The Temple at Aphaca Destroyed

The emperor’s next care was to light, as it were, a brilliant torch, by whose light he cast his imperial gaze all around, to see whether any hidden traces of error might still remain. And as the keen-sighted eagle in its flight toward heaven can make out from its great height the most distant things on the earth, so he, while living in the imperial palace of his own fair city, discovered as if from a watchtower a hidden and deadly snare of souls in the province of Phoenicia. This was a grove and temple, standing not in the middle of any city or in any public place, as is usually the case for the sake of display, but away from the beaten and much-traveled road, at Aphaca, on part of the summit of Mount Lebanon. It was dedicated to the foul demon known by the name of Venus. It was a school of wickedness for all the devotees of impurity, and for those who destroyed their bodies with effeminacy. Here men unworthy of the name forgot the dignity of their sex and sought the demon’s favor by their effeminate conduct. Here too unlawful intercourse with women and adultery, with other horrible and shameful practices, were carried on in this temple, as in a place beyond the reach and restraint of law. Meanwhile these evils went unchecked, since no observer was present, for no one of good character dared to visit such scenes. These doings, however, could not escape the watchfulness of our august emperor. Having inspected them himself with his usual forethought, and judging that such a temple was unfit for the light of heaven, he ordered the building with its offerings to be utterly destroyed. So, in obedience to the imperial command, these engines of an impure superstition were at once abolished, and military force was used to cleanse the place. And now those who had lived without restraint until then learned self-control through the emperor’s threat of punishment, as did those superstitious Gentiles, wise in their own eyes, who now learned their own folly by experience. [a]