Book 22
9.13
Thus proceeding on his way and arriving at the Gates,That is, the Cilician Gates. a place which separates the Cappadocians from the Cilicians, he received with a kiss the governor of the province, Celsus by name,He was a Cilician, a pupil of Libanius. whom he had known since his student days in Athens, gave him a seat in his carriage, and took him with him into Tarsus.
9.14
But hastening from there to visit Antioch, fair crown of the Orient, he reached it by the usual roads; and as he neared the city, he was received with public prayers, as if he were some deity, and he wondered at the cries of the great throng, who shouted that a lucky star had risen over the East.
9.15
Now, it chanced that at that same time the annual cycle was completed and they were celebrating, in the ancient fashion, the festival of Adonis (beloved by Venus, as the poet’s tales say), who was slain by the death-dealing tusk of a boar-a festival which is symbolic of the reaping of the ripe fruits of the field.Cf. xix. 1, 11, and Cumont, Syria, pp. 45-49. And it seemed a gloomy omen, as the emperor now for the first time entered the great city, the residence of princes, that on all sides melancholy wailing was heard and cries of grief.
