Identità e alterità spaziali nella sanzione giuridica della devianza nel Codice Teodosiano

In the 16th book of the Theodosian Code, religious places can be regarded from two different perspectives. First of all, they are real places, such as churches, synagogues, temples, houses and public spaces. Secondly, they are also symbolic lieux, interpreted as positive or negative on account of their religious identity. In the first instance, the imperial laws act in some cases to guarantee the survival and reuse of these places, alternatively to defend them against plunder, in other cases to order their destruction and to avoid new foundations. In the second instance, the sacred places of heretics, apostates, Jews, and pagans are portrayed with a large use of dull shades; transitions between religions are described in a negative way; the places themselves are characterized by means of the hideousness of religious deviance, and consequently qualified as separated from the civic or urban space.