The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire (original) (raw)

Why did the Roman Empire become Christian? This question has significant ramifications for the whole of western history. Michele Renee Salzman is not, of course, the first to seek to explain this seismic change, but her approach seeks to make good the shortcomings of earlier attempts. She notes (pp. ix-x) the deficiencies of one of the most celebrated efforts, A. D. Nock's Conversion (Oxford, 1933). Nock's investigations were largely concerned with individual experiences, and for the period of late antiquity his main source was Augustine. Salzman highlights some of the difficulties with this approach: how representative is the individual of society (if at all)? And is not Augustine's experience problematic, since he interpreted it in different ways at different points in his life (pp. 11-12)? To compensate, Salzman aims to provide a statistical analysis, albeit of one section of the Empire's population: the senatorial aristocracy. Her investigation depends on a database of 414 aristocrats from the period 284-423 about whom details of religious affiliation are known. Salzman points out that the senatorial aristocracy of late antiquity was a much broader group than the old senate of Rome. By the end of the fourth century it numbered not hundreds any more, but thousands. The old elite was diluted and diversified by new members drawn from the equestrian order and the provincial nobility who acquired senatorial status as a reward for service of the emperor. However differentiated this new senatorial aristocracy became, one thing united them: a concern for status (pp. 43-61). It is

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