A ÚLTIMA DANÇA DOS SÁLIOS: A ELITE PAGÃ DE ROMA E OS IMPERADORES CRISTÃOS NO SÉCULO IV EC

How Pagan elite reacted to the laws that gradually limited the traditional religion and impose the Christian faith? By which ways the Roman nobles tried, at first, coexist, resist and then adapt and engage them with the new situation? There was a fierce armed resistance, or, conversely, a peaceful change? Our case study will be an inscription about the Salians, an old priesthood traditionally occupied by young Roman patricians. In the absence of their maximus, the pontifices act autonomously, trying to carry on the practice of their ancestral rites and restoring old religious buildings, in this case the mansiones of the Salians, abandoned long time ago.Based on the laws in the Book VII of the Theodosian Code, we can analyze the process of religious change within Roman elite, which was more complex than is commonly realized, including actions and reactions, resistance and commitments until an inevitable conversion.