[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.

[Footnote 97: 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.]

[Footnote 98: 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 aera 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.]

[Footnote 99: 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.]

[Footnote 100: The sufferings and constancy of Mark, which Gregory
has so tragically painted, (Orat. iii. p. 88-91,) are confirmed by the
unexceptionable and reluctant e