Did Christianity Destroy Pagan Culture?

Persecution of Pagans and the Transformation of Aelia Capitolina under Constantine the Great
The late Roman Empire was a period of immense religious transition, marked by the gradual decline of traditional Roman polytheism and the rise of Christianity as the dominant faith. One symbolic starting point for the persecution of pagans is often identified during the reign of Emperor Constantine the Great (306–337 CE), particularly in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina — the Roman name for Jerusalem.

Historical Background: Aelia Capitolina
Aelia Capitolina was founded by Emperor Hadrian around 130 CE, following the Bar Kokhba revolt (132–135 CE), a major Jewish uprising. The city was rebuilt in Roman style and renamed in honor of Hadrian (Aelia) and the chief Roman deity Jupiter (Capitolinus). Pagan temples were erected atop important Jewish and Christian sites — most notably, a Temple of Venus over the supposed site of Jesus’ crucifixion and burial.

This act was part of Hadrian’s policy to suppress Jewish religious identity and assert Roman pagan authority. Ironically, the same city would become a powerful symbol of Christian revival two centuries later under Constantine.

Constantine’s Role in Christianizing Aelia Capitolina
Constantine, while not the first Christian emperor, was the first to actively support and institutionalize Christianity across the empire. After his victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312 CE and the Edict of Milan (313 CE), Christianity gained official toleration. But Constantine went further than tolerance — he began replacing pagan symbols and structures with Christian ones.

In Aelia Capitolina, Constantine ordered the destruction of the pagan Temple of Venus to make way for what would become one of the most significant churches in Christendom: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. This site, believed to be where Jesus was crucified, buried, and resurrected, had been covered and desecrated by Hadrian’s pagan temple.

This act — tearing down a pagan site to build a Christian one — was more than a construction project. It was a theological and political statement: the new religion of empire was here to stay, and it was reclaiming sacred space from its pagan past.

Was This Persecution?
While Constantine did not outlaw paganism outright during his reign, his policies clearly favored Christianity and began to marginalize pagan practices:

• Confiscation of temple lands
• End of state funding for pagan rituals
• Christian clergy exempted from taxes
• Public buildings increasingly stripped of pagan iconography

In this light, Constantine’s destruction of a pagan temple in Aelia Capitolina can be seen as the first tangible example of state-sponsored Christian dominance, setting a precedent for more aggressive actions by future emperors like Constantius II and Theodosius I, who would later ban pagan sacrifices, close temples, and criminalize traditional rituals.

So while Constantine’s approach was relatively moderate, it laid the legal and symbolic foundation for what would become full-blown persecution of paganism in the late 4th century.

Symbolism of Space and Power
In ancient societies, control of sacred space was control of the narrative. By destroying a temple of Venus and erecting a church on its ruins, Constantine didn’t just replace a building — he rewrote history. He recast Jerusalem from a Roman-pagan colony into a Christian holy city and anchored imperial legitimacy to Christian theology.

This transformation of Aelia Capitolina illustrates how architecture, politics, and faith intertwined to shift not just religion, but identity itself — of cities, empires, and peoples.

Conclusion
Persecution of pagans in the late Roman Empire began during the reign of Constantine the Great (306–337) in the military colony of Aelia Capitolina (Jerusalem), when he destroyed a pagan temple for the purpose of constructing a Christian church. The destruction of the pagan temple in Aelia Capitolina during Constantine’s reign represents a turning point in Roman religious history. While not an immediate persecution in the violent sense, it marked the beginning of a new imperial policy: Christian promotion through pagan erasure. What began with temples in Jerusalem would soon extend across the empire, culminating in a Christian Rome built atop the ruins of its pagan past.