ABSTRACT
Christianity did not have a monopoly on asceticism in antiquity. The Greek word asksis from which the term derives originally referred to the training of a soldier or an athlete, but it was soon applied in philosophical contexts, as early as the fifth century BC, to training in virtue. Christian writers on asceticism owe a clear debt to these earlier traditions (cf. Meredith 1976; Bremmer 1992), which continued to maintain their vitality within late antique philosophy as well (Fowden 1982). Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the growth of ascetic practices was one of the most important features of Christianity during Late Antiquity.
