But however this may be, there can be no doubt that on this spot once stood a heathen temple of great extent and beauty, which was afterwards appropriated by the Christians, and converted into a church. Some forty years ago, when the mosk was undergoing repairs, Christian workmen were employed in it, and one of them found a Greek inscription on a large stone at Bab Jeirûn. He immediately copied it, and had it translated, but afterwards lost the original, and the stone itself was defaced. M. Antôn Bulâd, having heard of this circumstance at a subsequent period, applied for a copy of the Arabic translation, which is to the following effect:
" This Church of the Blessed John the Baptist was restored by Arcadius, the son of King Theodosius."
Arcadius reigned from A.D. 395 to 408, thus commencing his reign about seventy years after Christianity was established by Constantine. He therefore may have been the first who constructed the building for Christian worship, or perhaps he only refitted it in a style of greater splendour. It continued to be the cathedral church of the diocese of Damascus for about three hundred years.
Illustration: engraving after photo by James Graham Esq (Five Years in Damascus Vol I frontispiece).
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