Julian's Pagan Revival and the Decline of Blood Sacrifice Author(s): Scott Bradbury Source: Phoenix, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter, 1995), pp. 331-356 Published by: Classical Association of Canada Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1088885 . Accessed: 01/11/2013 14:32 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Classical Association of Canada is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Phoenix. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 146.245.216.150 on Fri, 1 Nov 2013 14:32:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JULIAN'SPAGAN REVIVAL AND THE DECLINE OF BLOOD SACRIFICE SCOTT BRADBURY "This is the chieffruit of piety:to honorthe divinein the traditional ways."7 PorphyryAd Marcellam 18 IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PARADOX that in a predominantly pagan empire the EmperorJulian (A.D. 360-363) did not meet with immediatesuccess in his effortsto revivepaganism. Contemporarypagans feltuneasy with Julian'sattempt to make the gods live again in the public consciousness throughthe rebuildingof temples,the revival of pagan priesthoods,the restorationof ancient ceremonies, and most importantly,the revival of blood sacrifices. Historianshave long pointed out that Christianemperors had permittedother elementsof pagan festivalsto continuewhile forbidding blood on the altars, since blood sacrificewas the element of pagan cult most repugnantto Christians.Thus, blood sacrifice,although linked to the fate of pagan cults in general,poses special problemsprecisely because it was regardedas the most loathsomeaspect of cult and aroused the greatest amountof Christianhostility. The presentarticle explores Julian's motives in revivingpublic blood sacrificesand the reasonsfor his apparentfailure to mobilizeimmediate, strong support. By "public,"I mean notonly sacrifices in public cults, but more generally,sacrifices conducted in the public eye. My principalinterest is in what we mightcall "normative"public paganism in the largertowns and cities of the Eastern Empire in the fourthcentury A.D. Asia Minor,Syria, and Greece figureprominently in the discussion, since these regionswere for Julian the heartlandof Hellenism,the regions that could be counted on to respondto the call for a pagan revival,and they are also the regions where we find clusteredmuch of the evidence about sacrificein the Roman imperialperiod. I begin by settingout the debate withinNeoplatonism about the desirabilityof sacrificesand Julian's own place in the debate. I thenexamine the status of sacrificesin the cities of the GreekEast in the generationbefore Julian's reign and contemporary reactionto Julian'sconduct during the pagan revival. Finally,I examine The followingworks will be cited by the author's name: P. Debord, Aspects sociaux et economiques de la vie religieuse dans I'Anatolie greco-romaine (Leiden 1982); R. Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York 1986). Works of the Emperor Julian are cited in the edition of J. Bidez (ed.), L'Empereur Julien: Oeuvres complbtes 2 vols (Paris 1963-72). 331 PHOENIX, VOL. 49 (1995) 4. This content downloaded from 146.245.216.150 on Fri, 1 Nov 2013 14:32:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 332 PHOENIX one of the principalreasons for the declineof sacrificein the fourthcentury, namelythe declineand redirectionof the euergesiathat had playeda crucial role in fundingpagan cults. I. SPIRITUAL SACRIFICE IN LATE PAGANISM In one sense,the prominenceof blood sacrificein Julian'spagan revivalis predictable,since the act of sacrificialkilling remained, even in the fourth century,emblematic of the whole complex of pagan beliefand cult. The Neoplatonisttradition in whichJulian was nurturedwas divided,however, on the issue of blood sacrifice. Hellenism,like Judaism,had a long and well-establishedtradition of criticismof the dominantsacrificial system.1 Philosophershad long disapprovedof attemptsto buy the gods' favorswith ostentatiousofferings and had stressedthe importanceof approachingthe altars witha pure heart.2These gentlereproofs, which had neverseriously threatenedsacrificial customs, acquired new force and meaningin late anti- quityand promptedthe developmentwithin Neoplatonism of an intellectual justificationfor sacrifice. We findthis debate articulatedmost clearlyin the worksof Porphyryand Iamblichus. Althoughkeenly interested in sacrificesin his youth,Porphyry's years withPlotinus (262-268) broughtabout a profoundreorientation of his spir- itual lifeand led him to call into doubt the utilityof conventionalcult, in- cludingblood sacrifice.In the Letter to Anebo,composed between 263 and 268, he rejectedin a dismissive,even mocking,tone the elementsof "low- brow" religion,the daemonology,occult practices,and sacrificesthat had been so conspicuousin his early works,the Philosophyfrom Oracles and On the Returnof the Soul.3 Soon after270, he composed On Abstinence to persuadea fellowpupil of Plotinusthat abstinencefrom animal fleshwas essential forspiritual as well as bodily health.4 He devotes all of Book 2 of On Abstinenceto the problemof sacrifice,since meat eating and blood sacrificehad been so closelyinterwoven in Greekculture. In earlierperiods, social, political,and religiousgroups in a Greek cityalmost invariablymet O0nthe moral critique of sacrificein Judaism, see G. B. Gray, Sacrifice in the Old Testament: Its Theory and Practice2 (New York 1971) 41-54; F. Young, The Use of Sac- rificialIdeas in Greek Writersfrom the New Testament to John Chrysostom (Philadel- phia 1979) 57-66. 20n worship with a pure heart, cf. Cic. Nat. d. 2.71, with the parallels assembled by A. S. Pease, M. Tulli Ciceronis De Natura Deorum (Cambridge, Mass. 1958) ad loc.; Philostr. VA 1.10-11 (on need for purityof spirit and inadequacy of opulent offerings). 3The Philosophy fromOracles contained a section "On Sacrifices" in which he used the evidence of oracles to corroborate sacrificialpractices. For an example of his tech- nique, see Euseb. Praep. Evang. 4.9.2, with G. Wolff,Porphyrii de Philosophia ex Ora- culis haurienda reliquiae (Berlin 1856) 112-121. 40n the date and purpose of the treatise, see J. Bouffartigueand M. Patillon, Por- phyre: De l'Abstinence 1 (Paris 1977) xviii-xxxvii. This content downloaded from 146.245.216.150 on Fri, 1 Nov 2013 14:32:15 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JULIAN'SPAGAN REVIVAL AND BLOOD SACRIFICE 333 and feastedunder the aegis of a divinityto whomthe meat consumedat the feast had firstbeen offeredin sacrifice.5The intimateconnection between sacrificialrites and feastingon roasted meats was perfectlyobvious to all. As Aristotlewrote, "some associations appear to be formedfor the sake of pleasure,for example, religiousguilds and dining-clubs,which are unions existingfor the purpose of sacrificeand companionship"(Ooaiaq 'veccarai aovovua1a: Eth. Nic. 8.9.5, 1160a, 19-20). Comic poets could expect a laugh fromportrayals of the gods' indignationat the brazennesswith which mortalscontrived sacrifices for their personal benefit (Men. Dys. 447-453), and to be "fondof sacrifice"(tpikoOtrg) might imply piety, but it could equally well implygluttony (Ar. Vespae 81-84). Althoughmocked in com- edy,these customswere taken seriously.Greeks possessed technicalterms formeat that had not been butcheredin the conventionalsacrificial system and cautionarytales warnedof the dangersof its consumption.6 Porphyryis sensitiveto the possible criticismthat his rejectionof meat eating underminessacrificial customs. Consequently,he stressesthat he is not encouragingthe abolitionof civic cult (De abst. 1.27.1; 2.3-4, and esp. 33), but this special pleadingcannot mask the fact that Book 2 of On Abstinenceoffers the most sustainedattack on sacrificialpractices to sur- vive fromantiquity.7 Porphyry presents various arguments-mythological, philosophical,daemonological-against blood offerings,but at the heart of the matterlies the notionof spiritualsacrifice, an idea best documented among early Christians,since they felt more antipathyfor blood sacri- fice than any otherreligious group in the Roman Empire. They opposed not only blood sacrifices,but all formsof materialsacrifice, including in- cense and fruitand vegetableofferings. They did not, however,reject the idea of sacrifice.On the contrary,they trumped all otherreligious groups by proclaimingthat Christ's sacrificewas the supremeand perfectsacri- fice that would make all othersacrifices, those of both Jew and Gentile, unnecessaryand void. Furthermore,they showed unparalleledcreativity in theirspiritualizing interpretations of what constitutedan appropriate 5G. Berthiaume, Les R6les du migeiros (Lyons 1982) passim, esp. 81-93. Romans, on the other hand, ate more pork and beef than Greeks and did not observe so strictly that the meat be sacrificedand shared with a god prior to consumption. On the perva- siveness of sacrificein the affairsof all types of social organizationsin the Hellenisticand early Roman period, see H.-J. Klauck, Herrenmahl und hellenistischerKult (Miinster 1982). 6Lane Fox 70; cf. F. Sokolowski, Lois sacries de l'Asie Mineure (Paris 1955) 84 (regulations for cult