Statistics and the conversion of the Roman aristocracy

Peter Brown has created a model for comprehending the historical process of the overwhelming Christianization of the pagan aristocracy of imperial Rome during the fourth and the fifth centuries. Raban von Haehling has espoused Brown's view in a similar paper backed by statistics. However, an examination of von Haehling's statistics and Brown's paper indicate certain, fundamental errors. Evidence suggests that the process began much earlier and proceeded more quickly than Brown assumed, but do not challenge the validity of Brown's approach to the understanding of the process.