Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on Didyma, Miletus' external oracle. It leaves prophets behind, but remains with issues of profit. The book takes a cognitive approach to Greek divination. It also takes us to Dodona. A visit to an oracle was not just about grabbing the info and leaving. It discusses Roman anxieties about divination for profit. The Roman state's hostility to this does not seem to have derived from any general disapproval of free-market enterprise in itself. The book reconstructs political and religious battles between 144 and 140 bc over the city praetor Q. It investigates, in a learned and interesting piece, the multifaceted attacks made upon the great pagan shrine of Delphi in the apologetic writings of the early Church Fathers. In another learned piece, takes us into the fascinating world of Late Antique North Africa.