Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/98

 80 THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP, disposed throughout the year, that superstition always • wore the appeai'ance of pleasure, and often of virtue ^ Some of the most sacred festivals in the Roman ritual were destined to salute the new calends of January with vows of public and private felicity, to indulge the pious remembrance of the dead and living, to ascertain the inviolable bounds of property, to hail, on the re- turn of spring, the genial powers of fecundity, to per- petuate the two memorable eras of Rome, the founda- tion of the city, and that of the republic, and to restore, during the humane licence of the saturnalia, the primi- tive equality of mankind. Some idea may be conceived of the abhorrence of the christians for such impious ceremonies, by the scrupulous delicacy which they dis- played on a much less alarming occasion. On days of general festivity, it was the custom of the ancients to adorn their doors with lamps and with branches of laurel, and to crown their heads with a garland of flowers. This innocent and elegant practice might perhaps have been tolerated as a mere civil institution. But it most unluckily happened that the doors were under the protection of the household gods, that the laurel was sacred to the lover of Daphne, and that gar- lands of flowers, though frequently worn as a symbol either of joy or mourning, had been dedicated in their first origin to the service of superstition. The trem- bling christians, who were persuaded in this instance to comply with the fashion of their country and the commands of the magistrate, laboured under the most gloomy apprehensions, from the reproaches of their own conscience, the censures of the church, and the denunciations of divine vengeance''. <= Consult the most laboured work of Ovid, his imperfect Fasti. He finished no more than the first six months of the year. The compilation of Macrobius is called the Saturnalia, but it is only a small part of the first book that bears any relation to the title. •• Tertullian has composed a defence, or rather panegyric, of the rash action of a christian soldier, who, by throwing away his crown of laurel, had exposed himself and his brethren to the most imminent danger. By the mention of the emperors, (Severus and Caracalla) it is evident, notwitli- standing the wishes of M. de Tillemont, that Terlullian composed his trea-