Gods and Man at the Fall of Rome

In 394, a river in Slovenia bore witness to a clash of civilizations. On one side stood a rebel army bearing statutes of Jupiter and Hercules. On the other stood the forces of Emperor Theodosius, bearing the standard of Christ. Battle commenced. Theodosius smashed the would-be usurpers, aided by a miraculous wind that conveniently threw the missiles of his enemies back at them. Idols and idolaters destroyed, the pagan threat was no more. From that point forward, Empire and Church would be indissoluble, then and forever God’s kingdom on earth.

This is an epic story. But the thing that makes it epic—the struggle between the old pagan order, and the new Christian one—wasn’t the reason for the fight. Instead, as classicist James J. O’Donnell explains, the battle was a typical imperial coup, part of “the ordinary events and mischances of emperors, generals, and those who played their hands wrong in seeking to influence imperial succession.” Faith—Christian or otherwise—had little to do with it.