Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/433

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 413 the Vandals. ^'^ When the emperor Decius persecuted the Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus concealed them- selves in a spacious cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain ; where they were doomed to perish by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period of one hundred and eighty-seven years. At the end of that time, the slaves of Adolius, to whom the inheritance of the mountain had descended, removed the stones, to supply materials for some rustic edifice ; the light of the sun darted into the cavern, and the seven sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they thought, of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger ; and resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should secretly return to the city, to purchase bread for the use of his companions. The youth (if we may still employ that appellation) could no longer recognise the once familiar aspect of his native country ; and his sui'prise was increased by the appeai'ance of a large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus. His singular dress and obsolete language confounded the baker, to whom he offered an ancient medal of Decius as the cuiTent coin of the empire ; and Jamblichus, on the suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual inquiries produced the amazing discovery that two centuries were almost elapsed since Jamblichus and his friends had escaped from the rage of a Pagan tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy, the magistrates, the people, and, as it is said, the emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of the Seven Sleepers ; who bestowed their benediction, related their story, and at the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this marvellous fable cannot be ascribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the modern Greeks, since the authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of the supposed miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was bom only tAvo years after the death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of ^Two Syriac writers, as they are quoted by Assemanni (Bibliot. Oriental, torn, i. p. 336, 338), place the resurrection of the Seven Sleepers in the year 736 (a.u. 425) or 748 (A.u. 437) of the sera of the Seleucides. Their Greek acts, which Photius had read, assign the date of the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Theodosius, which may coincide either with A.D. 439, or 446. The period which had elapsed since the persecution of Decius is easily ascertained ; and nothing less than the ignorance of Mahomet, or the legendaries, could suppose an interval of three or four hundred years.