rsecution of paganism after Theodosius I until the fall of the Roman Empire involved a long series of emperors, from both the Eastern and Western parts of the Empire, and ranged from 395 till 476.
Anti-Pagan laws were instated throughout this period, by emperors including Arcadius,  Honorius, Theodosius II, Marcian and Leo I the Thracian. The reiterations of the bans, especially on Pagan religious rites and sacrifices, and the increases in the penalties, indicated that the "Pagan" religion had still many followers. Significant support for Paganism was still present among Roman nobles, senators, magistrates, imperial palace officers, and other officials, who often protested or failed to enforce the edicts.
"Paganism" continued to be practiced by a large portion of the population, although the Pagans increasingly had to worship their gods undercover in order to comply formally with the edicts. There were many who pretended to convert to Christianity while secretly continuing Pagan practices, and many Christians converted back to Paganism; numerous laws against apostasy were promulgated and penalties increased from those in the time of Gratian and Theodosius. Pagans openly voiced their resentment in historical works, such as the writings of Eunapius and Olympiodorus; some writers blamed the Christian hegemony for the 410 Sack of Rome. Christians destroyed almost all such Pagan political literature, and threatened to cut off the hands of any copyist who dared to make new copies of the offending writings.
Laws declared that buildings belonging to known Pagans and heretics were to be appropriated by the churches. St. Augustine exhorted his congregation in Carthage to smash all tangible symbols of paganism they could lay their hands on. The persecution was somewhat reduced in some periods under the influence of the high-ranking general Stilicho and under the "usurper" Joannes Primicerius; a revival was attempted by Anthemius from 467.
After the Fall of the Roman Empire
Persecution by Eastern Emperor Zeno
Shortly thereafter, in 476, the last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed by Odoacer, who became the first "barbarian" king of Italy. In spite of this disaster, the Pagans made one last attempt to revive the Pagan rites. In 484, the Magister militum per Orientem, Illus, revolted against Eastern Emperor Zeno and raised his own candidate, Leontius, to the throne. Leontius hoped to reopen the temples and restore the ancient ceremonies; as such, many Pagans joined in his revolt against Zeno. Illus and Leontius were compelled, however, to flee to a remote Isaurian fortress, where Zeno besieged them for four years. Zeno finally captured them in 488 and promptly had them executed.
Following the revolt, Zeno instituted a harsh persecution of Pagan intellectuals. With the failure of the revolt of Leontius, some Pagans became disillusioned and many became Christian, or pretended to do so, in order to avoid persecution. The subjugation of the Roman Empire to Christianity became complete when the emperor Anastasius I, who came to the throne in 491, was required to sign a written declaration of orthodoxy before his coronation.
Appropriation by Pope Gregory I
The caverns, grottoes, crags and glens that had once been used for the worship of the Pagan gods were now appropriated by Christianity: "Let altars be built and relics be placed there" wrote Pope Gregory I, "so that [the pagans] have to change from the worship of the daemones to that of the true God."
Pagan persecution in "barbarian" monarchies
"The triumph of Catholic Christianity over Roman paganism, heretical Arianism [and] pagan barbarism," asserts Hillgarth "was certainly due in large part to the support it received, first from the declining Roman state and later from the barbarian monarchies."
Evaluation and legacy
Except for the most recent literature, for at least the last 200 years historical scholarship has followed a conceptual scheme in which the persecution of those Mediterranean religions that we now label "paganism" was seen as the result of the religious into