Discussion: Theodosius the Great

first, is there any way short of ASB to make Theodosius more tolerant of paganism?

second, would it actually change anything, or is the death of pre-Christian paganism inevitable at this point?
 
First, there is no reason other than choice for Theodosius to call off the Valentinianic consensus of not persecuting privately practiced paganism. This was not determined by anything. There is no reason he couldn't simply say otherwise.

Second, unfortunately that does not mean it won't eventually happen. It won't mean the death of paganism, the next day (IOTL rural pagan practices seem to have continued into the eighth century on papal domains), but with Christianity dominant, the exclusivist imperative will be there all the time. It just takes one emperor to implement it. There won't be any going back.
 
I think traditional Graeco-Roman paganism was always doomed from the moment it made contact with the religions of the East, if not before. Plenty of Greek philosophers were already moving towards the concept of a single deity long before Christianity made a major impact, and given how addicted to Greek philosophy the Roman elite was, I think some sort of monotheism emerging is very likely.

As for Theodosius himself: it's possible he could keep up the state funding of the old cults, but sooner or later a Christian Emperor is going to dump them.
 
what about julian the apostate?

first, is it possible for him to triumph over christianity? if so, how?

second, how would this affect christianity and paganism? how would it affect the roman empire in general?
 
As for Theodosius himself: it's possible he could keep up the state funding of the old cults, but sooner or later a Christian Emperor is going to dump them.

It's one thing for Theodosius to dump the state-funding but what he did 391 AD was to make christianity compulsory and ban all other religions, what would it take for him not to make the edict before his death in 395 AD?
 
what about julian the apostate?

first, is it possible for him to triumph over christianity? if so, how?

second, how would this affect christianity and paganism? how would it affect the roman empire in general?

Not exactly triumph I'd say. I doubt his plans to have paganism coalesce into one religious would be successful. That being said stopping the state sponsoring one Chirstanity over another would mean competing branches of faith could mean multiple strong sects of Christanity not just the two or three we saw in OTL
 
Julian The Apostate had the right idea: his strategy was a long term one that could have worked-I'm not sure he could have created a unified Pagan religion though it's certainly possible. Though splitting and weakening the Church is certainly doable-even to the point where it's pre-eminence may just be broken. Assuming he's followed on the throne by another pagan that shares his philosophy (such as Procopius), I could see the elites starting to distance themselves from Christianity: they converted because they realized Christians would be favored by the emperor for bureaucratic positions in the first place.
 
Top