Apologetics in the Roman Empire
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loginThe period with which this book is concerned is the ®rst threecenturies of the Roman Empire, from the ®rst emperor Augustus(31bce±14ce) to the ®rst Christian emperor Constantine (306±37ce). The period was marked by the existence of a great varietyof religious traditions: civic cults, private religious associations,ocial cults of the Roman state, and personal observances. Theadherents of these religions attacked each other with great ferocityat times. In response there emerged the practice of apologetic, thedefence of a religion against actual or perceived opponents. It isthe aim of this volume to examine the development of the literaryexpressionofsuchapologeticamong pagans,Jews,andChristians.In commissioning contributions from scholars who work withvery dierent literary materials, the editors laid down a workingde®nition of apologetic, taking as the core meaning of the term thesense in which it is commonly applied to the formal treatisesundertaken in defence of Christianity from the second centuryonwards. Apologetic is thus the defence of a cause or partysupposed to be of paramount importance to the speaker. It mayincludeapologiain the sense of Plato'sApology, the defence of asingle person, but is distinguished from polemic (which need notassume any previous attack by the opponent) and from merelyepideictic or occasional orations. Contributors were asked toconsider how far a particular text or group of texts conforms tothis de®nition.
