Julian Punishes Caesarea; the Boldness of Maris, Bishop of Chalcedon

About the same time the emperor struck Caesarea, the large and wealthy capital of Cappadocia near Mount Argaeus, from the list of cities. He even took from it the name of Caesarea, which it had been given in the reign of Claudius Caesar; its former name was Mazaca. He had long regarded the people of this city with extreme dislike, because they were zealously attached to Christianity and had earlier destroyed the temple of Apollo, their ancestral god, and that of Jupiter, the city’s guardian god. The temple of Fortune, the only one left in the city, was pulled down by the Christians after he came to the throne. When he heard of it, he hated the whole city intensely and could hardly bear it. He also blamed the pagans, who were few in number, but who, he said, ought to have rushed to the temple and, if need be, suffered gladly for Fortune. He had all the possessions and money belonging to the churches of the city and suburbs of Caesarea searched out with rigor and carried off. About two hundred and fifteen pounds of gold obtained in this way were taken to the public treasury. He also ordered that all the clergy be enrolled in the corps serving under the governor of the province, which the Romans count the hardest and least honorable service. [a] He ordered the Christian population to be counted, women and children included, and laid taxes on them as heavy as those that villages have to pay. He threatened further that unless their temples were quickly rebuilt, his anger would not be appeased, but would fall on the city until not one of the Galileans was left alive; for that was the name he used to give the Christians in mockery. There is no doubt that his threats would have been fully carried out if death had not quickly intervened.

It was not out of any compassion for the Christians that he treated them at first more humanely than earlier persecutors had. It was because he had found that paganism had gained nothing from their tortures, while Christianity had grown greatly and had become more honored through the courage of those who died in defense of the faith. It was simply out of envy of their glory that, instead of using fire and the sword against them and mistreating their bodies as earlier persecutors had, and instead of throwing them into the sea or burying them alive to force them to change their minds, he turned to argument and persuasion, and tried by these means to bring them over to paganism. He expected to reach his goal more easily by giving up all violent measures and by showing unexpected kindness. It is said that once, when he was sacrificing in the temple of Fortune at Constantinople, Maris, bishop of Chalcedon, came before him and publicly rebuked him as an irreligious man, an atheist and an apostate. Julian had nothing to reproach him with in return except his blindness, for his sight had failed with old age and he was led by a child. Then, following his usual habit of uttering blasphemies against Christ, Julian added in mockery: “Your God, the Galilean, will not cure you.” Maris replied: “I thank God for my blindness, since it keeps me from seeing one who has fallen away from our religion.” Julian passed on without replying, for he thought that paganism would be better served by a personal and unexpected display of patience and mildness toward Christians. [d]