THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD IN LATE ANTIQUITYdocumentary texts such as the acts of the church councils, with the realization
that such material is central to the general history of the period. Contemporar-
ies engaged in fierce arguments and expressed themselves in strong language,
which modern historians are learning belatedly to see for what it was. Now
too, they are discovering the actual areas of common ground between poly-
theists and Christians, between different Christian groups, between Christians
and Jews and Christians and Muslims. The parameters have well and truly
changed.