The Roman Empire embraced and assimilated new religions. While in the polytheistic world the addition of a new religion did not radically affect the older ones, with the appearance of Christianity everything changed. Although it taught peace and its martyrs went to death praising love, this new faith was violent, ruthless, and intolerant. And when it became the official religion of the empire, its fervent followers set out to destroy the old gods. Their altars were overturned, their temples were demolished, and their statues became ruins. Books, including great philosophical and scientific works, were condemned to the pyre. It was a true annihilation.

From Rome to Alexandria and from the deserts of Syria to Athens, Catherine Nixey, in this impressive debut, narrates the partially unknown and shocking history of a militant religion that eradicated the teachings of the classical world, to inaugurate a long period of unquestioning submission to the "one and only true faith."