Porphyry in fragments: reception of an anti-Christian text in late antiquity

The Greek philosopher Porphyry of Tyre had a reputation as the fiercest critic of Christianity.

It was well-deserved: he composed (at the end the 3rd century A.D.) fifteen discourses against the Christians, so offensive that Christian emperors ordered them to be burnt.

We thus rely on the testimonies of three prominent Christian writers to know what Porphyry wrote.

Scholars have long thought that we could rely on those testimonies to know Porphyry's ideas.