Thesiss

Because “superstition” ([special characters omitted] in Greek, superstitio in Latin) was the standard category in antiquity for denigrating “debased” religion, a prerequisite for situating early Christianity in its Mediterranean milieu is an understanding of what this label mean…

The Cilician Pirates dominated the Mediterranean during the late second and early first centuries B.C. Their homeland, Cilicia, was a rugged and tough mountainous region, and as such they expanded into the unguarded and unpoliced eastern Mediterranean waters, plaguing shipping l…