te enjoyment of tranquillity and
opulence; and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended
with the hereditary softness of the Syrians. Fashion was the only law,
pleasure the only pursuit, and the splendor of dress and furniture was
the only distinction of the citizens of Antioch. The arts of luxury were
honored; the serious and manly virtues were the subject of ridicule; and
the contempt for female modesty and reverent age announced the universal
corruption of the capital of the East. The love of spectacles was the
taste, or rather passion, of the Syrians; the most skilful artists were
procured from the adjacent cities; [12] a considerable share of the
revenue was devoted to the public amusements; and the magnificence of
the games of the theatre and circus was considered as the happiness and
as the glory of Antioch. The rustic manners of a prince who disdained
such glory, and was insensible of such happiness, soon disgusted the
delicacy of his subjects; and the effeminate Orientals could neither
imitate, nor admire, the severe simplicity which Julian always
maintained, and sometimes affected. The days of festivity, consecrated,
by ancient custom, to the honor of the gods, were the only occasions in
which Julian relaxed his philosophic severity; and those festivals
were the only days in which the Syrians of Antioch could reject the
allurements of pleasure. The majority of the people supported the glory
of the Christian name, which had been first invented by their ancestors:
[13] they contended themselves with disobeying the moral precepts, but
they were scrupulously attached to the speculative doctrines of their
religion. The church of Antioch was distracted by heresy and schism; but
the Arians and the Athanasians, the followers of Meletius and those of
Paulinus, [14] were actuated by the same pious hatred of their common
adversary.

[Footnote 11: The Satire of Julian, and the Homilies of St. Chrysostom,
exhibit the same picture of Antioch. The miniature which the Abbe de la
Bleterie has copied from thence, (Vie de Julian, p. 332,) is elegant and
correct.]

[Footnote 12: Laodicea furnished charioteers; Tyre and Berytus,
comedians; Caesarea, pantomimes; Heliopolis, singers; Gaza, gladiators,
Ascalon, wrestlers; and Castabala, rope-dancers. See the Expositio
totius Mundi, p. 6, in the third tome of Hudson's Minor Geographers.]

[Footnote 13: The people of Antioch ingenuously professed their
attachment to the Ch