This was a
religious war: Arbogast had taken the side of the pagans; Theodosius,
the victor, had Eugenius executed and himself remained the sole
emperor. His victory was that of the Catholic church.
In 391 the emperor Theodosius promulgated the Edict of Milan. It
prohibited the practice of the ancient religion; whoever offered a
sacrifice, adored an idol, or entered a temple should be condemned to
death as a state criminal, and his goods should be confiscated to the
profit of the informer. All the pagan temples were razed to the ground
or converted into Christian churches. And so Theodosius was extolled
by ecclesiastical writers as the model for emperors.
Theodosius gave a rare example of submission to the church. The
inhabitants of Thessalonica had risen in riot, had killed their
governor, and overthrown the statues of the emperor. Theodosius in
irritation ordered the people to be massacred; 7,000 persons suffered
death. When the emperor presented himself some time after to enter the
cathedral of Milan, Ambrose, the bishop, charged him with his crime
before all the people, and declared that he could not give entrance
to the church to a man defiled with so many murders.
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