ABSTRACT
Consider two respected scholars in the field. Demetrios Constantelos, revising a major study of East Roman social welfare that he had published twenty-five years earlier, writes that in the intervening period he has come to believe “the Christian agape developed as a direct inheritance of ancient Greek philanthrôpía.” And he adds that he now sees “more continuity in the social ethos of ancient Hellenism with Christian Hellenism than I was willing to acknowledge.” On the other hand, the celebrated French historian Paul Veyne argues persuasively that the appearance of continuity between classical philanthropy and Christian charity “is an illusion,” that the grand expressions of pagan benevolence, as opposed to the “pious and charitable works” of Christians, “differ in ideology, in beneficiaries and in agents, in the motivations of agents, and in their behaviour.” Neither Veyne nor Constantelos denies that from late antiquity on there were hospitals and orphanages, poor relief and patronage. But knowing what happened is only part of the story. What we would like to know is why they were established and what they meant, how they fitted into the fabric of ancient and medieval moral thought and political life.
