he had been admitted before his converfion. Some Monks alfd,
whom the Gentiles termed importers, aflumed it, uniting with
fpiritual pride and eonfummate vanity, an affeftation of Angular
humility and o f indifference to worldly fhow. But the emperor
Joyian commanding the temples to be fliut, and prohibiting
facrifice, the prudent philofopher then concealed his profefiion,
and relinquifhed his cloke for the common drefs. T h e order
was treated with feverity by Valens his fucceflbr, becaufe feme
o f them, to animate their party, had foretold that the next
Emperor would be a Gentile. They were addicted to divination
and magic, and it was pretended, had partly difeovened his
name. The habit was not wholly laid aiide. In the next
reign, a fedition happened at Alexandria, when Olympias a
Philofopher, wearing the cloke, was exceedingly a&ive, urging
the Gentiles to repell the Reformers, and not to remit o f their
zeal or he diiheartened becaufe they were difpoffeffed o f their
idols j for the'powers, which had inhabited them, were, he
aflerted, flown away into heaven., i ;The Heathen philofopbers
gradually difappeared■, but the Chriftian, their fucceffors' are
not yet extirurt, ftill flourifliing in Catholic countries, and differing
not lefs than the antient forts, in drefs, tenets, and rules
of living.
T he decline of Philofophy muft have deeply affe<5ed the
profperity o f Athens. A gradual defertion of the place bellowed:.
Minerva Could no longer protart her city, its beauty w^s violated
by - the Proconful, who flopped Pceeile o f its pretious
paintings. | It was iorfakcii by good fortune^ and would havfe
lingered in decay, but the Barbarians interpofed, and fuddenly
completed its downfall. When the Goths Were in pofleflion of
it in the tilrie* o f Claudius, two hundred and flxty nine years
after Chrift, they amafled all the books, intending, it is related,
to burn them; but defifted, on a reprefentation that the Greeks
were diverted by the amufements of ftudy from military pur-
fuits. Alaric,' under Arcadius and Honorius, Was not afraid’o f
their
their becoming The city was pillaged, and the libraries
were confumed- Devaftatipn then reigned jWMM; and
folitude without its walls. The fweet firens, the v o ^ nightingales,
as the Sophifts are M p M M | ? Q mQ/ v
Philofophy and Eloquence were exiled, and their antiept feat
occupied by ignorant honey-favors of mount Hymettps.
, .c h a p . m W U m
O f ti&ei people W m ® g a r m e n t r - ^ fu rk f
—^ h e GreeW-r-tfbe 'JJbawm T *
tm o f ,^ jltfienians~ jg§
A TU EM ^ ' after it wa& abandoned by the continued,
^ is likely* for ages to preforve tbo;tace .of retpaining inhabitants
unchanged, and uniform in language and.mappers,
Hiftory iaftjenf of its fuffering from later incurflons* from wars?
and m^acrev W m M *
new m**U t o where no trade exifts* em plo^ ^ t wdf be
wanting, and Attica, was never celebrated for fertility* The
plague has not been, as at Smyrna, a frequent .vifitant i becaufe
the iniforoour^ the $ands and # k er
been fmall,jmd the partis at a diftance. The plague, defonbed
by Thucydides began in the Piraeus, and the A d r ia n s at flrft
believed that the enemy had;pffifpned the If, from inadvertency,
the infection be.itowadmitted into the town, the
Turks as well as the Greeks have the prudence torture to ,tbeir
boufes in the country or to the mqnafteries, and it fsldom prevails
either fo long or fo terribly as in cities on the coaft.
A colony of new proprietors was, introdnPPd int° 4 -^ps by
Mahomet the fecpndj but the people fecured fopie pny|pges:by
their capitulation, and have hnoe obtained more by addrels or
tS T p . IH • money..