Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bart9349, post: 2496958, member: 5682&quot;]I always enjoy and learn from these write-ups. Thank you.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here&#039;s part of another perspective on Eugenius that I wrote at another site:</p><p><br /></p><p>The traditional story was that Eugenius was very sympathetic to the Pagans and he really was only a nominal Christian. He certainly had the support of the predominately Pagan Roman Senate (despite possibly strangely not being confirmed by that pro-Pagan Senate).</p><p><br /></p><p>According to popular history, Eugenius promoted some of the Pagan policies and</p><p>supported Pagan temples, both of which had fallen out of favor because of</p><p>recent intolerant Christian emperors. He and his general Arbogast, however, lost</p><p>the pivotal and bloody battle of Frigidus against the militantly Christian Emperor</p><p>Theodosius. Both the usurper and his general soon lost their lives: Eugenius</p><p>was captured and killed, while Arbogast committed suicide. Eugenius was the</p><p>last emperor to support polytheism.</p><p><br /></p><p>Many historians cling to the idea that this was the last stand</p><p>of the noble and enlightened Pagans against the intolerant and culturally</p><p>ignorant Christians.</p><p><br /></p><p>Numismatists have supported this rendition of history, too. They</p><p>point out that Eugenius wears a beard on his coin (rare among</p><p>Christian emperors). This, they contend, is indicative of Eugenius&#039; being a</p><p>philosopher and, thus, more tolerant of Pagans. But wait. This widely accepted</p><p>story might be incorrect.</p><p><br /></p><p>Alan Cameron in his book <i>The Last Pagans of Rome</i> reminds us that</p><p>Eugenius was a teacher of rhetoric, not philosophy. Cameron mentions incidentally</p><p>that Christ, the apostles, and the saints are also shown in the style of</p><p>philosophers with a beard.</p><p><br /></p><p>Cameron writes :</p><p>&quot;[T]he main focus of much modern scholarship has been on</p><p>[the last Pagans&#039;] supposedly stubborn resistance to Christianity. Rather</p><p>surprisingly, they have been transformed from the arrogant, philistine</p><p>land-grabbers most of them were into fearless champions of senatorial</p><p>privilege, literature lovers, and aficionados of classical (especially Greek)</p><p>culture as well as the traditional cults. The dismantling of this romantic myth</p><p>is one of the main goals of this book.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>After plowing through this dense and scholarly tome by Alan Cameron,</p><p>I may have now changed my opinion about the relationship among the fourth</p><p>century Christian and Pagan communities. Cameron may have successfully</p><p>dismantled the romantic mythology of Pagans being the last bastion of enlightened</p><p>ancient culture fending classical civilization against the darkness and</p><p>ignorance of Christianity.</p><p><br /></p><p>Here are two good reviews of the book:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.unrv.com/book-review/last-pagans-rome.php" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.unrv.com/book-review/last-pagans-rome.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.unrv.com/...pagans-rome.php</a></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;The last pagans in Rome were busy administrators who happened not to be Christian. Most of the Christians with whom they dealt likewise did not see the issues of the day purely in terms of who worshipped what. This was after all a time when the Roman empire was undergoing huge changes, with invading armies sweeping across the provinces and economic collapse a stark reality.</p><p>While there were fanatics - mainly on the Christian side - for most aristocratic Romans religious belief was simply not the deciding factor in the issues of the day. However, conversion was a convenient option in an ever more Christian empire, and Rome&#039;s last pagans eventually succumbed - with hardly a whimper.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/417316.article" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/417316.article" rel="nofollow">http://www.timeshigh.../417316.article</a></p><p><br /></p><p>Eugenius&#039; power grab might need to be assessed with this alternative (and thoroughly researched and convincingly argued) background in mind. Eugenius might not have been the last great &quot;hero of the Pagans&quot; once imagined by romantic Pagan apologists.</p><p><br /></p><p>This is one case where the numismatists may have drawn the incorrect conclusions from the evidence.</p><p><br /></p><p>Thank you, again, ValiantKnight, for your excellent work.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in