For sure. We can already see the development of (what would have been) future prohibitions against the old types of worship in Porphyry's writings. Even if the emperors passed over Christianity for something else (like Neoplatonic Hellenism) they still would have been looking to copycat what their #1 rivals the Sassanids did with weaponizing Zoroastrianism as a belligerent top-down-control state/imperial cult. They did precisely this with Christianity and I think they picked Christianity because it had a lot more mass appeal. Imagine trying to shout firebrand sermons from the Enneads, lol.
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2022-08-31 05:48 pm (UTC)