Jews and Others
landscape. There are slight traces of such purpose-built churches before the
conversion of Constantine in ; but it was the wave of church building,
mainly in basilica form, immediately after that, which began the transfor-
mation of the ancient city.^21
The Conversion of Constantine and Its Consequences
The conversion of Constantine to Christianity in is both an undeniable
historical fact and (it could be argued) a significant turning point in the na-
ture of the state. For it was from that moment that religious conviction came
to structure the activities of the state in a quite new way; above all the Chris-
tian emperors came, step by step, to define the rights of their subjects differ-
entially, in terms of their attachment to different religious groups. The year
was not, however, the moment when Christianity became ‘‘the official
religion of the Roman state.’’ For, firstly, there was as yet no such thing; and,
secondly, what it did was to make Christianity (whether ‘‘Catholic’’ or Arian)
the religion of successive emperors, other than Julian (..–).
It is curious that, in spite of many discussions of various aspects,^22 it re-
mains very difficult to analyse or sum up the impact of the Christian beliefs
of Constantine and his successors on the pagan cult practices of the empire.
What is certain is that a few prominent temples in the Greek East were de-
stroyed by imperial action already under Constantine;^23 that large amounts
of treasure and ornaments were looted from temples;^24 and that a succession
of imperial pronouncements were directed against sacrifice, divination, and
magical practices.^25 But it is equally certain that for more than half a century
the vast majority of pagan temples remained open, and that cults and sac-
rifices continued. A new, more emphatically Christianising phase, to which
we will return below, opened only in the s, to reach a sort of culmination
in the s.
The significance of the period from to the s in the history of dias-
pora Judaism is, firstly, that it was a unique phase of overt co-existence, com-
petition, and conflict between fundamentally different religious systems.
. R. Krautheimer, ‘‘The Constantinian Basilica,’’Dumbarton Oaks Papers (): ;
R. Milburn,Early Christian Art and Architecture(), ff.
. E.g., A. Alföldi,The Conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome(); R. MacMullen,
Christianising the Roman Empire(); T. D. Barnes, ‘‘Christians and Pagans in the Reign of
Constantius,’’L’église et l’empire au IVesiècle(Entretiens Hardt , ), .
. Eusebius,Life of Constantine, –.
. Eusebius,Life of Constantine, .
. Eusebius,Life of Constantine, ;Cod.Theod.,,ff.