Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529, Volume 1

359 Pages·2014·36.09 MB·English

by  Frank R. Trombley

F R A N K R. T R O M B L E Y
Hellenic Religion
and Christianization
c. 370-529
V O L U M E I
Hellenic Religion and Christianization c. 370-529
Volume 1

Hellenic Religion and
Christianization c. 370-529
VOLUME 1
By
Frank R. Trombley
' 1 6 8*'
BRILL
LEIDEN | BOSTON
First published as a hardback (set) edition as volume 115 in the Religions in the Graeco-Roman World
series in 1993.
First paperback edition published as a set in 2001.
This paperback (set) edition published in 2014.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Trombley, Frank R.
Hellenic religion and Christianization, c. 370-529 / by Frank R. Trombley.
p. cm.— (Religions in the Gracco-Roman world, ISSN 0927-7633; v. 115)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 9004096922 (set: alk. paper). — ISBN 9004096248 (pt. 1: alk. paper)
1. Christianity and other religions— Roman. 2. Christianity and other religions— Greek. 3. Church
history— Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600. 4. Rome— Religion. I. Title. II. Series.
BR128.R7T76 1993
261.2’2’09015— dc20 92-28631
CIP
ISBN 978-90-04-27479-2 (volume 1 paperback)
ISBN 978-90-04-27824-0 (set paperback)
ISBN 978-90-04-27677-2 (volume 1 e-book)
Copyright 1993 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
For
Mary Kay
Beside the white sparkling marble quarries of Thasos
Amidst the red walls and towers of Anastasioupolis
Through the winding curves of the Nestos valley
Beneath Azoros5 bleak akropolis walls
Among the minaret spires of Xanthi
Over sun-baked Via Egnatia looking west
And a world away in the damp twilight of
London.

CONTENTS
Preface..........................................................................................................ίχ
Abbreviations......................................................................................... xiv
I. The Legal Status of Sacrifice to 529............................................. 1
1. The Sacrifice in Late Hellenic Religion............................ 3
2. The Status of the Hellenic Cults in the Theodosian
Code............................................................................................ 10
3. The Varieties of Hellenic Religion..................................... 35
4. The Legislation against Sorcery......................................... 59
5. The Transformation of the Law after 438....................... 72
6. The Quasi-Justinianic Laws of Zeno c. 481^484.......... 81
7. Conclusion................................................................................ 94
II. Christianization................................................................................ 98
1. Christianization and the Transformation of Local
Gods............................................................................................ 99
2. The Social Context of Temple Conversions................. 108
3. Temple Conversions at Apamea, Alexandria and
Palmyra.................................................................................... 123
4. Christianization of Rite...................................................... 147
5. Christianization of the Decurion Class......................... 168
6. Conclusion............................................................................. 181
III. Gaza
1. The Cults of Gaza in 395 .................................................. 188
2. The Urban Pagan Establishment.................................... 191
3. The Territorium of Gaza...................................................... 204
4. The Destruction of the Temples in 402 ........................ 207
5. The Growth of the Gazan Church................................. 223
6. The Church Establishment.............................................. 234
7. Conclusion.............................................................................. 243
Appendix I: The Priority and Historicity of the Greek
Version of Mark the Deacon’s Life of
Porphyrius of Gaza.................................................... 246
viii CONTENTS
IV. Athens and Attica........................................................................ 283
1. The Christianization of Attica and the Epigraphy....... 284
2. Hellenic Religion c. 400...................................................... 292
3. The Mid-Fifth Century....................................................... 307
4. The Social Background to the Survival of the
Athenian Cults....................................................................... 324
5. Conclusion............................................................................. 329
Appendix II : Did John Chrysostom Visit Athens in
367/8?......................................................................... 333
Appendix III: The Closure of the Asklepieion and
Parthenon in 481-484 ............................. 342
PREFACE
This book is not about paganism, nor is it about Christianity. It is
rather about the phenomenon of Christianization* It seeks to iden­
tify and examine the points of conjuncture between the old and new
religions* wherein the ordinary people of the Greek cities and their
semi-Greek hinterlands accepted radical changes in their religious
allegiances at the behest of Christian bishops, their deacons and
periodeutai, the monks, and ultimately of the Christian emperors.
It thus avoids discussing “pagans and Christians’1 as separate
communities except as starting points. It does not deal with the
“highest examples” of Christian and Hellenic intellectuality like
Proclus of Athens and Theodoret of Cyrrhus, but rather with the
ordinary folk embroiled in the daily business of religious life.
Hellenic culture as exemplified in the philosophical schools and
Christian Sophistic had a pronounced religious coloring to it, but
reciting Homer or writing commentaries on Plato’s Timaeus was
not, strictly speaking, a manifestation of religious practice,
although the people who did this were involved in any variety of
Christian and Hellenic cults. Neoplatonism, which appeared in
both Hellenic and Christianized form, related to religious practice
only to the extent that it gave theurgy a theoretical foundation or
provided a target for Christian polemics against sacrifice and the
consequent influence of ill-willed daimones.1 I have in general
avoided discussing the writings of intellectuals in favor of analysing
their religious behavior instead.
There is bound to be some comment about the use of the term
“pagan”, and so a brief disclaimer is necessary. The pre-Christian
polytheistic religious world of the eastern Mediterranean lands
was, strictly speaking, made up of many individual and localized
cults (θρησκείοα) of the deities of earth, sea, and sky.2 The groups
who practiced the different cults were differentiated by linguistic
background, geographical setting and world view. While these folk
1 The subject is variously dealt with in: E.R. Dodds* “TheurgyThe Greeks and
the Irrational (Berkeley 1951), 283-311.
2 Frank R. Trombley, “Prolegomena to the Systemic Analysis of Late Hellenic
Religion,” Religious Writings and Religious Systems7 cd. Jacob Neusner et al. (Atlanta
1989), 96f.