believe in the gods (many of their neighbors did not really believe in them), but only to offer token worship as a sign of their familial or civic allegiance. People who were so obstinate as to refuse this simple duty surely had to be “haters of humankind,” as many in the Roman Empire considered them. CITY GATE AT NICEA, BITHYNIA Second, they now followed a morality different from that of their fellow citizens. Previously they had enjoyed drunken parties and loose sexual morals, but now they demonstrated