6 Confronting Babylon: early Christianity and
the Roman empire1 For example, the 1994 paperback reprint of Sordi 1988 carried a colour
reproduction of The Last Prayer. Robert Louis Wilken tells an amus-
ing tale that highlights the gap between popular perceptions and what
scholars would like to achieve:
On the original book jacket [of the first edition of Wilken 2003,
published in 1984] there is a scene of sacrifice from first-
century Rome... [I] proposed it for the book jacket because
it gave a positive depiction of religious devotion among
the Romans. One of the aims of the book was to overcome the
stereotype of Roman society as irreligious and immoral. But
when I received the German translation I was chagrined to find
that the publisher had concocted a picture of a Roman soldier
about to thrust his spear into a group of Christian women and
children cowering before the cruel and merciless might of
Rome. So much for high-minded intentions.
(Wilken 2003: ix)NOTES1
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249 Folio