LATE ANTIQUE PAGANISM: ADAPTATION UNDER DURESS

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which worshippers of the old gods adapted to the new world order of the 4th c. Roman empire, where emperors, through various pronouncements, consistently attacked elements of their religious infrastructure and rituals. This included forbidding divination sacrifices, temple funding, and eventually led to the temples’ definitive closure. This led to a privatisation of pagan worship and then to secrecy, a process difficult to detect in the archaeological record.