Dr. Rogers’s Vindication of the Civil Establishment, &c. Footnote 8: Cont. Apion. l. 2. c. 37. Edit. Havere. Footnote 9: Isoc. Areop. Footnote 10: Athen. p. 610. Edit. Casaub. Diog. Laert. l. 5. Segm. 38. Footnote 11: Athen. p. 610. Footnote 12: Jos. ibid. ----- Diogenes Laertius[13] tells us, that Anaxagoras, the philosopher, was accused of impiety, because he affirmed, that “the sun was a globe of red-hot iron;” which was certainly great heresy, because his country worshipped him as a god. Stilpo[14] was also banished his country, as the same writer tells us, because he denied “Minerva to be a god, allowing her only to be a goddess.” A very deep and curious controversy this, and worthy the cognizance of the civil magistrate. Diagoras[15] was also condemned to death, and a talent decreed to him that should kill him upon his escape, being accused of “deriding the mysteries of the gods.” Protagoras also would have suffered death, had he not fled his country, because he had written something about the gods, that differed from the orthodox opinions of the Athenians. Upon the same account, Theodorus, called Atheus, and Theotimus,[16] who wrote against Epicurus, being accused by Zeno, an Epicurean, were both put to death. ----- Footnote 13: In vit. Anax. Footnote 14: l. 5. c. 38. Footnote 15: Joseph. ibid. Athen. p. 611. Footnote 16: Athen. ibid. ----- The Lacedemonians[17] constantly expelled foreigners, and would not suffer their own citizens to dwell in foreign parts, because they imagined that both the one and the other tended to corrupt and weaken their own laws; nor would they suffer the teaching of rhetoric or philosophy, because of the quarrels and disputes that attended it. The Scythians, who delighted in human blood, and were, as Josephus says,[18] little different from beasts, yet were zealously tenacious of their own rites, and put Anacharsis, a very wise person, to death, because he seemed to be very fond of the Grecian rites and ceremonies. [D]Herodotus[19] says, that he was shot through the heart with an arrow, by Saulius their king, for sacrificing to the mother of the gods after the manner of the Grecians; and that Scyles, another of their kings, was deposed by them, for sacrificing to Bacchus, and using the Grecian ceremonies of religion, and his head afterwards cut off by Octamasades, who was chosen king in his room. “So rigid were they,” says the historian,[20] “in maintaining their own customs, and so severe in punishing the introducers of foreign rites.” Many also amongst the Persians[21] were put to death, on the same account. And, indeed, it was almost the practice of all nations to punish those who disbelieved or derided their national gods; as appears from Timocles, who, speaking of the gods of the Egyptians,[22] says, “How shall the ibis, or the dog, preserve me?” And then adds, “Where is the place that doth not