scholarly journals A Christian Emperor between Pagan Gods

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-44
Author(s):  
Ketty Iannantuono
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Political Dissent ◽  
The Media ◽  
New Form ◽  
New Perspective ◽  
Ancient Monuments ◽  
High Degree

Abstract In recent years, images of rage against monuments have filled the media. Unmistakably expressing a high degree of tension in societies, these forms of hostility against heritage have been diversely interpreted, prompting passionate expressions of support as well as fierce criticism. Contesting public memorials, however, is not a new form of socio-political dissent. During Late Antiquity, for example, a new sensibility towards ancient monuments emerged in the vast territories that were once part of the Roman Empire. In this article, the late-antique fate of the so-called ‘temple of Hadrian’ at Ephesus is analysed as a case-study. The aim is to gain a better understanding of the approaches adopted to accommodate traditional monumental landscapes in the changed late-antique socio-political context. This analysis offers a new perspective on ancient and contemporary phenomena of contestations of monuments.

The Contribution of Regional Survey to the Late Antiquity Debate: Greece in its Mediterranean Context

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. BINTLIFF
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
State Control ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Regional Survey ◽  
Central Greece ◽  
Strong State ◽  
The Mediterranean

The fall of the Roman Empire remains a mystery. Archaeological and historical concerns today are less metaphysical and more intellectually challenging at the level of reconstructing the processes at work before, during and long after the official sack of Rome, and are as much focused on the succeeding transition to the medieval world as on the build-up to imperial decay and collapse. This chapter presents a grassroots case-study examination of the transformation of society in town and country in central Greece, founded on a regional survey project that has been running for 25 years. From the arrival of Roman control, through Late Antiquity and into the resurgence of strong state control emanating out of Byzantium in the eighth-nineth centuries AD, this chapter tries to set the patterns, provisional interpretations and questions which have arisen from the sequence in this region into wider debates around the Mediterranean concerning the contribution of regional archaeological surveys to the late antique-early medieval transition.

The Early Modern Invention of Late Antique Rome: How Historiography Helped Create the Crypt of the Popes

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 91-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicola Denzey Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Textual Material ◽  
Apostolic Succession ◽  
Important Evidence ◽  
Late Roman

Abstract:At some point in late antiquity, most scholars believe, Christians reversed the powerful valence of death pollution and considered corpses and bones to be sacred. The rise of the ‘Cult of the Saints’ or ‘cult of relics’ is widely accepted as a curious social phenomenon that characterized late antiquity. This paper argues that although present elsewhere in the late Roman Empire, no such ‘corporeal turn’ happened in Rome. The prevailing assumption that it did – fostered by the apologetic concerns of early modern Catholic historiography – has led us to gloss over important evidence to the contrary, to read our own assumptions into our extant textual, material, and archaeological sources. As a ‘case study’, this paper considers the so-called ‘Crypt of the Popes’ in the catacombs of Callixtus, which is universally presented unproblematically as an authentic burial chamber attesting to an age of persecution and the strength of Catholic apostolic succession. This paper argues, by contrast, that the chamber is not what it seems; it is, rather, a case of early modern historiographical artifice masquerading as late antique Roman Christianity.

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.

Time in Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 580-617
Author(s):  
David J. DeVore
Keyword(s):  
Intellectual History ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Historical Narrative ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
New Era ◽  
Ecclesiastical History ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
Sharp Breaks

Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History, a seminal late-antique historical narrative, features three periodizations of the church’s past. First, a soteriological periodization divides God’s relationship with humanity at Christ’s Incarnation, an event that Eusebius marks in Book 1 with detailed commentary on the gospels rather than narrative. Second, an ecclesiastical periodization divides pristine, heroic apostolic times from post-apostolic times. The divide between apostolic times and the post-apostolic periods is illustrated through a comparison of History 2.13–17, about Simon Magus, Peter, and Mark, and 6.12, on Serapion of Antioch. And third, an epistemological periodization distinguished earlier times from Eusebius’s lifetime, the latter marked by frequent references to “our time.” Eusebius changed numerous narrative features with his changes of period, including alternating between commentary, diachronic, and synchronic format for different time periods; changing protagonists’ fallibility, individuality, composition of texts, and citation of scripture; and providing notices of episcopal successions and quotation of sources. Moreover, Eusebius’s History changed periods not with the sharp breaks of many modern histories but with gradual transitions. He also underscored key continuities, including God’s intervention in human events and alternation between persecuting and protecting rulers—a continuity within which, contrary to scholarly assumptions, the History never inaugurates a new era with the emergence of Constantine. The case study of Eusebius’s periodization suggests an important limitation of the analytic usefulness of periodizations such as “Late Antiquity” for organizing intellectual history.

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.

Christianisation and Local Names in Asia Minor: Fall and Rise in Late Antiquity

2019 ◽  
pp. 258-276
Author(s):  
Sylvain Destephen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
Asia Minor ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Personal Names ◽  
The Rich

This article analyses processes in detail based on the evidence now provided by the relevant volumes of Prosopographie chr�tienne du Bas-Empire, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Lexicon of Greek Personal Names and the rich cemetery at Korykos. It is argued that the onomastic patrimony of late antique Asia Minor underwent a twofold process of transformation and simplification but did not vanish. The complete hegemony that the Romans achieved in Asia Minor in the 1st century BC induced a Latinisation of the region that was only superficial. This development had two contrasting effects. Firstly, Hellenistic and Roman influences reduced ethnic and cultural diversity in Asia Minor to the point where indigenous languages were more or less extinct when Christianity arose. Secondly, Hellenisation and Romanisation allowed a general enrichment of the onomastic patrimony in Asia Minor. The study of names therefore provides a balanced response since Asia Minor possesses a rich, varied onomastic patrimony. It also relates to how the conversion of the Roman Empire in general, and of Asia Minor in particular, brought about an overall transformation of the names people bore, even though modifications occurred more rapidly within ecclesiastical and monastic milieus than among ordinary laymen.

scholarly journals Late Antiquity and World History

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Humphries
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Final Section ◽  
World History ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Global Perspective ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Historical Progress ◽  
Local Perspectives ◽  
Evolutionary Interpretation

The flourishing of late-antique studies in the last half-century has coincided with the rise of “world history” as an area of academic research. To an extent, some overlap has occurred, particularly with Sasanian Persia being considered alongside the late Roman Empire as constituting an essential component in what we think of in terms of the “shape” of late antiquity. Yet it is still the case that many approaches to late antiquity are bound up with conventional western narratives of historical progress, as defined in Jack Goody's The Theft of History (2006). Indeed, the debate about whether late antiquity was an age of dynamic transformation (as argued by Peter Brown and his disciples) or one of catastrophic disruption (as asserted, most recently, by Bryan Ward-Perkins) can be regarded as representing two different faces of an essentially evolutionary interpretation of western historical development. This article argues, however, that we can challenge such conventional narrative frameworks by taking a world historical perspective on late antiquity. It shows, first, that our interpretation of late antiquity depends on sources that themselves are representative of myriad local perspectives. Secondly, it argues that since Gibbon's time these sources have been made to serve an essentially western construct of and debate about history. The final section considers how taking a more global perspective allows us to challenge conventional approaches to and narratives of late antiquity.

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity, 350-450

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maijastina Kahlos
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Conflicts Of Interest ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Religious Dissent ◽  
Roman Society ◽  
History Of ◽  
Late Roman

Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity reconsiders the religious history of the late Roman Empire, focusing on the shifting position of dissenting religious groups. The groups under consideration are non-Christians (‘pagans’) and deviant Christians (‘heretics’). The period from the mid-fourth century until the mid-fifth century CE witnessed a significant transformation of late Roman society and a gradual shift from the world of polytheistic religions into the Christian Empire. This book demonstrates that the narrative is much more nuanced than the simple Christian triumph over the classical world. It looks at everyday life, economic aspects, day-to-day practices, and conflicts of interest in the relations of religious groups. The book addresses two aspects: rhetoric and realities, and consequently delves into the interplay between the manifest ideologies and daily life found in late antique sources. We perceive constant flux between moderation and coercion that marked the relations of religious groups, both majorities and minorities, as well as the imperial government and religious communities. Religious Dissent in Late Antiquity is a detailed analysis of selected themes and a close reading of selected texts, tracing key elements and developments in the treatment of dissident religious groups. The book focuses on specific themes, such as the limits of imperial legislation and ecclesiastical control, the end of sacrifices, and the label of magic. It also examines the ways in which dissident religious groups were construed as religious outsiders in late Roman society.

The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross Shepard Kraemer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Large Population ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Social Boundaries ◽  
Legal Rights ◽  
Mediterranean Population ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
The Mediterranean

The alliance of the Roman Empire with the emerging orthodox Christian church in the early fourth century had profound consequences for the large population of Greek- (and Latin-)speaking Jews living across the Mediterranean diaspora. No known writings survive from diaspora Jews. Their experiences must be gleaned from unreliable accounts of Christian bishops and historiographers, surviving laws, and limited material evidence—synagogue sites, inscriptions, a few papyrus documents. Long neglected by historians, the diaspora population, together with its distinctive cultural forms, appears in decline by the early seventh century. This book explores why. In part, diaspora Jews suffered from disasters that affected the whole late antique Mediterranean population—continuing warfare, earthquakes, and plague. But, like all other non-orthodox Christians, Jews were subject to extensive pressures to become orthodox Christian, which increased over time. Late Roman laws, sometimes drafted by Christian lobbyists, imposed legal disabilities on Jews that were relieved if they became Christians. Fueled by malicious sermons of Christian bishops, Christian mobs attacked synagogues and sometimes Jews themselves. Significantly, Jews retained many of their earlier legal rights while other non-orthodox Christians lost theirs. In response, some Jews became Christians, voluntarily or under duress. Some probably emigrated to escape orthodox Christian pressures. Some leveraged political and social networks to their advantage. Some violently resisted their Christian antagonists. Jews may occasionally have entertained the possibility of divine messianic intervention or embraced forms of Jewish practice that constructed tighter social boundaries around them—an increased use of Hebrew, and heightened interest, perhaps, in rabbinic practices.

scholarly journals Addressing Conflict in the Fifth Century: Rome and the Wider Church

Scrinium ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-114
Author(s):  
Bronwen Neil
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Social Conflict ◽  
Social Resources ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Social Conflict Theory

Abstract In seeking to trace the escalation, avoidance or resolution of conflicts, contemporary social conflict theorists look for incompatible goals, differentials in power, access to social resources, the exercise of control, the expression of dissent, and the strategies employed in responding to disagreements. It is argued here that these concepts are just as applicable to the analysis of historical doctrinal conflicts in Late Antiquity as they are to understanding modern conflicts. In the following, I apply social conflict theory to three conflicts involving the late antique papacy to see what new insights it can proffer. The first is Zosimus's involvement in the dispute over the hierarchy of Gallic bishops at the beginning of the fifth century. The second and longest case-study is Leo I's intervention in the Chalcedonian conflict over the natures of Christ. The final brief study is the disputed election of Symmachus at the end of the fifth century.

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