the participation of citizens in the various legislative and judicial activi-
ties alongside honorary ones” (1993, 354). Furthermore, scholars such as
Stephen Mitchell and Guy MacLean Rogers have begun to question the
common view that, in the Roman era, the council so completely usurped
the role of the people that the latter possessed very little, if any, real power,
but merely approved lists of candidates for office.^1
These various new studies mount a fundamental challenge to key inter-
pretations of historical developments that have served as the basis of the
theory of decline, which itself rests on questionable value judgments, mod-
els, and assumptions. Although important changes and developments def-
initely did take place under Hellenistic and Roman rule, these changes are
not best understood in terms of a broad notion of decline. Further positive
evidence for the continued vitality of the poliswill be presented shortly.
But first, the implications of the theory of decline for the study of social, cul-
tural, and religious facets of civic life needs more attention, especially in light
of our focus on religious rivalries.
MODELS OF DECLINE IN THE STUDY OF SOCIAL-RELIGIOUS LIFE
Unfortunately, the model of civic decline has often been used to explain
other social and cultural phenomena in the Hellenistic and Roman eras.
Many scholars correlate this decline with a degeneration of traditional reli-
gious life. As S.R.F. Price notes, “the conventional model, which has been
applied to both Greek and Roman cults, posits an early apogee followed by
a long and continuous decline, until the last embers were extinguished by
Christianity” (1984, 14). As we shall see, the application to these other
social and religious developments of both the model of civic decline and its
related assumptions can produce misleading and exaggerated conclusions.
One can also discern the role of modern value judgments in such scenar-
ios; parallel to some scholars’ use of classical Athens as a foil against which
all subsequent developments are evaluated in negative terms, an ideal view
of Christianity serves as a measure of genuine religion, over against which
most, but not all, preceding phenomena are evaluated as superficial, less
than genuine, and therefore in decay.
28 PART I •RIVALRIES?
1 For the common view, see A.H.M. Jones 1940, 177; Magie 1950, 1:640–41 (cf. Lane Fox
1986, 51; Sheppard 1984–1986, 247); also Mitchell 1993, 1:201–4; Rogers 1992. Regard-
ing activities of the assemblies in the Roman era, see C.P. Jones’s discussion (1978,
97–98) of passages in Dio’s orations, which indicate the working of the assembly (40.1,
5–6; 45.15–16; 47.12–13); also A.H.M. Jones 1940, 177–78, 340–41, and Oliver 1970,
61–63, who argues for considerable continuity in the constitution of Athens from clas-
sical times up to the time of Marcus Aurelius.