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

Florus, the Praetorian Prefect of the East. 296 Unusually, this law came from, and was
issued by the authority, of the Imperial consistory, referred to in the law as the “public
council,” although, as normal, Theodosius appears to be speaking in the second person
plural throughout. The law ordered that “the temple shall continually be open that
was formerly dedicated to the assemblage of throngs of people and now also is for the
common use of the people.” The law went on to state that in the temple “images are
reported to have been placed which must be measured by the value of their art rather
than by their divinity.” Theodosius would not permit any “Imperial response that was
surreptitiously obtained to prejudice this situation.” Moreover, in order that the
temple should be seen by “assemblages of the city and by frequent crowds” Palladius
was ordered to “preserve all celebrations of festivities, and by the authority of our
divine Imperial response, you shall permit the temple to be open.” But this was to
happen is such a way “that the performance of sacrifices forbidden therein may not
suppose to be permitted under the pretext of such access to the temple.” 297
The law therefore was only applicable to one temple, possibly in Edessa, 298 but
there are two distinct clauses to it. The first appears to order the conversion of the
temple from a strictly religious building into something approaching a ‘community
centre’ for “the common use of the people” which presumably referred to all people of
whatever religion and in contrast, presumably, to the previous “assemblage of throngs
of people,” which must refer to previous pagan ceremonies. The purposes of this seem
to have been to convert the temple, and the images, into some sort of art museum, for
the general benefit of all. However, the second clause of the law preserves something
of the temple’s original, civic and religious purpose, and ordered Palladius to actively
296 Palladius 11 PLRE 1.660 of whom nothing more is known.
297 Aedem olim frequentiae dedicatam coetui et iam populo quoque com m unem , in qua sim ulacra feruntur
posita artis pretio quam div initate m etienda iugiter patere publici consilii auctoritate decernim us neque huic
rei obretiv um officere sinim us oraculum . Ut conv entu urbis et frequenti coetu v ideatur, experien tia tua om ni
v otorum celebritate serv ata auctoritate nostir ita patere tem plum perm ittat oraculi, ne illic prohibitorum usus
sacrificiorum huius occasione aditus perm ussus esse credatur.
298 Pharr (1952) 473 n17
267