SOURCE: Edwards, Douglas R. “Surviving the Web of Roman Power: Religion and Politics in the Acts of the Apostles, Josephus, and Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe.” In Images of Empire, edited by Loveday Alexander, pp. 179-201. Sheffield, England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1991.

In the following essay, Edwards analyzes Chariton's use of Aphrodite in Chaereas and Callirhoe, focasing on what it reveals about the relationship between religious and political power in antiquity.

By the second century ce, the Greek East had dealt with Roman power for at least three hundred years and with imperial power for over one hundred years. Response to Roman power ranged from turbulence and violence to general acquiescence and assimilation. The type of response depended on an array of factors, including an individual or group's status, local and regional history, and location within the empire.¹ The Greek East promoted hellenic culture, with local and regional variations, and...