This is a learned book that aspires to present the development of early Christianity in Macedonia from the first to the sixth century ce. Julien Ogereau is a well-known New Testament scholar and epigraphist who focuses on the spread of Christianity in the Roman world. This important monograph is a step further in the author’s interests as it sets out to explore a substantial geographical area, Macedonia, for half a millennium. Ogereau’s book seeks to supplement Adolf von Harnack’s Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (1906) and offers a comprehensive narrative of Christianity’s expansion in the region.

In the introduction, Ogereau rightly admits that, unlike other Roman provinces, Macedonia has attracted less scholarly interest due to the paucity of primary evidence (pp. 8–9) and the lack of early witnesses beyond Paul’s and Polycarp’s letters. In contrast to Harnack, Ogereau finds slim but significant, mainly epigraphic, evidence regarding the expansion of Christianity and moves successfully beyond the first Christian centuries. The author is none the less restricted by similar confines to those faced by Harnack and despite some earlier data (for example, the second-century epitaph of Markiane [p. 165]) most sources discussed in the analysis are post-Constantinian.

In analysing early Christianity in Macedonia Ogereau has mastered a wealth of primary and secondary sources in a variety of ancient and more than four modern European languages. The author needs to be commended for approaching Christianity as one of the religions of the Roman world and for studying Christianity as the expression of a specific religious group (‘epigraphy of the Christians’; p. 13). Having sketched his methodology, the author delineates the geographical and chronological boundaries of his corpus. Following the current scholarly trend, most notably by Peter Brown, Ogereau argues that epigraphical evidence calls for a longer periodisation and includes findings that date from the first century to the times of Justinian (p. 23). The Avaro-Slav raids and natural disasters seem to mark the end of this period (pp. 41, 159). His geographical survey however is rather limited, focusing on Macedonia ‘proprement dite’ (p. 24, quoting F. Papazoglou), namely the kingdom of Alexander iii including Chalcidice which he equates roughly with the Roman province. This may appear as an oversimplification since Roman ‘Macedonia’ included also Apollonia (Illyria) and in the fourth century the diocese of Moesia spread across a much larger geographical area. This narrowing down of the geographical area is instructed by the homogeneity of the corpus and allows for the detailed analysis Ogereau offers of his materials, but given the areas fluid boundaries it can be contested.

It is impossible in this short review to do justice to the plethora of evidence and the depth of analysis Ogereau provides. In what follows, I will offer a short summary and some indicative examples that impressed this reviewer. Chapter ii of the monograph discusses the geographical, urban, religious and socio-cultural context of the area after the battle at Pydna and the Actium. Already in the mid first century the area showed signs of recovery that would culminate under the Antonines. The Apostles preached along the Egnatia in an area that offered ‘favourable conditions’ (p. 64) already in the first century.

Chapter iii surveys the earliest evidence, based on Paul’s and Polycarp’s letters, and dates the arrival of Christianity in the area to the 40s and 50s ce. Ogereau carefully disentangles narrative, pastoral and theological intentions from historical truth, when appropriate (p. 74). The Acts and Paul’s letters, the author concludes, can give glimpses of the arrival of Christianity in the area. The actual circumstances of Paul’s letters are often difficult to extract, whereas the Acts offers a more clichéd version of the Christianisation of the area. Evidence from the second century is provided by Polycarp’s letter that attests to a strong community with overseers (episkopoi or presbyters) that withstood a persecution of sorts. This chapter reads as an inspection and close reading of the primary sources and the secondary literature.

It is the next five chapters that consider in detail the epigraphic, architectural and artistic evidence from Philippi (ch. iv), Thessalonica (chapter v), Edessa, Beroea, Dion, Pieria (chapter vi) and Stoboi and Heraclea Lyncestis (ch. vii). The analysis of evidence follows the geographical mapping of the work and is not thematic. The investigation is accompanied by extensive quotations of the inscriptions discussed, maps, photographs of inscriptions, churches, stelae and mosaics. Christian communities are not found exclusively in the places visited by Paul but also alongside the Egnatia. For Edessa and Beroea, for example, there is a wealth of epigraphic evidence, whereas Philippi and Amphipolis pride themselves in their opulent buildings. It is Thessalonica nevertheless that emerges as the most important religious and political centre, its basilicas sponsored by the emperor and wealthy Christian elites, a city that held strong ties with the capital, Constantinople.

While there may not be much for the New Testament scholar in the main body of the analysis, there is an abundance of material for the late antique historian, art historian and scholars of religion. Inscriptions, for example, shed light on the lives of the early Christian communities and provide evidence to the structure of church hierarchy, the role of women and laity. Architectural monuments testify to the transition from pagan shrines to Christian martyrium, from temple to church, or the transformation of synagogues. Mosaics and visual art demonstrate the shared visual culture of pagans, Christians and Jews in late antiquity. For example, a mid fourth-century basilica of Paul at Philippi testifies to the early popularity of the Apostle in the area; a lavish mosaic in the same place is dedicated by Porphyrios, the bishop of the city who probably attended the council at Serdica in 343 ce; a rather obscure octagonal construction adjunct to an ancient heroon developed into a chapel dedicated to Paul’s cult (p. 108). At Stoboi one witnesses the transformation of a second- or third- century synagogue into a a ‘rectory’ that showcases the violent expulsion or conversion of the Jewish community in the city in the second part of the fifth century. At Dion, in the south, by contrast, Christianity left few traces and pagan cults continued through the fourth century until the destruction of the temples by an earthquake (p. 270). At Philippi we find dedications to a sixth-century deaconess and canonesses, all offering interesting glimpses into the life and death of Christian women. Ogereau rightly includes fifth- or sixth-century apotropaic inscriptions on Abgar’s legend (p. 132) that showcase the importance of magic in the lives of Christians in the area. This reader may have wished to learn more about the literariness of some epigraphic evidence and their paideia: for example, ICG 4142 from John Bishop’s basilica in Parthicopolis merges epic adjectives (e.g. θέσκελον, πινυτός, σώφρων; p. 155) with more straightforward style. That said, this book is a meticulous and helpful study, well edited with only a few minor typos (e.g. εἰς instead of εἷς; p. 119). It is an invaluable sourcebook and an excellent in-depth analysis of more than five hundred years of Christianity in Macedonia that will contribute to the study of this geographical area.