The emperor Theodosius I (379-95), impelled by a mixture of piety and political calculation, banned public and private sacrifices and ordered the closing of pagan temples in three edicts issued during 391-2. Along with blood sacrifices-long offensive to Christians-such pagan devotions as sprinkling incense on altars, hanging sacred fillets on trees and raising turf altars were classified as acts of high treason punishable by death and confiscation of property.'There was no mistaking the intent of Theodosius' laws: henceforth Nicene Christianity was the official religion of the empire. The edicts of Theodosius abolished neither sacrifices nor pagans. Each of his successors from Arcadius (395-408) to Justinian (527-65) felt obliged to re-enact the ban against sacrifices. 2 Although Theodosius II (408-50) expressed the sanguine hope that his empire was thoroughly Christian, many pagans, despite the harsh legislation backed by sporadic persecutions, continued their sacrificial devo-tions. 3 The persistence of pagans in sacrificing to the gods is astonish-