scholarly journals A Construção da Imagem do Bárbaro na obra de Amiano Marcelino e Temístio (Século IV d.C.) * The Image Construction of the Barbarian in the work of Ammianus Marcellinus and Themistius (Fourth-Century A.D.)

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 239
Author(s):  
BRUNA CAMPOS GONÇALVES
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Image Construction ◽  
Ammianus Marcellinus ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Roman Military

<p><strong>Resumo: </strong>No contexto da Antiguidade Tardia havia um grande número de bárbaros nos territórios do Império Romano, que interagiam na sociedade e, principalmente, no meio militar romano. Acreditamos que esse contato com outras culturas ampliou o aparato político-cultural militar de todos os envolvido, de forma que essa confluência cultural fomentou novos conhecimentos e saberes. Sendo assim, nesse artigo pretendemos contrastar as imagens dos bárbaros nos relatos advindos do século IV <em>Res Gestae </em>de Amiano Marcelino e nos panegíricos políticos de Temístio, tendo o primeiro sido um militar e o segundo um filósofo da corte Imperial.</p><p><strong>Palavras-chave: </strong>Antiguidade Tardia – Bárbaros – Imagem – Amiano Marcelino – Temístio.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Abstract: </strong>In the context of Late Antiquity there was a large number of barbarians in the territories of the Roman Empire, which interacted in society and especially among Roman military. We believe that contact with other cultures expanded the political-military cultural apparatus of all involved so that this cultural confluence fostered new knowledge and learnings. Therefore, in this article we intend to contrast the images of the barbarians in the fourth-century reports  Ammianus Marcellinus’ <em>Res Gestae</em> and  Themistius’ political panegyrics, as  the former was a military man and the latter a philosopher of the imperial court.</p><p><strong>Keywords: </strong>Late Antiquity – Barbarians – Image – Ammianus Marcellinus – Temistius.</p>

scholarly journals Roman Senators and Absent Emperors in Late Antiquity

1970 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
pp. 27-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Humphries
Keyword(s):  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Set Up ◽  
First Time ◽  
The City

It is often assumed that the political fortunes of the city of Rome and of its élite, the Senate, decline in late antiquity. Such decline is attributed to emperors residing in other centers closer to the frontiers and to the inflation of senatorial status in the fourth century. This article argues, however, that the senators of Rome continued to see themselves as important participants in imperial high politics throughout the period. Such ambitions were ably demonstrated by Q. Aurelius Symmachus, whose role as senatorial ambassador to the imperial court was predicated on the basis that the Senate in Rome was still an important political institution. Similar ambitions motivated Roman senators to give active support to rival sides in political usurpations in the fourth century; this activity was advertised, moreover, by an impressive series of dedications set up in the Forum Romanum in close proximity to the Senate House itself. The climax of these aspirations came in the unstable circumstances of the fifth century when, for the first time in over a hundred years, Roman senators seated themselves on the imperial throne. Far from being a moribund political anachronism, then, the Senate in Rome continued to act as a major partner in the running of the Empire throughout the last centuries of Roman rule in the West.

The Date and Circumstances of Olympiodorus of Thebes

Traditio ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Half

Olympiodorus of Thebes is an important figure for the history of late antiquity. The few details of his life preserved as anecdotes in hisHistorygive glimpses of a career which embraced the skills of poet, philosopher, and diplomat. A native of Egypt, he had influence at the imperial court of Constantinople, among the sophists of Athens, and even outside the borders of the empire. HisHistory(more correctly, his “materials for history”) is lost, surviving only as fragments in the narratives of Zosimus, Sozomen, and Philostorgius, and in the rich summary given by the ninth-century Byzantine patriarch Photius. These remains comprise the most substantial narrative sources for events in the western Roman Empire in the early fifth century. Besides its value as a source, theHistoryis important as a monument to the vitality of the belief in the unity of the Roman Empire under the Theodosian dynasty. Olympiodorus wrote in Greek, and knowledge of his work is attested only in Constantinople, yet his political narrative, from 407 to 425, concerns only events in the western half of the empire. To understand the significance of these facts, it is necessary to set the composition of Olympiodorus's work in its proper context. Clarifying the date of publication is the first step toward this goal. Internal and external evidence suggests that the work was written in 440 or soon after, more than a decade later than the date of composition usually accepted. Taken with thematic emphases evident in the structure of theHistory, this revised dating explains why an eastern writer should have written a detailed account of western events in the early part of the century. Olympiodorus's account is a characteristic product of the highly literate class of eastern imperial civil servants, and of their genuine preoccupation with the relationship between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire at a time when both were threatened by the rise of the new Carthaginian power of the Vandals.

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.

The Cult of Relics in the Letters and ‘Dialogues’ of Pope Gregory the Great: A Lexicographical Study

Traditio ◽  
1976 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-184 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. McCulloh
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Human Remains ◽  
The West ◽  
Early Middle Ages ◽  
Gregory The Great

Late antiquity and the early Middle Ages witnessed a change in the Christian attitude toward the remains of the saints. Holy bodies came to be treated less and less as normal corpses, worthy of special veneration but still subject to many of the laws and customs which had regulated the treatment of human remains in pagan Antiquity. They came rather to be viewed as cult objects which could be moved or even divided up according to the demands of religion with little regard for earlier prohibitions of these practices. This change occurred relatively early in the Greek, eastern portion of the Roman Empire. In the mid-fourth century the Caesar Gallus translated a saint's body from one tomb to another, and less than two centuries later Justinian asked Pope Hormisdas for portions of the bodies of the apostles. Despite some outstanding exceptions such as the translations performed by St. Ambrose, the Christians of the West were more conservative in these matters. Nevertheless, by the ninth century at the very latest, western Christians had followed the lead of the eastern church in both translating and dismembering holy bodies.

Archiatri and the Medical Profession in Antiquity

1977 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 191-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian Nutton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Roman Empire ◽  
Health Service ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Public Health Service ◽  
Medical Profession ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Classical Antiquity ◽  
The West ◽  
High Level

How far there was ever in classical antiquity a public health service, organised and paid for by the state, has been often debated by both doctors and classical scholars, with conflicting results. For fifth and fourth century Greece the amount of evidence available is insufficient to permit any certainty, but there can be no doubt that in the Hellenistic age individual cities offered special privileges in order to secure the residence of a qualified physician. But whether and in what ways such a system was carried over into the very different society of the Roman empire, and still more into that of late antiquity, are questions which have never been satisfactorily answered, and the authority of the Roman part of Pohl's dissertation De graecorum medicis publicis, despite its increasing age, has never been seriously challenged—indeed, some more recent studies have only highlighted by contrast its high level of accuracy, judgement and, for its time, comprehensiveness. However, the discovery of three new inscriptions of archiatri from Aphrodisias affords an opportunity to re-examine the institution of public doctors in the Roman empire and thereby to throw light upon a professional designation, archiatros/archiater, which has troubled scholars ever since Herodian the grammarian attempted to settle the position of its Greek accent. By surveying the evidence according to the varied societies in which the archiatri practised—the courts, the Eastern cities, the West and Rome in late antiquity, Constantinople and Roman and Byzantine Egypt—a much clearer picture of the spread of public doctors can be obtained without introducing anachronistic or extraneous attitudes and institutions to provide a single uniform pattern of development.

scholarly journals Late Antique Cultures of Breath: Politics and the Holy Spirit

2021 ◽  
pp. 69-84
Author(s):  
Thomas E. Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Holy Spirit ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fourth Century ◽  
Late Antique ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
The Holy Spirit ◽  
Human Difference ◽  
The Universe

AbstractUsing sources from the fourth century CE, Thomas E. Hunt analyses how people imagined breath in late antiquity. Breathing was a way to mark out and understand human difference in the complex social world of the late Roman Empire. In this context, a person’s breath was used to judge the quality of their social relationships. Breath also held cosmic import, for when a person drew in air they participated in the wider structure of the universe. Christian writers described the inner life of God by referring to these models of breath and breathing. In this essay, Hunt shows how social and theological accounts of breathy relation reinforced each other.

scholarly journals W kręgu problematyki stosunków Kościoła i państwa w świecie późnego antyku

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 67 ◽  
pp. 277-288
Author(s):  
Alicja Leska
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Political ◽  
The West ◽  
Moral Power ◽  
And Migration ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Church

Alicja Leska in her article entitled On the range of problems concerning the relationship between the Church and the state in the late Antiquity outlines the way Christianity went from a persecuted religion to a state religion and demonstrates how Christianity changed the political and social relations in the Roman Empire completely and irretrievably. The Author indicates struggle and permeation of two worlds, pagan and Christian, during the economic crisis which started already in the 3rd century AD, barbarian invasions and migration of nations which intensi­fied in the 5th century as well as the division of the Roman Empire. She pre­sents arguments refuting the accusations of those historians who see the cause of Christianity’s victory in the ruin of the Roman Empire. Leska emphasizes it was a coincidence that the Church gained world importance at the time of the empire’s decline and fall into disorder. The Author points out that the Church, taking over the functions of the empire, was the only body able to manage the crisis of the West and assign meaning toit. Due to the unity and moral power and despite being shaken the same way like other institutions, the Church brought credit maintai­ning order and saving civilization.

Lactantius

Classics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Freund
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Version ◽  
Ecclesiastical History ◽  
Christian Teaching ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Political Conditions ◽  
Magnum Opus ◽  
The Times

Lucius Caelius Firmianus Lactantius (c. 250–c. 325 ce) was a Christian Latin author during the Diocletianic persecution and the times of Constantine the Great. Lactantius was born in Africa, studied with the rhetor Arnobius in Sicca Veneria, and became a teacher of rhetoric himself. In about 290, Emperor Diocletian offered him a chair at the court at Nicomedia, one of the new imperial residences of the Tetrarchy. There, in 303 the author faced the beginning of the Diocletianic persecution. The injustice he believed was being done to the Christians is of utmost importance for Lactantius. In order to become the champion of the oppressed, he resolved to defend and explain the Christian faith. His first two writings conceal their Christian character: The elegy on the Phoenix (De ave Phoenice) tries to illustrate the idea of resurrection by retelling the myth of the fabulous bird which dies and comes to life again; with it Lactantius establishes a Christian Latin poetry in the classical manner. His treatise On the Workmanship of God (De opificio dei) gives a detailed account of human physiology, which suggests that it was created through the working of God’s providence. In his magnum opus, the seven books entitled Divine Institutes (Divinae institutiones), consisting of more than six hundred modern pages, Lactantius gives an apologetic overall sketch of Christian teaching for pagan readers. The Divine Institutes were finished before 311, as the whole work suggests that persecution was still in progress while it was being written. Soon after the end of persecution, i.e., in 313/314, Lactantius composed his brief work On the Deaths of the Persecutors (De mortibus persecutorum), the first Latin treatise on ecclesiastical history. When Constantine appointed Lactantius to be tutor to his son Crispus, Lactantius came to the imperial court at Trier. In the following years, Lactantius wrote On the Anger of God (De ira dei), which argues that God does indeed show wrath, and also a short version of his Divine Institutes (Epitome divinarum institutionum). An unfinished second edition of the whole Divine Institutes, which contains dedications to the emperor Constantine and passages explaining the author’s dualistic worldview, presupposes the political conditions of 324 and thus dates the author’s death to 324/325. Lactantius was read in Late Antiquity, but was often supposed to be theologically outdated or problematic. In the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, however, the “Christian Cicero,” as he was called then, was greatly admired for the way he used classical style, rhetoric, poetry, education, and mythology to explain Christianity. The Divine Institutes are contained in the first book which was printed in Italy.

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