Beate Dignas & Engelbert Winter - Kaveh Farrokh

218 7 Religion: Christianity and Zoroastrianism
of selected Roman legal norms and those of the Old Testament, which was
composed towards the end of the fourth century probably by a Christian
loyal to Rome. 44 The edict turns against a religion originating from an
empire that had been utterly hostile to Rome for a long time. The connection
is evident – the laws and customs of the Persians are condemned and
criticised en bloc.
Although the outbreak of a new Roman–Sasanian war under Narsē (6)
may have triggered the activities agains the Manichaeans, 45 one cannot fail
to notice that the edict against the Manichaeans was part of a comprehensive
attempt for religious restoration, which on the one hand aimed
at a restoration of the traditional cults, on the other hand postulated an
immediate link between the welfare of the state and the benevolence of
the gods. 46 The claim that the old religious order was inviolable served to
legitimise the official persecutions of the Manichaeans as well as to justify
the return to the religion of the ancestors.
The revival of the Roman ‘national’ cults formed an important part of
Diocletian’s reforms, which sought to overcome the ‘crisis’ of the Roman
Empire. In order to stabilise the basis of Roman monarchical power these
reforms included not only a decentralisation of rule – the tetrarchy was
established 47 – but also the construction of a firm bond between the ruler
and the Roman gods, above all the supreme god Jupiter. This bond was
taken as serious enough to fight religions not willing to serve and sacrifice
to the emperor, who was the first representative of Jupiter on earth.
Diocletian’s goals were similar to those of Constantine later: linking
emperor and supreme god, legitimising his rule as an expression of god’s
will and establishing a state religion as the basis of and unifying factor
within the state. 48
After Constantine, 49 the fact that religious questions affected foreign
relations put the conflicts between the now Christian Rome and Zoroastrian
Persia on a new level. 50 Constantine’s promotion of Christianity to the
extent that it became the official religion in the Roman Empire affected the
Persian attitude towards both the Christians and Rome. 51 The consequences
44 For a partial German translation see Guyot and Klein 1994: 186–9 and 348–9; cf. Schwarte 1994:
203–40 and Kolb 1995: 27–31.
45 Wiesehöfer 1993: 372–3.
46 On the goals of Diocletian’s religious policy see Kolb 1988: 17–44; 1995: 27–31 and Brandt 1998: 25–6
and 92–101 with further references.
47 Kolb 1987a and Brandt 1998: 20–1 and 57–101. 48 Paul 1983: 198.
49 Girardet 1998: 9–122.
50 Wiesehöfer 1993: 376–9.
51 On the history of Christianity in the Sasanian Empire see Asmussen 1983: 924–48; Atiya 1991: 252–6;
Schwaigert 1989: 1–11.