Early Christianity in Roman Corinth, c. 50–60

Roman Corinth was a major commercial and administrative centre connecting mainland Greece with Mediterranean trade. Wealth, slavery, legal status and public benefaction shaped its households and its intensely competitive civic life.

Acts and Paul’s letters describe a Christian community formed across social divisions and troubled by disputes over status, worship, marriage and loyalty. Conversion did not remove believers from pagan families or from the political expectations attached to advantageous marriages.

The Sisters of Corinth uses this setting for conflict between two stepsisters and a magistrate seeking advancement through marriage. The novel’s central question is whether Christian allegiance can survive domestic coercion and the pressure to participate in civic religion.