which he held as the 14th of Nisan. He is often described, based on a passage in Eusebius, as a Quartodecimanist. Formerly the capital of the Kingdom of Lydia, Sardis underwent a process of Hellenization due to the influence of Alexander the Great, thus making Sardis a thoroughly Greek city long before Melito was born. Trained in the art of rhetorical argumentation, Melito is believed to have been greatly influenced by two Stoic philosophers in particular, namely, Cleanthes and Poseidonius. Also proficient in the allegorical interpretation of Homer due to being schooled by sophists, it is highly likely that his background in Stoicism fed into how he wrote and how he interpreted past events and figures of religious significance such as Moses and the Exodus. Both his Jewish background and background in Stoicism led to his beliefs that the Christian Passover, celebrated during holy week, should be celebrated at the same time as the Jewish Passover. His belief in the Old Covenant being fulfilled in Jesus Christ also led to his opinion of the date of Easter. Peri Pascha Written during the second century AD, and only coming to light within the modern world due to the efforts of Campbell Bonner in 1940, some have argued that Peri Pascha (On the Passover) is not a homily, but is based on a haggadah, which is a retelling of the works of God at Passover. The Quartodeciman celebration mainly being a commemoration of Christ's passion and death, Melito stood by the belief that Christ died on the evening of the 14th, when the Passover meal was being prepared. F. L. Cross states that Melito's treatise on Pascha is “the most important addition to Patristic literature in the present century”. Aside from the liturgical function of the Peri Pascha, this early Christian document has traditionally been perceived as a somewhat reliable indicator concerning how early Christians felt toward Judaism in general. The Peri Pascha provides an accurate description of Christian feelings towards Jews at the time and their opinion of Judaism. The Jewish people are explicitly blamed for killing Christ. Melito does not blame Pontius Pilate for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. The goal may not have been to incite anti-Semitic thoughts in Christians, and rather to bring light to what truly happened during the Passion of Jesus Christ, but it nonetheless helped to feed and establish the anti-Jewish tropes that persist to