from the last years of Constantius’ reign which had supported non-Nicene formu-
lations of faith.
Under the last years of the reign of the emperor Gratian (367– 83 ce) and the
early years of “the most Christian of emperors,” Theodosius I (379 – 95 ce) with
Valentinian II (373 – 92 ce), official imperial policy concerning the public religious
koineand religious dissent changed dramatically; in the 380s pagan state cult and
its supporting institutions came under attack as emperors and Christian authorities set
about institutionalizing Christianity in the east as in the west. In an important edict
of 380 ceaddressed to the people of Constantinople, the emperors Theodosius,
Gratian, and Valentinian II prescribed the Orthodox Catholic faith: “It is Our will
that all the peoples who are ruled by the administration of our Clemency shall prac-
tice that religion which the divine Peter the Apostle transmitted to the Romans. It
is evident that this is the religion that is followed by the pontiff Damasus and by
Peter, bishop of Alexandria” (CTh16.2). This law further defined correct Christian
belief: “We shall believe in the single Deity of the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, under the concept of equal majesty and of the Holy Trinity.” The imperial
view of Christianity was the only acceptable one now. This edict labeled those who
dissented – evidently aiming only at Christians – as “demented and insane,” and guilty
of “the infamy of heretical dogmas”; as to Catholic dissenters, “their meeting places
shall not receive the name of churches, and they shall be smitten first by divine
vengeance and secondly by the retribution of Our own initiative” (CTh16.2.1).
Even if the edict of 380 was not easily enforced, and even if it was only issued in
the eastern empire, the implications of this view of the religious koineand of reli-
gious dissent for Christians and pagans across the empire were ominous. Indeed, less
than two years later, in 382, the boy emperor in the west, Gratian, inspired by
Theodosius’ activities in the east and with the support of his bishop, Ambrose,
confiscated revenues earmarked for maintaining public sacrifices and ceremonies,
diverted to the imperial treasury property willed by senators and Vestals for the
upkeep of pagan ritual, and put an end to the exemption of pagan religious officials
from compulsory public duties (CTh16.10.20, 415 ce, refers to Gratian’s edict).
He also ordered the removal of the Altar of Victory from the Roman senate house
(Symmachus, Relatio3; Ambrose, Epist.17–18). Soon after, he renounced for the
first time ever the title of pontifex maximusof the pagan cults (Cameron 1968: 96 – 9).
Gratian’s undermining of public state cult was extended by the emperor
Theodosius in 392 ceto include the prohibition of all pagan rites and ceremonies,
private as well as public (CTh16.10.12). Prohibition not only of animal sacrifice but
of the offering of incense and candles and the hanging of garlands would have also
affected even private practices, such as the funerary rituals for the dead. Hence, not
only what I have deemed the public religious koinebut its private elements fell under
attack with this 392 law of Theodosius’.
These changes in ritual accompanied changes in the legal status of the public
holidays associated with them; in 389 cea code stipulated a limited list of holidays
that had legal standing (i.e. the courts were closed). Sunday and the holy days of
Easter were to be so recognized, along with Harvest Holidays, Vintage Holidays,
the New Year, the Natalesof Rome and Constantinople, and the birthday and
120 Michele Renee Salzman