145
5 For an introduction to the religious life of the empire during the Principate, see J. Ferguson, The Religions of the Roman Empire (London, 1970), together with the criticisms of this work advanced in the review of M.J. Boyd, JRS, 62 (1972), 197-198; or the more synthetic effort of R. MacMullen, Paganism in the Roman Empire (New Haven, 1981).
* For the date of composition, see G. Highet, Juvenal the Satirist (Oxford, 1954), 12-13. Isis was one of the redemptive oriental divinities; standard treatments include L. Vidman, Isis und Sarapis bei den Griechen und Römern (Berlin, 1970); R.E. Witt, Isis in the Graeco-Roman World (London, 1971); and F. Dunand, Le culte d'Isis dans le bassin oriental de la Méditerranée, 3 vols. (Leiden, 1973). As the title itself suggests, S.K. Heyob, The Cult of Isis among Women in the Graeco-Roman World (Leiden, 1975), focuses on the characteristics of Isis that made her attractive to women in the classical world, and on their role in her cult. The last two items are vols. 26 and 51 respectively in a general series edited by M.J. Vermaseren, Etudes préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain (Leiden, 1961-), which contains several more specialized monographs on Isis, and on which I shall have more to say below. Other salvationist deities worthy of note include Mithras and Cybele. The classic study of the Mithraic cult is that of F. Cumont, Les mystères de Mithra, 2nd ed. (Paris, 1902); on Cybele, cf. H. Graillot, Le culte de Cybèle, mère des dieux, à Rome et dans l'empire (Paris, 1912); and M.J. Vermaseren, Attis and Cybele: the Myth and the Cult, trans. A.M.H. Lemmers (London, 1977).
7 The literature on the persecution at Lyons, as on the persecution of Christians in general, is predictably vast. One may profitably begin with S.R. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church (Oxford, 1965), of which pp. 1-30 are devoted to the events at Lyons.
8 The persecution at Lyons was preceded by a ban on Christians entering private homes, the public baths, or the forum (Euseb. Hist. Eccl. 5.1.5-6) - a useful reminder that people of very different beliefs routinely mingled in public and private. The tensions that could arise between a Christian and his or her pagan spouse were addressed by Paul circa A.D. 56 (1 Cor. 7: 12-16); we can follow them in greater detail in some of the aristocratic households of the fourth century; cf. A. Chastagnol, “Le sénateur Volusien et la conversion d'une famille de l'aristocratie Romaine au bas-empire”, REA, 58 (1956), 241-253; and P.R.L. Brown, "Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy”, JRS, 51 (1961), 1-11. But Christianity itself was not a monolith; the decision to embrace the ascetic life could generate strong opposition from more orthodox Christian family members, as has been demonstrated by A. Yarbrough, “The Christianization of Rome: the Example of Roman Women", Ch. Hist., 45 (1976), 149-165.
9 One frequently encounters the argument, for example, that the ecstatic cult of Dionysus was especially attractive to women because it offered an outlet for the pent-up frustration and anger that resulted from their extremely low social status; cf. recently R. Kraemer, "Ecstasy and Possession: the Attraction of Women to the Cult of Dionysus”, HThR, 72 (1979), 55-80; and E.C. Keuls, The Reign of the Phallus. Sexual Politics in Ancient Athens (New York, 1985), 360 et passim.
10 The extraordinary cultural diversity of the empire is brought out well in the brief survey of F. Millar (ed.), The Roman Empire and Its Neighbours (London, 1967).
Hence the resort to notional dates, as in Ogilvie (1969), who admits at the