Philosophy and paganism at the end of the Western Roman Empire. The case of the consul Messius Phoebus Severus
Abstract
With the acceptance of Christianity as official religion of the Empire, the process of hostility towards the other cults, originated almost a century before at the end of the reign of Constantine, will be strengthened and expanded by the enactment of numerous decrees which soon began to trouble both the practitioners of paganism and those considered heretical among Christians. Although government actions along with the measures of the very Church led to the closure of a growing number of temples and of numerous cults and educational institutions, certain practices and survivals of the Classical world persisted over time and continued to manifest in surprisingly late periods. We will offer here a specific case, that of the collaborator of the emperor Procopius Anthemius, Messius Phoebus Severus, consul in the year 470 despite of his open condition of philosopher and pagan.
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