on and tenderness, in the reformation of the eternal
city. Those absolute monarchs acted with less regard to the prejudices
of the provincials. The pious labor which had been suspended near twenty
years since the death of Constantius, [24] was vigorously resumed, and
finally accomplished, by the zeal of Theodosius. Whilst that warlike
prince yet struggled with the Goths, not for the glory, but for the
safety, of the republic, he ventured to offend a considerable party of
his subjects, by some acts which might perhaps secure the protection of
Heaven, but which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human
prudence. The success of his first experiments against the Pagans
encouraged the pious emperor to reiterate and enforce his edicts of
proscription: the same laws which had been originally published in the
provinces of the East, were applied, after the defeat of Maximus, to the
whole extent of the Western empire; and every victory of the orthodox
Theodosius contributed to the triumph of the Christian and Catholic
faith. [25] He attacked superstition in her most vital part, by
prohibiting the use of sacrifices, which he declared to be criminal as
well as infamous; and if the terms of his edicts more strictly condemned
the impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the victim, [26]
every subsequent explanation tended to involve in the same guilt the
general practice of immolation, which essentially constituted the
religion of the Pagans. As the temples had been erected for the purpose
of sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent prince to remove from his
subjects the dangerous temptation of offending against the laws which
he had enacted. A special commission was granted to Cynegius, the
Praetorian praefect of the East, and afterwards to the counts Jovius
and Gaudentius, two officers of distinguished rank in the West; by
which they were directed to shut the temples, to seize or destroy the
instruments of idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and
to confiscate the consecrated property for the benefit of the emperor,
of the church, or of the army. [27] Here the desolation might have
stopped: and the naked edifices, which were no longer employed in the
service of idolatry, might have been protected from the destructive
rage of fanaticism. Many of those temples were the most splendid and
beautiful monuments of Grecian architecture; and the emperor himself was
interested not to deface the splendor of hi