The book under review is the first full English translation of Macarius' Apocriticus; the only portions previously extant were those adopted in Von Harnack's Porphyrius gegen die Christen (1916) and its subsequent English translation (p. 42). It is only recently that the text has been available in any modern language, with R. Goulet's French edition appearing in 2003 and U. Volp's German in 2013. The current volume is therefore a groundbreaking contribution to the study of Christian intellectual and rhetorical discourse in the fourth century c.e. It draws upon the editors' well-established work in early Christianity and late Platonism, respectively. The text of the Apocriticus has been mostly ignored by both these fields, and indeed by scholarship generally. What reception it has received has been shaped by Von Harnack's assumption that it contained ‘intact’ fragments of the neo-Platonic philosopher Porphyry, and his consequent extensive use of the Macarian ‘Hellene’ as a source for his reconstruction of Porphyry's Against the Christians. This has given the Apocriticus considerable (albeit dubiously credible) influence over modern understandings of ‘pagan-Christian’ discourse (pp. 41–2).

All substantial portions of the text that are now extant were preserved in a single fourteenth-century manuscript, discovered in Athens in 1867 and published nine years later by Blondel. This ‘Athens MS’ has since been lost; it is preserved only in Blondel's edition, upon which are based both Goulet 2003 and Volp 2013. Another manuscript, Vaticanus graecus 1650, contains pinakes (bibliographic descriptive entries) for the first three books of Macarius' text. There are two mentions of the Apocriticus from before the discovery of the Athens MS: Patriarch Nicephorus in the ninth century and the counter-reformation Jesuit Francisco Torres in the sixteenth (who seems to have seen a manuscript not either the Athens MS or the one known to Nicephorus) (pp. 42–4).

The text belongs to the genre of ‘question and answer’ literature, in this case presented as Macarius' account of a five-day public debate between himself and a pagan (‘the Hellene’). The text, per S., is ‘prolix and florid’, unsophisticated and thoroughly middling in both its theology and philosophy, but ‘it is in part Macarius's mediocrity that makes him interesting for historians' (p. 56). It is in fact precisely the pedestrian quality of the Apocriticus that provides its greatest value: it is an example of competent but unexceptional Christian late ancient intellectualism, the product of a classically-trained author who ‘follows the rules of good composition, but does not use them (or break them) in a way that would suggest the work of a truly accomplished orator’ (p. 58). The text provides an inestimable glimpse at how these topics were negotiated by the ranks of mid-level educated clergy whose thought would never reach the intellectual heights of an Augustine or a Jerome.

The book's front matter consists of a brief introduction and three framing essays: ‘Macarius and the Christian Tradition’ by E. and ‘The Hellene’ and ‘Macarius and the Apocriticus’ both by S. In the first of these, E. describes the argumentative shape and generic nature of the text, focusing on its theological and rhetorical features. It is the first known text to figure itself as a public dispute between a Christian and a pagan (others are extant with the same interlocutors, but presented as written exchanges, not as transcriptions of spoken debate; or as spoken debates, but with a heretic, rather than a pagan, as opponent) (p. 7). E. discusses Macarius' handling of various common rhetorical devices, surveys the apologetic strategies of his dialectic responses – his excuses for Paul's apparent wishy-washiness, for instance, and his easy vacillations between the Antiochene and Alexandrian schools of Christian exegesis – and considers the apparent nature of Macarius' Christology, of particular interest given his situation within the Arian controversies of the mid-fourth century. Though inescapably dense, E.’s essay is sympathetic and generous to the reader and displays a sharp sense of humour (e.g. on Macarius' very fulsome digressions on the physical creation: ‘assuming (as it seems) that because he is praising infinite bounty the reader's patience will be as inexhaustible as his ink’, p. 17).

In ‘The Hellene’, S. considers the question of the identity of Macarius' pagan interlocutor. He discusses the various pieces of evidence for this ‘Hellene’ having been lifted from, or at least inspired by, some pre-existent anti-Christian text; citing the tonal and stylistic differences between the two interlocutors, the fact that they refer to recognisably different Biblical manuscript texts, and their divergent understandings of Aristotelian ontology (pp. 21–8). The most convincing of these pieces of evidence is, S. points out, a recurring disconnect between the Hellene's statements and Macarius' rebuttals, as if the latter misunderstands the critiques to which he is responding, in terms either of their fundamental point or philosophical implications (pp. 24–5). S. outlines the evidence for the identity of this source – variously suggested as Celsus, Sossianus Hierocles, Porphyry of Tyre and Julian I – but does not come down in definite favour of any one of them, instead stressing that Macarius' Christian and pagan voices (whatever the latter's original source) have inevitably cross-infected, and warning against viewing the end pastiche as a product of simple cut and paste (pp. 28–40).

In ‘Macarius and the Apocriticus’, S. surveys the nature and history of the text and questions surrounding its provenance, such as its dating, authorship and literary quality. It seems likely that the author, named in both the Vatican and the Athens MSS as ‘Macarius of Magnesia’, was from one of two cities by that name in Asia Minor (pp. 44–9). Amongst other evidence, Macarius twice mentions a heretic from that region, ‘Dositheus of Cicilia’, otherwise unknown and thus likely familiar to him due to local proximity (p. 48) (3.43.26 and 4.15.5). A ‘Macarius of Magnesia’ appears in an account of the Synod of the Oak, held in 403 c.e., and it seems probable (though ultimately uncertain) that this is the text's author (pp. 48–9). The question of dating the Apocriticus is considered with reference to the text's own, somewhat muddled internal dating, alongside evidence from historical, sociological and theological points raised incidentally by Macarius; when all is considered, it seems reasonably certain that the text was composed in the latter third of the fourth century (pp. 49–54). Finally, S. discusses the literary nature of the text: its dating, genre, author and style (mentioned above), stressing especially that Macarius seems not so much focused on making particular points of argument as on demonstrating his competence in late-antique rhetoric. This is a feature peculiarly indicative of the text's cultural zeitgeist: a fixation amongst educated Christians with ‘establishing cultural superiority over paganism’ (Goulet 2003, quoted at p. 56).

The translation itself is lucid and accessible – sometimes dense, as the subject matter and Macarius' Latin render unavoidable, but possessed of an easy and natural cadence. The translators ‘have aimed for a fairly literal translation that achieves readability without obscuring the original’ (p. vii). The footnotes are straightforward and will be of practical use to advanced undergraduates or researchers alike, providing extensive biblical and intertextual references, etymological notes and relevant glosses on translative decisions. The volume's end matter consists of a bibliography and four separate indexes: biblical passages, proper names, subjects and specialist terminology (philosophical, rhetorical and theological), the last of which seems to the reviewer of particular utility. The book will be a valuable addition to any library or scholarly collection, and vital for any scholar of fourth-century Christian thought, not only on account of the groundbreaking translation, but also for the accompanying essays, which alone would be well worth the price of the book for anyone seeking a discursive context for Macarius.