Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of
Constantine the Great
Constantine I ( , ; la, Flavius Valerius Constantinus, ; ; 27 February 22 May 337), also known as Constantine the Great, was Roman emperor from AD 306 to 337, the first one to Constantine the Great and Christianity, convert to Christiani ...
(306–337) in the military colony of
Aelia Capitolina
Aelia Capitolina (Traditional English Pronunciation: ; Latin in full: ) was a Roman colony founded during Emperor Hadrian's trip to Judah in 129/130, centered around Jerusalem, which had been almost totally razed after the siege of 70 CE. The f ...
(
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
), when he destroyed a pagan temple for the purpose of constructing a Christian church.
Christian historians alleged that
Hadrian
Hadrian (; la, Caesar Trâiānus Hadriānus ; 24 January 76 – 10 July 138) was Roman emperor from 117 to 138. He was born in Italica (close to modern Santiponce in Spain), a Roman ''municipium'' founded by Italic settlers in Hispania B ...
(2nd century) had constructed a temple to
Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
on the site of the
crucifixion of Jesus
The crucifixion and death of Jesus occurred in 1st-century Judea, most likely in AD 30 or AD 33. It is described in the four canonical gospels, referred to in the New Testament epistles, attested to by other ancient sources, and consid ...
on
Golgotha
Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...
hill in order to suppress
Jewish Christian
Jewish Christians ( he, יהודים נוצרים, yehudim notzrim) were the followers of a Jewish religious sect that emerged in Judea during the late Second Temple period (first century AD). The Nazarene Jews integrated the belief of Jesus ...
veneration there. Constantine used that to justify the temple's destruction, saying he was simply reclaiming the property.
[MacMullen, R. ''Christianizing The Roman Empire A.D.100-400'', Yale University Press, 1984, ]
From 313, with the exception of the brief reign of
Julian, non-Christians were subject to a variety of hostile and discriminatory imperial laws which were theoretically valid across the whole empire, some threatening the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
, but not necessarily directly resulting in action. None seem to have been effectively applied empire-wide. For example, in 341, Constantine's son
Constantius II
Constantius II (Latin: ''Flavius Julius Constantius''; grc-gre, Κωνστάντιος; 7 August 317 – 3 November 361) was Roman emperor from 337 to 361. His reign saw constant warfare on the borders against the Sasanian Empire and Germani ...
enacted legislation forbidding pagan
sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of material possessions or the lives of animals or humans to a deity as an act of propitiation or worship. Evidence of ritual animal sacrifice has been seen at least since ancient Hebrews and Greeks, and possibly exi ...
s in
Roman Italy
Roman Italy (called in both the Latin and Italian languages referring to the Italian Peninsula) was the homeland of the ancient Romans and of the Roman empire. According to Roman mythology, Italy was the ancestral home promised by Jupiter to A ...
. In 356, he issued two more laws forbidding sacrifice and the worship of images, making them
capital crime
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...
s, as well as ordering the closing of all temples, but there is no evidence of judicial killings for illegal sacrifices before
Tiberius Constantine
Tiberius II Constantine ( grc-gre, Τιβέριος Κωνσταντῖνος, Tiberios Konstantinos; died 14 August 582) was Eastern Roman emperor from 574 to 582. Tiberius rose to power in 574 when Justin II, prior to a mental breakdown, procl ...
(578–582), and many temples remained open into the reign of
Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
(527–565).
Despite official threats, sporadic
mob violence
A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people.
Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...
, and confiscations of temple treasures,
paganism
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
remained widespread into the early fifth century continuing in parts of the empire into the 600s.
[Salzman, M.R., ''The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire'' (2002), p. 182] During the reigns of
Gratian
Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and wa ...
,
Valentinian II
Valentinian II ( la, Valentinianus; 37115 May 392) was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his brother, was then sidelined by a usurper, and only after 388 sole rule ...
and
Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
anti-pagan policies and their penalties increased but scholars continue to debate how much the laws were enforced.
By the end of the period of Antiquity and the institution of the
Law Codes of Justinian, there was a shift from the generalized legislation which characterized the
Theodosian Code
The ''Codex Theodosianus'' (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 a ...
to actions which targeted individual centers of paganism.
[Kaegi, W. E. 1966. "The fifth century twilight of Byzantine paganism", Classica et Mediaevalia 27(1), 243-75] The gradual transition towards more localized action, corresponds with the period when most conversions of temples to churches were undertaken: the late 5th and 6th centuries. Chuvin says that, through the severe legislation of the
early Byzantine Empire, the
freedom of conscience
Freedom of thought (also called freedom of conscience) is the freedom of an individual to hold or consider a fact, viewpoint, or thought, independent of others' viewpoints.
Overview
Every person attempts to have a cognitive proficiency by ...
that had been the major benchmark set by the
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan ( la, Edictum Mediolanense; el, Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Frend, W. H. C. ( ...
was finally abolished.
Non-Christians were a small minority by the time of the last western anti-pagan laws in the early 600s. Scholars fall into two categories on how and why this dramatic change took place: the long established traditional ''catastrophists'' who view the rapid demise of paganism as occurring in the late fourth and early fifth centuries due to harsh Christian legislation and violence, and contemporary scholars who view the process as a ''long decline'' that began in the second century, before the emperors were themselves Christian, and which continued into the seventh century. This latter view contends that there was less conflict between pagans and Christians than was previously supposed.
[''The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity''. United Kingdom, Oxford University Press, 2015.]
Constantine I (306–337)
Nine years after Diocletian celebrated twenty years of stable rule with sacrifices on a smoking altar in the Roman Forum and the most severe
persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...
of Christians in the empire's history, the victorious Constantine I entered Rome and, without offering sacrifice, bypassed the altar on the capitol completely.
He proceeded to end the exclusion and persecution of Christians, restored confiscated property to the churches, and adopted a policy toward non-Christians of toleration with limits.
The Edict of Milan (313) redefined Imperial ideology as one of mutual toleration. Constantine could be seen to embody both Christian and Hellenic religious interests.
It is also true that Constantine practiced what would be defined in modern day terms as a mild psychological and economic persecution of pagans: he destroyed a few temples and plundered more, converted others to churches, and neglected the rest;
he "confiscated temple funds to help finance his own building projects", and in an effort to establish a stable currency, so he was primarily interested in hoards of gold and silver, but he also confiscated temple land; he refused to support pagan beliefs and practices while also speaking out against them; he periodically forbade pagan sacrifices and closed temples, outlawed the gladiatorial shows,
made laws that threatened and menaced pagans while other laws markedly favored Christianity, and he personally endowed Christians with gifts of money, land and government positions.
As the emperor, he openly supported Christianity after 324, but there are indications he remained relatively tolerant of pagans.
He never engaged in a purge. Opponents' supporters were not slaughtered when Constantine took the capital; their families and court were not killed.
There were no pagan martyrs.
Laws menaced death, but during Constantine's reign, no one suffered the death penalty for violating anti-pagan laws against sacrifice.
"He did not punish pagans for being pagans, or Jews for being Jews, and did not adopt a policy of forced conversion."
Pagans remained in important positions at his court.
Constantine ruled for 31 years and never outlawed paganism; in the words of an early edict, he decreed that polytheists could "celebrate the rites of an outmoded illusion," so long as they did not force Christians to join them.
[Peter Brown, ''Rise of Christendom'' 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 74.] His earlier edict, the
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan ( la, Edictum Mediolanense; el, Διάταγμα τῶν Μεδιολάνων, ''Diatagma tōn Mediolanōn'') was the February 313 AD agreement to treat Christians benevolently within the Roman Empire. Frend, W. H. C. ( ...
, was restated in the Edict of the Provincials. Historian
Harold A. Drake
Harold A. Drake (born 1942) is an American scholar of Ancient Roman history, with an emphasis on late antiquity.
Born in 1942, Drake grew up in Southern California and attended North Hollywood High School. He discussed the possibility of a career ...
points out that this edict called for peace and tolerance: "Let no one disturb another, let each man hold fast to that which his soul wishes…" Constantine never reversed this edict.
Drake goes on to say the evidence indicates Constantine favored those who favored consensus, chose pragmatists over ideologues of any persuasion, and wanted peace and harmony "but also inclusiveness and flexibility".
In his article ''Constantine and Consensus'', Drake concludes that Constantine's religious ''policy'' was aimed at including the church in a broader policy of civic unity, even though his ''personal views'' undoubtedly favored one religion over the other.
Leithart says Constantine attributed his military success to God, and during his reign, the empire was relatively peaceful.
Conversion and baptism
Lenski says there can be no real doubt Constantine genuinely converted to Christianity.
In his personal views, Constantine denounced paganism as idolatry and superstition in that same document to the provincials where he espoused tolerance.
Constantine and his contemporary Christians did not treat paganism as a living religion; it was defined as a ''superstitio'' – an 'outmoded illusion.' Constantine made many derogatory and contemptuous comments relating to the old religion; writing of the "true obstinacy" of the pagans, of their "misguided rites and ceremonial", and of their "temples of lying" contrasted with "the splendours of the home of truth".
In a later letter to the
King of Persia
This is a list of monarchs of Persia (or monarchs of the Iranic peoples, in present-day Iran), which are known by the royal title Shah or Shahanshah. This list starts from the establishment of the Medes around 671 BCE until the deposition of th ...
, Constantine wrote how he shunned the "abominable blood and hateful odors" of pagan sacrifices, and instead worshiped the High God "on bended knee".
Church historians writing after his death wrote that Constantine converted to Christianity and was baptised on his deathbed, thereby making him the first Christian emperor. Lenski observes that the myth of Constantine being baptized by
Pope Sylvester developed toward the end of the fifth century in a romantic depiction of Sylvester's life which has survived as the ''Actus beati Sylvestri papae'' (CPL 2235).
Lenski says that this story absolved the medieval church of a major embarrassment: Constantine's baptism by an
Arian
Arianism ( grc-x-koine, Ἀρειανισμός, ) is a Christological doctrine first attributed to Arius (), a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God t ...
bishop,
Eusebius of Nicomedia
Eusebius of Nicomedia (; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος; died 341) was an Arian priest who baptized Constantine the Great on his deathbed in 337. A fifth-century legend evolved that Pope Saint Sylvester I was the one to baptize Constantine, but this ...
, which occurred while on campaign to Persia. Constantine swung through the Holy Land with the intent of being baptized in the
Jordan river
The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
, but he became deathly ill at
Nicomedia
Nicomedia (; el, Νικομήδεια, ''Nikomedeia''; modern İzmit) was an ancient Greek city located in what is now Turkey. In 286, Nicomedia became the eastern and most senior capital city of the Roman Empire (chosen by the emperor Diocletia ...
where he was swiftly baptized. He died shortly thereafter on May 22, 337 at a suburban villa named Achyron.
Ban on sacrifices
Scott Bradbury, professor of classical languages, writes that Constantine's policies toward pagans are "ambiguous and elusive" and that "no aspect has been more controversial than the claim he banned blood sacrifices". Bradbury says the sources on this are contradictory, quoting Eusebius who says he did, and
Libanius
Libanius ( grc-gre, Λιβάνιος, Libanios; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a criti ...
, a historian contemporary to Constantine, who says he did not, that it was Constantius II who did so instead.
[Eusebius Pamphilius and Schaff, Philip (Editor) and McGiffert, Rev. Arthur Cushman, Ph.D. (Translator]
''NPNF2-01. Eusebius Pamphilius: Church History, Life of Constantine, Oration in Praise of Constantine''
quote: "he razed to their foundations those of them which had been the chief objects of superstitious reverence" According to historian
R. Malcolm Errington, in Book 2 of Eusebius' D''e vita Constantini'', chapter 44, Eusebius explicitly states that Constantine wrote a new law "appointing mainly Christian governors and also a law forbidding any remaining pagan officials from sacrificing in their official capacity".
Other significant evidence fails to support Eusebius' claim of an end to sacrifice. Constantine, in his ''Letter to the Eastern Provincials'', never mentions any law against sacrifices. Errington says it is generally seen that the ''Letter's'' purpose "is to flatter and praise the Christians, to show the personal commitment of the emperor to their cause, while at the same time preventing a crusade against the unbelieving". Archaeologist Luke Lavan writes that blood sacrifice was already declining in popularity by the time of Constantine, just as construction of new temples was also declining, but that this seems to have little to do with anti-paganism. Drake says Constantine personally abhorred sacrifice and removed the obligation to participate in them from the list of duties for imperial officials, but evidence of an actual sweeping ban on sacrifice is slight, while evidence of its continued practice is great.
All records of anti-pagan legislation by Constantine are found in the ''Life of Constantine'', written by Eusebius as a kind of eulogy after Constantine's death.
It is not a history so much as a panegyric praising Constantine. The laws as they are stated in the Life of Constantine often do not correspond, "closely, or at all", to the text of the Codes themselves.
Eusebius gives these laws a "strongly Christian interpretation by selective quotation or other means".
This has led many to question the veracity of the record.
Magic and private divination
Maijastina Kahlos
Maijastina Kahlos is a Docent of Latin and Roman literature at the University of Helsinki and a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. She specialises in migration and mobility in the late antique Mediterranean, everyday life in anci ...
, scholar of Roman literature, says religion before Christianity was a decidedly public practice. Therefore, private divination, astrology, and 'Chaldean practices' (formulae, incantations, and imprecations designed to repulse demons and protect the invoker
) all became associated with magic in the
early imperial period (AD 1–30), and carried the threat of banishment and execution even under the pagan emperors. Lavan explains these same private and secret religious rituals were not just associated with magic but also with treason and secret plots against the emperor. Kahlos says Christian emperors inherited this fear of private divination.
The church had long spoken against anything connected to magic and its uses.
Polymnia Athanassiadi
Polymnia Athanassiadi (born 23 September 1946) is a historian specialising in the religious and cultural history of Late Antiquity, in particular the transition from Neoplatonic to Islamic theology. Athanassiadi was a Professor of Ancient history ...
says that, by the mid fourth century, prophecy at the
Oracles of Delphi and
Didyma
Didyma (; grc, Δίδυμα) was an ancient Greek sanctuary on the coast of Ionia in the domain of the famous city of Miletus. Apollo was the main deity of the sanctuary of Didyma, also called ''Didymaion''. But it was home to both of the tem ...
had been definitively stamped out.
However, Athanassiadi says the church's real targets in Antiquity were home-made oracles for the practice of
theurgy
Theurgy (; ) describes the practice of rituals, sometimes seen as magical in nature, performed with the intention of invoking the action or evoking the presence of one or more deities, especially with the goal of achieving henosis (uniting wi ...
: the interpretation of dreams with the intent of influencing human affairs. The church had no prohibitions against the interpretation of dreams, yet, according to Athanassiadi, both Church and State viewed this practice as "the most pernicious aspect of the pagan spirit".
Constantine's decree against private divination did not classify divination in general as magic, therefore, even though all the emperors, Christian and pagan, forbade all secret rituals, Constantine still allowed the
haruspices
In the religion of ancient Rome, a haruspex (plural haruspices; also called aruspex) was a person trained to practise a form of divination called haruspicy (''haruspicina''), the inspection of the entrails (''exta''—hence also extispicy ( ...
to practice their rituals in public.
Constantinople and temple looting
![Follis-Constantine-lyons RIC VI 309](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1f/Follis-Constantine-lyons_RIC_VI_309.jpg)
On Sunday 8 November 324, Constantine consecrated Byzantium as his new residence, Constantinoupolis – "city of Constantine" – with the local pagan priests, astrologers, and augurs, though he still went back to Rome to celebrate his
Vicennalia: his twenty-year jubilee. Two years after the consecration of Constantinople, Constantine left Rome behind, and on Monday 4 November 328, new rituals were performed to dedicate the city as the new ''capital'' of the Roman empire. Among the attendants were the Neoplatonist philosopher
Sopater
Sopater Orr, James, M. A., D. D. General EditorSopater ''International Standard Bible Encyclopedia''. 1915. Retrieved December 9, 2005. ( el, Σώπατρος, ''Sṓpatros'') was the son of Pyrhus,[Mocius
Mocius (Mucius, el, Ο Άγιος Μώκιος , died 288–295), also known as "the Holy Hieromartyr", was a priest of Roman ancestry who lived in Amphipolis, Macedonia and became an Orthodox saint.
Life
During a persecution against Christia ...]
, the dedication was celebrated and commemorated with special coins with ''
Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus (, "Unconquered Sun"), sometimes simply known as Helios, was long considered to be the official sun god of the later Roman Empire. In recent years, however, the scholarly community has become divided on Sol between traditionalists a ...
'' on them.
In commemoration, Constantine had a statue of the goddess of fortune
Tyche
Tyche (; Ancient Greek: Τύχη ''Túkhē'', 'Luck', , ; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. In Classical Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Aphrodite a ...
built, as well as a column made of
porphyry, at the top of which was a golden statue of
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label=Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label= ...
with the face of Constantine looking toward the sun.
Libanius
Libanius ( grc-gre, Λιβάνιος, Libanios; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a criti ...
the historian (Constantine's contemporary) writes in a passage from his ''In Defense of the Temples'' that Constantine 'looted the Temples' around the eastern empire in order to get their treasures to build Constantinople.
says that Constantinople was "literally crammed with
agan
The Agan (russian: Аган) is a river in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug in Russia. It is long, and its basin covers .
Course
The Agan is a left tributary of the Tromyogan, of the Ob basin. To the south of its course lies the basin of the Vat ...
statuary gathered, in
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
's words, by 'the virtual denuding' of every city in the East".
Historian
Ramsay MacMullen
Ramsay MacMullen (March 3, 1928 – November 28, 2022) was an American historian who was Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics. His scholar ...
explains this by saying Constantine "wanted to obliterate non-Christians, but lacking the means, he had to be content with robbing their temples".
[Ramsay McMullan (1984) ''Christianizing the Roman Empire A.D. 100–400'', Yale University Press] Constantine did not obliterate what he took, though. He reused it. Litehart says "Constantinople was newly founded, but it deliberately evoked the Roman past religiously as well as politically".
Constantinople continued to offer room to pagan religions: there were shrines for the
Dioscuri
Castor; grc, Κάστωρ, Kástōr, beaver. and Pollux. (or Polydeukes). are twin half-brothers in Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology, known together as the Dioscuri.; grc, Διόσκουροι, Dióskouroi, sons of Zeus, links=no, f ...
and
Tyche
Tyche (; Ancient Greek: Τύχη ''Túkhē'', 'Luck', , ; Roman equivalent: Fortuna) was the presiding tutelary deity who governed the fortune and prosperity of a city, its destiny. In Classical Greek mythology, she is the daughter of Aphrodite a ...
.
According to historian , there is good reason to believe the ancestral temples of
Helios
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, Helios (; grc, , , Sun; Homeric Greek: ) is the deity, god and personification of the Sun (Solar deity). His name is also Latinized as Helius, and he is often given the epithets Hyper ...
,
Artemis
In ancient Greek mythology and religion, Artemis (; grc-gre, Ἄρτεμις) is the goddess of the hunt, the wilderness, wild animals, nature, vegetation, childbirth, care of children, and chastity. She was heavily identified wit ...
and
Aphrodite
Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
remained functioning in Constantinople.
[Wiemer, Hans-Ulrich. ]
Libanius on Constantine
. The Classical Quarterly, vol. 44, no. 2, 1994, pp. 511–524. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/639654. Accessed 23 June 2020. The
Acropolis
An acropolis was the settlement of an upper part of an ancient Greek city, especially a citadel, and frequently a hill with precipitous sides, mainly chosen for purposes of defense. The term is typically used to refer to the Acropolis of Athens, ...
, with its ancient pagan temples, was left as it was. Wiemer says this reflects a persistent pagan tradition that Constantine did not persecute pagans.
Desacralization and destruction of temples
![Disfigured Augustus Ephesus](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Disfigured_Augustus_Ephesus.jpg)
Using the same vocabulary of restoration he had used for the Aelia Capitolina, Constantine acquired sites of Christian significance in the Holy Land for the purpose of constructing churches, destroying the temples in those places. For example, Constantine destroyed the
Temple of Aphrodite in Lebanon. However, archaeology indicates this type of destruction did not happen as often as the literature claims. For example, at the sacred oak and spring at
Mamre
Mamre (; he, מַמְרֵא), full Hebrew name ''Elonei Mamre'' ("Oaks/Terebinths of Mamre"), refers to an ancient religious site originally focused on a single holy tree, growing "since time immemorial" at Hebron in Canaan.Niesiolowski-Spano (2 ...
, a site venerated and occupied by both Jews and pagans alike, the literature says Constantine ordered the burning of the idols, the destruction of the altar, and erection of a church. The archaeology of the site, however, demonstrates that Constantine’s church along with its attendant buildings, only occupied a peripheral sector of the precinct, leaving the rest unhindered.
Church restrictions opposing the pillaging of pagan temples by Christians were in place even while the Christians were being persecuted by the pagans. Spanish bishops in AD 305 decreed that anyone who broke idols and was killed while doing so was not formally to be counted as a martyr.
Formerly pagan sites and icons were seen by Christians as having been “polluted” and in need of "desacralization" or "deconsecration" before they could be used. (The practice of "cleansing" a sacred site of its previous spiritual influences was not limited to Christians). According to the historical writings of
Prudentius
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens () was a Roman citizen, Roman Christianity, Christian poet, born in the Roman Empire, Roman province of Tarraconensis (now Northern Spain) in 348.H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Classical Literature'' (1967) p. 508 He prob ...
, the deconsecration of a temple merely required the removal of the cult statue and altar, and it could be reused. However, this was often extended to the removal or even destruction of other statues and icons, votive stelae, and all other internal imagery and decoration. Such objects were not always destroyed, some were ''desacralized'' or "cleansed" by having crosses chiseled onto them and perhaps a rite performed over them. Some were simply relocated and displayed as works of art. For example, the Parthenon frieze was preserved after the Christian conversion of the temple, although in modified form.
According to historian
Gilbert Dagron
Gilbert Dagron (January 26, 1932 - August 4, 2015, Paris, France) was a French historian, Byzantine scholar, professor at the College de France (1975-2001), president of the International Association for Byzantine Studies, member of the Academy o ...
, there were fewer temples constructed empire-wide, for mostly financial reasons, after the building craze of the 2nd century ended. However, Constantine’s reign did not comprise the end of temple construction. In addition to destroying temples, he both permitted and commissioned temple construction. The dedication of new temples is attested in the historical and archaeological records until the end of the 4th century.
[Trombley, Frank R. Hellenic Religion and Christianization, C.370-529. Netherlands, Brill Academic Publishers, 2001.]
Under Constantine, (and for the first decade or so of the reigns of his sons), most of the temples remained open for the official pagan ceremonies and for the more socially acceptable activities of libation and offering of incense. Despite the polemic of Eusebius claiming Constantine razed all the temples, Constantine’s principal contribution to the downfall of the temples lay quite simply in his neglect of them.
Constantius II (337–361)
According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, Constantius issued bans on sacrifice which were in keeping with his personal maxim: ''"Cesset superstitio; sacrificiorum aboleatur insania"'' (Let superstition cease; let the folly of sacrifices be abolished).
[C. G. Herbermann & Georg Grupp, "Constantine the Great", Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, New Advent web site.] He removed the
Altar of Victory
The Altar of Victory () was located in the Roman Senate House (the Curia) and bore a gold statue of the goddess Victory. The altar was established by Octavian (later Augustus) in 29 BC to commemorate the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battl ...
from the
Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
meeting house.
This altar had been installed by
Augustus
Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian, was the first Roman emperor; he reigned from 27 BC until his death in AD 14. He is known for being the founder of the Roman Pri ...
in 29 BC, and since its installation, each Senator had traditionally made a sacrifice upon the altar before entering the Senate house. When Constantius removed the altar he also allowed the statue of Victory to remain, therefore Thompson concludes that the removal of the altar was to avoid having to personally sacrifice when he was visiting Rome. In Thompson's view, this makes the altar's removal an act to accommodate his personal religion without offending the pagan senators by refusing to observe their rites.
Soon after the departure of Constantius, the altar was restored.
Constantius also shut down temples,
ended tax relief and subsidies for pagans, and imposed the death penalty on those who consulted soothsayers.
[Chuvin, Pierre. A chronicle of the last pagans. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1990. London., pp.59-63. ][Kirsch, J. (2004) ''God against the Gods'', pp. 200-1, Viking Compass] Orientalist
Alexander Vasiliev says that Constantius carried out a persistent anti-pagan policy, and that sacrifices were prohibited in all localities and cities of the empire on penalty of death and confiscation of property.
Application of law
Edward Gibbon's editor
J. B. Bury
John Bagnell Bury (; 16 October 1861 – 1 June 1927) was an Anglo-Irish historian, classical scholar, Medieval Roman historian and philologist. He objected to the label "Byzantinist" explicitly in the preface to the 1889 edition of his ''Lat ...
dismisses Constantius’ law against sacrifice as one which could only be observed "here and there", asserting that it could never, realistically, have been enforced within a society that still contained the strong pagan element of Late Antiquity, particularly within the imperial machinery itself. Christians were a minority and paganism was still popular among the population, as well as the elites at the time.
[Catholic Encyclopedia (1914]
''Flavius Julius Constantius''
/ref> The emperor's policies were therefore passively resisted by many governors, magistrates, and even bishops, rendering the anti-pagan laws largely impotent when it came to their application.
Relative moderation
According to Salzman, Constantius' actions toward paganism were relatively moderate, and this is reflected by the fact that it was not until over 20 years after Constantius' death, during the reign of Gratian
Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and wa ...
, that any pagan senators protested their religion's treatment. The emperor Constantius never attempted to disband the various Roman priestly colleges or the Vestal Virgin
In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame.
The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty ...
s[Vasiliev, A.A, ''History of the Byzantine Empire 324–1453'' (1958), p. 68] and never acted against the various pagan schools. He remained pontifex maximus until his death.
The temples outside the city remained protected by law. At times, Constantius acted to protect paganism itself. According to author and editor Diana Bowder, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus
Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...
records in his history ''Res Gestae'', that pagan sacrifices and worship continued taking place openly in Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
and Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
. The Roman Calendar
The Roman calendar was the calendar used by the Roman Kingdom and Roman Republic. The term often includes the Julian calendar established by the reforms of the Roman dictator, dictator Julius Caesar and Roman emperor, emperor Augustus in the ...
of the year 354 cites many pagan festivals as though they were still being openly observed.[Bowder, Diana. The age of Constantine and Julian. Kiribati, Elek, 1978.]
Legislation against magic and divination
In 357, Constantius II linked divination and magic in a piece of legislation forbidding anyone from consulting a diviner, astrologer, or a soothsayer; then he listed augurs and seers, Chaldeans, magicians and 'all the rest' who were to be made to be silent because the people called them malefactors. In the fourth century, Augustine labeled old Roman religion and its divinatory practices as magic and therefore illegal. Thereafter, legislation tended to automatically combine the two.
Temples
There is a law in the Theodosian Code
The ''Codex Theodosianus'' (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 a ...
that dates to the time of Constantius for the preservation of the temples situated outside of city walls.[Theodosian Code 16.10.3] Constantius also enacted a law that exacted a fine from those who were guilty of vandalizing sites holy to pagans and placed the care of these monuments and tombs under the pagan priests.[Theodosian Code 9.17.2] Successive emperors in the 4th century made legislative attempts to curb violence against pagan shrines, and in a general law issued in 458 by the Eastern emperor Leo and the western emperor Majorian
Majorian ( la, Iulius Valerius Maiorianus; died 7 August 461) was the western Roman emperor from 457 to 461. A prominent general of the Roman army, Majorian deposed Emperor Avitus in 457 and succeeded him. Majorian was the last emperor to make ...
, (457 to 461), the temples and other public works gained protection with strict penalties attached.
Mob violence
Mob violence was an occasional problem in the independent cities of the empire. Taxes, food and politics were common reasons for rioting. Religion was also a factor though it is difficult to separate from politics since they were intertwined in all aspects of life. In 361, the murder of the Arian bishop George of Cappadocia was committed by a mob of pagans, although there is evidence he had cruelly provoked them; the conflict over the Serapeum involved both a Christian and a pagan mob; the Jews and the Christians each gathered to fight in 415, although the sources indicate it was the upper levels of the Jewish community who decided to massacre the Christians after Cyril made serious threats to their leadership. A Christian mob threw objects at Orestes
In Greek mythology, Orestes or Orestis (; grc-gre, Ὀρέστης ) was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and the brother of Electra. He is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and of various myths connected with his madness and ...
and, finally, Hypatia
Hypatia, Koine pronunciation (born 350–370; died 415 AD) was a neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was a prominent thinker in Alexandria wher ...
was killed by a Christian mob though politics and personal jealousy were probably the primary causes. Mobs were composed of lower-class urban dwellers, upper class educated pagans, Jews and Christians, and in Alexandria, monks from the monastery of Nitria.
Restoration of paganism by Julian (361–363)
Julian, who had been a co-emperor since 355, ruled solely for 18 months from 361 to 363. He was a nephew of Constantine and received Christian training. After childhood, Julian was educated by Hellenists
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in 31 ...
and became attracted to the teachings of neoplatonists
Neoplatonism is a strand of Platonic philosophy that emerged in the 3rd century AD against the background of Hellenistic philosophy and religion. The term does not encapsulate a set of ideas as much as a chain of thinkers. But there are some ide ...
and the old religions. He blamed Constantius for the assassination of Julian's father, brother and other family members, which he personally witnessed being killed by the palace guards. As a result, he developed an antipathy to Christianity which only deepened when Constantius executed Julian's only remaining brother in 354. Julian's religious beliefs were syncretic
Syncretism () is the practice of combining different beliefs and various schools of thought. Syncretism involves the merging or assimilation of several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, thu ...
and he was initiated into at least three mystery religions
Mystery religions, mystery cults, sacred mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious schools of the Greco-Roman world for which participation was reserved to initiates ''(mystai)''. The main characterization of this religion is the secrecy ass ...
, but his religious open-mindedness did not extend to Christianity.["Julian the Apostate and His Plan to Rebuild the Jerusalem Temple", Jeffrey Brodd, Biblical Archaeology Society, Bible Review, October 1995.]
Julian lifted the ban on sacrifices, restored and reopened temples, and dismantled the privileged status of the Christians, giving generous tax remissions to the cities he favored and disfavor to those who remained Christian. He allowed religious freedom and spoke against overt compulsion, but there was little other option open to him. By the time Julian came to rule, the empire had been ruled by Christian emperors for two generations and the people had adapted.
He was not averse to a more subtle form of compulsion however, and in 362, Julian promulgated a law that in effect forbid Christians from being teachers. "Right learning" was essential to Julian's pagan reform, and it belonged to those who showed 'piety toward the old gods'. In a letter written by Julian that still exists, he says: "Let them keep to Matthew and Luke". Christians saw this as a real threat, that effectively barred them from a professional career many of them already held. Gregory of Nazianus responded that the Hellenic learning they shared was not the equivalent of any pagan cult.
On his trip through Asia Minor to Antioch to assemble an army and resume war against Persia, he found the cities falling short of pagan revival. His reforms were met by Christian resistance and civic inertia. Provincial priests were replaced with Julian's sympathetic associates, but after passing through Galatia and seeing the strength of the church and its charitable institutions, he wrote to the high priest of the province that all the new priests were to "follow a thoroughgoing programme of personal moral example and public institutions to outdo the Christians at their own game... for it is disgraceful that none of the Jews is a beggar and the impious Galilaeans provide support for our people as well as theirs".Pope Benedict XVI
Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...
(2006
''Deus Caritas Est''
(Encyclical)
Julian reached Antioch on July 18 which coincided with a pagan festival that had already become secular. Julian's preference for blood sacrifice found little support, and the citizens of Antioch accused Julian of "turning the world upside down" by reinstituting it, calling him "slaughterer". Altars used for sacrifice had been routinely smashed by Christians who were deeply offended by the blood of slaughtered victims as they were reminded of their own past sufferings associated with such altars. "When Julian restored altars in Antioch, the Christian populace promptly threw them down again".
Blood sacrifice was a central rite of virtually all religious groups in the pre-Christian Mediterranean, and its gradual disappearance is one of the most significant religious developments of late antiquity. Sacrifice did not decline according to any uniform pattern, but...In many of the larger towns and cities of the Eastern empire, public blood sacrifices were no longer normative by the time Julian came to power and embarked on his pagan revival. Public sacrifices and communal feasting had declined as the result of a decline in the prestige of pagan priesthoods and a shift in patterns of rivate donationsin civic life. That shift would have occurred on a lesser scale even without the conversion of Constantine... It is easy, nonetheless, to imagine a situation in which sacrifice could decline without disappearing. Why not retain, for example, a single animal victim in order to preserve the integrity of the ancient rite? The fact that public sacrifices appear to have disappeared completely in many towns and cities must be attributed to the atmosphere created by imperial and episcopal hostility.
Julian became frustrated that no one seemed to match his zeal for pagan revival. His reform soon moved from toleration to imperial punishment. Historians such as David Wood assert there was a revival of some persecution against Christians. On the other hand, H. A. Drake says that "In the eighteen brief months that he ruled between 361 and 363, Julian did not persecute hristians as a hostile tradition contends. But he did make clear that the partnership between Rome and Christian bishops... was now at an end, replaced by a government that defined its interests and those of Christianity as antithetical. Scholars agree that Julian tried to undermine the church by ordering the construction of churches for Christian “heretical” sects and by destroying orthodox churches.
After Antioch, Julian would not be deterred from his goal of war with Persia, and he died on that campaign. The facts of his death have become obscured by the "war of words between Christians and pagans" which followed. It was "principally over the source of the fatal spear... The thought that Julian might have died by the hand of one of his own side... was a godsend to a Christian tradition eager to have the apostate emperor accorded his just deserts. Yet such a rumor was not solely the product of religious polemic. It had its roots in the broader trail of disaffection Julian left in his wake".
From Jovian to Valens (363–378)
Jovian
Jovian is the adjectival form of Jupiter and may refer to:
* Jovian (emperor) (Flavius Iovianus Augustus), Roman emperor (363–364 AD)
* Jovians and Herculians, Roman imperial guard corps
* Jovian (lemur), a Coquerel's sifaka known for ''Zoboomafo ...
reigned only eight months, from June 363 to February 364, but in that period, he negotiated peace with the Sassanids and reestablished Christianity as the State religion.
Bayliss says the position adopted by the Nicene Christian emperor Valentinian I (321–375) and the Arian Christian emperor Valens (364–378), granting all cults toleration from the start of their reign, was in tune with a society of mixed beliefs. Pagan writers, for example ''Ammianus Marcellinus,'' describe the reign of Valentinian as one “distinguished for religious tolerance... He took a neutral position between opposing faiths, and never troubled anyone by ordering him to adopt this or that mode of worship ... eleft the various cults undisturbed as he found them”.[Philippe Fleury. Les textes techniques de l’Antiquité. Sources, études et perspectives. Euphrosyne. Revista de filologia clássica, 1990, pp.359-394. ffhal-01609488f] This apparently sympathetic stance is corroborated by the absence of any anti-pagan legislation in the Theodosian Law Codes from this era. Classics scholar Christopher P. Jones says Valentinian permitted divination so long as it was not done at night, which he saw as the next step to practicing magic.
Valens, who ruled the east, also tolerated paganism, even keeping some of Julian's associates in their trusted positions. He confirmed the rights and privileges of the pagan priests and confirmed the right of pagans to be the exclusive caretakers of their temples.
Ambrose, Gratian, and the Altar of Victory
Gratian and Valentinian II
In 382, Gratian
Gratian (; la, Gratianus; 18 April 359 – 25 August 383) was emperor of the Western Roman Empire from 367 to 383. The eldest son of Valentinian I, Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers and wa ...
was the first to formally, in law, divert into the crown's coffers those public financial subsidies that had previously supported Rome's cults; he appropriated the income of pagan priests and the Vestal Virgins
In ancient Rome, the Vestal Virgins or Vestals ( la, Vestālēs, singular ) were priestesses of Vesta, virgin goddess of Rome's sacred hearth and its flame.
The Vestals were unlike any other public priesthood. They were chosen before puberty ...
, forbid their right to inherit land, confiscated the possessions of the priestly colleges, and was the first to refuse the title of '' pontifex maximus''. He also ordered the Altar of Victory
The Altar of Victory () was located in the Roman Senate House (the Curia) and bore a gold statue of the goddess Victory. The altar was established by Octavian (later Augustus) in 29 BC to commemorate the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at the Battl ...
to be removed again. The colleges of pagan priests lost privileges and immunities.
Gratian wrote Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, for spiritual advice and received back multiple letters and books. It has long been convention to see the volume of these writings as evidence Gratian was dominated by Ambrose, who was therefore the true source of Gratian's anti-pagan actions. McLynn finds this unlikely and unnecessary as an explanation: Gratian was, himself, devout, and "The many differences between Gratian's religious policies and his father's, and the shifts that occurred during his own reign, are to be explained by changed political circumstances fter_the_Battle_of_Adrianople.html" ;"title="Battle_of_Adrianople.html" ;"title="fter the Battle of Adrianople">fter the Battle of Adrianople">Battle_of_Adrianople.html" ;"title="fter the Battle of Adrianople">fter the Battle of Adrianople rather than capitulation to Ambrose". Modern scholars have noted that Sozomen is the only ancient source that shows Ambrose and Gratian together in any personal interaction. Sozomen relates that, in the last year of Gratian's reign, Ambrose crashed Gratian's private hunting party in order to appeal on behalf of a pagan senator sentenced to die. After years of acquaintance, this indicates Ambrose could not take for granted that Gratian would see him, so instead, Ambrose had to resort to such maneuverings to make his appeal.
Gratian's brother, Valentinian II
Valentinian II ( la, Valentinianus; 37115 May 392) was a Roman emperor in the western part of the Roman empire between AD 375 and 392. He was at first junior co-ruler of his brother, was then sidelined by a usurper, and only after 388 sole rule ...
, and his mother disliked Ambrose, but Valentinian II also refused to grant requests from pagans to restore the Altar of Victory and the income of the temple priests and Vestal Virgins. Valentinian II refused to overturn the policies of his predecessor.
After Gratian, the emperors Arcadius
Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ea ...
, Honorius and Theodosius continued to appropriate for the crown the tax revenue collected by the temple custodians. Urban ritual procession and ceremony was gradually stripped of support and funding. Rather than being removed outright though, many festivals were secularized and incorporated into a developing Christian calendar, often with little alteration. Some had already severely declined in popularity by the end of 3rd century.
Ambrose and Theodosius I
John Moorhead says that Ambrose
Ambrose of Milan ( la, Aurelius Ambrosius; ), venerated as Saint Ambrose, ; lmo, Sant Ambroeus . was a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. He expressed himself prominently as a public figure, fiercely promo ...
, the Bishop of Milan
The Archdiocese of Milan ( it, Arcidiocesi di Milano; la, Archidioecesis Mediolanensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Italy which covers the areas of Milan, Monza, Lecco and Varese. It has lon ...
is sometimes referred to as having influenced the anti-paganism policies of the emperor Theodosius I
Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...
to the degree of finally achieving the desired dominance of church over state. Alan Cameron observes that this dominating influence is "often spoken of as though documented fact". Indeed, he says, "the assumption is so widespread it would be superfluous to cite authorities".
Modern scholarship has revised this view. Cameron says Ambrose was only one among many advisors, and there is no evidence Theodosius I favored him. On occasion Theodosius I purposefully excluded Ambrose, and at times, got angry with Ambrose and sent him away from court. Neil B. McLynn observes that the documents that reveal the relationship between Ambrose and Theodosius seem less about personal friendship and more like negotiations between the institutions the two men represent: the Roman State and the Italian Church.
According to McLynn, the events following the Thessalonian massacre cannot be used to "prove" Ambrose' exceptional or undue influence. The encounter at the church door does not demonstrate Ambrose' dominance over Theodosius because, according to Peter Brown, it never happened. According to McLynn, "the encounter at the church door has long been known as a pious fiction". Harold A. Drake
Harold A. Drake (born 1942) is an American scholar of Ancient Roman history, with an emphasis on late antiquity.
Born in 1942, Drake grew up in Southern California and attended North Hollywood High School. He discussed the possibility of a career ...
quotes Daniel Washburn as writing that the image of the mitered prelate braced in the door of the cathedral to block Theodosius from entering, is a product of the imagination of Theodoret who was a historian of the fifth century. Theodoret wrote of the events of 390 "using his own ideology to fill the gaps in the historical record".
Theodosius I (381–395)
Theodosius seems to have adopted a cautious policy overall toward traditional non-Christian cults. He reiterated his Christian predecessors' bans on animal sacrifice, divination, and apostasy, but allowed other pagan practices to be performed publicly and temples to remain open. Theodosius also turned pagan holidays into workdays, but the festivals associated with them continued. A number of laws against paganism were issued towards the end of his reign, in 391 and 392, but historians have tended to downplay their practical effects and even the emperor's direct role in them. Modern scholars think there is little if any evidence Theodosius pursued an active and sustained policy against the traditional cults.
There is, however, evidence that Theodosius took care to prevent the empire's still substantial pagan population from feeling ill-disposed toward his rule. Following the death in 388 of his praetorian prefect, Cynegius
Cynegius ( gr, Κυνήγιος, ''Kunegios''), as he is known in the Greek text of Mark the Deacon's ''Life of Porphyry'', or Ğeniḡos (from Greek Γενικός, ''Genikos''), as he is known in the Georgian, was a Christian counsellor of the ...
, who had vandalized a number of pagan shrines in the eastern provinces, Theodosius replaced him with a moderate pagan who subsequently moved to protect the temples. During his first official tour of Italy (389–391), the emperor won over the influential pagan lobby in the Roman Senate by appointing its foremost members to important administrative posts. Theodosius also nominated the last pair of pagan consuls in Roman history (Tatianus
Tatian of Adiabene, or Tatian the Syrian or Tatian the Assyrian, (; la, Tatianus; grc, Τατιανός; syc, ܛܛܝܢܘܣ; c. 120 – c. 180 AD) was an Assyrian Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century.
Tatian's most influential w ...
and Symmachus) in 391.
Between 382 and 384, there was yet another dispute over the Altar of Victory. According to the ''Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity'', Symmachus requested the restoration of the altar that Gratian had removed and the restoration of state support for the Vestals. Ambrose campaigned against any financial support for paganism and anything like the Altar that required participation in pagan practices. Ambrose prevailed. Theodosius refused the appeal. Pagans remained outspoken in their demands for respect, concessions and support from the state.[Zosimus 4.59][Symmachus Relatio 3.]
Classicist Ingomar Hamlet says that, contrary to popular myth, Theodosius did not ban the Olympic games. indicates there are several reasons to conclude the Olympic games continued after Theodosius and came to an end under Theodosius II instead. Two scholia on Lucian connect the end of the games with a fire that burned down the temple of the Olympian Zeus during his reign.
Anti-pagan legislation
Anti-pagan legislation reflects what Brown calls "the most potent social and religious drama" of the fourth-century Roman empire. From Constantine forward, the Christian intelligentsia wrote of Christianity as fully triumphant over paganism. It didn't matter that they were still a minority in the empire, this triumph had occurred in Heaven; it was evidenced by Constantine; but even after Constantine, they wrote that Christianity would defeat, and be seen to defeat, all of its enemies - not convert them. As Peter Brown says, "Conversion was not the principal aim of a social order that declared the God-given dominance of Christianity".
The laws were not intended to convert; "the laws were intended to terrorize... Their language was uniformly vehement, and... frequently horrifying". Their intent was to reorder society along religious lines and enable Christianity to put a stop to animal sacrifice. Blood sacrifice was the element of pagan culture most abhorrent to Christians. If they could not stop the private practice of sacrifice, they could "hope to determine what would be normative and socially acceptable in public spaces". Altars used for sacrifice were routinely smashed by Christians who were deeply offended by the blood of slaughtered victims as they were reminded of their own past sufferings associated with such altars.
Blood sacrifice was a central rite of virtually all religious groups in the pre-Christian Mediterranean, and its gradual disappearance is one of the most significant religious developments of late antiquity. ... Public sacrifices and communal feasting had declined as the result of a decline in the prestige of pagan priesthoods and a shift in patterns of rivate donationsin civic life. That shift would have occurred on a lesser scale even without the conversion of Constantine... It is easy, nonetheless, to imagine a situation in which sacrifice could decline without disappearing. Why not retain, for example, a single animal victim in order to preserve the integrity of the ancient rite? The fact that public sacrifices appear to have disappeared completely in many towns and cities must be attributed to the atmosphere created by imperial and episcopal hostility.
One of the first things that is important about this, in Malcolm Errington's view, is how much this legislation was applied and used, which would show how dependable the laws are as a reflection of what actually happened to pagans in history. Brown says that, given the large numbers of non-Christians in every region at this time, local authorities were "notoriously lax in imposing them. Christian bishops frequently obstructed their application. The harsh imperial edicts had to face the vast following of paganism among the population, and the passive resistance of governors and magistrates, thereby limiting their impact. But not eliminating impact altogether, as recent studies on the nature of "the presence" of the state, how it made itself felt, "the subtle nature of power" and the elimination of public sacrifice show.
Secondly, the laws reveal the emergence of a language of intolerance. The legal language runs parallel to the writings of the apologists, such as Augustine of Hippo and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and heresiologists such as Epiphanius of Salamis. Christian writers and imperial legislators both drew on a rhetoric of conquest. These writings were commonly hostile and often contemptuous toward a paganism Christianity saw as already defeated.
Lastly, on the one hand the laws, and these Christian sources with their violent rhetoric, have had great influence on modern perceptions of this period by creating an impression of continuous violent conflict that has been assumed on an empire-wide scale. Archaeological evidence, on the other hand, indicates that, outside of violent rhetoric, there were only isolated incidents of actual violence between Christians and pagans.[Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome: Conflict, Competition, and Coexistence in the Fourth Century. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2016.] [Cameron, A. 1991. Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire. London. 121-4][Markus, R. 1991. The End of Ancient Christianity. Cambridge.][Trombley, F. R. 1995a. Hellenic Religion and Christianisation, c. 370-529. New York. I. 166-8, II. 335-6] Non-Christian, (non-heretical), groups such as pagans and Jews enjoyed a tolerance based on contempt through most of Late Antiquity.
Temple destruction and conversion
According to Brown, Theodosius was a devout Christian anxious to close the temples in the East. His commissioner, the prefect Maternus Cynegius
Maternus Cynegius (died 388) was a Roman bureaucrat and close confidant of the emperor Theodosius I. He held the offices of praetorian prefect of the East (384–388) and consul (388), and has been widely blamed by historians for instigating the w ...
(384-88) commissioned temple destruction on a wide scale, even employing the military under his command and "black-robed monks" for this purpose. Garth Fowden Garth Lowther Fowden, FBA (born 14 January 1953) is a historian. He was Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths at the University of Cambridge from 2013 to 2020.
Career
Born on 14 January 1953, Garth Fowden was educated at Merton College, ...
says Cynegius did not limit himself to Theodosius' official policy, but Theodosius did not stop him. Christopher Haas also says Cynegius oversaw temple closings, the prohibition of sacrifices, and the destruction of temples in Osrhoene, Carrhae, and Beroea.
The pagan historian Libanius
Libanius ( grc-gre, Λιβάνιος, Libanios; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a criti ...
wrote "this black robed tribe" were acting outside the law, but Brown says Theodosius did not enforce those laws. Theodosius voiced his support for the preservation of temple buildings, but passively legitimized the monk's violence by listening to them instead of correcting them, thereby failing to prevent the damaging of many holy sites, images and objects of piety by Christian zealots. However, in 388 at Callinicum, (modern Raqqa in Syria), the bishop along with monks from the area burned a Jewish synagogue to the ground, and Theodosius responded, "The monks commit many atrocities" and ordered them to pay to rebuild it.
These examples were seen as the 'tip of the iceberg' by earlier scholars who saw these events as part of a tide of violent Christian iconoclasm that continued throughout the 390s and into the 400s.[Saradi-Mendelovici, Helen. “Christian Attitudes toward Pagan Monuments in Late Antiquity and Their Legacy in Later Byzantine Centuries.” Dumbarton Oaks Papers, vol. 44, 1990, pp. 47–61. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1291617. Accessed 25 June 2020.][Grindle, Gilbert (1892) ''The Destruction of Paganism in the Roman Empire'', pp.29-30.]
However, archaeological evidence for the violent destruction of temples in the fourth and early fifth centuries around the entire Mediterranean is limited to a handful of sites. Most recorded incidents of temple destruction are known from church and hagiographical
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
accounts which are eager to portray their subjects' piety and power. They offer vividly dramatized accounts of pious bishops doing battle with temple demons. The temples of Zeus at Apameia and of Marnas
Dagon ( he, דָּגוֹן, ''Dāgōn'') or Dagan ( sux, 2= dda-gan, ; phn, 𐤃𐤂𐤍, Dāgān) was a god worshipped in ancient Syria across the middle of the Euphrates, with primary temples located in Tuttul and Terqa, though many attes ...
at Gaza City
Gaza (;''The New Oxford Dictionary of English'' (1998), , p. 761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory in Palestine, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza...". ar, غَزَّة ', ), also referred to as Gaza City, i ...
are said to have been brought down by the local bishops around this period, but the only source for this information is the biography of Porphyry of Gaza
Saint Porphyrius ( la, Porphyrius; grc-gre, Πορφύριος, ''Porphyrios''; Slavonic: Порфирий, ''Porfiriy''; –420) was bishop of Gaza from 395 to 420, known, from the account in his ''Life'', for Christianizing the recalcitrant p ...
which is considered a forgery.
Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources, but only 4 of them have been confirmed by archaeological evidence. Trombley and MacMullen say part of why such discrepancies (between the literary sources and the archaeological evidence) exist is because it is common for details in the literary sources to be ambiguous and unclear.[R. MacMullen, ''Christianizing The Roman Empire A.D.100–400'', Yale University Press, 1984, ] For example, Malalas claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples, then he said Theodisius did, then he said Constantine converted them all to churches.
According to archaeologists Lavan and Mulryan: If one accepts all potential claims (several of which are very shaky) only 2.4% of all known temples in Gaul have evidence of being destroyed by violence (17 out of pproximately711) ... In Africa, only the city of Cyrene has produced good evidence (the burning of several temples) whilst work in Asia Minor has produced just one weak candidate (undated), and in Greece the only strong example may relate to a barbarian rather than a Christian raid. Finally, Egypt has produced no archaeologically-confirmed temple destructions at all dating from this period, with the exception of the Serapeum
A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were seve ...
, a situation paralleled in Spain. In Italy, we have only a single burning; Britain has produced the most evidence, with 2 Romano–Celtic temples out of 40 ...being burnt in the 4th c., whilst another was deliberately destroyed, with its mosaics smashed.
Earthquakes caused much of the destruction that occurred to temples in this era, and people determined not to rebuild as society changed. Recycling and pragmatism contributed to demolition as well, with one building being taken down and another constructed according to the needs of the community with no anti-paganism being involved. Civil conflict and external invasions also destroyed temples and shrines. Lavan says: "We must rule out most of the images of destruction created by the ritten sources Archaeology shows the vast majority of temples were not treated this way".
Some scholars have long asserted that not all temples were destroyed but were instead converted to churches throughout the empire. According to modern archaeology, 120 pagan temples were converted to churches in the whole empire, out of the thousands of temples that existed, and only about 40 of them are dated before the end of the fifth century. R. P. C. Hanson
Richard Patrick Crosland Hanson, FBA, MRIA (1916–1988) was bishop of Clogher in the Church of Ireland from 1970 to 1973. A historian of antiquity (he claimed to distrust history written concerning periods subsequent to 600 AD) he was particul ...
says the direct conversion of temples into churches did not begin until the mid fifth century in any but a few isolated incidents. In Rome the first recorded temple conversion was the Pantheon in 609. None of the churches attributed to Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours ( la, Sanctus Martinus Turonensis; 316/336 – 8 November 397), also known as Martin the Merciful, was the third bishop of Tours. He has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints in France, heralded as the ...
can be proven to have existed in the fourth century.
Anti-paganism after Theodosius I until the collapse of the Western Empire
Anti-pagan laws were established and continued on after Theodosius I until the fall of the Roman Empire in the West. Arcadius
Arcadius ( grc-gre, Ἀρκάδιος ; 377 – 1 May 408) was Roman emperor from 383 to 408. He was the eldest son of the ''Augustus'' Theodosius I () and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and the brother of Honorius (). Arcadius ruled the ea ...
, Honorius, Theodosius II
Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''Augustus (title), augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after ...
, Marcian
Marcian (; la, Marcianus, link=no; grc-gre, Μαρκιανός, link=no ; 392 – 27 January 457) was Roman emperor of the East from 450 to 457. Very little of his life before becoming emperor is known, other than that he was a (personal as ...
and Leo I
The LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office I) was the first computer used for commercial business applications.
The prototype LEO I was modelled closely on the Cambridge EDSAC. Its construction was overseen by Oliver Standingford, Raymond Thompson and D ...
reiterated the bans on pagan rites and sacrifices, and increased the penalties. The necessity to do so indicates that the old religion still had many followers. In the later part of the 4th century there were clearly a significant number of pagan sympathizers and crypto-pagans still in positions of power in all levels of the administrative system including positions close to the emperor; even by the 6th century, pagans can still be found in prominent positions of office both locally and in the imperial bureaucracy. From Theodosius on, public sacrifice definitely ended in Constantinople and Antioch, and in those places that were, as Lavan says, "under the emperor's nose". However, away from the imperial court, those efforts were not effective or enduring until the fifth and sixth centuries.
By the early fifth century under Honorius and Theodosius II
Theodosius II ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος, Theodosios; 10 April 401 – 28 July 450) was Roman emperor for most of his life, proclaimed ''Augustus (title), augustus'' as an infant in 402 and ruling as the eastern Empire's sole emperor after ...
, there were multiple injunctions against magic and divination. One example was the law of 409 ''de maleficis et mathematicis'' against astrologers ordering them to return to Catholicism, and for the books of mathematics that they used for their computations to be "consumed in flames before the eyes of the bishops". A fifth century writer Apponius wrote a condemnation of methods "demons used to ensnare human hearts" including augury, astrology, magical spells, malign magic, ''mathesis'', and all predictions gained from the flights of birds or the scrutiny of entrails.
The prefecture of Illyricum appears to have been an attractive post for pagans and sympathisers in the 5th century, and Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias (; grc, Ἀφροδισιάς, Aphrodisiás) was a small Ancient Greece, ancient Greek Hellenistic_period, Hellenistic city in the historic Caria cultural region of western Anatolia, Turkey. It is located near the modern village of ...
is known to have housed a substantial population of pagans in late antiquity, including a famous school of philosophy. In Rome, Christianization was hampered significantly by the elites, many of whom remained stalwartly pagan. The institutional cults continued in Rome and its hinterland, funded from private sources, in a considerably reduced form, but still existent, as long as empire lasted. "We know from discoveries at Aphrodisias that pagans and philosophers were still very much in evidence in the 5th century, and living in some luxury. The discovery of overt pagan statuary and marble altars in a house in the heart of the city of Athens gives a very different impression from that presented by the law codes and literature, of pagans worshipping in secrecy and constant fear of the governor and bishop".
After the fall of the Western Empire
In 476, the last western emperor of Roman descent, Romulus Augustulus
Romulus Augustus ( 465 – after 511), nicknamed Augustulus, was Roman emperor of the West from 31 October 475 until 4 September 476. Romulus was placed on the imperial throne by his father, the ''magister militum'' Orestes, and, at that time, ...
, was deposed by Odoacer
Odoacer ( ; – 15 March 493 AD), also spelled Odovacer or Odovacar, was a soldier and statesman of barbarian background, who deposed the child emperor Romulus Augustulus and became Rex/Dux (476–493). Odoacer's overthrow of Romulus Augustul ...
, who became the first "barbarian
A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...
" king of Italy
King of Italy ( it, links=no, Re d'Italia; la, links=no, Rex Italiae) was the title given to the ruler of the Kingdom of Italy after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The first to take the title was Odoacer, a barbarian military leader, ...
. Pagans used the occasion to attempt to revive the old rites. In 484, the Magister militum per Orientem
Magister is Latin for "master" or "teacher". It may refer to:
Positions and titles
* Magister degree, an academic degree
* Magister equitum, or Master of the Horse
* Magister militum, a master of the soldiers
* Magister officiorum (''master of of ...
, Illus
Flavius Illus ( grc-gre, Ἴλλους or Ἰλλοῦς; died 488) was a Roman general, who played an important role in the reigns of the eastern emperors Zeno and Basiliscus.
Illus supported the revolt of Basiliscus against Zeno, then switched ...
, revolted against Eastern Emperor Zeno
Zeno ( grc, Ζήνων) may refer to:
People
* Zeno (name), including a list of people and characters with the name
Philosophers
* Zeno of Elea (), philosopher, follower of Parmenides, known for his paradoxes
* Zeno of Citium (333 – 264 BC), ...
and raised his own candidate, Leontius
Leontius ( el, Λεόντιος, Leóntios; – 15 February 706), was Byzantine emperor from 695 to 698. Little is known of his early life, other than that he was born in Isauria in Asia Minor. He was given the title of ''patrikios'', and ma ...
, to the throne. Illus and Leontius were compelled, however, to flee to a remote Isauria
Isauria ( or ; grc, Ἰσαυρία), in ancient geography, is a rugged, isolated, district in the interior of Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surrou ...
n fortress, where Zeno besieged them for four years. Zeno finally captured them in 488 and promptly had them executed. Following the revolt, Zeno had several prominent individuals who had supported the revolt executed and their strongholds destroyed. Emperor Anastasius I, who came to the throne in 491, was the first emperor required to sign a written declaration of orthodoxy before his coronation.
Under Pope Gregory I
Pope Gregory I ( la, Gregorius I; – 12 March 604), commonly known as Saint Gregory the Great, was the bishop of Rome from 3 September 590 to his death. He is known for instigating the first recorded large-scale mission from Rome, the Gregori ...
, the caverns, grottoes, crags and glens that had once been used for the worship of the pagan gods were now appropriated by Christianity: "Let altars be built and relics be placed there" wrote Pope Gregory I, "so that he paganshave to change from the worship of the daemones to that of the true God".[R. MacMullen, "Christianity and Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries," Yale University Press, 1997.]
The Byzantine emperor Justinian I
Justinian I (; la, Iustinianus, ; grc-gre, Ἰουστινιανός ; 48214 November 565), also known as Justinian the Great, was the Byzantine emperor from 527 to 565.
His reign is marked by the ambitious but only partly realized ''renovat ...
, also known as Justinian the Great (527-565), enacted legislation with repeated calls for the cessation of sacrifice well into the 6th century. Judith Herrin
Judith Herrin (; born 1942) is a British archaeologist, byzantinist, and historian of Late Antiquity. She was a Professor of Late Antique and Byzantine Studies and Constantine Leventis Senior Research Fellow at King's College London (now emeri ...
writes that Emperor Justinian was a major influence in getting Christian ideals and legal regulations integrated with Roman law. Justinian revised the Theodosian codes, introduced many Christian elements, and "turned the full force of imperial legislation against deviants of all kinds, particularly religious". Herrin says, "This effectively put the word of God on the same level as Roman law, combining an exclusive monotheism with a persecuting authority".
According to Anthony Kaldellis, Justinian is remembered as "the last Roman emperor of ecumenical importance ... the arbiter of the Roman legal tradition." Yet it is as the emperor who sought, once again, to extend Roman authority around the Mediterranean, that he is often seen as a tyrant and despot. Justinian's government became increasingly autocratic. He persecuted pagans, religious minorities and purged the bureaucracy of those who disagreed with him. As Byzantine imperial culture became more orthodox, it led to the creation of the Monophysite church which set Constantinople against both Rome and the Eastern provinces. "Few emperors had started so many wars or tried to enforce cultural and religious uniformity with such zeal... In the words of one historian, 'Justinian was conscious of living in the age of Justinian'.
Herrin adds that, under Justinian, this new full "supremacy of Christian belief involved considerable destruction". The decree of 528 had already barred pagans from state office when, decades later, Justinian ordered a "persecution of surviving Hellenes, accompanied by the burning of pagan books, pictures and statues" which took place at the '' Kynêgion''. Most pagan literature was on papyrus, and so it perished before being able to be copied onto something more durable. Herrin says it is difficult to assess the degree to which Christians are responsible for the losses of ancient documents in many cases, but in the mid-sixth century, active persecution in Constantinople destroyed many ancient texts.
Evaluation and commentary
Period of antiquity
In the early 21st century, every aspect of Antiquity is undergoing revision as "a hotly debated period". What was thought to be well-known concerning the relation between society and Christianity "has been rendered disturbingly unfamiliar" through new archaeological discoveries. Even periodization
In historiography, periodization is the process or study of categorizing the past into discrete, quantified, and named blocks of time for the purpose of study or analysis.Adam Rabinowitz. It's about time: historical periodization and Linked Ancie ...
is debated, but late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
is generally thought of as beginning after the end of the Roman empire's Crisis of the Third Century
The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensi ...
(AD 235–284) and extending to about AD 600 in the West, and AD 800–1000 in the East.'
Tolerance or intolerance
Roman religion's characteristic openness has led many, such as Ramsay MacMullen
Ramsay MacMullen (March 3, 1928 – November 28, 2022) was an American historian who was Emeritus Professor of History at Yale University, where he taught from 1967 to his retirement in 1993 as Dunham Professor of History and Classics. His scholar ...
to say that in its process of expansion, the Roman Empire was "completely tolerant, in heaven as on earth". Peter Garnsey
Peter David Arthur Garnsey, (born 22 October 1938) is a retired classicist and academic. Born in Australia, where he studied classics at the University of Sydney as a member of St Paul’s College, he has spent most of his career at Cambridge. H ...
strongly disagrees with those who describe the attitude concerning the "plethora of cults" in the Roman empire before Constantine as "tolerant" or "inclusive".[Garnsey, P. (1984)]
Religious Toleration in Classical Antiquity
Studies in Church History, 21, 1-27. In his view, it is a misuse of terminology. Toleration is a modern concept not found in its contemporary form before the Reformation and Enlightenment periods. Garnsey explains that foreign gods were not tolerated in the modern sense, but were made subject, together with their communities, when they were conquered. The Romans "cannot be said to have extended to them the same combination of disapproval and acceptance which is actual toleration
Toleration is the allowing, permitting, or acceptance of an action, idea, object, or person which one dislikes or disagrees with. Political scientist Andrew R. Murphy explains that "We can improve our understanding by defining "toleration" as a ...
" in our contemporary understanding of the term.
Roman historian Eric Orlin says that Roman religion's willingness to adopt foreign gods and practices into its pantheon is probably its defining trait. Yet he goes on to say this did not apply equally to all gods: "Many divinities were brought to Rome and installed as part of the Roman state religion, but a great many more were not". MacMullen says Rome determined whether a new religion received 'tolerance' (absorption) or 'intolerance' (exclusion) based on whether they met the Roman standard of honoring one's god "according to ancestral custom" thereby demonstrating compatibility with Roman identity.
Andreas Bendlin says the thesis of polytheistic tolerance and monotheistic intolerance in Antiquity has long been proven to be incorrect. According to Rodney Stark
Rodney William Stark (July 8, 1934 — July 21, 2022) was an American sociologist of religion who was a longtime professor of sociology and of comparative religion at the University of Washington. At the time of his death he was the Distinguished ...
, since Christians most likely formed only sixteen to seventeen percent of the empire's population at the time of Constantine's conversion, they did not have the numerical advantage to form a sufficient power–base to begin a systematic persecution of pagans. However, Brown reminds us "We should not underestimate the fierce mood of the Christians of the fourth century", and that repression, persecution and martyrdom do not generally breed tolerance of those same persecutors. Brown says Roman authorities had shown no hesitation in "taking out" the Christian church which they saw as a threat to the peace of the empire, and that Constantine and his successors did the same for the same reasons. Rome had been removing anything it saw as a challenge to Roman identity since Bacchic associations were dissolved in 186 BCE; this became the pattern for the Roman state's response to anything it saw as a religious threat, and that attitude and belief didn't change once the emperors were Christian.
Differing scholarly views
According to ''The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity'' (OHLA), scholars of the late Roman Empire fall into two categories on this topic; they are referred to as holding either the "catastrophic" view or the "long and slow" view of the demise of polytheism.
Catastrophic view
The classic inception of the catastrophic view comes from the work of Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (; 8 May 173716 January 1794) was an English historian, writer, and member of parliament. His most important work, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788, is k ...
, ''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
''The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'' is a six-volume work by the English historian Edward Gibbon. It traces Western civilization (as well as the Islamic and Mongolian conquests) from the height of the Roman Empire to th ...
''. Written in the 18th century, historian Lynn White
Lynn Townsend White Jr. (April 29, 1907 – March 30, 1987) was an American historian. He was a professor of medieval history at Princeton from 1933 to 1937, and at Stanford from 1937 to 1943. He was president of Mills College, Oakland, from 1943 ...
says that Gibbon gave four reasons for the downfall of the Roman Empire: "immoderate greatness", wealth and luxury, barbarians, and Christianization
Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...
, but it was Christianization that Gibbon saw as primary. White says that, by Gibbon's own self-description, Gibbon was a "philosophical historian" who believed that the primary virtues of civilization were war and monarchy. He saw Christian teaching as pacifistic and Christians as unwilling to support the virtue of war and join the military; he said Christians were hiding their cowardice and laziness under the cloak of religion. It was this unwillingness to support war that Gibbon claimed was the primary cause of Rome's decline and fall, saying: "the last remains of the military spirit were buried in the cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
". Gibbon disliked religious enthusiasm and zeal and singled out the monks and martyrs for particular denigration as representative of these "vices". According to historian Patricia Craddock, Gibbon's History is a masterpiece that fails only where his biases effect his method allowing the "desertion of the role of historian for that of prosecuting attorney".
Even so, historian Harold A. Drake
Harold A. Drake (born 1942) is an American scholar of Ancient Roman history, with an emphasis on late antiquity.
Born in 1942, Drake grew up in Southern California and attended North Hollywood High School. He discussed the possibility of a career ...
writes that, "It is difficult to overestimate the influence of Gibbon's interpretation on subsequent scholarship".[H. A. Drake, LAMBS INTO LIONS: EXPLAINING EARLY CHRISTIAN INTOLERANCE, Past & Present, Volume 153, Issue 1, November 1996, Pages 3–36, https://doi.org/10.1093/past/153.1.3] Gibbon's views developed into the traditional "catastrophic" view that has been the established hegemony for 200 years.
Long, slow demise
The modern alternative is the "long view", first stated by Peter Brown, whom ''The Oxford Handbook of Late Antiquity'' calls the "pioneer" who inspired the study of Late Antiquity as a field in itself, and whose work remains seminal. Brown used anthropological models, rather than political or economic ones, to study the cultural history of the period. He said polytheism experienced a "long slow" demise that lasted from the 200s into the 600s:
The Christian church believed that victory over the "false gods" had begun with Jesus; they marked the conversion of Constantine as the end — the final fulfillment — of this heavenly victory, even though Christians were only about 15–18% of the empire's population at the time of Constantine's conversion.[Brown, Peter. "Christianization and religious conflict". The Cambridge Ancient History 13 (1998): 337–425.] This narrative imposed a firm closure within the Christian literature on what, according to Pierre Chuvin
Pierre Chuvin (18 July 1943 – 26 December 2016) was a French hellenist and historian. He was specialized on ancient Greece and Greek mythology, as well as modern Central Asia and the Turkic-speaking world.
Biography
He studied at the Universit ...
, had in reality been a "wavering century."
Sources
According to MacMullan, the Christian record declares pagans were not only defeated, but fully converted, by the end of the fourth century, but he says that this claim was "far from true". Christians, in their triumphant exaggeration, and sheer bulk of material, have misrepresented religious history, as other evidence shows that paganism continued.[MacMullen, Ramsay (1997) ''Christianity & Paganism in the Fourth to Eighth Centuries'', Yale University Press] MacMullen says this is why "We may fairly accuse the historical record of having failed us, not just in the familiar way, being simply insufficient, but also through being distorted".
The historical sources are filled with episodes of conflict, however, events in late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
were often dramatized for ideological reasons. Jan N. Bremmer says that "religious violence in Late Antiquity is mostly restricted to violent rhetoric: 'in Antiquity, not all religious violence was that religious, and not all religious violence was that violent'". Brown contends that the fall of Rome is a highly charged issue that leads many to "tendentious and ill supported polemics". Antique Christian accounts proclaim uniform victory while some current historiography begins with the "infinite superiority" of the Roman Empire based on an "idealized image" of it, then proceeds to vivid accounts of its unpleasant, ignorant, and violent enemies (the barbarians and the Christians), which is all intended to frame a "grandiose theory of catastrophe from which there would be no return for half a millennia". The problem with this, according to Brown, is that "much of this 'Grand Narrative' is wrong; it is a two dimensional history".
=Legislation
=
The Theodosian Law Code
The ''Codex Theodosianus'' (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 a ...
has long been one of the principal sources for the study of Late Antiquity.[Joannou, Paul. 1972. La Législation Impériale et la Christianisation de l'Empire Romain (311-476). Orientalia Christiana Analecta 192. Rome.] It is an incomplete[Corcoran, Simon. "Hidden from history: the legislation of Licinius." Bristol Classical Press, London. 2010. pp.97-119.] collection of laws dating from the reign of Constantine to the date of their promulgation as a collection in 438. The language is uniformly vehement and the penalties are harsh and frequently horrifying. The code contains at least sixty-six laws targeted at heretics. Most are found in Book XVI, ‘De Fide Catholica’, "On the Catholic Faith". The laws fall into three general categories: laws to encourage conversion; laws to define and punish the activities of pagans, apostates, heretics and Jews; and laws concerned with the problems of implementing the laws, that is, laws aimed at the conversion of the aristocracy and the administrative system itself. Most importantly, it details the cult activities that the emperor and the Catholic Church considered unsuitable.
Theodosius's later decrees have been described as a "dramatic view of radical Christian ambition", as a means of conversion through the "carrot and the stick",[Salzman, Michele Renee. "The Evidence for the Conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity in Book 16 of the 'Theodosian Code.'" Historia: Zeitschrift Für Alte Geschichte, vol. 42, no. 3, 1993, pp. 362–378. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4436297. Accessed 2 June 2020.] and as a 'declaration of war' on traditional religious practices. Penalties included death and confiscation of property, especially for private familial rites within the home. However, local authorities in the fourth century were still mostly pagan and were lax in imposing anti-pagan laws, and even Christian bishops frequently obstructed their application, resulting in the laws having had limited effect.
Contemporary scholars question using the Code, which was a legal document and not an historical work, for understanding history. According to archaeologist Luke Lavan, reading law as history distorts understanding of what actually occurred during the fourth century. There are many signs that a healthy paganism continued into the fifth century, and in some places, into the sixth and beyond.[Boin, Douglas. A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity. United Kingdom, Wiley, 2018.] Christian hostility toward pagans and their monuments is seen by most modern scholars as far from the general phenomenon that the law and literature implies.
=Archaeology
=
Archaeologists
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
Luke Lavan and Michael Mulryan point out that the traditional catastrophic view is largely based on literary sources, most of which are Christian, and are therefore considered too partial. Christian historians wrote vividly dramatized accounts of pious bishops doing battle with temple demons, and much of the framework for understanding this age is based on the “tabloid-like” accounts of the destruction of the Serapeum of Alexandria
The Serapeum of Alexandria in the Ptolemaic Kingdom was an ancient Greek temple built by Ptolemy III Euergetes (reigned 246–222 BC) and dedicated to Serapis, who was made the protector of Alexandria. There are also signs of Harpocrates. I ...
, the murder of Hypatia
Hypatia, Koine pronunciation (born 350–370; died 415 AD) was a neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was a prominent thinker in Alexandria wher ...
, and the publication of the Theodosian law code
The ''Codex Theodosianus'' (Eng. Theodosian Code) was a compilation of the laws of the Roman Empire under the Christian emperors since 312. A commission was established by Emperor Theodosius II and his co-emperor Valentinian III on 26 March 429 a ...
.[Brown, Peter. Late antiquity. Harvard University Press, 1998][Cameron, Averil. Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse. United Kingdom, University of California Press, 1994.] Lavan and Mulryan indicate that archaeological evidence of religious conflict exists, but not to the degree or the intensity to which it was previously thought, putting the traditional catastrophic view of "Christian triumphalism" in doubt. Rita Lizzi Testa, Professor of Roman history, Michele Renee Salzman, and Marianne Sághy
Marianne Sághy (1961 – 2018) was a Hungarian expert on the religious and social culture of Late Antiquity, with an especial focus on the cult of saints and hagiography. She was associate professor at the Department of Medieval Studies, Central ...
quote Alan Cameron as saying that the idea that religious conflict is the cause of the swift demise of paganism
Paganism (from classical Latin ''pāgānus'' "rural", "rustic", later "civilian") is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christianity, early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions ot ...
is pure historiographical construction.[Pagans and Christians in Late Antique Rome: Conflict, Competition, and Coexistence in the Fourth Century. United Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, 2016.]
According to Salzman: "Although the debate on the death of paganism continues, scholars ...by and large, concur that the once dominant notion of overt pagan-Christian religious conflict cannot fully explain the texts and artifacts or the social, religious, and political realities of Late Antique Rome". Lavan says in ''The Archaeology of Late Antique 'Paganism':''
Bayliss states that the Christian sources have greatly influenced perceptions of this period, to the extent that the impression of the conflict which they create has led scholars to assume that the conflict existed on an empire-wide level. However, archaeological evidence indicates that the decline of paganism was peaceful in many places throughout the empire, for example Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...
, was relatively non-confrontational. While some historians have focused on the cataclysmic events such as the destruction of the Serapeum
A serapeum is a temple or other religious institution dedicated to the syncretic Greco-Egyptian deity Serapis, who combined aspects of Osiris and Apis in a humanized form that was accepted by the Ptolemaic Greeks of Alexandria. There were seve ...
at Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandria ...
, in reality, there are only a handful of documented examples of temples being entirely destroyed through such acts of aggression. According to Bayliss, this fact means that the archaeological evidence might show that Christian responsibility for the destruction of temples has been exaggerated. As Peter Brown points out with regard to Libanius
Libanius ( grc-gre, Λιβάνιος, Libanios; ) was a teacher of rhetoric of the Sophist school in the Eastern Roman Empire. His prolific writings make him one of the best documented teachers of higher education in the ancient world and a criti ...
’ anger: “we know of many such acts of iconoclasm and arson because well-placed persons still felt free to present these incidents as flagrant departures from a more orderly norm". Scholars such as Cameron, Brown, Markus, Trombley and MacMullen have lent considerable weight to the notion that the boundaries between pagan and Christian communities in the 4th century were not as stark as some prior historians claimed because open conflict was actually something of a rarity.[Cameron, A. 1991. Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire. London. 121-4]
Brown and others such as Noel Lenski and Glen Bowersock
Glen Warren Bowersock (born January 12, 1936 in Providence, Rhode Island) is a historian of ancient Greece, Rome and the Near East, and former Chairman of Harvard’s classics department.
Early life
Bowersock was born in Providence, Rhode Island a ...
say that "For all their propaganda, Constantine and his successors did not bring about the end of paganism". It continued.A. H. M. Jones
Arnold Hugh Martin Jones FBA (9 March 1904 – 9 April 1970) (known as A. H. M. Jones or Hugo Jones) was a prominent 20th-century British historian of classical antiquity, particularly of the later Roman Empire.
Biography
Jones's best-known wor ...
, ''Constantine and the Conversion of Europe'' (University of Toronto Press
The University of Toronto Press is a Canadian university press founded in 1901. Although it was founded in 1901, the press did not actually publish any books until 1911.
The press originally printed only examination books and the university calen ...
, 2003), p. 73. . Previously undervalued similarities in language, society, religion, and the arts, as well as current archaeological research, indicate that paganism slowly declined for a full two centuries and more in some places, thereby offering an argument for the ongoing vibrancy of Roman culture
The culture of ancient Rome existed throughout the almost 1200-year history of the civilization of Ancient Rome. The term refers to the culture of the Roman Republic, later the Roman Empire, which at its peak covered an area from present-day Lo ...
in late antiquity, and its continued unity and uniqueness long after the reign of Constantine.
See also
*Christianity and other religions
Christianity and other religions documents Christianity's relationship with other world religions, and the differences and similarities.
Christian groups
Christian views on religious pluralism
Western Christian views
Some Christians have argu ...
* Christianity and paganism
*Christianity and violence
Christians have had diverse attitudes towards violence and non-violence over time. Both currently and historically, there have been four attitudes towards violence and war and four resulting practices of them within Christianity: non-resistance ...
*Greco-Roman world
The Greco-Roman civilization (; also Greco-Roman culture; spelled Graeco-Roman in the Commonwealth), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were di ...
*Hellenistic religion
The concept of Hellenistic religion as the late form of Ancient Greek religion covers any of the various systems of beliefs and practices of the people who lived under the influence of ancient Greek culture during the Hellenistic period and the ...
*History of Christian thought on persecution and tolerance
The history of Christian thought has included concepts of both inclusivity and exclusivity from its beginnings, that have been understood and applied differently in different ages, and have led to practices of both persecution and toleration. ...
*Pentarchy
Pentarchy (from the Greek , ''Pentarchía'', from πέντε ''pénte'', "five", and ἄρχειν ''archein'', "to rule") is a model of Church organization formulated in the laws of Emperor Justinian I (527–565) of the Roman Empire. In this ...
*Paradox of tolerance
The paradox of tolerance states that if a society is tolerant without limit, its ability to be tolerant is eventually seized or destroyed by the intolerant. Karl Popper described it as the seemingly self-contradictory idea that in order to mainta ...
*Religious policies of Constantius II
The religious policies of Constantius II were a mixture of toleration for some pagan practices and repression for other pagan practices. He also sought to advance the Arian or Semi-Arianian heresy within Christianity. These policies may be contra ...
*Persecution of pagans under Theodosius I
The persecution of pagans under Theodosius I began in 381, after the first couple of years of his reign as co-emperor in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. In the 380s, Theodosius I reiterated the ban of Constantine the Great on animal sacrifi ...
*Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome consisted of varying imperial and provincial religious practices, which were followed both by the people of Rome as well as those who were brought under its rule.
The Romans thought of themselves as highly religious, ...
*Religious persecution in the Roman Empire
As the Roman Republic, and later the Roman Empire, expanded, it came to include people from a variety of cultures, and religions. The worship of an ever increasing number of deities was tolerated and accepted. The government, and the Romans i ...
*Religious violence
Religious violence covers phenomena in which religion is either the subject or the object of violent behavior. All the religions of the world contain narratives, symbols, and metaphors of violence and war. Religious violence is violence that ...
*Restoration of paganism from Julian until Valens
The restoration of paganism from Julian until Valens was a brief period, from 361 until 375, of relative tolerance towards Religion in ancient Rome, pagans in the Roman Empire. In the late Roman Empire, it was preceded by a period
of Persecution ...
* Revival of Roman paganism
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Persecution of Pagans in the late Roman Empire
323 establishments
320s establishments in the Roman Empire
491 disestablishments
490s disestablishments in the Roman Empire
Constantine the Great
Religion in the Roman Empire