the magistrates of
Antioch,) et majorem ecclesiam Antiochiæ claudi. This
interdiction was performed with some circumstances of indignity
and profanation; and the seasonable death of the principal actor,
Julian’s uncle, is related with much superstitious complacency by
the Abbé de la Bleterie. Vie de Julien, p. 362-369.]

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