enemy to your interests, considering, beside other things, the great honour* which you have conferred upon me, and that it is not likely that he who is under so great obligations should not love his benefactor. And, for that very reason, I think it my duty to advise, where I apprehend I have somewhat to offer which may be of advantage; for I have no other way of showing my gratitude to the Emperor but by orations, and the counsel delivered in them.
"I shall, indeed, appear to many to undertake a matter full of danger in pleading with you for the temples, that they may suffer no injury, as they now do. But they who have such apprehensions seem to me to be very ignorant of your true character. For I esteem it the part of an angry and severe disposition, for any one to resent the proposal of counsel which he does not approve of: but the part of a mild and gentle and equitable disposition, such as yours is, barely to reject counsel not approved of. For when it is in the power of him to whom the address is made to embrace any counsel or not, it is not reasonable to refuse a hearing which can do no harm; nor yet to resent and punish the proposal of counsel, if it appear contrary to his own judgment;
* The office of Præfectus Prætorio.
when the only thing that induced the adviser to mention it, was a persuasion of its usefulness.
"I entreat you, therefore, O Emperor, to turn your countenance to me while I am speaking, and not to cast your eyes upon those who in many things aim to molest both you and me; forasmuch as oftentimes a look is of greater effect than all the force of truth. I would further insist, that they ought to permit me to deliver my discourse quietly and without
interruption; and then, afterwards, they may do their best to confute us by what they have to say. [Here is a small breach in the Oration. But he seems to have begun his argument with an account of the origin of temples, that they were first of all erected in country places.] Men then having at first secured themselves in dens and cottages, and having there experienced the protection of the gods, they soon perceived how beneficial to mankind their favour must be: they therefore, as may be sup-, posed, erected to them statues and temples, such as they could in those early times. And when they began to build cities, upon the increase of arts and sciences, there were many temples on the sides of mountains and in plains: and in every city [as they built it] next to the walls were temples and sacred edifices raised, as the beginning of the rest of the body. For from such governors they expected the
greatest security: and, if you survey the whole Roman empire, you will find this to be the case every where. For in the city next to the greatest * there are still some temples**, though they are deprived of their honours; a few indeed out of many, but yet it is not quite destitute. And with the aid of these gods the Romans fought and conquered their enemies; and having conquered them, they improved their condition, and made them happier than they were before their defeat; lessening their fears and making them partners in the privileges of the commonwealth. And when I was a child, he*** led the Gallic army overthrew him that had affronted him; they having first prayed to the gods for success before they engaged. But having prevailed over him who at that time gave prosperity to the cities, judging it for his advantage to have another deity, for the building of the city which he then designed he made use of the sacred money, but made no alteration in the legal worship. The temples indeed were impoverished, but the rites were still performed there. But when the empire came to his son****, or rather the form of empire, for the government was really in the hands of others, who
* He means Constantinople.
** He alludes to the ancient temples of Byzantium.
*** Constantine.
**** Constantius.