The Murder of George of Alexandria; the Mithraeum; Julian’s Letter

After Athanasius had been kept safe in this way and had suddenly appeared in the church, no one knew where he had come from. The people of Alexandria, however, rejoiced at his return and gave his churches back to him. [a] So the Arians, driven out of the churches, had to hold their meetings in private houses, and they made Lucius the bishop of their heresy in George’s place. George had already been killed. When the magistrates had announced to the public that Constantius was dead and that Julian was sole ruler, the pagans of Alexandria rose in riot. They attacked George with shouts and abuse as if they meant to kill him on the spot. Then, held back from this headlong attack, they put him in prison. A little while later they rushed to the prison early in the morning, killed him, threw the body on a camel, exposed it to every kind of insult all day long, and burned it at nightfall. I am aware that the Arian heretics claim that George was treated this cruelly by the followers of Athanasius. But it seems more likely to me that the pagans did these things. They had more reason than anyone else to hate him, especially because of the insults he had heaped on their images and their temples, and because he had forbidden them to sacrifice or to perform their ancestral rites. Besides, the influence he had gained at the palace made the hatred against him all the sharper, and, as the common people usually feel toward those in power, they found him unbearable. [b]

A disaster had also happened at a place called the Mithraeum. It had originally been waste ground, and Constantius had given it to the church of Alexandria. While George was clearing the site to put up a house of prayer, an underground shrine was discovered. In it were found idols and certain objects used for initiation, or for the rite of completion, which looked ridiculous and strange to those who saw them. The Christians had them shown in public and made a procession of them to provoke the pagans. But the pagans gathered a crowd, armed themselves with swords, stones and whatever weapon first came to hand, and fell on the Christians. They killed many of them, crucified others in mockery of their religion, and left many wounded. [d] This led to the abandonment of the work the Christians had begun, and the pagans murdered George as soon as they heard that Julian had come to the throne. The emperor himself admits this, and he would not have admitted it unless the truth had forced him; for I think he would rather have had the murderers of George be Christians, whoever they were, than pagans. But it could not be hidden. This is plain from the letter he wrote on the subject to the people of Alexandria, in which he expresses himself severely. In this letter, however, he only rebukes them and passes over the punishment, for he said that he feared Serapis, their guardian god, and Alexander, their founder, and Julian, his own uncle, who had once been governor of Egypt and Alexandria. This uncle was so favorable to paganism, and hated Christianity so intensely, that against the emperor’s wishes he persecuted the Christians to the point of death. [e]