Philosophy in the Hellenistic and Roman Worlds (A History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps #2)

by Peter S. Adamson

In the case of both Skepticism and Epicureanism, the answer may be that late antiquity was no time to be anti-religious. The Skeptics suspended belief about the nature of the gods, along with everything else. The Epicureans did admit the existence of the gods, but immediately added that these gods have nothing to do with us, so that we need not fear them. There was no place for such views in the religious ferment of the later empire, when paganism struggled to retain its cultural standing in the face of a new faith: Christianity. This new religion was promoted with a vehemence and sudden success that was disconcerting, and sometimes terrifying, to its opponents. Adherents of traditional religion could not help seeing the Christians as disruptive fanatics.