Abstract

This work describes the conflict between ascetics and social and cultural authorities among pagans in the second century C.E. Its essential thesis is that practitioners of ostentatious physical asceticism were perceived as a threat to prevailing norms and the established order by the educated and ruling classes. ;The social status quo, and the acceptable limits of ascetical practice, are first defined through an analysis of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. The threat ascetics were perceived to pose is then described primarily through the Peregrinus Proteus and other works of Lucian. A constellation of related themes emerges around the ascetic--including prophecy, sorcery, miracle working, charismatic leadership, expressions of social discontent, and advocacy of alternative values regarding wealth, property, marriage, and sexuality. With these definitions and motifs established, further developments and applications are examined. Philostratus' Life of Apollonius of Tyana is shown to rehabilitate a deviant ascetic precisely by turning him into a pillar of traditional values and established authority. By shearing him of his social threat and turning his deviant behavior into an heroic accomplishment reserved only for the few, Philostratus allows the radical ascetic to gain acceptance among the educated and ruling classes and allows these classes to use the ascetic's charismatic authority to support the status quo. Finally, Celsus' True Doctrine demonstrates how these views pagans held of their own ascetics influenced their negative view of Christianity. It is suggested that Celsus' own view of the Christians as a social threat was based upon his own knowledge or experience of ascetical Christian groups who espoused radical social beliefs. ;This study establishes that this conflict over asceticism provides a key to the understanding of other phenomena in the religious, intellectual, and social history of the period. Its ultimate resolution also casts new light on the nature and purpose of the Life of Apollonius and on "holy man" literature. Finally, in suggesting a parallel conflict and development within Christianity between social conservatives and ascetic radicals, this study establishes a context vital to the correct understanding of early Christian asceticism and the rise of monasticism