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42. CC, III.44.
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43. CC, III.55.
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44. CC, I.9.
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45. Origen, Homilies on Genesis, 9.2.
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46. Augustine, Sermon 198, quoted in Brown (1967), 458.
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47. Ovid, Metamorphoses, 1.1–362.
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48. Genesis 1:1–6:7.
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49. CC, IV.41.
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50. Buckland (1820), 24.
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51. CC, I.50.
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52. CC, II.58.
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53. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 33.
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54. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 37.
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55. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 33.
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56. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 34.
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57. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 1.
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58. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 41.
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59. Lucian, Passing of Peregrinus, 40.
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60. Suda, under Loukianos, quoted in Whitmarsh (2015), 221.
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61. Quoted in Whitmarsh (2015), 221, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
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62. CC, II.32.
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63. CC, I.68.
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64. Observation indebted to Wilken (1984), 98–99.
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65. Justin Martyr, Apology, 1.26.
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66. Justin Martyr, Apology, 1.26.
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67. Lucian, Demonax, 27.
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68. Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, 2.7.
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69. Pliny, Natural History, 2.14.
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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.
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71. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Vespasian, 23.
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72. ACM, 3; see Wilken (1984), 62ff., for a discussion.
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73. Livy, The Early History of Rome, 5.16.11, quoted in Frend (1965), 105.
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74. Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, 2.7.
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75. Minucius Felix, The “Octavius,” VIII.
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76. CC, V.34.
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77. CC, IV.70.
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78. CC, V.34.
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79. CC, V.34.
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80. Garnsey (1984), 17.
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81. Augustine, Letter 104.2.7.
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82. Porphyry quoted in Augustine, Letter 102.30.
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83. Eusebius, Preparation for the Gospel, 1.3.1, quoted in Wilken (1984), 161.
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84. Porphyry in Augustine, Letter 102.8.
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85. Another Epistle of Constantine, in Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, 1.9.
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86. Celsus, On the True Doctrine, tr. Hoffmann, 29.
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87. Augustine, Letter 93.1.2.
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88. Augustine, Letter 93.II.4.
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89. CC, V.34.
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4. “ON THE SMALL NUMBER OF MARTYRS”
1. HC, 2.25.
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2. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero, 6.1.
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3. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero, 28.2.
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4. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero, 29.
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5. Pliny, Natural History, 36.108 (possibly exaggerating).
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6. Juvenal, Satire 3, 193–96.
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7. Juvenal, Satire 3, 200–202.
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8. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero, 38.
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9. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Nero, 31.2.
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10. Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
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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.
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12. Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
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13. Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
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14. Tacitus, Annals, 15.44.
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15. The Golden Legend, Vol. III, The Life of St. Alban and Amphiabel.
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16. HC, 8.9.
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17. Tertullian, Apology, 50.
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18. Basil, Letter 164.1.
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19. This observation is indebted to Lane Fox (1988), 419.
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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.
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21. Sienkiewicz (1895), Epilogue.
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22. Quo Vadis, MGM (1951).
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23. Hopkins, “Christian Number and Its Implications,” no. 4.
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24. Origen, Exhortation 16, in Corke-Webster (2013). I am indebted to James Corke-Webster for drawing my attention to this.
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25. Gregory Nazianzen, First Invective Against Julian, Oration 4.58.
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26. “The Martyrdom of Saints Marian and James,” in ACM, 14.8.
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27. Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, V.111–16; see the very interesting discussion in Corke-Webster (2012).
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28. Acts of Paul, II.18, in Anon.,The Apocryphal New Testament, 24.
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29. Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, X.710ff.
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30. CC, III.8.
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31. Dodwell (1684).
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32. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Vol. II, Chapter 16, 138.
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33. De Ste. Croix (2006), 42.
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5. THESE DERANGED MEN
1. This paragraph is indebted to Wilken (1984), who spotted the drama of this moment.
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2. Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.17a and b.
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3. “My dear”: Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.20; illness: Letter 10.18; special mission: Letter 10.18.
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4. Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.42.
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5. Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.32.
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6. Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, 3.90; Justin Martyr, Apology 1.5.
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7. See “The Martyrdom of Polycarp,” in ACM, 1.17;HC, 5.1; “Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne,” in ACM, 5.7; “Acts of Carpus, Papylus and Agathonice,” in ACM, 2.4; see also Martyrs of Lyons, in HC, 5.1.
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8. Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.98.
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9. Justinian, Digest, 1.18.13.
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10. HC, 5.1.
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11. Pliny the Younger, Letter 8.8.
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12. Tertullian, The Address of Q. Sept. Tertullian to Scapula Tertullus.
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13. Tertullian, The Address of Q. Sept. Tertullian to Scapula Tertullus.
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14. Life of Antony, 46–47.
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15. Pseudo Jerome, Indiculus de Haeresibus,
33, quoted in Drake (2011), 182.
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16. Augustine, Letter 88.8.
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17. Augustine, Liber de Haeresibus, 69.3, in Shaw (2014), 183–84.
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18. Ambrose, Letters to His Sister, 60.
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19. Augustine, Letter 185.12.
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20. Filastrius, quoted in Shaw (2014), 181–83; “orgiastic” behavior: Augustine, Letter to Catholics of the Donatist Sect, 19.50; Augustine, Against the Letter of Parmenianus, 2.9.19, both mentioned in Shaw (2011), 660ff.
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21. Cyprian, On the Unity of the Church, 1.20.
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22. Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, VI.36.
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23. “The Martyrdom of Saint Irenaeus Bishop of Sirmium,” in ACM, 23.2ff.
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24. Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, III.104ff.
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25. “The Martyrdom of Saint Conon,” in ACM, 13.4.
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26. “The Martyrdom of Justin and Companions,” Recension C, in ACM, 4.1–4.
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27. S. Coluthus, 90–92, in Reymond and Barns, Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices (1973), 148–49.
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28. “The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran,” in ACM, 19.2.
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29. Prudentius, Crowns of Martyrdom, III.122–25.
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30. “The Martyrdom of Saint Conon,” in ACM, 13.4.
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31. “The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran,” in ACM, 19.2.
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32. Frend (1965), 413.
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33. S. Coluthus, 90–92, in Reymond and Barns, Four Martyrdoms from the Pierpont Morgan Coptic Codices (1973), 148–49.
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34. “The Martyrdom of Saint Conon,” in ACM, 13.5.2.
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35. “The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran,” in ACM, 19.2.
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36. Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.96.
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37. “The Martyrdom of Saint Conon,” in ACM, 13.4.
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38. “The Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran,” in ACM, 19.2.
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39. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 11.3.
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40. Lucian, The Passing of Peregrinus, 13.
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41. See Wilken (1984), 23, to whom these paragraphs are much indebted.
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42. HC, 5.1.20.
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43. Pliny the Younger, Letter 10.97.
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44. De Ste. Croix (1963), 6–7; Lane Fox (1988), 423ff.
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45. The status or even existence of these is contested. Watts (2015), 46ff., provides a very interesting discussion of them.
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46. LC, 2.45.
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47. C. Th., 16.10.6, dated to 20 February 356.
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48. C. Th., 16.10.22, dated to 9 April 423; see also the discussion in Geffcken (1978), 224.
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6. THE MOST MAGNIFICENT BUILDING IN THE WORLD
1. Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 22.16.12.
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2. Anon., Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium, ed. Rougé, 34, quoted in Hahn (2008), 335.
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3. Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire, 16.12.
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4. Russell (2007), 69.
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5. Rufinus, Church History, 11.23.
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6. Rufinus, Church History, 11.23.
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7. Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers, 472.
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8. Eunapius, Lives of the Philosophers, 472.
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9. Canfora (1990), 192.
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10. Gibbon, Decline and Fall, Vol. IV, Chapter 28, 201.
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11. Palladas, The Greek Anthology, 9.501.
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7. 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.”
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2. Edict of Milan, AD 313, from Lactantius, On the Deaths of the Persecutors, 48.2–12, quoted in Stevenson (1987), 284–85.
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3. HC, 10.9.7.
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4. HC, 10.9.6.
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5. Zosimus, The History, Book 2, 51.
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6. Eusebius, Oration in Praise of Constantine, 5.6.
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7. HC, 10.6.3.
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8. Egeria, a Spanish pilgrim, quoted in the excellent Brown, Authority and the Sacred (1997), 38, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
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9. LC, 2.56; EH, 2.5; LC, 3.53.2.
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10. EH, II.5.
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11. Deuteronomy 12:2–3, discussed in Watts (2015), 46–47.
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12. LC, 3.54.6.
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13. EH, II.5.
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14. LC, 3.54–57.
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15. LC, 3.54.
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16. EH, II.5.
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17. Julian quoted in Frend (1965), 160.
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18. EH, II.5.
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19. See the excellent “Lambs into Lions: Explaining Early Christian Intolerance,” by H. A. Drake (1996), for a fascinating discussion on this point.
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20. Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions, 29.1–3.
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21. Marinus, Life of Proclus, 30.
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22. Palladas, The Greek Anthology, 9.528.
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23. This version of the Seven Sleepers is taken from Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend.
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24. Decline and Fall, Vol. II, Chapter 15, 55.
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25. Grindle (1892), 16.
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26. Dodds (1965), 132–33; Geffcken (1978), 25–34.
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27. Lacarrière (1963), 87.
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28. Geffcken (1978), vii.
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29. De Hamel (2016), 19.
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30. Stevenson (1987); see Chapter 24, entitled “Constantine and the End of Persecution, 310–313,” 282ff.
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31. For the numbers, see Stark (1996), Kaegi (1968) and Hopkins (1998).
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32. Evans (2010), 270–71.
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33. Wilken (1984), xv.
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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 fillets around sticks planted in a pile of rocks. Shadows survived; the religious system itself had gone.
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8. HOW TO DESTROY A DEMON
1. Pollini (2007), 212ff.
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2. Trombley (2008), 152; Kaltsas (2002), 510.
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3. It is Troels Myrup Kristensen’s brilliant Making and Breaking the Gods: Christian Responses to Pagan Sculpture in Late Antiquity (2013).
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4. HC, 10.4.16.
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5. Firmicus Maternus, The Error of the Pagan Religions, 28.1–29.1.
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6. Exodus 20:4–5; see also Deuteronomy 12:2–3.
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7. HC, 10.5.1–14; see discussion in Garnsey (1984).
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8. LC, 2.44–45; see excellent discussion in Watts (2015), 46–47, about these laws.
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9. On sacrifices: C. Th., 16.10.7 and 11; death penalty: C. Th., 16.10.6.
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10. Madmen: 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.
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11. EH, V.15.
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12. Libanius, Oration 30.8–9.
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13. Libanius, Oration 30.44–45.
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14. Libanius, Oration 30.43.
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15. Libanius, Oration 30.8.
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16. Libanius, Oration 30.8.
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17. C. Th., 16.10.11–12.
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18. C. Th., 16.10.16, dated to 399.
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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.
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20. Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.21.
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21. Observation indebted to Hahn (2008), passim.
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22. Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin, 14.1–7.
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23. Life and Times of Saint Benedict of Nursia, quoted in Kristensen (2013), 86–87, to whom this chapter is indebted.
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24. Eyes: Brown (2008), 318; performance: On the Priesthood, quoted in Brown (2008), 307, to whom this observation is indebted.
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25. Theodoret, Ecclesiastical History, V.29.
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26. Augustine, Letter 47, ed. Schaff.
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27. Augustine, Sermon 24.6, quoted in MacMullen (1984), 95, to whom this paragraph is indebted.
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28. Augustine, Sermon 24.5, quoted in Shaw (2011), 230–1, to whom this paragraph also is indebted.
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29. Zachariah of Mytilene, The Life of Severus, 33.
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30. Jacob of Serugh and Eusebius, Triennial Oration, quoted in Stewart (1999), 177–79.
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31. In Kristensen (2013), 85.
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32. Avodah Zarah 4:5, tr. Elmslie, quoted in Trombley (2008), 156–57.
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