Cultic Battle Preparation in Christian Late Antiquity

Abstract

Throughout most of human history, it was common for rituals to be performed immediately before a battle in order to sway the gods in favour of one's side. For Christian Late Antiquity a primacy of mass celebrations carried out by priests is postulated by scholarship. In this paper the surviving sources from Late Antiquity concerning cultic preparation in the Christian period will be examined, and based on the results, an argument against such a primacy, at least till the end of the 6th century, and an alternative modus of preparation will be formulated.