Eunuchs in Politics in the Later Roman Empire

1963 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 62-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keith Hopkins
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Real Power ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Social ◽  
Court Life ◽  
Eastern Empire ◽  
Lives Of The Saints ◽  
The Church

Why Eunuchs? Primarily because they were important. No-one who has waded through the church histories of the fourth and fifth centuries or the numerous later Byzantine chronicles, or those lives of the saints which touch upon court life, can have failed to be struck by die frequent imputation that, in the Eastern Empire especially, the real power lay in the hands not of the emperor nor of his aristocrats, but of his chief eunuch; or alternatively that the corps of eunuchs as a group wielded considerable if not predominant power at court. Yet the eunuchs were barbarians by birth and slaves into the bargain. The purpose of this paper is to explain why eunuchs held so much power in the imperial and aristocratic society of Eastern Rome, to put this power in the context of the socio-political developments of the later Empire, and to analyse some of the social functions of this power.Yet here, right at the beginning, the objection might be raised that we are faced with nothing but a problem in historiography. Eunuchs might have been to Byzantine historians nothing more than women and gods were to Herodotus, convenient personal pegs to hang historical causes on.

The pagan holy man in late antique society

1982 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
pp. 33-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garth Fowden
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Religious Tradition ◽  
Francis Bacon ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Indefinite Future ◽  
Holy Man ◽  
The Church

A Love and desire, to sequester a Mans Selfe, for a Higher Conversation … is found, to have been falsely and fainedly, in some of the Heathen; As Epimenides the Candian, Numa the Roman, Empedocles the Sicilian, and Apollonius of Tyana; And truly and really, in divers of the Ancient Hermits, and Holy Fathers of the Church.F. Bacon, Of friendshipThe holy men of Greco-Roman paganism will never inspire either the reverence or the fascinated horror that the ascetics and monks of early Christianity have commanded ever since they first impinged on the common mind in the time of Antony and Athanasios. Writing for a Christian audience, Francis Bacon could dismiss the semi-mythical Epimenides and Numa, and notorious exhibitionists like Empedokles and Apollonios, as self-evident imposters; while in our own less devout times the abundance of the hagiographical literature ensures that the Christian saint will preoccupy scholars for the indefinite future, if only as the unwitting patron of a mass of historical and sociological data that is only just beginning to be analysed. Yet this is poor excuse for neglecting the pagan holy man, who came in the later Roman empire to play a conspicuous part in his own religious tradition, and also affords instructive points of comparison with his Christian competitors. This paper offers a first orientation towards such wider perspectives, by investigating the social and historical consequences entailed by the distinctive pagan concept of personal holiness. It will be suggested that a tendency to associate holiness with philosophical learning (Section I) determined the essentially urban (II) and privileged (III) background of the pagan holy man, and also encouraged his gradual drift to the periphery of society (IV).

The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity

1971 ◽  
Vol 61 ◽  
pp. 80-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Brown
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
Patient Work ◽  
Eastern Empire ◽  
And Function ◽  
Holy Man ◽  
Lives Of The Saints ◽  
Late Roman

To study the position of the holy man in Late Roman society is to risk telling in one's own words a story that has often been excellently told before. In vivid essays, Norman Baynes has brought the lives of the saints to the attention of the social and religious historian of Late Antiquity. The patient work of the Bollandists has increased and clarified a substantial dossier of authentic narratives. These lives have provided the social historian with most of what he knows of the life of the average man in the Eastern Empire. They illuminate the variety and interaction of the local cultures of the Near East. The holy men themselves have been carefully studied, both as figures in the great Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries, and as the arbiters of the distinctive traditions of Byzantine piety and ascetic theology.The intention of this paper is to follow well known paths of scholarship on all these topics, while asking two basic questions: why did the holy man come to play such an important rôle in the society, of the fifth and sixth centuries ? What light do his activities throw on the values and functioning of a society that was prepared to concede him such importance? It is as well to ask such elementary questions. For there is a danger that the holy man may be taken for granted as part of the Byzantine scene. Most explanations of his position are deceptively easy.

Le rôle des Églises instituées de Hongrie dans un contexte de changement

1981 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miklós Tomka
Keyword(s):  
Social Forces ◽  
Socialist Society ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

The last thirty years have shown some instances of change in the social functions held by the church. It is the case in Hungary where the churches (state and popular churches) saw their hege monic position confronted by marxism and political-social forces endeavouring to build socialist society.

Suchasna ukrayinsʹka sotsiolinhvistyka: rozvytok teoriyi i prykladni aspekty doslidzhenʹ u pratsyakh predstavnykiv Lʹvivsʹkoho sotsiolinhvistychnoho oseredku

2020 ◽  
pp. 149-171
Author(s):  
Irena Mytnik ◽  
Mar’yana Roslyts’ka
Keyword(s):  
Family Communication ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Linguistic Landscape ◽  
Language Management ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Language Discrimination ◽  
Social Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

The article is devoted to some aspects of the analysis of the interaction of language and society in the modern paradigm. Its results relate to the formation of the content of such categories as “Ukrainian sociolinguistic tradition”, “periods of the development of knowledge about the social nature of language”, “sociological direction in Ukrainian linguistics”, “codification”, “codification on a folk basis”, “asymmetric communication situation”, “social - individual nature of family communication”, “social nature of a name”, “social functions of the Ukrainian language in the church”, “conversion to Orthodoxy of Greek Catholics”, “Ukrainization in the 20-30s of the twentieth century”. Researchers also analyze modern aspects of language-nation interaction, language-national security, the concept of “institutional language management”, “language discrimination”, “hate speech as a form of discursive discrimination”, “linguistic landscape”, informal names in the socio-group “ students”, communication in the socio-group “political elite”, etc. In general, the results obtained in the works of representatives of Lviv sociolinguistic circle contribute to the development of the terminological system and the categorical base of historical, theoretical, applied and cognitive sociolinguistics.

Influence of mass media on the institute of The Church

Servis plus ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-92
Author(s):  
Людмила Ефимова ◽  
Lyudmila Efimova ◽  
Сергей Котов ◽  
Sergey Kokotov
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Sociology Of Religion ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Russian Society ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Church ◽  
Opening Up

Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) takes an active part in cultural and social life of Russian society. This is possible thanks to renew relationship between the state and the Church and significant changes in the country. The sociology of religion pays great attention to the study of the social functions performed by religion in the population. Every religion defines the behavior of the adherents in society. It’s usually achieved by a set of moral precepts, prohibitions and norms that are implemented at social and individual levels of behavior and confession. The Church generates content of interest to the media, takes the initiative in developing contacts with the journalistic community, opening up as much as possible to different categories of population on any issue, but society hasn’t been ready for self-perception in such a positive activity yet.

scholarly journals Fungsi Gereja Sebagai Entrepreneurship Sosial dalam Masyarakat Majemuk

Kurios ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
Erman Sepniagus Saragih
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Community Context ◽  
Economic Empowerment ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Church

There is a tendency that the church has not been maximal in carrying out its social functions when viewed from the issue of a pluralistic community context. The church must actively transform the deacon, specifically alleviating the social problems surrounded. This study aimed to describe the model of transformation deaconal mission into the form of Christian entrepreneurs. By using literature review and descriptive methods, the conclusions obtained is: The church must be able to foster a sense of solidarity starting from inside the church to outside through the economic empowerment of her people.AbstrakAda kecenderungan bahwa gereja belum maksimal dalam menjalankan fungsi sosialnya ketika ditinjau dari persoalan konteks masyarakat majemuk. Gereja harus giat bertransformasi diakonia, secara khusus pengentasan masalah sosial yang berada disekitarnya. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan model transformasi misiologis diakonial dalam bentuk entrepreneur kristiani. Dengan menggunakan kajian literatur dan metode deskriptif, maka kesimpulan yang diperoleh adalah: Gereja harus dapat menumbuhkan rasa solidaritas dimulai dari jemaat hingga ke luar gereja melalui pemberdayaan ekonomi uma

scholarly journals REFLECTION OF DEMOCRATIC VALUE AND ATTITUDE OF STATESMAN IN RAJA NEGERI JAMBI AND MENTIKO BETUAH’S FOLKLORE FUNCTION AND STATEMAN

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 75
Author(s):  
Dian Palupi ◽  
Reza Amarta Prayoga
Keyword(s):  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Function ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Resilience ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Social ◽  
Corpus Data ◽  
Democratic Learning

<p>Folklore is a construction of local wisdom that grows and develops into the basis of the values of social functions. The social function of the political meaning in folklore can be used as the country’s resilience reflection, like democratic learning and strengthening the figure of the statesman. The social reality that was constructed in folklore can be a gap between the real and imaginary condition in the text. This study dug out the interrelatedness between the reflection of folklore as the forming of the resilience nation’s character and characteristic of Indonesian’s diversity. This study uses a qualitative description method and literature sociology and politic approach. The corpus data are “<em>Mentiko Betuah</em>” (Aceh) and “<em>Raja Negeri Jambi</em>” (Jambi) story. The results of the study indicated that the social reflection of both (stories) can be the basis of the building social resilience to counter radicalism, to grows up tolerances, mutual solidarity, democracy, and the integrity of anti-kleptocratic statesman. The method of the study is a qualitative description. The data of the study are sentences and written expressions in “<em>Mentiko Betuah</em>” (Aceh) and “<em>Raja Negeri Jambi</em>”’s story (Jambi). The results of the study indicated that tolerance and plural values were depicted in “<em>Raja Negeri Jambi</em>” and “<em>Mentiko Betuah</em>” were needed to be maintained. The threat of disintegration of the nation through the inculcation of narrow and shallow ideologies have poisoned people’s perspective, especially millennial society.</p>

Speaker-Oriented Attitude Datives in Social Context

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Youssef A. Haddad
Keyword(s):  
Social Context ◽  
Shared Values ◽  
Social Functions ◽  
Rapport Management ◽  
The Social ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Levantine Arabic ◽  
Values And Beliefs ◽  
Social Acts

This chapter examines the social functions of speaker-oriented attitude datives in Levantine Arabic. It analyzes these datives as perspectivizers used by a speaker to instruct her hearer to view her as a form of authority in relation to him, to the content of her utterance, and to the activity they are both involved in. The nature of this authority depends on the sociocultural, situational, and co-textual context, including the speaker’s and hearer’s shared values and beliefs, their respective identities, and the social acts employed in interaction. The chapter analyzes specific instances of speaker-oriented attitude datives as used in different types of social acts (e.g., commands, complaints) and in different types of settings (e.g., family talk, gossip). It also examines how these datives interact with facework, politeness, and rapport management.

Daily Routine, Food and Faith. To Yu.F. Samarin’s Thesis on “Formalism” of the Church Life in the Pre-Petrine Period

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 268-279
Author(s):  
Abbot Vitaly Utkin
Keyword(s):  
Daily Routine ◽  
Eating Patterns ◽  
Political Aspect ◽  
Old Believers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The Church

With reference to Yu. F. Samarin’s thesis on “Formalism” of the Church Life in the Pre-Petrine Period, the article examines the issue of the role of fasts, eating patterns and daily routine in general among most radical groups of Old Believers. The author of the article draws the conclusion that such conceptions were rooted in the Pre-Nikon Russian religious (monkish) traditions. The author pays special attention to the social and political aspect of the connection between food and payer for the Tsar in the context of the “spiritual Antichrist” teaching.

The Samarin Family and the Parish Question in the Russian Empire. 1860s–1910s

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 ◽  
pp. 235-246
Author(s):  
Alexey L. Beglov
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Russian Empire ◽  
Public Discussion ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Church Life ◽  
The Russian Empire ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
The Church ◽  
Do So

The article examines the contribution of the representatives of the Samarin family to the development of the Parish issue in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The issue of expanding the rights of the laity in the sphere of parish self-government was one of the most debated problems of Church life in that period. The public discussion was initiated by D.F. Samarin (1827-1901). He formulated the “social concept” of the parish and parish reform, based on Slavophile views on society and the Church. In the beginning of the twentieth century his eldest son F.D. Samarin who was a member of the Special Council on the development the Orthodox parish project in 1907, and as such developed the Slavophile concept of the parish. In 1915, A.D. Samarin, who took up the position of the Chief Procurator of the Most Holy Synod, tried to make his contribution to the cause of the parish reforms, but he failed to do so due to his resignation.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document