The study of religious intolerance in antiquity has intensified in recent years, and the eleven chapters in this collection of papers from a 2013 conference make a valuable addition to their number. The book focuses on Late Antiquity, with chapters ranging over topics from ‘political Neoplatonism’ (R. Chiaradonna) to the treatment of pagans by post-Roman kings (G. Cecconi). They include studies of the religious policies of Diocletian (R.), Constantine (M. Walraff) and Theodosius I (M. Escribano Paño). M. contributes a chapter on anti-Jewish legislation, S. Ronchey covers the assassination of Hypatia; G. Zecchini studies the fifth-century papal letter on the Lupercalia and A. Pellizzari looks at the still under-utilised Consultationes Zacchei et Apollonii for what it tells us about converting the pagan elite.

M. Mazza and R. Lizzi Testa contribute the most broadly focused chapters, dealing with the problem of defining and studying intolerance in Late Antiquity and the historiographic context of the topic, respectively. But all the contributions show how much the ground has shifted since the day when scholars could assume, with Gibbon, that intolerance was an inevitable product of an inherent Christian trait. One shift is an appreciation of how much focusing on Constantine's conversion has led to an artificial division into pre- and post-Constantinian eras. Mazza rightly observes that the new concern for religious conformity actually began in the mid-third century, and R.'s study of Diocletian's law against the Manichees shows that Christians were not the only ones to suffer. Regarding Constantine himself, Wallraff points to continuities (as well as inconsistencies) in the emperor's policies that are better appreciated once the arbitrary date of 312 is discarded.

Another shift has been greater appreciation for contingency, as well as factors that have nothing to do with religion. Hypatia has long been cast as collateral damage from a power struggle between Bishop Cyril and the prefect Orestes, but Ronchey broadens the picture to include Cyril's pogrom against Alexandria's Jews and takes note of the difficulty of distinguishing between the now-established spheres of ‘Church’ and ‘State’. Economic interests (control of Egypt's grain fleet) also played an important role. Economic factors, as well as often-ignored tensions between the leadership in Jerusalem and diaspora Jews, also figure in M.'s analysis of Julian's plan to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem.

But the topic calling for the greatest amount of nuance is the term ‘intolerance’ itself. Nineteenth-century experts already pointed out that the term did not apply to antiquity, but that caveat did little to prevent others from continuing to write about ‘intolerance’. Here, Zecchini argues that the relevant distinction should be between ‘internal’ and ‘external’, which would eliminate attacks aimed at fellow Christians, and Lizzi Testa gives consideration to using ‘inclusive’ and ‘exclusive’ instead.

Current debates over intolerance in ‘political Islam’ undoubtedly have helped spur this new interest in the topic in antiquity. The nuanced treatment in this book should, in its turn, serve as a caution against repeating the same mistakes when studying our own problems.