Sacrifices, Gladiator Fights, and the Corrupt Worship of the Nile Forbidden

In keeping with this zeal he issued law after law, forbidding anyone to offer sacrifice to idols, to consult diviners, to set up images, or to pollute the cities with the bloody fights of gladiators. The Egyptians, especially those of Alexandria, had been accustomed to honor their river through a priesthood of effeminate men. So a further law was passed commanding that the whole class be wiped out as depraved, so that from then on no one might be found stained with the same impurity. The superstitious inhabitants were afraid that the river would hold back its usual flood as a result. But God himself showed his approval of the emperor’s law by ordering everything quite contrary to their expectation. Those who had defiled the cities by their depraved conduct were indeed seen no more; but the river, as if the land it flowed through had been purified to receive it, rose higher than ever before and flooded the whole country with its fertilizing waters. So the deluded people were plainly warned to turn away from impure men, and to credit their prosperity to him alone who is the giver of all good. [a]