ENGLISH

Martyrdom and Rome (Wiles Lectures)

By G. W. Bowersock

Book information

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Year
1995
ISBN
0521465397, 9780521465397, 0521530490, 9780521530491, 9780511518546
LCC
BR1604.2 .B68 1995
Open Library ID
OL1103638M
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
3 MB (3256315 bytes)
Pages
120\118
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

This book examines the historical context of the earliest Christian martyrs, and anchors their grisly and often willful self-sacrifice to the everyday life and outlook of the cities (mostly Greek) of the Roman empire. By exploring the remains of contemporary documents of martyrdoms in the centuries before Constantine, it provides a historical explanation of why martyrdom occurred when and as it did, and thereby tries to expose the fundamental assumptions of a radical new form of religious and political dissidence that has been a powerful influence down to our own times.

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