|
As many nations and cities throughout the whole realm of his subjects
retained a feeling of fear and veneration towards their vain idols,
which led them to disregard the doctrines of the Christians, and to
have a care for their ancient customs, and the manners and feasts of
their fathers, it appeared necessary to the emperor to teach the
governors to suppress their superstitious rites of worship. He thought
that this would be easily accomplished if he could get them to despise
their temples and the images contained therein. To carry this project
into execution he did not require military aid; for Christian men
belonging to the palace went from city to city bearing imperial
letters. The people were induced to remain passive from the fear
that, if they resisted these edicts, they, their children, and their
wives, would be exposed to evil. The vergers and the priests, being
unsupported by the multitude, brought out their most precious
treasures, and the idols called 'dipeth', and through these
servitors, the gifts were drawn forth from the shrines and the hidden
recesses in the temples. The spots previously inaccessible, and known
only to the priests, were made accessible to all who desired to enter.
Such of the images as were constructed of precious material, and
whatever else was valuable, were purified by fire, and became public
property. The brazen images which were skillfully wrought were carried
to the city, named after the emperor, and placed there as objects of
embellishment, where they may still be seen in public places, as in
the streets, the hippodrome, and the palaces. Amongst them was the
statue of Apollo which was in the seat of the oracle of the
Pythoness, and likewise the statues of the Muses from Helicon, the
tripods from Delphos, and the much extolled Pan, which Pausanias
the Lacedaemonian and the Grecian cities had devoted, after the war
against the Medes.
As to the temples, some were stripped of their doors, others of their
roofs, and others were neglected, allowed to fall into ruin, or
destroyed. The temple of AEsculapius in AEgis, a city of
Cilicia, and that of Venus at Aphaca, near Mount Lebanon and the
River Adonis, were then undermined and entirely destroyed. Both of
these temples were most highly honored and reverenced by the ancients;
as the AEgeatae were wont to say, that those among them who were
weakened in body were delivered from diseases because the demon
manifested himself by night, and healed them. And at Aphaca, it was
believed that on a certain prayer being uttered on a given day, a fire
like a star descended from the top of Lebanon and sunk into the
neighboring river; they affirmed that this was Urania, for they call
Aphrodite by this name. The efforts of the emperor succeeded to the
utmost of his anticipations; for on beholding the objects of their
former reverence and fear boldly cast down and stuffed with straw and
hay, the people were led to despise what they had previously
venerated, and to blame the erroneous opinion of their ancestors.
Others, envious at the honor in which Christians were held by the
emperor, deemed it necessary to imitate the acts of the ruler; others
devoted themselves to an examination of Christianity, and by means of
signs, of dreams, or of conferences with bishops and monks, were
convinced that it was better to become Christians. From this period,
nations and citizens spontaneously renounced their former opinion. At
that time a port of Gaza, called Majuma, wherein superstition and
ancient ceremonies had been hitherto admired, turned unitedly with all
its inhabitants to Christianity. The emperor, in order to reward
their piety, deemed them worthy of the greatest honor, and
distinguished the place as a city, a status it had not previously
enjoyed, and named it Constantia: thus honoring the spot on account
of its piety, by bestowing on it the name of the dearest of his
children. On the same account, also, Constantine in Phoenicia is
known to have received its name from the emperor. But it would not be
convenient to record every instance of this kind, for many other cities
about this time went over to religion, and spontaneously, without any
command of the emperor, destroyed the adjacent temples and statues,
and erected houses of prayer.
|
|