were prohibited from interpreting classical literature in the schools. The
attempt of Julian to create a universal pagan church proved abortive and
his scheme did not survive his death. His successors, Jovian, Valentinian
I and Valens, adhered to the policy of Constantine the Great.

Gratian was the first emperor to refuse the title of pontifex maximus, and
to deprive paganism of its status as an official religion of Rome. In 382
he withdrew the state support of the priesthoods of Rome, and removed from
the Senate house the altar and statue of Victory, which Julian had
restored after its temporary removal by Constantius. This altar was for
many of the senators the symbol of the life of the state itself, and their
spokesman Symmachus made an eloquent plea for its restoration. However,
owing to the influence of Ambrose, the bishop of Milan, the emperor
remained obdurate, and a second appeal to Valentinian II was equally in
vain. Although the brief reign of Eugenius produced a pagan revival in
Rome, the cause of paganism was lost forever in the imperial city. In the
fifth century the Senate of Rome was thoroughly Christian.

Theodosius the Great was even more energetic than his colleague Gratian in
the suppression of paganism. In 380 he issued an edict requiring all his
subjects to embrace Christianity. In 391 he ordered the destruction of the
great temple of Serapis at Alexandria, an event which sounded the death
knell of the pagan cause in the East. The following year Theodosius
absolutely forbade the practice of heathen worship under the penalties for
treason and sacrilege. Theodosius II continued the vigorous persecution of
the heathen. Adherence to pagan beliefs constituted a crime, and in the
Theodosian Code of 438 the laws against pagans find their place among the
laws regulating civic life. It was during the reign of Theodosius II, in
415, that the pagan philosopher and mathematician, Hypatia, fell a victim
to the fanaticism of the Christian mob of Alexandria.

Still, many persons of prominence continued to be secret devotees of pagan
beliefs, and pagan philosophy was openly taught at Athens until the
closing of the schools by Justinian. The acceptance of Christianity was
more rapid in the cities than in the rural districts. This gave rise to
the use of the term pagan (from the Latin _paganus_, "rural") to designate
non-Christian; a usage which became official about 370. And it was among
the rural population that p