Interesting new book: The Last Pagans of Rome by Alan Cameron.
This online reviews says, “Cameron’s mission here is to topple once and for all the “myth” of a concerted resistance movement coordinated by a select group of late fourth-century pagan aristocrats to oppose Christianity’s infiltration of state and society. For more than four decades Cameron’s scholarship has been edging that romantic vision of the religious, literary, and social history of late fourth-century Rome to the brink of destruction. With the publication of this book the classic formulation of paganism’s fourth-century “revival” lies well beyond reconstitution.”
The 4th century pagan revival is so much a part of how we think about this period of Roman history, it’s a disappointment — although not a surprise — to find out that it has little foundation.
