BARDAISAN OF EDESSA AND MEMORIES OF CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION IN THE NEAR EAST

2019 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-105
Author(s):  
NATHANAEL ANDRADE
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Tensions ◽  
Social Memories

AbstractAccording to Eusebius, the famous Edessene thinker Bardaisan wrote his work On Fate in a time of persecution and addressed it to a figure named Antoninus (HE 4.30). It is commonly surmised that this ‘Antoninus’ was a Roman emperor who sanctioned Christian persecution in some way. But scholars have varied in their interpretations. Some have identified this figure as Caracalla, who visited Edessa in 216–217. But since Eusebius situated Bardaisan's activity in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, he is often deemed to be the Antoninus in question. As this article surmises, the testimony of Eusebius and other late antique authors, like Epiphanius, reflect certain memories both of the integration of Edessa into the Roman provincial system under Caracalla and the social tensions that it raised. But largely due to Eusebius' narrative, late antique authors conceived of Marcus Aurelius as the ‘Antoninus’ to whom Bardaisan reportedly addressed On Fate and other apologetic work, and they created social memories of Bardaisan as a would-be confessor in a context of persecution.

ARCHAEOLOGY AND LATE ANTIQUE SOCIAL STRUCTURES

2003 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-56
Author(s):  
Jean-Pierre Sodini
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
Social Structures ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Archaeological Remains ◽  
Middle Classes ◽  
Rural Environments ◽  
The Social

The archaeological remains of late antique sites can be interpreted in terms of what they can tell us about ancient social structures. This is more straightforward when examining the social structures of the upper classes, who possessed the attributes that allow them to be recognised as such. These attributes occur on a Mediterranean-wide basis and include lavishly decorated residences (in both urban and rural environments), monumental funerary structures within churches, splendid garments, precious table wares and implements, and the insignia of rank in the form of jewellery such as gold brooches, fibulae, or belt buckles. The middle class is also traceable in the cities (mostly in the form of craftsmen) and in the countryside, where small landowners and peasants could share similar lifestyles, marked in some regions (such as the Near East and Asia Minor) by conspicuous levels of wealth. However, the lives of these middle classes could change abruptly, casting them into poverty and consequently making them difficult to trace archaeologically. Nonetheless, judicious interpretation of the material remains in tandem with the evidence of documentary and epigraphic sources allows us to make some suggestions as to the social structures of Late Antiquity.

Late Antique Letter Collections

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Literary Genre ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Comprehensive Overview ◽  
Literary Genres ◽  
The Social ◽  
Letter Writer ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Letter Collection ◽  
Latin Letter

This volume provides the first comprehensive overview of the extant Greek and Latin letter collections of late antiquity (ca. 300-600 C.E.). Bringing together an international team of historians, classicists, and scholars of religion, it illustrates how letter collections advertised an image of the letter writer and introduces the social and textual histories of each collection. Nearly every chapter focuses on the letter collection of a different late ancient author—from the famous (or even infamous) to the obscure—and investigates its particular issues of content, arrangement, and publication context. On the whole, the volume reveals how late antique letter collections operated as a discrete literary genre with its own conventions, transmission processes, and self-presentational agendas while offering new approaches to interpret both larger letter collections and the individual letters contained within them. Each chapter contributes to a broad argument that scholars should read letter collections as they do representatives of other late antique literary genres, as single texts made up of individual components, with larger thematic and literary characteristics that are as important as those of their component parts.

Founding Gods, Inventing Nations

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
William F. McCants
Keyword(s):  
Near East ◽  
Cultural Orientation ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Islamic Culture ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
The Social ◽  
Islamic Empire ◽  
First Time ◽  
Vast Range

From the dawn of writing in Sumer to the sunset of the Islamic empire, this book traces four thousand years of speculation on the origins of civilization. Investigating a vast range of primary sources, some of which are translated here for the first time, and focusing on the dynamic influence of the Greek, Roman, and Arab conquests of the Near East, the book looks at the ways the conquerors and those they conquered reshaped their myths of civilization's origins in response to the social and political consequences of empire. The Greek and Roman conquests brought with them a learned culture that competed with that of native elites. The conquering Arabs, in contrast, had no learned culture, which led to three hundred years of Muslim competition over the cultural orientation of Islam, a contest reflected in the culture myths of that time. What we know today as Islamic culture is the product of this contest, whose protagonists drew heavily on the lore of non-Arab and pagan antiquity. The book argues that authors in all three periods did not write about civilization's origins solely out of pure antiquarian interest—they also sought to address the social and political tensions of the day. The strategies they employed and the postcolonial dilemmas they confronted provide invaluable context for understanding how authors today use myth and history to locate themselves in the confusing aftermath of empire.

Liturgical Poetry in the Late Antique Near East

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ophir Münz-Manor
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Biblical Poetry ◽  
Contemporary View ◽  
Cultural Dialogue ◽  
The One

The article presents a contemporary view of the study of piyyut, demonstrating that Jewish poetry of late antiquity (in Hebrew and Aramaic) was closely related to Christian liturgical poetry (both Syriac and Greek) and Samaritan liturgy. These relations were expressed primarily by common poetic and prosodic characteristics, derived on the one hand from ancient Semitic poetry (mainly biblical poetry), and on the other from innovations of the period. The significant connections of content between the different genres of poetry reveal the importance of comparative study. Thus the poetry composed in late antiquity provides additional evidence for the lively cultural dialogue that took place at that time.

Carthage

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara K. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Religious Life ◽  
Human Sacrifice ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
The Social ◽  
The City

This chapter discusses the rise, development, and Romanization of ancient Carthage in the early Christian period after the formation of the province of Africa Proconsularis in the Augustan period; the physical topography of the city of Carthage, including the Byrsa, the Antonine Baths, and the amphitheater; and it describes the tophet or outdoor sacrificial area and whether human sacrifice was practiced among the Carthaginians. It also covers the life, influence, and African roots of Septimius Severus, the Roman emperor during Perpetua’s life and death. Also discussed are the social, religious, and intellectual conditions for pagans in Roman Carthage, who their local gods were (Tanit, Saturn, Juno Caelestis, Baal Hammon), and the connections between civic and religious life.

Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Machado
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Traditional Elite ◽  
History Of ◽  
The City

This book analyses the physical, social, and cultural history of Rome in late antiquity. Between AD 270 and 535, the former capital of the Roman empire experienced a series of dramatic transformations in its size, appearance, political standing, and identity, as emperors moved to other cities and the Christian church slowly became its dominating institution. Urban Space and Aristocratic Power in Late Antique Rome provides a new picture of these developments, focusing on the extraordinary role played by members of the traditional elite, the senatorial aristocracy, in the redefinition of the city, its institutions, and spaces. During this period, Roman senators and their families became increasingly involved in the management of the city and its population, in building works, and in the performance of secular and religious ceremonies and rituals. As this study shows, for approximately three hundred years the houses of the Roman elite competed with imperial palaces and churches in shaping the political map and the social life of the city. Making use of modern theories of urban space, the book considers a vast array of archaeological, literary, and epigraphic documents to show how the former centre of the Mediterranean world was progressively redefined and controlled by its own elite.

scholarly journals The freshness of the fell streams: contextualizing the success of Lapin Kulta Beer in the 1960s

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180
Author(s):  
Janne Ikäheimo
Keyword(s):  
Marketing Research ◽  
External Factors ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Trade Association ◽  
Brewing Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
European Free Trade Association ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Tensions ◽  
The 1960S

Purpose As Finland became an associate member of the European Free Trade Association in early 1960s, the domestic brewing industry faced a new threat posed by imported beer. It was neutralized effectively with joint and individual efforts of the breweries. This paper aims to analyze the maneuvers taken by Tornion Olut Oy to brand its new product, Lapin Kulta, which ultimately became the most popular beer in Finland. In addition, the contemporary changes in the Finnish society with related social tensions are shown to have contributed to its success significantly. Design/methodology/approach Archival research focusing on primary sources complemented with biographies, historical newspaper and magazine articles as well contemporary research papers with an aim to reconstruct and better understand the historical and social context of the events. Findings The success of the Lapin Kulta beer in 1960s was not only based on the effective marketing, although a well-thought name, the successful participation in international beer “competitions” enhancing the brand and both improved distribution and logistics certainly contributed to it. Instead the success is shown to have depended also on seemingly odd collection of external factors. However, when put together, the success is shown to have been based on brand's capability to address the social tensions present in Finland during 1960s. Originality/value The importance of the context reconstruction in historical marketing research is underlined as developments traditionally attributed solely to product qualities and marketing may equally stem from a multitude of external factors. As a case study, the research represents a fresh take on the subject through a variety of previously neglected sources.

scholarly journals Fluid Boundaries: Christian Sacred Space and Islamic Relics in an Early Ḥadīth

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Adam C. Bursi
Keyword(s):  
Sacred Space ◽  
Near East ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Texts ◽  
Sacred Spaces ◽  
Early Islamic ◽  
Ritual Practices

Abstract This article examines a ḥadīth text that illustrates the complicated interactions between Christian and Islamic sacred spaces in the early period of Islamic rule in the Near East. In this narrative, the Prophet Muḥammad gives a group of Arabs instructions for how to convert a church into a mosque, telling them to use his ablution water for cleansing and repurposing the Christian space for Muslim worship. Contextualizing this narrative in terms of early Muslim-Christian relations, as well as late antique Christian religious texts and practices, my analysis compares this story with Christian traditions regarding the collection and usage of contact relics from holy persons and places. I argue that this story offers an example of early Islamic texts’ engagement with, and adaptation of, Christian literary themes and ritual practices in order to validate early Islamic religious claims.

scholarly journals Readings Behind the Early Christian Queer Experiences

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-124
Author(s):  
Larisa Orlov Vilimonović
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Early Christianity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Gender Fluidity ◽  
The Social ◽  
Gender Categories ◽  
Body Modifications

This paper deals with the ideas of queer experiences in the Early Christian movement, seen through early Christian epistemologies of gender and patristic thought focused on sex differences. The lives and passions of transgender nuns are used in discussing various aspects of gender fluidity in early Christianity. Theoretically, the paper rests on the idea of the performativity of gender, that is, on the ways gender was constructed and how body modifications enabled renegotiation of gender categories. It also focuses on the social context of queer experiences in the late antique period with regard to Roman social norms.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document