80 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
partiality both the dark and the bright sides of the Chribtiao emperors and of the apostate Julian.'
§ 10. The Heathen Ajpologetio Literature.
After the death of Julian most of the heathen writers, eS' pecially the ablest and most estimable, confined themselves to the defence of their religion, and thus became, by reason of their position, advocates of toleration ; and, of com'se, of toleration for the religious syncretism, which in its cooler form degenerates into philosophical indifi'erentisni.
Among these were Themistius, teacher of rhetoric, senator and prefect of Constantinople, and afterwards preceptor of thd young emperor Arcadius ; Aubelius Stmmachus, rhetorician, senator, and prefect of Home under Gratian and Valentinian II., the eloquent pleader for the altar of Victoria ; and above all, the rhetorician Libanius, friend and admirer of Julian, alternately teaching in Constantinople, Nicomedia, and Antioch. These all belong to the second half of the fourth century, and represent at once the last bloom and the decline of the classic eloquence. They were all more or less devoted to the Xeo-Platonic syncretism. They held, that the Deity had implanted in all men a religious nature and want, but had left the particular form of worshiping God to the free will of the several nations and individuals ; that all outward constraint, therefore, was contrary to the nature of religion and could only beget hypocrisy. Themistius vindicated this variety of the forms of religion as favorable to religion itself, as many Protestants justify the system of sects. " The rivalry of different religions," says he in his oration on Jovian, "serves to stimulate zeal for the worship of God. There are difiercnt paths, some hard, others easy, some rough, others smooth, leading to the same goal. Leave only one way, and shut up the rest, and you destroy emulation. God would have no such uni-
' The more is it to be regretted, tliat the first thirteen hooka of his history of th« Roman emperors from Nerva to 353 are lost. The remaining eighteen books reach from 353 to 378.
§ 11. CHRI8TIAJJ APOLOGISTS AND POLEMICS. 81
formity among men. . . . The Lord of the universe delighta in manifoldness. It is his will, that Syrians, Greeks, Egyptians should worship him, each nation in its own way, and that the Syrians again should divide into small sects, no one ot which agrees entirely with another. "Why should we thus enforce what is impossible ? " In the same style argues Symmachus, who withholds all direct opposition to Christianity and contends only against its exclusive supremacy.
Libanius, in his plea for the temples addressed to Theodosius I. (384 or 390), called to his aid every argument, religious, political, and artistic, in behalf of the heathen sanctuaries, but interspersed bitter remarks against the temple-storming monks. He asserts among other things, that the principles ot Christianity itself condemn the use of force in religion, and commend the indulgence of free conviction.
Of course this heathen plea for toleration was but the last desperate defence of a hopeless minority, and an indirect selfcondemnation of heathenism for its persecution of the Christian religion in the first three centuries.
§ 11. Christian Apologists cmd Polemics, SOURCES.
I. The Geeek Apologists : Eusebius Caes. : UpoirapaaKevf] fiayyeX/Tcij (Preparatio evang.), and 'ATroSet^t? (iinyy^XiKJ] (Deinonstratio evang.) ; besides his controversial work against Hierocles ; and his Theophany, discovered in 1842 in a Syriac version (ed. Lee, Lond. 1842). Atha- NASius: Karn twv 'YX\i]vu>v (Oratio contra Gentes), and Ilep\ rrjs fvav- SptoTTijo-fcof rov Aoyou (De incarnatione Verbi Dei) : two treatises belonging together (Opera, ed. Bened. torn. i. 1 sqq.). Cyril of Alex. : Contra impium Jalianum libri X (with extracts from the three books of Julian against Christianity). Theodoret: Graecarum affectionum
curatio ('EXXr^i^iKcoi' SepaTrfurtKr} Tra'^Tjfj.drcov), dlsput. XII.
II The Latdt Apologists: Laotantius: Ins-tit. divin. 1. vii (particularly the first three books, de falsa religione, de origine erroris, and de falsa sapientia ; the third against the heathen philosophy). Julius Firmicus Maternus: De errore profanarum religionum (not mentioned by the ancients, but edited several times in the sixteenth century, and latterly by F. Miinter, Havn. 1826). Ambrose: Ep. 17 and 18 (against
ii
62 nriRD period, a.d. 311-590.
Symmaclius) Pkudentius : In Syn' macliura (an apologetic poem) Paul. Orosiu8 : Adv. paganos histc riarum 1. vii (an apologetic iini' versal history, against Eunapius and Zosiraus). Augustine: De civitate Dei 1. xxii (often separately published). Salvianus: De guber^ natione Dei 1. viii (the eighth book incomplete).