Decline of Hellenistic polytheism
Encyclopedia
The Greco-Roman religion
at the time of the Constantinian shift
mostly consisted of three main currents,
Early Christianity
grew gradually in Rome and the Roman empire over the 1st to 4th centuries, until it became the official state religion
with the Theodosian decrees of 389-391. Hellenistic polytheistic traditions survived in some pockets of Greece into the 9th century. The Neoplatonic Academy was shut down by Justinian I
in 529
, a date sometime taken to mark the end of Classical Antiquity
.
, seeing the same Gods under different names in different places of the Empire, accommodating Indo-Europeans such as the Hellenes, Germans, and Celts, and Semitic and other groups in the Middle East. Under Roman authority, the various national myths most similar to Rome were adopted by analogue into the overall Roman mythos, further cementing Imperial control. Consequently, the Romans were generally tolerant and accommodating towards new deities and the religious experiences of other peoples who formed part of their wider Empire.
, and discussing esoteric philosophy, magic
, and alchemy
, began to spread from Roman Egypt throughout the empire; while they are difficult to date with precision, these texts are likely to have been redacted
between the first and third centuries. The henotheistic panentheism
of the much of the emergent movement responsible for the texts
- Hermetism was somewhat at odds with traditional religious views, and the texts themselves exhibited clear anti-Greek and anti-Roman sentiment. Although such hermetica
was generally written with the theological aim of spiritual improvement, each text had an anonymous, eclectic, and spontaneous origin, rather than being part of an organised movement.
A more organised form of alatrist
henotheistic panentheism emerged in parallel to Hermetism. In the 1st century BCE Cicero
's friend Nigidius Figulus
made an attempt to revive Pythagorean
doctrines, an effort that was particularly successful under Apollonius of Tyana
in the 1st century; within a century, supernatural powers were being ascribed to Apollonius, and accounts of his life had similarities to those of Jesus
. At least one major meeting place for followers of this neopythagoreanism
was built in Rome itself, near Porta Maggiore
, to a design similar to later Christian churches, though subterranean.
In the 2nd century, Numenius of Apamea
sought to fuse additional elements of Platonism
into Neopythagoreanism, a direction which Plotinus
continued, forming neoplatonism
, a religion of theistic monism. Neoplatonism began to be adopted by prominent scholars such as the Christian theologian Origen
and the anti-Christian Porphyry
. During the rule of Gallienus
, the imperial family themselves gave patronage to Plotinus, and encouraged his philosophical activities. Neoplatonism was further developed by Iamblichus, who believed that physical invocations
would be able to produce soteriological
results, and therefore added religious ritual to the philosophy. Emperor Julian tried to unify traditional Roman religion by mixing it with Iamblichus' form of neoplatonism; the influential Christian thinker Augustine of Hippo
lived during this period, and his subsequent writings show heavy neoplatonic influence.
of Mithraism
; this sun-god related cult arose from obscure non-Roman origins, and the first surviving reference dates to Plutarch
's mention of a 67 BC observation of certain Mediterranean pirates practising it. As the Roman legions gradually moved around, so too Mithraism spread throughout the Roman Empire; in the beginning it was mainly soldiers who followed its precepts, but it was also adopted by freedmen, slaves, and merchants, in the locations where the legions rested, particularly in frontier areas.
Mithraism wasn't exclusive - it was possible and common to follow Mithraism and other cults simultaneously. It eventually became popular within Rome itself, gradually gaining members among the more aristocratic classes, and eventually counting some of the Roman senators as adherents; according to the Augustan History
, even the emperor Commodus
was a member. Although, for reasons currently unknown, Mithraism completely excluded women, by the third century it had gained a wide following; there are over 100 surviving remains of temples to Mithras, 8 in Rome itself, and 18 in Ostia
(Rome's main port), with Rome having over 300 associated Mithraic monuments.
From the reign of Septimus Severus, other, less gender-specific, forms of sun-worship also increased in popularity throughout the Roman Empire.
Elagabalus
used his authority to install El-Gabal as the chief deity of the Roman Pantheon, merging the god with the Roman sun gods to form Deus Sol Invictus
, meaning God - the Undefeated Sun, and making him superior to Jupiter, and assigning either Astarte
, Minerva
, Urania
, or some combination of the three, as El-Gabal's wife. He rode roughshod over other elements of traditional religion, marrying a Vestal Virgin
(who were legally required to remain unmarried virgins during their service), and moved the most sacred relics of roman religion (including the fire of Vesta
, the Shields
of the Salii
, and the Palladium
) to a new temple dedicated exclusively to El-Gabal. As much as the religiously conservative senators may have disapproved, the lavish annual public festivals held in El-Gabal's honour found favour among the popular masses, partly on account of the festivals involving the wide distribution of food.
Nearly half a century after Elagabalus, Aurelian
came to power. He was a reformer, strengthening the position of the sun-god as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon; he even built a brand new temple, in Rome, dedicated to the deity. Its also thought likely that he may have been responsible for establishing the festival of the day of the birth of the unconquered sun (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti), which was celebrated on December 25, the day when the sun appears to start rising again - four days after having previously reached its lowest point
, though the earliest surviving reference to the festival is in the Chronography of 354
. He followed the principle of one god, one empire; his intention was to give to all the peoples of the Empire, civilian or soldiers, easterners or westerners, a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods. Lactantius
argued that Aurelian would have outlawed all the other gods if he had had enough time, but Aurelian only managed to hold on to the position of Emperor for five years.
and the Birkat haMinim
. The results included massacres of Christian communities and Jewish nationalist groups.
Whereas the Masoretic Text
, of which the earliest surviving copy dates from the 9th century AD, teaches that "the Gods of the gentiles are nothing", the corresponding passage in the Greek Septuagint, used by the early Christian Church, asserted that "all the Gods of the heathens are devils." The same Gods whom the Romans believed had protected and blessed their city and its wider empire during the many centuries they had been worshipped were now demonized
by the early Christian Church.
The early Christian community was perceived at times to be an intrinsically destabilising influence and threat to the peace of Rome, a religio illicita. The pagans who attributed the misfortunes of Rome and its wider Empire to the rise of Christianity, and who could only see a restoration by a return to the old ways, were faced by the Christian Church that had set itself apart from that faith and was unwilling to dilute what it held to be the religion of the "One True God".
(ruled 253 to 260) was the first emperor to issue an edict of toleration for all religious creeds including Christianity. According to Christian polemicists writing after his death, Constantine I
was baptized as a Christian on his deathbed, which would make him the first emperor to be; no contemporary references exist to him ever having been a Christian during his lifetime. Eusebius, a contemporary Christian historian, also praises him for having some pagan temples torn down. Nevertheless, whatever the imperial edicts said, the effects of policy under the Christian emperors down to Valentinian I
and Valens
were enough to cause a widespread trend to Christian conversion, but not enough to make paganism extinct. Actual persecution was sporadic and generally the result of local initiative, for example Martin of Tours
' destructions of holy sites in Gaul in the later fourth century. Official orders may have established an understanding that actual persecution would be tolerated, but in the first century of official Christianity did not generally organize it.
By the Edict of Milan
(313 CE), Constantine continued the policy of toleration, which Galerius had established. His legislation against magic and private divination were driven out of a fear that others might gain power through those means. Nonetheless, this did not mean he or other Roman rulers disfavored divination. Instead, his belief in Roman divination is confirmed by legislation calling for the consultation of augurs after an amphitheatre
had been struck by lightning in the year 320. Constantine explicitly allowed public divination as a practice of State ceremony as well as public pagan practices to continue. Constantine also issued laws confirming the rights of flamens, priests and duumvirs.
The actions of Constantius II
, who reigned from 337 till 361, marked the beginning of the era of formal persecution against Paganism by the Christian Roman Empire, with the emanation of laws and edicts which punished Pagan practices.
From the 350s, new laws prescribed the death penalty for those who performe or attended Pagan sacrifice
s, and for the worshipping of idols; temples were shut down, and the traditional Altar of Victory
was removed from the Senate. There were also frequent episodes of ordinary Christians destroying, pillaging, desecrating, vandalizing many of the ancient Pagan temples, tombs and monuments.
The harsh imperial edicts had to face the vast following of paganism among the population, and passive the resistance of governors and magistrates. The anti-Pagan legislation, beginning with Constantius, would in time have an unfavourable influence on the Middle Ages
and become the basis of the much-abused Inquisition
.
from 361-363, Paganism saw an attempt at restoration; while from 363 till 375, under the reigns of Julian the Apostate
, Jovian, Valens
and Valentinian I
, it received a relative tolerance.
was a nephew of Constantine and received a Christian training but the murder of his father, brother and two uncles, in the aftermath of Constantine's death, he attributed to Constantius and by association to Christians in general. This antipathy was deepened when Constantius executed Julian's only remaining brother in 354AD. After childhood Julian was educated by hellenists
and was attracted to the teachings of neoplatonists and the old religions.
Julian’s religious beliefs were syncretic and he was an initiate of at least three mystery religions
. But Julian’s religious open-mindedness did not extend to Christianity due to its belief that it had an exclusive perspective on religious truth. Seeing itself as the only true religion, Christianity was opposed to, and fundamentally incompatible with, the more inclusive syncretism of paganism—see introduction.
As Emperor, Julian sought to turn the tide in the attempted suppression of non-Christian religions. As his first task he sought to reestablish the old Roman Pagan practice of incorporation of other religions. But now instead of allowing different cults using different names for the same or similar deities, Julian's training in Christianity and Imperial government influenced him to develop a single pagan religion. Thus, his ideas concerning the revival and organization of the old religion, shaping it into a coherent body of doctrine, ritual and liturgy with a hierarchy under the supervision of the emperor was the hallmark of his reign. Julian organized elaborate rituals and attempted to set forth a clarified philosophy of Neo-Platonism that might unite all Pagans.
Julian allowed religious freedom and avoided any form of actual compulsion. The Christian Sozomen
acknowledges that Julian did not compel Christians to offer sacrifice nor did he allow the people to commit any act of injustice towards the Christians or insult them. However, no Christian was allowed to teach or study the ancient classical authors, "Let them keep to Matthew
and Luke
", thus ending any chance they had of a professional career.
He withdrew the privileges of the Christian clergy, bestowed on them by Constantine, and ordered them to make restitution. Those who had demolished temples during the reign of Constantine and Constantius, were made to rebuild them, or to defray the expenses of their re-erection. Only pagans were allowed to teach in law, rhetoric, philosophy, or practice any form of state sanctioned religious liturgy. Julian required those who had abandoned the deities to purify themselves before they were allowed the privilege of taking part in their worship once again. He was devoted to divination and allowed his subjects to freely practice this art. In general the privileges and immunities given to the Christians were now replaced with those given to pagan philosophers and priests who subscribed to his neo-platonic pagan religion.
and Valens
this period of religious toleration
continued. Pagan writers praise both of these emperors for their liberal religious policies.
Valentinian and Valens granted complete toleration for all cults at the beginning of their reign in 364. Valentinian, who ruled in the west, even allowed the performance of nocturnal sacrifices, which had been previously prohibited due to the attempt of some people to practice unlawful divination under the cover of the night, after the proconsul
of Greece appealed to him. Valentinian also confirmed the rights and privileges of the Pagan priests and confirmed the right of Pagans to be the exclusive caretakers of their temples. Valens, who was ruling in the east, was an Arian
and was too engaged with fighting against the Orthodox Christians to bother much with the Pagans. In both the west and east severe laws were once again passed prohibiting private divination. Due to the over zealousness of the populace to stop harmful divination, the haruspices and augurs began to be afraid to show themselves in public. This led the emperors to formally authorize the practice of official and lawful divination by law in 371. Despite the official policy, anti-pagan laws remained in force, and unofficial destruction of pagan holy sites was also tolerated.
) in the year 375, Gratian
began his actual reign at the age of sixteen. Six days after the death of Valentinian I, Gratian’s half brother, Valentinian II
, who was only four years old, was also declared emperor. After the death of Valens
, at the battle of Adrianople in 378, Gratian chose a Spaniard named Theodosius I
to succeed his uncle. Gratian had been educated by Ausonius
who had praised his pupil for his tolerance. Upon the death of his father, Gratian came under the influence of Ambrose
, who became his chief advisor. Under the influence of Ambrose, active steps to repress Paganism were taken.
The influence of Ambrose was a significant force that brought to an end a period of widespread, if unofficial, religious tolerance that had existed since the time of Julian. Gratian dealt Paganism several blows in 382. In this year, Gratian appropriated the income of the Pagan priests and Vestal Virgins, confiscated the personal possessions of the priestly colleges and ordered the removal of the Altar of Victory
. The colleges of Pagan priests also lost all their privileges and immunities. Gratian declared that all of the Pagan temples and shrines were to be confiscated by the government and that their revenues were to be joined to the property of the royal treasury.
Pagan Senators responded by sending an appeal to Gratian, reminding him that he was still the Pontifex Maximus
and that it was his duty to see that the Pagan rites were properly performed. They appealed to Gratian to restore the altar of Victory and the rights and privileges of the Vestal Virgins and priestly colleges. Gratian, at the urging of Ambrose, did not grant an audience to the Pagan Senators. In response to being reminded by the Pagans that he was still the head of the ancestral religion, Gratian renounced the title and office of Pontifex Maximus
under the influence of Ambrose, declaring that it was unsuitable for a Christian to hold this office. Gratian was quickly faced with a revolt from the outraged Pagans who raised a Spaniard named Maximus to the throne because he was more sympathetic to the Pagan cause.
The Christian persecution of paganism under Theodosius I began in 381, after the first couple of years his reign in the Eastern Roman Empire. In the 380s, Theodosius I
reiterated Constantine's ban on Pagan sacrifice, prohibited haruspicy on pain of death, pioneered the criminalization of Magistrates who did not enforce anti-Pagan laws, broke up some pagan associations and destroyed Pagan temples.
Between 389-391 he emanated the infamous "Theodosian decrees," which establed a practical ban on paganism; visits to the temples were forbidden, remaining Pagan holidays abolished, the eternal fire
in the Temple of Vesta
in the Roman Forum
extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcraft
ing punished. Theodosian refused to restore the Altar of Victory
in the Senate House, as asked by Pagan Senators
.
In 392 he became emperor of the whole empire (the last one to do so). From this moment till the end of his reign in 395, while Pagans remained outspoken in their demands for toleration, he authorized or participated in the destruction of many temples, holy sites, images and objects of piety throughout the empire. participated in actions by Christians against major Pagan sites. He issued a comprehensive law that prohibited any Pagan ritual even within the privacy of one's home, and was particularly oppressive of Manicheans. Paganism was now proscribed, a "religio illicita". He is likely to have suppressed the Ancient Olympic Games, whose last record of celebration is from 393.
395, a political crisis ensued, which the barbarians were quick to take advantage of by invading the empire on an unprecedented scale. Since most of the Germanic tribes infiltrating, settling, or invading the Empire were Arian Christian, many nominal Orthodox Christians became less certain of their religion. Some in a sense of superstition or ancient Roman pagan patriotism, felt the invasions were the result of abandoning the old ways. Others believed the success of the Germans was because the Orthodox Church was corrupt. Consequently, many nominal Christians converted back to Paganism. Pagans, in their turn, became more aggressive and began to blame the Christians for the disasters affecting the empire.
Despite the pleas of many Pagans for tolerance, Honorius
and Arcadius
continued the work of their father by enacting even more anti-Pagan laws in an attempt to stop this revival of Paganism. The fact that they had to keep repeating their threats by the enactment of numerous laws against the practice of Paganism indicates that their efforts did not succeed in stamping out the traditional Pagan rites, which continued to be practiced discreetly.
During the early part of the reign of Honorius, Stilicho
was able to exercise unlimited power over the west. Stilicho exercised moderation in his religious policies and enacted laws that were favorable to the Pagans. Consequently, during the time in which Stilicho
held power, the Pagans enjoyed a brief respite from persecution. In the year 395, Arcadius
declared that the solemn days of the Pagans were no longer to be included in the number of holidays. In the same year, another law was passed by Arcadius that prohibited anyone from going to a Pagan sanctuary or temple or of celebrating any kind of Pagan sacrifice. This law seems to have been targeted at those Christians who were converting back to Paganism as it specifically mentions “those who are trying to stray from the dogma
of the Catholic faith.” In the year 396, the privileges of Pagan priests and other clerics were officially revoked. In the same year, Arcadius ordered that Pagan temples standing in the countryside were to be destroyed without disorder or riot. This law seems to indicate that the number of Pagans in the countryside was still too large for the Christians to openly destroy the temples that were located there. As a result, zealous Christians had to be content with destroying the Pagan temples that were located in mostly municipal areas where they could easily outnumber the Pagan inhabitants. The large number of Pagans in the east also seems to have forced Arcadius into allowing the ancient festivals and public games to continue.
Meanwhile three laws were enacted in the west in the year 399, under the influence of Stilicho
, which were relatively favorable to the Pagans. Due to the riots caused by fanatical Christians in their attempts to destroy the temples, the first of these laws protected the Pagan temples from the destruction of zealous Christians who pretended that they had been authorized by the government to destroy them. The second of these laws acknowledged the right of the people to continue to participate in the traditional banquets, shows, gatherings and amusements associated with the old Pagan religion; it did, however, forbid the public performance of any Pagan rites or sacrifice. The third law forbade the destruction of Pagan temples that had been cleared of forbidden things and ordered that they were to be kept in good repair. After the death of Stilicho, Honorius and his party in the state gained control and harsh laws against Paganism were once again enacted. In the year 408, Honorius enacted a new law which ordered that all statues and altars in the temples were to be removed and that the temple buildings and their income were to be appropriated by the government. This law also forbade the holding of any Pagan banquet or celebration in vicinity of the temples. The execution of this law was placed in the hands of the bishops. Two other laws decreed that buildings belonging to known Pagans and heretics were to be appropriated by the churches.
Arcadius died in 408 and his eight-year-old son, Theodosius, was thereupon proclaimed emperor in the East. In the same year, Honorius enacted a law that prohibited anyone who was not Catholic from performing imperial service within the palace. Zosimus reports that Honorius was forced to repeal this law after one of his best officers, who happened to be a Pagan, resigned in protest. At the beginning of the year 409, Honorius enacted a law that punished judges and officials who did not enforce the laws against the Pagans. This law even punished men of rank who simply kept silent over any Pagan rite performed in their own city or district. The hopes of the Pagans were revived with the elevation of Priscus Attalus
, at Rome, in the year 409. Alaric
, an Arian Christian, soon tired of his puppet, however, and Attalus was deposed in the summer of 410 when Honorius promised to negotiate a peace treaty. When these negotiations failed, Alaric took and sacked the city of Rome. This catastrophe shocked the entire Roman world. Both Christians and Pagans quickly began to blame each other for something that had hitherto been thought impossible. In this heated atmosphere, Honorius once again reiterated his anti-Pagan legislation.
There are numerous fragments extant of several Pagan historical works, such as the works of Eunapius
and Olympiodorus
, which indicate that Pagans were now openly voicing their resentment in writing. Even after the sack of Rome, in the year 410, pagans believed that the recent decline of Rome had been caused by the neglect of the ancestral traditions.
In the year 415, Honorius enacted yet another law that appropriated the Pagan temples throughout the Roman Empire to the government and ordered that all objects that had been consecrated for Pagan sacrifices were to be removed from public places.
A prominent example of the anti-pagan climate at the time is the case of the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria
, killed by a mob in 415.
In 416, Honorius
and Theodosius II
ordered that Pagans would no longer be admitted to imperial service nor would they be allowed to receive the rank of administrator or judge. In 423, Theodosius II reiterated the previous laws against Pagans and declared that all Pagans who were caught performing the ancient rites would now have all their goods confiscated and be exiled. In August of the year 423, Honorius died and power was seized in the west by John, who had held the office of Primicerius Notariorum. John appears to have ushered in a period of religious toleration
. John seems to have attempted to curb the power of ecclesiastics and the privileges of the church in an attempt to treat all people equally. In the year 423, Theodosius II published a law that demanded that Christians (whether they were really such or pretended to be so) were not to disturb Pagans who were living peaceably and doing nothing contrary to the law. In 425, Theodosius II sent an expedition to the west to depose John and establish Valentinian III as emperor of the west. After John was captured and executed, Valentinian III
was proclaimed emperor in the city of Rome. While in the west, Theodosius II enacted two anti-Pagan laws in the year 425. The first of these stipulated that all Pagan superstition was to be rooted out. The second law barred Pagans from pleading a case in court and also disqualified them from serving as soldiers. Theodosius II then left Valentinian III to rule the west and returned to Constantinople.
The numerous laws against apostasy, that had been continuously promulgated since the time of Gratian and Theodosius, is evidence that the emperors were having a hard time even keeping Christians from going astray. In the year 426, Theodosius passed yet another law against Christian apostates, who converted to Paganism, and those who pretended to become Christian but in reality continued to perform Pagan sacrifices. All this legislation proved so ineffective that Theodosius II found it necessary to reiterate his prohibition against Pagan rites and sacrifices in 435, this time increasing the penalty to death. This law also ordered that all Pagan shrines, temples and sanctuaries that still existed were to be destroyed by the magistrates. Magistrates who failed to carry out this order were ordered to be punished with death. Even the threat of death, however, failed to eradicate Paganism as we find Theodosius legislating again, in 438, against Paganism and forbidding Pagan sacrifice once more. Theodosius threatens those who fail to comply with death and the confiscation of their property. It will be of interest to quote some of this law, as the Emperor explicitly admits that Pagan sacrifices were still being openly celebrated. It reads as:
Hence our clemency perceives the need of keeping watch over the Pagans and their heathen enormities, since by natural depravity and stubborn lawlessness, they forsake the path of true religion. They disdain in any way to perform the nefarious rites of sacrifice and the false errors of their baleful superstition by some means or other in the hidden solitudes, unless their crimes are made public by the profession of their crimes to insult divine majesty and to show scorn to our age. Not the thousand terrors of laws already promulgated nor the penalty of exile pronounced upon them deter these men, whereby, if they cannot reform, at least they might learn to abstain from their mass of their crimes and the multitude of their sacrifices. But their insane audacity transgresses continually; our patience is exhausted by their wicked behavior so that if we desired to forget them, we could not disregard them.
, who became emperor of the east in 450 upon the death of Theodosius II, to repeat earlier prohibitions against Pagan rites. Marcian decreed, in the year 451, that those who continued to perform the Pagan rites would suffer the confiscation of their property and be condemned to death. Marcian also prohibited any attempt to re-open the temples and ordered that they were to remain closed. In addition to this, in order to encourage strict enforcement of the law a fine of fifty pounds of gold was imposed on any judge or governor, as well as the officials under him, who did not enforce this law. However, not even this had the desired affect, as we find Leo I, who succeeded Marcian in 457, publishing a new law in 472 which imposed severe penalties for the owner of any property who was aware that Pagan rites were performed on his property. If the property owner was of high rank he was punished by the loss of his rank or office and by the confiscation of his property. If the property owner was of lower status he would be physically tortured and then condemned to labor in the mines for the rest of his life.
Two more laws against Paganism, which may be from this period, are preserved in the Justinian Code. After the deposition of Avitus
, who ruled as emperor of the West from 455 to 456, there seems to have been a conspiracy among the Roman nobles to place the Pagan general Marcellinus
on the throne to restore Paganism; but it came to nothing.
In the year 457, Leo I became the first emperor to be crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople
. Anthemius
(467-472), one of the last Western Roman emperors, seems to have planned a Pagan revival at Rome. He was a descendant of Procopius
, the relative of Julian
. Anthemius gave Messius Phoebus Severus
, a Pagan philosopher who was a close friend of his, the important offices of Praefectus urbi
of Rome, Consul
and Patrician. Anthemius placed the image of Hercules
, in the act of vanquishing the Nemean lion
, on his coins. The murder of Anthemius (by Ricimer
) destroyed the hopes of those Pagans who believed that the traditional rites would now be restored. Shortly thereafter, in 476, the western emperor was deposed by Odoacer
, who became the first barbarian king of Italy. In spite of this disaster, the Pagans made one last attempt to revive the Pagan rites. In 484, the Magister militum per Orientem, Illus
, revolted against Zeno
and raised his own candidate, Leontius
, to the throne. Leontius hoped to reopen the temples and restore the ancient ceremonies and because of this many Pagans joined in his revolt against Zeno. Illus and Leontius were compelled, however, to flee to a remote Isauria
n fortress, where Zeno besieged them for four years. Zeno finally captured them in 488 and promptly had them executed.
As a result of the revolt, Zeno instituted a harsh persecution of Pagan intellectuals. With the failure of the revolt of Leontius, some Pagans became disillusioned and many simply became Christian, or simply pretended to, in order to avoid persecution. The failure of their efforts to restore the traditional rites led many Pagans to completely lose confidence in Rome’s future. These men believed that the Roman Empire was now gone and irretrievable. The Christianization of the Roman Empire became complete when the emperor Anastasius, who came to the throne in 491, was forced to sign a written declaration of orthodoxy before his coronation.
Religion in ancient Rome
Religion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
at the time of the Constantinian shift
Constantinian shift
Constantinian shift is a term used by Anabaptist and Post-Christendom theologians to describe the political and theological aspects of the 4th-century process of Constantine's legalization of Christianity. The term was popularized by the Mennonite theologian John H...
mostly consisted of three main currents,
- Greco-Roman PolytheismReligion in ancient RomeReligion in ancient Rome encompassed the religious beliefs and cult practices regarded by the Romans as indigenous and central to their identity as a people, as well as the various and many cults imported from other peoples brought under Roman rule. Romans thus offered cult to innumerable deities...
, - the official Roman imperial cult,
- various Mystery religionGreco-Roman mysteriesMystery religions, sacred Mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious cults of the Greco-Roman world, participation in which was reserved to initiates....
s.
Early Christianity
Early Christianity
Early Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
grew gradually in Rome and the Roman empire over the 1st to 4th centuries, until it became the official state religion
State church of the Roman Empire
The state church of the Roman Empire was a Christian institution organized within the Roman Empire during the 4th century that came to represent the Empire's sole authorized religion. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox churches claim to be the historical continuation of this...
with the Theodosian decrees of 389-391. Hellenistic polytheistic traditions survived in some pockets of Greece into the 9th century. The Neoplatonic Academy was shut down by Justinian I
Justinian I
Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...
in 529
529
Year 529 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Decius without colleague...
, a date sometime taken to mark the end of Classical Antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
Before Constantine's Edict of Milan
The Romans tended towards syncretismSyncretism
Syncretism is the combining of different beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. The term means "combining", but see below for the origin of the word...
, seeing the same Gods under different names in different places of the Empire, accommodating Indo-Europeans such as the Hellenes, Germans, and Celts, and Semitic and other groups in the Middle East. Under Roman authority, the various national myths most similar to Rome were adopted by analogue into the overall Roman mythos, further cementing Imperial control. Consequently, the Romans were generally tolerant and accommodating towards new deities and the religious experiences of other peoples who formed part of their wider Empire.
The rise of Esoteric Philosophy
The more philosophical outlook of the Hellenic parts of the Roman empire led to a renaissance of intellectual religious thought around the turn of the 2nd century. Writings pseudepigraphically attributed to Hermes TrismegistusHermes Trismegistus
Hermes Trismegistus is the eponymous author of the Hermetic Corpus, a sacred text belonging to the genre of divine revelation.-Origin and identity:...
, and discussing esoteric philosophy, magic
Magic (paranormal)
Magic is the claimed art of manipulating aspects of reality either by supernatural means or through knowledge of occult laws unknown to science. It is in contrast to science, in that science does not accept anything not subject to either direct or indirect observation, and subject to logical...
, and alchemy
Alchemy
Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity. The defining objectives of alchemy are varied; these include the creation of the fabled philosopher's stone possessing powers including the capability of turning base...
, began to spread from Roman Egypt throughout the empire; while they are difficult to date with precision, these texts are likely to have been redacted
Redaction
Redaction is a form of editing in which multiple source texts are combined and subjected to minor alteration to make them into a single work. Often this is a method of collecting a series of writings on a similar theme and creating a definitive and coherent work...
between the first and third centuries. The henotheistic panentheism
Panentheism
Panentheism is a belief system which posits that God exists, interpenetrates every part of nature and timelessly extends beyond it...
of the much of the emergent movement responsible for the texts
Hermetica
The Hermetica are Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mostly presented as dialogues in which a teacher, generally identified with Hermes Trismegistus or "thrice-greatest Hermes", enlightens a disciple...
- Hermetism was somewhat at odds with traditional religious views, and the texts themselves exhibited clear anti-Greek and anti-Roman sentiment. Although such hermetica
Hermetica
The Hermetica are Greek wisdom texts from the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE, mostly presented as dialogues in which a teacher, generally identified with Hermes Trismegistus or "thrice-greatest Hermes", enlightens a disciple...
was generally written with the theological aim of spiritual improvement, each text had an anonymous, eclectic, and spontaneous origin, rather than being part of an organised movement.
A more organised form of alatrist
Alatrism
Alatrism or alatry is the recognition of the existence of one or more gods, but with a deliberate lack of worship of any deity...
henotheistic panentheism emerged in parallel to Hermetism. In the 1st century BCE Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
's friend Nigidius Figulus
Nigidius Figulus
Among his contemporaries, Nigidius's reputation for learning was second only to that of Varro. Even in his own time, his works were regarded as often abstruse, perhaps because of their esoteric Pythagoreanism, into which Nigidius incorporated Stoic elements...
made an attempt to revive Pythagorean
Pythagoreanism
Pythagoreanism was the system of esoteric and metaphysical beliefs held by Pythagoras and his followers, the Pythagoreans, who were considerably influenced by mathematics. Pythagoreanism originated in the 5th century BCE and greatly influenced Platonism...
doctrines, an effort that was particularly successful under Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. Little is certainly known about him...
in the 1st century; within a century, supernatural powers were being ascribed to Apollonius, and accounts of his life had similarities to those of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
. At least one major meeting place for followers of this neopythagoreanism
Neopythagoreanism
Neopythagoreanism was a Graeco-Alexandrian school of philosophy, reviving Pythagorean doctrines, which became prominent in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE...
was built in Rome itself, near Porta Maggiore
Porta Maggiore
The Porta Maggiore , or Porta Prenestina, is one of the eastern gates in the ancient but well-preserved 3rd-century Aurelian Walls of Rome....
, to a design similar to later Christian churches, though subterranean.
In the 2nd century, Numenius of Apamea
Numenius of Apamea
Numenius of Apamea was a Greek philosopher, who lived in Apamea in Syria and flourished during the latter half of the 2nd century AD. He was a Neopythagorean and forerunner of the Neoplatonists.- Philosophy :...
sought to fuse additional elements of Platonism
Platonism
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato or the name of other philosophical systems considered closely derived from it. In a narrower sense the term might indicate the doctrine of Platonic realism...
into Neopythagoreanism, a direction which Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...
continued, forming neoplatonism
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...
, a religion of theistic monism. Neoplatonism began to be adopted by prominent scholars such as the Christian theologian Origen
Origen
Origen , or Origen Adamantius, 184/5–253/4, was an early Christian Alexandrian scholar and theologian, and one of the most distinguished writers of the early Church. As early as the fourth century, his orthodoxy was suspect, in part because he believed in the pre-existence of souls...
and the anti-Christian Porphyry
Porphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...
. During the rule of Gallienus
Gallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...
, the imperial family themselves gave patronage to Plotinus, and encouraged his philosophical activities. Neoplatonism was further developed by Iamblichus, who believed that physical invocations
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 gods, especially with the goal of uniting with the divine, achieving henosis, and perfecting oneself.- Definitions :*Proclus...
would be able to produce soteriological
Soteriology
The branch of Christian theology that deals with salvation and redemption is called Soteriology. It is derived from the Greek sōtērion + English -logy....
results, and therefore added religious ritual to the philosophy. Emperor Julian tried to unify traditional Roman religion by mixing it with Iamblichus' form of neoplatonism; the influential Christian thinker Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
lived during this period, and his subsequent writings show heavy neoplatonic influence.
Eastern sun-worship
At some time around the first century, the members of the Roman military began to adopt the mystery cultGreco-Roman mysteries
Mystery religions, sacred Mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious cults of the Greco-Roman world, participation in which was reserved to initiates....
of Mithraism
Mithraism
The Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra, adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery...
; this sun-god related cult arose from obscure non-Roman origins, and the first surviving reference dates to Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
's mention of a 67 BC observation of certain Mediterranean pirates practising it. As the Roman legions gradually moved around, so too Mithraism spread throughout the Roman Empire; in the beginning it was mainly soldiers who followed its precepts, but it was also adopted by freedmen, slaves, and merchants, in the locations where the legions rested, particularly in frontier areas.
Mithraism wasn't exclusive - it was possible and common to follow Mithraism and other cults simultaneously. It eventually became popular within Rome itself, gradually gaining members among the more aristocratic classes, and eventually counting some of the Roman senators as adherents; according to the Augustan History
Augustan History
The Augustan History is a late Roman collection of biographies, in Latin, of the Roman Emperors, their junior colleagues and usurpers of the period 117 to 284...
, even the emperor Commodus
Commodus
Commodus , was Roman Emperor from 180 to 192. He also ruled as co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius from 177 until his father's death in 180. His name changed throughout his reign; see changes of name for earlier and later forms. His accession as emperor was the first time a son had succeeded...
was a member. Although, for reasons currently unknown, Mithraism completely excluded women, by the third century it had gained a wide following; there are over 100 surviving remains of temples to Mithras, 8 in Rome itself, and 18 in Ostia
Ostia Antica
Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...
(Rome's main port), with Rome having over 300 associated Mithraic monuments.
From the reign of Septimus Severus, other, less gender-specific, forms of sun-worship also increased in popularity throughout the Roman Empire.
Elagabalus
Elagabalus
Elagabalus , also known as Heliogabalus, was Roman Emperor from 218 to 222. A member of the Severan Dynasty, he was Syrian on his mother's side, the son of Julia Soaemias and Sextus Varius Marcellus. Early in his youth he served as a priest of the god El-Gabal at his hometown, Emesa...
used his authority to install El-Gabal as the chief deity of the Roman Pantheon, merging the god with the Roman sun gods to form Deus Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus
Sol Invictus was the official sun god of the later Roman empire. In 274 Aurelian made it an official cult alongside the traditional Roman cults. Scholars disagree whether the new deity was a refoundation of the ancient Latin cult of Sol, a revival of the cult of Elagabalus or completely new...
, meaning God - the Undefeated Sun, and making him superior to Jupiter, and assigning either Astarte
Astarte
Astarte is the Greek name of a goddess known throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from the Bronze Age to Classical times...
, Minerva
Minerva
Minerva was the Roman goddess whom Romans from the 2nd century BC onwards equated with the Greek goddess Athena. She was the virgin goddess of poetry, medicine, wisdom, commerce, weaving, crafts, magic...
, Urania
Urania
Urania was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy. Some accounts list her as the mother of the musician Linus. She is usually depicted with a globe in her left hand. She is able to foretell the future by the arrangement of the stars...
, or some combination of the three, as El-Gabal's wife. He rode roughshod over other elements of traditional religion, marrying a Vestal Virgin
Vestal Virgin
In ancient Roman religion, the Vestals or Vestal Virgins , were priestesses of Vesta, goddess of the hearth. The College of the Vestals and its well-being was regarded as fundamental to the continuance and security of Rome, as embodied by their cultivation of the sacred fire that could not be...
(who were legally required to remain unmarried virgins during their service), and moved the most sacred relics of roman religion (including the fire of Vesta
Vesta (mythology)
Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta's presence was symbolized by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples...
, the Shields
Ancile
The Ancile, in ancient Rome, is the legendary buckler shield of the god Mars, said to have fallen from heaven, upon Numa Pompilius. At the same time, a voice was heard which declared that Rome should be mistress of the world while the shield was preserved. The Ancile was, as it were, the palladium...
of the Salii
Salii
In ancient Roman religion, the Salii were the "leaping priests" of Mars supposed to have been introduced by King Numa Pompilius. They were twelve patrician youths, dressed as archaic warriors: an embroidered tunic, a breastplate, a short red cloak , a sword, and a spiked headdress called an apex...
, and the Palladium
Palladium (mythology)
In Greek and Roman mythology, a palladium or palladion was an image of great antiquity on which the safety of a city was said to depend. "Palladium" especially signified the wooden statue of Pallas Athena that Odysseus and Diomedes stole from the citadel of Troy and which was later taken to the...
) to a new temple dedicated exclusively to El-Gabal. As much as the religiously conservative senators may have disapproved, the lavish annual public festivals held in El-Gabal's honour found favour among the popular masses, partly on account of the festivals involving the wide distribution of food.
Nearly half a century after Elagabalus, Aurelian
Aurelian
Aurelian , was Roman Emperor from 270 to 275. During his reign, he defeated the Alamanni after a devastating war. He also defeated the Goths, Vandals, Juthungi, Sarmatians, and Carpi. Aurelian restored the Empire's eastern provinces after his conquest of the Palmyrene Empire in 273. The following...
came to power. He was a reformer, strengthening the position of the sun-god as the main divinity of the Roman pantheon; he even built a brand new temple, in Rome, dedicated to the deity. Its also thought likely that he may have been responsible for establishing the festival of the day of the birth of the unconquered sun (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti), which was celebrated on December 25, the day when the sun appears to start rising again - four days after having previously reached its lowest point
Solstice
A solstice is an astronomical event that happens twice each year when the Sun's apparent position in the sky, as viewed from Earth, reaches its northernmost or southernmost extremes...
, though the earliest surviving reference to the festival is in the Chronography of 354
Chronography of 354
The Chronography of 354, also known as the Calendar of 354, was a 4th century illuminated manuscript, which was produced in 354 AD for a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus. It is the earliest dated codex to have full page illustrations. None of the original has survived...
. He followed the principle of one god, one empire; his intention was to give to all the peoples of the Empire, civilian or soldiers, easterners or westerners, a single god they could believe in without betraying their own gods. Lactantius
Lactantius
Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius was an early Christian author who became an advisor to the first Christian Roman emperor, Constantine I, guiding his religious policy as it developed, and tutor to his son.-Biography:...
argued that Aurelian would have outlawed all the other gods if he had had enough time, but Aurelian only managed to hold on to the position of Emperor for five years.
Judaism and Christianity
However, this inclusive tolerance only extended to religions which did not resist Roman authority and would respect Roman gods. Religions that were hostile to the state nor any that claimed exclusive rights to religious beliefs and practice were not included and some exclusive Eastern cults were persecuted. Jews were given special privileges owing to their dominance in economy, numbers and dispersal, but this tolerance was balanced unevenly on a thin veneer of Jewish submission. Tolerance of Judaism turned to persecution when collaboration was perceived as ending, see Anti-Judaism in the pre-Christian Roman Empire. Intolerant sects could also persecute each other; Jewish sects like the early Christians were denounced by the Jewish establishment as dangerous provocateurs, according to some interpretations of the Council of JamniaCouncil of Jamnia
The Council of Jamnia or Council of Yavne is a hypothetical late 1st-century council at which it is postulated the canon of the Hebrew Bible was finalized....
and the Birkat haMinim
Birkat haMinim
The Birkat ha-Minim, , is a Jewish prayer of blessing on heretics in general, and sometimes Christians, though in this context "blessing" may also be a euphemism for a curse....
. The results included massacres of Christian communities and Jewish nationalist groups.
Whereas the Masoretic Text
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible and is regarded as Judaism's official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and...
, of which the earliest surviving copy dates from the 9th century AD, teaches that "the Gods of the gentiles are nothing", the corresponding passage in the Greek Septuagint, used by the early Christian Church, asserted that "all the Gods of the heathens are devils." The same Gods whom the Romans believed had protected and blessed their city and its wider empire during the many centuries they had been worshipped were now demonized
Demonization
Demonization is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as evil, lying demons by other religions, generally monotheistic and henotheistic ones...
by the early Christian Church.
The early Christian community was perceived at times to be an intrinsically destabilising influence and threat to the peace of Rome, a religio illicita. The pagans who attributed the misfortunes of Rome and its wider Empire to the rise of Christianity, and who could only see a restoration by a return to the old ways, were faced by the Christian Church that had set itself apart from that faith and was unwilling to dilute what it held to be the religion of the "One True God".
Toleration and Constantine
After the initial conflicts between the state and the new emerging religion, GallienusGallienus
Gallienus was Roman Emperor with his father Valerian from 253 to 260, and alone from 260 to 268. He took control of the Empire at a time when it was undergoing great crisis...
(ruled 253 to 260) was the first emperor to issue an edict of toleration for all religious creeds including Christianity. According to Christian polemicists writing after his death, Constantine I
Constantine I
Constantine the Great , also known as Constantine I or Saint Constantine, was Roman Emperor from 306 to 337. Well known for being the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, Constantine and co-Emperor Licinius issued the Edict of Milan in 313, which proclaimed religious tolerance of all...
was baptized as a Christian on his deathbed, which would make him the first emperor to be; no contemporary references exist to him ever having been a Christian during his lifetime. Eusebius, a contemporary Christian historian, also praises him for having some pagan temples torn down. Nevertheless, whatever the imperial edicts said, the effects of policy under the Christian emperors down to Valentinian I
Valentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....
and Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
were enough to cause a widespread trend to Christian conversion, but not enough to make paganism extinct. Actual persecution was sporadic and generally the result of local initiative, for example Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours
Martin of Tours was a Bishop of Tours whose shrine became a famous stopping-point for pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela. Around his name much legendary material accrued, and he has become one of the most familiar and recognizable Christian saints...
' destructions of holy sites in Gaul in the later fourth century. Official orders may have established an understanding that actual persecution would be tolerated, but in the first century of official Christianity did not generally organize it.
By the Edict of Milan
Edict of Milan
The Edict of Milan was a letter signed by emperors Constantine I and Licinius that proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire...
(313 CE), Constantine continued the policy of toleration, which Galerius had established. His legislation against magic and private divination were driven out of a fear that others might gain power through those means. Nonetheless, this did not mean he or other Roman rulers disfavored divination. Instead, his belief in Roman divination is confirmed by legislation calling for the consultation of augurs after an amphitheatre
Amphitheatre
An amphitheatre is an open-air venue used for entertainment and performances.There are two similar, but distinct, types of structure for which the word "amphitheatre" is used: Ancient Roman amphitheatres were large central performance spaces surrounded by ascending seating, and were commonly used...
had been struck by lightning in the year 320. Constantine explicitly allowed public divination as a practice of State ceremony as well as public pagan practices to continue. Constantine also issued laws confirming the rights of flamens, priests and duumvirs.
Beginning of persecution of paganism
Constantius II
Constantius II , was Roman Emperor from 337 to 361. The second son of Constantine I and Fausta, he ascended to the throne with his brothers Constantine II and Constans upon their father's death....
, who reigned from 337 till 361, marked the beginning of the era of formal persecution against Paganism by the Christian Roman Empire, with the emanation of laws and edicts which punished Pagan practices.
From the 350s, new laws prescribed the death penalty for those who performe or attended Pagan sacrifice
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is the offering of food, objects or the lives of animals or people to God or the gods as an act of propitiation or worship.While sacrifice often implies ritual killing, the term offering can be used for bloodless sacrifices of cereal food or artifacts...
s, and for the worshipping of idols; temples were shut down, and the traditional Altar of Victory
Altar of Victory
The Altar of Victory was located in the Roman Senate House bearing a gold statue of the goddess Victory. The altar was established by Octavian in 29 BC in honor of the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The statue depicted a winged woman, holding a palm and descending to present a laurel...
was removed from the Senate. There were also frequent episodes of ordinary Christians destroying, pillaging, desecrating, vandalizing many of the ancient Pagan temples, tombs and monuments.
The harsh imperial edicts had to face the vast following of paganism among the population, and passive the resistance of governors and magistrates. The anti-Pagan legislation, beginning with Constantius, would in time have an unfavourable influence on the Middle Ages
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
and become the basis of the much-abused Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
.
Restoration and tolerance from Julian till Valens (361-375)
Under the sole rule of Julian the ApostateJulian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
from 361-363, Paganism saw an attempt at restoration; while from 363 till 375, under the reigns of Julian the Apostate
Julian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
, Jovian, Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
and Valentinian I
Valentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....
, it received a relative tolerance.
Julian the Apostate
JulianJulian the Apostate
Julian "the Apostate" , commonly known as Julian, or also Julian the Philosopher, was Roman Emperor from 361 to 363 and a noted philosopher and Greek writer....
was a nephew of Constantine and received a Christian training but the murder of his father, brother and two uncles, in the aftermath of Constantine's death, he attributed to Constantius and by association to Christians in general. This antipathy was deepened when Constantius executed Julian's only remaining brother in 354AD. After childhood Julian was educated by hellenists
Hellenistic philosophy
Hellenistic philosophy is the period of Western philosophy that was developed in the Hellenistic civilization following Aristotle and ending with the beginning of Neoplatonism.-Pythagoreanism:...
and was attracted to the teachings of neoplatonists and the old religions.
Julian’s religious beliefs were syncretic and he was an initiate of at least three mystery religions
Greco-Roman mysteries
Mystery religions, sacred Mysteries or simply mysteries, were religious cults of the Greco-Roman world, participation in which was reserved to initiates....
. But Julian’s religious open-mindedness did not extend to Christianity due to its belief that it had an exclusive perspective on religious truth. Seeing itself as the only true religion, Christianity was opposed to, and fundamentally incompatible with, the more inclusive syncretism of paganism—see introduction.
As Emperor, Julian sought to turn the tide in the attempted suppression of non-Christian religions. As his first task he sought to reestablish the old Roman Pagan practice of incorporation of other religions. But now instead of allowing different cults using different names for the same or similar deities, Julian's training in Christianity and Imperial government influenced him to develop a single pagan religion. Thus, his ideas concerning the revival and organization of the old religion, shaping it into a coherent body of doctrine, ritual and liturgy with a hierarchy under the supervision of the emperor was the hallmark of his reign. Julian organized elaborate rituals and attempted to set forth a clarified philosophy of Neo-Platonism that might unite all Pagans.
Julian allowed religious freedom and avoided any form of actual compulsion. The Christian Sozomen
Sozomen
Salminius Hermias Sozomenus was a historian of the Christian church.-Family and Home:He was born around 400 in Bethelia, a small town near Gaza, into a wealthy Christian family of Palestine....
acknowledges that Julian did not compel Christians to offer sacrifice nor did he allow the people to commit any act of injustice towards the Christians or insult them. However, no Christian was allowed to teach or study the ancient classical authors, "Let them keep to Matthew
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
and Luke
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel According to Luke , commonly shortened to the Gospel of Luke or simply Luke, is the third and longest of the four canonical Gospels. This synoptic gospel is an account of the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. It details his story from the events of his birth to his Ascension.The...
", thus ending any chance they had of a professional career.
He withdrew the privileges of the Christian clergy, bestowed on them by Constantine, and ordered them to make restitution. Those who had demolished temples during the reign of Constantine and Constantius, were made to rebuild them, or to defray the expenses of their re-erection. Only pagans were allowed to teach in law, rhetoric, philosophy, or practice any form of state sanctioned religious liturgy. Julian required those who had abandoned the deities to purify themselves before they were allowed the privilege of taking part in their worship once again. He was devoted to divination and allowed his subjects to freely practice this art. In general the privileges and immunities given to the Christians were now replaced with those given to pagan philosophers and priests who subscribed to his neo-platonic pagan religion.
Jovian, Valentinian and Valens
After the death of Julian, Jovian seems to have instituted a policy of religious toleration which avoided the relative extremes of Constantius and Julian. Under Valentinian IValentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....
and Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
this period of religious toleration
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
continued. Pagan writers praise both of these emperors for their liberal religious policies.
Valentinian and Valens granted complete toleration for all cults at the beginning of their reign in 364. Valentinian, who ruled in the west, even allowed the performance of nocturnal sacrifices, which had been previously prohibited due to the attempt of some people to practice unlawful divination under the cover of the night, after the proconsul
Proconsul
A proconsul was a governor of a province in the Roman Republic appointed for one year by the senate. In modern usage, the title has been used for a person from one country ruling another country or bluntly interfering in another country's internal affairs.-Ancient Rome:In the Roman Republic, a...
of Greece appealed to him. Valentinian also confirmed the rights and privileges of the Pagan priests and confirmed the right of Pagans to be the exclusive caretakers of their temples. Valens, who was ruling in the east, was an Arian
Arianism
Arianism is the theological teaching attributed to Arius , a Christian presbyter from Alexandria, Egypt, concerning the relationship of the entities of the Trinity and the precise nature of the Son of God as being a subordinate entity to God the Father...
and was too engaged with fighting against the Orthodox Christians to bother much with the Pagans. In both the west and east severe laws were once again passed prohibiting private divination. Due to the over zealousness of the populace to stop harmful divination, the haruspices and augurs began to be afraid to show themselves in public. This led the emperors to formally authorize the practice of official and lawful divination by law in 371. Despite the official policy, anti-pagan laws remained in force, and unofficial destruction of pagan holy sites was also tolerated.
Renewal of Persecution under Gratian
Upon the death of his father (Valentinian IValentinian I
Valentinian I , also known as Valentinian the Great, was Roman emperor from 364 to 375. Upon becoming emperor he made his brother Valens his co-emperor, giving him rule of the eastern provinces while Valentinian retained the west....
) in the year 375, Gratian
Gratian
Gratian was Roman Emperor from 375 to 383.The eldest son of Valentinian I, during his youth Gratian accompanied his father on several campaigns along the Rhine and Danube frontiers. Upon the death of Valentinian in 375, Gratian's brother Valentinian II was declared emperor by his father's soldiers...
began his actual reign at the age of sixteen. Six days after the death of Valentinian I, Gratian’s half brother, Valentinian II
Valentinian II
Flavius Valentinianus , commonly known as Valentinian II, was Roman Emperor from 375 to 392.-Early Life and Accession :...
, who was only four years old, was also declared emperor. After the death of Valens
Valens
Valens was the Eastern Roman Emperor from 364 to 378. He was given the eastern half of the empire by his brother Valentinian I after the latter's accession to the throne...
, at the battle of Adrianople in 378, Gratian chose a Spaniard named Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
to succeed his uncle. Gratian had been educated by Ausonius
Ausonius
Decimius Magnus Ausonius was a Latin poet and rhetorician, born at Burdigala .-Biography:Decimius Magnus Ausonius was born in Bordeaux in ca. 310. His father was a noted physician of Greek ancestry and his mother was descended on both sides from long-established aristocratic Gallo-Roman families...
who had praised his pupil for his tolerance. Upon the death of his father, Gratian came under the influence of Ambrose
Ambrose
Aurelius Ambrosius, better known in English as Saint Ambrose , was a bishop of Milan who became one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th century. He was one of the four original doctors of the Church.-Political career:Ambrose was born into a Roman Christian family between about...
, who became his chief advisor. Under the influence of Ambrose, active steps to repress Paganism were taken.
The influence of Ambrose was a significant force that brought to an end a period of widespread, if unofficial, religious tolerance that had existed since the time of Julian. Gratian dealt Paganism several blows in 382. In this year, Gratian appropriated the income of the Pagan priests and Vestal Virgins, confiscated the personal possessions of the priestly colleges and ordered the removal of the Altar of Victory
Altar of Victory
The Altar of Victory was located in the Roman Senate House bearing a gold statue of the goddess Victory. The altar was established by Octavian in 29 BC in honor of the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The statue depicted a winged woman, holding a palm and descending to present a laurel...
. The colleges of Pagan priests also lost all their privileges and immunities. Gratian declared that all of the Pagan temples and shrines were to be confiscated by the government and that their revenues were to be joined to the property of the royal treasury.
Pagan Senators responded by sending an appeal to Gratian, reminding him that he was still the Pontifex Maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
and that it was his duty to see that the Pagan rites were properly performed. They appealed to Gratian to restore the altar of Victory and the rights and privileges of the Vestal Virgins and priestly colleges. Gratian, at the urging of Ambrose, did not grant an audience to the Pagan Senators. In response to being reminded by the Pagans that he was still the head of the ancestral religion, Gratian renounced the title and office of Pontifex Maximus
Pontifex Maximus
The Pontifex Maximus was the high priest of the College of Pontiffs in ancient Rome. This was the most important position in the ancient Roman religion, open only to patricians until 254 BC, when a plebeian first occupied this post...
under the influence of Ambrose, declaring that it was unsuitable for a Christian to hold this office. Gratian was quickly faced with a revolt from the outraged Pagans who raised a Spaniard named Maximus to the throne because he was more sympathetic to the Pagan cause.
Under Theodosius I
Theodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
reiterated Constantine's ban on Pagan sacrifice, prohibited haruspicy on pain of death, pioneered the criminalization of Magistrates who did not enforce anti-Pagan laws, broke up some pagan associations and destroyed Pagan temples.
Between 389-391 he emanated the infamous "Theodosian decrees," which establed a practical ban on paganism; visits to the temples were forbidden, remaining Pagan holidays abolished, the eternal fire
Sacred fire of Vesta
The sacred fire of Vesta was a holy fire in Ancient Rome. The Vestal Virgins were selected by lot and served for thirty years, tending the holy fire and performing other rituals connected to domestic life—among them were the ritual sweeping of the temple on June 15 and the preparation of...
in the Temple of Vesta
Vesta (mythology)
Vesta was the virgin goddess of the hearth, home, and family in Roman religion. Vesta's presence was symbolized by the sacred fire that burned at her hearth and temples...
in the Roman Forum
Roman Forum
The Roman Forum is a rectangular forum surrounded by the ruins of several important ancient government buildings at the center of the city of Rome. Citizens of the ancient city referred to this space, originally a marketplace, as the Forum Magnum, or simply the Forum...
extinguished, the Vestal Virgins disbanded, auspices and witchcraft
Witchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
ing punished. Theodosian refused to restore the Altar of Victory
Altar of Victory
The Altar of Victory was located in the Roman Senate House bearing a gold statue of the goddess Victory. The altar was established by Octavian in 29 BC in honor of the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra at Actium. The statue depicted a winged woman, holding a palm and descending to present a laurel...
in the Senate House, as asked by Pagan Senators
Roman Senate
The Senate of the Roman Republic was a political institution in the ancient Roman Republic, however, it was not an elected body, but one whose members were appointed by the consuls, and later by the censors. After a magistrate served his term in office, it usually was followed with automatic...
.
In 392 he became emperor of the whole empire (the last one to do so). From this moment till the end of his reign in 395, while Pagans remained outspoken in their demands for toleration, he authorized or participated in the destruction of many temples, holy sites, images and objects of piety throughout the empire. participated in actions by Christians against major Pagan sites. He issued a comprehensive law that prohibited any Pagan ritual even within the privacy of one's home, and was particularly oppressive of Manicheans. Paganism was now proscribed, a "religio illicita". He is likely to have suppressed the Ancient Olympic Games, whose last record of celebration is from 393.
Polytheism revival
Upon the death of Theodosius ITheodosius I
Theodosius I , also known as Theodosius the Great, was Roman Emperor from 379 to 395. Theodosius was the last emperor to rule over both the eastern and the western halves of the Roman Empire. During his reign, the Goths secured control of Illyricum after the Gothic War, establishing their homeland...
395, a political crisis ensued, which the barbarians were quick to take advantage of by invading the empire on an unprecedented scale. Since most of the Germanic tribes infiltrating, settling, or invading the Empire were Arian Christian, many nominal Orthodox Christians became less certain of their religion. Some in a sense of superstition or ancient Roman pagan patriotism, felt the invasions were the result of abandoning the old ways. Others believed the success of the Germans was because the Orthodox Church was corrupt. Consequently, many nominal Christians converted back to Paganism. Pagans, in their turn, became more aggressive and began to blame the Christians for the disasters affecting the empire.
Honorius (emperor)
Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....
and Arcadius
Arcadius
Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...
continued the work of their father by enacting even more anti-Pagan laws in an attempt to stop this revival of Paganism. The fact that they had to keep repeating their threats by the enactment of numerous laws against the practice of Paganism indicates that their efforts did not succeed in stamping out the traditional Pagan rites, which continued to be practiced discreetly.
During the early part of the reign of Honorius, Stilicho
Stilicho
Flavius Stilicho was a high-ranking general , Patrician and Consul of the Western Roman Empire, notably of Vandal birth. Despised by the Roman population for his Germanic ancestry and Arian beliefs, Stilicho was in 408 executed along with his wife and son...
was able to exercise unlimited power over the west. Stilicho exercised moderation in his religious policies and enacted laws that were favorable to the Pagans. Consequently, during the time in which Stilicho
Stilicho
Flavius Stilicho was a high-ranking general , Patrician and Consul of the Western Roman Empire, notably of Vandal birth. Despised by the Roman population for his Germanic ancestry and Arian beliefs, Stilicho was in 408 executed along with his wife and son...
held power, the Pagans enjoyed a brief respite from persecution. In the year 395, Arcadius
Arcadius
Arcadius was the Byzantine Emperor from 395 to his death. He was the eldest son of Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the Western Emperor Honorius...
declared that the solemn days of the Pagans were no longer to be included in the number of holidays. In the same year, another law was passed by Arcadius that prohibited anyone from going to a Pagan sanctuary or temple or of celebrating any kind of Pagan sacrifice. This law seems to have been targeted at those Christians who were converting back to Paganism as it specifically mentions “those who are trying to stray from the dogma
Dogma
Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization. It is authoritative and not to be disputed, doubted, or diverged from, by the practitioners or believers...
of the Catholic faith.” In the year 396, the privileges of Pagan priests and other clerics were officially revoked. In the same year, Arcadius ordered that Pagan temples standing in the countryside were to be destroyed without disorder or riot. This law seems to indicate that the number of Pagans in the countryside was still too large for the Christians to openly destroy the temples that were located there. As a result, zealous Christians had to be content with destroying the Pagan temples that were located in mostly municipal areas where they could easily outnumber the Pagan inhabitants. The large number of Pagans in the east also seems to have forced Arcadius into allowing the ancient festivals and public games to continue.
Meanwhile three laws were enacted in the west in the year 399, under the influence of Stilicho
Stilicho
Flavius Stilicho was a high-ranking general , Patrician and Consul of the Western Roman Empire, notably of Vandal birth. Despised by the Roman population for his Germanic ancestry and Arian beliefs, Stilicho was in 408 executed along with his wife and son...
, which were relatively favorable to the Pagans. Due to the riots caused by fanatical Christians in their attempts to destroy the temples, the first of these laws protected the Pagan temples from the destruction of zealous Christians who pretended that they had been authorized by the government to destroy them. The second of these laws acknowledged the right of the people to continue to participate in the traditional banquets, shows, gatherings and amusements associated with the old Pagan religion; it did, however, forbid the public performance of any Pagan rites or sacrifice. The third law forbade the destruction of Pagan temples that had been cleared of forbidden things and ordered that they were to be kept in good repair. After the death of Stilicho, Honorius and his party in the state gained control and harsh laws against Paganism were once again enacted. In the year 408, Honorius enacted a new law which ordered that all statues and altars in the temples were to be removed and that the temple buildings and their income were to be appropriated by the government. This law also forbade the holding of any Pagan banquet or celebration in vicinity of the temples. The execution of this law was placed in the hands of the bishops. Two other laws decreed that buildings belonging to known Pagans and heretics were to be appropriated by the churches.
Arcadius died in 408 and his eight-year-old son, Theodosius, was thereupon proclaimed emperor in the East. In the same year, Honorius enacted a law that prohibited anyone who was not Catholic from performing imperial service within the palace. Zosimus reports that Honorius was forced to repeal this law after one of his best officers, who happened to be a Pagan, resigned in protest. At the beginning of the year 409, Honorius enacted a law that punished judges and officials who did not enforce the laws against the Pagans. This law even punished men of rank who simply kept silent over any Pagan rite performed in their own city or district. The hopes of the Pagans were revived with the elevation of Priscus Attalus
Priscus Attalus
Priscus Attalus was twice Roman usurper , against Emperor Honorius, with Visigothic support.Priscus Attalus was a Greek from Asia whose father had moved to Italy under Valentinian I. Attalus was an important senator in Rome, who served as praefectus urbi in 409...
, at Rome, in the year 409. Alaric
Alaric I
Alaric I was the King of the Visigoths from 395–410. Alaric is most famous for his sack of Rome in 410, which marked a decisive event in the decline of the Roman Empire....
, an Arian Christian, soon tired of his puppet, however, and Attalus was deposed in the summer of 410 when Honorius promised to negotiate a peace treaty. When these negotiations failed, Alaric took and sacked the city of Rome. This catastrophe shocked the entire Roman world. Both Christians and Pagans quickly began to blame each other for something that had hitherto been thought impossible. In this heated atmosphere, Honorius once again reiterated his anti-Pagan legislation.
There are numerous fragments extant of several Pagan historical works, such as the works of Eunapius
Eunapius
Eunapius was a Greek sophist and historian of the 4th century. His principal surviving work is the Lives of the Sophists, a collection of the biographies of twenty-three philosophers and sophists.-Life:He was born at Sardis, AD 347...
and Olympiodorus
Olympiodorus
There are several late-Roman figures named Olympiodorus:* Olympiodorus the Seleucid, , 2nd-century BCE high-priest in Koile-Syria and Phoinike, commissioned by Seleucus IV Philopator...
, which indicate that Pagans were now openly voicing their resentment in writing. Even after the sack of Rome, in the year 410, pagans believed that the recent decline of Rome had been caused by the neglect of the ancestral traditions.
In the year 415, Honorius enacted yet another law that appropriated the Pagan temples throughout the Roman Empire to the government and ordered that all objects that had been consecrated for Pagan sacrifices were to be removed from public places.
A prominent example of the anti-pagan climate at the time is the case of the philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia was an Egyptian Neoplatonist philosopher who was the first notable woman in mathematics. As head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, she also taught philosophy and astronomy...
, killed by a mob in 415.
In 416, Honorius
Honorius (emperor)
Honorius , was Western Roman Emperor from 395 to 423. He was the younger son of emperor Theodosius I and his first wife Aelia Flaccilla, and brother of the eastern emperor Arcadius....
and Theodosius II
Theodosius II
Theodosius II , commonly surnamed Theodosius the Younger, or Theodosius the Calligrapher, was Byzantine Emperor from 408 to 450. He is mostly known for promulgating the Theodosian law code, and for the construction of the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople...
ordered that Pagans would no longer be admitted to imperial service nor would they be allowed to receive the rank of administrator or judge. In 423, Theodosius II reiterated the previous laws against Pagans and declared that all Pagans who were caught performing the ancient rites would now have all their goods confiscated and be exiled. In August of the year 423, Honorius died and power was seized in the west by John, who had held the office of Primicerius Notariorum. John appears to have ushered in a period of religious toleration
Religious toleration
Toleration is "the practice of deliberately allowing or permitting a thing of which one disapproves. One can meaningfully speak of tolerating, ie of allowing or permitting, only if one is in a position to disallow”. It has also been defined as "to bear or endure" or "to nourish, sustain or preserve"...
. John seems to have attempted to curb the power of ecclesiastics and the privileges of the church in an attempt to treat all people equally. In the year 423, Theodosius II published a law that demanded that Christians (whether they were really such or pretended to be so) were not to disturb Pagans who were living peaceably and doing nothing contrary to the law. In 425, Theodosius II sent an expedition to the west to depose John and establish Valentinian III as emperor of the west. After John was captured and executed, Valentinian III
Valentinian III
-Family:Valentinian was born in the western capital of Ravenna, the only son of Galla Placidia and Flavius Constantius. The former was the younger half-sister of the western emperor Honorius, and the latter was at the time Patrician and the power behind the throne....
was proclaimed emperor in the city of Rome. While in the west, Theodosius II enacted two anti-Pagan laws in the year 425. The first of these stipulated that all Pagan superstition was to be rooted out. The second law barred Pagans from pleading a case in court and also disqualified them from serving as soldiers. Theodosius II then left Valentinian III to rule the west and returned to Constantinople.
The numerous laws against apostasy, that had been continuously promulgated since the time of Gratian and Theodosius, is evidence that the emperors were having a hard time even keeping Christians from going astray. In the year 426, Theodosius passed yet another law against Christian apostates, who converted to Paganism, and those who pretended to become Christian but in reality continued to perform Pagan sacrifices. All this legislation proved so ineffective that Theodosius II found it necessary to reiterate his prohibition against Pagan rites and sacrifices in 435, this time increasing the penalty to death. This law also ordered that all Pagan shrines, temples and sanctuaries that still existed were to be destroyed by the magistrates. Magistrates who failed to carry out this order were ordered to be punished with death. Even the threat of death, however, failed to eradicate Paganism as we find Theodosius legislating again, in 438, against Paganism and forbidding Pagan sacrifice once more. Theodosius threatens those who fail to comply with death and the confiscation of their property. It will be of interest to quote some of this law, as the Emperor explicitly admits that Pagan sacrifices were still being openly celebrated. It reads as:
Hence our clemency perceives the need of keeping watch over the Pagans and their heathen enormities, since by natural depravity and stubborn lawlessness, they forsake the path of true religion. They disdain in any way to perform the nefarious rites of sacrifice and the false errors of their baleful superstition by some means or other in the hidden solitudes, unless their crimes are made public by the profession of their crimes to insult divine majesty and to show scorn to our age. Not the thousand terrors of laws already promulgated nor the penalty of exile pronounced upon them deter these men, whereby, if they cannot reform, at least they might learn to abstain from their mass of their crimes and the multitude of their sacrifices. But their insane audacity transgresses continually; our patience is exhausted by their wicked behavior so that if we desired to forget them, we could not disregard them.
Final decline
The continued vitality of Paganism led MarcianMarcian
Marcian was Byzantine Emperor from 450 to 457. Marcian's rule marked a recovery of the Eastern Empire, which the Emperor protected from external menaces and reformed economically and financially...
, who became emperor of the east in 450 upon the death of Theodosius II, to repeat earlier prohibitions against Pagan rites. Marcian decreed, in the year 451, that those who continued to perform the Pagan rites would suffer the confiscation of their property and be condemned to death. Marcian also prohibited any attempt to re-open the temples and ordered that they were to remain closed. In addition to this, in order to encourage strict enforcement of the law a fine of fifty pounds of gold was imposed on any judge or governor, as well as the officials under him, who did not enforce this law. However, not even this had the desired affect, as we find Leo I, who succeeded Marcian in 457, publishing a new law in 472 which imposed severe penalties for the owner of any property who was aware that Pagan rites were performed on his property. If the property owner was of high rank he was punished by the loss of his rank or office and by the confiscation of his property. If the property owner was of lower status he would be physically tortured and then condemned to labor in the mines for the rest of his life.
Two more laws against Paganism, which may be from this period, are preserved in the Justinian Code. After the deposition of Avitus
Avitus
Eparchius Avitus was Western Roman Emperor from July 8 or July 9, 455 to October 17, 456. A Gallic-Roman aristocrat, he was a senator and a high-ranking officer both in the civil and military administration, as well as Bishop of Piacenza.A representative of the Gallic-Roman aristocracy, he...
, who ruled as emperor of the West from 455 to 456, there seems to have been a conspiracy among the Roman nobles to place the Pagan general Marcellinus
Marcellinus (magister militum)
Marcellinus was a Roman general and patrician who ruled over the region of Dalmatia in the Western Roman Empire and held sway with the army there from 454 until his death.-Origins:...
on the throne to restore Paganism; but it came to nothing.
In the year 457, Leo I became the first emperor to be crowned by the Patriarch of Constantinople
Patriarch of Constantinople
The Ecumenical Patriarch is the Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome – ranking as primus inter pares in the Eastern Orthodox communion, which is seen by followers as the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church....
. Anthemius
Anthemius
Procopius Anthemius was Western Roman Emperor from 467 to 472. Perhaps the last capable Western Roman Emperor, Anthemius attempted to solve the two primary military challenges facing the remains of the Western Roman Empire: the resurgent Visigoths, under Euric, whose domain straddled the Pyrenees;...
(467-472), one of the last Western Roman emperors, seems to have planned a Pagan revival at Rome. He was a descendant of Procopius
Procopius (usurper)
Procopius was a Roman usurper against Valens, and member of the Constantinian dynasty.- Life :According to Ammianus Marcellinus, Procopius was a native and spent his youth in Cilicia, probably in Corycus. On his mother's side, Procopius was related, a maternal cousin, to Emperor Julian, since...
, the relative of Julian
Julian
Julian is a common male given name in Britain, United States, Ireland, Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France , Spain, Latin America and elsewhere....
. Anthemius gave Messius Phoebus Severus
Messius Phoebus Severus
Flavius Messius Phoebus Severus was a Roman politician and philosopher.- Biography :Born in Rome, he studied at the school of the platonic philosopher Proclus, in Alexandria; among the other students there were the Pagan poet Pamprepius , the military officer Marcellinus ,...
, a Pagan philosopher who was a close friend of his, the important offices of Praefectus urbi
Praefectus urbi
The praefectus urbanus or praefectus urbi, in English the urban prefect, was prefect of the city of Rome, and later also of Constantinople. The office originated under the Roman kings, continued during the Republic and Empire, and held high importance in late Antiquity...
of Rome, Consul
Consul
Consul was the highest elected office of the Roman Republic and an appointive office under the Empire. The title was also used in other city states and also revived in modern states, notably in the First French Republic...
and Patrician. Anthemius placed the image of Hercules
Hercules
Hercules is the Roman name for Greek demigod Heracles, son of Zeus , and the mortal Alcmene...
, in the act of vanquishing the Nemean lion
Nemean Lion
The Nemean lion was a vicious monster in Greek mythology that lived at Nemea. It was eventually killed by Heracles. It could not be killed with mortal weapons because its golden fur was impervious to attack...
, on his coins. The murder of Anthemius (by Ricimer
Ricimer
Flavius Ricimer was a Germanic general who achieved effective control of the remaining parts of the Western Roman Empire, during the middle of the 5th century...
) destroyed the hopes of those Pagans who believed that the traditional rites would now be restored. Shortly thereafter, in 476, the western emperor was deposed by Odoacer
Odoacer
Flavius Odoacer , also known as Flavius Odovacer, was the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire. Though the real power in Italy was in his hands, he represented himself as the client of Julius Nepos and, after Nepos' death in 480, of the...
, who became the first barbarian king of Italy. In spite of this disaster, the Pagans made one last attempt to revive the Pagan rites. In 484, the Magister militum per Orientem, Illus
Illus
Illus was a Byzantine general, who played an important role in the reigns of the Byzantine Emperors Zeno and Basiliscus.Illus supported the revolt of Basiliscus against Zeno, then switched sides, supporting the return of Zeno...
, revolted against Zeno
Zeno (emperor)
Zeno , originally named Tarasis, was Byzantine Emperor from 474 to 475 and again from 476 to 491. Domestic revolts and religious dissension plagued his reign, which nevertheless succeeded to some extent in foreign issues...
and raised his own candidate, Leontius
Leontius (usurper)
Leontius was a general of the Eastern Roman Empire and claimant to the throne who led a rebellion against emperor Zeno in 484–488.- Biography :Leontius was of Syrian origin, coming from Dalisandus...
, to the throne. Leontius hoped to reopen the temples and restore the ancient ceremonies and because of this many Pagans joined in his revolt against Zeno. Illus and Leontius were compelled, however, to flee to a remote Isauria
Isauria
Isauria , in ancient geography, is a rugged isolated district in the interior of South Asia Minor, of very different extent at different periods, but generally covering what is now the district of Bozkır and its surroundings in the Konya province of Turkey, or the core of the Taurus Mountains. In...
n fortress, where Zeno besieged them for four years. Zeno finally captured them in 488 and promptly had them executed.
As a result of the revolt, Zeno instituted a harsh persecution of Pagan intellectuals. With the failure of the revolt of Leontius, some Pagans became disillusioned and many simply became Christian, or simply pretended to, in order to avoid persecution. The failure of their efforts to restore the traditional rites led many Pagans to completely lose confidence in Rome’s future. These men believed that the Roman Empire was now gone and irretrievable. The Christianization of the Roman Empire became complete when the emperor Anastasius, who came to the throne in 491, was forced to sign a written declaration of orthodoxy before his coronation.
Timeline
- 313313Year 313 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantinus and Licinianus...
By Edict of MilanEdict of MilanThe Edict of Milan was a letter signed by emperors Constantine I and Licinius that proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire...
Constantine and Licinius establish toleration of Christianity. - 329329Year 329 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constatntinus and Constantinus...
-335335Year 335 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Albinus...
Constantine orders destruction of Hellenic temples at DidymaDidymaDidyma was an ancient Ionian sanctuary, the modern Didim, Turkey, containing a temple and oracle of Apollo, the Didymaion. In Greek didyma means "twin", but the Greeks who sought a "twin" at Didyma ignored the Carian origin of the name...
, Mt. Athos, Aigeai, BaalbekBaalbekBaalbek is a town in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon, altitude , situated east of the Litani River. It is famous for its exquisitely detailed yet monumentally scaled temple ruins of the Roman period, when Baalbek, then known as Heliopolis, was one of the largest sanctuaries in the Empire...
etc. According to pagan rhetor Libanius (Address to Theodosius, Pro Templis, 6 and 37), Constantine I "did not bring any change to the traditional [=pagan] worship... one could notice that [during the reign of Constantine] all rituals were performed properly" and "he [Constantine] did not prohibit [pagan] sacrifices". According to Zosimus (book 2 of his "History"), Constantine erected two pagan temples in his capital, Constantinople. - 361361Year 361 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Taurus and Florentius...
-363363Year 363 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Iulianus and Sallustius...
Emperor Julian, the last pagan Emperor, proclaims restoration of Hellenic worship. - 389389Year 389 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Timasius and Promotus...
-391391Year 391 was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tatianus and Symmachus...
Theodosian decrees, Christianity becomes official state religion of the Roman EmpireRoman EmpireThe Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. - 415415Year 415 was a common year starting on Friday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Honorius and Theodosius...
Mob-killing of Hypatia. - 440440Year 440 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valentinianus and Anatolius...
to 450450Year 450 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Valentinianus and Avienus...
All Hellenic monuments, altars and Temples of AthensAthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, OlympiaOlympia, GreeceOlympia , a sanctuary of ancient Greece in Elis, is known for having been the site of the Olympic Games in classical times, comparable in importance to the Pythian Games held in Delphi. Both games were held every Olympiad , the Olympic Games dating back possibly further than 776 BC...
, and other Greek cities are destroyed. As German historian Gregorovius, in his "History of Athens" says, the pagan monuments of Athens and Greece were the best preserved among other monuments in the late Roman Empire. - 529529Year 529 was a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Decius without colleague...
Emperor Justinian closes the Academy of Athens. Some of the remaining Academy members--"whose occupation was gone" according to J.B. Bury--flee to CtesiphonCtesiphonCtesiphon, the imperial capital of the Parthian Arsacids and of the Persian Sassanids, was one of the great cities of ancient Mesopotamia.The ruins of the city are located on the east bank of the Tigris, across the river from the Hellenistic city of Seleucia...
, the capital of the Sassanid emperor Khosrau IKhosrau IKhosrau I , also known as Anushiravan the Just or Anushirawan the Just Khosrau I (also called Chosroes I in classical sources, most commonly known in Persian as Anushirvan or Anushirwan, Persian: انوشيروان meaning the immortal soul), also known as Anushiravan the Just or Anushirawan the Just...
. Modern historians such as Blumental and A. Cameron claim that the Academy continued to exist for almost 50–60 years after 529. - 651651Year 651 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. The denomination 651 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years.- Europe :* Clovis II, king of Neustria and Burgundy,...
HarranHarranHarran was a major ancient city in Upper Mesopotamia whose site is near the modern village of Altınbaşak, Turkey, 24 miles southeast of Şanlıurfa...
conquered by the Arabs. SabiansSabiansThe Sabians of Middle Eastern tradition were a monotheistic Abrahamic religious group mentioned three times in the Quran: "the Jews, the Sabians, and the Christians." In the Hadith they are nothing but converts to Islam, while their identity in later Islamic literature became a matter of...
, to some degree descendants of Hellenic tradition, are considered monotheistsMonotheismMonotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
and as such are permitted to survive. The Nabatean Agriculture was said by MaimonidesMaimonidesMoses ben-Maimon, called Maimonides and also known as Mūsā ibn Maymūn in Arabic, or Rambam , was a preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages...
to have been an accurate record of the beliefs of the Sabians in the Harranian area. - 804804Year 804 was a leap year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar.- Asia :* Japanese monk Kukai visits China, from which he brings back texts of Shingon ....
HellenesManiotsThe Maniots or Maniates are the Greek inhabitants of the Mani Peninsula located in the southern Peloponnese in the Greek prefecture of Laconia and prefecture of Messinia. They were also formerly known as Mainotes and the peninsula as Maina. The Maniots are the direct descendants of the Spartans...
of LaconiaLaconiaLaconia , also known as Lacedaemonia, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparti...
, Greece, resist the attempt of Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to convert them to Christianity.
See also
- Hellenistic religionHellenistic religionHellenistic religion is 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 Roman Empire . There was much continuity in Hellenistic religion: the Greek gods continued to be worshiped, and the...
- Roman imperial cult
- MithraismMithraismThe Mithraic Mysteries were a mystery religion practised in the Roman Empire from about the 1st to 4th centuries AD. The name of the Persian god Mithra, adapted into Greek as Mithras, was linked to a new and distinctive imagery...
- Hellenistic JudaismHellenistic JudaismHellenistic Judaism was a movement which existed in the Jewish diaspora that sought to establish a Hebraic-Jewish religious tradition within the culture and language of Hellenism...
- Christianity and paganismChristianity and PaganismEarly Christianity developed in an era of the Roman Empire during which many religions were practiced, that are, due to the lack of a better term, labeled paganism."Paganism", in spite of its etymological meaning of "rural", has a number of distinct meanings...
- Neoplatonism and ChristianityNeoplatonism and ChristianityNeoplatonism was a major influence on Christian theology throughout Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages in the West notably due to St. Augustine of Hippo, who was influenced by the early Neoplatonists Plotinus and Porphyry, and the works of the Christian writer Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite, who...
- Pseudo-Dionysius
- DamasciusDamasciusDamascius , known as "the last of the Neoplatonists," was the last scholarch of the School of Athens. He was one of the pagan philosophers persecuted by Justinian in the early 6th century, and was forced for a time to seek refuge in the Persian court, before being allowed back into the empire...
- Early ChristianityEarly ChristianityEarly Christianity is generally considered as Christianity before 325. The New Testament's Book of Acts and Epistle to the Galatians records that the first Christian community was centered in Jerusalem and its leaders included James, Peter and John....
- Constantinian shiftConstantinian shiftConstantinian shift is a term used by Anabaptist and Post-Christendom theologians to describe the political and theological aspects of the 4th-century process of Constantine's legalization of Christianity. The term was popularized by the Mennonite theologian John H...
- Late AntiquityLate AntiquityLate Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...
- ChristianizationChristianizationThe historical phenomenon of Christianization is the conversion of individuals to Christianity or the conversion of entire peoples at once...
- Historical persecution by ChristiansHistorical persecution by ChristiansThis article gives a historical overview of Christian positions on Persecution of Christians and the History of persecutions by Christians, and more generically on religious persecution and toleration...