OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

235

To this temple, as to the common centre of chap.

religious worship, the imperial fanatic attempted__

to remove the ancilia, the palladium,® and allthe sacred pledges of the faith of Numa. Acrowd of inferior deities attended in various sta-tions the majesty of the god of Emesa ; but hiscourt was still imperfect, till a female of distin-guished rank was admitted to his bed. Pallashad been first chosen for his consort; but as itwas dreaded lest her warlike terrors might af-fright the soft delicacy of a Syrian deity, themoon, adored by the Africans under the nameof Astarte , was deemed a more suitable compa-nion for the sun. Her image, with the rich of-ferings of her temple as a marriage portion, wastransported with solemn pomp from Carthage to Rome , and the day of these mystic nuptialswas a general festival in the capital and through-out the empire . 11

A rational voluptuary adheres with invari- His profli .able respect to the temperate dictates of nature, s® te ? ndand improves the gratifications of sense by so- luxury,cial intercourse, endearing connections, and thesoft colouring of taste and the imagination. ButElagabalus (I speak of the emperor of that

6 He broke into the sanctuary of Vesta, and carried away a statue,which he supposed to be the palladium; but the vestals boasted, that,by a pious fraud, they had imposed a counterfeit image on the profaneintruder. Hist. August, p. 103.

11 Dion, 1. lxxix, p. 1360. Herodian, I. v, p. 193. The subjectsof the empire were obliged to make liberal presents to the new-married couple; and whatever they had promised during the life ofElagabalus , was carefully exacted under the administration of Ma-maea.