but the God whose minister I am!"

"Whose Kingdom is everlasting, Amen!" chanted an old priest; and
Cynegius rose to explain that he should do nothing to hinder the total
overthrow of the temple and image.

Then the Comes spoke in defence of the Bishop's resolution to allow the
races to be held, as usual, on the morrow. He sketched a striking
picture of the shallow, unstable nature of the Alexandrians, a people
wholly given over to enjoyment. The troops at his command were few in
number in comparison with the heathen population of the city, and it was
a very important matter to keep a large proportion of the worshippers of
Serapis occupied elsewhere at the moment of the decisive onset.
Gladiator-fights were prohibited, and the people were tired of wild
beasts; but races, in which heathen and Christian alike might enter their
horses for competition, must certainly prove most attractive just at this
time of bitter rivalry and oppugnancy between the two religions, and
would draw thousands of the most able-bodied idolaters to the Hippodrome.
All this he had already considered and discussed with the Bishop and
Cynegius; nay, that zealous destroyer of heathen worship had come to
Alexandria with the express purpose of overthrowing the Serapeum; but,
as a prudent statesman, he had first made sure that the time and
circumstances were propitious for the work of annihilation. All that
he had here seen and heard had only strengthened his purpose; so, after
suggesting a few possible difficulties, and enjoining moderation and
mercy as the guiding principles of his sovereign, he commanded, in the
Emperor's name, that the sanctuary of Serapis should be seized by force
of arms and utterly destroyed, and that the races should be held on the
morrow.