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Paganism in the Greek World at the End of Antiquity: The Case of Rural Anatolia and Greece*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 June 2011
Extract
I propose to discuss what might be called the “mechanics of conversion” in the countryside of the sixth-century later Roman Empire. This process consisted fundamentally in implanting monasteries in districts where few villages had been Christianized, or where the population was nominally Christian but so badly instructed that earlier pagan cult practices persisted. There is considerable evidence for rural conditions in the hagiographic lives of monks and in the ecclesiastical histories of this period. One of the principal difficulties in this sort of study is the geographic distribution of the sources. Hagiographic texts are, in effect, local histories, largely confined to the environs of the monastery. Thus, we are reasonably well informed about western Asia Minor and Galatia in the sixth century, for which sources like this exist, but hardly know anything about paganism in Greece until the tenth century, when monasteries finally began to appear in rural districts.
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References
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51 See note 38 above.
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57 Vita S. Hypatii, 8.
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65 Anrich suggests a possible sequel by quoting a different text, ibid., 17–18 n. 2.
66 Ibid., 19, lines 7–9ff.
67 Ibid., 20, lines 3–4.
68 Ibid., 33, lines 7–8.
69 CJI 11.9.4.
70 Anrich, Hagios Nikolaos, 42–45.
71 Ibid., 55–56.
72 Ibid., 55, lines 16–18.
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80 Ibid., 45.
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86 Festugière, Vie de Théodore, 43.
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88 Ibid., 52A.
89 Ibid., 56A.
90 Ibid., 52B
91 Ibid., 60A
92 Ibid.
93 A dedicatory inscription of Smetchem the protostolist stands in the temple of Isis at Philae, bearing the date 20 December 452 CE Also present is the inscription of Damonikos, Count of the limes of the Thebaid, who repaired the wall at Philae (dated 11–12 December 449 or 468). The latter inscription mentions the bishop Abba Daniel, who was undoubtedly the prelate of the place, which was an episcopal see as early as 362 (Le Quien, Oriens Christianus 2. 613–14). The temple of Isis was not converted into the martyrion of St. Stephen until much later, around 537, during the episcopate of a certain Theodore. It would seem that the pagan and Christian communities coexisted throughout the late fourth and fifth centuries, probably down to the cleansing of the temple mentioned by Procopius ( Wars I.19.37). Procopius mentions a pagan priesthood there when Narses Kamsarakan allegedly demolished the temples. The archaeological evidence does not completely bear out the historian's account, inasmuch as the buildings are still standing. He indicates that the Blemmyes and Nobadae sacrificed at the temple. This fact is not, in itself, inconsistent with the survival of a hereditary Egyptian priesthood there until ca. 537. See, Bernand, Etienne, Les inscriptions grecques et latines de Philae II: Haut et Bas Empire (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1969) 227–32Google Scholar (no. 194), 237–44 (no. 197), 263–67 (no. 203).
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109 Athanasia housed and supported monks at Aegina (ante ca. 860), and eventually established a monastery for women (ActaSS, Aug. III, p. 170d-e [BHG 180]). Hosios Lukas (ob. 935) founded such an institution in Phocis in the second half of the ninth century (PG 111. 441–80 [BHG 994]). Theodora entered a monastery in Thessalonike only after migrating from Aegina with her relatives and other refugees because of Arab sea raids after 826/7 (, Arsenjj, Zhitie i Podvigi sv. Theodora Solunskoj [Jurjev: Mattisen, 1899]) 11–12 (BHG 1737).Google Scholar For chronology see Welter, Gabriel, Aegina (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1938) 111.Google Scholar
110 This problem still awaits definitive study.
111 Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 231–42; idem, “Die Heidenprozesse unter den Kaisern Tiberios II Konstantinos und Maurikios,” in Winckelmann, F., ed., Studien zum 7. Jahrhundert in Byzanz (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1976) 120–30.Google Scholar
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113 Ibid., 241–42.
114 I have myself visited the site and viewed the objects in the Lykosoura Museum, including coin finds from the reign of Tiberius Constantine (578–82). The coins are not cited by Kourouniotes, K., Katalogos tou Mouseiou Lykosouras (Athens: Sakellariou, 1911).Google Scholar For general bibliography, see Stillwell, R. et al., eds., The Princeton Index of Classical Sites (Princeton, 1976) 537.Google Scholar The erection of a chapel (εὐκτήριον) and staffing it with a prosmonarios is attested at the sacred spring of Khonai. Christian and pagan alike continued to frequent the site. A converted pagan erected the structure. This aspect of the story appears to be accurate, despite other mythological elements found in this text. F. Nau, “Le miracle de Saint Michel à Colosses,” PatOr 4. 542–62 (BHG 1282).
115 Ecloga Leonis et Constantini cum Appendice, Appendix 4.20 (ed. Monferratus, A. C.; Athens: Fratrum Perri, 1889) 66–67.Google Scholar
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117 This thesis has never been put forward. Cf. Bon, A., Le Peloponnèse jusqu'au 1204 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1951).Google Scholar It is consistent with the toleration shown the neo-Manichaean Paulician sect in Phrygia and Lycaonia, and later in Armenia, down to the end of the reign of Nicephorus I (803–11). These sectarians of the “Manichaean abomination” were kept in the countryside to preserve the military manpower of the eastern frontier. See Vasiliev, A. A., Byzance et les Arabes I: La dynastie d'Amorium (820–867) (Brussels: Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales, 1935) 227–28.Google Scholar Their subsequent persecution proved to be a politico-military disaster; cf. Bury, John B., A History of the Eastern Roman Empire … (A.D. 802–867) (London: Macmillan, 1912) 276–78.Google Scholar The requirement of expediency is undoubtedly the best explanation for the survival of a pagan Maina. Rochow's objections to the historicity of the DAI text are hardly worth discussing; Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 245–46.
118 Iosephi Genesii Regum Libri Quattuor (ed. Lesmueller-Werner, A. and Thun, I.; Berlin: DeGruyter, 1978) 82–83.Google Scholar
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120 The function of the periodeutes is set forth in the Fifty-seventh Canon of the Council of Laodicea (saec. IV). Cf. the glosses of Balsamon et al. in Rhalles and Potles, Syntagma 3 (Athens, 1853) 222–24.Google Scholar It is uncertain whether Nikon held this rank officially.
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125 The earliest Athonite chrysobulls date from ca. 964 in the reign of Nicephorus II Phocas (963–69), and refer to the Lavra of St. Athanasius. Franz Dölger, Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des oströmischen Reiches von 565–1453 (Munich/Berlin: Oldenbourg, 1924) 1. 90–91, 95 (Tzimisces). The Lavra of the Georgians at Athos was not founded until after the death of George the Hagiorite. Peeters, “Histoires monastiques,” 71–72.
126 Bulgars settled in the vicinity of Hierissos between 913–27 according to an Athonite document. Cf. the discussion of the scholarship in Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 250 n. 2.
127 Franz Dölger has analyzed this text as evidence for a supposed Slavic or proto-Bulgar cult (Ibid.). To my mind, this misses the point. Livadia is certainly a Greek toponym and, as a “high place,” the locality may well have had a temple or grove (as for example of Artemis) in pre-Christian times. No classical site named Livadia is in evidence at Athos. See Hübner, Ulrich, “Die literarischen und archäologischen Zeugnisse über den vorchristlichen Athos,” Antike Welt 16 (1985) 35–44Google Scholar (with extensive bibliography). The localization of place-names will prove difficult until the complete publication of known inscriptions on Athos (Ibid., 40–41).
128 Among the marble objects found at Athos thus far are columns, sarcophagi, funerary steles, and a statue of Attis of Roman date, the last-named having been observed in 1914 in the Vatopedi Library by Charles Avezou (Ibid., 39–40). See the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai in Praeger, T., ed., Scriptores Originum Constantinopolis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1901)Google Scholar, which mentions many statues of pagan gods in Constantinople. The origin of these spolia is not always given. Some examples are a Zeus preserved in the Hippodrome (71, lines 7–9) and a Perseus and Andromeda in the Constantiana baths (72, lines 13–15). A statue (στήλη) of Artemis also stood in the Hippodrome (70, lines 11–12), as well as idols (εἴδωλα) taken from Rome (59, lines 14–16). The survival of statuary in provincial towns is less well attested.
129 Theophanes, Chronographia, 356, lines 8–19.
130 See above, n. 126.
131 Trombley, “Monastic Foundations,” 58–59. Cf. the general observations of Murray, Oswyn, review article, “Ramsay MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order” JRomS 59 (1969) 264–65.Google Scholar
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