Realia versus leges ? les sacrifices de la religion d’État au IV e siècle

The study of Roman legislation from Constantine to Theodosius I highlights the fact that there was no systematic legal process intended to forbid pagan cults - therefore sacrifices - before the end of the fourth century. Until the early 380s, the state religion remained a ritualistic, traditional one. Divinatory practices using sacrifice were common in public and in private as well, even at philosophers: according to Iamblichus, they considered sacrifice as necessary to theurgy. Prohibition only addressed nocturnal and domestic practices, which were suspected of being deviant. Public sacrifices, however, became less frequent, a phenomenon linked to the Christianisation of the imperial staff and to the attraction of a “spiritualized” form of religiosity; the failure of Julian’s ritualistic episode is a proof of the change. On the contrary, private sacrificial practices had always been prohibited, because the political power was afraid of the potential, revolutionary consequences of this type of divination. Christian historiography extended these prohibitions to any type of sacrifice, because it considered sacrifice as a whole as demoniac

Art · Divination · Historiography · Humanities · Literature · Political science · Politics · Sacrifice · Separation of church and state · Theology · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies

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