edward gibbon the history of the decline

His pious indignation was excited by the honours of Serapis and the insults which he offered to an ancient temple of Bacchus, convinced the Pagans that he meditated a more important and dangerous enterprise. After the edicts of Theodosius had severely prohibited the sacrifices of the Pagans, they were still tolerated in the city and temple of Serapis and this singular indulgence was imprudently ascribed to the superstitious terrors of the Christians themselves as if they had feared to abolish those ancient rites, which could alone secure the inundations of the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of Constantinople.Īt that time the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was filled by Theophilus, the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood. The consecrated buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular portico the stately halls, and exquisite statues, displayed the triumph of the arts and the treasures of ancient learning were preserved in the famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with new splendour from its ashes.

His temple, which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the Capitol, was erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mount, raised one hundred steps above the level of the adjacent parts of the city and the interior cavity was strongly supported by arches, and distributed into vaults and subterraneous apartments. Alexandria, which claimed his peculiar protection, gloried in the name of the city of Serapis. (1909–14 ) The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 7 vols, ed. Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Edward gibbon the history of the decline