OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE.

cret orders and hasty marches, to besiege, orrather to surprise, a capital habituated to sedi-tion, and inflamed by religious zeal.' The posi-tion of Alexandria , between the sea and thelake Mareotis, facilitated the approach andlanding of the troops; who were introduced in-to the heart of the city, before any effectualmeasures could be taken either to shut thegates, or to occupy the important posts of de-fence. At the hour of midnight, twenty-threedays after the signature of the treaty, Syrianus ,duke of Egypt , at the head of five thousand sol-diers, armed and prepared for an assault, unex-pectedly invested the church of St. Theonas,where the archbishop, with a party of his clergyand people, performed their nocturnal devo-tions. The doors of the sacred edifice yieldedto the impetuosity of the attack, which was ac-companied with every horrid circumstance oftumult and bloodshed ; but as the bodies ofthe slain, and the fragments of military weapons,remained the next day an unexceptionable evi-dence in the possession of the catholics, the en-terprise of Syrianus may be considered as asuccessful irruption, rather than as an absoluteconquest. The other churches of the city wereprofaned by similar outrages; and, during at'least four months, Alexandria was exposed to

• Athanasius had lately sent for Antony, and some of his chosenmonks. They descended from their mountain, announced to theAlexandrians the sanctity of Athanasius , and were honourably con-ducted by the archbishop as far as the gates of the city. Athanas.tom. ii, p. 491, 492. See likewise Rufinns, iii, 104, in Vit. Patr.p. 524.

377

CHAP.

XXI.