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Paganism in the Greek World at the End of Antiquity: The Case of Rural Anatolia and Greece*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 2011

Frank R. Trombley
Affiliation:
Georgetown University/Dumbarton Oaks

Extract

I propose to discuss what might be called the “mechanics of conversion” in the countryside of the sixth-century later Roman Empire. This process consisted fundamentally in implanting monasteries in districts where few villages had been Christianized, or where the population was nominally Christian but so badly instructed that earlier pagan cult practices persisted. There is considerable evidence for rural conditions in the hagiographic lives of monks and in the ecclesiastical histories of this period. One of the principal difficulties in this sort of study is the geographic distribution of the sources. Hagiographic texts are, in effect, local histories, largely confined to the environs of the monastery. Thus, we are reasonably well informed about western Asia Minor and Galatia in the sixth century, for which sources like this exist, but hardly know anything about paganism in Greece until the tenth century, when monasteries finally began to appear in rural districts.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1985

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References

1 This problem is barely alluded to in Geffcken, Johannes, The Last Days of Greco-Roman Paganism (trans. MacCormack, Sabine; New York: Elsevier North-Holland, 1978)Google Scholar, the only thoroughgoing study of the decline of Hellenic paganism. See also Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire 284–602: A Social, Economic and Administrative Survey (Oxford: Blackwell, 1964) 938–43.Google Scholar Cf. the constructive discussions of rural paganism (for other regions) by Liebeschuetz, W., “Problems Arising from the Conversion of Syria,” in Baker, D., ed., The Church in Town and Countryside (Oxford: Blackwell, 1979) 1724Google Scholar, and C. E. Stancliffe, “From Town to Country: The Christianization of the Touraine 370–600,” ibid., 43–59. For preliminary discussion, see Trombley, Frank R., The Survival of Paganism in the Byzantine Empire during the Pre-Iconoclastic Period (540–727) (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1981) passim.Google Scholar

2 The tendency is to rehabilitate hagiographic texts as sources. See, e.g., Mitchell, Stephen, “The Life of Saint Theodotus of Ancyra,” Anatolian Studies 32 (1982) 92113.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For the use of hagiography to reconstruct rural social and economic life, see Trombley, Frank R., “Monastic Foundations in Sixth-century Anatolia and Their Role in the Social and Economic Life of the Countryside,” GOTR 30 (1985) 4559.Google Scholar

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22 John of Ephesus PatOr 18. 681.

24 Ibid., 680–61.

25 Some statistical data are forthcoming for the sizes of villages in sixth-century Lycia in the life of Nicholas of Hagia Sion (BHG 1347): Hagios Nikolaos: Der heilige Nikolaos in der griechischen Kirche 1 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1913) 155.Google Scholar The work force of the village of Arneae (εἰς ὅλην τ⋯ν κόμην) which assisted stonemasons in quarrying numbered no less than 75 (ibid., 33, lines 12–14). Assuming the ratio of the work force and total population of the village to be about 1 to 3 1/2 (allowing for infant mortality, periodic outbreaks of the bubonic plague, etc.), one gets a figure of 262 persons. At the Christianized sacrifice at the village of Plenios, 200 couches (στιβάδια δικόσια) were laid (43, line 5). I take it that there was one couch for each man of the place, and that the full population of the village was thus about 700. Seven calves, 100 measures of wine, and 40 modii of grain were expended at Plenios (including leftovers). Comparable figures are given for sacrifices at other villages. The number of calves slaughtered was probably proportional to the population of the other villages named. Thus, only three calves, 70 measures of wine, and 30 modii of bread were expended at Karkabo. This village undoubtedly had a smaller population than the 700 surmised for Plenios. Nicholas performed sacrifices at other villages as well, but detailed figures are lacking; the hagiographer notes only the number of yoke of oxen slaughtered (44–45). It is in any case probable that many villages in the riverine valleys of Asia, Lydia, and Phrygia were larger than those in Lycia.

26 The Metaphrastean recension of a sixth-century life of Abram the Solitary suggests this figure. The village of Taenia near Lampsacus is characterized as “a large and populous village” (κώμημεγάλη κα⋯ πολυάνθρωπος) PG 115, 52A. The hagiographer indicates that a large number of the villagers was converted, about 1000 persons (περί που χιλίους τ⋯ν ⋯ριθμ⋯ν ὑπάρχοντας), ibid., 60A. For the date see Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 239.

27 See the rather dated observations of Ramsay, William M., “The Permanence of Religion at ihe Holy Places in Western Asia,” in idem, Pauline and Other Studies in Early Christian History (3d ed.; London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1906) 163–88.Google Scholar

28 John of Ephesus Hist. Eccl. 2.44

29 Kashish settled on Chios no later than 553, and crossed over shortly thereafter to assist John in Asia; PatOr 19. 162 n. 1 and 163.

30 PatOr 18. 646.

31 Ibid., 650.

32 This is clearly implied in John of Ephesus PatOr 18. 659. See below, n. 125.

33 Nau, F., “Analyse de la second partie inédite de l'Histoire ecclésiastique de Jean d'Asie,” Revue de l'Orient Chrétien 2 (1897) 482.Google Scholar

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35 John of Ephesus PatOr 19. 200–203. Jones, LRE 567–70.

36 John of Ephesus PatOr 19. 204.

37 For architectural examples of a rural monastic basilica (ante 462) and a small three-apsed basilica (Justinianic or earlier) possibly built within a temple enclosure, see, Headlam, Arthur C., Ecclesiastical Sites in Isauria (Cilicia Trachea) (London: Macmillan, 1893) 920.Google Scholar The Koja Kalessi monastery had three churches (see maps). For examples of single-apsed churches, see, Edwards, Robert W., “Two New Byzantine Churches in Cilicia,” Anatolian Studies 32 (1982) 2332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The relative isolation of sites was no impediment to the production of well-cut blocks and the ornamental carving of lintels, arches, and cornices (see photos). The record is silent on mosaics.

38 Ibid. Building materials were at times reused from abandoned temples. A certain presbyter and kourator named Kyriakos is reported by an inscription to have ordered the construction of an ambo from the debris of the Apollo Klarios temple near Colophon. These marble fragments bear pre-Christian Greek inscriptions. Macridy, T., “Antiquités de Notion II,” Jahresheft des Österr. Archaeologische Instituts in Wien 15 (1912) 3740 and 55–56.Google Scholar

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41 McKenna, Stephen, Paganism and Pagan Survivals in Spain up to the Fall of the Visigothic Kingdom (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1938) 104 and 129.Google Scholar

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44 Hagios Nikolaos (ed. Anrich), 13–15.

45 Robert, Louis, “Villes et monnaies de Lycie,” Hellenica 10 (1955) 197–99.Google Scholar

46 Vie de Théodore de Sykéôn (trans, and ed. Festugière;, A. -J. Brussels: Societé des Bollandistes, 1970) 1. 1314.Google Scholar Cf. Festugière's note, ibid., 2. 179.

47 “Passio S. Symphoriani Martyris,” Acta Primorum Martyrum, (ed., Ruinart, T.; Amsterdam: Wetsten, 1713) 82.Google Scholar Symphorianus lived in the town of Augustodunum during the reign of Aurelian (270–275).

48 Vie de Syméon, 166. See note 3 above.

49 Vita S. Hypatii, 90–91. Cf. the condemnation of angel-worship by the Thirty-fifth Canon of the Synod of Laodicea (saec. IV): “Christians are forbidden to abide in the church of God, and depart, and summon angels, and make assemblies. If anyone is found in this secret idolatry, let him be anathema.” Rhalles, G. A. and Potles, W., Syntagma tōn theiōn kai hierōn kanon¯n (Athens: Chartophylakos, 1853) 3. 201.Google Scholar The cult was, in fact, pagan. See now: Sheppard, A. R., “Pagan Cults of Angels in Roman Asia Minor,” Talanta 12/13 (1980/1981) 77101.Google Scholar

50 Cf. John Moschus, Pratum Spirituale, PG 87. 2851–3112, passim, for frequent references.

51 See note 38 above.

52 CT XVI.10. For a detailed commentary, see, The Theodosian Code and Novels and the Sirmondian Constitutions (trans., Pharr, C. et al.; Princeton, 1952) 472–76.Google Scholar See also, Geffcken, Greco-Roman Paganism, 223–25 and Jones, LRE, 938–39. For the chronology of the pre-Justinianic legislation against paganism see Joannou, Périclès-Pierre, La legislation imperiale et la christianisation de l'empire romain (311–476) (Rome: Pontificum Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1972).Google Scholar

53 Books of this genre were still common in the sixth-century cities. E.g., the pagan trials conducted by the imperial judge Amantius at Antioch ca. 554–58 turned up books, idols, and service vessels; Vie de Syméon 1. 143.

54 The four deacons Abraham, Kyriakos, Barhadbshabba, and Sergios—more typically of the lower cleric ranks— were, respectively, a Syrian, a Greek or Armenian from Maiferkat-Martyropolis, an Aramaeo-Persian, and an Aramean from the village of Arʿa Rabtha in Ingilene; PatOr 18. 658–59.

55 For a recent summary of the hellenization of Phrygia, see Vryonis, Speros, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through Fifteenth Century (Berkeley/Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1971) 4549.Google Scholar

56 John of Ephesus relates that a certain Elijah and Theodore began their careers as traders operating between Sasanid Persia and their hometown Amida, and later settled in Melitene to practice eleemosynarian activities. In all these places the koinē was Greek or Syriac (PatOr 18. 576–79). Another figure found in the “Lives of the Eastern Saints” is a certain Thomas of an ethnically Armenian family of satrapal status from Armenia IV or Balbitene. He must have learned Greek grammar locally before studying rhetoric and law (“the wisdom of the Greeks”) at Antioch and Berytos (ibid., 284–85). One Armenian named Aaron, who rose to the rank of presbyter, entered the monastery at an early age. If he learned Greek—and this is problematical—it must have been from the Septuagint and New Testament texts (ibid., 641–42). A certain Tribounos from the village of Beth Roumanet in Sophanene learned to write Greek and Syriac from his parents, who were apparently ethnic Armenians (ibid., 661). These texts suggest that even the well educated speaker of Aramaic or Armenian must have required some time to acculturate himself to the rural speech of western Asia Minor. Nothing is in fact known about the linguistic skills of John of Ephesus's catechists named in n. 54 above. Their piety must in any case have exceeded their knowledge of the local koinē.

57 Vita S. Hypatii, 8.

58 Kirsten, E., “Artemis von Ephesos und Eleuthera von Myra mit Seitblick auf St. Nicolaus und auf Commagene,” in Sahin, S. et al., eds., Studien zur Religion und Kultur Kleinasiens: Festschrift für Karl Dörner (Leiden: Brill, 1978) 465.Google Scholar

59 Anrich, Hagios Nikolaos, 4, lines 2–3 and p. 7.

60 Harrison, R. M., “Churches and Chapels of Central Lycia,” Anatolian Studies 13 (1963) 117–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

61 Ibid., 148–51.

62 Anrich, Hagios Nikolaos, 16–17.

63 A temple complex built at a spring is attested for Laodikea Kombusta (present-day Ladik) in Phrygia. The spring or άγιασμός was channeled into a rectangular cement tank. The shrine was subsequently converted into a Christian building, probably a church. A fourth-century inscription records the extensive building program of a certain bishop Eugenius. It included stoas, tetrastoas, murals, mosaics, a reservoir, a propylaeon, and a variety of stone-cut ornamentation. W. M. Calder suggests that an earlier, pre-Diocletianic church which was destroyed in the great persecution preceded it. He bases his hypothesis on an expression found in the building inscription: “having restored [it] from the foundations” (Calder, W. M., “A Journey around the Proseilemmene,” Klio 10 [1910] 233–34).CrossRefGoogle Scholar The site may thus have been jointly used by Christians and pagans in its earlier days. The synoikism of pagan and Christian at sacred springs, with each group claiming cures by its own deity or saint, finds some confirmation in a thought provoking if problematical text dealing with a sacred spring at Khonai-Kolossos. For the text see “Le miracle de saint Michel à Colosses,” PatOr 4. 542–62 (BHG 1282). For a preliminary commentary see Trombley, Survival of Paganism, 158–65.

64 Anrich, Hagios Nikolaos, 17, line 2.

65 Anrich suggests a possible sequel by quoting a different text, ibid., 17–18 n. 2.

66 Ibid., 19, lines 7–9ff.

67 Ibid., 20, lines 3–4.

68 Ibid., 33, lines 7–8.

69 CJI 11.9.4.

70 Anrich, Hagios Nikolaos, 42–45.

71 Ibid., 55–56.

72 Ibid., 55, lines 16–18.

73 Vryonis, Speros, “Religious Changes and Patterns in the Balkans, 14th-16th Centuries,” in Birnbaum, H. and Vryonis, S., eds., Aspects of the Balkans (The Hague/Paris: Mouton, 1972) 174.Google Scholar

74 See above, n. 46. Cf. Trombley, “Monastic Foundations,” 45–51.

75 Brown, Peter, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity,” JRomS 61 (1971) 80101.Google Scholar

76 Festugière, Vie de Théodore, 1. 34. All citations hereinafter are from the first volume of this work.

77 Lequien, M., Oriens Christianus (Paris, 1740) 1. 485–86.Google Scholar The relevance of the life of Theodore to questions of ecclesiastical land management has been little more than noted in passing. See Jones, LRE, 903, 916; Croix, G. E. M. de Ste., The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World (Cornell: Cornell University Press, 1981) 225–26, 496.Google Scholar

78 Cf. the Anatolian superstition about evil spirits which manifested themselves as “black dogs” (Festugière, Vie de Théodore, 85, 126).

79 Ibid., 47–48.

80 Ibid., 45.

81 Nilsson, Martin P., Geschichte der griechischen Religion (Munich: Beck, 1967) 1. 113–14.Google Scholar

82 Festugière, Vie de Théodore, 40–41. See also 46, 111, and 113.

83 Still useful is the work of Max Cary, The Geographic Background of Greek and Roman History (Oxford, 1949).Google Scholar

84 Festugière, Vie de Theodore, 12. The ritual was performed before the apse of a rural chapel. When Theodore made the pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it was the Galatians in his entourage who asserted his capacity to summon a rain-bearing cloud from the west (44). Theodore is reputed to have performed a similar act for the metropolitan of Pessinus (81).

85 See below, notes 96 and 97.

86 Festugière, Vie de Théodore, 43.

87 Vita S. Abramii, PG 115. 44B–77A.

88 Ibid., 52A.

89 Ibid., 56A.

90 Ibid., 52B

91 Ibid., 60A

93 A dedicatory inscription of Smetchem the protostolist stands in the temple of Isis at Philae, bearing the date 20 December 452 CE Also present is the inscription of Damonikos, Count of the limes of the Thebaid, who repaired the wall at Philae (dated 11–12 December 449 or 468). The latter inscription mentions the bishop Abba Daniel, who was undoubtedly the prelate of the place, which was an episcopal see as early as 362 (Le Quien, Oriens Christianus 2. 613–14). The temple of Isis was not converted into the martyrion of St. Stephen until much later, around 537, during the episcopate of a certain Theodore. It would seem that the pagan and Christian communities coexisted throughout the late fourth and fifth centuries, probably down to the cleansing of the temple mentioned by Procopius ( Wars I.19.37). Procopius mentions a pagan priesthood there when Narses Kamsarakan allegedly demolished the temples. The archaeological evidence does not completely bear out the historian's account, inasmuch as the buildings are still standing. He indicates that the Blemmyes and Nobadae sacrificed at the temple. This fact is not, in itself, inconsistent with the survival of a hereditary Egyptian priesthood there until ca. 537. See, Bernand, Etienne, Les inscriptions grecques et latines de Philae II: Haut et Bas Empire (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1969) 227–32Google Scholar (no. 194), 237–44 (no. 197), 263–67 (no. 203).

94 Vita S. Abramii, 60D.

95 For the text of the Canons, see: Rhalles, and Potles, , Syntagma (Athens, 1852) 2. 295554.Google Scholar Cf. Joannou, Périklès-Pierre, Discipline générale antique (IIe–IXe s.) (Rome, 1962) 98241.Google Scholar See also, Hefele, Charles, Histoire des conciles d'apres les documents originaux (trans. LeClercq, H.; Paris, 1909) 3/1 560–81Google Scholar, and Bury, John, A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene (395 A.D. to 800 A.D.) (London, 1889) 2. 393–96.Google Scholar

96 Rhalles and Potles, Syntagma, 2. 442–43.

97 Ps. Justin, Quaestiones et Responsiones ad Orthodoxos, PG 6. 1277C–D.

98 Theophanes the Confessor, Chronographia (ed. Boor, C. de; Leipzig: Teubner, 1883) 1. 224.Google Scholar

99 See note 96 for citation. For some examples of amulets, see: Bonner, Campbell, “Two Studies in Syncretistic Amulets,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 85 (1942) 466–71Google Scholar; idem, Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor, 1950)Google Scholar; and SEG 31 (1984) lemmata 844, 1398, and 1399.

100 Festugière, Vie de Theodore, 113.

101 Kosmas of Jerusalem, Scholia in Gregorii Nazianzeni Carmina, PG 38. 502.

102 Theophanes, Chronographia, 390–91. Bury conjectures that the magos in question here was one of the hekatontarchs or centurions mentioned in the Sixty-first Canon of the Quinisextum. Jones, , LRE 2 (1889) 398.Google Scholar For this form of divination, see, Eusebius Hist. eccl. 8.14.5.

103 The most convenient summary of the Arab raids is still Brooks, E. W., “The Successors of Heraclius to 717,” Cambridge Medieval History (1913) 2. 391–417.Google Scholar Cf. the translations of al-Tabari and other early Arabic texts in idem, “The Arabs in Asia Minor (641–750), from Arabic Sources,” JHS 8 (1898) 182ff.Google Scholar

104 Vita S. loannicii, ActaSS, Nov. IV, 395a–396c. For t he development of ascetic practices among pagan holy men, hermitism, pilgrirnage, and their movement to the countryside in the fifth century and after, see Geffcken, Greco-Roman Paganism, 240–41. The Gourias incident fits this typology.

105 Vita S. Pauli Iunioris in Monte Latro (BHG 1474) AnBoll 11 (1892) 5354.Google Scholar

106 Usener, Hermann, “Übersehenes,” KS 4 (Leipzig/Berlin: Teubner, 1913) 198.Google Scholar

107 See above, nn. 16, 27.

108 Vita S. Pauli Iunioris, 55. At other times crosses were cut on temple walls or cult effigies. Cf. the inscription at Philae: “The Cross + conquered. May it always conquer! + + +” (Bernand, Inscriptions de Philae, no. 201, pp. 256–67). The unknown group which christianized Eleusis in Attica cut crosses on the chest of the Marcus Aurelius shield bust. Deubner, Otfried, “Zu den grossen Propyläen von Eleusis,” Deutsches Archäolog. Institut, Athenische Abteilung, Mitteilungen 62 (1937) 7381.Google Scholar The cross was cut on the Gorgoneion for obvious reasons (Ibid., 75 and pl. 39). The act presumably dates from the dismantling of the sacred site.

109 Athanasia housed and supported monks at Aegina (ante ca. 860), and eventually established a monastery for women (ActaSS, Aug. III, p. 170d-e [BHG 180]). Hosios Lukas (ob. 935) founded such an institution in Phocis in the second half of the ninth century (PG 111. 441–80 [BHG 994]). Theodora entered a monastery in Thessalonike only after migrating from Aegina with her relatives and other refugees because of Arab sea raids after 826/7 (, Arsenjj, Zhitie i Podvigi sv. Theodora Solunskoj [Jurjev: Mattisen, 1899]) 1112 (BHG 1737).Google Scholar For chronology see Welter, Gabriel, Aegina (Berlin: Gebr. Mann, 1938) 111.Google Scholar

110 This problem still awaits definitive study.

111 Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 231–42; idem, “Die Heidenprozesse unter den Kaisern Tiberios II Konstantinos und Maurikios,” in Winckelmann, F., ed., Studien zum 7. Jahrhundert in Byzanz (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1976) 120–30.Google Scholar

112 The emir ʿIyadh ibn Ghamn accepted separate capitulations from the Christian and pagan (al-Harnānīyah) factions of Ḥarrān. Al-Balādhurī, The Origins of the Islamic StateThe Kitāb Futūḥ al-Buldān (New York: Columbia University Press, 1916) 272–73.Google Scholar The persistence of this cult is noted in the eighth century: “[Marwan] was of the heresy of the Epicureans or Automatistai, partaking of the impiety of the pagans who inhabit Harrān” (Theophanes, Chronographia, 426). Rochow, “Religöse Strömungen,” 234–36.

113 Ibid., 241–42.

114 I have myself visited the site and viewed the objects in the Lykosoura Museum, including coin finds from the reign of Tiberius Constantine (578–82). The coins are not cited by Kourouniotes, K., Katalogos tou Mouseiou Lykosouras (Athens: Sakellariou, 1911).Google Scholar For general bibliography, see Stillwell, R. et al., eds., The Princeton Index of Classical Sites (Princeton, 1976) 537.Google Scholar The erection of a chapel (εὐκτήριον) and staffing it with a prosmonarios is attested at the sacred spring of Khonai. Christian and pagan alike continued to frequent the site. A converted pagan erected the structure. This aspect of the story appears to be accurate, despite other mythological elements found in this text. F. Nau, “Le miracle de Saint Michel à Colosses,” PatOr 4. 542–62 (BHG 1282).

115 Ecloga Leonis et Constantini cum Appendice, Appendix 4.20 (ed. Monferratus, A. C.; Athens: Fratrum Perri, 1889) 6667.Google Scholar

116 Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De administrando imperio (ed. Moravcsik, G.; trans. R. Jenkins; Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 1967) 236.Google Scholar

117 This thesis has never been put forward. Cf. Bon, A., Le Peloponnèse jusqu'au 1204 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1951).Google Scholar It is consistent with the toleration shown the neo-Manichaean Paulician sect in Phrygia and Lycaonia, and later in Armenia, down to the end of the reign of Nicephorus I (803–11). These sectarians of the “Manichaean abomination” were kept in the countryside to preserve the military manpower of the eastern frontier. See Vasiliev, A. A., Byzance et les Arabes I: La dynastie d'Amorium (820–867) (Brussels: Institut de Philologie et d'Histoire Orientales, 1935) 227–28.Google Scholar Their subsequent persecution proved to be a politico-military disaster; cf. Bury, John B., A History of the Eastern Roman Empire … (A.D. 802–867) (London: Macmillan, 1912) 276–78.Google Scholar The requirement of expediency is undoubtedly the best explanation for the survival of a pagan Maina. Rochow's objections to the historicity of the DAI text are hardly worth discussing; Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 245–46.

118 Iosephi Genesii Regum Libri Quattuor (ed. Lesmueller-Werner, A. and Thun, I.; Berlin: DeGruyter, 1978) 8283.Google Scholar

119 Vita Niconis in Lambros, S. P., ed., Neos Hellēnomnēmōn 3 (1906) 131222, 256 (BHG 1366).Google Scholar

120 The function of the periodeutes is set forth in the Fifty-seventh Canon of the Council of Laodicea (saec. IV). Cf. the glosses of Balsamon et al. in Rhalles and Potles, Syntagma 3 (Athens, 1853) 222–24.Google Scholar It is uncertain whether Nikon held this rank officially.

121 Pallas, D., Les monuments paléochrétiens de Grèce découverts de 1951 à 1973 (Rome: Pontiflcio Istituto di archeologia Cristiana, 1977) 194–95.Google Scholar

122 Vita Niconis, 161.

123 Bon, Le Peloponnèse byzantin, 69–70.

124 For a Latin translation of the Georgian text see Peeters, P., “Histoires monastiques georgiennes,” AnBoll 36/37 (19171919) 104–5.Google Scholar

125 The earliest Athonite chrysobulls date from ca. 964 in the reign of Nicephorus II Phocas (963–69), and refer to the Lavra of St. Athanasius. Franz Dölger, Regesten der Kaiserurkunden des oströmischen Reiches von 565–1453 (Munich/Berlin: Oldenbourg, 1924) 1. 90–91, 95 (Tzimisces). The Lavra of the Georgians at Athos was not founded until after the death of George the Hagiorite. Peeters, “Histoires monastiques,” 71–72.

126 Bulgars settled in the vicinity of Hierissos between 913–27 according to an Athonite document. Cf. the discussion of the scholarship in Rochow, “Religiöse Strömungen,” 250 n. 2.

127 Franz Dölger has analyzed this text as evidence for a supposed Slavic or proto-Bulgar cult (Ibid.). To my mind, this misses the point. Livadia is certainly a Greek toponym and, as a “high place,” the locality may well have had a temple or grove (as for example of Artemis) in pre-Christian times. No classical site named Livadia is in evidence at Athos. See Hübner, Ulrich, “Die literarischen und archäologischen Zeugnisse über den vorchristlichen Athos,” Antike Welt 16 (1985) 3544Google Scholar (with extensive bibliography). The localization of place-names will prove difficult until the complete publication of known inscriptions on Athos (Ibid., 40–41).

128 Among the marble objects found at Athos thus far are columns, sarcophagi, funerary steles, and a statue of Attis of Roman date, the last-named having been observed in 1914 in the Vatopedi Library by Charles Avezou (Ibid., 39–40). See the Parastaseis syntomoi chronikai in Praeger, T., ed., Scriptores Originum Constantinopolis (Leipzig: Teubner, 1901)Google Scholar, which mentions many statues of pagan gods in Constantinople. The origin of these spolia is not always given. Some examples are a Zeus preserved in the Hippodrome (71, lines 7–9) and a Perseus and Andromeda in the Constantiana baths (72, lines 13–15). A statue (στήλη) of Artemis also stood in the Hippodrome (70, lines 11–12), as well as idols (εἴδωλα) taken from Rome (59, lines 14–16). The survival of statuary in provincial towns is less well attested.

129 Theophanes, Chronographia, 356, lines 8–19.

130 See above, n. 126.

131 Trombley, “Monastic Foundations,” 58–59. Cf. the general observations of Murray, Oswyn, review article, “Ramsay MacMullen, Enemies of the Roman Order” JRomS 59 (1969) 264–65.Google Scholar