llage were deeply bosomed in a thick grove of laurels and
cypresses, which reached as far as a circumference of ten miles, and
formed in the most sultry summers a cool and impenetrable shade. A
thousand streams of the purest water, issuing from every hill, preserved
the verdure of the earth, and the temperature of the air; the senses
were gratified with harmonious sounds and aromatic odors; and the
peaceful grove was consecrated to health and joy, to luxury and love.
The vigorous youth pursued, like Apollo, the object of his desires; and
the blushing maid was warned, by the fate of Daphne, to shun the folly
of unseasonable coyness. The soldier and the philosopher wisely avoided
the temptation of this sensual paradise: [109] where pleasure, assuming
the character of religion, imperceptibly dissolved the firmness of manly
virtue. But the groves of Daphne continued for many ages to enjoy the
veneration of natives and strangers; the privileges of the holy ground
were enlarged by the munificence of succeeding emperors; and every
generation added new ornaments to the splendor of the temple. [110]

[Footnote 104: The grove and temple of Daphne are described by Strabo,
(l. xvi. p. 1089, 1090, edit. Amstel. 1707,) Libanius, (Naenia, p.
185-188. Antiochic. Orat. xi. p. 380, 381,) and Sozomen, (l. v. c.
19.) Wesseling (Itinerar. p. 581) and Casaubon (ad Hist. August. p. 64)
illustrate this curious subject.]

[Footnote 105: Simulacrum in eo Olympiaci Jovis imitamenti aequiparans
magnitudinem. Ammian. xxii. 13. The Olympic Jupiter was sixty feet high,
and his bulk was consequently equal to that of a thousand men. See a
curious Memoire of the Abbe Gedoyn, (Academie des Inscriptions, tom. ix.
p. 198.)]

[Footnote 106: Hadrian read the history of his future fortunes on a
leaf dipped in the Castalian stream; a trick which, according to the
physician Vandale, (de Oraculis, p. 281, 282,) might be easily performed
by chemical preparations. The emperor stopped the source of such
dangerous knowledge; which was again opened by the devout curiosity of
Julian.]

[Footnote 107: It was purchased, A. D. 44, in the year 92 of the aera of
Antioch, (Noris. Epoch. Syro-Maced. p. 139-174,) for the term of
ninety Olympiads. But the Olympic games of Antioch were not regularly
celebrated till the reign of Commodus. See the curious details in the
Chronicle of John Malala, (tom. i. p. 290, 320, 372-381,) a writer whose
merit and authority are confined w