of Rome, are described with
some spirit. L. i. epist. 5, p. 9-13, epist. 9, p. 21.]

[Footnote 75: Sidonius (l. i. epist. 9, p. 23, 24) very fairly states
his motive, his labor, and his reward. "Hic ipse Panegyricus, si non
judicium, certa eventum, boni operis, accepit." He was made bishop of
Clermont, A.D. 471. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xvi. p. 750.]

The Greeks ambitiously commend the piety and catholic faith of the
emperor whom they gave to the West; nor do they forget to observe, that
when he left Constantinople, he converted his palace into the pious
foundation of a public bath, a church, and a hospital for old men. [76]
Yet some suspicious appearances are found to sully the theological fame
of Anthemius. From the conversation of Philotheus, a Macedonian sectary,
he had imbibed the spirit of religious toleration; and the Heretics
of Rome would have assembled with impunity, if the bold and vehement
censure which Pope Hilary pronounced in the church of St. Peter, had not
obliged him to abjure the unpopular indulgence. [77] Even the Pagans,
a feeble and obscure remnant, conceived some vain hopes, from the
indifference, or partiality, of Anthemius; and his singular friendship
for the philosopher Severus, whom he promoted to the consulship, was
ascribed to a secret project, of reviving the ancient worship of the
gods. [78] These idols were crumbled into dust: and the mythology which
had once been the creed of nations, was so universally disbelieved, that
it might be employed without scandal, or at least without suspicion,
by Christian poets. [79] Yet the vestiges of superstition were not
absolutely obliterated, and the festival of the Lupercalia, whose origin
had preceded the foundation of Rome, was still celebrated under the
reign of Anthemius. The savage and simple rites were expressive of an
early state of society before the invention of arts and agriculture. The
rustic deities who presided over the toils and pleasures of the pastoral
life, Pan, Faunus, and their train of satyrs, were such as the fancy of
shepherds might create, sportive, petulant, and lascivious; whose power
was limited, and whose malice was inoffensive. A goat was the offering
the best adapted to their character and attributes; the flesh of the
victim was roasted on willow spits; and the riotous youths, who crowded
to the feast, ran naked about the fields, with leather thongs in their
hands, communicating, as it was supposed, the blessing of fe