Early Christianity

renovating buildings for religious use at this time: other struc-

tures were adapted for use as a Jewish synagogue, a temple of

Mithras, and a temple of the Syrian gods of Palmyra. The building

transformed into a church was in close proximity to the walls of

the city, walls which were presumably patrolled now and again

by the soldiers of the local garrison. Did none of them notice

what the Christians were doing? It is hard to imagine, given the

extent of the renovations, that they did not. But it seems that no

one cared too much about it. The very presence of an elaborate

church building suggests, perhaps, that the non-Christians of Dura

regarded the Christians in their midst with something like benign

neglect. If we turn our attention now to the west of the empire,

we find that, around the same time (or perhaps slightly earlier),

someone scratched an anti-Christian graffito in the plaster of a

wall in a room on the Palatine hill in Rome (and so in the shadow

of the palace of the emperors). It showed a figure offering a prayer

to a crucified man who, rather disconcertingly, has an ass’s

head. Beside the picture is scratched a line in Greek that says:

‘Alexamenos pray to god.’ It seems to have been a common pagan

jibe to present the focus of Christian worship as having the head

of an ass: it is attested by Minucius Felix (Octavius9.3, 28.7)

and Tertullian (Apology16.12). But what are we to conclude from

this graffito? Answering this question highlights the problems of

interpreting visual evidence. Maybe someone found Alexamenos’

Christianity offensive, and sought to give offence in return.

Or perhaps that someone simply found Alexamenos’ religious

eccentricity screamingly funny.

Towards Christendom: an uneven progress

The renovators of the Dura Europos church and Alexamenos in

Rome lived at a time when Christianity was becoming increas-

ingly prominent in the life of the empire. Between 200 and

300 there were numerous important developments. We have

seen that Christian numbers increased considerably, reaching

perhaps 6 million by c. 300 (chapter 4). This rise in numbers was

EARLY CHRISTIANITY AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

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