In the world of 4th century Rome, the empire saw numerous changes. It introduced serfdom at a large scale to Europe, saw the empire split East and West, and the adoption Christianity by the Roman government. Blah blah blah there were a many new religions popping up such as Manicheism, Mithraism, and Christianity... fuck intros, could Julian the Apostate bring the Greco-Roman religion back?
Could Julian the Apostate reinvigorate the Greco-Roman religion? If so how?
- Thread starter LibPrime
- Start date
What do you mean by Greco-Roman religion? Because Julian can certainly reform it into something that can weather the storm of late antiquity using the religious undercurrents of the time, but if you want to maintain it as is, that's a hard sell. The old gods are distant and essentially dead to the Romans.
That said, Isis and ever-rising Dionysus are there as contenders to fight Jesus for the throne of heaven, metaphorically speaking.
That said, Isis and ever-rising Dionysus are there as contenders to fight Jesus for the throne of heaven, metaphorically speaking.
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Yes, I don't think it's difficult to make Christianity recede to a position of one of many empire wide cults if Julian is able to live say another thirty years and is able to make it undesirable for wealthy elites to enter the church in the hope of influence.
I do think he might have needed to rely on something like the cult of Isis which already had a long tradition of "career priests" with strict social requirements who might take some responsibility for charity in their city, rather than trying to make one from scratch for Zeus- and his own theological views might have eventually lead to this given the hymn to the mother of the gods calls her both the mother and spouse of Zeus.
An extra twenty years is probably also long enough to get that second temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, which would go a good way towards discrediting the prophecies of Jesus.
I do think he might have needed to rely on something like the cult of Isis which already had a long tradition of "career priests" with strict social requirements who might take some responsibility for charity in their city, rather than trying to make one from scratch for Zeus- and his own theological views might have eventually lead to this given the hymn to the mother of the gods calls her both the mother and spouse of Zeus.
An extra twenty years is probably also long enough to get that second temple rebuilt in Jerusalem, which would go a good way towards discrediting the prophecies of Jesus.
Could he? Yes. Was he trying to? Yes. Were his reforms really successful? No, because... Was thus it likely for it to happen? Equally no; it didn't simply require to 'bring the old gods back' but a sweeping, deep reconstruction that needed a genius' long reign at least to pull off.
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