Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/220

 202 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAT, now converted into her most useful ally. The groves ^ of the academy, the gardens of Epicurus, and even the portico of the Stoics, were almost deserted, as so many different schools of scepticism or impiety'': and many among the Romans were desirous that the writings of Cicero should be condemned and suppressed by the authority of the senate ^ The prevailing sect of the new Platonicians judged it prudent to connect them- selves with the priests, whom perhaps they despised, against the christians, whom they had reason to fear. These fashionable philosophers prosecuted the design of extracting allegorical wasdom from the fictions of the Greek poets; instituted mysterious rites of devcrtion for the use of their chosen disciples; recommended the worship of the ancient gods as the emblems or ministers of the Supreme Deity, and composed against the faith of the gospel many elaborate treatises*^, which have since been committed to the flames by the prudence of orthodox emperors*. Maximian Although the policy of Diocletian and the humanity ^°'^ ^unisii ^^ Constantius inclined them to preserve inviolate the nus a few chris- maxims of toleration, it was soon discovered that their dTers!" two associates, Maximian and Galerius, entertained the most implacable aversion for the name and religion of the christians. The minds of those princes had never been enlightened by science ; education had never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords; and in their most elevated fortune ^ Julian (p. 301. edit. Spanheim,) expresses a pious joy that the provi- dence of the gods had extinguished the impious sects, and for the most part destroyed the books of the Pyrrhonians and Epicureans, which had been very numerous, since Epicurus himself composed no less than three hundred volumes. See Diogenes Laertius, 1. x.c. 26. <: Cumque alios audiam mussitare indignanter, et dicere oportere statui per senatum, aboleantur ut haec scripta, quibus Christiana religio comprobe- tur, et vetustatis opprimatur auctoritas. Arnobius adversus Gentes, 1. iii. p. 103, 104. He adds very properly, Erroris convincite Ciceronem .... nam intercipere scripta, et publicatam velle submergere lectionem, non est Peum defendere, sed veritatis testificationem timere. d Lactantius (Divin. Institut. 1. v. c. 2, 3.) gives a very clear and spirited account of two of these philosophic adversaries of the faith. The large trea- tise of Porphyry against the christians consisted of thirty books, and was composed in Sicily about the year 270. « See Socratesi Hist. Ecclesiast. i. i. c. 9. and Codex Justinian, 1. i. tit. i.i. 3.