The Seven Companion
Among the insipid legends of ecclesiastical history, I am (Gibbon) tempted to distinguish the memorable fable of the Seven Sleepers : whose
imaginary date corresponds with the reign of the younger Theodosius, and the
conquest of Africa by the Vandals. When the emperor Decius persecuted the
Christians, seven noble youths of Ephesus concealed themselves in a spacious
cavern in the side of an adjacent mountain ; where they were doomed to perish
by the tyrant, who gave orders that the entrance should be firmly secured with
a pile of huge stones. They immediately fell into a deep slumber, which was
miraculously prolonged, without injuring the powers of life, during a period of
187 years. At the end of that time, the slaves of Adolius, to whom the
inheritance of the mountain had descended, removed the stones, to supply
materials for some rustic edifice ; the light of the sun darted into the
cavern, the seven sleepers were permitted to awake. After a slumber, as they
thought, of a few hours, they were pressed by the calls of hunger ; and
resolved that Jamblichus, one of their number, should secretly return to the
city, the purchase bread for the use of his companions. The youth (if we may
still employ that appellation) could no longer recognise the once familiar
aspect of his native country ; and his surprise was increased by the appearance
of a large cross, triumphantly erected over the principal gate of Ephesus. His
singular dress, and obsolete language, confounded the baker, to whom he offered
an ancient medal of Decius as the current coin of the empire ; and Jamblichus,
on the suspicion of a secret treasure, was dragged before the judge. Their mutual
enquiries produced the amazing discovery, that two centuries were almost
elapsed since Jamblichus, and his friends, had escaped from the rage of a Pagan
tyrant. The bishop of Ephesus, the clergy, the magistrates, the people, and as
it is said the emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to visit the cavern of
Seven Sleepers ; who bestowed their benediction, related their story, and at
the same instant peaceably expired. The origin of this marvellous fable cannot be
ascribed to the pious fraud and credulity of the modern Greeks, since the
authentic tradition may be traced within half a century of the supposed
miracle. James of Sarug, a Syrian bishop, who was born only two years after the
death of the younger Theodosius, has devoted one of his two hundred and thirty
homilies to the praise of the young men of Ephesus. Their legend, before the
end of the sixth century, was translated from the Syriac, into the Latin,
language, by the care of Gregory of Tours. The hostile communions of the East preserve
their memory with equal reverence ; and their names honourably inscribed in the
Roman, the Abbyssinian, and the Russian calender. Nor has their reputation been
confined to the Christian world. This popular tale, which Mahomet might learn
when he drove his camels to the fairs of Syria, is introduced, as a divine
revelation, into the Koran. The story of the Seven Sleepers has been adopted,
and adorned by the nations, from Bengal to Africa, who profess the Mahometan
religion ; and some vestiges of a similar tradition have been discovered in the
remote extremities of Scandinavia. This easy and universal belief, so
expressive of the sense of mankind, may be ascribed to the genuine merit of the
fable itself. We imperceptibly advance from youth to age, without observing the
gradual, but incessant, change of human affairs ; and even in our larger
experience of history, the imagination is accustomed, by a perpetual series of
causes and effects, to unite the most distant revolutions. But if the interval
between two memorable areas could be instantly annihilated ; if it were
possible, after a momentary slumber of two hundred years, to display the new
world to the eyes of a spectator, who still retained a lively and recent
impression of the old, his surprise and his reflections would furnish
the pleasing subject of a philosophical romance. The scene could not be more
advantageously placed, than in the two centuries which elapsed between the
reigns of Decius and the Theodosius the Younger. During this period, the seat
of government had been transported from Rome to a new city on the banks of the
Thracian Bosphorus ; and the abuse of military spirit had been suppressed, by
an artificial system of tame and ceremonious servitude. The throne of the
persecuting Decius was filled by a succession of Christian and orthodox princes,
who had extirpated the fabulous god of antiquity : and the public devotion of
the age was impatient to exalt the saints and martyrs of the Catholic church,
on the altars of Diana and Hercules. The union of the Roman empire was
dissolved : its genius was humbled in the dust ; and armies of unknown
barbarians, issuing from the frozen regions of the North, had established their
victorious reign over the fairest provinces of Europe and Africa.
Character and Conquests of Attila, The Hun. Chapter XXXIII,
page 414 at the ends a paragraph.
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