Julian at Antioch; Daphne and the Moving of Babylas

Julian had decided to make war on Persia, and so he went to Antioch in Syria. The people there complained loudly that although food was very plentiful, the prices set on it were very high. So the emperor, out of generosity toward the people, as I believe, cut the prices so low that the sellers fled the city. [a] A shortage followed, and the people blamed the emperor for it. They vented their anger by mocking the length of his beard and the bulls he had stamped on his coins. They also joked that he turned the world upside down in the same way that his priests, when they offered sacrifice, threw down the victims. At first he was angry. He threatened to punish them and got ready to leave for Tarsus. Later, however, he held back his indignation and paid back their mockery with words alone. He wrote a very elegant work called “The Beard-Hater” and sent it to them. He treated the Christians of the city exactly as he treated them everywhere else, and did all he could to spread paganism. [b]

I will tell here some of the events connected with the tomb of Babylas the martyr, and certain things that happened about this time in the temple of Apollo at Daphne. Daphne is a suburb of Antioch. It is planted with cypresses and other trees, and under them every kind of flower blooms in its season. The branches of these trees are so thick and so woven together that they make a roof rather than mere shade, and the sun’s rays can never get through them to the ground below. The place is made delightful and exceedingly lovely by its rich and beautiful waters, its mild air, and its gentle breezes. The Greeks have made up a myth that Daphne, the daughter of the river Ladon, was changed here into the tree that bears her name, as she was fleeing from Arcadia to escape the love of Apollo. They say this change did not lessen Apollo’s passion. He made a crown from the leaves of his beloved and embraced the tree. Afterward he often made his home in this spot, since he loved it more than any other place. Serious-minded men, however, thought it shameful to go near this suburb. The setting and nature of the place seemed to stir up sensual feelings, and since the myth itself was a love story, it gave corrupt young men some encouragement and doubled their passions. Those who used this myth as their excuse burned with desire and gave themselves up without restraint to immoral deeds. They had no self-control themselves, and they could not bear to have people who did have self-control around them. Anyone who stayed at Daphne without a mistress was thought cold and ungracious, and was avoided as something detestable and repulsive. The pagans also held this place in great reverence because of a very beautiful statue of Apollo of Daphne that stood there, and a magnificent and costly temple. The temple is supposed to have been built by Seleucus, the father of Antiochus, after whom the city of Antioch is named. Those who believe fables of this kind think that a stream flows from the spring of Castalia that gives the power to foretell the future, and that it is like the spring at Delphi both in its name and in its powers. It is said that Hadrian learned here of his future greatness while he was still a private citizen. He dipped a laurel leaf into the water and found an account of his destiny written on it. When he became emperor, it is said, he ordered the spring to be blocked up, so that no one else could pry into knowledge of the future. But I leave this subject to those who know mythology more accurately than I do. [c]

Gallus, the brother of Julian, was declared Caesar by Constantius and made his home at Antioch. His zeal for the Christian religion and his reverence for the memory of the martyrs led him to decide to cleanse the place of pagan superstition and of the outrages of immoral men. He thought the quickest way to do this was to build a house of prayer in the temple and to move there the tomb of Babylas the martyr. Babylas had presided over the church of Antioch with great renown and had suffered martyrdom. It is said that from the time of this moving, the demon stopped giving oracles. At first this silence was put down to the neglect into which his service had been allowed to fall and to the dropping of the old worship. But events proved that it was caused only by the presence of the holy martyr. The silence went on unbroken even when Julian was sole ruler of the Roman Empire, though drink offerings, incense and victims were offered to the demon in abundance. The oracle did finally speak and give the reason for its earlier silence when the emperor himself went into the temple to consult it, offering gifts and sacrifices and begging it to give an answer. The demon did not openly admit that the obstacle was the tomb of Babylas the martyr. He said instead that the place was full of dead bodies, and that this kept the oracle from speaking. [d] Many people had been buried at Daphne, but the emperor saw that it was the presence of Babylas the martyr alone that had silenced the oracle, and he ordered his tomb to be moved. So the Christians gathered and carried the coffin to the city, about five miles away. They laid it in the place where it is still kept, which has been given the martyr’s name. It is said that men and women, young men and young women, old men and children pulled the casket. They encouraged one another by singing psalms as they went along the road. This seemed to be to lighten their labor, but in truth it was because they were carried away by zeal and spirit for the faith they shared, which the emperor had opposed. The best singers sang first, and the crowd answered all together. The refrain of their song was this: “Put to shame are all who worship carved images, who boast in their idols.” [e]