The Jews of the Graeco-Roman Diaspora reception of this order, repress with due severity the excess of those
who presume to commit illegal deeds under the name of the Christian
religion and attempt to destroy and despoil synagogues.^96The emperors were clearly in this instance trying to stem the tide of popular
Christian feeling, as they did again in relation to Illyricum in .^97 There
are however also signs of an opposing current of popular action, from the
Jewish side: in Honorius and Theodosius II banned the celebration of
Purim by the mock crucifixion of a Haman figure as a deliberate insult to
neighbouring Christians.^98 The ban seems to reflect episodes like the one of
a few years later at Inmestar in Syria, between Antioch and Chalcis, when
Jewish villagers were reported to have crucified a Christian boy as a delib-
erate act of mockery, and hence became involved in clashes with the local
Christians.^99 In also, the emperors took measures against the disturbance
of Catholic services by Donatists, heretics, Jews, or pagans.^100 But one of the
most significant continuing themes in imperial legislation is the (sometimes
half-hearted) restraint on the destruction or seizure of synagogues and their
contents by local Christians, accompanied by repeated statements of a ban
on the construction of new synagogues. A pronouncement of Honorius and
Theodosius II dating to will best express the complexities of the situa-
tion:
It seems right that in the future none of the synagogues of the Jews
shall either be indiscriminately seized or put on fire. If there are some
synagogues that were seized or vindicated to churches or indeed con-
secrated to the venerable mysteries in a recent undertaking and after
the law was passed, they shall be given in exchange new places, on
which they could build, that is, to the measure of the synagogues taken.
Votive offerings as well, if they are in fact seized, shall be returned
to them provided that they have not yet been dedicated to the sacred
mysteries; but if a venerable consecration does not permit their resti-
tution, they shall be given the exact price for them. No synagogue shall
be constructed from now on, and the old ones shall remain in their
state.^101.Cod.Theod. , , , trans. Linder (n. ), no. .
.Cod.Theod.,,Linder(n.),no..
.Cod.Theod.,,Linder(n.),no..
. Socrates,Church History, .
.Const. Sirmond.Linder(n.),no..
.Cod.Theod. , , , trans. Linder (n. ), no. .