1 Earliest Rome

12. R E L I G I O U S G R O U P S
Tatian, Address to the Greeks 29
Christianity (in the middle ot the second century A.D.). Tarian's treatise
expounds Christian cosmology and demonology, totally rejects Greek religion
and culture and explains the antiquity and moral values of Christianity.
See further: R. M. Grant (1988) 113-32*.
So, when I saw these things , I also took part
in mysteries and tested the rituals performed everywhere by effeminates and androgynes;
I found that among the Romans their Zeus Latiaris relished human gore
and the blood of slaughtered men; while Artemis , not far from the great city,
was engaged in the same type of actions, and different demons in different places were
busy inciting the perpetration of evil.' Retiring on my own, I began to ask how 1 could
find out the truth. While I was thinking seriously about the problem, I happened to
come across some barbarian texts, much older than the Greek doctrines, and quite divine
in comparison with their errors.' As a result, I was convinced by these texts, because of
the simplicity of their expressions, the artlessness of the authors, the very accessible
account of the creation of the world, the foreknowledge of the future, the extraordinary
nature of the precepts, and the idea of a single ruler over all things. As my soul was taught
by god, I realized that some things are subject to condemnation, and that others end
slavery in the world and liberate us from many rulers and countless tyrants; they give us
not something we had not received, but something which we had had but were prevented
by our error from keeping.
332
1. On Jupiter Latiaris see 2.Id n.5. With Diana, Tatian presumably alludes to the cult at
Aricia (1.5c) where the priest of Diana was said to obtain office by killing his predecessor.
2. As becomes clear m the subsequent chapter, Tatian here refers to the Old Testament
12.7b The spread of Christianity
After the picture in Acts of the Apostles (12.7b(i)) for the middle of the first
century A.D., the evidence for the spread of Christianity becomes patchy. But
we know that it had made an impact in Pontus by the early second century
(11.11b; cf. Lttctan, Alexander the False Prophet 25, 38) and it can be traced
sporadically elsewhere in the second and third centuries. The spread and cohesiveness
of Christianity is illustrated in 12.7b(ii).
See further: Lane Fox (1986) 265-93*.
12.7b(i) Paul in Rome, A.D. 61-63?
The Acts of the Apostles ends with Paul brought captive to Rome and awaiting
trial. This artful ending emphasizes both Paul's mission to the gentiles, which
had been the main thrust of his career, and also Rome, which was to he a new
centre for the church.
See further: Vol. 1, 305, 376-7; Haenchen (1971) 717-32*.