conuersio

This entry analyses the different meanings that conuersio assumes in late-antique Latin: while maintaining the concrete meanings of ‘rotary movement’ or ‘change of direction’, it gradually becomes the technical term to indicate religious conversion, in the sense of the conversion of people to Christianity and of personal changes that bring men to dedicate their life to Christ. In particular, the use of this word in Tertullian, Ambrose, Augustine and Jerome is studied.