A Trace Of The Decline Of Paganism In The Late Ancient Times

The temple was an important city landscape in the classical world.This paper mainly studies the intricate fate of the ancient pagan temples based on archaeological and literary evidence.With the aim of discussing the situation of the temples to reflect the religious changes of the Mediterranean world in the late antiquity,this paper will focus The anti-pagan laws of the empire,the attitude of Christianity and the changes of paganism itself,analyzing how these things impact on the temples.The continuation of ancient pagan culture and religious syncretism are also studies in this paper.The first chapter introduces the traditional religion and temples of the Roman Empire.The religion of the Roman Empire consists of three parts.The first part is the local religion of Rome and its surrounding areas.With the gradual expansion of Rome,The gods and worships of other civilizations of the Mediterranean world were also absorbed by the Roman religious system.In the imperial period,the Imperial cult emerged and gradually extended to the whole Mediterranean world,so the temples in the Roman Empire were different in style.In addition to the traditional Greek and Rome Temples,there were also temples of Celtic,Egypt,the Phoenician,the Mesopotamia and other ancient civilizations.The second chapter looks at the external pressures that the pagan temples faced after the rise of Christianity.First,the influence of the emperors' anti-pagan laws on paganism and temples are analyzed,the influence of laws varies from regions and social classes.Then it considers the discrepancies between the literary texts and the archaeological evidence.In the writings of church writers,especially hagiography,temples in the Roman Empire suffered various forms of violence,However,archaeological evidence suggests that the phenomenon of the conversion of ancient pagan temples into churches did not take place on a large scale,and the destruction of temples by Christians was not widespread,and the pagan statues was collected and displayed as works of art,part of the temples was transformed into secular buildings,but the forced closure of temple was a more common phenomenon,which caused a certain blow to paganism.The third chapter considers the influence of the changes of paganism itself on the temple.From the 3rd century AD,the construction of pagan temples stagnated and the size of new temples shrank greatly.While the public sacrifice also experienced a process of decline,so the temple's decline may also be derived from the ritual changes,there seems to be some correlation between the decline of sacrifice and temple building,to some extent the evolution of the paganism itself determined the fate of the temple.The fourth chapter analyzes the regional differences of the destiny of the temples,temples were treated varied greatly according to region,In the West,temple destruction is rare,part of eastern region follows some of the same patterns,but in the,violent destruction seems to be more prominent,One only has to think of the history before the rise of Christianity,the religious relations of Diocese of the East have always been tense,perhaps a long history of violent traditions bred radical Christians in the region.The syncretic co-existence of different religions in the late antiquity are discussed in chapter five,although the Mediterranean world experienced religious changes,the pagan tradition has not been completely rejected,there was significant religious co-existence and syncretism in the late antiquity,some pagan festivals and games survived into the 6th centuries,many pagan elements had been incorporated into Christianity through the forms of festivals,rituals,and art.Paganism continued to exist as some kinds of culture or social customs.In general,the decline of paganism and its temples is a complex process,the destruction and conversion of ancient temples is not common,the end of the temples was slower than once thought,Coercion did contribute to the decline of the temples,but there were other important factor.Paganism as a culture survived for a long period of time,and the process of Christianization was not achieved overnight.