DAPHNE, a Grove, or Suburb near Antioch, the Capital of Syria. This Suburb was not contiguous to the City, but at about forty furlongs, or a league and a half distance from it. It was celebrated for its fine Water, its Wood, and Temple, which was a Sanctuary to all those who retired thither. The high priest Onias III. apprehending the designs of the usurper Menelaus, retreated to this place of refuge. But Menelaus having corrupted Andronicus, who commanded at Antioch in the absence of Antiochus Epiphanes, Onias was treacherously prevailed with to come out of his sanctuary, and massacred by Andronicus’s2 Macc. iv. 33. In the year of the World 3834. before J. C. 166. before the Vulgar Æra 170. order.
The Oracle of Daphne, as Sozomen, Theodoret, and St. John Chrysostom tell us, was silent in the reign of the Emperor Julian; and that his brother Gallus, who was a Christian, resolving to purge this place of the Superstition which prevailed there, ordered the body of St. Babylas, who had been bishop of this City, and suffered martyrdom there an hundred years before under the Emperor Decius, to be removed from Antioch to Daphne; and that from the time of this Saint’s being present there, the Devil, as had been expected, ceased intirely to deliver Oracles in this place. But Julian designing to make war against the Persians, some time after came to Daphne, to consult the Oracle concerning the success of it: he sacrificed a great number of victims, but all the answer the Oracle gave him, was, that the presence of Babylas had made it impossible to utter any thing. Hereupon the Emperor Julian, in great passion, commanded the body of this holy Bishop to be removed to some other place; but the lightning fell upon the Temple of Apollo, reduced the Altar and Statue of the false God to ashes, and ruined almost the whole Edifice. The Churches of St. Michael and St. Euphemius, were afterwards built at Daphne, by the direction of the Emperor Zeno.