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JULIAN, having determined upon undertaking a war against
Persia, repaired to Antioch in Syria. The people loudly
complained, that, although provisions were very abundant the price
affixed to them was very high. Accordingly, the emperor, from
liberality, as I believe, towards the people, reduced the price of
provisions to so low a scale that the vendors fled the city.
A scarcity in consequence ensued, for which the people blamed the
emperor; and their resentment found vent in ridiculing the length of
his beard, and the bulls which he had had stamped upon his coins; and
they satirically remarked, that he upset the world in the same way that
his priests, when offering sacrifice, threw down the victims.
At first his displeasure was excited, and he threatened to punish them
and prepared to depart for Tarsus. Afterwards, however, he
suppressed his feelings of indignation, and repaid their ridicule by
words alone; he composed a very elegant work under the title of
"Aversion to Beards," which he sent to them. He treated the
Christians of the city precisely in the same manner as at other
places, and endeavored, as far as possible, to promote the extension
of paganism.
I shall here recount some of the details connected with the tomb of
Babylas, the martyr, and certain occurrences which took place about
this period in the temple of Apollo at Daphne.
Daphne is a suburb of Antioch, and is planted with cypresses and
other trees, beneath which all kinds of flowers flourish in their
season. The branches of these trees are so thick and interlaced that
they may be said to form a roof rather than merely to afford shade, and
the rays of the sun can never pierce through them to the soil beneath.
It is made delicious and exceedingly lovely by the richness and beauty
of the waters, the temperateness of the air, and the breath of
friendly winds. The Greeks invent the myth that Daphne, the
daughter of the river Ladon, was here changed into a tree which bears
her name, while she was fleeing from Arcadia, to evade the love of
Apollo. The passion of Apollo was not diminished, they say, by
this transformation; he made a crown of the leaves of his beloved and
embraced the tree. He afterwards often fixed his residence on this
spot, as being dearer to him than any other place.
Men of grave temperament, however, considered it disgraceful to
approach this suburb; for the position and nature of the place seemed
to excite voluptuous feelings; and the substance of the fable itself
being erotic, afforded a measurable impulse and redoubled the passions
among corrupt youths. They, who furnished this myth as an excuse,
were greatly inflamed and gave way without constraint to profligate
deeds, incapable of being continent themselves, or of enduring the
presence of those who were continent. Any one who dwelt at Daphne
without a mistress was regarded as callous and ungracious, and was
shunned as an abominable and abhorrent thing. The pagans likewise
manifested great reverence for this place on account of a very beautiful
statue of the Daphnic Apollo which stood here, as also a magnificent
and costly temple, supposed to have been built by Seleucus, the
father of Antiochus, who gave his name to the city of Antioch.
Those who attach credit to fables of this kind believe that a stream
flows from the fountain Castalia which confers the power of predicting
the future, and which is similar in its name and powers to the fountain
of Delphi. It is related that Adrian here received intimation of his
future greatness, when he was but a private individual; and that he
dipped a leaf of the laurel into the water and found written thereon an
account of his destiny. When he became emperor, it is said, he
commanded the fountain to be closed, in order that no one might be
enabled to pry into the knowledge of the future. But I leave this
subject to those who are more accurately acquainted with mythology than
I am.
When Gallus, the brother of Julian, had been declared Caesar by
Constantius, and had fixed his residence at Antioch, his zeal for
the Christian religion and his veneration for the memory of the martyrs
determined him to purge the place of the pagan superstition and the
outrages of profligates. He considered that the readiest method of
effecting this object would be to erect a house of prayer in the temple
and to transfer thither the tomb of Babylas, the martyr, who had,
with great reputation to himself, presided over the church of
Antioch, and suffered martyrdom. It is said that from the time of
this translation, the demon ceased to utter oracles. This silence was
at first attributed to the neglect into which his service was allowed to
fall and to the omission of the former cult; but results proved that it
was occasioned solely by the presence of the holy martyr. The silence
continued unbroken even when Julian was the sole ruler of the Roman
Empire, although libations, incense, and victims were offered in
abundance to the demon; for when eventually the oracle itself spoke and
indicated the cause of its previous silence, the emperor himself
entered the temple for the purpose of consulting the oracle, and
offering up gifts and sacrifices with entreaties to grant a reply. The
demon did not openly admit that the hindrance was occasioned by the tomb
of Babylas, the martyr, but he stated that the place was filled with
dead bodies, and that this prevented the oracle from speaking.
Although many interments had taken place at Daphne, the emperor
perceived that it was the presence of Babylas, the martyr, alone
which had silenced the oracle, and he commanded his tomb to be
removed. The Christians, therefore, assembled together and conveyed
the coffin to the city, about forty stadia distant, and deposited it
in the place where it is still preserved, and to which the name of the
martyr has been given. It is said that men and women, young men and
maidens, old men and children drew the casket, and encouraged one
another by singing psalms as they went along the road, apparently for
the purpose of lightening their labor, but in truth because they were
transported by zeal and spirit for their kindred religious belief,
which the emperor had opposed. The best singers sang first, and the
multitude replied in chorus, and the following was the burden of their
song: "Confounded are all they who worship graven images, who boast
themselves in idols."
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