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

eaction to a perceived assault on the much cherished ideal of harmony in the ancient
city. 96
CTh. 2.8.19 of 7 August 389 was issued at Rome to Albinus, Prefect of Rome. 97
Theodosius had been in Rome since at least mid June having marched west to defeat
the sometime legitimate emperor Magnus Maximus in the previous August. Although
there was no formal reallocation of territories following the defeat of Maximus, and
Rome remained under the jurisdiction of the eighteen year old Valentinian II’s western
government, Theodosius still felt able to issue laws for such territories outside his own
formal area of responsibility. 98 Honoré has demonstrated fairly convincingly that the
quaestor responsible for issuing this law was his E9, the pagan senator and westerner
Virius Nicomachus Flavianus. Whether or not that is indeed so is not particularly
relevant to these purposes, but what Honoré has demonstrated is that law issued under
this quaestor were sent to both western and eastern officials, indicating that the empire
was for the moment ruled by a single government and administration. 99
The law was addressed to Albinus, Prefect of Rome and indicated which days
were to serve as holidays on which courts should not sit. 100 Theodosius ordered that
all days were court days except during two (unspecified) months of summer because of
the heat and for harvesting, the first of January, the “natal days of the greatest cities
Rome and Constantinople, to which the law ought to defer, since it also was born of
them.” 101 Also to be holidays were the “holy Paschal days, of which seven precede and
seven follow Easter; likewise the Days of the Sun.” 102 The birthdays and accession
96
On which see Lim (1995a) 150-151
97
Ceionius Rufius Albinus 15 PLRE 1.37-38
98
For Valentinian II’s disputed, but likely age of eighteen see Lenski (2002) 91 n144
99
Honoré’s E9 (1998) 59-70; Virius Nicomachus Flavianus 15 PLRE 1.347-349
100
Ceionius Rufius Albinus 15 PLRE 1.37-38
101
His adicim us natalicios dies urbium m axim arum Rom ae atque Constantinopolis, quibus debent iura
differri, quia et ab [i]psis nata sunt
102
Sacros quoque paschae dies, qui septeno v el praecedunt num ero v el sequuntur, in eadem observ atione
num eram us, nec non et dies solis
188