Religious Intolerance in the Later Roman Empire - Bad request ...

incorrectly assumed that the Apostate would only have co-religionists in his entourage.
Eutropius did give a favourable, but measured account of Julian’s reign; he praised him
for his education, his treatment of the provincials and for not being avaricious. 32
However Eutropius criticised him for not being discriminating enough towards his
friends and also records that “he persecuted the Christian religion too much, but
nevertheless in such a manner that he abstained from bloodshed.” 33
Speculatively it could be suggested that if Eutropius had been a Christian then
he might have been more likely to refer to Christianity as ‘our religion,’ or in a similar
manner. Equally however, Eutropius gives no positive indication that he held pagan
beliefs either. Nevertheless, on other subjects Eutropius has shown himself to be
partisan if he wished. Bird has argued that as a member of the senatorial elite
Eutropius was keen to demonstrate the importance of the Senate. As such he has a
bias towards Sulla and against Marius and Caesar, and never even mentions the
Gracchi. In his treatment of the emperors the best emperors are those who respected
the Senate, especially Trajan, and the worst were those who abused or ignored it. 34 If a
public display of the merits of his religion had mattered as much to Eutropius as his
concern for demonstrating the importance of the Senate as well as the necessity of the
state having ‘good’ emperors, then we should expect to find evidence of such religious
concern in his Breviarium. In short, since we do not have any indication of even a
moderate religious agenda from Eutropius in his Breviarum, we should not expect to
find such in any of his legislation.
Therefore the apparent exclusion from the amnesty of persons awaiting trial, in
contrast to previous amnesties, cannot be attributed to any anti-Christian or pro-pagan
sentiments from Eutropius. Conceivably, if Eutropius was a pagan, Theodosius may
32
Eutr. 10.14-10.15.1 on Julian’s campaigns as Caesar in Gaul and his accession and 10.16 for his
character.
33
Eutr. 10.16.3 religionis Christian ae nim ius in sectator, perinde tam en, ut cruore abstineret
34 Bird (1993) xxv-xxxv
173