The End of the Temples: An Archaeological Problem BRYAN WARD-PERKINS In this article I wish to explore a simple question – “Why does archaeological evidence not play a more central role in the increasingly sophisticated and nu- anced literature on the end of Roman paganism?” 1 Historians are well aware of the danger that our Christian texts may over-dramatize the end of the traditional cults, with accounts of saints like Martin in Gaul, John Chrysostom in Syria, and Shenoute in Egypt rampaging through cities and countryside forcibly destroying temples and smashing idols. 2 They are also aware that the legislation in the Theo- dosian Code, ordering the closure and sometimes the demolition of the temples, is both contradictory and impossible to judge as to its effectiveness. There are even occasions where a textual reference to the ‘destruction’ of a temple can be tested against the material record, and be found to be greatly exaggerated. Justinian, for instance, is said by Procopius to have “pulled down the temples” at Philae; but the surviving remains of the buildings prove beyond doubt that their structures were hardly touched. 3 Why then does the archaeological evidence, which is both ideo- logically neutral (unlike any of our texts) and scattered evenly across the empire, not play a greater part in assessing the reliability of texts, and the extent to which their messages can be generalized? 4 There should, in theory, be plenty of archaeological data for the problem we are investigating, by contrast, for instance, with the earlier pagan assault on Chris- tianity. This attack had primarily been aimed against people rather than buildings, and such assaults are extremely difficult to document archaeologically – Christian martyrdom, for instance, only shows up clearly in the material record because Christians, after the triumph of the Church, were able to build great basilicas over _____________ 1 I am very grateful for help in the preparation of this article from Jitse Dijkstra and Georgios Deligiannakis. I would also like to thank Johannes Hahn and his colleagues for inviting me to a colloquium in Münster that was both highly instructive and very enjoyable. 2 For instance, CASEAU 2004, 120: “All these stories are to be taken with extreme caution, how- ever. The word destruction might cover mere symbolic gestures such as knocking over a statue from its pedestal, as well as the complete dismantling of the building.” 3 Prok. bell. Pers. 1.19.37 (trans. DEWING 1914, 188–189); DIJKSTRA 2004, 152–154 (with reference to the earlier literature). 4 See, for example, the writings of Béatrice Caseau, who is very knowledgeable about the avail- able archaeological evidence and uses it intelligently, but who none the less relies much more heavily on texts: CASEAU 2001 and 2004. AUTHOR’S COPY | AUTORENEXEMPLAR AUTHOR’S COPY | AUTORENEXEMPLAR