ithin the limits of his native city.]

[Footnote 108: Fifteen talents of gold, bequeathed by Sosibius, who died
in the reign of Augustus. The theatrical merits of the Syrian cities in
the reign of Constantine, are computed in the Expositio totius Murd, p.
8, (Hudson, Geograph. Minor tom. iii.)]

[Footnote 109: Avidio Cassio Syriacas legiones dedi luxuria diffluentes
et Daphnicis moribus. These are the words of the emperor Marcus
Antoninus in an original letter preserved by his biographer in Hist.
August. p. 41. Cassius dismissed or punished every soldier who was seen
at Daphne.]

[Footnote 110: Aliquantum agrorum Daphnensibus dedit, (Pompey,) quo
lucus ibi spatiosior fieret; delectatus amoenitate loci et aquarum
abundantiz, Eutropius, vi. 14. Sextus Rufus, de Provinciis, c. 16.]

When Julian, on the day of the annual festival, hastened to adore
the Apollo of Daphne, his devotion was raised to the highest pitch
of eagerness and impatience. His lively imagination anticipated the
grateful pomp of victims, of libations and of incense; a long procession
of youths and virgins, clothed in white robes, the symbol of their
innocence; and the tumultuous concourse of an innumerable people. But
the zeal of Antioch was diverted, since the reign of Christianity, into
a different channel. Instead of hecatombs of fat oxen sacrificed by the
tribes of a wealthy city to their tutelar deity the emperor complains
that he found only a single goose, provided at the expense of a priest,
the pale and solitary in habitant of this decayed temple. [111] The
altar was deserted, the oracle had been reduced to silence, and the holy
ground was profaned by the introduction of Christian and funereal rites.
After Babylas [112] (a bishop of Antioch, who died in prison in the
persecution of Decius) had rested near a century in his grave, his body,
by the order of Caesar Gallus, was transported into the midst of the
grove of Daphne. A magnificent church was erected over his remains;
a portion of the sacred lands was usurped for the maintenance of the
clergy, and for the burial of the Christians at Antioch, who were
ambitious of lying at the feet of their bishop; and the priests of
Apollo retired, with their affrighted and indignant votaries. As soon as
another revolution seemed to restore the fortune of Paganism, the church
of St. Babylas was demolished, and new buildings were added to the
mouldering edifice which had been raised by the piety of Syrian k