🤗 Join our Patreon community: www.patreon.com/Maiorianus

Constantine had to proceed slowly with Christianization, the vast majority of the Empire’s subjects were pagans. I just read an estimate that even by the year AD 400, more than half of the Romans were thought to still be pagans.

The Mitra festival (Mitra Punim) is still celebrated in India. The Multan Sun temple dedicated to Mitra has been destroyed though.

Maiorianus, the scholar of comparative religion Mircea Eliade would say that 'worship' is not the right word to use in describing pagan religious practices. Worship for us is about adoration and abasing ourselves to a transcendent deity. That's Middle Eastern. Romans didn't adore their gods. They thought they were dangerous, and that's why it was so necessary to find out by divination what they would support or oppose. The Roman formula was I give you this that you will give me that. It was a business arrangement created by extremely practical and hard headed people. Another important side of the religion was the cult of the ancestors, which was in the hands of the paterfamilias. According to the historian Franz Cumont, the paterfamilias had his own secret rites which could only be passed on to his sons.

1:40 I love this art style. Like a 2000s video game.

Vestal: "I saw a cute boy yesterday!" 😊 Domitian: "So you have chosen death..."

You should do videos of popular cults in late Rome such as Mithras and Sol Invictus and how they differed from early Roman practice and why these new cults became popular and their origins and effects on society

Ngl, it's pretty hilarious how Theodosius's reaction to pagans complaining about their cults being banned was: "Do you genuinely think I give a damn?"

I think the biggest factor in Christianization was making it hard to transmit your beliefs to the next generation. I suspect many Hellene was buried by their Christian grandchildren.

So glad we have this Channel. One of the top Roman history channels, and there are some good ones

I'd add a mention to Saint Martin of Dume, who even outside of the Roman state in the suebian conquered part of Iberia, worked against pagan practices, whilst documenting them. So, not just the state was working against paganism, the church had its own ways.

It seems like Christianization was a gradual process that slowly consumed Roman culture until it became something that would've been unrecognizable to someone like Augustus or Trajan. What started out as a snowball under Constantine eventually became an avalanche by the time of Justinian.

GK Chesterton nailed it in his book “the Everlasting Man“. People generally stopped believing en masse. They no longer believed the pagan religions, as they did in the Roman republic. The hedonists and stoics were giving way to atheism and despair. The bloodthirstiness in the Colosseum was symptomatic of that. Hardly anyone would die for Zeus or Mithras. Cesar declared himself a god, and that sealed the general unbelief of the populace in their own historical religions. It was on that background that the Christians appeared, the martyrs were willing to die for what they believed in, witnessed by people who no longer had anything worth living or dying for. The Christians had something worth dying for, and that was why the popular shift, not just of the elites, but of the average citizen began towards Christianity. Paganism as serious religion like the pagan philosophies, were already essentially dead. The last thing the old pagans did was to get baptized. But people who hate Christianity are not going to want to hear that.

Commenting and adding emojis help boost the channel❤❤❤Great work, Sebastian, as always.

it's hard to imagine seeing traditions that are over a thousand years old disappear around you. to see the fire of Rome go out from the capital.

From a Greek who is also a Roman, thank you!

This is one of my favourite YT channel.

Great channel that I've learned a tremendous amount of history from. Thanks Sebastian!

I am no expert... but didn't the romans also have a very strong tradition of ancestor worship? Which is what the in home shrines were often used for? Thanks.

Another great video. thank you for covering these niche topics.

From what I understand in the late Roman empire under Constantine if you were Pagan you better not tell anyone....

An another amazing video! Brilliant! Thank you! 💯👍

Pagan temples were essentially banks and treasuries where in exchange for gifts you were entitled to particular pensions or periodic rewards : each deity was a particular banking company specialized in certain goods and domains of economic activities : for instance, Venus was about cosmetics, fashions and all items related to seduction. They were to slowly disappear only when there remained no riches to bank.

Literally my only problem is that Roman polytheists and even early Christians prayed “orans” with their palms extended to the heavens (praying to chthonic deities would usually included turning them down). Otherwise, as always, you are a treasure in this weary world.

Another really first class portrayal of the late Roman empire. Thank you.

Hey, I’ve been a fan of your videos and just wanted to say, keep up the great work. I’m a Catholic Christian, but I still enjoy your channel. Peace ✌🏻 and have a Blessed week.

Bravo for this relevant detail unexplored in History 👍 It would be interesting to know how much panteon of Kelts keep to be venerated in Roman Empire.

A little rough but a good foray for anyone who has little knowledge of this period in time. Things are quite a bit messier though, and require a fair bit of theology, both pagan and Christian, to really suss out. For example, the philosophical schools were not inert through the Roman period but went through periods of innovation and evolution, resulting in a variety of new schools, the most compelling being the Neoplatonism of Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus. Neoplatonism is an attempted synthesis of Greco-Roman philosophy into a unified body of thought and for educated pagans, and Christians, Neoplatonism served as a scaffolding for a more mystical interaction with philosophy and the divine. Most know Julian as a pagan generally but specifically he was a student of Iamblichan Neoplatonism, which distinguishes itself from Plotinus' system in a variety of ways that are tangential to this conversation, but it carries not just Greco-Roman ideas but Egyptian and "Chaldean" ones as well. This system continues to evolve in the 5th and 6th centuries, terminating in Proclus and Damascius, but finds new life in Christian Neoplatonism via characters like Pseudo-Dionysius. Christianity and pagan philosophy are kissing cousins, or "frenemies" perhaps, and remained so until the political situation changed; the calcification of Christian dogma in the face of numerous other schools of Christianity hardened the universalism of orthodox Christianity, bringing a greater zeal to the table, which was already a raging fire. This isn't the whole story either though, as the mystery cults of Antiquity were numerous and by their initiatory nature were not modes of religion that could be easily suppressed; there is also the phenomenon of Hermeticism in places like Alexandria where the Egyptian mysteries were believed to be best preserved. In regards to labels Hellene is a Christian moniker that grows in the late Dominate period; it was, at least at that time, an archaic term for Greeks and their ways and was used to distinguish between ye olden Greeks and the Christian Romans, an identity the Greeks themselves cultivated during the Roman period. A run of the mill Roman probably would've been a bit flabbergasted by it, but it wasn't entirely one-sided either; in the case of Julian, who was entirely enthralled with Hellenism, embraced the label in a kind of rebellious way, to distinguish himself from the Christian elite who raised him and made up his social circle. Honestly you could spend a lifetime reading about this intellectual milieu, so much was going on and there were so many factions, all interacting with each other and riffing on each others' ideas, the closer one looks the harder it is to cut clean lines between "pagans" and "Christians", it's a crude dichotomy that frankly debases the intellectual beauty, and tragedy, of the period, and neglects other phenomena like Manicheanism and Gnosticism. Apologies for the lack of brevity, this is kind of my wheelhouse so I tend to bloviate excessively lol

I just love your content Sebastian I learned so much from you about late Roman history

Thank you for this

Thanks!

Love your channel

Sad to see an ancient European culture and civilization being supplanted by a religion from the Middle East. I wonder why Europe couldn’t maintain Hellenism in the face of this Semitic religion while its cousin Hinduism survived in India despite its Semitic religion?

In Latin pagan originaly meant country people.

the more i learn about the pagans the more i like them .but i can also see why Christianity Islam and Buddhism got so big they wanted to spread their religion while pagans didn't care about that you can believe them or not .sometimes they got violent when you offended them or when they did human sacrifice but that was rare .

Speaking of late pagans, it's quite possible that the guy who wrote the infamous "Historia Augusta" was a closeted pagan, as he clearly shows contempt for Christianity in his work and complains that Rome is now ruled by children, being a possible reference to Honorius and Valentinian III

I appreciate your channel. It explains the period that is usually ignored. Ive been interested in how did such a monumental shift happen between Ancient Rome and the modern western world.

A Wonderful Video.

Thanks from Greece. Our history books were not kind to Julian. The influence of the church lasts till this day…

Can you please talk about Jews in the late Roman empire and in the "Byzantine" empire

I'd make a coop with Schwerpunkt on the topic

I am a Pagan in Alabama!!! I would have to say, just keep pushing and don't let the hater's stop you, Blessed Be.

It must be said that not all Roman subjects were "Hellenes" and I have doubts about how much can be the Roman/Latin religion be considered "Hellene" (even if it was clearly Hellenized it was Jupiter and not Zeus, Mars and not Ares and even Saturn and not Kronos, whom they primarily worshipped/venerated). In any case many followed other traditions such as the Celtic, Berber or Basque ones in the West or the Egyptian and Semitic ones in the East, never mind Persia-imported Manicheanism (a variant of Zoroastrianism), which was also a fad for a long time.

Hail to Maiorianus

Very Nice.

i swear i've heard this music before in a mount and blade mod

Interesting

12:40 isn’t it true that most of the temple destruction was to the East of Greece? Probably because at that time the West was still much more Pagan than the East?

I would assume it was like the Christians of today. Slowly disappearing without so much as a whisper. Just crumbling monoliths of a bygone era.

I wonder about the religions practiced in the African provinces. Although going back to the Punic wars and seeing what remained of Cartage's religions after isn't really in the scope (as that happened a bit too early).

Nice the Pannonian outfit

Alternative title: How life was like for normal people in the late Roman Empire

Its so crazy how the things that happened in Rome thousands of years ago namely defunding temples, mocking of old religious beliefs while not mocking weird aspects of Christianity and state sanctioned slow persecution of non Christians is actually happening right now in Nepal. Most of our leaders either are crypto Christians or have taken bribe from missionaries and now I think in my lifetime ( I m 22 btw) Hinduism and Buddhism and Mundhumism would disappear from Nepal. I am pretty sure we are on a path of becoming next Nagaland and Mizoram.

YOU HAVE WON GALILEAN 😥

👍👍👍

It's interesting to note that King Numa, way back in the early decades of Rome, forbade the portrayal of the gods as humans or animals, so the removal of such depictions under Christian rule would have paradoxically made the temples look more like they would have been under the Roman monarchy.

Greets from Constantinople :)

Love thy neighbor, turn the other cheek. Forgiveness. If Jesus didn't resurrect he'd be rolling in his grave over what the Church did to the Pagans.

There is a certain irony in how early christians were mostly nonviolent and persecuted on and off only to end up violent and highly opressive of anyone that was even mildly different. There are two reasons for this. One is the original trauma of initial persecution which got retold as being far worse than it was made christians insecure about anyone different. Two is the very basis of christian lore. The idea that a brutal apocalypse must come before the second coming. Ie if the whole world is christian then oddly something is wrong since you need opression before Christ returns. In other words you need enemies to war with nonchristians or heretical christians. This is one of the risks of favouring a group that was historically persecuted. It can easily escalate from tolerance to insecurity and violence. I still find it interesting that pagans did not try to fight it out once they saw that their numbers were dwindling. You'd think at some point someone would have decided to go down fighting rather than accept a gradual extinction.

Fucking subbed. PRAISE DEUS SOL INVICTUS! PRAISE HELIOS!!

Whoa

Outside of pic the pagan, I don't think there is a better pagan enthusiast on KZfaq. I love it

lt should be noted that there are theories about the Maniots (the last pagans) not practicing hellenistic paganism but slavic being the descendants of the Melingoi(slavic trbe that settled in the pelloponese around the 7th century with a high degree of autonomy), though modern DNA analysis does not support this.

I find this channel so reductive at times,in other words,getting lost in details and never seeing the bigger picture,kind of frustrating,oh well.

16:45 a lot of people in Africa and some Asian countries still have to do that. either because of Christianity Islam or communism

Emperor Gratian Gave The Title of Pontifex Maximus To The Bishop Of Rome Hence is Called Pope.

If the Late Roman Empire is taken to be from AD 250-550 - then in vast swathes of that ebbing and flowing imperial history relatively little changed .. for most people. True, Aurelian established an imperial Sun Cult as a genuine revivalist movement for the declining civic sense of public worship. Such Roman-era priests, however, whose candidates still bothered to take up the expense of this civil service office, were not the same as Catholic presbyters responsible for the spiritual and material welfare of a community (church or later a parish) .. they were censors, sign-diviners, and readers of entrails. This mattered to the elite, i.e. senators .. pursuing a civil career, it mattered less and increasingly less to the middle class, e.g. yeomen and military careerists .. interested in advancement (at minimal personal or family expense). For the farmer (relatively few in Italy, Sicily and Africa - among the massive slave-worked holdings of the super-rich .. devastated by Germanic intrusions and obliterated by imperial reconquest) and the householder too (villa dwellers and city-dwelling owners) the ordinary routine .. remained an ordinary routine, regardless of changes in imperial policy. Julian's attempt to make the pagan cults more Catholic-like - I know, imagine that - backfired, for the presbyteral offices were just too unlike those of the haruspices and censors, if, that is, it was to make a working effort worth the while; moreover, hecatombs had started to pall in the eyes of the philosophers, civil clerks, and military staff .. being an additional drain on hard-earned resources as well as an appalling spectacle; offerings of bread and wine, offices of hospitality and charity, and ease of state preferments by way of education not games .. won the day (the householder continued to pray for peaceful times and the farmer for the blessings of good weather). Keep the Faith; tell the truth, shame the devil, and let the demons shriek. God bless. ;o)

Hi Sebastian, it was fun to see my name on your list of supporters, but could I be called an Augusta, not an Augustus? It might be time to update your Patreon level names for us gals who love late Roman history.

Late Roman Empire? The Roman Empire can be classified broadly into native Roman Empire & Christian Roman Empire. The Convert Christian Romans, destroyed their own native culture & religion and architecture, holy books & scriptures and books on various subjects. Centuries later, with reinassence, Europeans reverted to their native beliefs and became Neo Christians.

Truly fascinating, I also love this channel. If you haven't already I would recommend a book 'The Darkening Age' by Catherine Nixey. It details the very violent persecution of non Christians over several centuries, almost in the style of the Taliban

The damage the christians did to the word "Ελλην" was so great it took 1000+ years for Greeks to call themselves "Ελληνες" or Greeks again instead of "Ρωμιοι" just before the Greek Revolution began.

all im saying is rome did ok until shortly after that fire was put out

There are books about this. Read Deschners Criminal history of christianity.

Imagine a documentary 2000 years from now titled: How Was Life for People Who Still Believed There Are Only Two Genders in the Late United States of America Period?" Also, too bad the video doesn't mention that the Persian Cult of Mithraism popular among Roman troops believed their cult figure Mithridates was born under the sign of a shooting star. Another very popular cult was the Egyptian Cult of Isis in which the goddess Isis was born of a virgin mother goddess, and cult worshippers would march through the streets with statues of the mother goddess cradling the newborn virgin goddess Isis. Does any of this sound familiar?

Sith happen

a lot of rural people in the medieval period wanted to be both Christian and pagan at the same time like they actually believed in Jesus and the pagan gods at the same time strange but true you can still see similar believes in parts of Africa and south east Asia today but it was eventually stomped out in Europe. but even that is not certain because some old people in my area would sometimes sacrifice things to the swamp .but they didn't even know why they just said it brings good luck but it resembles Germanic and Celtic traditions. but it could have been something they made up in the 19th century for all we know

Did the Romans have a BBQ after an animal sacrifice? I would think Sunday would be a good day to sacrifice a chicken, for instance....🍗

❤‍🩹

If you're interested in the history of Rome from founding to the fall of Italy's Roman empire (not including the Byzantine era, aka Late Roman era), check out 'The History of Rome' podcast by Mike Duncan. He also did the 'Revolutions' podcast. Both podcasts are purely audio in nature.

I have a Question. Re. ' sacrifice animals. Yes. I know, they ask ' gods blessing. But didn't they BBQ too?? Wasn't it a big Dinner - at - the Temple??

Religion is a very peculiar phenomenon and I think it is strictly linked with social practice and the customs of the culture you live in. If all the people around you go to the temple and sacrifice to gods and think they can get something important in their lives by sacrifing to a specific god, this is what you too will do. If you love in a society with many different habits, you will probably attach to those of your family to keep a sense of belonging and identity. If the people in power oblige you to behave in a certain way, you will probably choose to obey, unless you have a strong belief

with the advent of Christianity exclusivity entered the realm

Your view of Roman religion is backwards. All the indo-European descended from a common religion that changed but retained many of the same gods as they become distinct groups during the expansion Which is why the Romans always tried to match up gods of other peoples to see if they were related or not. Jupiter/Zeus/Indra/Thor/Taranis where all the same deity from the original religion as they spread out from their homeland.

The Roman Empire's final demise occurred after it converted to Christianity, as the fire in the temple of Vesta was put out as being 'pagan'. Related?

It's very Interesting that mankind changes who and what he worships but the cult like ritual patterns continue as a species. Many gods reflect ourselves since we only recognize our behaviors in these gods which require ritual sacrifice of some living organism. It is meeting our theoretical expectations of what is required to reflect respect to these dieties. This pattern is carried into Christian rituals. Infallible Pope's, religious consuls, temples, or churches in which we have symbols to maintain focus on religious beliefs! We create saints just like Roman emperors become gods!!!! Sainthood?? Are we missing a major understanding in the concept of the here after when, in truth, we are a great component of a universality of consciousness as a process. We resort to making a mental construct based on our linear knowledge. When in truth, our immorality is like a ball of existence. Total ingretated in all life forms together being one in a total consciousness?? We are and will always be as "one." Watching this video helps make me more aware of our centuries of limited understanding of awareness of being in a purpose.

It makes me sad that they couldn’t practice their religion. And to all the people saying that christianity is dying…it doesn’t seem to be. They managed to pretty much get rid of abortion in the US so that shows they still have power and followers.

The Arch Heretic Justinian persecuted the true (Oriental) Orthodox Church as well as pagans ironically

The real question here is why was it actually Christianity that spread in the Roman Empire and not Judaism?

Един Бог е известен на всички нас и това е християнския Бог. И една империя е известна на всички нас и това е Римската империя.

lol

The short answer is bad

Rome had to wait for Christianity to dominate to delve into true intolerance! Believe in Jesus, the Princeof Peace, or die!

also how was life for, none conforming alternate denominations of Christianity, deviating from the churches controlled from Constantinople or Rome. One thing thats often forgot is how many variations of CHristianity there were most declared heretics by church officials controlled by a monarch. Its just one of the reasons I can never support any Christian churches with strong international Hierarchies with fixed Dogmas instead of local and autonomous Christian sects open to interpret the bible according to what modern society think is important.

To those pagans you reap what you sowed...

Funny thing is that Muslims have 3 country inside europe . 1 bosnia 2 Albania 3 kosovo. But pagans have no country inside europe. 😂

We Hindus are the last pagan of the world and yet we are majority in India. We pagans around the world whoever our gods are can join hands against abrahamic religion such as Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Islam and Christianity dominated india too but fail to destroy paganism there. We Hindus still hold the line. We would be world's largest pagan community if all pagans around the world join and form a large brotherhood. We need such solidarity in the eve of rising threat of Islam and Christianity. Think and comment

Christ is God and savior.☦️

The poet Claudian claimed that the Statue of Victory (if not the Altar) was back in the Senate in 403. Some historians think that the emperor's removing and replacing "Victory" refers to the Altar rather than the statue. Sheridan suggests that "the fate of the Altar and Statue of Victory was finally sealed by the law of 408 against heathen statues," citing Codex Theodosianus XVI,10, 19 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altar_of_Victory

Now we know why Rome fell. The ancient Gods were named from the Senate. That simplifies history a lot.

Paganism are gone for good. Thank God. 😇🙏