I ran across this and thought it was interesting. Just sharing.
The claim is the central proposition of a new book by Tim Whitmarsh, Professor of Greek Culture and a Fellow of St John’s College, University of Cambridge. In it, he suggests that atheism – which is typically seen as a modern phenomenon – was not just common in ancient Greece and pre-Christian Rome, but probably flourished more in those societies than in most civilizations since.
The book, entitled Battling The Gods, was launched in Cambridge on Tuesday 16 February 2016.