nteresting city
of Petra, which since the time of Trajan had been in the power or the
friendship of Rome or Constantinople, was lost to the civilised world.
This rocky fastness, which was ornamented with temples, a triumphal
arch, and a theatre, and had been a bishop's see, was henceforth
closed against all travellers; it had no place in the map till it was
discovered by Burckhardt in our own days without a human being dwelling
in it, with oleanders and tamarisks choking up its entrance through
the cliff, and with brambles trailing their branches over the rock-hewn
temples.

[Illustration: 243.jpg TEMPLE COURTYARD, MEDINET ABU]

The reign of Theodosius, which extended from 379 to 395, is remarkable
for the blow then given to paganism. The old religion had been sinking
even before Christianity had become the religion of the emperors; it had
been discouraged by Constantine, who had closed many of the temples; but
Theodosius made a law in the first year of his reign that the whole
of the empire should be Christian, and should receive the trinitarian
faith. He soon afterwards ordered that Sunday should be kept holy, and
forbade all work and law-proceedings on that day; and he sent Cynegius,
the prefect of the palace, into Egypt, to see these laws carried into
effect in that province.

The wishes of the emperor were ably followed up by Theophilus, Bishop of
Alexandria. He cleansed the temple of Mithra, and overthrew the statues
in the celebrated temple of Serapis, which seemed the very citadel of
paganism. He also exposed to public ridicule the mystic ornaments and
statues which a large part of his fellow-citizens still regarded as
sacred. It was not, however, to be supposed that this could be peaceably
borne by a people so irritable as the Alexandrians. The students in the
schools of philosophy put themselves at the head of the mob to stop the
work of destruction, and to revenge themselves upon their assailants,
and several battles were fought in the streets between the pagans
and the Christians, in which both parties lost many lives; but as the
Christians were supported by the power of the prefect, the pagans were
routed, and many whose rank would have made them objects of punishment
were forced to fly from Alexandria.

No sooner had the troops under the command of the prefect put down the
pagan opposition than the work of destruction was again carried forward
by the zeal of the bishop. The temples were broken open, th