Lecture 11: Institutional Development before Constantine
o In Egypt, communities appeared in the metropolis of
Alexandria and in the upper Nile. Christianity also appeared
in this period in the kingdom of Ethiopia. In North Africa,
Carthage and its surrounding areas had a large number of
local churches.o In Europe, Christian communities were found throughout
Greece, Italy, Sicily, and Spain. There were churches on the
Mediterranean islands of Crete and Cyprus. Christians were
also attested throughout Gaul, even on the island of Britain.• Such expansion across geographical space was accompanied by the
production of Christian literature in new languages besides Greek
and Latin; compositions in Syriac, Coptic, and Persian appeared in
this period.• It is certain that Christianity also grew in numbers, but the data
available from antiquity make the determination of numbers mostly
a matter of estimate.Excavations at Dura-Europos were first carried out in the 1930s; a house church
found there had been destroyed by the Parthians in the year 250.© iStockphoto/Thinkstock.