Decline of Greco-Roman Polytheism - Toleration and Constantine

Toleration and Constantine

After the initial conflicts between the state and the new emerging religion, Gallienus (ruled 253 to 260) was the first emperor to issue an edict of toleration for all religious creeds including Christianity. According to Christian polemicists writing after his death, Constantine I was baptized as a Christian on his deathbed, which would make him the first emperor to be; no contemporary references exist to him ever having been a Christian during his lifetime. Eusebius, a contemporary Christian historian, also praises him for having some pagan temples torn down. Nevertheless, whatever the imperial edicts said, the effects of policy under the Christian emperors down to Valentinian I and Valens were enough to cause a widespread trend to Christian conversion, but not enough to make paganism extinct. Actual persecution was sporadic and generally the result of local initiative, for example Martin of Tours' destructions of holy sites in Gaul in the later fourth century. Official orders may have established an understanding that actual persecution would be tolerated, but in the first century of official Christianity did not generally organize it.

By the Edict of Milan (313 CE), Constantine continued the policy of toleration, which Galerius had established. His legislation against magic and private divination were driven out of a fear that others might gain power through those means. Nonetheless, this did not mean he or other Roman rulers disfavored divination. Instead, his belief in Roman divination is confirmed by legislation calling for the consultation of augurs after an amphitheatre had been struck by lightning in the year 320. Constantine explicitly allowed public divination as a practice of State ceremony as well as public pagan practices to continue. Constantine also issued laws confirming the rights of flamens, priests and duumvirs.