The View from Antioch: from Libanius Via John Chrysostom to John Malalas and Beyond*
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Chapter 18 The View from Antioch: From Libanius via John Chrysostom to John Malalas and Beyond* 1 Pagans, Jews and Christians at Antioch in the Mid Fourth Century That by the mid-fourth century Christians had become the most powerful and influential religious group in the city was demonstrates very clearly by the well documented failure of Julian’s pagan revival.1 The evidence allows only one conclusion: Antioch rejected the apostate emperor’s restoration of paganism. This was what Julian thought when he claimed that the citizens had adopted Christ as the guardian of their city instead of Zeus.2 Libanius too accuses the citizens of having abandoned the gods.3 Most of our detailed evidence con- cerns the ruling élite. Julian thought that the governing body had simply given up its duty of maintaining the public cults of the city. He does not say that the majority of the curiales were Christians, but he claims that their wives were.4 Analysis of individuals mentioned in the writing of Libanius shows that some of the leading families in the city, notably the families of Argyrius5 and Letoius, * This article was previously published in Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire: the Breaking of a Dialogue (IVth–VIth Century AD), eds. Peter Brown & Rita Lizzi Testa, Vienna / Berlin / Münster: Lit, 2011, pp. 309–337. I must remember and thank the late Robert Markus for reading, and generally much improving, not only this, but many other of these texts. Remaining errors and infelicities are mine not his. 1 For a general survey see J. Hahn, Gewalt und religiöser Konflikt. Studien zu den Auseinan dersetzungen zwischen Christen, Heiden, und Juden im Osten des römischen Reiches von Konstantin bis Theodosius II, Berlin 2004, 54–177. 2 Misopogon 357 C. 3 Lib. Or XVI, 47–48. Orations XV and XVI in which Libanius apologises to Julian for the behav- iour of the Antiochenes, emphasises that there were some good pagans in the city, but also implies that the majority, certainly the vocal and influential majority, were now Christians, cf. I. Sandwell, Religious Identity in Late Antiquity. Greeks, Jews and Christians at Antioch, Cambridge 2007, 169–173. 4 It is true that statistics drawn from Libanius’ writings suggest that Christians were even then still a minority in the curia (P. Petit, Libanius et la vie municipale à Antioche, Paris 1955, 202). But the collective behaviour of the curiales suggests that in Petit’s sample, essentially friends of Libanius, pagans are over-represented. 5 B. Cabouret, Les Argyrioi une famille de notables, in Mélanges A.F. Norman, Lyon 2006, 343–360. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���5 | doi ��.��63/9789004�895�9_0�9 342 Chapter 18 and the family of Libanius’ friend Olympius, were still pagans. But the same analysis also shows that leading pagan families including Libanius’ own6 had close relatives who were Christians. So pagans and Christians in the civic élite had strong motives to be tolerant of each other’s religious differences. Libanius was a consistent and dedicated upholder of the ancestral cults,7 and most of his closest friends were pagans, but he corresponded with plenty of Christians, and Christian fathers sent their sons to his school.8 So religious differences do not appear to have led to hostility in private life.9 The religious conflict we hear about—though not from Libanius—is conflict among Christians, between those who accepted the creed of Nicaea and those who did not. We do not know how far this division divided lay-people at Antioch. We have no statistics to assess the numerical strength of different reli- gious groups at Antioch at this, or any other time. We have altogether very little information about the religious behaviour of the silent majority. But one thing is clear, the high proportion of Christians, and the considerable Jewish population, together with the fact that the administration of the empire now consistently favoured Christianity, and was biased against the traditional reli- gion, meant that the old cults could not continue as the religious voice of the citizen-body. Antioch no longer had a pagan identity. Julian admitted that he had failed to restore a religious meaning to the public festivals of Antioch. He distinguishes the truly sacred festivals (which he had failed to revive) from the festivals which mattered not only to those who worshipped the gods, but to the entire people.10 The latter were spectacles like the animal chases, the Olympic Games, chariot races and theatricals, many of which had once had a religious significance,11 but were now regarded by most people simply as 6 See J. Wintjes, Das Leben des Libanius, in Historische Studien der Universität Würzburg 2, Rahden: Westfalen 2005, 43–62. 7 There is abundant evidence that Libanius was a committed pagan, particularly in Or. XVIII; (Funeral Oration for Julian, ad 365); Or. XXIV (On the avenging of Julian, 378/ 9 ad); Or. XXX (For the temples, ad 386); Or. V (Artemis); also the concluding chapters the Autobiography (Or. I, 283–85), and many passages elsewhere, both in Or. I and in other writings. 8 See prosopographical detail in P. Petit, Les étudiants de Libanius, Paris 1957. 9 W. Liebeschuetz, Antioch, City and Imperial Administration in the Later Empire, Oxford 1972, 226–228. 10 Misopogon 346 A & C. 11 Animal chases had been linked to the imperial cult. The Olympic Games were instituted in honour of Zeus. Chariot-race meetings were originally linked to pagan festivals, e.g. that of Poseidon and that of Calliope, and the celebration of the New Year..