A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

humilation of the pagans, stones from the most sacred part of the sanctuary of
the Temple of Marnas, which is reported to have burned for days, were
repositioned as paving stones, so that they would be walked on by human and
animal alike. 8
By 423, however, there are signs that supporting or turning a blind eye to
locally inspired attacks on paganism was becoming counterproductive. It was
clear that Christianity was being used by opportunists as a front for the
destruction of their rivals and that looting was taking place under the pretence
that it was God’s work. Theodosius II issued a law in an attempt to restrain the
disorder. ‘We especially commend those persons who are truly Christians, or
who are said to be [sic], that they shall not abuse the authority of religion and
dare to lay violent hands on Jews and pagans who are living quietly and
attempting nothing disorderly or contrary to law. For if such Christians should be
violent against persons living in security or should plunder their goods, they
shall be compelled to restore not only that property which they took away, but
after suit they shall also be compelled to restore triple or quadruple that amount
which they robbed.’ 9 It may be that this law was issued as a result of specific
outrages, for by 435 the state had renewed its campaign against the resilient
pagans. It was ordered that ‘All persons of criminal [sic] pagan mind we
interdict from accursed immolations of sacrificial victims and from damnable
sacrifices... and we order that all their shrines, temples, sanctuaries, if any even
now remain intact, should be destroyed by the magistrates’ command and that
these should be purified by the placing of the venerable Christian religion’s sign
[the Cross].’ 10 But even this did not have its effect, and in a letter to the
praetorian prefect of the east issued in January 438, Theodosius opined: ‘We
must exercise watchfulness over the pagans and their heathen enormities, since
with their natural insanity and stubborn insolence they depart from the path of
the true religion. A thousand terrors of the laws that have been promulgated, the
penalty of exile that has been threatened, do not restrain them, whereby, if they
cannot be reformed, at least they might learn to abstain from their mass of
crimes and from the corruption of their sacrifices. But straightway they sin with
such audacious madness and Our patience is so assailed by the attempts of these
impious persons that even if We desired to forget them, We could not disregard
them.’ 11 Although paganism had virtually disappeared from cities by now, it
remained strong in outlying areas, and petitions to the emperors from bishops
and new attempts by the authorities to quell traditional beliefs continued.