Pharisaic Judaism has always repudiated this heathen kind of games (1 Maccabees i. 14, 15; 2 Maccabees iv. 9-17).
Judaism, however, was unable, in spite of this theoretic repudiation, to prevent the pageantry of heathen games from developing every fourth year, in the midst of the Holy Land, during and after the Herodian period.[52]
The Circus of Gaza[53]
Moonrise on the desert. Above the dark ridges of rocks which rose from the tawny waste of sand, a pale faint light poured down on the wilderness of Gaza. An aged man, yet apparently more worn with labour than with years, was standing at the entrance of a cave, which, dark and silent, pierced one of the mountain ridges.
The time of which I am speaking was about 350 years after the birth of our Lord; the place was one of the deserts which stretched themselves between the Nile and the Holy Land. Already innumerable hosts of monks occupied the wilderness of Egypt; and if St. Antony had attained the greatest reputation for the holiness of his life and the wonders of his miracles, St. Hilarion among the monks of the solitudes held the second place. Many times he had fled from the concourse of people that the fame of his powers of healing had drawn to him; and now, in one of the wildest and most unfrequented parts of the wilderness, he hoped to find a place where he might serve God without the interruption of men.
The moonlight showed distinctly the furthest objects on the horizon; and as the hermit stood gazing around him, and thinking, perhaps, of that new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness, which shall be the abode of those who have been Christ's faithful servants here, he noticed a dark spot in the far distance, which gradually drew nearer, and took form and shape.
Half-an-hour brought to the entrance of his cave a large company of Christians. Camels there were to carry those who were of rank to need such a conveyance, and attendants and slaves in abundance. For already, in part, the kingdoms of this world were become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ; and to be a Christian was no longer, as fifty years before it had been, a badge of infamy; although in the south-western part of Palestine the worshippers of idols still outnumbered the holders of the true faith.
"Are we happy enough," said one of them who arrived first, a tall and somewhat portly man, who had just descended from his camel before speaking; "are we happy enough to stand in the presence of Hilarion, of whose fame all Egypt and Palestine are full?"