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Debating Traditional Religion in Late Fourth-Century Roman Africa
- Journal of Late Antiquity
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 11, Number 1, Spring 2018
- pp. 83-110
- 10.1353/jla.2018.0013
- Article
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Abstract:
This article takes the epistolary exchange between Augustine and the pagan grammarian Maximus of Madauros (ca. 390) as a case study in late antique approaches to traditional religion. Christians wrote most of the extant works on paganism, at least in Latin, often relying on earlier literary and antiquarian authorities for information about traditional cult. That dependency has troubled many modern scholars, who have suspected a disconnect between Christian images and the reality of pagan religion. The Maximus–Augustine exchange, which pits a confident traditionalist against an articulate Christian, offers a rare opportunity to calibrate Christian views of paganism against a pagan's own ideas. Following a tripartite theological scheme familiar from Augustine's summary of the theories of the Republican polymath Varro in City of God, Maximus' letter combines literary allusions, philosophical theory, and select references to features of local cult. So does Augustine's reply, which adds Cicero and Ennius to Maximus' citations of Vergil and Lucan and alludes to specific local statues and festivals in terms colored by classical literature. The traditional literature of the Roman Empire was not merely a source for opportunistic Christian polemic; it was a crucial means through which pagans, too, could think about their own religion.