all Macedonia” and one of the leading cities in the Roman Empire, also had a significant number of pagan cults and temples to diverse deities that competed for its citizens’ attention and participation. Numismatic, inscriptional, and other archaeological evidence reveal that over twenty-five gods, heroes, and personifications of virtues were worshiped in Thessalonica (see the overview of Tzanavari 2003), thereby justifying the heading of this section “A Religiously Pluralistic Environment.”12 In