Publication details
Quantifying Christianization of the Roman Empire: A Computational Replication and Extension
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | Although there is not too much primary data concerning Christianization of the Roman Empire, demographical, ecologic and economic estimations informed by social-scientific and cognitive theorizing enable us to evaluate possible trajectories of this process (Stark 1996, 2006; Hopkins 1998). Adding into the picture the estimations concerning seasonal costs of travelling through the Roman empire around the year 300 CE (Scheidel 2014), this paper aims to replicate this process in an artificial computational environment while using the method of agent-based modelling. On the contrary to the equotion-based approach adopted by Stark and others, the agent-based modelling does enable us also to implement the factors which could confound the proposed process of gradual Christianization (e.g. massive conversions or a decline of Christian population after the periods of persecutions) and to consider their influence on the overall process. Further, potential extensions of the model is discussed, and, finally, its potential for the study of diffusion of early Christian religious innovations is introduced. |
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