Religious Violence in the Ancient World

JITSE H.F. DIJKSTRA is Professor of Classics at the University of Ottawa. His research centres on the process of religious transformation in Late Antiquity, in particular in its Egyptian context. He is the author of numerous studies on the subject, including the monograph Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion. A Regional Study of Religious Transformation (298–642 CE) (2008). CHRISTIAN R. RASCHLE is Associate Professor of Roman History at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in the history of the administration and political system of the Roman Empire, especially the reorganization of its provinces in Late Antiquity, and themes in the cultural history of the first century CE (Lucan).

• 1. General introduction Jitse H.F. Dijkstra and Christian R. Raschle; I. Methodology: 2. Sacred prefigurations of violence: Religious communities in situations of conflict Hans G. Kippenberg; 3. Priestesses, pogroms and persecutions: Religious violence in antiquity in a diachronic perspective Jan N. Bremmer; II. Religious Violence in The Graeco-Roman world: 4. Ancient Greek binding spells and (political) violence Esther Eidinow; 5. The expulsion of Isis worshippers and astrologers from Rome in the late republic and early empire Christian R. Raschle; 6. Religious violence? two massacres on a Sabbath in 66 CE: Jerusalem and Caesarea Steve Mason; 7. Religion, violence and the diasporic experience: The Jewish diaspora in Flavian Rome and Puteoli Andreas Bendlin; 8. Animal sacrifice and the Roman persecution of Christians (Second–Third Centuries) James B. Rives; 9. The great persecution and imperial ideology: Patterns of communication on Tetrarchic Coinage Erika Manders; 10. The violent legacy of constantine's Militant Piety Elizabeth Depalma Digeser; III: Religious violence in late antiquity: 11. Religious violence in late antiquity: Current approaches, trends and issues Wendy Mayer; 12. Coercion in late antiquity: A brief intellectual history Peter Van Nuffelen; 13. Crowd Behaviour and the Destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392 CE Jitse H.F. Dijkstra; 14. Violence and Monks: From a Mystical Concept to an Intolerant Practice (Fourth–Fifth Centuries) Fabrizio Vecoli; 15. The discipline of domination: Asceticism, violence and monastic curses in Theodoret's Historia Religiosa Chris L. De Wet; 16. Suffering saints: Shaping narratives of violence after chalcedon Christine Shepardson; 17. Fighting for Chalcedon: Vitalian's rebellion against Anastasius Hugh Elton; 18. The Emperor, the people and urban violence in the fifth and sixth centuries Geoffrey Greatrex.

'Dijkstra and Raschle and all other authors may be congratulated on this valuable collection on a theme that, unfortunately, is still more topical than one would wish.' Riemer Roukema, Review of Biblical Literature