PROLOGUE: A BEGINNING
1.Coptic pilgrims’ chant, quoted in Kristensen (2013), 85.
INTRODUCTION: AN ENDING
1.Athanassiadi (1993), 4; Marinus, Life of Proclus, 26.
2.PH, 124.
3.PH, 117C; Olympiodorus, Commentary on the First Alcibiades, quoted in Cameron (1969), 15.
4.C. Th., 16.4.4.2, dated 16 June 388.
5.AGT.
6.PH, 119.
7.PH, 42.
8.Palladas, 10.90 and 10.82.
9.The precise criteria for a triumph varied; the stipulation of thousands dead was, for a time, one of them. Deciding when a triumph had been won was usually more an art than a science. See Beard (2007).
10.Greenblatt (2011), 43–4.
11.For paganism as insanity, sickness, etc., see C. Th., 16.10.1–21 and C. Just., 1.11.10.
12.Augustine, Sermon 24.6, quoted in MacMullen (1984), 95.
13.AGT.
14.Augustine, Sermon 279.4, quoted in Shaw (2011), 682.
15.Eusebius, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, 10.9.7.
16.Johnson, 15 April 1778, quoted in MacMullen (1997), 169 n.37, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
THE INVISIBLE ARMY
1.Chitty (1977) calls it a pigsty, though this may not be strictly accurate: the Greek refers to him moving ‘just outside his house’ – presumably to some sort of simple structure there. Nonetheless, the idea of a pigsty confers well the idea of simplicity – even squalor – that would no doubt have been appropriate.
2.Clement, The Instructor, 3.5.
3.Matthew 19:21.
4.Augustine, Confessions, VIII.7–8.
5.Life of Antony, 5.
6.Life of Antony, 5–6.
7.Life of Antony, 24.
8.Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, On the Mortality, 14.
9.Dodds (1965), 133–4.
10.Palladas, Palatine Anthology, 10.72, quoted in Dodds (1965), 11.
THE BATTLEGROUND OF DEMONS
1.Augustine, Confessions, 8.17.
2.Mark 5:9.
3.Augustine, City of God, 4.27.
4.Origen, Homilies on Joshua, 15.5.
5.Tertullian, Apology, 22.8.
6.Tertullian, Apology, 22.4.
7.Evagrius, Praktikos, 12; Evagrius, Eight Spirits, 13–14, quoted in Brakke (2006), 65–6.
8.Evagrius, Talking Back, 1.22.
9.Evagrius, Talking Back: naked women, 2.15; monks, 2.24; fire, 2.63, 2.23; walk, 2.25.
10.John Moschos, The Spiritual Meadow, 160.
11.Evagrius, Talking Back, 4.25.
12.Tertullian, Apology, 22.4.
13.Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 94.
14.Tertullian, Apology, 22.6.
15.Tertullian, Apology, 22.10.
16.Augustine, Letter 46 from Publicola.
17.Augustine, Letter 47.
18.Tertullian, Apology, 27.3.
19.The ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix, XXVII.
20.For a discussion of the difficulty of assessing the Christianization of individuals as opposed to that of their clergy see Rebillard (2012), especially Chapter 3, ‘Being Christian in the Age of Augustine’.
21.Augustine, Homily 34 on John 8:12, quoted in MacMullen (1997), 121, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
22.For a discussion of the coin and the vision, see H. A. Drake (2014), 71.
23.Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII, On the Nature of Human Liberty, 6.
24.Augustine in Dolbeau (1996), 266.
25.Deuteronomy 12:3.
WISDOM IS FOOLISHNESS
1.OAP, VIII.8.
2.Galen, On Diagnosing and Curing the Affections and Errors of the Soul, 3,5.70K, quoted in Mattern (2013), 64.
3.These observations and indeed this paragraph are indebted to Gross (1998), passim.
4.OAP, VIII.4; OAP, VIII.5; and OAP, VIII.4.
5.OAP, VII.16.
6.Galen, De Pulsuum Differentiis, iii, 3, quoted in R. Walzer (1949), 14.
7.Galen, De Pulsuum Differentiis, ii, 4, quoted in R. Walzer (1949), 14.
8.Galen, On Hippocrates’ Anatomy, quoted in R. Walzer (1949), 11.
9.CC, I.32.
10.CC, VI.60; CC, V.14.
11.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chapter 38, Vol. IV, 163.
12.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chapter 15, Vol. II, 38.
13.Gibbon (1796), 97.
14.C. Th., 16.4.1, 386.
15.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chapter 15, Vol. II, 39.
16.CC, I.39.
17.CC, VI.32.
18.CC, VI.49.
19.CC, V.14.
20.CC, VI.37.
21.CC, VII.18.
22.CC, IV.7.
23.CC, VI.78.
24.CC, IV.3.
25.CC, II.70.
26.CC, II.55.
27.CC, II.60.
28.CC, II.16.
29.CC, III.62–4.
30.CC, VI.60–1.
31.ONT, 1.419–21.
32.The ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix, V.
33.ONT, 5.855–77.
34.The ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix, V.
35.ONT, 1.150.
36.Plutarch, On Superstition, 2.
37.ONT, 1.151–4.
38.ONT, 1.146.
39.Mother of evils: Homily on First Corinthians (Argument); John Chrysostom, Homily 7 on First Corinthians, 9. For this and other points see the excellent and original book by Dirk Rohmann, Christianity, Book-Burning and Censorship in Late Antiquity, to which this paragraph and the following are much indebted. It is striking – and an indication of where academic sympathies have lain in recent decades – that Rohmann’s book is the first to deal in-depth with this topic.
40.Rovelli (2016), 19.
41.This paragraph is indebted to Greenblatt (2011), 11–14. His wonderful book The Swerve: How the Renaissance Began tells this story beautifully.
42.CC, III.44.
43.CC, III.55.
44.CC, I.9.
45.Origen, Homilies on Genesis, 9.2.
46.Augustine, Sermon 198, quoted in Brown (1967), 458.
47.Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.1–362.
48.Genesis 1:1–6:7.
49.CC, IV.41.
50.William Buckland (1820), 24.
51.CC, I.50.
52.CC, II.58.
53.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 33.
54.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 37.
55.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 33.
56.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 34.
57.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 1.
58.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 41.
59.Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 40.
60.Suda, under Loukianos, quoted in Whitmarsh (2015), 221.
61.Quoted in Whitmarsh (2015), 221, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
62.CC, II.32.
63.CC, I.68.
64.Observation indebted to Wilken (1984), 98–9.
65.Justin Martyr, Apology, 1.26.
66.Justin Martyr, Apology, 1.26.
67.Lucian, Life of Demonax, 27.
68.Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, 2.7.
69.Pliny, Natural History, 2.14.
70.Pliny, Natural History, 2.18, ‘deus est mortali iuvare mortalem’; lovely translation from Whitmarsh (2015), 220. For an excellent discussion of ancient atheism see Whitmarsh’s Battling the Gods.
71.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Vespasian, 23.
72.The Acts of the Christian Martyrs, 3; see Wilken (1984), 62ff for a discussion.
73.Livy, The Early History of Rome, 5.16.11 quoted in Frend (1965), 105.
74.Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, 2.7.
75.The ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix, VIII.
76.CC, V.34.
77.CC, IV.70.
78.CC, V.34.
79.CC, V.34.
80.Garnsey (1984), 17.
81.Augustine, Letter 104.2.7.
82.Porphyry quoted in Augustine, Letter 102.30.
83.Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, 1.3.1 quote in Wilken (2003), 161.
84.Porphyry in Augustine, Letter 102.8, ed. Schaff.
85.Another Epistle of Constantine in Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, 1.9.
86.Hoffmann (1987), 29.
87.Augustine, Letter 93.I.2.
88.Augustine, Letter 93.II.4.
89.CC, V.34.
‘ON THE SMALL NUMBER OF MARTYRS’
1.HC, 2.25.
2.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Nero, 6.1.
3.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Nero, 28.2.
4.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Nero, 29.
5.Pliny, Natural History, 36.108 (possibly exaggerating).
6.Juvenal, Satire 3, 193–6.
7.Juvenal, Satire 3, 200–2.
8.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Nero, 38.
9.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Nero, 31.2.
10.Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
11.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Claudius, 25.4. See Frend (1965) for the possibility that this ‘Chrestus’ wasn’t Christ but someone else with a similar name.
12.Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
13.Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
14.Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
15.The Golden Legend, Vol. III, The Life of St Alban and Amphiabel.
16.HC, 8.9.
17.Tertullian, Apology, 50.
18.Basil, Letter 164.1.
19.This observation is indebted to Lane Fox (1986), 419.
20.From ‘First of Martyrs, Thou Whose Name’ and ‘The Son of God Goes Forth to War’. Often these hymns were, directly or indirectly, translating Latin versions that went back centuries.
21.Sienkiewicz (1895), Epilogue.
22.Quo Vadis, MGM (1951).
23.Hopkins, ‘Christian Number and Its Implications’, 4.
24.Origen, Exhortation 16. I am indebted to James Corke-Webster for drawing my attention to this.
25.Gregory Nazianzen, First Invective Against Julian, Oration 4.58.
26.ACM, The Martyrdom of Saints Marian and James, 14.8.
27.Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, V.111–16; see the very interesting discussion in J. Corke-Webster (2012).
28.Acts of Paul, II.18.
29.Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, X.710ff.
30.CC, III.8.
31.H. Dodwell (1684).
32.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chapter 16, Vol. II, 138.
33.De Ste. Croix (2006), 42.
THESE DERANGED MEN
1.This paragraph is indebted to Wilken (1984), who spotted the drama of this moment.
2.Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.17a and b.
3.‘My dear’: Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.20; illness: Letter 10.18; special mission: Letter 10.18.
4.Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.42.
5.Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.32.
6.Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, III.90; Justin Martyr, Apology 1.V.
7.See: Martyrdom of Polycarp, 1.17; HC, 5.1; The Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne, in ACM, 5.7; The Acts of Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice, sin ACM, 2.4; see also Martyrs of Lyons, Eusebius, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, 5.1.
8.Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.98.
9.Justinian’s Digest, 1.18.13.
10.HC, 5.1.
11.Pliny the Younger, Letter 8.8.
12.Tertullian, To Scapula.
13.Tertullian, The Address of Q. Sept. Tertullian to Scapula Tertullus.
14.Life of Antony, 46–7.
15.Pseudo Jerome, Indiculus de Haeresibus, 33, quoted in Drake (2011), 182.
16.Augustine, Letter 88.8.
17.Augustine, Liber de Haeresibus, 69.3 in Shaw in Drake, ed. (2006), 183–4.
18.Ambrose, Letters to his Sister, 60.
19.Augustine, Letter 185.12.
20.Filastrius, quoted in Shaw in Drake, ed. (2006), 181–3; ‘orgiastic’ behaviour: Aug Letter to Catholics of the Donatist Sect, 19.50; Aug Against the Letter of Parmenianus, 2.9.19, both mentioned in Shaw (2011), 660ff.
21.Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, 1.20.
22.Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, VI.36.
23.ACM, The Martyrdom of Saint Irenaeus Bishop of Sirmium, 23.2ff.
24.Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, III.104ff.
25.ACM, The Martyrdom of Saint Conon, 13.4.
26.ACM, The Martyrdom of Justin and Companions, Recension C, 4.1–4.
27.S. Coluthus, 90–92, in Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices (1973), 148–9.
28.ACM, The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran, 19.2.
29.Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, III.122–5.
30.ACM, The Martyrdom of Saint Conon, 13.4.
31.ACM, The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran, 19.2.
32.Frend (1965), 413.
33.S. Coluthus 90–92 in Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices (1973), 148–9.
34.ACM, The Martyrdom of Saint Conon, 13.5.2.
35.ACM, The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran, 19.2.
36.Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.96.
37.ACM, Martyrdom of Saint Conon, 13.4.
38.ACM, Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran, 19.2.
39.Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.3.
40.Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus, 13.
41.See Wilken (1984), 23, to whom these paragraphs are much indebted.
42.HC, 5.1.20.
43.Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.97.
44.De Ste. Croix (1963), 6–7; Lane Fox (1986), 423ff.
45.The status or even existence of these is contested. Watts (2015), 46ff provides a very interesting discussion of them.
46.LC, 2.45.
47.C. Th., 16.10.6, dated to 20 Feb 356.
48.C. Th., 16.10.22, dated to 9 April AD 423; see also the discussion in Geffcken (1906), 224.
THE MOST MAGNIFICENT BUILDING IN THE WORLD
1.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 22.16.12.
2.Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium 34 (ed. Rougé) – quoted in Hahn (2008), 335.
3.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 16.12.
4.Russell (2007), 69.
5.Rufinus, Church History, 11.23.
6.Rufinus, Church History, 11.23.
7.Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers, 472.
8.Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers, 472.
9.Canfora (1987), 192.
10.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Chapter 28, Vol. IV, 201.
11.Palladas, The Greek Anthology, IX.501.
TO DESPISE THE TEMPLES
1.This is the version from Eusebius’s Life of Constantine that, he says, Constantine told him with his own mouth. It was, Eusebius noted, an account that ‘might have been hard to believe had it been related by any other person’ (LC, 1.26ff). Historians have later found it hard to believe anyway. The other account in Lactantius (On the Deaths of the Persecutors, 44.3ff) is slightly different: in this, Constantine was told in a dream to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields of his army, which he did, in the form of the chi-rho sign: as Lactantius put it, ‘he marked Christ on the shields’.
2.Edict of Milan, AD 313, from Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, 48.2–12, quoted in Stevenson (1987), 284–5.
3.HC, 10.9.7.
4.HC, 10.9.6.
5.Zosimus (1814), Book 2, 51.
6.Eusebius, Oration in Praise of Constantine, 5.6.
7.HC, 10.6.3.
8.Egeria, a Spanish pilgrim, quoted in the excellent Brown (1997), 38, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
9.LC, 2.56; EH, 2.5; LC, 3.53.2.
10.EH, II.5.
11.Deuteronomy 12:2–3, discussed in Watts (2015), 46–7.
12.LC, 3.54.6.
13.EH, II.5.
14.LC, 3.54–7.
15.LC, 3.54.
16.EH, II.5.
17.Julian: quoted in Frend (1965), 160.
18.EH, II.5.
19.See the excellent ‘Lambs into Lions: Explaining Early Christian Intolerance’, by H. A. Drake (1996) for a fascinating discussion on this point.
20.Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions, 29.1–3.
21.Marinus, Life of Proclus, 30.
22.Palladas, The Greek Anthology, IX.528.
23.This version of the Seven Sleepers is taken from Jacobus de Voraigne, The Golden Legend.
24.Decline and Fall, Vol. II, Chapter 15, 55.
25.Grindle (1892), 16.
26.Dodds (1965), 132–3; Geffcken (1920), 25–34.
27.Lacarrière (1961), 87.
28.Geffcken (1920), vii.
29.De Hamel (2016), 19.
30.Stevenson (1987), see Chapter 24, entitled ‘Constantine and the End of Persecution, 310–313’, 282ff.
31.For the numbers see Stark (1996), Kaegi (1968) and Hopkins (summer 1998).
32.G. R. Evans (2010), 270–1.
33.Wilken (1984), xv.
34.Although shades of paganism survive even now. When the academic John Pollini was excavating in Turkey in the 1970s at the Greco-Roman site of Aphrodisias, he climbed Baba Dagh (‘Father Mountain’), the highest mountain in that part of Turkey. Near the summit, his Turkish guide and he met some shepherds, who, Pollini recalled, ‘were bringing sheep to sacrifice not to Allah but to the local god of the mountain, the genius loci’. In the ancient manner, they also tied filets around sticks planted in a pile of rocks. Shadows survived; the religious system itself had gone.
HOW TO DESTROY A DEMON
1.Pollini (2007), 212ff.
2.Trombley (2008), 152; Kaltsas (2002), 510.
3.It is Troels Myrup Kristensen’s brilliant Making and Breaking the Gods: Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity (2013).
4.HC, 10.4.16.
5.Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions, 28.1–29.1.
6.Exodus 20:4–5; see also Deuteronomy 12:2–3.
7.HC, 10.5.1–14; see discussion in Garnsey (1984).
8.LC, 2.44–5; see excellent discussion in Watts (2015), 46–7 about these laws.
9.On sacrifices: C. Th., 16.10.7 and 11; death penalty: C. Th., 16.10.6.
10.Madness: C. Th., 10.6.7; completely eradicated C. Th., 16.10.3; sin: C. Th., 16.10.4; avenging sword: C. Th., 16.10.4.
11.EH, V.15.
12.Libanius, Oration 30.8–9.
13.Libanius, Oration 30.44–5.
14.Libanius, Oration 30.43.
15.Libanius, Oration 30.8.
16.Libanius, Oration 30.8.
17.C. Th., 16.10.11–12.
18.C. Th., 16.10.16 dated to 399.
19.Constitutiones Sirmondianae, 12, tr. Pharr, quoted in Fowden (1978), 56; see Beard et al., eds (1998), 375, for the difficulty of knowing why laws were repeated.
20.Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.21.
21.Observation indebted to Hahn (2008), passim.
22.Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, 14.1–7.
23.Life and Times of Saint Benedict of Nursia, 133–6, quoted in Kristensen (2013), 86–7, to whom this chapter is indebted.
24.Eyes: Brown (1988), 318; performance: On the Priesthood, 5.1: PG 48: 673 quoted in Brown (1988), 318, to whom this observation is indebted.
25.Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.29.
26.Augustine, Letter 47, ed. Schaff.
27.Augustine, Sermon 24.6, quoted in MacMullen (1984), 95, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
28.Augustine, Sermon 24.5, quoted in Shaw (2011), 230–1, to whom this paragraph also is indebted.
29.Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 33.
30.Jacob of Serugh and Eusebius, Triennial Oration, quoted in Stewart (1999), 177–9.
31.In Kristensen (2013), 85.
32.Avodah Zarah 4:5, tr. Elmslie, quoted in Trombley (2008), 156–7.
33.Theodoret Ellen, Treatment of Greek Diseases, 3.79, tr. Gazda 1981 in Kristensen (2013), 224.
34.C. Th., XV.1.36 dated 1 Nov. 397.
35.Chuvin (1990), 79.
36.Jacob of Serugh in Stewart (1999), 177, to whom these paragraphs are indebted.
37.Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.21, ed. Schaff.
38.Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, 98.2 and 98.14, quoted in Shaw (2011), 234.
39.Elvira Canon 60, see Stewart (1999), 173; Gaddis (2005), 176, for discussion.
40.Mark the Deacon, The Life of Porphyry, 61.
41.Acts of John, 37–43.
42.Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.21.
43.Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.21.
44.Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, XIV.1–2.
45.Attwater (1965), 233–4.
46.Pollini (2007), 212–13.
47.Brown (1997), 49.
48.Mark the Deacon, Life of Porphyry, 61–2.
49.Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.21.
50.Libanius, Oration 30.28–9.
51.On the vexed question of whether this was true religious tolerance see Garnsey (1984).
52.Themistius, Speech 5.68b–c.
53.Augustine, City of God, 18.54.
54.Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, 14–15.
55.For a full discussion on the stone, the probable composition of the cross that is likely to have stood on this, and the question of whether or not there was a statue of Artemis there beforehand, see Kristensen (2013), 9–13.
56.Libanius, Oration 18.23.
57.Figures: priests: Harnack (1924) II.833–5; churches: Optatus II.4, quoted in Beard et al. (1998), 376; numbers from Kaegi (1968), 249.
58.Isidore of Pelusium, Ep 1.270 PG LXXVIII.344A, quoted in Brown in Cameron, Garnsey, eds (1997), 634.
59.Symmachus, Memorandum 3.8–10 in Lee (2000), 115ff; see Cameron (2011), 37, on Symmachus’s moderation as a ‘pagan’.
60.Deuteronomy 12:2–3; see also Pollini (2008), 186, and Shaw (2011), 229, for the fact that to do so was thus not wrong but part of a ‘beneficent process’.
61.MacMullen (1997), 14.
62.Cyril of Jerusalem, Mystagogic Catecheses 1.4–8, quoted in Tsafrir (2008), 122.
63.C. Th., 16.10.19.2.
64.Symmachus, Memorandum 3.10.
THE RECKLESS ONES
1.This translation assumes that the correct spelling was ‘parabolani’ and that it subsequently became changed to ‘parabalani’ as the years went on.
2.Procopius, History of the Wars, II.xxii.
3.On taking risks to do good deeds see: Bowersock (2010), 17–22; on lack of education: Dzielska (1995), 96.
4.Bowersock (2010), 15 who agrees with Philipsborn (1950), 18.
5.Number: Dzielska (1995), 96.
6.See Brown (1992), 103, to which this paragraph and the next are indebted; Ignatius of Antioch, to Polycarp, 6, quoted in Hopkins (1998), 9; see Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 27.3.12 for the description of the ‘alarming’ violence: ‘adherents of both did not stop short of wounds and death’; the admission see: Ambrose, Epistles, 40.6.
7.Bowersock (2010), 11; C. Th., 16.2.42 (29 Sept 416).
8.In March, according to Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.15.
9.Luminous: Synesius, Dion, 9 quoted in Dzielska (1995), 48, to whom this section on Hypatia is indebted; painting is by Charles William Mitchell (1885); quotations from Kingsley (1894), 12.
10.Beauty and virginity: PH, 43; cloak and virginity: Dzielska (1995), 103; quotation from PH, 43 A–C.
11.In Canfora (1987), 20.
12.Range: Epiphanius, De Mensuris et Ponderibus; translation: Byzantine treatise quoted in Canfora (1987), 24.
13.This paragraph is indebted to Ward’s wonderful essay in MacLeod, ed. (2000), 170–1.
14.Food and living: MacLeod, ed. (2000), 4; zoo: MacLeod, ed. (2000), 42; Timon, quoted in MacLeod, ed. (2000), 62.
15.Vitruvius, The Architecture of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Book IX.9–11.
16.The precise number is thanks to a fourth-century register of the city’s five districts – see Hahn (2008), 336–7.
17.Rufin, HE 11.29; Hahn (2008), 356, for this as an act of Christianization.
18.Dzielska (1995), 82–3.
19.Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.15.
20.Visits: PH, 43; friendship of Orestes: Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.15.
21.Distance: Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.15; nations: Dzielska (1995), 44; luminous: Synesius, Dion, 9 in Dzielska (1995), 48.
22.Horse and rural life: Epistles of Synesius 133, 149 and 248 quoted in Dzielska (1995).
23.PH, 43.
24.Letter of Aristeas, 9–33.
25.John Chrysostom, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, 1.3.1.
26.Nazis: Laqueur (2006), 48; speech: John Chrysostom, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, 1.3.1; presence of parabalani: Dzielska (1995), 96; the conclusion of the riot: John of Nikiu, Chronicle, LXXXIV.87.
27.Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.13.
28.Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.14.
29.Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.14.
30.Dzielska (1995), 87; Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.14–15.
31.John of Nikiu, Chronicle, LXXXIV.87.
32.Standing between Orestes and Cyril: Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.15 – who to his credit disowns this rumour; on the involvement of the parabalani in spreading these rumours: Dzielska (1995), 96; ‘bestial men’: PH, 43 E; John of Nikiu, Chronicle, LXXXIV.87.
33.John of Nikiu, Chronicle, LXXXIV.100.
34.John of Nikiu, Chronicle, LXXXIV.100.
35.Accounts of the attacks vary: Socrates, the most reliable, has her murdered with ‘tiles’ – presumably flayed by the sharp edges of pottery sherds. John of Nikiu (Chronicle, LXXXIV.87) has her dragged through the streets till she died; Damascius (fr. 43) has her eyes gouged out. Hesychius, quoted in Dzielska (1995), 93, has her body scattered across the city.
TO DRINK FROM THE CUP OF DEVILS
1.Umberto Eco (1980), 36.
2.Elderly: Deferrari and McGuire (1934), 365.
3.Basil, Address to Young Men on Reading Greek Literature.
4.Aphrodite: Odyssey, Book 8.256ff; Sophocles, Oedipus the King, 906–10; Dido: Aeneid, IV.129ff.
5.Basil, Address, IV.
6.Jerome, Letter, 22.29.
7.Catullus, 16.
8.Martial, Epigrams, 1.90.
9.Ovid, Amores, 1.5.
10.Basil, Address, IV.
11.Basil, Address, IV.
12.Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.13.
13.Basil, Address, IV.
14.Basil, Address, IV.
15.Tertullian, Apology, 14.2.
16.Tertullian, Apology, 14.3.
17.Basil, Address, IV.
18.God-fearing people: Tertullian, Apology, 14.6; defiled: Tertullian, Apology, 15.3.
19.Diogenes Laertius, 6.2.59.
20.Diogenes Laertius, 6.2.45.
21.Diogenes Laertius, 6.1.4. For a very interesting introduction to ancient atheism see Tim Whitmarsh’s Battling the Gods (2015).
22.Basil, Address, IV.
23.These observations indebted to Rohmann (2016), 127 and 60–1.
24.Wilson (1975), 7–9 and 13–14.
25.Deferrari (1934), 371–2.
26.Deferrari (1934), 370.
27.Padelford (1902), 33.
28.See, for example, Bohn’s Classical Library 1875 edition of Martial’s Epigrams. Epigram IX, xxvii, ‘To Chrestus’, is a good example; it begins (for the benefit of Italian speakers): ‘O Chresto, quantunque porti i testicoli spelati, ed una mentola simile al collo d’un Avotojo . . .’ and continues in a similar vein.
29.Cornish (1904), 19.
30.Catullus, 16, tr. Whigham.
31.This observation is indebted to Kendrick (1996), 43. Richlin, finally, translates it correctly in 1983: ‘I will bugger you and I will fuck your mouths.’
32.Chrysostom, Homily XV.10, Concerning the Statues.
33.Chrysostom, Homily XV.10–12, Concerning the Statues.
34.Index in Chrysostom, ed. Parker (1842), 373.
35.Shaw (2001), 4.
36.Chrysostom, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, 1.4.1.
37.Protagoras quoted and translated in Denyer, ed. (2008), 101.
38.Anathema quoted in N. G. Wilson (1970), 71.
39.1 Corinthians 3:19.
40.The Little Labyrinth, quoted in Eusebius, The History of the Church from Christ to Constantine, 5.28.13–15.
41.Life of Antony, 1.1.
42.Augustine, Confessions, VIII.7–8.
43.Tertullian, On the Prescription of Heretics, VII.
44.Augustine, City of God, 2.13.
45.Augustine, Confessions, I.18.28–9.
46.Catullus, 84.
47.Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, 2.13.
48.Concierge: Augustine quoted in Brown (1967), 458; ramparts: Augustine, Expositions of the Psalms, 54.13, quoted in Shaw (2011), 204.
49.Jerome, Letter 22.30.
50.Jerome, Letter 22.30.
51.Though it was clearly there, in a simple form, earlier in the Gospel of John. But later, it starts to be developed further.
52.Justin Martyr, Apology, I.46.
53.CC, IV.38.
54.The Little Labyrinth, quoted in HC, 5.28.15.
55.Knox and McKeown (2013), 7.
56.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 14.6.18.
57.C. Th., 16.4.2.
58.Cartledge (2009), 125.
59.According to the judgement of modern scholars, succeeded. In the judgement of A. H. M. Jones, he exceeds even Tacitus in his ‘breadth of view and impartiality of judgement’ (quoted in Wallace-Hadrill (1986)); Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 30.8.
60.HC, 8.2ff.
61.Dzielska (1995), 100.
62.Cover-up campaign: Dzielska (1995), 100; for criticism see Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, VII.15: ‘surely nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions of that sort’; destroyed the last remains: Nikiu, Chronicle, LXXXIV.103.
63.Chadwick (1958), passim. This paragraph is indebted to the ever-excellent MacMullen, especially MacMullen (1984), 6, and MacMullen (1997), 3–4.
TO CLEANSE THE ERROR OF DEMONS
1.Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 37–8.
2.Rules of Rabbula, can. 50, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 115.
3.Leipoldt (1908), 13.32.1–3, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 135.
4.Pietro Bernardo quoted in Plaisance (2008), 65–7.
5.Augustine, City of God, 18.37.
6.Augustine, City of God, 18.41; quoted in Rohmann (2016), 114.
7.Chrysostom, Homily on First Corinthians (Argument); see Rohmann (2016), Chapter 4 for an excellent in-depth discussion of Christian attitudes to materialist philosophy to which this paragraph and the following are much indebted.
8.The Apostolic Constitutions, 1.6.1–2, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 114.
9.PH, 80, 85, 86.
10.PH, 63.
11.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Vol. IV, Chapter 40, 265.
12.Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 64–9.
13.The Life of Simeon Stylites the Younger, 161, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 104.
14.Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 59–62.
15.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 29.1.23.
16.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 29.1.35.
17.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 29.2.4.
18.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 29.1.41.
19.Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 29.1.4–29.2.1.
20.Observation and translation indebted to Rohmann (2016), 247.
21.John Chrysostom, Homily 89 in the Acts of the Apostles (PG, 60, 274–5), quoted in Chuvin (1990), 52.
22.Jerome, Letter 70.2.
23.Reynolds and Wilson (1968), 70.
24.N. G. Wilson (1968), 72.
25.N. G. Wilson (1970), 72.
26.See N. G. Wilson (1975), 10.
27.Quoted in N. G. Wilson (1970), 72.
28.Rohmann (2016), 19, and main discussion 290–4.
29.Reynolds and Wilson (1968), 76, to whom this paragraph and the next are much indebted.
30.Reynolds and Wilson (1968), 75–6.
31.Chrysostom, Homily 2 on the Gospel of John, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 201, to whom these paragraphs are much indebted.
32.Chrysostom, Eiusdem in illud, si qua in Christo, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 203.
33.Theodoret, Treatment of Greek Diseases, 5.64–6, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 120.
34.Augustine, Letter 118.3.21, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 171.
35.Gerstinger (1948) and Bardon (1952/56) quoted in Rohmann (2016), 8.
36.Estimate is that of Fuhrmann (2005), 17, again quoted in Rohmann (2016), 8.
CARPE DIEM
1.Virgil, Aeneid, 1.279.
2.Palladas, 10.82. By ‘Greek’ Palladas here means that he worships the old gods.
3.From the lines that open the ‘infamous’ Chapter 15 of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1896–1900). Not all were so impressed. As the Duke of Gloucester said: ‘Another damned, thick, square book! Always scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr Gibbon?’
4.Cyprian, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, 56.
5.Justin Martyr, Apology, I.xii.
6.The ‘Octavius’ of Minucius Felix, X.
7.Pliny, Natural History, 2.IV.
8.‘The Martyrdom of Montanus and Lucius’, in ACM, 15.11.
9.See Hopkins (1998), passim, for a discussion of numbers and their implications.
10.Quoted in Judge (2008), 6.
11.Quoted in Judge (2008), 6.
12.Richlin (1983), 146.
13.Kendrick (1997), 7, to whom these paragraphs are indebted.
14.Sanager’s History of Prostitution, quoted in Kendrick (1997), 25–6.
15.Quoted in Fisher and Langlands (2011).
16.Fanin (1871), vii and title page.
17.Winckelmann quoted in Fisher and Langlands (2011), 309.
18.See Fisher and Langlands (2011), 306ff.
19.Fanin (1871), xvii.
20.Winckelmann (1771) quoted in Fisher and Langlands (2011), 309.
21.Date from Fisher and Langlands (2011), 310.
22.Fanin (1871), xviii.
23.Veyne (1992), 202.
24.Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars: Julius Caesar 1.49.
25.Ovid, Amores, 1.5.
26.Ovid, Tristia, 2.207.
27.Epictetus, Enchiridion, 33.8 quoted in Brown (2008).
28.Galen, On Affected Parts, 6.5; Rousselle (1988).
29.Ovid, Amores, 1.13, 1–3.
30.Macrobius, Saturnalia, 2.5.9.
31.Rachael Pells, ‘Archaeologists discover ancient mosaic with message: “Be cheerful, enjoy your life.”’ Independent, 24 April 2016.
32.Horace, Odes, I.9. The usual translation ‘Seize the day’ doesn’t quite catch the flavour of the Latin. ‘Carpo’ is a much more delicate action – it’s what you do to a flower, or to fruit: to pick it, savour it.
33.Ovid, The Art of Love, 1.1ff.
34.Ovid, Metamorphoses, 15.871–9.
35.Ovid, The Art of Love, 3.779ff.
36.Romans 1:24; as ever Brown (2008), 7ff, is brilliant and this section is much indebted to his observations.
37.Romans 1:26–7.
38.1 Corinthians 6:9.
39.Romans 7:24.
40.Clement, The Instructor, 2.1.
41.Clement, The Instructor, 1.8.
42.Clement, The Instructor, 3.9.
43.Clement, The Instructor, 2.1.
44.Clement, The Instructor, 2.1.
45.Clement, The Instructor, 2.2.
46.Chrysostom, The Homilies: On the Statues, XV.4.
47.Chrysostom, The Homilies: On the Statues, XV.4.
48.Ovid, The Art of Love, 1.229ff.
49.Ovid, The Art of Love, 3.764ff.
50.Ovid, The Art of Love, 1.518ff.
51.Ovid, The Art of Love, 1.523–4.
52.Ovid, The Art of Love, 3.133ff.
53.Ovid, The Art of Love, 3.193.
54.Ovid, The Art of Love, 3.199ff.
55.Clement, The Instructor: hair curling etc., 2.11; sandals, 2.12; make-up, 3.2.
56.Clement, The Instructor: cups, 2.3; bedsheets, 2.3.
57.Clement, The Instructor: jewellery, 2.13; fabrics, 2.11.
58.Clement, The Instructor, 3.3.
59.Jerome, Letter, 14.10.
THEY THAT FORSAKE THE WAY OF GOD
1.MacMullen (1990), 150: ‘The only sadistic literature I am aware of in the ancient world, is the developing Christian vision of Purgatory.’
2.Apocalypse of Peter, 22, 28.
3.Apocalypse of Peter, 24.
4.Apocalypse of Peter, 30.
5.Apocalypse of Peter, 26.
6.Libanius, Oration, 11.218.
7.Libanius, Oration, 64.116, quoted in Hall and Wyles, eds (2008), 397.
8.Pliny the Younger, Letter 9.17.
9.Augustine, City of God, 1.32–3.
10.Sider (2001), 99 n.67.
11.Tertullian, Spectacles, 10.12; Tertullian, Spectacles, 10.5.
12.Chrysostom, Against the Games and Theatres.
13.Severus of Antioch quoted in Sizgorich (2009), 116.
14.Chrysostom, Against the Games and Theatres.
15.Chrysostom, Homilies on Matthew, 7.7.
16.Jacob of Serugh quoted in Sizgorich (2009), 116–17, to whom these paragraphs are indebted.
17.Arnobius, Adversus Gentes, 42.
18.Ovid, The Art of Love, 1.135ff.
19.Chrysostom, Against the Games and Theatres.
20.Martial, Epigrams, 2.42.
21.Quoted in Veyne (1992), 183.
22.Seneca, Epistle 56.
23.Martial, Epigrams, 6.93.
24.Chrysostom, The Homilies: On the Statues, XVII.9.
25.Tertullian, Spectacles, 8.9.
26.Tertullian, Spectacles, 18.3.
27.Clement, The Instructor, III.V.
28.Jerome, Letter, 14.10.
29.Malalas, 18.18.
30.See MacMullen (1990), 142ff, for a very interesting discussion on this general question to which this paragraph and others here are much indebted.
31.Tertullian, Spectacles, 30.3ff.
TO OBLITERATE THE TYRANNY OF JOY
1.Chrysostom, Homily 14 on I Timothy v.8.
2.Life of Antony, 14.
3.Bedjan, The Life of Simeon Stylites, 154.
4.Maillet, Description de l’Egypte (1735), quoted in Lacarrière (1961), tr. Monkcom (1963).
5.AP, Zacharias, 1.
6.AP, Euprepius, 4.
7.A Smaller Latin–English Dictionary, Smith (1955).
8.Rhetorical manual of Theon, the sophist, quoted in Wilken (1983), 99, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
9.Libanius, Oration, 2.32; Libanius, Oration, 30.48.
10.Libanius, Oration, 2.32.
11.Libanius, Oration, 30.11.
12.Quoted in Lacarrière (1961), 92, to whom this paragraph is much indebted.
13.AP, Antony, 10.
14.AP, Dioscorus, 1.
15.Jerome on Hilarion, quoted in Lacarrière (1961), tr. Monkcom (1963), 142.
16.Evagrius quoted in Brakke (2006), 58.
17.This observation is indebted to Brown (2008), 220.
18.AP, Isaac Priest of the Cells, 7.
19.AP, Apollo, 2.
20.AP, Evagrius, 1.
21.Palladius, Lausiac History, 26.2–4, quoted in Brakke (2006), 140.
22.AP, Evagrius, 4.
23.AP, John the Dwarf, 9.
24.AP, Theophilus the Archbishop, 1.
25.AP, Gelasius, 6.
26.Chrysostom, Against the Games and Theatres.
27.Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis, 6.6, quoted in Chadwick (2001), 486.
28.Constantine, Oration to the Saints, 11; for the genuineness or otherwise see Drake (1985), 335ff.
29.Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, 48.3; C. Th., 16.10.6; see also C. Th., 16.10.7.
30.C. Th., 16.10.19.3 and C. Th. 16.10.20.4.
31.Chrysostom, Demonstration Against the Pagans That Christ Is God 11, quoted in Rohmann (2016), 192.
32.Chrysostom quoted in Sizgorich (2009), 40; Chrysostom’s policing of the boundaries of Christian life is discussed brilliantly in Sizgorich (2009), Chapter I, to which these paragraphs are indebted.
33.Chrysostom, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, 8.5.2–4, quoted in Sizgorich (2009), 40.
34.Chrysostom, Against the Games and Theatres.
35.Chrysostom, Discourses Against Judaizing Christians, 7.6.8.
MERCIFUL SAVAGERY
1.Augustine, City of God, 19.17.
2.John Chrysostom described in EH, VIII.4, quoted along with the above in Gaddis (2005), 192, to whom these paragraphs are much indebted.
3.Layton (2007), 62.
4.Eunapius, Lives of the Sophists, 423.
5.Theodosius quoted in Ambrose, Epistle 41.27.
6.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 1.5.
7.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 1.6.
8.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 1.2.
9.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 1.4.
10.Bagnall in Emmel et al., eds (2008), 31. Bagnall points out that this could have been a statement of Arian tendencies or similar.
11.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 1–2.4.
12.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 2.1–4.
13.Shenoute, Let Our Eyes, 1.3–2.12.
14.In Shenoute, Open Letter to a Pagan Notable (1961); translation from Gaddis (2005), 1.
15.Layton (2007), passim, to whom this section is much indebted.
16.Layton (2007), 60.
17.This observation and these paragraphs indebted to the excellent Layton (2007), passim.
18.Wealth: Layton (2007), 60; shaving: 60, 62; desire: 47; cucumber: 51; sexual laws: 63; washing: 50; desire: 69; sitting: 62.
19.Jeremiah 23:24.
20.Layton (2007), 47 n.4.
21.This paragraph is much indebted to the excellent observations in Lacarrière (1961), 131ff.
22.Account in Shenoute’s In the Night, described in the excellent Brakke (2006), 3–4; 115–16; retold in Besa, Life of Shenoute, 73.
23.Augustine, Letter 93.II.4.
24.Augustine, Letter 93.II.5.
25.Augustine, Letter 185.2.
26.John Chrysostom, The Homilies: On the Statues, 1.32; Aphrarat writing of Numbers 25 quoted in Gaddis (2005), 182.
27.This paragraph much indebted to Thurman (1968), 19–20.
28.On Buildings, 1.1 quoted in Thurman (1968), 17.
29.For punishments see Apocalypse of Peter, 22–4; for true meaning of ‘feet’ see Czachesz in Bremmer (2003), 109; on appositeness: Gaddis (2005), 127–8, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
30.Augustine, A Summary of the Conference with the Donatists 3.II.22, quoted in Shaw (2011), 684, to whom this and the following paragraphs are much indebted.
31.Augustine, Tract in Ioh, 5.12 (CCL 36:47) quoted in Shaw (2011), 698.
32.I am indebted to the as ever brilliant observation of Shaw (2011), 674; see Augustine, Against the Letter of Parmenianus, 1.10.16.
33.HC, 5.1.20.
34.Gaddis (2005), 216.
35.Libanius, Oration 45.26, For the Prisoners, quoted in Gaddis to whom these paragraphs are much indebted.
36.Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 43.57.
37.Libanius, Oration 30.25–6.
38.Luke 14:23 KJV.
39.Augustine, Letter 104.2.7.
40.Jerome, Letter 109.2.
41.Chrysostom, Against the Games and Theatres.
42.Augustine, Sermon 279.4, quoted in Shaw (2011), 682: Ubi terror, ibi salus. Qui faciebat contra nomen, patiatur pro nomine. O saevitia misericors!
43.This observation is much indebted to the brilliant essay by H. A. Drake (1996), 3–6.
A TIME OF TYRANNY AND CRISIS
1.The manuscript of the Justinian Code is corrupted at this point, making precise dating difficult: AD 529 is the generally accepted date of this. There are two laws that are relevant here; I focus on the second.
2.For Damascius’s enthusiasm for her, see PH, 106A.
3.Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 26–33; PH, 53.
4.Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 30.
5.PH, 119.
6.Damascius, Life of Isidore, Fr. 36, 62, Zintzen quoted in Hadot (2004), 2.
7.PH, 124.
8.Athanassiadi (1993), 4; Marinus, Life of Proclus, 10; 26.
9.Simplicius, epilogue on commentary on Enchiridion, quoted in Cameron (1969), 14.
10.Isidore, quoted in PH, 150.
11.PH, 145.
12.Agathias, Histories, 2.30.2.
13.According to Cameron (1969), 22.
14.Strömberg (1946), 176–7.
15.C. Th., 16.10.22 of April 423.
16.Geffcken (1978), 228.
17.Cf. C. Just. 1.1.8.35; 1.1.8; 1.1.8.35; 1.1.8.25.
18.C. Just. 1.11.10.
19.C. Just. 1.11.10 and 1.11.10.4.
20.C. Just. 1.11.10. 1–7.
21.C. Just. 1.11.10.2.
22.Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Vol. IV, Chapter 40, 265.
23.Athanassiadi (1999), 342–7.
24.Shear (1973), 162.
25.PH, 43A–C.
26.PH, 85A.
27.Cameron (1969), 17.
28.Athanassiadi (1993), 21.
29.PH, 36; Olympiodorus in Commentary on the First Alcibiades, quoted in Cameron (1969), 15.
30.Marinus, Life of Proclus, 30.
31.Vultures: Marinus, Life of Proclus, 15; PH, 117C; ‘the tyrant’ is in Olympiodorus, Commentary on the First Alcibiades, quoted in Cameron (1969), 15.
32.PH, 45.
33.Plato more dangerous: Chadwick (1966), 11ff; Cameron (1969), 9; see also N. G. Wilson (1970), 71.
34.PH, 63B.
35.Photius, The Bibliotheca, 130.7–12, quoted in Watts.
36.C. Just. 1.11.10.2.
37.Cameron (1969), 18, to whose observations these paragraphs are much indebted; Cameron (2016), 222.
38.Simplicius in Cameron (1969), 21.
39.PH, 158.
40.PH, 146.
41.PH, 119C and 121.
42.Homer, The Iliad, 1.2–5.
43.Agathias, Histories, 2.28–2.31.2.
44.Agathias, Histories, 30–31.2.
45.Agathias, Histories, 2.31.2–4.
46.Cameron (1969/70), 176.
47.Al Mas’udi, Les prairies d’or (ed., trans. B. de Meynard, P. de Courtelle, C. Pellat), ii 741, 278, quoted in Athanassiadi (1993), 28.
48.Athanassiadi (1999), caption to Plate III.