The Religious History of the Roman Empire Pagans, Jews, and Christians

includes index and biblioraphy

I: CHANGES IN RELIGIOUS LIFE: ROMAN AND CIVIC CULTS 1. Roman Religion and the Religion of Empire:Some Reflections on Method 9 Jorg Riipke 2. The Roman Imperial Cult and the Question of Power 37 Richard Gordon 3. Magic in Roman Law: The Reconstruction of a Crime 71 J. B. Rives 4. New Combinations and New Statuses: The Indigenous Gods in the Pantheons of the Cities of Roman Gaul 109 William Van Andringa 5. Hypsistos: A Way of Exalting the Gods in Graeco-Roman Polytheism 139 Nicole Belayche 6. On the Uses and Disadvantages of Divination: Oracles and their Literary Representations in the Time of the Second Sophistic 175 Andreas Bendlin II: ELECTIVE CULTS 7. Homogeneity and Diversity in the Religions of Rome 253 Simon Price 8. Mysteries and Oriental Cults: A Problem in the History of Religions 276 Giulia Sfameni Gasparro 9. Ritual and Hierarchy in the Mysteries of Mithras 325 Richard Gordon 10. Community and Community: Reflections on Some Ambiguities Based on the Thiasoi of Roman Egypt 366 John Scheid III: CO-EXISTENCE OF RELIGIONS, OLD AND NEW 11. Acculturation and Identity in the Diaspora: A Jewish Family and `Pagan` Guilds at Hierapolis 385 Philip Harland 12. Josephus and Variety in First-Century Judaism 419 Martin Goodman 13. The Forging of Christian Identity and the Letter To Diognetus 435 Judith Lieu 14. Purification and its Discontents: Mani`s Rejection of Baptism 460 Guy G. Stroumsa 15. Pagans, Polytheists, and the Pendulum 479 J. A. North IV: LATE ANTIQUITY 16. Early Christianity and the Discourse of Female Desire Averil Cameron 17. Enjoying the Saints in Late Antiquity Peter Brown