Should the Catholic Church Acknowledge the Destruction of Classical Pagan Culture?

[struggle4progress]

108. That account contains some curious garblings. It is, of course, quite likely

that the date for celebration Christmas had been chosen (perhaps in the fourth century CE) as the date of the equinox, which would have originally been 25 December under the Julian calendrical reform

On the other hand, the claim that the Roman Saturnalia involved human sacrifice in the early years of the Christian era is almost certainly untrue:

By the Late Republic the Romans came to be as horrified by the practice of human sacrifice as any modern might be. The practice of human sacrifice was prohibited by senatorial decree in 97 BCE under the consulship of P. Licinius Crassus. The Romans afterward proscribed the practice by the different peoples they conquered, regarding the practice as barbaric and distinguishing their own civilization from those outside the empire.

The first instance of this is with Licinius Crassus in Further Spain where he was governor (96-93 BCE).The Romans accused the Carthaginians of sacrificing infants, a question still being debated by historians (1). The Romans made similar accusations in later times against the Druids, Jews and Christians, and unpopular emperors like Egalabalus. Horace’s portrayal of Medea and especially of Canidia employed scenes of human sacrifice as a way of denigrating the use of magic and witchcraft. Likewise Pliny the Elder, on discussing the origins of magic among the Persians, uses the practice of human sacrifice to distinguish it as un-Roman (Natural History XXX.1-2, 12-15) ...

We know of three instances, recorded by Livy and Plutarch, where a ritual human sacrifice was performed at Rome. Two pairs of Gauls and Greeks, a man and a woman each, were buried alive in the Forum Boarium. The instances recorded took place in the years 228, 216 and 113 BCE. In each case these sacrifices were made in response to instructions taken from the Sibylline Books. The sacrifices seem to have been made to the Manes and Dii Inferi. Plutarch (Roman Questions 83) noted the Roman attitude that disapproved of other peoples making human sacrifice to the gods, and wondered, "Did they (the Romans) think it impious to sacrifice human beings to the gods, but necessary to sacrifice them to the Manes? We hear of Vestal Virgins being buried alive too, usually on the excuse that they had broken their vows of chastity.. In the year 483 BCE Vestal Oppia was so buried as unchaste, but Livy (2.42) makes clear that this was really a sacrifice made to appease the gods when bad omens appeared. The same seems to be the case in the execution of Vestal Cornelia by Domitian (Pliny the Younger, Epistle 4.11). The burials of the Gauls and Greeks in 216 and 113 followed shortly after the burials of Vestal Virgins. It is thought that these burials were connected in a common ceremony of propitiation to the Manes ...

A very interesting case of human sacrifice occurred in the Regal period that involved the sanctifying of the pomerium. When Servius expanded the city walls, a sacrifice was made of four individuals, buried beneath the old pomerium wall that encircled the Palatine Hill. Those bodies were only recently discovered after Carandini discovered the old Palatine pomerium wall. The four tombs included the usual ritual elements, dating to about 650 BCE. Tomb 1 was an adult male; age 30-40, with his head inclined and arms at his side. Along with him were buried two amphorae, a collana (necklace), one plate and two fibulae. Tomb 2 was a child laid in a sleeping position, along with one small amphora and two fibula. Tomb 3 was a young adult male aged 16-18, laid out like the older male. He was buried with one amphora; a large cup, two little cups, two plates, two pieces of bronze and one ring, all placed on the left side of the tomb. Tomb 4 was a female laid out in a fetal position, and oriented in a different direction from all the others. She was buried along with one amphora. These sacrifices were made because the old wall was being violated in the process of extending the pomerium with the new Servian Wall ...

http://home.scarlet.be/mauk.haemers/collegium_religionis/human_sacrifice.htm

Roman sources say the Romans stopped Celtic human sacrifice practices, and there is actually some archaeological evidence of such practices.

It is extremely unlikely the Christians imported Saturnalian customs anywhere, since one of the early martyrdom stories is that of the Christian soldier, Dasius of Durostorum, reportedly executed in the time of Diocletian for refusing to serve as King of Saturnalia