In Quest of Basil's Retreat: An Expedition to Ancient Pontus

Antichthon ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 73-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Silvas
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Common Life ◽  
Gregory Of Nyssa ◽  
Leading Role ◽  
Latin West ◽  
To Come ◽  
Arian Controversy

Basil of Caesarea (AD 329–378), his brother, Gregory of Nyssa (335–394), and their friend, Gregory Nazianzen (328–389), are a group of three great Christian thinkers of the late 4th century AD known as the ‘Cappadocian Fathers’. All were steeped in the culture of traditional Hellenism, and at the same time were great theologians and leaders who steered the Christian church of the eastern Roman empire in the turbulent years of the late 4th century. Theologically they are best known for bringing to a close the Arian controversy that had wracked the Christian church for most of the 4th century. Basil, called ‘the Great’ in the Christian tradition for his leading role in steering the Arian controversy to a conclusion, is also known for his reforms of the unruly ascetic movement in Asia Minor, documented in such works as his Asketikon. As a result of his labours he effectively established Greek cenobitic (common-life) monasticism. But his influence as a preceptor of Christian monasticism was destined to spread far, both east in Syria and in the Latin West. A Latin translation was an important source of the Rule of St Benedict, which set the tone of western monasticism for many centuries to come.

ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE ‘ARIAN CONTROVERSY’ IN THE FOURTH CENTURY

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-263
Author(s):  
David M. Gwynn
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Material Evidence ◽  
The Church ◽  
Archaeological Approach ◽  
Arian Controversy

The so-called ‘Arian Controversy’ that divided the Christian Church in the 4th c. has been the subject of considerable scholarly debate in recent decades. The literary sources from which the majority of our knowledge of the controversy derives are highly polemical and distorted, written almost exclusively from the perspective of those whose positions would come to be accepted as ‘orthodox’, and this in turn has directly influenced scholarly interpretations of the material evidence from this crucial period in the history of the Church. In this paper I wish to reconsider that material evidence and ask how an archaeological approach independent of the biases of our literary sources might broaden our understanding of the controversy and its impact upon the 4th c. Roman empire.

Byzantine Festal Homilies on The Virgin Mary

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-167
Author(s):  
Mary B. Cunningham
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
The Temple

Liturgical homilies in honour of the Virgin Mary, Theotokos (‘God-bearer’) were composed in Greek from about the early fifth century ce in the Eastern Christian Church. As Marian feasts were added to the Byzantine liturgical calendar between approximately the sixth and eighth centuries, preachers throughout the Eastern Roman empire (and beyond) added to this corpus, delivering homilies on subjects such as the Annunciation, the Nativity of the Virgin, her Entrance into the temple, and Dormition and Assumption into heaven. They were collected and transmitted mainly in liturgical collections, thus becoming readings for both liturgical and private devotional use. The surviving homilies, many of which remain untranslated into modern languages, contain a combination of Christological, narrative, and intercessory themes. As poetic, but also deeply theological, reflections on Mary, the Mother of God, these works represent important contributions to the wider Christian tradition.

The Bounds of Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lee
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Holy Roman Empire ◽  
Italian Nationalism ◽  
To Come

Scholars have long believed that ‘medieval’ universalism was supplanted by ‘Italian’ nationalism over the course of the fourteenth century. As this chapter demonstrates, however, nothing could be further from the truth. Although the humanists were often more concerned with the fate of Italy, or of individual cities, than of mankind as a whole, they did not waver in their belief that the Holy Roman Empire enjoyed universal dominion. Only at the very end of the Visconti Wars, when the Empire was seen to threaten the peace and liberty of the peninsula did ‘Italianness’ at last begin to come to the fore. Yet this is not to say that their universalism was unvarying. Depending on whether they chose to view it more as the successor of the ancient imperium Romanum or as an instrument of providence, they could paint it in idealistically ‘Roman’ colours, or endow it with a more ‘hegemonic’ tinge.

Greek and Roman Pottery in the African Kingdom of Meroe: Ways of Penetration and Influence

2021 ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Svetlana E. Malykh
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Ancient Greece ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Vase Painting ◽  
Mediterranean Origin ◽  
Hellenistic World ◽  
Sea Ports ◽  
Southern Neighbour ◽  
Main Consumer ◽  
Archaeological Excavations

The article analyzes the ceramic imports found on the territory of the Meroitic Kingdom – the southern neighbour of Egypt, which existed on the territory of modern Sudan since the second half of the 6th century B.C. until the middle of the 4th century A.D. The imported pottery revealed in the process of archaeological excavations of necropoleis, residential and temple complexes are mainly of Mediterranean origin and are associated with the Hellenistic world that later became a part of the Roman Empire. The finds are mostly rare and are represented by fragments of amphorae from various regions of Italy, Aegean region, Asia Minor, the Levant, northern Africa, as well as the European provinces of the Roman Empire – Baetika and Gaul. The main consumer of foreign goods, in small numbers reaching the middle and upper reaches of the Nile, was probably the Meroitic elite. It is logical to assume that the penetration of Mediterranean ceramics into Meroe was facilitated by the trade ties of its northern neighbour – Egypt:trade with the Mediterranean took place through Egyptian river and caravan routes; although hypothetically, one cannot exclude the possibility of goods entering Meroe bypassing Egypt, through the Red Sea ports. Despite a small share of imported products in the Meroitic Kingdom and regardless of the ways of their movement, they had a significant influence on the local pottery manufacturing; a reflection of this process was the appearance in the African kingdom of Hellenistic forms of vessels (kraters, askoses, lekythoi, clepsydras, etc.) and vase painting in the Greek style. As a result, a very special synthesis of artistic ideas emerged, embodied in Meroitic ceramics. Along with the local Nubian features, Egyptian and Hellenistic themes, techniques and ceramic forms are recognized there, which are characteristic for the pottery of Late and Ptolemaic Egypt, ancient Greece and Rome and allows us to see the Kingdom of Meroe as the extreme southern outpost of the Hellenistic world.

Caligula, the Church of Antioch and the Gentile Mission

2000 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-23
Author(s):  
Nicholas H Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Jewish Community ◽  
Christian Church ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Jewish Communities ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Church

AbstractThis study examines such data as are available regarding the impact of the crisis which confronted Jewish communities in many parts of the Roman Empire during the reign ofGaius Caligula (3 7-41 CE). Particular attention is given to Antioch on the Orontes, and to the Christian community which emerged there and was to become a major force both in the spread of Christianity and in the conversion of Gentiles to a hitherto Jewish movement. It is argued that the crisis was a major catalyst in changing the character of the Christian church in Antioch, so that it acquired an identity distinct from that of the Jewish community. The reappraisal of eschatological expectations occasioned by the crisis led to the conviction that Gentiles must be included in the Church before the parousia of Christ.

GALEN ON THE HYGIENE OF THE NEWBORN

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1973 ◽  
Vol 52 (6) ◽  
pp. 840-840
Author(s):  
T. E. C.
Keyword(s):  
Medical History ◽  
Newborn Infant ◽  
Pure Water ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Cold Air ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
Personal Physician ◽  
To Come

Claudius Galenus is one of the most remarkable figures in medical history. Born at Pergamos in Asia Minor, A.D. 131, he travelled extensively, studied medicine at Alexandria, and in 162 settled in Rome, where in 169 he became the personal physician to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius. In his text entitled Hygiene (De Sanitate Tuenda) he described the care of the newborn infant as follows: The newborn infant, in his entire constitution, should first be powdered moderately and wrapped in swaddling-clothes, in order that his skin may be made thicker and firmer than the parts within. For during pregnancy everything was equally soft, since nothing of a harder nature touched it from without, and no cold air came in contact with it, whereby the skin would be contracted and thickened, and would become tougher and denser than it was before and than the other parts of the body. But when the baby is born, it is necessarily going to come in contact with cold and heat and with many bodies harder than itself. Therefore it is appropriate that his natural covering should be best prepared by us for exposure. For infants who are in accordance with nature, a simple salt dusting-power is sufficient; for those whom it is necessary to sprinkle with dried leaves of myrrh, or something else of this sort, are obviously abnormal. But at present it is our purpose to discuss those of the best constitution. These, then, as has been said, having been wrapped in swaddling-clothes, should receive milk for nourishment, and baths of pure water; for they require a completely moist regime, since they have a moister constitution than those of other ages. . . .

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