Delphi (38 page)

Yet, there were also signs that the institutions running Delphi were beginning to struggle in a number of ways. The statue set up to Gordian III is the last known statue in Delphi's history set up by the dual authority of the Amphictyony and the city of Delphi. While the city would continue to set up statues of later emperors, the Amphictyonic record is much more hazy. Its final known dedication in the sanctuary is that of a statue of Philiscus, a governor of the Roman province of Thessaly (created by Emperor Diocletian at the turn of the third–fourth
centuries
AD
). But that came 150 years after the last surviving record of an Amphictyonic meeting—a time about which we know little. The Amphictyony itself seems to have continued, but, though scholars debate the degree to which it maintained itself as a functioning force at Delphi and in the wider Greek world, there is general agreement that it had passed its prime.
³⁹

At the same time, those statues that were erected by the city of Delphi during the third century show signs of increasing thrift. The statue of Claudius Gothicus was erected (and inscribed) on a base that had been originally placed in the sanctuary in the fifth century
BC
, when it had carried a statue of a horse, which had been dedicated (and inscribed) by the Pharsalians of Thessaly for one of their own military victories. This process of reuse is by no means uncommon in the ancient world (and indeed at Delphi), and it would become more prevalent in the sanctuary over the course of the century. Carus's statue base, for example, was reused for another emperor almost immediately. But its reuse now—even for statues of, and honoring, the emperor—is a very real testament to the uncertain political landscape. Claudius's reign was only three years long and came almost immediately after the Delphians had set up statues to two recent predecessors, and Carus's reign was only one year. Given such short periods of rule an investment in an entirely new stone might have been deemed unnecessary and not worthwhile, especially in view of the generally worsening condition of Delphic finances. Nor is reuse of the statue base the only change in attitudes toward the monuments of the Apollo sanctuary at this time. It is during the third century
AD
that we first see hints that the treasury of the Athenians—for centuries one of the most prestigious structures at Delphi—was being used as a home to pawnbrokers, a practice that continued well into the fourth century
AD
(see
plate 2
,
fig. 5.4
).
⁴⁰

Given this picture, and that the following century saw the emergence of Christianity as the Imperial religion of choice, and eventually the official religion of the Roman world, it is logical that Delphi continued its slow slide into decline from this point on. But, if anything, the opposite seems true. Delphi's governing class—the damiourgoi created under
Hadrian—was still exerting a good deal of influence (if not more than ever) at Delphi in the fourth century
AD
, even though its meetings were now held in Hypata. Statues of philosophers dedicated during the first half of the fourth century
AD
have been discovered in the sanctuary.
⁴¹
Carus's statue base was reused as the base for a statue of Constantius Chlorus (the father of Constantine the Great) at the turn of the century. All of this, in fact, seems to have been part of a wider reenergizing of the sanctuary—at the very moment in which the fate and direction of the wider Roman world was turning toward Christianity on the battlefield of Milvian Bridge near Rome.
⁴²
As Constantine the Great swept through the Roman Empire, defeating his co-emperors and reuniting the territory under his command (and under his Christian standard), at Delphi, the city and sanctuary seem to have been playing host to almost the last major building project we know about in the site's pagan history. A surviving inscription from
AD
319 attests to the generosity of L. Gellius Menogenes, president for life of the college of the damiourgoi (and also a man with important roles in the religious life of the city of Athens), who handed over 500,000 coins (of an unknown denomination) for the cleaning of the Delphic baths, a donation matched by a woman: Aurelia Julia Sotia. This money seems to, at least in part, have gone to not only cleaning the baths, but also to renovating them substantially, including an upgrade of the heating system (see
plate 2
).
⁴³

It is instructive that Constantine the Great, the emperor—who conquered under the Christian standard, reunited the Roman Empire; set about establishing a new capital for the empire at Constantinople (Istanbul); and in the process removed some of the greatest works of art from across the Mediterranean to grace his new capital, including the Plataean serpent column that had stood at Delphi since the fifth century
BC
—received no statue at Delphi from the city of Delphi during his lifetime.
⁴⁴
In contrast to the statues erected for emperors who survived only a year (like Carus), this lethargic behavior toward Constantine, who ruled for much longer, might indicate the uncertainty of the times—Delphi felt it politically inappropriate to honor an emperor who was making war on his co-rulers. Or indeed it might suggest the sadness they felt at Constantine's removal of their most famous dedication to his capital at Constantinople (
fig. 11.4
). In the aftermath of Constantine's death, however, in
AD
337, and as a result of the more settled (if new) Roman order, the city of Delphi erected not one but two statues to Constantine.
⁴⁵
It was at this time as well that the Roman agora, which, since the time of Hadrian had been through several renovations, was rebuilt
again in its grandest form, using material taken from various parts of the Delphic complex (including the marble columns that, during Hadrian's reign, had been installed in the covered running track of the gymnasium). Stoas on three sides of the agora square were constructed, with the agora's axis corresponding to the entryway into the Apollo sanctuary, and with its own vestibule entrance to the east (see
plate 2
). More importantly, this new space was, it seems, identified as the choice location for Imperial statues (which had until this time been placed mostly on the level of the temple terrace). After
AD
330, all Imperial statues were likely placed in the Roman agora.
⁴⁶

Figure 11.4
. The Serpent column dedicated in 479
BC
at Delphi following the battle of Plataea, now in the hippodrome built by Constantine in Constantinople (© Michael Scott)

The steady flow of Imperial statues also resumed in this period of religious flux. Dalmatius, junior emperor from
AD
335 to 337 with control of—among other provinces—Achaea, received a statue from the city of Delphi, employing a base that had previously been used for one of the statues of the Emperor Hadrian.
⁴⁷
Flavius Constantius, son of Constantine the Great, was honored with a statue by the city of Delphi in period
AD
337–40, possibly since, though he co-ruled in his early reign with his brothers, his sphere of influence included Illyricum (nowadays part of the Balkans) and was thus more important for Delphi to impress. But this statue, too, employed a reused base, one that had originally been set and inscribed as the base for the statue of Polydeucion, the disciple of Herodes Atticus in the second century
AD
.
⁴⁸

Delphi was caught in the same catch-22 as all the pagan sanctuaries in this period. They were erecting statues to honor Christian emperors in pagan sanctuaries, as both people and emperors negotiated the difficult task of being Christian in a still overwhelmingly pagan world; some estimates put Christian numbers at perhaps 10 percent of the population in the 320s
AD
.
⁴⁹
And though these emperors were diplomatic enough to allow pagan worship to continue (Delphi received in
AD
342–44 an Imperial reply assuring the continuing liberty of its cult), the increasingly loud voices of Christian writers also focused in on the practices of these sanctuaries as evidence not only for their decline, but also, curiously, for historical support for the inevitability of Christian victory.
⁵⁰
The Christian historian Eusebius, for example, records that in his time only the
oracles of Apollo at Delphi, Clarus, and Didyma were still working, and when someone asked why this was so, the explanation offered had to do with earthquakes and the natural passing of time.
⁵¹
At the same time, Eusebius reports a consultation by the Nicaeans, who asked Apollo whether, in view of the lapsed oracle, they still needed to honor Pythian Apollo with the traditional sacrifices. According to Eusebius, the oracle said it was now impossible to renew the spoken oracle at Delphi since “it has put on itself the keys of prophetic silence,” but that it was still important to continue the offerings.
⁵²
Other writers portrayed the oracle's silence as a direct consequence of the coming of Christ, and, in this period, the story circulated that when, at the time of Jesus's birth, the Emperor Augustus himself had consulted about his successor, the oracle remained dumb and, when asked why, replied, “a Hebrew boy bids that I leave this house and go to Hades. Depart therefore from our halls and tell it not in the future.”
⁵³

Yet even in this climate, Delphi had its supporters, and none of them was bigger than the man who attempted to turn the Christianization of the Roman world on its head: Julian the Apostate, the last pagan emperor. Ruling from just
AD
361–63, Julian was a committed pagan whose attempts not only to deny Christianity but to sideline it within the Roman system may well have had a great deal of success if his reign had not been cut short by his death on the battlefield. As it was, this was paganism's last hurrah, and Delphi had a famous role to play. Julian not only wrote extensively against Christians, defending how it was the oracles had gone silent, but also paid significant tributes particularly to Delphi, and commented on its athletic events. But even more famously, he sent a doctor, Oribasius, from Constantinople to act as Imperial
quaestor
in Achaea and to consult the Pythian priestess at Delphi. The response (if indeed the sources have not been confused and Julian actually consulted the oracle at Daphne rather than Delphi) is the last recorded oracular response from Delphi and is (as one might expect) dramatically (and perhaps too suitably) final: “Tell the king the fair wrought hall is fallen to the ground. No longer has Phoebus a hut, nor a prophetic laurel, nor a spring that speaks. The water of speech even is quenched.”
⁵⁴

In
AD
365, just two years after Julian's death, Greece was rocked by a devastating earthquake. In the latest scholarly publication by French archaeologists concerning the temple of Apollo, it is argued that the damage done by this earthquake might have been similar to that of the 373
BC
earthquake, and that it was certainly enough to distort the east-west axis of the foundations of the temple (a distortion still visible today—see
fig. 7.2
).
⁵⁵
We don't know how much damage was done to other parts of the Delphic complex, but it's likely there were some who believed it was a sign that Delphi's end was finally approaching. It was, however, not to be, at least not quite yet. The Christian emperors, Valens and Valentinian (AD 364–75), were honored at Delphi with an imposing (and new rather than reused) base topped with statues in the Roman agora in the early 370s
AD
, which thanked them for their benefaction to the city.
⁵⁶
Perhaps that benefaction came in the form of repairing any damage from the
AD
365 earthquake. If so, it was an important example of the kind of religious peace Valens and Valentinian sought to create between paganism and Christianity during their rule: Christian emperors giving help to a famous pagan shrine and being honored in return, in a far more generous way than Delphi had honored Constantine and his family successors.
⁵⁷
But, at the same time, the inscription relating to the honoring of these emperors also reveals a crucial public change in Delphic status. For centuries Delphi had described itself in its official inscriptions as “
hiera
,” a “sacred place.” Even in honoring the Constantinian emperors, Delphi had proudly continued to claim its (pagan) holy title.
⁵⁸
But in the inscription honoring Valens and Valentinian, Delphi drops it. It is only a city, it claims, perhaps because, despite the era of religious peace (and indeed because of it), it is no longer advisable to draw attention to one's pagan credentials. The monument to Valens and Valentinian is the last known pagan monument at Delphi.
⁵⁹
In the last thirty years of the fourth century
AD
, the Roman world witnessed increasingly damaging attacks by Christians on pagan shrines; the official outlawing of paganism by the Roman Emperor Theodosius in the early 390s; and, as a result, the official end to the pagan sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi.