310 THE HOLY LAND. 
almost in the memory of man, unto the age of 
Constantine, an image o^ Jupiter marked the site 
of the Holy Sepulckre\ and Mount Calvary con- 
tinued to be profaned by a statue of Venus-. 
This powerful record of the means used by the 
Pagans to obliterate the rites of Christianity^ 
seems to afford decisive evidence concerning 
the locality of the Tomh, and to place its situa- 
tion beyond the reach of doubt. Theodoret 
(1) Doubdan, from De Spmide, mentions the year of Adrian's life 
wben this happened : it was the last but one, A. D. 137. Adrian died 
A. D. 138. De Chdteaubriand quotes the author of the " Epitome of 
the Holy IVars" to prove that, " forty-six years after the destruction 
oi JerusLilem by Vespasian znA Titus, the Christians obtained permis- 
sion oi Adrian to build, or rather to rebuild, ?i church over the tomb 
of their God." iSee Travels in Greece, Palcestina, ifc. vol. II. p. 18. 
Ldmd. 1811.) This can hardly be true, consistently with the facts re- 
lated by Sozomen {lib. ii. c. 2) ; and by Jeroni {Epist. ad Paulinum)^ 
concerning the profanation of the Jtoli/ places by that Emperor. 
(2) " AbHadriani temporibus usque ad imperium Constantini, per 
annos circiter centum octoginta, in Loco Resurrectionis simvlacrvm 
Jovis, ifi crucis rupe statua ex marmofxE Veneris \ Gentilibus 
posita colebatur; existimantibus persecutionis auctoribus qubd tolle- 
reut nobis fidem Resurrectionis et Crucis, si loca sanrta per idola 
polluissent." {Hieronymus, Epist. ad Paulinum ; de Instil. Monac. 
e. 2. torn. I. See also Sozomen. Hist. lib. ii. c.\.) Sozomen relates, 
that the Heathens surrounded Mount Calvary with a wall, first cover- 
ing the holy places with stones; then erecting a temple o^ Venus : and, 
lastly, placing in it the image of the goddess. Dio Cassius {in Vit, 
Hadrian.) fiays, that Adrian built a city upon the site of Jerusalem^ 
which had been ruined, giving it the name of ^/ir Crpitolina ; and 
that in the place where the temple of God had been, he erected one 
to Jupiter, 
