Augusta (c. AD 350–80)

2021 ◽  
pp. 362-376
Author(s):  
Dominic Perring
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Institutional Arrangements ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Uncertain Evidence ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
Public Architecture

London’s later Roman defences were enhanced by a series of towers, or bastions, likely to have been built in association with military campaigns in Britain in the 360s. The revived walled city housed important institutions of Roman government, several of which were later described in the Notitia Dignitatum, and was renamed Augusta. This chapter reviews the archaeological evidence for the fourth century city set within its historical context. It also summarizes the uncertain evidence of London’s first Christian communities, and considers the extent to which new institutional arrangements gave rise to new forms of public architecture.

Defending Iran

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gawdat Bahgat ◽  
Anoushiravan Ehteshami
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cyber Warfare ◽  
Defense Strategy ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
Irregular Forces ◽  
Arabic And English ◽  
War Experience

Since the 1979 revolution, the ruling establishment of Iran has developed and articulated a defense strategy reflective of the country's Iran-Iraq war experience and its international isolation. Its asymmetrical warfare doctrine, use of irregular forces in military campaigns, deployment of ballistic missiles, use of fast naval vessels to harass and confuse adversaries, and finally development of a sophisticated cyber warfare capability, are all features of this unique defense strategy. Based on a wide range of primary sources in Persian, Arabic and English, Gawdat Bahgat and Anoushiravan Ehteshami offer a detailed and authoritative analysis of Iran's defense strategy. Additionally, this book provides a comparative analysis of the Islamic Republic's capabilities in relation to Israel and Saudi Arabia, its main regional adversaries. Framing Tehran's threat perceptions following the revolution within a wider historical context, this book will facilitate further analytical reflections on the country's changing role in the region, and its relations further afield, with the United States, Europe, Russia and China.

Colleagues of Apostles, Presbyters, and Bishops

2021 ◽  
pp. 26-58
Author(s):  
Ilaria L.E. Ramelli
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Pastoral Epistles ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Church

This chapter points out and examines evidence for the role of female ‘colleagues’ or ‘partners’ (syzygoi) in the early churches. It focuses initially on the meaning(s) of syzygos, literally ‘yokefellow’, and the patristic debate about it. The chapter takes into consideration iconographic and archaeological evidence, and literary material, from Paul to patristic writings, including the Acts of Philip and its portrait of the apostolic couple of Philip and Mariamme. The chapter also points to the suggestion of a pairing in the Acts of Paul and Thecla, and includes assessment of Clement, Origen, Theodoret, and Gregory Nazianzen. Nazianzen testifies to the existence of a woman presbyter, colleague of a male presbyter and bishop, and highly respected in Cappadocia in the late fourth century, Theosebia, who was most likely the sister of Gregory Nyssen. It also notes that the women syzygoi need to be seen in the context of other women office holders in the Church, and provides a detailed overview of the key evidence, ending with Origen, who could even use passages of the Pastoral Epistles as a means of acknowledging them.

3. Material clues

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-33
Author(s):  
Barbara Graziosi
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Original Audience ◽  
Greek World

‘Material clues’ considers the archaeological evidence for when the Iliad and Odyssey were composed, including Heinrich Schliemann’s quest to find Troy on the basis of clues in the texts. The Iliad and the Odyssey refer to material circumstances not found before the later eighth or early seventh century BCE. They describe a distant, mythical past, but are set in a real and recognisable landscape. No interpretation leads to a single original audience, historical context, or specific political agenda, but earliest quotations from, and references to, Homer in other poets’ work prove that by the late sixth century BCE, the poems were well known throughout the Greek world.

carpentry, Roman

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Adam
Keyword(s):  
Natural History ◽  
Roman Architecture ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Load Bearing ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Visual Evidence ◽  
Hydraulic Machines ◽  
Different Types ◽  
Military Campaigns ◽  
Complex Construction

The skilled work of the Roman carpenter (lignarius or tignarius faber) was essential to the construction of domestic and public buildings, creation of machines and structures for military purposes, and overcoming natural features. Composed in the 1st century bce, Vitruvius’s ten-book illustrated commentary on Roman architecture and architectural techniques, De architectura, comprises the primary textual evidence for the architectural techniques employed by Roman carpenters and engineers. In his various books, Vitruvius discusses the characteristics of different types of wood (supplemented by descriptions in Pliny’s Natural History); machines used on work sites, such as hoists and hydraulic machines; and covering frameworks for houses and the larger spans of basilicas and other massive public structures. For the latter, Roman carpenters devised the triangulated truss, a complex construction corroborated by surviving visual evidence. Archaeological evidence fills many gaps in Vitruvius’s coverage of practical carpentry methods and provides the only extant evidence for woodcutting and finishing implements, such as felling axes and handsaws. Houses at Pompeii and Herculaneum preserve traces of key carpentry techniques: timber framing, stairways, and load-bearing ceiling frameworks. The carpenter’s expertise also extended to shipbuilding and construction of strategic wooden bridges, most notably those erected during military campaigns under Caesar and later Trajan.

Martyria

2019 ◽  
pp. 88-104
Author(s):  
David L. Eastman
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Archaeological Record ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Textual Evidence ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Christian Practices

Martyria served as spatial focal points for numerous practices associated with the early Christian cult of the saints. However, the archaeological study of these martyr shrines is limited by the lack of evidence prior to the fourth century, forcing scholars in many cases to rely on textual evidence for their reconstructions of spaces. This chapter studies the earliest evidence for martyr shrines in Smyrna and Rome, which is textual, in order to establish primitive Christian practices surrounding martyria. It then examines the archaeological evidence from martyria in Rome and Philippi of the fourth century or later. These sites demonstrate the continuing expansion of martyria as cultic centers. The chapter concludes with a caveat concerning the popularity of small, even private, shrines that are invisible to the archaeological record.

The Galilee and Jesus in Recent Research

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-222
Author(s):  
Mark Rapinchuk
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Focus Attention ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
The Past

In the continuing study of the life and historical context of Jesus, many contemporary scholars have begun to focus attention on the region known as the Galilee. Since the Galilee was the location of much of Jesus' life and ministry, accurate information about this region is essential for an informed understanding of Jesus. The use of recent archaeological evidence along with the application of various sociological and economic models has pro duced differing reconstructions of the Galilee and, as a result, a variety of viewpoints regarding the teaching and intentions of Jesus. This essay, which is confined to the past two decades of research, presents an overview of the work of some of the leading scholars in this contemporary effort.

scholarly journals Sleep of the Soul and Resurrection of the Body: Aphrahat’s Anthropology in Context

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 433-466
Author(s):  
J. Edward Walters
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Body ◽  
Christian Identity ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
Mediterranean World ◽  
Body And Soul

Abstract The fourth-century Syriac corpus known as the Demonstrations, attributed to Aphrahat, the Persian Sage, provides a unique window into the early development of Christianity among Syriac-speaking communities. Occasionally these writings attest to beliefs and practices that were not common among other contemporaneous Christian communities, such as Aphrahat’s apparent belief in the “sleep of the soul” and the implications of that belief for his concept of the soul-body relationship and what happens to the soul and body at the resurrection. Aphrahat addresses this topic in the context of a polemical argument against an unnamed opponent, which provides the occasion to consider whom these arguments might be addressed against. The present article seeks to understand Aphrahat’s views on the body and soul within the broad religious milieu of the eastern Mediterranean world in Late Antiquity. The article concludes with an argument for reading and understanding the Demonstrations as a witness to the contested development of Christian identity in the Syriac-speaking world.

Constantine’s Arch and His Military Image at Rome

2020 ◽  
pp. 123-168
Author(s):  
Michael Koortbojian
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
At Home

This chapter analyzes the Arch of Constantine in Rome. First, it focuses on the roles of the SPQR and the emperor in the arch's design. In particular, the chapter deals with Constantine's role, or his conception of his role in the urbs, in the arch's imagery. Second, this chapter examines the meaning of the claim triumphis insignem—that is, that an arch, still customarily associated with triumph by the fourth century, was in this instance bestowed for a new purpose with a unique rationale, in a particular historical context, despite a lack of any persuasive evidence that an official triumph was actually celebrated. And finally, this chapter elucidates the arch's evocation of the emperor's role, both at home and abroad, as both civilis princeps and imperator exercitus.

Prelude

2018 ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Raphael A. Cadenhead
Keyword(s):  
Historical Context ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Political Context ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
The Church

In order to counter some of the anachronisms in recent scholarship on Gregory (as outlined in the introduction), the prelude attends to Gregory’s historical context by situating his thinking within the late antique milieu. It begins with an overview of the ecclesio-political context in the aftermath of Constantine’s conversion and considers how the incorporation of the church into imperial life may have inflected Gregory’s ascetic theory. The prelude also explores the burgeoning monastic movement in the late fourth century as well as the ascetical prestige of Gregory’s family.

Mainake: the Legend and the New Archaeological Evidence

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Eugenia Aubet
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Other ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Source Of Information

This chapter re-examines the location of the legendary city of Mainake. The main source of information about Mainake is the fourth-century poem Ora Maritima and the older anonymous text concerning a periplous. These sources contradict the findings of archaeological studies. This chapter suggests that if it is to be accepted that Mainake was ancient Malaka, and geo-archaeological evidence taken into consideration, then there would be two stages in the socio-political and urban formation of one and the same city. The earliest or colonial stage would be situated on the islet of Villar, while the other on the mainland, in the cover of Malaga.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document