l deity of the Jews was sincerely adored by a
polytheist, who desired only to multiply the number of the gods; [73]
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, twenty-two thousand oxen, and one hundred
and twenty thousand sheep. [74] 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 Moriah, a stately temple, which might eclipse
the splendor of the church of the resurrection on the adjacent hill of
Calvary; 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 be
always 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 of friend, are not incompatible) the first place was
assigned, by Julian himself, to the virtuous and learned Alypius.
[75] The humanity of Alypius 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 counsels, received an extraordinary commission to
restore, in its pristine beauty, the temple of Jerusalem; and the
diligence of Alypius 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, 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 mantles of silk and purple.
Every purse was opened in liberal contributions, every hand claimed
a share in the pious labor, and the