> While in Greece Alaric struck west for the city of Eleusis. Eleusis was one of the foremost religious pagan centers of Greece. The city had remained pagan until the invasion of Alaric. His attack on that city was as savage as any in his entire Greek adventure. At Eleusis, he destroyed the ancient temple of Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture, along with everything else there. Eleusis had also been the site of eleusinian mysteries, the best known of the secret ceremonies of the Ancient Greek religion, but the last remnants of the Mysteries were wiped out in 396 AD, when Arian Christians under Alaric, destroyed and desecrated the sacred sites. <|endoftext|> 