Reviewed by:

• Heirs of Roman Prosecution. Studies on a Christian and Para-Christian Discourse in Late Antiquity ed. by Éric Fournier and Wendy Mayer
• L. Stephanie Cobb

Presses are encouraged to submit books dealing with Late Antiquity for consideration for review to any of JLA’s three Book Review Editors: Sabine Huebner (sabine.huebner@unibas.ch); Jason Moralee (moralee.jason@gmail.com); and Kristina Sessa (sessa.3@osu.edu).

Heirs of Roman Prosecution, edited by Fournier and Mayer, is a collection of essays, most of which were originally presented at the 2016 North American Patristics Society conference in multiple sessions entitled “Persecutions of Christians after Constantine: Polemic and Rhetorical Discourse.” The volume is divided chronologically into three sections spanning the third to the seventh centuries: “The Later Roman Empire of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries,” “Post-Roman Kingdoms of the Western Mediterranean (Fifth to Seventh Centuries),” and “Eastern Mediterranean in the Fifth to Seventh Centuries.” In addition, Fournier contributed the introduction and Mayer the conclusion. Fournier outlines three primary goals of the volume: to explore how post-Constantinian Christians and “para-Christians” (i.e., Manichaeans) understood violence directed at them; to challenge scholars to define more explicitly and precisely terms like “persecution;” and, to investigate how and when the rhetoric of persecution was deployed. A short review cannot usefully discuss all sixteen essays in the volume. In what follows, then, I highlight the contributions that I found most insightful and that speak most directly to the volume’s goals.

Part 1 opens with DePalma Digeser’s “Breaking the Apocalyptic Frame: Persecution and the Rise of Constantine.” Taking account of patronage networks in the late ancient world, she deconstructs the traditional story of Constantine’s conversion and his subsequent beneficence to Christians. She observes that we have inherited this account from Lactantius, but we have failed to take into account Lactantius’s apocalyptic worldview. Reading with—rather than against—the grain of Lactantius’s apocalyptic framing has blinded us to at least two major issues. First, Christians, at least since 260 ce, had generally enjoyed religious freedom and were prominent among city leaders (i.e., they were not a persecuted minority in need of saving), and it was precisely this prominence that led to Diocletian’s backlash in the “Great Persecution.” Second, Constantine was vulnerable, especially in his early years, after the “extralegal circumstances of his recent accession” (34). Digeser argues, then, that we should read Lactantius’s account as imperial propaganda. Rather than patronizing Christians because he was himself a Christian, Constantine’s [End Page 159] largesse was more likely the product of self-preservation: by connecting himself through patronage networks to powerful bishops, Constantine ensured the loyalty of leading residents. Digeser’s contribution is one that is clearly and helpfully connected to the volume’s goals: the discourse of persecution and redemption was utilized—via apocalyptic discourse—to undergird Constantine’s rule.

In “For Their Own Good: Augustine and the Rhetoric of Beneficial Persecution,” Ployd shifts the focus from Christians as persecuted to Christians as persecutors. In the first half of the essay he outlines key features of Greco-Roman forensic rhetoric and applies these to Augustine’s Epistle 185. He urges the reader to resist seeing Augustine’s rhetorical constructions here as “the smoking gun for the evils of church” (105), and thus as the rationale for persecuting those with whom they do not agree. Such a conclusion, Ployd argues, not only misconstrues forensic rhetoric but also Augustine’s specific situation. We see in Ep. 185 an effort to confront the changing place of the church in the world—from powerlessness to power—and the struggle to “reshape and reimagine a Christianity as imperial and the empire as Christian” (106). Ployd convincingly shows that this epistle reveals ways Christians were working out how to wield power justly: Christian persecution of others, according to Augustine, could be just, warranted, even beneficent—that is, it can be performed as a “loving correction” (100).

Lester...

审核人：

• 罗马起诉的继承人。古代晚期基督教和准基督教话语的研究ed。埃里克·富尼耶（Enric Fournier）和温迪·梅耶（Wendy Mayer）
• 斯蒂芬妮·科布

鼓励媒体向JLA的三本书审阅编辑之一提交有关上古晚期的书籍，以供其审核：Sabine Huebner（sabine.huebner@unibas.ch）；杰森·莫拉里（Jason Moralee）（moralee.jason@gmail.com）; 和Kristina Sessa（sessa.3@osu.edu）。

罗马起诉的继承人由Fournier和Mayer编辑，是几篇论文的集合，其中大部分最初在2016年北美爱国主义学会会议上分多次发表，题为“君士坦丁之后对基督徒的迫害：动词和修辞话语”。该书按时间顺序分为三个部分，横跨第三至第七个世纪：“第四和第五世纪的后罗马帝国”，“西地中海的后罗马王国（第五至第七个世纪）”和“东地中海”在第五到第七个世纪。” 此外，Fournier进行了介绍，Mayer进行了结论。Fournier概述了本书的三个主要目标：探讨后康斯坦丁基督徒和“准基督徒”（即摩尼教徒）如何理解针对他们的暴力行为；挑战学者以更明确，更准确地定义诸如“逼迫”之类的术语；以及调查如何以及何时部署迫害言论。简短的评论不能有效地讨论该卷中的所有16篇论文。然后，在下面的内容中，我重点介绍了我发现最有见地并且最直接说明该卷目标的贡献。

第1部分以DePalma Digeser的“打破世界末日的框架：迫害和君士坦丁的崛起”开头。考虑到晚期世界的赞助网络，她解构了君士坦丁s依和他后来对基督徒的慈善的传统故事。她观察到我们已经从乳杆菌病继承了这一说法，但是我们没有考虑乳杆菌病的世界末日观。乳酸菌的启示性框架与（而不是反对）阅读相比，使我们对至少两个主要问题视而不见。首先，至少从260 ce起，基督徒就普遍享有宗教自由，并在城市领导人中享有显赫地位（即，他们不是需要储蓄的受迫害的少数派），正是这一点导致戴克里先在“大迫害。” 第二，君士坦丁在“最近入世的极端环境”之后尤其脆弱，尤其是在他的早期（34）。因此，迪格塞尔认为，我们应该将拉克蒂安修斯的论述视为帝国主义的宣传。君士坦丁不是因为自己是基督徒而光顾基督徒，而是君士坦丁的[完第159页]慷慨解囊更可能是自我保护的产物：君士坦丁通过赞助人网络与强大的主教建立联系，从而确保了主要居民的忠诚度。Digeser的贡献与该卷的目标明确而有帮助地联系在一起：迫害和救赎的话语通过世界末日话语被用来支持君士坦丁的统治。

在《为了自己的利益：奥古斯丁和有益的迫害修辞》中，普洛伊德将重点从受迫害的基督徒转移到作为迫害者的基督徒。在文章的前半部分，他概述了希腊罗马法医修辞的主要特征，并将这些特征应用到奥古斯丁的《书信》 185。他敦促读者不要在这里看到奥古斯丁的修辞构造为“教会邪恶的吸烟枪”（105） ，并以此作为迫害他们不同意的人的理由。普洛伊德认为，这样的结论不仅误解了法医言论，而且还误解了奥古斯丁的具体情况。我们在Ep中看到。185努力应对世界上不断变化的教会-从无能为力到有力-以及为“重塑和重塑基督教为帝国，帝国为基督教”而奋斗的斗争（106）。弗洛伊德令人信服地表明，这封书信揭示了基督徒如何公正地运用权力的方法：根据奥古斯丁的说法，基督徒对他人的迫害是公正的，有根据的，甚至是仁慈的，也就是说，它可以作为“热爱的纠正”来执行（ 100）。

莱斯特...