This volume provides a critical analysis of the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides, a representative of the Second Sophistic and maybe the most prominent worshipper of the healing deity Asclepius in the second century a.d. It pays special attention to how aspects of society, disease, medicine, religion and religious experiences are embodied within these tales and focusses on the connection between Aristides' medical condition and knowledge and his religious beliefs.

The opening chapter, ‘Aelius Aristides and the Sacred Tales’, approaches the genesis of the Sacred Tales by analysing the date, method and motives of its composition. I. outlines them as in many ways representative of the Greek upper class in the province of Asia due to their pure Attic style, their typical understanding of dreams and religious habits, and their immanent focus on the body (p. 12). Since they cannot be catalogued within the categories of Greco-Roman literature, I. specifies the narrative form of the Sacred Tales as ‘sui generis’ (p. 19). He does not take them as a narration of dreams, cures or maladies, but as an expression of devotion to Asclepius. The work has been viewed as an autobiography by modern scholars as well as by its ancient readers, and the tales were influenced by the votive offerings in the Asclepieia in content and form (p. 25). Although the tales were not composed as an autobiography I. takes them as such due to their focus on the author's life experiences and the imprints of his cultural background. He marks the autobiographical character of the Sacred Tales as a by-product of the intended aretalogy and sees its explicit purpose in the glorification of Asclepius (p. 26). He concludes that the Sacred Tales cannot be taken literally but as an act of redemption and self-presentation, and identifies another motive for composing the Sacred Tales in Aristides' wish to promote himself as an orator who is close to the divine (p. 22). However, this crucial aspect of the Sacred Tales, Aristides' agenda to promote his own career, is only marginally discussed in the whole volume and should have been taken into further consideration.

The second chapter, ‘Society, Disease and Medicine in the Sacred Tales of Aristides’, deals predominantly with medical issues. It includes an examination of the Greco-Roman healthcare system as well as Aristides' own description of his medical condition, his appeals for healthcare, the medical treatments from Asclepius and the physicians and the institution of the Pergamene Asclepieion. Here, I. rightly stresses the importance of ideas of causation and responsibility in ancient medicine in order to understand the inner structure of the Greco-Roman health care system (p. 45). History of medicine is described as being interwoven with history of religion, especially in Aristides', case, who cannot be analysed without a close look at the cult and the temples of Asclepius that were functioning as medical centres (p. 54). By suggesting that Aristides' view on the role of dreams in medicine and communication with the gods resembled that of other scholars in his time, I. does not define Aristides' grasp of medicine and the cult of Asclepius as unique but as a common view among contemporaries (p. 58). The given examination of the relationship between the orator and the god as depicted in the Sacred Tales is essential at this point, since Aristides' illness and his attempts at health care were habitually connected with the Asclepieion in Pergamum and specifically with the healing deity Asclepius himself, to whom Aristides claimed a close affiliation (p. 113). Through a wider contextualisation of Aristides' medical history, as depicted in the Sacred Tales, I. does not characterise Aristides' habits and approaches as the records of an eccentric individual but as typical of his age and suitable for providing insight into the Greco-Roman healthcare system at this time (p. 122).

In the third chapter, ‘Reconsidering Private Religions; Religion and Religious Experience in the Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides’ I. views the record of religious devotion immanent in the Sacred Tales and questions its conventional interpretation as a manifestation of an ‘age of anxiety’ and a tendency towards private religion (p. 137). Here are examined Aristides' theological knowledge, the myth of Asclepius, Aristides' view on divination, and the cultural and societal influences on his religious habits and beliefs. Aristides' theological understanding is depicted as complying with the traditional Greek perception of religion as the foundation of social order and therefore as far from being eccentric or innovative (pp. 144–5). Since the Sacred Tales were initially an account of the relationship between the author and Asclepius, to whom the Tales were devoted, the investigation of the context and characteristic of this devotion leads I. to the conclusion that Aristides' inclination to worship Asclepius can be explained by the broad popularity and established patterns of the cult. Therefore it cannot be taken as a sign of religious deviance or a general cultural change (p. 154). Similar arguments apply to the question of divination, oracles and dreams in the Sacred Tales, which were commonly seen as ways to conceive messages, prophecies and assignations from the gods (p. 155). Therefore, I. contributes to the discussion whether Greco-Roman society saw a separation between public religions and those who were private or personal by applying the argument that Aristides' comprehensions of theology as well as his religious habits had external origins in the mainstream of Greco-Roman culture and were thus far from being innovative (p. 165). He also considers social forms of cult-organisation, such as the procedures in the Asclepieion, religious festivals, games and rituals, which were crucial elements for the appreciation of Greco-Roman religion. Especially Aristides' notions about cult and festivals in the Sacred Tales reveal the major influence of socially organised religion on his religious experience and hence buttress I.'s assumption of the non-existing dichotomy between private and public religions (p. 171). The chapter is completed by a look at visual culture, namely the function of Greco-Roman art as a method of communication and its role in shaping images of the gods, particularly with regard to its imprint on Aristides' mental images of the divine. Here, too, I. assumes that the impression the works of visual art left on Aristides shaped his comprehension of the divine in the same manner as it did the vast majority of other spectators with a similar cultural background (p. 178). The conclusion which is drawn from this scrutiny involves the reasonable doubt cast upon the assertion Aristides' religious experiences and perceptions could be marked as personal or private, since none of the components of his religiosity can be seen as unique or a manifestation of eccentric behaviour (p. 180).

Although the question of the extent of reliability within the Sacred Tales is raised at certain points in the book (e.g. on pp. 23, 119), I. occasionally neglects the fact that Aristides was a prominent orator who put oratory above everything else and therefore tended to recast some details for his own benefit. While I. regards the Sacred Tales as an expression of devotion to Asclepius and sees its explicit purpose in the glorification of the deity (p. 19), he overlooks that Aristides' main agenda was to demonstrate his own greatness when picturing himself as the god's protégé.

None the less, this book gives a vivid description of the Sacred Tales and contributes many valuable insights into the understanding of the broad fields of medical and religious experiences in the Greco-Roman world of the second century a.d., and furthermore helps to decipher the somewhat convoluted Sacred Tales of Aelius Aristides.