OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

supported with dignity the character which hehad assumed with reluctance . 0 He vanquishedthe monster of Libya , the president Andronicus,who abused the authority of a venal office, in-vented new modes of rapine and torture, andaggravated the guilt of oppression and that ofsacrilege/ After a fruitless attempt to reclaimthe haughty magistrate by mild and religiousadmonition, Synesius proceeds to inflict thelast sentence of ecclesiastical justice,' whichdevotes Andronicus, with his associates andtheir families, to the abhorrence of earth andheaven. The impenitent sinners, more cruelthan Phalaris or Sennacherib , more destructivethan war, pestilence, or a cloud of locusts, aredeprived of the name and privileges of chris-

litan honours of the Pentapolis^, or Upper Libya , which were after-wards transferred to Sozusa. See VVesseling Itinerar- p.67,68. 732.Cellarius Geograph, tom ii, part ii, p. 72 74. Carolus a Sto. PauloGcograph. Sacra, p. 273. d’Anville Geograpliie Ancienne, tom. iii,

р. 43, 44. Mcmoires de I’Acad. dcs Inscriptions, tom. xxxvii, p.303-391.

c Synesius had previously represented his own disqualification (Epist.

с. v, p. 246 250). He loved profane studies and profane sports; hewas incapable of supporting a life of celibacy ; he disbelieved theresurrection ; and he refused to preach fables to the people, unlesshe might be permitted to philosophize at home. Theophilus, primateof Egypt , who knew his merit, accepted this extraordinary compro-mise. See the life of Synesius in Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xii, p.499-554.

a Sec the invective of Synesit.s, Epist. lvii, p. 191-201. The pro-motion of Andronicus was illegal; since he was a native of Berenice,in the same province The instruments of torture are curiously sp*.cified, the 'nmcnftov, or press, the 5axToXn0£a, Ihe'evoSec^ttCs, the pivsXa&c,the oaTnypa, and the^EiXacpo^iov, that variously pressed or distended thefingers, the feet, the nose, the ears, wild the lips of the victims.

c The sentence of excommunication is expressed in a rhetoricalstyle. (Synesius, Epist. lviii, p. 201 203). The method of involvingwhole families, though somewhat unjust, was improved into nationalinterdicts.

297

CHAP.

XX.