Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/211

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 191 hand. 12 The senators were sworn on the altar of the goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the empire ; and a solemn offering of wine and incense was the ordinary prelude of their public deliberations. ^^ The removal of this ancient monument was the only injury which Constantius had offered [a.d. 357] to the superstition of the Romans. The altar of Victory was again restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian, and once [ad- 36M] more banished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian.^* But[A.D.382] the emperor yet spared the statues of the gods, which were exposed to the public veneration ; four hundred and twenty-four temples, or chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of the people ; and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the Christians was offended by the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice. ^^ But the Christians formed the least numerous party in the Petition of ^^^ senate of Rome ; ^"^ and it was only by their absence that they ^^i^t^^y*"" °' could express their dissent from the legal, though profane, a.d. 384 acts of a Pagan majority. In that assembly, the dying embers of freedom were, for a moment, revived and inflamed by the breath of fanaticism. Four respectable deputations were suc- cessively voted to the Imperial court ^"^ to represent the grievances of the priesthood and the senate ; and to solicit the restoration of the altar of Victory. The conduct of this important business was entrusted to the eloquent Symmachus,^^ a wealthy and noble senator, who united the sacred characters of pontiff and augur with the civil dignities of proconsul of Africa and praefect of the city. The breast of Symmachus was animated i2Prudentius {[in Symm.] 1. ii. in initio) has drawn a very awkward portrait of Victory ; but the curious reader will obtain more satisfaction from Montfaucon's Antiquities (torn. i. p. 341). 13 See Suetonius (in August, c. 35) and the Exordium of Pliny's Panegyric. 1* These facts are mutually allowed by the two advocates, Symmachus and Ambrose. 15 The Notitia Urbis, more recent than Constantine, does not find one Christian church worthy to be named among the edifices of the city. Ambrose (tom. ii. epist. xvii. p. 825) deplores the public scandals of Rome, which continually offended the eyes, the ears, and the nostrils of the faithful. 16 Ambrose repeatedly affirms, in contradiction to common sense (Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 147), that the Christians had a majority in the senate. ^"^ The firsi (A.D. 382) to Gratian, who refused them audience. The second (a.d. 384) to Valentinian, when the field was disputed by Symmachus and Ambrose. The //ii>-d (a.d. 388 [so Giildenpenning, p. 172 (a.d. 388-9); but Seeck puts it in 391, Chronol. Synimach. in M. G. H. Auct. Ant. vi. p. Iviii. See Prosper, de Prom. Dei, iii. 38]) to Theodosius ; and he fourth (a.d. 392 [Ambrose, ep. 57]) to Valentinian. Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 372-399) fairly represents the whole transaction. 18 Symmachus, who was invested with all the civil and sacerdotal honours, re- presented the emperor under the two characters of Pontifex Maximus and Princeps Senatus. See the proud inscription at the head of his works.