had falsified the sense of the fathers, by making them say, "that oracles ceased precisely at the moment of Christ's birth." The learned apologist for the fathers shows, that they all allege oracles did not cease till after our Saviour's birth, and the preaching of his gospel; not on a sudden, but in proportion to his salutary doctrines being known to mankind, and gaining ground in the world. This unanimous opinion of the fathers is confirmed by the unexceptionable evidence of great numbers of the Pagans, who agree with them as to the time when the oracles ceased. What an honour to the Christian religion was this silence, imposed upon the oracles by the victory of Jesus Christ? Every Christian had this power. Tertullian, in one of his apologies, challenges the Pagans to make the experiment, and consents that a Christian should be put to death, if he did not oblige these givers of oracles to confess themselves devils. Lactantius informs us, that every Christian could silence them by only the sign of the cross. And all the world knows, that when Julian the apostate was at Daphne, a suburb of Antioch, to consult Apollo, the god, notwithstanding all the sacrifices offered to him, continued mute, and only recovered his speech to answer those who inquired the cause of his silence, that they must ascribe it to the interment of certain bodies in the neighbourhood. Those were the bodies of Christian martyrs, amongst which was that of St. Babylas. This triumph of the Christian religion ought to give us a due sense of our obligations to Jesus Christ, and, Tertul. in Apolog. Lib. de vera sapient. c. xxvii. VOL. P. 10 at the same time, of the darkness to which all mankind were abandoned before his coming. We have seen, amongst the Carthaginians, fathers and mothers more cruel than wild beasts, inhumanly giving up their children, and annually depopulating their cities, by destroying the most florid of their youth, in obedience to the bloody dictates of their oracles and false gods. The victims were chosen without any regard to rank, sex, age, or condition. Such bloody executions were honoured with the name of sacrifices, and designed to make the gods propitious. "What greater evil," cries Lactantius, "could they inflict in their most violent displeasure, than to deprive their adorers of all sense of humanity, to make them cut the throats of their own children, and pollute their sacrilegious hands with such execrable parricides!" A thousand frauds and impostures, openly detected at Delphos, and every where else, had not opened men's eyes, nor in the least diminished the credit of the oracles, which subsisted upwards of two thousand years, and was carried to an inconceivable height, even in the sense of the greatest men, the most profound philosophers, the most powerful princes, and generally among the most civilized nations, and such as valued themselves most upon their wisdom and policy. The estimation they were in, may be judged from the < Tam barbaros, tam immanes fuisse homines, ut parricidium suum, itl est tetrum atque execrabile humano generi facinus, sacrificium vocarent. Cum teneras atque innocentes animas, quæ maximè est ætas parentibus dulcior, sine ullorespectu pietatis extinguerunty'immanitatemque omnium bestiarum, quæ tamen fœtus suos amant, feritate superarent. O demen. tiam insanabilem! Quid illis isti dii amplius facere possent, si essent iratissimi quam faciunt propitii? Cum suos cultores parricidiis inquinant, orbitatibus mactant, humanis sensibus spoliant. Lactant. I. i. c. 21. magnificence of the temple of Delphos, and the im mense riches amassed in it through the superstitious credulity of nations and monarchs. The temple of Delphos having been burnt about the fifty eighth Olympiad, the Amphyctions, those celebrated judges of Greece, took upon themselves the care of rebuilding it. They agreed with an architect for three hundred talents, which amounts to nine hundred thousand livres. The cities of Greece were to furnish that sum. The inhabitants of Delphos were taxed a fourth part of it, and made gatherings in all parts, even in foreign nations, for that service. Amasis, at that time king of Egypt, and the Grecian inhabitants of his country, contributed considerable sums towards it. The Alcmeonides, a potent family of Athens, were charged with the conduct of the building, and made it more magnificent, by consider. able additions of their own, than had been proposed in the model. Gyges, king of Lydia, and Cresus, one of his successors, enriched the temple of Delphos with an incredible number of presents. Many other princes, cities, and private persons, by their example, in a kind of emulation of each other, had heaped up in it tripods, vessels, tables, shields, crowns, chariots, and statues of gold and silver of all sizes, equally infinite in number and value. The presents of gold, which Cresus only made to this temple, amounted, according to Herodotus,e to upwards of two hundred and fifty four talents; that is, about seven hundred and sixty two thousand French livres ; and perhaps of those of d Herod. 1. ii. c. 180. et l. v. c. 62. e Ibid. 1. i. e. 50, 51. silver to as much. Most of these presents were in being in the time of Herodotus. Diodorus Siculus, adding those of other princes to them, makes their amount ten thousand talents, or thirty millions of livres.h Among the statues of gold, consecrated by Cresus in the temple of Delphos, was placed that of a female baker, of which this was the occasion: Alyattus, Cresus's father, having married a second wife, by whom he had children, she contrived to get rid of her son in law, that the crown might descend to her own issue. For this purpose she engaged the female baker to put poison into a loaf, that was to be served at the young prince's table. The woman, who was struck with horror at the crime, in which she ought to have had no part at all, gave Cresus notice of it. The poisoned loaf was served to the queen's own children, and their death secured the crown to the lawful When he ascended the throne, in gratitude to his benefactress, he erected a statue to her in the temple of Delphos. But may we conclude that a person of so mean a condition could deserve so great an honour? Plutarch answers in the affirmative, and with a much better title, he says, than many of the so much vaunted conquerors and heroes, who have acquired their fame only by murder and devastation. successor. It is not to be wondered, that such immense riches should tempt the avarice of mankind, and expose Delphos to being frequently pillaged. Without mentioning more ancient times, Xerxes, who invaded Diod. 1. xvi. p. 453. h About 5,777,777 dole. Greece with a million of men, endeavoured to seize upon the spoils of this temple. Above an hundred years after, the Phocions, near neighbours of Delphos, plundered it at several times. The same rich booty was the sole motive of the irruption of the Gauls into Greece under Brennus. The guardian god of Delphos, if we may believe historians, sometimes defended this temple by surprising prodigies; and at others, either from incapacity or confusion, suffered himself to be plundered. When Nero made this temple, so famous throughout the universe, a visit, and found in it five hundred fine brass statues of illustrious men and gods to his liking, which had been consecrated to Apollo, (more of gold and silver having undoubtedly disappeared upon his approach) he ordered them to be taken down, and, shipping them on board his vessels, carried them with him to Rome. Those who would be more particularly informed concerning the oracles and riches of the temple of Delphos, may consult some dissertations upon them, printed in the memoirs of the academy of Belles Lettres; of which I have made good use, according to my custom. OF THE GAMES AND COMBATS. Games and combats made a part of the religion, and had a share in almost all the festivals of the ancients; and for that reason it is proper to treat of them in this place. Whether we consider their origin, or the design of their institution, we shall not be surprised * Vol. iik |