The Obligations of Empire

AbstractThis chapter focuses on imperial directives mandating participation in animal sacrifice. Decius’s decree of 250 CE, requiring all inhabitants to perform animal sacrifice, established it as a marker of self-identification with the empire but also prompted Christian leaders to insist that it was incompatible with Christian allegiance. Although Valerian’s directives of 257 and 258 had the goal of undermining Christian communities, he, too, required Roman subjects to engage in cult practices. In contrast, his son and successor Gallienus extended recognition to Christian associations and severed the connection between animal sacrifice and identification with Rome, adopting a policy of neutrality regarding religious adherence. The cycle was repeated in the early fourth century CE when the “Great Persecution” of Diocletian, Galerius, and Maximinus, with edicts abolishing Christian institutions and enforcing participation in animal sacrifice, was ended by Constantine and Licinius, who gave all people the right to engage in worship of their choice. Underlying these swings between imperial enforcement of animal sacrifice and religious neutrality was a shift in the social function and cultural significance of animal sacrifice, away from its role of structuring sociopolitical hierarchies and building cultural consensus and into a new role as marker of allegiance to the empire.