Abstract
If Ernest Renan's interest in Semitic epigraphy is well known, what about Greco-Latin epigraphy, the only one that could really provide him with useful information to complete the picture he wanted to paint of the beginnings of Christianity in the first two centuries of our era? On closer examination, there is no doubt that the author attached great importance to the testimony of both Greek and Latin inscriptions, with which he demonstrated a remarkable familiarity from the time of the Phoenician Mission. Examples taken from the various books that make up theHistoire des origines du christianisme (History of the origins of Christianity ) show the very varied, sometimes surprising, use he made of these documents, in relation to an often personal knowledge of countries and cities, whether in Judea, Asia Minor, Macedonia or Greece itself, in Hierapolis of Phrygia, on the island of Patmos, in the Roman colony of Philippi or, finally, in Athens, facing the "Unknown God" of the apostle Paul.
