The Last Pagans of Rome

Archival Summary & Scope

Alan Cameron's *The Last Pagans of Rome* challenges the long-held belief that Western paganism stubbornly resisted Christianity into the fifth century. Rejecting the notion of a final pagan-Christian confrontation, Cameron argues that paganism declined far earlier and more rapidly than previously assumed. Through a meticulous re-examination of textual and visual evidence, he demonstrates that many activities and classical elements often attributed to a "pagan revival" were in fact integral to elite Christian culture. This Christian embrace of classical learning, far from being subversive, may have even facilitated the conversion of the last reluctant pagans. The book overturns fundamental assumptions about pagan and Christian interaction in the late antique West.