"The enforcement of Arcadius' Decree was entrusted to Cynegius, who arrived at Gaza ten days after Porphyrius with a force of soldiers and a body of civil officers. When the order for closing the temples was read, the citizens protested; but the soldiers carried out the Imperial commands, and were aided by the Christians and the sailors. The fiercest opposition was encountered at the Marneion, where the priests blocked the entrance with large stones. Seeing, however, that their defence was vain, they buried the temple treasures and escaped. The Marneion was then burned; it took ten days to complete the destruction of all the temples. After the site of the Marneion had been purified, a cruciform church was built on it out of the funds furnished by Eudoxia, after whom it was named the 'Eudoxiana.'
"The courtyard of the church was paved with stones taken from the Marneion, and the women of Gaza refused to walk in it because of their strong attachment to the old cult."[33]
The Eudoxiana was eventually converted into a mosque, and the Roman garrison, consisting of sixty soldiers under the command of Callinicus, having refused to apostatise, were slain at Eleutheropolis and Jerusalem.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Additional information concerning this church is contained in Mr. G. F. Hill's translation of The Life of Porphyry by Mark the Deacon. Oxford: the Clarendon Press, 1913. Unfortunately, my attention was only drawn to this charming little book after these pages were in the hands of the printer.
[31] Hore's Eighteen Centuries of the Orthodox Greek Church, p. 188. James Parker & Co., 1899.
[32] See page [44], under chapter on Coins.
[33] Meyer's History of the City of Gaza, pp. 64, 65.