Christianity and Hellenism clashed early, as can be seen in the mid-third century writings of Celsus and Origen. By definition, the two religions polluted the other. Hellenes viewed the bodies in tombs that Christians frequently built their churches over desecrating. Christians viewed the worship of false gods in Hellenic temples as desecrating. By the fourth century, this clash between Christianity and Hellenism had escalated into the use and abuse of what is termed ‘sacred space.’ Representatives of both groups built temples and churches over one another’s sites to tell their narrative. This process accelerated when the emperor Constantine aligned himself with Christianity, as did his son Constantius, yet were followed by the Julian, the last pagan emperor. I will examine this phenomenon in several cases involving Julian and Constantine and determine the extent to which this was deliberate.
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