who lived in cities outside of Roman Palestine. My aim is not to be exhaustive or to provide a catalogue of deities and religious movements. Instead, I offer a general characterisation aimed at conveying something of the place and roles of religion in the lives of people. I want to emphasise how varied, prominent, pervasive and popular the practice of religion was, probably for most people. For early Gentile Christians to disdain and renounce the religious practices of their pre-conversion lives