communities (1986: 271–3). It is clear that by the beginning of
the fourth century, Christianity was more evenly distributed across
the eastern provinces in Asia Minor, the Middle East, and Egypt
than it was in Europe. There were areas of particular density too,
a factor that is most easily appreciated in the west, where we find
concentrations of Christian communities in north Africa, central
Italy, and the province of Baetica in southern Spain. Elsewhere,
in Gaul and the Balkans for example, the presence of Christianity
was spread more thinly.
What conclusions can such a spread suggest? It is obvious
that Christianity enjoyed greater success in some areas than in
others. The regions where it was strongest include, in Asia Minor
and the Middle East, areas where we can observe in the New
Testament some of the earliest missionary endeavours by apostles
like Paul. The concentration of Christian communities in Egypt,
north Africa, and southern Spain might suggest similar early
missionary efforts there. In north Africa, this might well have
been the case: accounts of martyrdoms and casual references
in Tertullian suggest that Christianity had reached not only the
major cities, but also smaller settlements and the countryside. The
evidence taken as a whole, however, is ambiguous. Eusebius’
information on Christianity in Egypt is sketchy before the time
of bishop Demetrius of Alexandria around the year 200, although
the existence of New Testament biblical papyri shows that
Christians were present in Egypt before this. In Italy, we know
of Christians at Rome from the time of Nero, but information
about the rest of the peninsula is vague until the third century.
Spanish Christians, as we have seen, only appear in the mid-third
century, and then in paltry numbers. If we were to judge the
sparseness of Christianity in Gaul as evidence for the religion’s
late arrival there, however, then we would have to reconcile that
with the account of the persecution at Lyons in 177. Eusebius
(Ecclesiastical History5.1) quotes a document written shortly
after the purge that implies a flourishing Christian community:
among the martyrs of 177, nine are mentioned by name, and there
are references to members of a hierarchy of clergy, both in LyonsCONTEXTS FOR THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY
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