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

sword.” 171 This law may have been seen as a revocation of Constantine’s CTh 16.10.1
of 17 December 320 in which divinatory practices were expressly allowed.
In terms of thoroughness and style CTh 9.16.4 is similar to both 16.10.2 and
especially with 16.10.4, although 9.16.4 was the most thorough of them all. Both CTh
16.10.4 (Taurus being the named addressee) and 9.16.4 indicate that all the orders in
each law were to be obeyed by all men, but the most striking similarity between these
two laws was in their use of the phrase “avenging sword” to be deployed against
offenders of each law. 172 As with CTh 16.10.4 and 16.10.6 the only punishment laid
down is that of death, but 9.16.4 was the fourth and last of Constantius’ laws on
religion to prescribe capital punishment. A further similarity between this law and
CTh 16.10.4 is in the lack of vitriolic language. “Augurs and seers” are described as
having “wicked doctrines” prav a con fessio, but prav a is not an especially derogative
adjective and means deviating from correct behaviour, or implies an impurity.
Similarly, calling the practices of “Chaldeans, magi and the others… great crimes”
m aleficos ob facin orum m agnitudin em at best simply indicated the existence of criminal
behaviour, although at worst it equally implied the practice of black magic. The
authorities had always had a long standing horror and fear at the activities of those at
the fringes of religious belief and practices and the level of language used here is
probably the least that could be reasonably expected. Nevertheless application of the
death penalty possibly compensated for the lack of rhetorical invective. The
similarities of punishment, extent and rhetoric between CTh 16.10.4 and 9.16.4
indicate that both laws were probably drafted by the same individual and indeed it is
likely that Taurus, the addressee of 16.10.4, was at least highly influential in the
composition of 9.16.4, if not instrumental.
171 Nem o haruspicem consulat aut m athem aticum , nem o hariolum . Augurem et v atum prav a confessio
conticescat. Chaldaei ac m agi et ceteri, quos m aleficos ob facin orum m agnitudinem v ulgus appellat, nec ad
hanc partem aliquid m oliantur. Sileat om nibus perpetuo div inandi curiositas. Et enim supplicium capitis
feret gladio ultore prosratus, quicum que iussis obsequium denegav erit
172 gladio ultore in both
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