The hypothesis that the owner of a late antique Cyrenean residence decorated with Christian inscriptions, the so-called ‘house of Hesychius’, was the father of the Neoplatonic philosopher and bishop Synesius, together with the inference that Synesius was a Christian by birth, has won wide acceptance among scholars. The argument, however, rests on a series of debatable assumptions relating to the dating of its last archaeological level and to the economy and society of contemporary Cyrene. This paper aims to reappraise critically this set of assumptions and, in the process, to re-open the question of Synesius’ initial religious affiliation.