REHABILITATING THE GREAT ESTATE: ARISTOCRATIC PROPERTY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN THE LATE ANTIQUE EAST

2004 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Sarris
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Economic Expansion ◽  
Early Byzantine

This article argues that recent emphasis on late antique economic expansion in the eastern Mediterranean and the prosperity of the peasantry of the East Roman empire has led historians to underestimate the economic importance of great estates owned by members of the imperial service aristocracy. This tendency has been exacerbated by the misleading testimony of early Byzantine saints’ lives, and an assumption that great estates were inherently autarchic and economically regressive. Rather, the evidence of the papyri and imperial legislation on the colonate would suggest that such great estates were highly commodified and monetised enterprises that contributed to economic growth.

Persecution and response in late paganism: the evidence of Damascius

1993 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Polymnia Athanassiadi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
The Other ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
The One ◽  
Psychological Dimensions ◽  
Immediate Reactions ◽  
Complex Subject

The theme of this paper is intolerance: its manifestation in late antiquity towards the pagans of the Eastern Mediterranean, and the immediate reactions and long-term attitudes that it provoked in them. The reasons why, in spite of copious evidence, the persecution of the traditional cults and of their adepts in the Roman empire has never been viewed as such are obvious: on the one hand no pagan church emerged out of the turmoil to canonise its dead and expound a theology of martyrdom, and on the other, whatever their conscious religious beliefs, late antique scholars in their overwhelming majority were formed in societies whose ethical foundations and logic are irreversibly Christian. Admittedly a few facets of this complex subject, such as the closing of the Athenian Academy and the demolition of temples or their conversion into churches, have occasionally been touched upon; but pagan persecution in itself, in all its physical, artistic, social, political, intellectual and psychological dimensions, has not as yet formed the object of scholarly research.

Westward Palaearctic range expansion of Papilio demoleus Linnaeus, 1758 (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) and its arrival at Mediterranean coastal regions of Turkey and Syria

2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (4) ◽  
pp. 257-272
Author(s):  
Onat Başbay ◽  
Mudar Salimeh ◽  
Eddie John
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
Invasive Pest ◽  
Pest Species ◽  
Coastal Regions ◽  
The North ◽  
North Eastern ◽  
The World ◽  
Invasive Pest Species ◽  
Papilio Demoleus

We review the continuing and extensive spread of Papilio demoleus in south-eastern Turkey and in regions of Turkey and Syria adjacent to the north-eastern Mediterranean. Since the authors documented the arrival of this attractive but potentially destructive papilionid species at coastal areas of Syria in 2019, regular monitoring has confirmed successful overwintering there, as well as in Turkey. As previously indicated, P. demoleus is widely recognized as an invasive pest species in Citrus-growing areas of the world and hence its arrival is of potential economic importance to a region in which citrus is widely grown.

A Process of Glocalisation? Roman Marble Imports and the Rise of Blocked-Out Capitals in Local Stone

2020 ◽  
pp. 33-45
Author(s):  
Matthias Grawehr
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Eastern Mediterranean ◽  
High Quality ◽  
White Marble ◽  
Aesthetic Preference ◽  
Local Responses ◽  
Global Trend ◽  
Short Period ◽  
New Type ◽  
Local Materials

In the Augustan Age, a new aesthetic preference was propagated in the Roman Empire – the surface of white marble was valued as it symbolised the strength and superiority of the ‘new age’. Soon, an immense trade in high quality marble over land and sea developed to meet the emergent demand. While the development and scale of this trade is well studied, the repercussions that the new aesthetic preference had on the local architectural traditions in areas where no marble was close at hand is not commonly considered. In this contribution, two developments are traced, taking the Corinthian capital as the leitmotif. First, in the short period between c. 40 and 10 BC, patrons would choose imitation of marble in plaster to meet up with the demands of the new standard and to demonstrate their adherence to the Empire. In the second line of development, a different path was taken – a conscious use of local materials which went hand in hand with the development of a new type of capital, the so-called ‘Nabataean blocked-out’ capital. This combination turned into a new vernacular tradition across large parts of the eastern Mediterranean. Both developments were local responses to a new ‘global’ trend and can therefore be viewed as a phenomenon of glocalisation in the Roman Period.

ABOUT THE PERIODIZATION AND CHRONOLOGY OF THE HISTORY OF TAURIC CHERSONESUS IN THE PRE-ROMAN AND THE LATE ANTIQUE PERIODS

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (72) (3) ◽  
pp. 127-148
Author(s):  
S. V. Ushakov
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Ancient History ◽  
History Of ◽  
Transitional Time ◽  
Early Byzantine

Hundreds of scientific works are devoted to the study of the Tauric Chersonesus, but the problem of chronology and periodization of its ancient history is not sufficiently developed in historiography. Analysis of scientific literature and a number of sources concerning this subject allows to define the chronological framework and to reveal 10 stages of the history of ancient Chersonesos (as a preliminary definition). The early stage, the Foundation and formation of the Polis, is defined from the middle/last third of the VI century (or the first half of the V century BC) to the end of the V century BC. The end of the late-Antique − early-Byzantine (transitional) time in Chersonesos can be attributed to the second half of the VI – first third of the VII centuries ad).

The Power of the Cross and Cruciform Devices in the Carolingian World

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Manuscript Culture ◽  
The Bible ◽  
The Cross ◽  
Early Byzantine

This chapter shows the unquestionable role of the sign of the cross as the primary sign of divine authority in Carolingian material and manuscript culture, a role partly achieved at the expense of the diminishing symbolic importance of the late antique christograms. It also analyses the appearance of new cruciform devices in the ninth century as well as the adaptation of the early Byzantine tradition of cruciform invocational monograms in Carolingian manuscript culture, as exemplified in the Bible of San Paolo fuori le mura and several other religious manuscripts. The final section examines some Carolingian carmina figurata and, most importantly, Hrabanus Maurus’ In honorem sanctae crucis, as a window into Carolingian graphicacy and the paramount importance of the sign of the cross as its ultimate organizing principle.

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.

Rye’s Rise and Rome’s Fall: Agriculture and Climate in Europe during Late Antiquity

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-169
Author(s):  
Paolo Squatriti
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Human Migration ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Climate Patterns ◽  
Cultivated Plant ◽  
Successes And Failures

Abstract This essay discusses the introduction and circulation of plants in the western Roman empire between roughly AD 300 and 800. It focuses on one cultivated plant, rye, and on a few ecologically different regions in Gaul and Italy, in order to probe the causes of botanical successes and failures. It suggests that late antique people increasingly took care of rye for economic, social, and cultural reasons. It reaches this conclusion through an analysis of other explanations for the success of rye, such as late antique climate patterns and late antique human migration. It suggests that these explanations are unsatisfactory because they do not account for all the varied instances of increased rye cultivation between the 4th and 8th c. in Europe.

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