Asceticism and syneisaktism in Asterius’ Liber ad Renatum monachum

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hajnalka Tamás ◽  
Liesbeth Van der Sypt
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Final Part ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Depth Study

AbstractThis article offers an in-depth study of Asterius’ often neglected Liber ad Renatum monachum in relation to its compositional context and other similar writings from Late Antiquity. It starts with a thorough discussion about the possible date, author, and place of the Liber ad Renatum monachum. One will see that the context of the writing was the (early) fifth century, but also that the treatise cannot be connected to a place more precisely than the Latin West. In the second part of this article, a closer look is given to the ascetic content of the Liber ad Renatum monachum. Although the treatise has many topics worth discussing, the present authors have chosen to direct their attention to the rather unknown late antique ascetic practice of syneisaktism, a practice in which an ascetic man and a virgin lived together unmarried with the (unofficial) promise to remain chaste. For this reason the final part of this article is wholly dedicated to the question of how Asterius used and reworked a centuries-old tradition of arguments against syneisaktism. The analysis extends over a wide range of polemical writings, starting from Asterius’ proven sources (e.g., Jerome’s Epistulae and the anonymous De singularitate clericorum) to sources previously not connected with this work (e.g., John Chrysostom’s Adversus eos qui apud se habent subintroductas virgines and Quod regulares feminae viris cohabitare non debeant, and several works of the Cappadocians).

Reuse of Roman Artefacts in Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval West

2020 ◽  
pp. 425-446
Author(s):  
Ellen Swift
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Ferrous Metal ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Silver Plate ◽  
Metal Artefacts ◽  
Wide Range

In Late Antiquity, reuse and recycling has mainly been considered in relation to spolia and to precious metal artefacts such as silver plate and coins. Yet there is much evidence for reuse behaviour across a wide range of artefact types in more everyday materials. Some of this is connected to ordinary habits of reuse and recycling found throughout the Roman and late antique periods, although it is in part also a response to prevailing economic and social conditions. Since these may vary from one place to another or across different social groups, interpretations must take account of the particular contexts within which objects were used. This chapter addresses reuse behaviour from the late antique and early medieval periods in the West, with a case study drawn from the author’s detailed studies of particular non-ferrous metal objects from Britain, including objects newly produced in the fifth century.

THE SACRED AND THE SECULAR: THE PRESENCE OR ABSENCE OF CHRISTIAN RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN SECULAR WRITING IN THE LATE ANTIQUE WEST

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 493-509
Author(s):  
Mark Humphries ◽  
David M. Gwynn
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Religious Thought ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Interpretative Framework ◽  
Secular Life

The impact of Christianity on secular life in Late Antiquity is often conceived in rather negative terms, as various characteristic features of classical Antiquity are regarded as coming to an end. Within this interpretative framework, most studies of the literature of Late Antiquity have focussed on the survival of ‘classical’ (or ‘pagan’ or ‘secular’ ) traditions and tropes in Christian writings. This paper examines the question from the opposite perspective. It aims to forefront various ways in which Christian discourses penetrated writings that were not primarily religious in content in the Latin West from the 4th c. to the 6th.

Apuleius

Classics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Harrison
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Second Sophistic ◽  
Self Defense ◽  
Prose Style ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Latin West ◽  
Classical Culture ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Rhetorical Performance

Apuleius (no other names certain, c. 125–after 170 ce) is one of the key Latin writers of the 2nd century ce, a period that marks the transition from the end of traditional classical culture (Tacitus and Juvenal were probably still alive when Apuleius was born) to the new world of the high empire (Tertullian was certainly born before his death). He can be seen as representing in the Latin West some key aspects of the so-called Greek Second Sophistic, such as a focus on rhetorical performance and an interest in archaic language. He practiced as rhetorician and teacher in Carthage, and his writings were clearly well known in Late Antiquity in Roman North Africa (he is often mentioned by Augustine) and in Gaul (he is cited by Sidonius Apollinaris). He is best known for his novel Metamorphoses or The Golden Ass, and for its remarkable style: it is the apex of Asianism in Latin, full of poetic and archaic words and apparent coinages, rhythmical and rhyming cola, and colored with colloquialism and Graecisms. His Apologia (self-defense from 158 to 159 ce) is an immensely learned speech that combines Ciceronian forensic fireworks with sophistic epideixis, while the Florida, twenty-odd excerpts from Apuleius’s showy declamations delivered at Carthage in the 160s, show considerable rhetorical and stylistic talent, and the De deo Socratis (probably from the same period) is a declamation on the personal deity of Socrates as seen in Plato. Three extant works ascribed to Apuleius are of debated authenticity: De dogmate Platonis or De Platone, two books of mediocre exposition of the philosophy of Plato; De Interpretatione, a treatise on formal logic; and De mundo, a translation of the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise. Lost Apuleian works known from later citations include further speeches, poems, another novel, and a wide range of scientific and other didactic works. Little known in the medieval period, Apuleius was enthusiastically rediscovered in the Renaissance, and much read and studied, forming the center of debates about Latin prose style (Apuleius versus Cicero); his novel influenced important writers such as Shakespeare and Sidney, and the story of Cupid and Psyche from the Metamorphoses has provided consistent inspiration for further works of art and literature over the last five centuries. Little favored by classicists until the second half of the 20th century, he is now a much-researched author.

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.

A Social Archaeology of Roman and Late Antique Egypt

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Swift ◽  
Jo Stoner ◽  
April Pudsey
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Social Archaeology ◽  
Essential Information ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Principal Source ◽  
Close Study ◽  
Depth Study ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
And Gender

The first in-depth study of the society and culture of Roman and late antique Egypt that uses everyday artefacts as its principal source of evidence, this book transforms our understanding of many aspects of its society and culture. It represents a fundamental reference work for scholars, with much new and essential information on a wide range of artefacts, many of which are found not only in Egypt, but also in the wider Roman and late antique world. It also sets out a new interpretation of everyday life and aspects of social relations in Egypt in the period under study. By taking a social archaeology approach, it contributes substantial insights into everyday practices and their social meanings in the past. Artefacts from UCL’s Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology are the principal source of evidence. Most of these objects have not been the subject of any previous research. The book integrates the close study of artefact features with other sources of evidence, including papyri and visual material. There are two principal parts to the book, Part I: ‘Exploring the Social Functions of Dress Objects’, and Part II: ‘The Domestic Realm and Everyday Experience’. An important theme is the life course, and how both dress-related artefacts and ordinary functional objects construct age and gender-related status, and facilitate appropriate social relations and activities. There is also a particular focus on wider social experience in the domestic context. Other topics covered include economic and social changes across the period studied.

scholarly journals How Numerous and How Busy were Late-Antique Presbyters?

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-37
Author(s):  
Robert Wiśniewski
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Small Community ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The Third ◽  
The City ◽  
Over Time

Abstract This article seeks to count late-antique clergy and assess their workload. It estimates the number of clerics, and particularly presbyters, in Christian communities of various sizes, and investigates how and why the ratio of clerics to laypersons changed over time. First, by examining the situation in the city of Rome, it demonstrates that the growth in the ranks of the presbyters from the third to the fifth century was slow, and argues that this resulted from the competing interests of the bishops, lay congregation, rich donors, and above all the middle clergy. It is the last group who were reluctant to raise their number as this had a negative impact on their income. The results of this phenomenon can also be seen in other big sees of Christendom, in which, in Late Antiquity, there was one presbyter per several thousand laypersons. Interestingly, in smaller towns, this ratio was significantly lower, and in the countryside, it remained in the lower hundreds. Second, this article shows how the changing ratio of clerics to laypersons affected the level of professionalization of the former. In the big cities, the ecclesiastical duties of presbyters who served in a growing community were getting heavier. This turned the presbyters into full-time religious ministers, at the same time making them even more dependent on ecclesiastical income. In the towns and villages, however, the pattern was different. In the places in which one presbyter served a very small community, his job was less time-consuming but also brought him less income. In consequence, rural presbyters had to support their families through craft work, commerce, or farming, and they had time for this.

Life and Death, City and SuburbThe Transformations of Late Antiquity

2020 ◽  
pp. 229-234
Author(s):  
Allison L. C. Emmerson
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Cultivated Land ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Continuity And Change ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The City

“Life and Death, City and Suburb: The Transformations of Late Antiquity” is a brief epilogue considering urbanism of the fifth century CE and beyond. As Rome’s population shrank, the city reoriented itself into a constellation of small settlements, scattered within the Aurelian Wall and surrounded by cultivated land. The residents of these settlements buried their dead within the wall, a development that has been seen to represent a sea change in mentality, but which is better read as a result of the city’s new topography and demography. Suburbs, furthermore, did not disappear in this period. Late Antique suburbs grew up around the suburban shrines of Christian martyrs, not only at Rome, but also in other Italian cities like Mediolanum and Nola. This period was marked by both continuity and change, but through it the dead remained present in urban life, continuing relationships carried through all stages in the history of Italy’s cities.

Preaching Christology in the Roman Near East

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Michael Forness
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Near East ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Biblical Exegesis ◽  
Christian Community ◽  
Christian Doctrine ◽  
South Arabia ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Christian Discourse

Preaching formed one of the primary, regular avenues of communication between ecclesiastical elites and a wide range of society. Clergy used homilies to spread knowledge of complex theological debates prevalent in late antique Christian discourse. Some sermons offer glimpses into the locations in which communities gathered to hear orators preach. Although homilies survive in greater number than most other types of literature, most do not specify the setting of their initial delivery, dating, and authorship. This book addresses how we can contextualize sermons devoid of such information. The first chapter develops a methodology for approaching homilies that draws on a broader understanding of audience as both the physical audience and the readership of sermons. The remainder of the monograph offers a case study on the Syriac preacher Jacob of Serugh (c.451–521), whose metrical homilies form one of the largest sermon collections in any language from late antiquity. His letters connect him to a previously little-known Christological debate over the language of the miracles and sufferings of Christ through his correspondence with a monastery, a Roman military officer, and a Christian community in South Arabia. He uses this language in homilies on the Council of Chalcedon, on Christian doctrine, and on biblical exegesis. An analysis of these sermons demonstrates that he communicated miaphysite Christology to both elite reading communities as well as ordinary audiences. This monograph thus demonstrates a new methodology for working with late antique sermons and discloses the range of society that received complex theological teachings through preaching.

Greek History

2017 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 78-84
Author(s):  
Kostas Vlassopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Mediterranean Islands ◽  
Deep Impact ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Imperial Expansion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Major Attention ◽  
Cross Fertilization

Mediterranean islands and their adjacent coastlands have long been the subject of a wide range of disciplines and discourses; from prehistory to late antiquity and beyond, the processes of imperial expansion, economic interconnectedness and cultural change have had a deep impact on their history. In recent decades the conceptual apparatus through which we study those processes has started to shift significantly. Earlier approaches influenced by nationalism and colonialism tended to adopt totalizing, top-down, and centre–periphery perspectives. The three volumes examined in this review are evidence that things are changing radically; but they also demonstrate the need for particular disciplines and subdisciplines to pay attention to each other. Though all three volumes focus on, or give major attention to, archaeological evidence, it is quite evident that prehistoric, classical, and late antique scholars follow distinctive scholarly traditions that could all benefit from more cross-fertilization.

Late Antique Environment and Economy in the North of the Iberian Peninsula: The Site of La Tabacalera (Asturias, Spain)

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 155-171
Author(s):  
Leonor Peña-Chocarro ◽  
Almudena Orejas Saco del Valle ◽  
Yolanda Carrión Marco ◽  
Sebastián Pérez-Díaz ◽  
José Antonio López-Sáez ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Deciduous Forest ◽  
Woody Species ◽  
Cultivated Plants ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Significant Information ◽  
Exceptional Preservation ◽  
The North ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Interdisciplinary Study

Abstract The exceptional preservation of organic remains in a well-reservoir at the site of La Tabacalera (Asturias, Spain) is the subject of an interdisciplinary study regarding past human-environmental interaction. The feature, dated to Late Antiquity, corresponds to a large well containing a wide range of organic material (animal bones, pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs), mites, seeds, wood and wooden artefacts, etc.). This article examines both plant micro (pollen and NPPs) and macro-remains (seeds and wood) dated between the late 5th–8th c. AD. The palynological evidence suggests that the structure investigated was colonised by different species dominated by ivy, while the surrounding anthropised area was characterised by the presence of open areas, probably occupied by meadows and pastures. A mixed deciduous forest was also present not far from the site. The abundant plant macro-remains include the presence of water-loving woody species, which inform us about the vegetation growing around the well-reservoir. The seed record comprises cultivated plants, and a wide range of wild species typical of humid environments. Among the remains there are also some wooden artefacts. Plant remains have provided significant information, not only to reconstruct the landscape around the site, but also on the formation of the feature’s backfill. Moreover, the remains offer us information regarding objects of daily life and the maintenance of the feature.

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