Students of the Roman Empire no less than those who are interested in early Christianity will find Francis"s study requisite for comprehending the evolution of the pagan and Christian ascetic movements of late antiquity.-Paul B. Harvey, Jr., Penn State UniversityMuch attention has been devoted in recent years to Christian asceticism in Late Antiquity. But Christianity did not introduce asceticism to the ancient world. An underlying theme of this fascinating study of pagan asceticism is that much of the work on Christian "holy men" has ignored earlier manifestations of asceticism in Antiquity and the way Roman society confronted it. Accordingly, James Francis turns to the second century, the "balmy late afternoon of Rome"s classical empire," when the conflict between asceticism and authority reached a turning point. Francis begins with the emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180), who warned in his Meditations against "display[ing] oneself as a man keen to impress others with a reputation...