Abstract

Rosario Greco’s study of the religious dynamics of third- and fourth-century Syracuse starts with a promise to approach the subject free from the Christianizing preconceptions that have often bedevilled such studies in the past (p. 7). His first chapter (on pagan cults in late antique Syracuse) begins in a style that holds true to this intention: a broadside against the use of the monolithic term ‘paganism’ and the author’s preference for an emphasis on plural ‘pagan religions’ (p. 13). He is similarly scathing of any credence given to legends of the apostolic foundation of Christianity at Syracuse (p. 53 and n. 10). Some readers might see the need to make such points as rather quaint. But pious, Christianizing whimsy (memorably characterized as ‘maudlin flapdoodle’ by E. A. Thompson in Who Was St Patrick? [Woodbridge, 1985], 165) can be remarkably tenacious: thus G.’s polemical declarations are worth making.