e
spoliis templorum pasti. Libanius says (Orat. pro Templ. p. 23) that the
emperor often gave away a temple, like a dog, or a horse, or a slave, or
a gold cup; but the devout philosopher takes care to observe that these
sacrilegious favorites very seldom prospered.]

[Footnote 169: See Gothofred. Cod. Theodos. tom. vi. p. 262. Liban.
Orat. Parental c. x. in Fabric. Bibl. Graec. tom. vii. p. 235.]

[Footnote 170: Placuit omnibus locis atque urbibus universis claudi
protinus empla, et accessu vetitis omnibus licentiam delinquendi
perditis abnegari. Volumus etiam cunctos a sacrificiis abstinere.
Quod siquis aliquid forte hujusmodi perpetraverit, gladio sternatur:
facultates etiam perempti fisco decernimus vindicari: et similiter
adfligi rectores provinciarum si facinora vindicare neglexerint.
Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 4. Chronology has discovered some
contradiction in the date of this extravagant law; the only one,
perhaps, by which the negligence of magistrates is punished by death
and confiscation. M. de la Bastie (Mem. de l'Academie, tom. xv. p.
98) conjectures, with a show of reason, that this was no more than the
minutes of a law, the heads of an intended bill, which were found
in Scriniis Memoriae among the papers of Constantius, and afterwards
inserted, as a worthy model, in the Theodosian Code.]

[Footnote 171: Symmach. Epistol. x. 54.]

[Footnote 172: The fourth Dissertation of M. de la Bastie, sur le
Souverain Pontificat des Empereurs Romains, (in the Mem. de l'Acad.
tom. xv. p. 75- 144,) is a very learned and judicious performance,
which explains the state, and prove the toleration, of Paganism from
Constantino to Gratian. The assertion of Zosimus, that Gratian was the
first who refused the pontifical robe, is confirmed beyond a doubt; and
the murmurs of bigotry on that subject are almost silenced.]

The divisions of Christianity suspended the ruin of Paganism; [173]
and the holy war against the infidels was less vigorously prosecuted by
princes and bishops, who were more immediately alarmed by the guilt and
danger of domestic rebellion. The extirpation of idolatry [174] might
have been justified by the established principles of intolerance: but
the hostile sects, which alternately reigned in the Imperial court were
mutually apprehensive of alienating, and perhaps exasperating, the minds
of a powerful, though declining faction. Every motive of authority
and fashion, of interest and reason, now mili