I recently came across an excerpt from ‘De Rebus Bellicis’ which made the suggestion that Constantine got the gold for his big solidus launch on the back of his religious conversion – so - a bit like Henry VIII – he got access to gold by taking possession of the icons and trappings of houses of a prior religious order. Do other ancient texts make the same point? Am wondering how seriously to take the suggestion? (not least because it did not work out well for H. VIII) Taking the matter further – I notice Harl (p.159) – makes a different but parallel point that Constantine got a good income from fixing a lower weight standard that his “pagan” predecessors. It certainly looks to me like he was taking a seigniorage. So - Harl also has him “getting gold from pagans”, but in a completely different way. Or perhaps there was just one way – and the anonymous author of De Rebus Bellicis was confused? (A pity there is no translation). Thanks Rob T
I have never read of similar sir. You would think if this was widespread then it would have been noted more widely at the time. I know much was written how the last Byzantine emperor stripped silver from churches to pay for the defense of Constantinople. In Constantine's time the whole empire was not Christian, so you would imagine if this were true it would have created more of an uproar. Now, recalling and retariffing coins was a "time honored" way of increasing seignorage. That would not surprise me at all. Just my thoughts sir.
Thanks for the Knighthood! However: note Libanius' De templis http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/libanius_pro_templis_02_trans.htm The translator - one Dr. Lardner – thinks both the below refer to Constantine…... “for the building of the city which he then designed he made use of the sacred money,” and “they mention him who spoiled the temples [of their revenues and gifts]” Rob T
Very interesting. I imagine that as Christianity became more established in the fourth century that an increasing number of pagan temples and shrines were despoiled of gold.
I remember reading in at least one book about Constantine stripping pagan temples of their wealth...maybe Timothy Barnes.
I too dimly recall reading that the closing of the pagan temples in Constantinian times and later was indeed a very profitable move for the powers that be, since the temple treasuries were loaded with loot. Piety or profit? History gets so confusing... Along the same lines I recently read a very good book on Egyptian archaeology where Dynastic tombs were being described. Of course most of them were looted in antiquity. What I did not know was that the robbers were often priests and their minions working in an official capacity to strip the gold and other valuables from older tombs. This was done to fill imperial coffers during times of war, economic troubles, imperial profligacy. Apparently the priests left tags describing the looting - they didn't call it that, of course. They described what they were doing as rededications, relocations, preservation and security efforts, etc. I don't have the source at hand, so sorry for the sketchy description. I'm sure there are some Egyptologists on CT who can be more specific and accurate.
Two comments: The destruction of the temple of Serapis is recounted here (public domain content): https://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/greece/paganism/serapeum.html The destruction of the Temple of Serapis (the Serapeum) at Alexandria is related in the ecclesiastical histories of the church fathers. Encouraged by the imperial edict addressed to the prefect of Rome prohibiting pagan worship (Codex Theodosius, XVI.10.10), Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, took the cult objects that had been found during the conversion of a pagan temple and contemptuously paraded them in the street, holding them up to ridicule. A riot was provoked and Christians killed. Just four months after promulgating his first edict in February AD 391, Theodosius I was obliged to reiterate the prohibition against pagan worship (CTh. XVI.10.11), this time in a rescript addressed to the prefect and military governor in Egypt. Taking refuge in the Serapeum, the pagans of Alexandria fortified it against attack, forcing Christians who had been captured to sacrifice there and torturing them if they refused. Writing in AD 402, Rufinus, who may have been witness to some of the events he describes, says that the Serapeum was elevated on an enormous platform, a hundred or more steps high. "In it there was a statue of Serapis so large that its right hand touched one wall and its left the other [built to house only the statue, the temple itself was not very large]; this monster is said to have been made of every kind of metal and wood. The interior walls of the shrine were believed to have been covered with plates of gold overlaid with silver and then bronze, the last a protection for the more precious metals" (Ecclesiastical History, XI.23) ---------- With regard to the Egyptological question, there are good reasons to believe that the tomb robbery was an established practice, with generations of higher officials acting as "fences" for stolen goods. One of the problems with absconding of such high value grave goods and precious metals for an average thief was the difficulty of disposing of the items. One could not simply walk into the marketplace with a gold scepter and exchange it for sacks of grain. Since Egypt was a non-monetary society where everything was in-kind, cashing out of newfound wealth was a major challenge. Hence, most modern Egyptologists believe that officials were paid off to look the other way and that even higher layers of the society were actively involved in the plundering, as you suggest.
I quickly looked in Barnes Constantine : Dynasty, Religion and Power in the Later Roman Empire and found several references. "The building and beautification of Constantinople was funded by a major program of confiscations (Bonamente 1992)" pg 129 "Constantine conducted a systematic confiscation of temple treasures throughout the territories which he conquered in 324...temple treasures in the West were still untouched in 343." pg 130 there is a lot in Eusebius about pagan temples being stripped of valuables. Palladas even alludes to melting down of statues of gods to produce coins--- "Having become Christian, owners of Olympian palaces dwell here unharmed; for the melting pot that produces the life-giving follis will not put them in the fire."
Yes – I was looking at the the Jonathan Bardill book (google: Jonathan Bardill Temple and pick page 264 or see link below). He says much the same thing. With sources agreeing from both sides of the rift, Christian and Pagan, it looks very likely to me. In fact there seem to be three different special sources – one from the weight reduction of the “pagan” gold, one from physical removal of metal from Temples, but lastly, one of taking over Temple revenues. This ‘taking over of Temple revenues’ sounds like it might have been rather profitable….. Rob T https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...WO8AcgQ6AEwAnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=264&f=false
I wouldn’t be surprised if Constantine got a nice windfall from the closure and “looting” of pagan temples. I mean. IF you happen to have a solid gold cult statue in a pagan temple, and paganism is now illegal - what other reasonable option do you have with that gold?
I am only just digging into this a little, but yes – Constantine’s doings in this regard look rather restrained and piecemeal compared with what happened under Theodosius. So this Serapeum matter is a bit of a diversion from the original question, but an interesting one. The sort of religiously driven vandalism of the 390’s seems to me very similar to what happened under Cromwell in England in the mid 17th century, but also what we saw Islamic fundamentalists doing very recently (eg with Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan). But the really striking matter is that it seems also to be recorded amongst the Neolithic monuments in Brittany – which sometime prior to c. 4,000 BC had carvings of animals and the like on the stones of monuments – monuments that were apparently destroyed and replaced by ones with Geometric designs. If so – such doings are way older than history – and tell us something rather profound about human societies. What it tells me is - be wary of self-righteous political correctness. But that is maybe a personal view, as I often enough seem to be in the minority Rob T
