Hellenic Paganism refers to pagans devoted to the Olympian deities. An ancient tradition, it was originally practiced in classical Greece. The public practice of the Greek religion was made illegal by the Emperor Theodosius I in the fourth century of the current era, and this was enforced by his successors. The Greek religion, stigmatized as "paganism", the religion of country-folk (pagani) survived only in rural areas as Europe entered into the Dark Ages.