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of such opinions or even of the ius civileitself. There STEPHEN BENKO. Pagan Romeand theEarlyChristians.
was no agreed way of determining what the law Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1984. Pp.
really meant; thus, modern scholars who claim that xi, 180. $20.00.
Cicero was "wrong" in his interpretation of an
interdict in the pro Caecinahave misunderstood the Stephen Benko wishes to examine how pagans
position. looked at Christians and why pagans reacted the
In the last decades of the Republic, Q. Mucius way they did. In this book early Christianityessen-
Scaevola'swritings for the first time imposed some tially means the second century, although frequent
organization on the civil law and introduced much reference is made to later authors and events. As for
greater breadth and rigor into its analysis. No pre- paganism in Rome, Benko treats it as synonymous
vious society had paid such close attention to a body with paganism in the Roman Empire; the definition
of secular law. The nobles concentrated on advocacy of pagan (p. 25 n. 9) should, however, have been
in order to acquire political support; men of slightly formulated to exclude Jews as well as Christians.
lower status devoted themselves to the new legal The author has already published "PaganCriticism
science as true professionals. The pro Caecina during the First Two Centuries, A.D." (Aufstiegund
presages these changes; here Cicero argues that Niedergang des romischen Welt 23/2 [1980]:
juristic responsashould not be disregarded and eu- 1055-1118) but now addresses a larger public. His
logizes a largely "autonomous"law. The first emper- book is informative and well documented, even if it
ors gave special authority to chosen jurisconsults, avoids technical discussions and may not be as
and cases were more frequently decided on their coherent as expected. Because of the scarcity of
advice. Frier argues that social causes precipitated sources, some chapters offer more about the Chris-
the change: concurrent with the growth of wealth tian than about the pagan point of view.
and commerce was the expansion of the citizen Chapter 1 deals with the persecutions of Chris-
body, which increased the workload of the courts. tians. When they complained that they were perse-
Political instability created a desire for stability of cuted only because of their name, Christians must
some kind in personal and property rights and have been aware that their name aroused basic fears
necessitated the establishment of cut-and-dried in pagans-fears about the overthrow of the gods,
rules. the disconcertment of exclusive claims, and the
Some aspects of this picture are uncontroversial; upset of the prevailing social order. They also knew
others are new, interesting, and often persuasive. that their name evoked images of wrongdoing of
Orneshould, however, set the new developments in different kinds. Before considering this last point,
an even broader perspective; the drive toward or- Benko offers, in "The Portrait of an Early Chris-
ganization and more sophisticatedargumentation is tian," Peregrinus, whom we know from Lucian of
part of the dramatic intellectual advance made in Samosata. The title of the chapter is ambiguous,
every field at this period, and to some extent it was since Peregrinus, who lived as a Cynic, may have
inevitable (on a point of detail, the Lex Cornelia renounced altogether the Christian faith after his
limiting the praetor's discretion must be related to excommunication from the church. Benko suggests
the contemporary campaign against senatorial cor- that a certain empathy and association existed be-
ruption). And, although Frier is aware of the limits tween some Christians and some Cynics and that
of our evidence, he sometimes presses it hard. The this connection was not helpful to Christians as a
role of Q. Mucius is perhaps overdramatized, and whole.
we cannot be sure that Cicero was really saying Chapter 3 discusses alleged obscene practicesand
something new about law and lawyers in the pro cannibalismamong Christians.Benko feels that lib-
Caecina.And might he not have said the opposite ertine trends had to be fought very early in the
the next day in another case? Also, the relevance of church and that pagans may have failed to distin-
a rise in commerce is probably exaggerated. guish between mainstream Christianityand Gnostic
But this is a distinguished work. The author's sects like the Phibionites (see his study, "The Liber-
knowledge of recent literature on Roman law and tine Gnostic Sect of the Phibionites according to
history and on general legal questions is impressive, Epiphanius," in Vigiliae christianae 21 [1967]:
and although the arguments with which he is deal- 103-19). Chapter 4, on the holy kiss, could be
ing are sometimes specialized and often dense, he considered as a postscriptof the preceding chapter.
writes with almost unfailing elegance. Roman histo- The rite posed problems for Christians and may
rians, as well as lawyers and those interested in the have contributedto the rise of infamous rumors, but
history of law, ought all to read and learn from the nothing directly supports the hypothesis (on page
book. 83, Benko states that Augustine wrote that the holy
ELIZABETH RAWSON kiss implied a contact of the lips; on page 24 he
CorpusChristiCollege refers only to N. J. Perella'sKiss Sacredand Profane
Universityof Oxford [1969], which correctly quotes from Augustine's
sermon 237). Chapter 5, on magic, is particularly half-century of invasions, usurpations, and seces-
original and interesting. If there is no evidence of sions of the third century, when Diocletian (then still
the involvement of Christiansin harmful or malev- Diocles) was born "probably in 243, probably at
olent magical arts, they did perform exorcisms and Salona"(p. 22). Next, Williamsdescribes Diocletian's
miracles, speak in tongues, and use objects and military career under Gallienus and his energetic
words charged with divine potency. It is therefore Illyriansuccessors,men who rose through the ranks
not surprising that pagans associated them with in the fighting on the frontiers, far from Rome.
magic. Chapter 6, on pagan criticism of Christian When Diocletian defeated his fellow Illyrian
theology, briefly examines the positions of Galen Carinus in 285 to make himself emperor, he was
and Celsus. almost an old man by the standards of the time, and
The one-page summary recalls that pagan adver- his twenty-seven years that followed defied all actu-
saries of Christianity were not "gullible fools" and arial expectation.
that "they hit on sensible nerves" in different cir- Diocletian's originality surfaced from the start.
cumstances. The statement about charges of im- The emperor paid his respects from afar but other-
moral behavior, however, seems to go beyond the wise ignored Rome and its symbolic processes of
conclusions reached in chapter 3. There is a good legitimization;he did not even visit the city until the
bibliography. In a word, we are presented with a eve of his abdication,twenty years later. Instead, he
readable, well-balanced,and useful book. attended to the restoration of imperial power, ev-
EMILIEN LAMIRANDE erywhere precarious. To have gone west and re-
Universityof Ottawa stored Gaul would have meant exposing the East,
but to have sent another would have risked usurpa-
tion. Diocletian confronted the problem by follow-
STEPHEN WILLIAMS. Diocletianand theRomanRecovery. ing an ancient precedent in novel form: within
New York: Methuen. 1985. Pp. 264. $19.95. months of his own elevation as Augustus, he ap-
pointed his fellow Illyrian Maximian as Caesar and
Diocletian was one of the truly important emperors Filius Augusti in charge of the West.
and certainly the most original. Yet until now we In the chapter on the tetrarchy, Williamsis at his
have had no biography except for W. Seston's best in explaining that the rule-of-four was actually
Diocletienet la tetrarchie
(1946), of which only the first a retroactive systematization of Diocletian's prag-
volume was ever published. The poverty of the matic improvisation. In 293 Maximian, now an
narrative sources is the obvious reason for this Augustus himself, appointed his own Caesar
neglect. Without a Suetonius, Tacitus, or Ammianus (Constantius)and Diocletian did likewise (Galerius);
to provide flesh for the archaeological,epigraphic, both were to abdicate one day in favor of the two
and numismatic bones, the biographer's task is un- younger men, who then appointed their own
doubtedly hard. Caesars. In the next two chapters, Williamssurveys
That common impediment to late imperial biog- the restoration of imperial control. With four vigi-
raphy, however, is much less serious in the case of lant rulers guarding one another's power, recon-
Diocletian because the sheer magnitude and origi- quest accelerated. The frontiers were not merely
nality of his achievement could not but generate a restored but even consolidated, leaving out the less
great deal of nonnarrative evidence. Some of this defensible parts to allow more adequate defense of
evidence is of large specific value and certain attri- the most valuable areas. The author then describes
bution, such as the epigraphic Edict on Prices of Diocletian's new system of imperial defense: a
301, which reveals not only a policy but also a strongly fortified frontier manned by resident
mentality; some is undated but can nevertheless be troops, with counterattackcavalryforces held in the
convincingly attributed to Diocletian, such as the immediate rear within each sector and with legion-
Notitia Dignitatum's data on army organization ary fortress troops to backstop the system in the
chronologicallydissected in D. Van Berchem's cele- deep rear.
brated L'armeedeDiocletienet la reformeconstantinienne In the last section the new empire created by
(1952); and some is internally dated but fragmen- Diocletian is described and explained in successive
tary, such as the numismatic advertisements of of- functional chapters on the governmental structure,
ficial policy, which, in Diocletian's case, are useful taxation and finance, economic regulation, provin-
for defining the stages of his peculiarly "structural" cial administration,religious policy, and the Chris-
politics. tian problem. Finally,Williamsreverts to chronolog-
As a result of his good use of the data in all three ical narrative to describe Diocletian's totally
categories, Stephen Williamshas been able to recon- unprecedented voluntary abdication (along with the
struct a continuous "life and times" without any reluctant Maximian), the breakdown in the tetrar-
major speculative leaps between attested facts. The chic system that ensued, and the reversion to a
author begins with a brief descriptivechapter on the central mobile army, which unitary rule made inev-