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Pagan Continuity and Revival in Britain and Rome During the Late Fourth Centaury AD

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Pagan Continuity and Revival in Britain and Rome During the Late Fourth Centaury AD Durham E-Theses From periphery to centre: pagan continuity and revival in Britain and Rome during the late fourth centaury AD Ranieri, Carmela Maria How to cite: Ranieri, Carmela Maria (2008) From periphery to centre: pagan continuity and revival in Britain and Rome during the late fourth centaury AD, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2305/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 FROM PERIPHERY TO CENTRE: PAGAN CONTINUITY AND REVIVAL IN BRITAIN AND ROME DURING THE LATE FOURTH CENTU:RY AD The copyright of this thesis rests with the autho~ or the university to which it was ~biDltt~. No quotation from it, or infor:mauon ~erived from it may be published Without the prior written consent of the author or university and any information derived from it. sho~ld be acknowledged. CARMELA MARIA RANiiERI MASTER OF ARTS02008 BY RESEARCH IN CLASSICS 2 5 MAR 2009 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I: Tile Legislationofthe,Christian Emperors in the Fourth Century 6 CHA:PTER2: Rome: Christian Capital? 18 Introduction 18 The Codex Calendar of 354 AD 21 The Circus Maximus: pagan art in secular contexts 25 Christian attitudes towards pagan monuments 28 Temple restoration 31 Senatorial life in Rome 44 Mithraism as part of senatorial life in fourth century Rome 46 Summary 52 CHAPTER3: Evidence of pagan continuity and revival from Britain 55 Introduction 55 Romano-British temples M Destruction or abandonment of temples during the fourth century 64 Continuity & revival during the second half of the fourth century 70 Possible explanations for a revival 76 Late fourth century burial practice: a return to pagan practice? 79 Evaluation of the finds 87 CHAPTER4: The pagan revival,of Julian the Apostate: the extent of his influence 92 Introduction 92 A brief discussion on Jtdian's influence in Britain and Rome 94 The political power base 96 The reception of Julian from a social perspective 108 Economic decline and transition 109 Summary 112 CONCUJSION 114 APPENDIX 118 BIBLIOGRAPHY 124 1 INTRODUCTION In light of recent archaealagical evidence regarding rural temples and the Christianisation of the countryside in the Raman Empire, a re-examination af the cancept and forms of pagan worship existent in the late fourth century is necessary in order to accommodate these new fmdings. Firstly, it is af vital importance to attempt to defme the extremely broad term that is 'paganism' and to select the specific areas that will be addressed. The colloquial term pagani, which frrst appeared in Christian inscriptions of the early fourth century, 'likely referred to civilian non-believers who had not been baptised. 1 However, it must be noted that the oldest sense of the classical LatiB term piigiinus meant 'of the country' or 'rustic'. It has been argued that the transferred use reflects the fact that the ancient idolatry lingered on in the rural villages and hamlets after Christianity had been generally accepted in the towns and cities of the Roman Empire.2 From its earliest beginnings, Christianity is believed to have spread much more rapidly in major urban areas (such as Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth and Rome) than in the countryside. In fact, the early church was almost entirely urban and saon the word for cauntry dweller became synonymous with someone who was not a Christian, giving rise to the modem meaning of 'pagan'. This may, in part, owe much to the conservative nature of rural people, who could have been more resistant to the new ideas of Christianity than those who lived in major urban centres. However, it may have also t:esulted from early Christian missionaries focusing their efforts within major population centres rather than throughout an expansive yet sparsely populated countryside. The term 'cult acts' has also been posited as a mare apt description of Roman religious practice, and this certainly does account for the panoply of practices of a religious nature that existed in the Roman world; differences in culture, class, geography and ancestry led individuals to seek religious affiliatians unique to themselves? A distinction must also be made between state supported cults and regional private cults 1 An· earlier example has been suggested in Tertullian De Corona Militis 11, "Apud hunc [se. Christum] lam miles est paganus fide/is quam paganus est miles infidelis, " but the word paganus could be interpreted here in the sense of 'civilian' rather than 'heathen' 2 Oros. Hist. l. Prol. 9 "Ex locorum agrestium compitis et pagis pagani vocantur." 3 See O'Donnelll1979 2 which never received official consecration of their places of worship. Long before Theodosius I closed sanctuaries and outlawed sacrifice, public funding, imperial grants and city taxes no longer funded temples belonging to cities in the second half of the fourth century. However, there is evidence to suggest that in the countryside especially, cult acts were far from defunct at this time and even survived well into the fifth century. This is true regarding the status of temples also during the second half of the fourth century, at a time when the legislation of the Christian emperors was being passed against places of worship as well as certain ritual acts such as sacrifice. Some have claimed that cults were only valid due to the fact that they enjoyed centuries of uninterrupted support and ensured social cohesion as the pillars of tradition within Roman society. However, a large number managed to survive for a time even when support, including fmancial, had ceased. It is necessary at this early stage to construct a time frame in which the evidence for continued pagan practice can be presented. An attempt to measure decline can be made at any point in the post-Constantinian period and, although the focus will predominantly be on the late fourth century, the reigns of Constantine and his sons will be addressed in order to provide a point of comparison for the later part of the century, ending roughly with the reign of Theodosius I when the main pillars of pagan worship were officially outlawed. Within this time frame, an attempt wiH be made to explore the differences between Rome as the traditional centre of the western Empire and Britain as a province on the periphery of the north-western Empire. The difference between urban and rural as well as the increasingly prominent types of ritual in the later fourth century will be addressed; whether the loss of temples as a vital institutional base was real or perceived, bearing in mind that paganism was, largely, a non-institutional form of worship in that it was deeply rooted in earth-based belief structures. This will be eX:plored with the legislation in mind, in order to determine the impact that the laws had on the city of Rome as a centre of traditional values and on a province further away in order to discover the success of these attempts to limit the types of religious practice in two differing social contexts. Not only does the legislation itself hold importance, but also the gradual effects of Christianisation, including Christian hostility towards pagan 3 worship, and to what extent this determined the fate of rural and urban temples as bases for continued worship in the Roman Empire. The primary motivation behind this line of enquiry into the city of Rome and the province of Britain resides in the fact that such diversity existed within the Roman Empire with regard to processes of Christianisation, it would be worthy to delve into two specific and seemingly contrasting areas in order to provide a place for these two areas in the wider context of religious life in the late fourth century. In other parts of the Empire such as Gaul, there existed a more thorough and systematic campaign of Christianisation, especially in the countryside. From the 360s onwards, the efforts of Martin of Tours throughout Gaul to destroy pagan altars, temples and sculptures certainly played a large role in the Christianisation of the province and, although met with some opposition, his success is undeniable. In fact, those places which had such zealous Bishops or missionaries did become more thoroughly Christianised than other areas, such as Britain, which do not appear to have cultivated or been sent any such people in order to convert the pagan populace. One must be wary, however, in using Christian sources on the conversion ofpagans as overemphasis upon victory of a saint in the face of pagan resistance must be seen as a possibility. Butler's Lives of the Saints often describes pagan rituals of the local populace being stopped by Christians, such as processions through fields aimed at bringing prosperity to the vi!llage. For example, Symphorianus, Bishop of Autun, stopped such a procession and destroyed the idol Berecynthia.4 There is some sporadic evidence of pagan continuity into the later fourth century in the east and in Africa, such as a letter written to Augustine by a Christian landowner in North Africa who reveals that food offerings being left at sacred sites was still a common practice around the year 398 in rural ru:eas.
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