CAMERON, A.,
The Last Pagans of Rome.
Oxford University Press, 2013. 896p. Paperback. 'This impressive book is a masterpiece, result of decades of research in the field of Late Antique Literature and History.1 Alan Cameron provides a sharp and stimulating reassessment of common assumptions about the confrontation between pagans and Christians in Late Antiquity. The book focuses on the members of the ‘pagan’ elite of Rome in the late fourth and early fifth centuries, most of them senators and/or belonging to old Roman families. (...) First, Cameron disagrees with the view that paganism remained dominant until the end of the fifth century: paganism would have rapidly declined after Constantine’s conversion and was already ‘mortally dead’ before Theodosius’ victory at the Frigidus and before his anti-pagan laws. According to Cameron, the major shift from moderate pagans into moderate Christians would have occurred from the 340s onwards. (...) Second, when looking at the individuals of the Roman elite, Cameron shows that there was no pagan party willing to fight for the survival of the old cults and against the spread of Christianity. In this respect, he demonstrates that the so-called circle of Symmachus never existed other than in the literary fiction elaborated many years later by Macrobius. (...) Third, Cameron devotes several chapters to the demonstration that most pagan aristocrats did not, as too often stated, spend their leisure in reading, copying and editing classical texts. On the contrary, many men of letters appeared to have been Christians. There is no real evidence, Cameron argues, that any specific pre-Christian text was valued or exploited by pagans for its religious content. As such, classical literature should be considered as a common secular culture without any correlation with the religious allegiance of the people who produced and/or used them. (...) In the course of this implacable demonstration, Cameron gives admirable lessons of criticism. (...) A huge amount of evidence—well-known authors, imperial legislation, neglected manuscripts, inscriptions, as well as, in the penultimate chapter, artefacts—are reinterpreted in a new perspective. Cameron disagrees almost always with the communis opinio and systematically discusses the authorship, the date of publication and the agenda of these works which appeared to be far less known that we might think. (...) The book (...) will undoubtedly become essential reading in the field of Late Antique literature, religions and history.' (AUDE BUSINE in Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2011.12.35).
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