The Christian Reaction

We have seen that at the beginning of the third century ad, some five centuries after the death of its founder, Epicureanism was still alive both in major centres and in remoter parts of the Graeco-Roman world. It is generally held, however, that its demise lay not far off, that by the middle of the fourth century it would have become a virtually forgotten creed, overwhelmed, along with Stoicism, by the spread of Christianity, fully justifying St Augustine's boast that ‘its ashes are so cold that not a single spark can be struck from them’. ¹ Now there is no denying that the spread of Christianity brought about a transformation in the life of cities and towns throughout the Roman Empire. It would be wrong to suppose, however, that this transformation was either immediate or total. As rapid as the growth of Christian communities was, especially in urban centres, at the beginning of the fourth century the proportion of the Empire's population that could be counted as Christian was probably less than one-tenth. ² And, though the conversion of Constantine in 312 and the Edict of Milan of the following year marked the beginning of conversion on an altogether more massive scale, Christians still accounted for less than half the population of the Empire at the end of the fourth century. ³ Meanwhile, there is ample evidence of the tenacity with which non-Christians clung to cult and religious practices which offered comforts and assurances which the Church was not equipped or did not pretend to match. ⁴