Abstract

How does the pagan élite of Rome react to the laws that gradually limited the traditional religion and imposed the Christian faith? Was it an armed resistance or a painless process? The case study to better understand the topic will be an inscription regarding the Salians (CIL 6.2158), a very ancient priesthood of Rome, traditionally held by young Roman patricians. The pontiffs act independently without their maximus (the emperor), trying to go on practising the ancestral rites and restoring the ancient buildings, in this case precisely the mansiones of the Salians. Taking advantage of the evidence provided by the laws contained in the 16th book of the Theodosian Code, it will be very interesting to follow the internal process of change of the Roman élite, more complex than usually regarded, between actions and reactions, resistences until the inevitable conversion.

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