FRANCIS, J.A., — Subversive Virtue. Ascetism and Authority in the Second-Century Pagan World.

Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania, 1995. XVIII,222p. Original burgundy cloth with dust wrappers. Small hole to head spine dust wrappers. Dust wrappers with a few light stains and to upper corners strengthened with adhesive tape. ‘It has been assumed that Christianity ultimately prevailed in the Roman Empire because paganism was ‘a bankrupt religious system that had ceased to command the attention of[and] conviction … of the empire.’ ‘Subversive virtue’ shows there was considerable religious vitality in the second century and that roman state religion was by no means folding quietly. Francis looks at the writing of Marcus Aurelius, Lucian, Philostratus (…), and Census (as excepted from Origen) to show how the perception of pagan holy men and ascetics had a negative impact on Christianity and resulted in persecutions of the second and third centuries. Exhibitions ascetics like Peregrinus were described as sociopaths who challenged established religion and tradition. Christians were later perceived as dangerous and unpatriotic because of their pacifism, which rejected military service and public office. They also refuged to pay homage to the emperor as head of state, causing them to fall under suspicion. ‘Subversive Virtue’ documents well pagan religion prior to the era of persecutions and the acceptance of Christianity as the official religion of the Empire. (…) [The Book] builds well on Eric R. Dodd’s ‘Pagan and Christian in an Age of Anxiety’, and will help the reader understand how Christianity emerged from Obscurity to become the religion of the Roman Empire.’ (A.W. GODFREY in The Classical World, 1998, pp.446-447).