Christian Influence on the Roman Calendar. Comments in the Margins of C. Th. 9.35.4 = C. 3.12.5 (a. 380)1/ Wpływ chrześciaństwa na kalendarz rzymski. Uwagi na marginesie C. Th. 9.35.4 = C. 3.12.5 (a. 380)

Jacek Wiewiorowski

doi:10.31743/sp.10615

Abstract

The text analyses Christianisation of the Roman calendar in the light or the Roman imperial constitutions in the 4th century. The author first of all underlines that only humans recognise religious feasts despite that human perception of time is not that remote from the apperception of time in the case of other animals and that the belief in the supernatural/religion and rituals belong to human universals, the roots of which, together with the judiciary, are to be sought in the evolutionary past of the genus Homo. Furthermore, the author deduces that the first direct Christian influence on the Roman official calendar was probably C. Th. 9,35,4 = C. 3,12,5 (a. 380), prohibiting all investigation of criminal cases by means of torture during the forty days which anticipate the Paschal season, contesting the opinion that dies solis were regarded as dies dominicus (Christian Sunday) already in C. Th. 2,8,1 and C. 3,12,2 (a. 321). Finally, on the margin of the Polish debate concerning the limitation of legal trade during Sundays, when Constantinian roots of dies dominicus were quoted frequently and with great conviction, the limitations of politics of memory are underlined.

Highlights

The term dies solis may surely be considered identical with the Christian dies dominicus only in the imperial constitution of Gratian’s issued in Aquileia in 386, which in view of its addressee and the place of acceptio (Rome) was subsequently applied to the prefecture of Italy, Africa and Illyricum exclusively
It forbade any legal acts on solis die, quem dominicum rite dixere maiores
Затем он разделяет и обосновывает мнение о том, что первым верным примером влияния христианизма на римский официальный календарь является конституция С

Summary

Abbreviations

Theodosiani libri XVI cum Constitutionibus Sirmondianis et leges novellae ad Theodosianum pertinentes, ed. Imperial constitutions are cited following translations by C. A Translation with Commentary, Glossary, and Bibliography by Clyde Pharr in Collaboration with Theresa Sherrer Davidson and Mary Brown Pharr, with an Introduction by C. Journals were quoted according to L’Année Philologique.

The idea is expressed by Izaac Newton

Summary