Christianization

=== Temple and icon destruction ===
During his long reign (307 - 337), [[Constantine the Great|Constantine]] (the first Christian emperor) both destroyed and built a few temples, plundered more, and generally neglected the rest.{{sfn|Wiemer|1994|p=523}} 
[[File:Constantine's conversion.jpg|thumb|left|''Constantine's conversion'', by [[Peter Paul Rubens|Rubens]]|alt=Ruben's painting of Constantine's conversion]]
In the 300 years prior to the reign of Constantine, Roman authority had confiscated various church properties. For example, Christian historians recorded that [[Hadrian]] (2nd century), when in the military colony of [[Aelia Capitolina]] ([[Jerusalem]]), had constructed a temple to [[Aphrodite]] on the site of the [[crucifixion of Jesus]] on [[Calvary|Golgotha]] hill in order to suppress veneration there.{{sfn|Loosley|2012|p=3}} Constantine was vigorous in reclaiming such  properties whenever these issues were brought to his attention, and he used reclamation to justify the destruction of Aphrodite's temple. Using the vocabulary of reclamation, Constantine acquired several more sites of Christian significance in the Holy Land.{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=30}}{{sfn|Bradbury|1994|p=132}} 

In Eusebius' church history, there is a bold claim of a Constantinian campaign to destroy the temples, however, there are discrepancies in the evidence.{{sfn|Bradbury|1994|p=123}} Temple destruction is attested to in 43 cases in the written sources, but only four have been confirmed by archaeological evidence.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|pp=xxvii, xxiv}}{{refn|group=note|At the sacred oak and spring at [[Mamre]], a site venerated and occupied by Jews, Christians, and pagans alike, the literature says Constantine ordered the burning of the idols, the destruction of the altar, and erection of a church on the spot of the temple.{{sfn|Bradbury|1994|p=131}} The archaeology of the site shows that Constantine's church, along with its attendant buildings, only occupied a peripheral sector of the precinct, leaving the rest unhindered.{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=31}}{{paragraph break}} In Gaul of the fourth century, 2.4% of known temples and religious sites were destroyed, some by barbarians.{{sfn|Lavan|2011|pp=165–181}} In Africa, the city of Cyrene has good evidence of the burning of several temples; Asia Minor has produced one weak possibility; in Greece the only strong candidate may relate to a barbarian raid instead of Christians. Egypt has produced no archaeologically confirmed temple destructions from this period except the [[Serapeum of Alexandria|Serapeum]]. In Italy there is one; Britain has the highest percentage with 2 out of 40 temples.{{sfn|Lavan|2011|p=xxv}}}} Historians Frank R. Trombley and [[Ramsay MacMullen]] explain that discrepancies between literary sources and archaeological evidence exist because it is common for details in the literary sources to be ambiguous and unclear.{{sfn|Trombley|1995a|pp=166–168, 335–336}} For example, [[John Malalas|Malalas]] claimed Constantine destroyed all the temples, then he said [[Theodosius I|Theodisius]] destroyed them all, then he said Constantine converted them all to churches.{{sfn|Trombley|2001|pp=246–282}}{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|p=110}}{{refn|group=note|A number of elements coincided to end the temples, but none of them were strictly religious.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=82}} Earthquakes caused much of the destruction of this era.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=28}} Civil conflict and external invasions also destroyed many temples and shrines.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=xxvi}} Economics was also a factor.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=82}}{{sfn|Bradbury|1995|p=353}}{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=60}} 
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The Roman economy of the third and fourth centuries struggled, and traditional polytheism was expensive and dependent upon donations from the state and private elites.{{sfn|Jones|1986|pp=8–10;13;735}} Roger S. Bagnall reports that imperial financial support of the Temples declined markedly after Augustus.{{sfn|Bagnall|2021|pp=261–269}} Lower [[budget]]s meant the physical decline of [[Urban area|urban]] structures of all types. 
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This progressive decay was accompanied by an increased trade in salvaged building materials, as the practice of [[recycling]] became common in Late Antiquity.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=2}} Economic struggles meant that necessity drove much of the destruction and conversion of pagan religious monuments.{{sfn|Leone|2013|p=82}}{{sfn|Bradbury|1995|p=353}}{{sfn|Brown|2003|p=60}}}} 
[[Image:Athena9.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Head of [[Aphrodite]], 1st century AD copy of an original by [[Praxiteles]]. The Christian cross on the chin and forehead was intended to "deconsecrate" a holy pagan artifact. Found in the [[Ancient Agora of Athens|Agora of Athens]]. [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens|National Archaeological Museum in Athens]].]]
Additional calculated acts of desecration – removing the hands and feet or mutilating heads and genitals of statues, and "purging sacred precincts with fire" – were acts committed by the common people during the early centuries.{{refn|group=note|There are only a few examples of Christian officials having any involvement in the violent destruction of pagan shrines. [[Sulpicius Severus]], in his ''Vita,'' describes [[Martin of Tours]] as a dedicated destroyer of temples and sacred trees, saying "wherever he destroyed [[heathen temple]]s, there he used immediately to build either churches or monasteries".{{sfn|Severus – Vita}} There is agreement that Martin destroyed temples and shrines, but there is a discrepancy between the written text and archaeology: none of the churches attributed to Martin can be shown to have existed in Gaul in the fourth century.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=178}} {{paragraph break}}

In the 380s, one eastern official (generally identified as the praetorian prefect [[Maternus Cynegius|Cynegius]]), used the army under his control and bands of [[monk]]s to destroy temples in the eastern provinces.{{sfn|Haas|2002|pp=160–162}} According to [[Alan Cameron (classicist)|Alan Cameron]], this violence was unofficial and without support from Christian clergy or state magistrates.{{sfn|Cameron|2011|p=799}}{{sfn|Salzman|2006|pp=284–285}}}} While seen as 'proving' the impotence of the gods, pagan icons were also seen as having been "polluted" by the practice of sacrifice. They were, therefore, in need of "desacralization" or "[[deconsecration]]".{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=649–652}} Antique historian [[Peter Brown (historian)|Peter Brown]] says that, while it was in some ways studiously vindictive, it was not indiscriminate or extensive.{{sfn|Brown|1998|p=650}}{{sfn|Bayliss|2004|pp=39, 40}} Once temples, icons or statues were detached from 'the contagion' of sacrifice, they were seen as having returned to innocence. Many statues and temples were then preserved as art.{{sfn|Brown|1998|p=650}} Professor of Byzantine history Helen Saradi-Mendelovici writes that this process implies appreciation of antique art and a conscious desire to find a way to include it in Christian culture.{{sfn|Lavan|Mulryan|2011|p=303}}

Aspects of paganism remained part of the [[Civic political culture|civic culture]] of the Roman Empire till its end. Public spectacles were popular and resisted Christianization: [[Gladiator|gladiatorial combats]] (''munera''), [[Venatio|animal hunts]] (''venationes''), [[Ludi|theatrical performances]] (''ludi scaenici''), and [[Chariot racing|chariot races]] (''ludi circenses'') were accommodated by Roman society even while that society disagreed and debated the definition and scope of christianization.{{sfn|Lim|2012|pp=497-498}} Historian of antiquity Richard Lim writes that it was within this process of debate that "the category of the [[secular]] was developed ... [which] helped buffer select cultural practices, including Roman spectacles, from the claims of those who advocated a more thorough christianization of Roman society."{{sfn|Lim|2012|p=498}} This produced a vigorous public culture shared by polytheists, Jews and Christians alike.{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=652–653}}{{refn|group=note| By the time a fifth-century pope attempted to denounce the [[Lupercalia]] as 'pagan superstition', religion scholar [[Elizabeth A. Clark|Elizabeth Clark]] says "it fell on deaf ears".{{sfn|Clark|1992|pp=543–546}} In Historian [[Robert Austin Markus|R. A. Markus's]] reading of events, this marked a colonization by Christians of pagan values and practices.{{sfn|Markus|1990|pp=141–142}} For Alan Cameron, the mixed culture that included the continuation of the circuses, amphitheaters and games – sans sacrifice – on into the sixth century involved the secularization of paganism rather than appropriation by Christianity.{{sfn|Cameron|2011|pp=8–10}}}}

The Roman Empire cannot be considered Christianized before [[Justinian I]] in the sixth century, though most scholars agree the Empire was never fully Christianized.{{sfn|Brown|1998|pp=652–653}}{{sfn|Lim|2012|p=497}} Archaeologist and historian [[Judith Herrin]] has written in her article on ''"Book Burning as Purification"'' that under Justinian, there was considerable destruction.{{sfn|Herrin|2009|p=213}} The decree of 528 barred pagans from state office when, decades later, Justinian ordered a "persecution of surviving Hellenes, accompanied by the burning of pagan books, pictures and statues". This took place at the ''Kynêgion''.{{sfn|Herrin|2009|p=213}} Herrin says it is difficult to assess the degree to which Christians are responsible for the losses of ancient documents in many cases, but in the mid-sixth century, active persecution in Constantinople destroyed many ancient texts.{{sfn|Herrin|2009|p=213}}
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