Many of the Christian emperors that followed Constantine actively persecuted the followers of other religions. Contantine’s son Constantius II (ruled 337 – 361 CE) issued an edict closing all the temples and outlawing sacrifice to the gods in 353 CE. The punishment for the ‘crime’ of offering sacrifice was the death penalty. In 356 CE, he authorized a further law that made attending a sacrifice or worshipping idols a transgression punishable by death (Theodosian Code 16.10.6). One such edict from 341 CE reads,
‘Let superstition cease. Let the madness of sacrifices be exterminated, for if anyone should dare to celebrate sacrifices in violation of the law of our father, the deified Emperor, and of this decree of Our Clemency, let an appropriate punishment and sentence immediately be inflicted on him.’ (Theodosian Code 16.10.2)
The persecution of paganism continued under the rules of the emperors Gratian (ruled 367 – 383 CE), Theodosius I (ruled 379 – 395 CE) and Arcadius (ruled 395 – 408 CE).
In 382 CE, Gratian confiscated the property of the temples and ordered the removal of the Altar of Victory from Rome. In 391 CE, Theodosius issued an edict that outlawed all pagan worship in Rome, and closed all the temples. All debate on religious matters was also proscribed, Theodosius issued a series of decrees that contained such draconian commands as,
‘No one is to go to the sanctuaries, walk through the temples, or raise his eyes to statues created by the labour of man.’ (Theodosian Code 16.10.10)
and
‘There shall be no opportunity for any man to go out to the public and to argue about religion or to discuss it or give any counsel.’ (Theodosian Code 16.4.2)
Theodosius outlawed the worship of the gods in peoples’ private homes (Theodosian Code 16.10.12), and converted into workdays all the pagan holidays and holy days not already appropriated by the Church. He sanctioned the destruction of many temples throughout the empire, including the Serapaeum (the great temple to Serapis) in Alexandria, in 392 CE.
The last Olympic Games were held in 393 CE, it was considered to be an unacceptable pagan festival. In the same year, he closed down the Oracle at Delphi. Theodosius also outlawed all non-Christian calendars.
Heterodox Christians fared little better than pagans under Theodosius. In 380 CE, Theodosius issued a decree to the people of Constantinople that perfectly illustrates his intolerance of any form of Christianity other than his own,
‘It is Our will that all peoples ruled by the administration of Our Clemency shall practice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans…We command that persons who follow this rule shall embrace the name of Catholic Christians. The rest, however, whom We judge demented and insane, shall carry the infamy of heretical dogmas. Their meeting places shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by Divine Vengeance, and secondly by the retribution of hostility which We shall assume in accordance with the Divine Judgement.’ (Theodosian Code 16.1.2)
Theodosius’ son Arcadius was just as intolerant of the old religions. He passed laws that made being a pagan high treason, and ordered that all still erect temples should be demolished (Theodosian Code 16.10.16).
The systematic persecution of paganism continued throughout the fifth and sixth centuries. Despite emperor after emperor passing ever more severe laws against paganism, many people refused to renounce the old religions. Some pretended to convert to Christianity whilst secretly continuing to worship the gods. Numerous draconian laws were issued to combat apostasy (Theodosian Code 16.7.1, 16.7.2, 16.7.3, 16.7.4, 16.7.5, 16.7.6, Justinian Code 1.7.2), which suggests that many people were turning back to their ancestral faiths. This too became a crime that carried the death penalty.
The emperors Theodosius II (ruled 408 – 450 CE), Marcian (ruled 450 – 457 CE), and Justinian (ruled 527 – 565 CE), all outlawed paganism as an offence punishable by death. In 435 CE, Theodosius II issued the following edict,
‘All persons of criminal pagan mind we interdict from accursed immolations of sacrificial victims and from damnable sacrifices…and we order that all their shrines, temples, sanctuaries, if any even now remain intact, should be destroyed by the magistrates’ command and that these should be purified by the placing of the venerable Christian religion’s sign [the Cross].’ (Theodosian Code 16.10.25)
In 438 CE, Theodosius II wrote the following in a letter,
‘We must exercise watchfulness over the pagans and their heathen enormities, since with their natural insanity and stubborn insolence they depart from the path of the true religion. A thousand terrors of the laws that have been promulgated, the penalty of exile that has been threatened, do not restrain them, whereby, if they cannot be reformed, at least they might learn to abstain from their mass of crimes and from the corruption of their sacrifices.’ (Novellae)
In the same year, Theodosius gathered together many laws passed in the reigns of the previous Christian emperors in the Theodosian Code. This work contained anti-pagan edicts such as,
‘It is decreed that in all places the temples should be closed at once, and after a general warning, the opportunity of sinning be taken away from the wicked. We decree also that we [the populace] shall cease from making sacrifices. And if anyone has committed such a crime, let him be stricken with the avenging sword. And we decree that the property of the one executed shall be claimed by the city, and that rulers of the provinces be punished in the same way, if they neglect to punish such crimes.’ (Theodosian Code 16.10.4)
It also contained 65 decrees issued against Christian sects deemed to be heretical.
In the sixth century, the emperor Justinian passed legislature that openly demanded the total destruction of pagan religions. These edicts forced people to be baptised and become Christians, or suffer dire consequences. One such law reads,
‘All those who have not become baptised must come forward, whether they reside in the capital or in the provinces, and go to the very holy churches with their wives, their children, and their households, to be instructed in the true faith of Christianity. And once thus instructed and having sincerely renounced their former error, let them be judged worthy of redemptive baptism. Should they disobey, let them know that they will be excluded from the state and will no longer have any rights of possession, neither goods nor property; stripped of everything, they will be reduced to penury, without prejudice, to the appropriate punishments that will be imposed on them.’
The penalties for not converting to Christianity were severe, people had their land and property confiscated. Those who were baptised then reverted to worshipping their old gods could be executed. Justinian mutilated, beheaded and crucified many who refused to convert to Christianity. The historian Procopius (500 – 565 CE) chillingly wrote that,
‘Justinian did not see it as murder if the victims did not share his own beliefs.’ (The Secret History 13.7)
Justinian banned pagan teachers and philosophers from teaching. In 529 CE, he closed down Plato’s Academy at Athens.
Due to centuries of Christian or Muslim indoctrination, many people have been brought up with the false notion that monotheism is a more advanced and truer form of religion than polytheism. The truth is that polytheism is actually a much healthier form of religion, because it allows all gods to be worshipped, and this breeds tolerance and understanding.
People who already believe in a hundred gods don’t tend to have any great problem accepting the existence of a hundred more. Often these many gods are seen as manifestations of a singular supreme God. Monotheism, on the other hand, has always bred violence, intolerance and aggression, from people unwilling to accept the existence of any deity other than their own. This second century quote from Maximus of Tyre is a good example of the generally tolerant polytheistic worldview that existed in Roman times,
‘Let all the nations know the divine, that it is one; and if the art of Phideas arouses the Greeks to the remembrance of God, the worship of animals the Egyptians and a river others, and fire others again, I do not find fault with their differences. Let them only know, let them only love, let them only remember.’
In the third century CE, the Christian writer Origen quoted the pagan Celsus as stating, ‘It makes no difference whether you call the highest being Zeus, or Zen, or Adonai, or Sabaoth, or Amun like the Egyptians, or Papaios like the Scythians’ (Against Celsus 5.41). Origen countered this with his intolerant Christian view of these other gods,
‘For we do not consider Jupiter and Sabaoth to be the same, nor Jupiter to be at all divine, but some demon rejoices under this name, unfriendly to men and the true god. And even if the Egyptians were to hold Amun before us under threat of death, we would rather die than address him as god, it being a name used in all probability in certain Egyptian incantations in which this demon is invoked.’ (Against Celsus 5.46)
Many pagans were initiates of several religions and worshipped many gods at the same time. The emperor Alexander Severus (208 – 235 CE) is said to have prayed to icons of Jesus, Abraham, Orpheus and the philosopher Apollonius of Tyana. In Mithraic temples, dedications have been found to several gods beside Mithras, including Serapis, Venus, Vulcan, Mercury and Attis.
None of the pagan faiths were exclusive, each treated the others as brethren, part of a greater pantheon and manifestations of the same supreme God. Christianity on the other hand was exclusive, and wouldn’t tolerate the existence of any god or saviour other than its own.
During the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries, the Christian authorities outlawed ‘pagan’ literature, philosophy and science in a deliberate attempt to give us the year zero mentality that we still possess today. Temples were demolished, statues and artwork destroyed, philosophical debate outlawed, books proscribed, schools closed down.
The Christian authorities banned the works of learned figures such as Plato, Pythagoras and Aristotle. Scholarly institutions, such as the Library at Alexandria and the Academy in Athens, were closed down for being centres of pagan learning. The Library at Alexandria alone is estimated to have contained between 400,000 and 700,000 scrolls, representing some 30,000 works. In comparison, early Christian monasteries might have contained a dozen works. Even the major libraries of the twelfth century contained no more than 500 works, the vast majority being Christian writings.
In the third century, there had been 28 public libraries in the city of Rome alone, by the end of the fourth century they had all been closed. The Serapeum in Alexandria was deliberately destroyed by Christians in 392 CE. Ammianus Marcellinus described this temple with, ‘Feeble words merely belittle it, it is so adorned with extensive columned halls, with almost breathing statues, and a great number of other works of art…the whole world beholds nothing more magnificent.’ (The Later Roman Empire 22.16.12)
Ammianus Marcellinus also wrote of the torture and execution of philosophers and pagans that he witnessed in Antioch in 371 CE during the reign of Valens. They were accused of practising divination, and were beheaded or burnt alive, along with their books. He wrote that,
‘A vast multitude of almost all ranks, whose names it would be too arduous a task to enumerate, being convicted by calumnious accusations, were despatched by the executioners, after having been first exhausted by every description of torture. Some were put to death without a moment’s breathing-time or delay, while the question was still being asked whether they deserved to be punished at all. In fact, men were slaughtered like sheep in all directions. After this, innumerable quantities of papers, and many heaps of volumes were collected, and burnt under the eyes of the judges, having been taken out of various houses as unlawful books; in order to lessen the unpopularity arising from so many executions, though in fact, the greater part of them were books teaching various kinds of liberal accomplishments, or books of law.’ (The Later Roman Empire 29.1.40-1)
He went on to state that, ‘One of the consequences in the eastern provinces was, that from fear of similar treatment, people burnt all their libraries. So great was the terror which seized upon all ranks’ (The Later Roman Empire 29.2.4).
Even the staunchest Christian writers, such as Basil of Caesarea (329 – 379 CE), noted the intellectual and cultural demise under Christian rule,
‘Now we have no more meetings, no more debates, no more gatherings of wise men in the forum, nothing more of what made our city famous. In our forum nowadays it would be stranger for a learned or eloquent man to put in an appearance, than it would for men showing a brand of iniquity or unclean hands to have presented themselves in Athens of old.’ (Letter 74.3)
On top of this deliberate destruction, non-Christian works were generally frowned upon by the monks in the scriptoria of the following centuries. Those writings that weren’t deliberately destroyed, weren’t copied either, so were gradually lost through neglect. It’s estimated that less than 10% of classical literature and only 1% of Latin literature has survived the centuries.
Whereas Graeco-Roman culture had generally been fairly open minded, inquiring and accepting, Christianity outlawed free thinking, and promoted unquestioning faith and obedience. As early as the third century, the Christian Origen had written on what kind of person was most acceptable to his god,
‘It’s obvious even to the least intelligent that the disposition of the man who is simple minded and isn’t given to curious inquiries, but in all things devoted to the divine will, will be the most pleasing to God, and to all those who are like God.’ (Against Celsus 8.61).
The Bible and Mythology 