Hellenic religion and Christianization. : c. 370-529 / / Volume I : / by Frank R. Trombley.

• Superior document: Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, v. 115/1
• Author: Trombley, Frank R.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, New York : : E.J. Brill,, 1995.
• Year of Publication: 1995
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Religions in the Graeco-Roman World 115/1.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (358 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary material /; The Legal Status of Sacrifice to 529 /; Christianization /; Gaza /; Appendix I: The Priority and Historicity of the Greek Version of Mark the Deacon’s Life of Porphyrius of Gaza /; Athens and Attica /; Appendix II: Did John Chrysostom Visit Athens in 367/8? /; Appendix III: The Closure of the Asklepieion and Parthenon in 481–484 /
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and indexes.
• ISBN: 9004096248; 9004276777
• ISSN: 0927-7633
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Frank R. Trombley.

This work discusses the decline of Greek religion and the christianization of town and countryside in the eastern Roman Empire between the death of Julian the Apostate and the laws of Justinian the Great against paganism, c. 370-529. It examines such questions as the effect of the laws against sacrifice and sorcery, temple conversions, the degradation of pagan gods into daimones , the christianization of rite, and the social, political and economic background of conversion to Christianity. Several local contexts are examined in great detail: Gaza, Athens, Alexandria, Aphrodisias, central Asia Minor, northern Syria, the Nile basin, and the province of Arabia. It lays particular emphasis on the criticism of epigraphy, legal evidence, and hagiographic texts, and traces the demographic growth of Christianity and the chronology of this process in select local contexts. It also seeks to understand the behavioral patterns of conversion.