| Valerian the Elder, was emperor of Rome from 253 AD- 260 AD. In 257 AD, he made moves against the Christians in Rome. First, he ordered Christian clergy to perform sacrifices to the Roman gods or face banishment. The following year, he ordered the execution of Christian leaders. Christian clergy were now ordered to worship the Roman gods or lose their titles and property and those who refused were executed. Eventually, he was taken prisoner of the Persian Sassanian Empire and the rumors of his death and punishments and sufferings were told all around the Roman Empire by Eutropius, writing almost a century later, between 364 and 378 AD. (76) Diocletian ruled from 284-305 AD, and was the last Roman Emperor to persecute Christianity. There were crackdowns in eastern territories of Rome but overall the Christians were not treated too harshly, especially in the areas of Gaul and Britain, where the edicts were seldom enforced. The Diocletianic or “Great Persecution,” as it is often called, ended under Constantine and Licinius's Edict of Milan in 313 AD. In 324 AD, Constantine adopted Christianity as the official State religion of Rome. (77) Diocletian was the first Emperor to move against the Christians by declaring them enemies of the State but afterwards, his successor Galarius issued an Edict of Toleration in 311 AD. (78) Constantine I, was a Roman Emperor who ruled between 306 and 337 AD. In 306 AD, he was made emperor, and set to war against the Emperors Maxentius and Licinius to become sole emperor of all of Rome in 324 AD. In 325, he summoned the Council of Nicaea. (79) In 337 AD, Constantine was baptized. (80) During Constantin’s reign, Christianity fared alright and was treated equally with the other goddess-based fertility religions. During the reign of Theodosius the Great (379-395 AD), Christianity was declared the only lawful religion and all others were outlawed. (81) Theodosius was considered by many the emperor who inaugurated the Dark Ages. Fifteen years after his ascent, in 395 AD, the Visigoths, under Aleric, would invade Rome. (82) It wasn’t until the close of the 4th century AD, with the defeat of Eugenius, the last open defender of the old goddess and nature worship practices, that the Roman church could impose the edict of Theodosius (AD 391), which effectively shut down the worship of anyone but the Roman sanctioned deities. (83) Theodosius fired off a series of proclamations and edicts which began the process of completely eliminating freedoms in the entirely of the Roman Empire, something akin to the moments when the Jedi were all but wiped out by the dark Sith lords. They began by killing all the children first. The decree of February 391 AD, prohibited access to the sanctuaries and temples: “Nobody can approach the sacrificial altars, can walk inside the temples or can worship images forged by human hands.” It renewed the ban of any sacrifice, public or private. |
The decree of June 16, 391 AD, was an extension of the prohibitions to the land of Egypt, where, according to Williams and Friell, in Theodosius - The Empire at bay: “Alexandria enjoyed, since ancient times, the special privileges relating to local cults, which comprised the sacrificial ceremonies.” The next two paragraphs are directly quoted from these authors as it gives a concise accounting of the attack on the faith at that time: “With the third decree of 391, the persecution intensified, and many felt themselves authorized to begin the destruction of pagan buildings. In Alexandria the bishop Teophilus began a systematic campaign of destruction of the temples. The temple of Serapis, Greek-Egyptian divinity who united in himself Zeus and Osiris, was besieged by the Christians. The bishop Teophilus and the prefect Evagrius, together with the men of the military garrison, started the demolition work. The bishop Teophilus wanted to give good example giving the first stroke against the colossal statue of the God Serapis. Analogous episodes happened at Petra, Areopolis, Canopus, Heliopolis, Gaza, and in many other localities.” Continuing: “The fourth decree was emanated in Constantinople by Theodosius November 8, 392. The decree established the pain of death for people who carried out sacrifices and divinatory practices, the confiscation of the places where they carried out the rituals, heavy fines for the decurions who did not apply the law faithfully, the prohibition of libations, altars, votive offerings, torches, domestic divinity of the hearth, crowns and garlands, bands on the trees, etc.” (84) The Romans were the first to impose a separation between ideas of orthodox practices and that of magic. Forms of worship which no longer existed were termed as heretical and “magic” and given a bad name. Magic was eventually mistrusted and although it could not be altogether exterminated, it was made illegal and suppressed over and over during the course of the next 2000 years. (85) (76) Mushrooms, Myths and Mithra p. 31; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerian_(emperor) (77) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diocletianic_Persecution (78) Occidental Mythology, p. 385 (79) ibid, p. 389 (80) Jealous Gods, p. 24 (81) Occidental Mythology, p. 389 (82) ibid, p. 393 (83) Healing Gods, p. 397 (84) Williams S. - Friell G. Theodosius - The Empire at Bay; http://www.maat.it/livello2-i/editti-teodosio-i.htm (85) Healing Gods, p. 404; K.F. Smith, “Magic (Greek and Roman) in ERE viii, 269-276) Pliny says that magic has its origin in medicine (Natural History, xxx, 1-6 |