Christian ‘Atheism’ and the Peace of the Roman Empire

1973 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Schoedel
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Troubles ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Marcus Aurelius ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
The Common ◽  
New Religion

Sometime betweena.d.176 anda.d.180 Athenagoras, a Christian, an amateur philosopher and possibly an Athenian, wrote aPleaaddressed to the emperors Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. This document is marked by a carefully controlledapologeticaim unmarred by crude efforts to convert and is remarkable for the positive attitude it shows toward the Roman emperors and the administration of justice throughout their realm. Athenagoras' apology was lost sight of in antiquity, in all likelihood, because it contributed so little to theology; precisely for the same reason it is valuable to us in our assessment of the political and social awareness of a segment of Christians shortly before the empire plunged into the troubles of the third century. Athenagoras was obviously well trained in rhetoric; he had dabbled in philosophy; and he clearly felt himself culturally superior to the “common men, artisans, and old women” whom he praises for their simple, if unreasoned, display of Christian virtue (11.4). He is representative of a growing elite in Christian circles which was seeking to explain the new religion to the Graeco-Roman world.

Roman Water-Power

2020 ◽  
pp. 147-194
Author(s):  
Andrew Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Body ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Archaeological Evidence ◽  
Water Power ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Grain Milling ◽  
Over Time

This chapter summarizes the archaeological evidence currently known for Roman water-mills, tracing the development and spread of water-powered grain milling over time across the Roman Empire. Problems of quantification and evidence bias, both documentary and archaeological, are addressed. In particular, it is argued that large discoidal millstones, formerly thought to derive either from animal-powered or water-powered mills, must come from water-mills, and that the idea of Roman animal-driven mills with discoidal millstones is a myth. This dramatically increases the amount of evidence available for water-powered grain milling, although very unevenly spread across the empire, and heavily dependent on the intensity of research in particular regions—good for Britain, parts of France, and Switzerland; poor everywhere else. The chapter also summarizes the state of knowledge on other applications of water-power—for ore-crushing machines at hard-rock gold and silver mines (by the first century AD), trip-hammers, tanning and fulling mills, and marble sawing (by the third century AD). The picture is fast-changing and the body of evidence continues to grow with new archaeological discoveries. The chapter ends with some thoughts about the place of water-power in the overall economy of the Roman world, and on the transmission of water-powered technologies between the Roman and medieval periods.

Antioch 268 and Its Legacy in the Fourth-Century Theological Debates

2018 ◽  
Vol 111 (2) ◽  
pp. 192-215
Author(s):  
Dragoș Andrei Giulea
Keyword(s):  
Fourth Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Sitz Im Leben ◽  
Individual Entity ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Eusebius Of Caesarea ◽  
Father And Son

AbstractThe study proposes an analysis of the concepts ofousiaandhypostasisin the theology of the Council of Antioch which condemned Paul of Samosata in 268 CE. The authentic reports preserved from the assembly unveil the fact that the synodals who condemned Paul of Samosata employed the two terms interchangeably to denote the individual entity or person rather than the common essence or nature of the Father and Son. Additionally, they defended Christ's divinity before time and simultaneously assumed a certain subordinationism. The study additionally explores theSitz im Lebenof this theology, an accepted language embraced in the Eastern part of the Roman world in the third century. The article further traces the elements of this Antiochene theology in the fourth century in what was traditionally viewed as the “Arian” councils held in Antioch in 341 and 345 as well as in such authors as Eusebius of Caesarea and the Homoiousians. While Antioch 341 and 345 distanced themselves from Arianism, it is more coherent to interpret them, together with Eusebius and the Homoiousians, through this new hermeneutical lens, namely Antioch 268, rather than the traditional polarization between Nicaea and Arianism.

SOME CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY? PANTOMIME MASKS AND THEIR CONTEXT

2001 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
JOHN JORY
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Mistaken Identity ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Hellenistic World

Abstract Pantomime, a form of masked mime, is known in the Hellenistic world from the third century BC. In a modified form it was the most popular type of performance on the stages of the Roman empire. The masks worn differed from the masks of drama in that they had closed mouths. The first part of the paper demonstrates that it is possible to classify types of pantomime mask in the same way that the masks of drama have been classified. The second part looks at the chronology and provenance of the surviving representations of pantomime masks and suggests reasons for the different dates at which they were incorporated into the theatrical iconography of various areas of the Roman world.

Innovation and Stagnation: Military Infrastructure and the Shifting Balance of Power Between Rome and Persia

2017 ◽  
pp. 241-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eberhard W. Sauer ◽  
Jebrael Nokandeh ◽  
Konstantin Pitskhelauri ◽  
Hamid Omrani Rekavandi
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Western World ◽  
Sasanian Empire ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Shifting Balance ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Independent Design

The Roman Empire, and its eastern and western successor states, controlled the majority of Europe’s population for approximately half a millennium (first century BC to fifth century AD), holding dominant power status from the second century BC to the seventh century AD, longer than any other state in the western world in history, and it was also the only empire ever to rule over the entire Mediterranean. Its ability to integrate ethnic groups and its well-organised military apparatus were instrumental to this success. From the third century onwards, however, the balance increasingly shifted; the physical dimensions of fortresses and unit sizes tended to decrease markedly in the Roman world, and the tradition of constructing marching camps and training facilities seems to have been abandoned. By contrast, the Sasanian Empire increasingly became the motor of innovation. Already in the third century it matched Rome’s abilities to launch offensive operations, conduct siege warfare and produce military hardware and armour. Jointly with the Iberians and Albanians, the empire also made skilful use of natural barriers to protect its frontiers, notably by blocking the few viable routes across the Caucasus. By the fifth/sixth century, it pioneered heavily fortified, large, rectangular campaign bases, of much greater size than any military compounds in the late Roman world. These military tent cities, filled with rectangular enclosures in neat rows, are suggestive of a strong and well-disciplined army. Like these campaign bases, the contemporary c. 200km-long Gorgan Wall, protected by a string of barracks forts and of distinctly independent design, is not copied from prototypes elsewhere. The evidence emerging from recent joint projects between the Iranian Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Organisation and the Universities of Edinburgh, Tbilisi and Durham suggests that in late antiquity the Sasanian army had gone into the lead in terms of organisational abilities, innovation and effective use of its resources.

From the History of the Worship of Apollo at Actium

1959 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-221
Author(s):  
F. Sokolowski
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Long Time ◽  
History Of ◽  
Scanty Information

Until the last few years we had scanty information on the cult of Apollo at Actium, which, after the victory of Augustus won there in 31 B.C., became very popular in the Greek and Roman world. The games of Actium, reorganized and elevated to panhellenistic rank, flourished for a long time in the Roman empire. The lucky discovery of an inscription at Olympia, from the end of the third century B.C., has now brought us new light on the earlier history of this cult.

The Roman Empire and the Kushans

1979 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 181-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Thorley
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Central Asia ◽  
Economic Importance ◽  
Roman History ◽  
First Century ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Ganges Plain ◽  
The Ganges

It may seem strange to link the Roman Empire with a Himalayan kingdom which hardly gets a mention in most standard works on Roman history, but in fact during the second and early third centuries A. D. these two powers enjoyed a cordial and mutually profitable relationship which was of considerable economic importance to both. From the end of the first century A. D. to the middle of the third century the Kushans controlled what is now Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kashmir, parts of Soviet and Chinese Central Asia, and much of the Ganges plain. Their history has proved difficult to reconstruct, since they left no historical writing, and even the chronology of their kings is still disputed, but enough is now known for us to begin to piece together, though still somewhat tentatively, the strange and exotic relationship between this distant state and the Roman world, and perhaps in the process to contribute from Roman history to the problems of Kushan dating.

scholarly journals “Hva har romerne noen gang gjort for oss i Nord- Norge?” Om mulige forbindelser mellom Romerriket og det nordligste Norge

Nordlit ◽  
2014 ◽  
pp. 191
Author(s):  
Per-Bjarne Ravnå
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Third Century ◽  
Northern Norway ◽  
The Third ◽  
Roman World ◽  
The North ◽  
Geographical Distances ◽  
History Of ◽  
North Norway

<em>“What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us Here in North Norway?”: On Possible Connections Between the Roman Empire and Northernmost Norway. </em>This article argues that scholars studying the early history of northern Norway should pay more attention to Roman history. Even if the geographical distances were long, there are clear signs of connections between inhabitants of northern Norway and the Roman world during the Roman era. In order to understand these connections scholars also need to study Roman history in its own right. To make this point the article investigates the possible Roman connections of a well-known warrior grave from Steigen (Nordland County, North Norway), dated to the middle of the third century CE. The investigation yields no stunning new discoveries, but aims to contribute to a broader and more well-founded understanding of the buried man and the experiences he might have had, as well as a cautious and informed view of broader connections between the North and the Roman world.

‘At last Roman, at last restored to the true light of Empire’

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrastos Omissi
Keyword(s):  
British Empire ◽  
Economic Reforms ◽  
Third Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Military ◽  
Late Roman

This chapter begins by considering what made the late Roman state distinctive from the early Empire, exploring the political developments of the later third century, in particular the military, administrative, and economic reforms undertaken by the tetrarchs. It then explores the presentation of the war between the tetrarchy and the British Empire of Carausius and Allectus (286‒96), taking as its core sources Pan. Lat. X, XI, and VIII. These speeches are unique in the panegyrical corpus, in that two of them (X and XI) were delivered while the usurpation they describe was still under way, the third (VIII) after it was defeated. In this chapter, we see how the British Empire was ‘othered’ as piratical and barbarian, and how conflict with it helped to create the distinctive ideology of the tetrarchy.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document