...Constantine’s son Constantius II particularly worked to encourage the emergence of a new, Christian Roman Empire by restricting pagan practices and transferring pagan temples to the ownership of the church. Christian authors like Firmicus Maternus framed actions like these as a form of progress...

...Chapter 6 collects what can be known about the cults of subject peoples in the Roman Empire, using as its template the invective of Firmicus Maternus Against the Error of Profane Religions. The testimony of Firmicus suggests that both Mithraism and the cult of Attis assumed...

..., glancing for comparison at Manilius. Some later developments are sketched: the positive arguments of Firmicus Maternus, the qualified criticisms of Plotinus, and the attacks of Augustine. Augustine bodies body Christianity grammar mathematics music Neoplatonism Neugebauer O Sextus Empiricus Cicero...

... of paganism gave a prominent place to the cult of the Great Mother, usually in salacious and shocking terms, and the chapter focuses on the examples of Arnobius and Firmicus Maternus. These Christian texts are then brought into dialogue with a pagan treatment of the cult, the discourse on the Mother...

...Worshippers of the Gods. Mattias P. Gassman, Oxford University Press (2020). © Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190082444.001.0001 In the mid-340s, Firmicus Maternus, a pagan astrologer turned Christian polemicist, became the first-known author to ask the emperors to abolish...

... physics predict ions prognosticate Ptolemy astronomer and mathematician Antigonus of Nicaea astrology catarchic decans Dorotheus of Sidon Zeno Byzantine Emperor Manilius Vettius Valens astrologer astronomy Firmicus Maternus Posidonius of Apamea and later Rhodes tables mathematical...

... on earth. A counterpoint is afforded by the epigrams of Palladas (now convincingly dated to the reign of Constantine by Kevin Wilkinson) which allude both elegiacally and satirically to the destruction of sacred images. In the final section, Firmicus Maternus (On the Error of Profane Religions...

... and political context, in yet another, summative, example of the plasticity of the Phaenomena. Avienus Neoplatonism Christianity Firmicus Maternus Julian Emperor Panegyrici Latini Plato Avienus Phaenomena 5–9 Plato Laws 822a408 Hermeias mysteries Aratus Phaenomena 1 Hermeias...