ear to
confirm the ecclesiastical narratives; that in the cities of Gaza,
Ascalon, Caesarea, Heliopolis, &c., the Pagans abused, without prudence
or remorse, the moment of their prosperity. That the unhappy objects
of their cruelty were released from torture only by death; and as their
mangled bodies were dragged through the streets, they were pierced
(such was the universal rage) by the spits of cooks, and the distaffs of
enraged women; and that the entrails of Christian priests and virgins,
after they had been tasted by those bloody fanatics, were mixed with
barley, and contemptuously thrown to the unclean animals of the city.
Such scenes of religious madness exhibit the most contemptible and
odious picture of human nature; but the massacre of Alexandria attracts
still more attention, from the certainty of the fact, the rank of the
victims, and the splendor of the capital of Egypt.

George, from his parents or his education, surnamed the Cappadocian, was
born at Epiphania in Cilicia, in a fuller's shop. From this obscure and
servile origin he raised himself by the talents of a parasite; and the
patrons, whom he assiduously flattered, procured for their worthless
dependent a lucrative commission, or contract, to supply the army with
bacon. His employment was mean; he rendered it infamous. He accumulated
wealth by the basest arts of fraud and corruption; but his malversations
were so notorious, that George was compelled to escape from the pursuits
of justice. After this disgrace, in which he appears to have saved his
fortune at the expense of his honor, he embraced, with real or affected
zeal, the profession of Arianism. From the love, or the ostentation,
of learning, he collected a valuable library of history rhetoric,
philosophy, and theology, and the choice of the prevailing faction
promoted George of Cappadocia to the throne of Athanasius. The entrance
of the new archbishop was that of a Barbarian conqueror; and each moment
of his reign was polluted by cruelty and avarice. The Catholics of
Alexandria and Egypt were abandoned to a tyrant, qualified, by nature
and education, to exercise the office of persecution; but he oppressed
with an impartial hand the various inhabitants of his extensive diocese.
The primate of Egypt assumed the pomp and insolence of his lofty
station; but he still betrayed the vices of his base and servile
extraction. The merchants of Alexandria were impoverished by the unjust,
and almost univer