
The Final Pagan Generation
Rome's Unexpected Path to Christianity
Edward J. Watts(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 6. February 2015
Book
Hardback
356 pages
978-0-520-28370-1 (ISBN)
Description
The Final Pagan Generation recounts the fascinating story of the lives and fortunes of the last Romans born before the Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity. Edward J. Watts traces their experiences of living through the fourth century's dramatic religious and political changes, when heated confrontations saw the Christian establishment legislate against pagan practices as mobs attacked pagan holy sites and temples. The emperors who issued these laws, the imperial officials charged with implementing them, and the Christian perpetrators of religious violence were almost exclusively young men whose attitudes and actions contrasted markedly with those of the earlier generation, who shared neither their juniors' interest in creating sharply defined religious identities nor their propensity for violent conflict. Watts examines why the "final pagan generation" born to the old ways and the old world in which it seemed to everyone that religious practices would continue as they had for the past two thousand years proved both unable to anticipate the changes that imperially sponsored Christianity produced and unwilling to resist them.
A compelling and provocative read, suitable for the general reader as well as students and scholars of the ancient world.
A compelling and provocative read, suitable for the general reader as well as students and scholars of the ancient world.
Reviews / Votes
"A fantastic slice of classical history." Foreword Reviews "Well researched and proficient ... awash with well-organized historical information." -- Kathleen Dupre Library Journal Accessible and engaging for students and general readers. -- Thomas M. Banchich Bryn Mawr Classical Review "Accessible to non-specialists and useful as an undergraduate text in courses...an absorbing, erudite, and highly useful book from which anyone studying late antiquity or early Christianity will profit." -- James A. Francis Journal of Early Christian Studies "Edward Watta's The Final Pagan Generation is among the best works of academic history I've ever read." -- Yuval Levin National Review "Watts demonstrates his mastery of both primary and modern sources ... The text is virtually flawless." -- Linda Jones Hall The Classical JournalMore details
Series
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
29 b-w photographs, 1 map
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
590 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-28370-1 (9780520283701)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
02/2015
1st Edition
University of California Press
€14.49
Available for download
Person
Edward J. Watts is Alkiviadis Vassiliadis Endowed Chair and Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Riot in Alexandria and City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria, both from UC Press.
Content
List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Growing Up in the Cities of the Gods 2. Education in an Age of Imagination 3. The System 4. Moving Up in an Age of Uncertainty 5. The Apogee 6. The New Pannonian Order 7. Christian Youth Culture in the 360s and 370s 8. Bishops, Bureaucrats, and Aristocrats under Gratian, Valentinian II, and Theodosius 9. Old Age in a Young Man's Empire 10. A Generation's Legacy Bibliography Index