Temples and Idols Torn Down

All these things the emperor carried out diligently to the praise of the saving power of Christ, and so made it his constant aim to glorify his Savior God. On the other hand, he used every means to rebuke the superstitious errors of the pagans. So the entrances of their temples in the various cities were left open to the weather, stripped of their doors at his command; the tiles were removed from others and their roofs destroyed. From others again the revered bronze statues, which the superstition of antiquity had boasted of for many years, were put on view in all the public places of the imperial city. So here a Pythian Apollo, there a Sminthian Apollo, drew the scorn of onlookers, while the Delphic tripods were placed in the hippodrome and the Muses of Helicon in the palace itself. In short, the city that bore his name was filled everywhere with bronze statues of the most exquisite workmanship, which had been dedicated in every province. The deluded victims of superstition had long honored them in vain as gods, with countless sacrificial victims and burnt sacrifices; but now at last they learned to renounce their error, when the emperor held up the very objects of their worship to be the laughingstock and plaything of all who saw them. [a]

With the images made of gold he dealt in a different way. For as soon as he saw that the ignorant crowds were filled with an empty and childish dread of these scarecrows of error, made of gold and silver, he judged it right to remove these too, like stumbling stones thrown in the way of people walking in the dark, and from then on to open a royal road, smooth and clear for all. Having made this decision, he considered no soldiers or military force of any kind necessary to put down the evil. A few of his own friends were enough for this service, and he sent them at a simple word of his will to visit every province. Relying on the emperor’s devout intentions and on their own devotion to God, they passed through the midst of countless tribes and nations, abolishing this ancient error in every city and countryside. They ordered the priests themselves, amid general laughter and scorn, to bring their gods out of their dark recesses into the light of day. Then they stripped them of their ornaments and showed everyone the ugly reality that had been hidden beneath a painted exterior. Finally, whatever part of the material seemed valuable they scraped off and melted in the fire to test its worth; then they secured and set aside whatever they judged needed for their purpose, leaving to the superstitious worshipers what was wholly worthless, as a memorial of their shame.

Meanwhile our admirable prince was himself engaged in a work like the one we have described. For at the same time as these costly images of the dead were stripped of their precious materials, as we have said, he also attacked those made of bronze. He had them dragged from their places with ropes and carried off like captives, those whom the senile folly of mythology had taken for gods.