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The persecution of pagans under Theodosius I began in 381, after the first couple of years of his reign as co-emperor in the eastern part of the Roman Empire.In the 380s, Theodosius I reiterated the ban of Constantine the Great on animal sacrifices, prohibited haruspicy on animal sacrifice, pioneered the criminalization of magistrates who did not enforce anti-pagan laws, broke up some pagan ...
[140] [141] [142] Theodosius also turned pagan holidays into workdays, but the festivals associated with them continued. [143] A number of laws against sacrifice and divination, closing temples that continued to allow them, were issued towards the end of his reign, but historians have tended to downplay their practical effects and even the ...
Theodosius II enacted two anti-pagan laws in the year 425. The first of these stipulated that all pagan superstition was to be rooted out. [9] The second law barred pagans from pleading a case in court and also disqualified them from serving as soldiers. [10] Theodosius II then left Valentinian III to rule the west and returned to Constantinople.
[1] [2] Theodosius dissolved the order of the Vestal Virgins in Rome, banned the pagan rituals of the Olympics in Ancient Greece and did nor punish nor prevent the destruction of antique Hellenistic temples, such as the Temple of Apollo in Delphi. With the death of Theodosius in 395, the Roman Empire was divided once more between his two sons.
They were interested in the relationships between Roman pagan cults and early Christianity. [11] Johann Christoph von Aretin [ de ] published a Greek text based on the two manuscripts in Munich in 1804 along with a Latin translation, which was later used as a basis for a translation into English in Ante-Nicene Fathers .
The cities were the centres of the pagan cults all over the Roman Empire. The local deities were associated with the gods of the Roman pantheon, but elements of the local cults survived. Pagan cults were mainly centered around major temples and public festivals were their important elements. [131]
A marble statue of Jupiter, king of the Roman gods. Paganism (from Latin pāgānus 'rural', 'rustic', later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, [1] or ethnic religions other than Judaism.
The attempt of Emperor Julian the Apostate (reigned in 361—363) to restore pagan worship in the empire, while ultimately a policy failure, restored security to pagans. His immediate successors (from 363 until 375), under the reigns of Jovian , Valens and Valentinian I , had a policy of relative religious toleration towards paganism.