INTRODUCTION
Any attempt to understand religious rivalries in the ancient Mediterranean
world must take into account the social and political structures within
which such phenomena took place. Such structures influenced or con-
strained in various ways the activities and behaviours of the individuals,
groups, and communities that attract our historical interest. Thus, it is the
city or polisof the Greek East, and the larger power structures of which
thepoliswas a part, that should frame our investigations. It is important,
of course, to remember that, in focusing on the polis,we are glimpsing only
a small portion of social-religious life in antiquity; we are not studying life
in the countryside and villages, concerning which the evidence is, unfor-
tunately, far less abundant. Our understanding of the nature and charac-
teristics of the polisand empire will have an impact on our assessment of
social and religious life. For this reason, it is very important to be self-con-
scious about the models and presuppositions that have not only informed
past scholarship in this area but also, for better or for worse, continue to
shape our perceptions of civic life in regions like the Roman province of Asia.
It is common, in discussions of the polisunder Hellenistic and Roman
rule, to read about the corrosion of civic spirit or identity, about interference
by ruling authorities, about the hollowness of civic institutions and struc-
tures, which are supposed to have accompanied a fundamental decline. In
recent years, some scholars have begun to question key aspects of this tra-
ditional scenario of decline. As we shall soon see, theories concerning the