IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/cliomt/v19y2025i2d10.1007_s11698-024-00291-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Epidemiological modeling of Romanization and Christianization in Ancient Greece

Author

Listed:
  • Laurent Gauthier

    (Université Paris 8 Saint-Denis Vincennes
    Institut Rhônalpin des Systèmes Complexes (IXXI), ENS Lyon
    ArScAn - UMR 7041)

Abstract

The spread of culture has been often paralleled with epidemic contagion. We propose to use models of this type to analyze Romanization and Christianization through onomastic data (names). We first examine the spread of Romanity in the ancient Greek world, and then the spread of Christianism, through the dynamics of Roman and Christian names acquisition. The dynamics of the transition from a pure Greek world to a Romanized world appear to have been fundamentally driven by an intense adoption of Romanity combined with an equally intense return to traditional Greek names. The transition from pagan to Christian names, on the other hand, was more permanent, leading to a more explosive acquisition pattern.

Suggested Citation

  • Laurent Gauthier, 2025. "Epidemiological modeling of Romanization and Christianization in Ancient Greece," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 19(2), pages 421-444, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:19:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11698-024-00291-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11698-024-00291-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11698-024-00291-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11698-024-00291-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ancient Greece; Culture diffusion; Epidemiology; SIS models; Romanization; Christianization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z12 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Religion
    • N33 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • B4 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:cliomt:v:19:y:2025:i:2:d:10.1007_s11698-024-00291-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.