THE DECLINE AND FALL

404

CHAP.

XXL

ami his•ODI.

charged the duties of a Roman censor, when hegave orders for the demolition of several tem-ples of Phoenicia , in which every mode of pros-titution was devoutly practised in the face ofday, and to the honour of Venus.' The impe-rial city of Constantinople was, in some mea-sure, raised at the expence, and was adornedwith the spoils, of the opulent temples of Greece and Asia ; the sacred property was confiscated;the statues of gods and heroes were transported,with rude familiarity, among a people who con-sidered them as objects, not of adoration, but ofcuriosity: the gold and silver were restored tocirculation; and the magistrates, the bishops,and the eunuchs, improved the fortunate occa-sion of gratifying, at once, their zeal, their ava-rice, and their resentment. But these depreda-tions were confined to a small part of the Ro-man world, and the provinces had been longsince accustomed to endure the same sacrile-gious rapine, from the tyranny of princes andproconsuls, who could not be suspected of anydesign to subvert the established religion fThe sons of Constantine trod in the footstepsof their father, with more zeal, and with less dis-

* See Eusebius, in Vit. Constantin. 1 . iii, c. 54-58, and 1. iv, c. 23 25.These acts of authority may be compared with the suppression of thebacchanals, and the demolition of the temple of Isis,by the magistratesof pagan Home.

f Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. 1. iii, c. 54), and Libanius (Orat. proTemplis , p. 9, 10, edit. Gothofred), both mention the pious sacrilegeof Constantine , which they viewed in very different lights. The latterexpressly deelares, that “ he made use of the sacred money, but made“ no alteration in the legal worship; the temples indeed were linpo.“ verished, hut thy sacred rites were performed there.” LardnersJewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol iv p. 140.