Awards

• Winner of Winner, CAMWS First Book Award.

Overview

What did people in the early Christian period think about the pagan inscriptions filling their late antique cities? Like public advertisements lining our streets today, these inscriptions were everywhere and communicated specific messages to literate late Roman viewers, often providing a very different view of the classical past than that being preached from early Christian church pulpits. In Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers, Anna M. Sitz provides a fresh perspective on the Christianization of the Roman empire from the fourth to the seventh century CE by analyzing a previously overlooked body of evidence: the many ancient, pagan inscriptions, written in Greek or other languages, which were reused, preserved, or even partially erased in this period.This volume brings together for the first time the literary and archaeological evidence for attitudes towards these ancient inscriptions in the eastern Mediterranean, from Greece to Asia Minor, Syria to Egypt. Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers illustrates how early Christians, late pagans, and Jews in the eastern Mediterranean interpreted older inscriptions in Greek and other languages through their own worldviews in order to build the late antique present.

Full Product Details

9780197666432

Table of Contents

Reviews

A must read for anyone interested in the fate of pagan inscriptions in the Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity. Sitz offers a rich and engaging study of the Christian transformation of the religio-/cityscapes, as she explores architects' re-appropriation and viewers' interaction with ancient inscriptions. - Julien Ogereau, University of Vienna, Austria

A must read for anyone interested in the fate of pagan inscriptions in the Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity. Sitz offers a rich and engaging study of the Christian transformation of the religio-/cityscapes, as she explores architects' re-appropriation and viewers' interaction with ancient inscriptions."" - Julien Ogereau, University of Vienna, Austria Sitz's lively and accessible work will be a welcome inclusion for all interested in the history of religion in late antiquity, the interplay between sacred and secular, and the nature of conversion. * Reading Religion * Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers constitutes an important contribution to the history of late Roman Christianization, one that should help scholars to see more clearly through some of the distorting, polemical rhetoric of triumphalist Christians as they redescribed the ancient sanctuaries that remained in their worlds. * David Ungvary, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Sitz's book illuminates not only the ultimate fates of inscriptions in late antiquity, but opens one's eyes to their 'continued lives' (p. 273). There is much to be learned from this book, and I heartily recommend it. * Gabriel Gabbardo, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers is another example of how a PhD thesis can be re-focused as an elegant book, and similarly traces the ways in which Christian audiences respond to the 'pagan' past. * , 9780197666432Greece & Rome * Sitz is to be commended for a nuanced and insightful story about the preservation, reuse, and erasure of a paganpast, which in the eyes of late antique Christians was neither past nor dead, yet quite insistently local. * Georgia Frank, Project Muse * H.'s comparative approach is original and offers fertile grounds for studies across broader urban environments and cities. Similarly, future studies could include sensory experiences as filtered through social status and gender. Particularly commendable is her focus on public space and her specific treatment of smaller spaces such as restaurants, bars, hostels and grocery stores. This is an interesting book, which asks important questions about the fate of classicalinscriptions in late antiquity. * Ivo Van Der Graaff, Classical Review *

A must read for anyone interested in the fate of pagan inscriptions in the Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity. Sitz offers a rich and engaging study of the Christian transformation of the religio-/cityscapes, as she explores architects' re-appropriation and viewers' interaction with ancient inscriptions."" - Julien Ogereau, University of Vienna, Austria Sitz's lively and accessible work will be a welcome inclusion for all interested in the history of religion in late antiquity, the interplay between sacred and secular, and the nature of conversion. * Reading Religion * Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers constitutes an important contribution to the history of late Roman Christianization, one that should help scholars to see more clearly through some of the distorting, polemical rhetoric of triumphalist Christians as they redescribed the ancient sanctuaries that remained in their worlds. * David Ungvary, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Sitz's book illuminates not only the ultimate fates of inscriptions in late antiquity, but opens one's eyes to their 'continued lives' (p. 273). There is much to be learned from this book, and I heartily recommend it. * Gabriel Gabbardo, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers is another example of how a PhD thesis can be re-focused as an elegant book, and similarly traces the ways in which Christian audiences respond to the 'pagan' past. * , 9780197666432Greece & Rome * Sitz is to be commended for a nuanced and insightful story about the preservation, reuse, and erasure of a paganpast, which in the eyes of late antique Christians was neither past nor dead, yet quite insistently local. * Georgia Frank, Project Muse *

"A must read for anyone interested in the fate of pagan inscriptions in the Eastern Mediterranean in late antiquity. Sitz offers a rich and engaging study of the Christian transformation of the religio-/cityscapes, as she explores architects' re-appropriation and viewers' interaction with ancient inscriptions."" - Julien Ogereau, University of Vienna, Austria Sitz's lively and accessible work will be a welcome inclusion for all interested in the history of religion in late antiquity, the interplay between sacred and secular, and the nature of conversion. * Reading Religion * Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers constitutes an important contribution to the history of late Roman Christianization, one that should help scholars to see more clearly through some of the distorting, polemical rhetoric of triumphalist Christians as they redescribed the ancient sanctuaries that remained in their worlds. * David Ungvary, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Sitz's book illuminates not only the ultimate fates of inscriptions in late antiquity, but opens one's eyes to their 'continued lives' (p. 273). There is much to be learned from this book, and I heartily recommend it. * Gabriel Gabbardo, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * Pagan Inscriptions, Christian Viewers is another example of how a PhD thesis can be re-focused as an elegant book, and similarly traces the ways in which Christian audiences respond to the 'pagan' past. * , 9780197666432Greece & Rome *"

Author Information

Anna M. Sitz is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Universität Heidelberg.

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