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

immediately be compelled to pay fifteen pounds of gold, and his office
staff shall pay a like sum with similar haste, unless they resist the judge
and immediately report him by a public attestation. Governors with
the rank of consular shall pay six pounds of gold each, their office staffs
alike amount; those with the rank of corrector or of praeses shall pay
four pounds each, and their apparitors, by equal lot, a like amount.”
n em o se hostiis polluat, n em o in son tem v ictim am caedat, n em o delubra
adeat, tem pla perlustret et m ortali opere form ata sim ulacra suspiciat, n e
div in is adque hum an is san ction ibus reus fiat. iudices quoque haec form a
con tin eat, ut, si quis profan o ritui deditus tem plum uspiam v el in itin ere
v el in urbe adoraturus in trav erit, quin decim pon do auri ipse protin us
in ferre cogatur n ec n on officium eius parem sum m am sim ili m aturitate
dissolv at, si n on et obstiterit iudici et con festim publica adtestation e
rettulerit. con sulares sen as, officia eorum sim ili m odo, correctores et
praesides quatern as, apparition es illorum sim ilem norm am aequali sorte
dissolv an t.
The first comment that should be made on this law is that it was directed
towards Rome and was clearly only intended to apply to Rome and the 100 miles
around the city that fell under the jurisdiction of Rome’s Prefect, hence the clause
against “the judges” being “devoted to profane rites… on a journey or in the city.” The
journey probably refers to the necessary movements that judges would have to make
around the city, and within the its territory in fulfilment of their duties.
Secondly, the law begins with prohibitions against animal sacrifice. Such
sacrifices were probably declining at this period; Libanius informs us that blood
sacrifices on altars were not conducted in his region. 312 However, he does inform us
312 Lib. Or. 30.17
272