last year of his life, which secured protection to the Jews in the exercise of their religion, and decreed the punishment of all who assailed them.[63] On the other hand, the Jews were not behindhand in displaying a very turbulent and rancorous temper. On all occasions which offered themselves, and these were neither few nor trivial, they did their best to harass and mortify the Christians. The Arian controversy, which so grievously distracted the East, and for so long a period, could not have concerned them. Yet they were always ready to support the Arian leaders with their influence, and unite with Arian mobs in attacking the churches of the Orthodox. Nor were these the only outrages they committed. At some of their feasts, when, ‘flown with insolence and wine,’ they issued forth from the banqueting chamber, they were wont to insult and attack any Christians they might meet. At the feast of Purim in particular such displays were likely to occur. On that occasion it was their practice to erect a gibbet, to which a figure representing Haman was fastened, and whenever his name occurred in the service for the day they broke out into furious execrations against him. On the occasion of one of the celebrations of this feast at Inmestar, a city of Chalcis, near Antioch, their insolence was carried to a most shocking height. Rushing out into the street, some of the drunken Jews seized on a Christian boy whom they met, and dragging him into the house, fastened him to the gibbet, from which the figure of Haman had been removed, and which, in mockery doubtless of the crucifixion, had been fashioned in the shape of a cross.[64] They then proceeded to scourge the lad so severely that he is said to have died under their hands. The Christians were roused to fury by the murder, and a bloody fight ensued, in which many lives were lost. This occurred A.D. 412.