Homilies on the Statues

^9. But it may be that the things which the Emperor has decreed are painful. No! not even these are really burdensome, but have brought much advantage with them. For what is there, I ask, which is oppressive in any of them? That the Emperor has shut up the Orchestra, that he has forbidden the Hippodrome, that he has closed and stopped up these fountains of iniquity. May they never again be opened! From thence did the roots of wickedness shoot forth to the injury of the city! From thence sprung those who blast its character; men who sell their voices to the dancers, and who for the sake of three obols prostitute their salvation to them, turning all things upside down! Are you distressed, O beloved! For these things? Truly it were fitting that for these you should be glad, and rejoice, and express your thanks to the Emperor, since his castigation has proved a correction, his punishment a discipline, his wrath a means of instruction! But that the Baths are shut up? Neither is this an intolerable hardship, that those who lead a soft, effeminate, and dissolute life, should be brought back, though unwillingly, to the love of true wisdom.