E07808: Ammianus Marcellinus, in his Res Gestae, alludes to the emperor Julian's order to remove the remains of Christians buried around the Castalian Spring at Daphne, near Antioch in Syria, in 362, which included those of *Babylas (bishop and martyr of Antioch, S00061). Written in Latin at Rome in the 380s.

Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, 22.12.8

Haecque dum ita procedunt more pacis multorum curiosior Iulianus nouam consilii uiam ingressus est uenas fatidicas Castalii recludere cogitans fontis, quem obstruxisse Caesar dicitur Hadrianus mole saxorum ingenti ueritus ne, ut ipse praecinentibus aquis capessendam rem publicam comperit, etiam alii similia docerentur: ... affatibus circumhumata corpora statuit exinde transferri eo ritu, quo Athenienses insulam purgauerant Delon.

'While these things were thus going on, as if in time of peace, Julian, devoted to many interests, entered upon a new way of consultation, and thought of opening the prophetic springs of the Castalian fount; this, it is said, Caesar Hadrian had blocked up with a huge mass of stones, for fear that (as he himself had learned from the prophetic waters that he was destined to become emperor), others also might get similar information. And Julian, after invoking , decided that the bodies which had been buried around the spring, should be moved to another place, under the same ceremonial with which the Athenians had purified the island of Delos.'


Text: Seyfarth 1978. Translation: Rolfe, 1935-39, adapted.