Abstract
Some religious cult, in this historical context, diffuse the idea of the existence of one deity above others. The most representative of those, for the issues and debates it carries on, is the cult of Sol Invictus, which establish the supremacy of Sun God above all the other preexisting pagan gods.
In this particular and multifaceted context the animal sacrifice, first practiced mostly in mystery cults, and generally tolerated before, now gradually disappears, to be prohibited, with the advent of the Monotheism. In fact this disappearance is due to various causes, not only concerning religion matters, but also social, political and historical.
For this reason, the aim of this paper is to analyze Late Antiquity evidences with particular attention to the reasons which led to the end of sacrifice during Late Antiquity. In particular, the paper which will be presented at the EASR 2016 regards the analysis of some cases of ritual practices where theory and praxis are put in discussion, because of the rejection of animal sacrifice.
The aim is to demonstrate how and why those sacrifices stopped to exist, and in order to achieve this conclusion it is intended to show some cases of substitution for animal sacrifice or complete rejection of it. The comparison between theory and praxis will show whether some change during Late Antiquity occurred, and the reasons why this happened.