fifth-century text; Macrobius’ Saturnaliaportrays one of the leading pagans of the
late fourth century, Praetextatus, as arguing that “the supreme god, of whom all
the others are aspects, is the Sun” (Liebeschuetz 1999: 186). The solar monotheism
attributed to Praetextatus has a long history in Greco-Roman thought. Here it is
enough to remark that the worship of Sol was one of the key cults in the fourth
century; Constantine (prior to his conversion) and his father were alleged by some
to be Solar monotheists (Panegyrici Latini 6 (7) 14.3; Drake 2000: 189–90). The
emperor Julian (361–3 ce), too, was especially devoted to the Sun and viewed him
as the supreme god, approaching the sort of pagan monotheism expressed by
Macrobius (Julian, Hymn to Helios, Oration 11, ed. C. Lacombrade, Works of Julian;
and Athanassiadi and Frede 1999: 19). Although the historical Praetextatus was known
as a prominent polytheist (PLRE1.723 s.v. Vettius Agorius Praetextatus), the solar
monotheism ascribed to him in the Saturnaliais in accord with well-attested strands
of fourth-century religiosity, and not at odds with Praetextatus having been a prac-
ticing polytheist.
Interestingly, it has been argued that monotheistic trends spread beyond the
educated pagan elites and philosophical schools to the lower orders of society. The cult
of Theos Hypsistos, although attested mostly in the eastern Roman empire, had also
spread to the west; its worshipers, according to Mitchell, included the members of
all classes – peasants simply praying for good harvests alongside men and women
of all classes asking for health and fertility (Mitchell 1999: 106). Mitchell and others
have argued that this cult was essentially monotheistic, for in it “pagans worship a
single, remote, and abstract deity in preference to the anthropomorphic figures of
conventional paganism” (Mitchell 1999: 92). This cult continued into the fourth
century in the east (Epiphanius, Panarion80.1–2; Gregory of Nazianzus, Oratio
18.5 [PG 35.990]) and thrived in the western empire as well, if we accept that the
inscriptions noting metuentesor god-fearers from Rome, from north Italy at Pola,
and from Numidia can be tied to this cult (Mitchell 1999: 118). Hence, a mono-
theistic approach to private religious belief should also be seen as part of the religious
koineof private cult among certain pagans, educated and not, as well as among
Christians in the fourth-century empire.
Shared burial spaces and rituals
As early as the second century ce, pagans and Christians throughout the Mediter-
ranean world had turned from cremation to inhumation of the dead. And as they
shared similar burial practices, they also shared sacred burial spaces and religious
rituals for the dead. These similarities in the care for the dead are, I would argue
contraRebillard (2003b: 47–55), elements of a shared religiosity, or what I have
called the religious koineof the fourth century.
Despite modern sensibilities to the contrary, there was no legal reason why pagans
and Christians could not share the same private or non-church collegia burial
grounds. Under Roman law, the tomb was considered a sacred space (res religiosa)
(De Visscher 1963: 43– 63); the tomb monument itself became sacred after the body
was placed in it (Digesta11.7.2.5). Because of the sacred nature of the tombs, the
114 Michele Renee Salzman