The Fifth Century: Kingdoms Replace the Western Roman Empire

2007 ◽  
pp. 11-26
Author(s):  
Lynette Olson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fifth Century

Christograms as Signs of Authority in the Late Roman Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Courtly Culture ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Late Roman

The first section tests the main interpretations of Lactantius’ passage on Constantine’s victorious sign in 312 against existing graphic evidence from the 310s and early 320s, and consequently supports the interpretation of Lactantius’ description as a rhetorical device invented or modified by the Christian narrator. The next two sections support the argument that the perception of the chi-rho as Constantine’s triumphant sign became entrenched in courtly culture and public mentalities from the mid-320s onwards, and trace the diachronic change of the chi-rho from its paramount importance as an imperial sign of authority under the Constantinian dynasty to its hierarchic usage alongside the tau-rho and cross in the Theodosian period. The final section presents a contextualized discussion of the encolpion of Empress Maria and mosaics from several early baptisteries, illustrating the paradigmatic importance the chi-rho and tau-rho for early Christian graphicacy around the turn of the fifth century.

The Date and Circumstances of Olympiodorus of Thebes

Traditio ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Half

Olympiodorus of Thebes is an important figure for the history of late antiquity. The few details of his life preserved as anecdotes in hisHistorygive glimpses of a career which embraced the skills of poet, philosopher, and diplomat. A native of Egypt, he had influence at the imperial court of Constantinople, among the sophists of Athens, and even outside the borders of the empire. HisHistory(more correctly, his “materials for history”) is lost, surviving only as fragments in the narratives of Zosimus, Sozomen, and Philostorgius, and in the rich summary given by the ninth-century Byzantine patriarch Photius. These remains comprise the most substantial narrative sources for events in the western Roman Empire in the early fifth century. Besides its value as a source, theHistoryis important as a monument to the vitality of the belief in the unity of the Roman Empire under the Theodosian dynasty. Olympiodorus wrote in Greek, and knowledge of his work is attested only in Constantinople, yet his political narrative, from 407 to 425, concerns only events in the western half of the empire. To understand the significance of these facts, it is necessary to set the composition of Olympiodorus's work in its proper context. Clarifying the date of publication is the first step toward this goal. Internal and external evidence suggests that the work was written in 440 or soon after, more than a decade later than the date of composition usually accepted. Taken with thematic emphases evident in the structure of theHistory, this revised dating explains why an eastern writer should have written a detailed account of western events in the early part of the century. Olympiodorus's account is a characteristic product of the highly literate class of eastern imperial civil servants, and of their genuine preoccupation with the relationship between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire at a time when both were threatened by the rise of the new Carthaginian power of the Vandals.

Some Graeco-Phoenician Shrines

1911 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 56-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. F. Hill
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The State ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Family ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Roman Age

With but two exceptions, no trace now remains of the shrines with which this paper deals, or at least no trace has been revealed by excavation. Practically the sole record of these buildings is to be found on the coins struck in the district during the period of the Roman Empire, and more especially during the third century of our era. The earlier coins, from the beginning of the coinage towards the end of the fifth century B.C., tell us something about the cults, but little of their furniture. But in the Roman age, especially during the time of the family of Severus and Elagabalus, there was a considerable outburst of coinage, which, in its types, reveals certain details interesting to the student of the fringe of Greek and Roman culture.The evidence thus provided is necessarily disjointed, and concerns only the external, official aspects of the Phoenician religion. The inner truth of these things, it is safe to say, is hidden for ever: even the development from the primitive religion to the weird syncretistic systems of the Roman age is hopelessly obscure. One can only see dimly what was the state of things during the period illustrated by the monuments.

Pelagius and the End of Roman Rule in Britain

1960 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 21-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. L. Myres
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
English History ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
Creative Achievement ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intimate Knowledge ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Continuous Narrative

The circumstances in which Roman rule over Britain came to an end have always been something of a puzzle to historians. There is of course no contemporary record giving a continuous narrative of the relevant events, and the few brief notices in ancient sources about British affairs in the first two decades of the fifth century come from writers of various dates and degrees of authority, none of whom seems to have had any first-hand knowledge of what took place. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that what they say should be subject to wide differences of interpretation, differences all the wider because some of the interpreters have been viewing the events from the standpoint of later English history and without an intimate knowledge of the Roman Empire in the fifth century. And it must further be admitted that, among scholars familiar with the conditions of this age, there has been something of a gap between those concerned with matters of history, whether political, administrative, social, or economic, and those concerned with thought and opinion, and primarily, of course, as theologians with the development of Christian doctrine in the great age of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine. It is easy for theologians to forget that the immense creative achievement of these thinkers was carried out at a time when the foundations of the society they knew were collapsing under external pressure and internal strain, and it is easy for historians to forget that a society riddled with corruption and precariously held together by the barbarous methods of a repressive tyranny was yet the seed-bed for an extraordinary flowering of the human spirit. It is difficult for either to remember that the forms which that flowering took and the imagery within which it found expression inevitably reflected the social and political conditions, the legal and judicial practices, familiar to those who gave it birth.

scholarly journals The Procreative Powers of the Wind: a Study of the Concept of Wind Impregnation According to Graeco-Roman and Other Traditions

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Janis Rowan Blayney
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Oral Tradition ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Second Century ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Central Topic ◽  
Number Of Factors ◽  
Nature Development ◽  
The Individual

<p>The central topic of this thesis is the concept of wind impregnation (Motif T524 Conception from wind) as found in Greek and Roman thought and life. It is suggested that the concept exists in a variety of forms, distinguished by the six different animate beings with which the wind is linked, namely, mares, hens, tigers, vultures, sheep, and (mythical or legendary) women. The nature, development and transmission of these six traditions are discussed : it is demonstrated that all six traditions concerned persist beyond the fall of the Roman empire, with three continuing in existence until the seventeenth century; and that four out of the six traditions provide evidence of a concurrent oral tradition. In an effort to counteract the suggestion that the Graeco-Roman concept of wind impregnation is to be attributed to a lack of understanding of the prerequisites for procreation on the part of the ancients, the various theories of conception proposed by Greek and Roman scholars in the period from the early fifth century BC to the late second century AD are examined. This survey demonstrates that the ancients in fact took a considerable interest in, and had a detailed knowledge of the process of conception. The thesis concludes that there is no one explanation for the existence of the ancient concept, of wind impregnation; rather, it is to be attributed to the combination of a number of factors, most notably, the nature of the individual winds, and ancient attitudes towards them; the ancient connection of wind and soul; the nature of the animals with which the wind is linked, and the associations of those winds for the ancients.</p>

scholarly journals REGULACJE DOTYCZĄCE ODLEGŁOŚCI MIĘDZY BUDYNKAMI W PRAWACH ANTYCZNYCH

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 337
Author(s):  
Aneta Skalec
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Free Space ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Legal Regulations ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
The Law ◽  
The City

LEGAL REGULATIONS OF THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE BUILDINGS IN ANCIENT LAWS Summary Regulations concerning the distance between the buildings can be already found in the law of the XII Tables, which prescribed that 2,5 foots of free space must be left around every house. That space was called ambitus. But most probably, it was the earlier law of Solon in Athens, that served as a model for Romans, and a few centuries later (III BC) was also applied in Dikaiomata – the law of the city of Alexandria in Egypt. As far as the Roman Empire is concerned, we can find series of constitutions issued by imperators, usually concerning the distance between public buildings, and, as regards the fifth century AD, also the distance between private buildings (the most important of them is the constitution of Zenon). This question was an object of interest also for the author of the compilation of local Palestinian laws – Julian of Ascalon, in whose Treatise the problem was regulated in very detailed way. Julian of Ascalon’s Treatise dealt also with the distance between private buildings and many types of workshops.

scholarly journals Church and State: A Conflicting Collaboration

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentine Ugochukwu Iheanacho
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Church And State ◽  
The State ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Church

St Jerome, both in his wittiness and in his critique of the romance between the church of his time and the Roman Empire in the fifth century, believed that “The church by its connection with Christian princes gained in power and riches, but lost in virtues.” The church and the state, whether in the past or in the present, have two particular things in common: peace and order. Both institutions detest disorder and rebellion, but ironically, in their efforts to bring about the desired peace and order, they often disturbed the peace through their quarrels and quibbles. With a keen sense of history, this essay studies the reluctance with which the church in the West and in the East embraced secular authorities in the civil administration of society for the sake of “peace” and “order.”

Britain and Ireland, 100–700 CE

2019 ◽  
pp. 601-622
Author(s):  
David Petts
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Early Church ◽  
Burial Rites ◽  
Stone Carving ◽  
Church Structures ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter reviews the evidence for the archaeology of early Christianity in Britain and Ireland. Here, the church had its origins in the areas that lay within the Roman Empire in the fourth century but rapidly expanded north and west in the early fifth century following the end of Roman rule. The evidence for church structures is limited and often ambiguous, with securely identifiable sites not appearing to any extent until the seventh century. There is a range of material culture that can be linked to the early church from the fourth to the seventh centuries; in particular, there are strong traditions of epigraphy and increasingly decorative stone carving from most areas. The conversion to Christianity also impacted burial rites, although the relationship between belief and mortuary traditions is not a simple one.

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