Dig Into History

(Martin Jones) #1
believed that God and Jesus were equal. If you
believed in Arianism and did not convert, you
were punished.

A BAN ON CURRICULUM
The final blow to the pagan religions came in
529 C.E., when Justinian I was emperor. At the time,
there were still Romans who worshiped the pagan
gods. Those who were especially troublesome for
emperors were the educated Romans, including
philosophers, who still taught and studied beliefs
that were pagan in nature.
Among the pagan philosophers whose works were
still being taught were Plato and Plotinus. For them,
the world in which humans live
was not real. Rather, they said, it
was only a shadow of the real
world. Where was the real
world, then? Somewhere else
and in a place that came from
the one true source. For Plato,
Plotinus, and the philosophers
and students who followed
them, this one true source was
not necessarily the Christian
God. Justinian disagreed. He
forbid schools to teach such
possibilities and closed the great
philosophical schools in Athens
(map at left locates several).

A MEMORABLE YEAR
The rise of Christianity and
the fall of the pagan religions
lasted for many centuries. It
is a story of religion, politics,
power, and philosophy. When Justinian closed the
philosophical schools at Athens, he destroyed the
last remnants of pagan religions. So devastating
was his decree that shut down these schools, that
even today, historians generally agree that 529C.E.
marks the end of classical antiquity.

images formed by mortal
labor, lest he become guilty
by divine and human
laws.” His law prohibited,
under penalty of death, any
sacrifices of animals or wine
anywhere in the cities or in
the country. Even a simple
prayer at a pagan statue
was punishable by loss of
property. Theodosius and
Ambrose wanted paganism
to disappear forever.
But paganism was not
the only target of these
laws. Theodosius also
punished Christians who
practiced the wrong forms
of Christianity. For many
years, Christians in the
northern parts of the
empire had practiced a form of Christianity called
Arianism. Unlike the Christianity of Theodosius,
Arians believed that Jesus was not God the father,
but the son of God. They said that the two were not
the same person. While Arianism had been popular
in the empire for many years, the new emperors


TOP: Book burning — as per the emperor’s
orders to destroy all Arian books.
BOTTOM: Labeled on this map of Athens
(see the Acropolis at top right) are the
great philosophical schools in Athens.

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