superstitio

Christianity in Rome

oglesby@uoregon.edu

 It seems as though christianity hits all of the buttons that Rives lists in his chapter that would have the Romans react to it in a negative way. They didn’t practice animal sacrifice, they didn’t honor the gods of Rome, and the religious power of their tradition was out of the hands of the Roman elite. In short they were considered atheists, in the sense that they didn’t honor the gods in the proper way, and superstitious. A few of these issues seem to illustrated in a letter written by Pliny to the emperor Trajan regarding his treatment of Christians. His policy, laid out in the letter is that when a Christian is charged he gives them a chance to repent and honor the gods and the emperor. If they take this opportunity they are spared, and if not the accused is put to death. This section is Pliny talking about what success he has had with this strategy. “The contagion of this superstition has spread not only to the cities but also to the villages and countryside, but it can probably be arrested and cured. It is quite clear that the temples which has been almost deserted for a long time have begun to be frequented and that the sacred rituals that has long lapsed are being revived, and that there is a general demand for sacrificial animals which, for some time, were finding very few buyers.”(Warrior, 15.5) Clearly high on his list of concerns is the lack of traditional Roman cultic practice and ritual sacrifice. 

Another letter, this time written by a christian called Minicius Felix lists some of the common views on Christians, calling them a wicked rabble of illiterates and women that “despise political offices” (Warrior 15.7) and meet in secret to eat human flesh and engage in lustful and incestuous acts (Warrior, 15.7-9). If these were common views of Christians at the time then it explains why the ßRomans treated them with the scorn that they did.

A good example of Christian response to these claims of atheos and lack religious respect for the emperor is given by Tertulian in his Apology. In it he basically says that they cant offer sacrifices to the gods, because there is only one god to be honored and the others don’t exist. He also says that they are constantly praying for the good health and success of the emperor, they just don’ do this by performing animal sacrifice, “The Christians are considered public enemies because they will not give the emperors vain, false and rash honors, and because they celebrate the emperors’ festivals as men of true religion, in their hearts rather than in licentious behavior.”(Warrior 15.15) He further goes on to say that the association isn’t clandestine or evil, it is just people trying to help each other where they can.

After the initial persecution of Christians it got much worse before it got better. First there was Diocletian’s great persecution(Warrior 15.21) followed by Galerius declaring Christianity illegal (Warrior 15.22) However, it slowly, then very rapidly got better for the Christians in the Roman Empire. As time went on and more and more Romans, and specifically elite Romans became christian the Imperial policy toward Christianity began to soften before coming to a head with the Emperor Constantine converting to Christianity in 312 (Rives, 200). This conversion would then lead to ban on pagan religion and Christianity becoming the law of the land, certainly a major jump from a time when professing your faith as a Christian merited a death sentence. To conclude and emphasize how much the prevailing attitudes in Rome had changed by the late 300s BCE, here is a quote from Symmachus, the pagan prefect of Rome from a letter he wrote to a Christian emperor, “And so we are asking for amnesty for the gods of our fathers, our native gods. It it reasonable to assume that whatever each of us worships is one and the same…What difference does it make which system each of us uses to seek the truth? It is not by just one route that man can arrive at so great a mystery.”(Warrior, 15.27)

Christianity in the Roman Empire

jeromej

As Rives makes clear throughout his chapter, the primary goal of Roman religious policy was to protect and maintain public peace and order (190).  In the eyes of many roman citizens and officials, the only way to secure such a peace was through correct religious observance to the gods, thus upholding the pax deorum. Rives describes two classes of religious observance that were viewed as a direct threat to religious peace. The first class is the atheos, which describes those who show insufficient respect to the gods. In contrast to the atheos, those who were defined as superstitio were thought to exhibit improper, unacceptable, incorrect religious behavior (184).  For some romans, superstitio was the worst offense a citizen could make in religious practice. Plutarch even held the opinion that belief in no gods at all is better than belief in gods who are arrogant, captious, and petty (185).  With these attitudes towards religious dissent, it comes as no surprise that Christianity would come to stand at odds with mainstream Roman religio, and by consequence Roman public order.

The Roman perception of early Christianity is best captured by Tacitus’ account of great fire in Rome that occurred under the rule of Nero. Tacitus recalls that “The deadly superstitio was checked for a time only to break out again, not only in Judea, the source of the evil, but even in the capital itself, where all things hideous and shameful collect from everywhere and become all the rage” (Warrior 175). Superstitio is not just offensive or inconvenient for Roman rule, it is described as lethal. With such a view, it makes perfect sense why Christians would serve as a scapegoat for a major disturbance of public order. Interestingly though, Tacitus claims that the Christians charged were not found guilty on the grounds of arson directly, but rather for their “hatred of the human race” (Warrior 175).  Because Roman religious and political life was so closely united, the Christian rejection of Roman religio was seen as a politically subversive act directed not only at the gods, but towards roman citizens and officials as well. In response to these accusations, prominent Christians like Tertullian claim that they have nothing but the well-being of the empire in their mind. He states that on behalf of the well-being (salus) of the emperors, we invoke the eternal God, the true God, the living God… We pray that they may have long life, secure rule, a safe home, strong armies, a faithful senate, honest subjects, and a peaceful world” (Warrior 179-180). Even though Christians don’t observe public cultic practice, it does not mean that they wish to cause any form of political strife or upheaval. In the eyes of Tertullian, it is actually the Christians who should be seen as responsible for upholding roman peace and public order, because they are invoking the one true God. Thus, Roman officials should view Christians as pious and not superstitious.

Despite these arguments form early Christians, Roman policy for Christians remained a reactionary effort to suppress any upheaval they might cause in public order. Trajan himself states that when dealing with Christians “It is not possible to lay down any general rule that could provide a fixed standard” (Warrior 178). Nevertheless, he praises Pliny the Younger for his policy of dealing with Christians as they were brought before him, but never actively seeking them out. This method remained the standard precedent for many years until the persecutions of Decius and Diocletian during the third and early fourth centuries. These changes in policy targeted those men “who set up new-fangled and unheard-of sects in opposition to the older religious practices” (Warrior 183).  While this policy was not exclusive to Christianity, it clearly made them a target to be sought out and suppressed. Interestingly enough, this mentality is maintained even after Constantine’s victory and the Empire-wide acceptance of Christianity; this time, however, the roles have been reversed. Speaking about public policy on cultic practice, Constantius makes his views clear when he states that “all superstitions must be abolished” (Warrior 184).  It is now the old Roman cults that are viewed as superstitio and subversive to public peace and order.