Christianity provided another more tangible benefit over paganism. Traditional Roman society was not uncharitable—in its heyday, the state doled out free wheat and later bread to 200,000 people in the imperial capital, for example—but their deities did not reward altruism. So when plagues were raging, people of means—including Galen—took flight, and those who remained tried to avoid contact with the sick. Observing the pagans, Bishop Dionysius of Alexandria noted: “their dearest they fled from, or cast them half dead into the road.” Christianity was different. Believers were expected to show
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