CHAPTER FIVE

THE LATER ROMAN EMPIRE

The Traditional Cult Before the third-century collapse, the Twelve Gods had ceased being regarded as closely involved with affairs on earth. The honor which K yzikos paid Hadrian by naming him the Thirteenth God was the excep­ tion. The Altar of the Twelve Gods in Athens seems to have survived until the Herulian attack on the city in A.D. 267 but was then dismantled. A thick layer of earth accumulated over the site before it was reoccupied by an unrelated structure in the early fifth century.1 Even though the city itself remained strongly pagan, it did not restore the public cult of the Twelve Gods in the marketplace. Elsewhere, as Pausanias shows, the cult was moribund. Three major cities, Rome, Alexandria and Ephesos, either continued honoring the Twelve Gods after the emperors had been converted to Christianity or revived the cult at the end of the fourth century. In Rome, the Portico of the Di Consentes (Rome 3), which housed the gilded bronze statues of the twelve Olympians, had been erected under the Fla­ vian dynasty. Even without actual neglect, by the mid-fourth century, it could have needed refurbishing. In any case, the pagan praefectus urbi or chief magistrate for 367/368, Vettius Agorius Praetextatus, restored both the portico and the images of the gods (T 36 C, figure 86). This is one of the latest known restorations of a pagan shrine in Rome,2 and the dedicatory inscription (T 36 C) significantly makes no mention of the emperor. Praetextatus was the leader of the pagan aristocracy in Rome and was consul designate when he died in A.D. 384. 3 According to his epitaph,4

1 Supra, 163. 2 The columns of the Temple of Saturn were reset and the Temple of Vesta restored still later in the fourth century. Cf. R. Krautheimer, Rome; Profile of a City 312-1308, Princeton 1980, 35. 3 A.H.M. Jones-J.P. Martindale-J. Morris, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire I, A.D. 260-395, Cambridge 1971, 722-24; H. Bloch, HTR 38 (1945),203-209; R. Klein, SymTTUlChus; eine tragische Gestalt des ausgehenden Heidentums [= Impulse der Forschung 2], Darmstadt 1971, 46-50; J. Wytzes, Der letzte Kampf des Heidentums in Rom [= EPRO 56], Leiden 1977, 133-48. 4 CIL VI, 1, no. 1779; H. Dessau, Inscriptiones Latinae Selectae I, Berlin 1892, no. 1259; Helbig, FUhrer4 II, no. 1223. 306 DISCUSSION he had held most of the major priesthoods in the city. Besides these tradi­ tional posts he had been initiated into the mysteries of Mithras, the Magna Mater, and the Eleusinian deities. He was especially devoted to Sol Invictus, Aurelian's universal sun god who was the "sum of all the attributes and guardian functions belonging to the other gods."5 For Praetextatus, the Di Consentes would have been particularly interesting as a numen multiplex, a multiple manifestation of this universal sun god. 6 As praefectus urbi in 367/368 Praetextatus was concerned with maintain­ ing the well-being of the city, which involved, among other things, ending the strife between Damasus and U rsinus, the rival contestants for the papal throne. 7 To the Roman aristocracy, which was still largely pagan,8 providing the Di Consentes with proper housing must have seemed quite as essential to the welfare of the city as keeping peace among the Christians. The earliest celebration of the lectisternium in honor of the Di Consentes had taken place in 217 B. C. as one of the measures to protect the city from Hannibal, and Rome had prospered from then on. The last time the lectisternium is known to have been celebrated was just before Marcus Aurelius led his troops out against the Marcomanni (T 34 E). In the late fourth century the threat of barbarian invasion was never far removed. Restoring the Portico of the Di Con­ sentes was not a display of antiquarianism, nor was it produced by nostalgia. It was a practical measure designed to keep the favor of the tutelary deities of Rome. How long the Twelve remained in their refurbished portico is not known. Before the end of the century Christianity had won the decisive contest over official paganism. In 382 Gratian had removed the altar of Victory from the Senate House in Rome. 9 This was followed in 3911392 by Theodosius' bans on pagan sacrifice. 10 When Arbogast set up

5 F. Altheim, Der unbesiegte Cott; Heidentum und Christentum, Hamburg 1957, 84-88. The quotation is from G. Halsberghe, The Cult of Sol Invictus [= EPRO 23], Leiden 1972, 142. 6 H. Bloch in A. Momigliano, ed., The Conflict between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, Oxford 1963, 209-10. 7 E. Caspar, Geschichte des Papsttums von den Anfiingen bis zur Hohe der Weltherrschaft I, Tiib­ ingen 1930, 198-99; C. Pietri, Roma Christiana; Recherches SUT l'eglise de Rome ... (311-440) [= BEFAR 224], Paris 1976, 408-23. 8 R. Klein, Der Streit urn den Victoriaaltar ... [= Texte zur Forschung 7], Darmstadt 1972, 180-83: At the time of the controversy over the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, Christians did not yet form a majority in the Senate. Cf. also P.R.L. Brown on the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy: JRS 51 (1961), 1-11. 9 R.H. Barrow, ed., Prefect and Emperor, The Relations of Symmachus A.D. 384, Oxford 1973,32-47; Klein, supra note 8, 17-21, 177; J. Wytzes, supra note 3,7-8. 10 Bloch, HTR 38 (1945), 223-25; N.Q. King, The Emperor Theodosius and the Establish­ ment of Christianity, Philadelphia 1960, 77-82; J. Matthews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court A.D. 364-425, Oxford 1975, 236-37; J. Wytzes, supra note 3, 13-15.