Green's book, which grew out of his Oxford lectures, gives us an exemplary model of the genre: clear and cogent presentation, marked none the less by the lecturer's own original and critical perspective. His first chapter (‘Origins’) gives a detailed analysis of early historical sources, constructing a picture of the Jewish origins of the Christian community from Philo, Josephus, Seneca, Suetonius and Tacitus, as well from the epigraphic evidence for Flavius Clemens. The question of the Petrine origin of the Roman community is well discussed, and in particular there is an original discussion of the issue of the tomb of St Peter on the Vatican hillside (Aedicula, grave or tropaion), using the apocryphal Acts of Paul and the Martyrdom of Peter to glean possible historical traces. In his second chapter (‘Community’) Green appears to advocate (contra my own and Lampe's view of a loose confederation of house/school churches) the traditional view of one leader of the Roman community somehow exemplified by Clement (p. 93). He makes in support the highly tendentious claim that Ignatius must have ‘believed the Roman church to have a bishop’ because although he mentions neither name nor office at Rome, he regarded a single bishop as necessary for the existence of any church (p. 94). Simonetti's name does not appear in the bibliography and the thrust of his critique of my position is therefore unexplored, namely that before Victor the Roman Church was governed by a single presbyterate and hence was not a loose confederation of separate assemblies. Part of the evidence for the latter Green knows but misrepresents, such as his invocation of Justin as pro-estos, as an Ignatian bishop (p. 94). This can hardly be so in the light of the fact that Justin is not placed on the episcopal succession list of the Roman episcopate whereas Clement, who claims no such role, is, but had simply the secretarial office to which Hermas, Vis. 2.4 refers (p. 93). Green appreciates that the Quartodecimans excommunicated by Victor were a local community in Rome itself with eastern links, yet fails to see that here is an example of a separate group enjoying intercommunion before Victor's act (pp. 96–7). Finally, he appeals to what happened after Fabian's martyrdom (ad 250), when presbyteral rule was regarded as a provisional stop gap, as showing that episcopal rule was long established (p. 98). The point is that Fabian's work of reconstruction in the catacomb of Callistus marked a decisive, ideological shift. Green is aware that Fabian's construction of the tomb of the popes marks his ‘reconstruction of the organization and discipline of the Roman Church’ but does not draw the obvious conclusion (p. 184) that the presbyters' sense of a monarchical successor was shaped by recent ideological innovation. That is why Cornelius was not buried in the tomb of the popes but in his own separate cubiculum in Lucina: there was no overriding imperative that popes be treated like the imperial family and have their own burial place separate from their extended families; it was a new and unfamiliar idea. Green mentions the existence of the tomb of Novatian and the Gaudentius inscription (pp. 183–4). But the really important question to be raised in connection with this is why the tomb, monumentalised in the fourth century, is not surrounded by the tombs of the succession of Novatian bishops. Was it not because Fabian's novel and monarchical concept of burying the leaders of the community like emperors, apart in their own vault, was not considered appropriate by everyone, like those responsible for the interment of Cornelius? Green's third chapter (‘Persecution’), with an analysis of the legal position of early Christianity, follows Barnes and is basically sound, as is his description of the Decian events. The dispute with Stephen could have been better illuminated from the arguments of the anonymous De rebaptismate, representing Stephen's position even if he were not the author of that work itself (p. 156). An important distinction between Decius' and Valerian's edicts should have been made, with reference to the work of Martha Sordi which is not included in the bibliography: Decius' edicts did not target Christianity directly, but Valerian's did, and specifically (in the first edict) the church hierarchy. This fact bears eloquent testimony to the ideology of Cyprian and the response of Christianity to that persecution in producing a more structured ecclesial edifice than there had been before. Despite some problems, the fourth chapter (‘Catacombs’) is generally very good, and a valuable overview, as is the fifth (‘Constantine’). Bernard Green has produced an interesting and important account of his subject.