Provinciales, Gentiles, and Marriages between Romans and Barbarians in the Late Roman Empire

2009 ◽  
Vol 99 ◽  
pp. 140-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ralph Mathisen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Great Frequency ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Law ◽  
Late Roman

Codex Theodosianus 3.14.1, issued in the early 370s, has been understood in the past to indicate a ban on all marriages between ‘Romans’ and ‘barbarians’. But this interpretation contradicts evidence that Roman-barbarian marriages occurred with great frequency, and the lack of any other evidence for such a ban. This study argues that the specific wording of the law, referring to gentiles (barbarian soldiers) and provinciales (residents of provinces), suggests that the ban was imposed to ensure the continued performance of specific duties incumbent upon these two classes of individuals, and had nothing to do with ethnicity-qua-ethnicity.

The Laguatan: A Libyan Tribal Confederation in the Late Roman Empire

1983 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 96-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Mattingly
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
The Past ◽  
Coastal Cities ◽  
Main Instrument ◽  
The One ◽  
Libyan Desert ◽  
Late Roman

AbstractThe tribal grouping known as the Laguatan, Leuathae and Lawata in various late Roman and Arabic sources are identified as a powerful confederation of Libyan tribes. The confederation comprised two main types of tribes. On the one hand there were neo-berbers who migrated from the east to the west through the Libyan desert in late antiquity; on the other, there were the original inhabitants of the desert oases, of Cyrenaica and of Tripolitania who formed alliances with the newcomers. The growth of the confederation had a destabilising effect on the Roman frontiers and severe raids were made against the more Romanised areas, notably the territoria of the coastal cities.Through the sedentary agriculture of the allied Libyans, based on settlements such as Ghirza, and new conquest and exploitation, the Laguatan established an economic and agricultural regime largely independent of Rome. It is inappropriate, therefore, to view the Laguatan simply as camel-riding nomads as has been done in the past, nor was the diffusion of the camel a decisive factor in the timing of the onset of their raids. It is argued, on the contrary, that the camel was present at a much earlier date, that it was mainly used as a pack- and farm animal in pre-Islamic times and that the horse was the main instrument of the Laguatan in warfare and raiding. The Laguatan were the instigators of a Libyan cultural, religious and political revival and their history is of great importance to an understanding of the late Roman and Islamic eras.

The Subtle Body

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Cox
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Body ◽  
Subtle Body ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
American Counterculture ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
Intellectual Movements ◽  
Late Roman

How does the soul relate to the body? Through the ages many religions and intellectual movements have posed answers to this question. Many have gravitated to the notion of the subtle body, positing some kind of subtle entity that is neither soul nor body, but some mixture of the two. This book traces the history of this idea from the late Roman Empire to the present day, touching on how philosophers, wizards, scholars, occultists, psychologists, and mystics have engaged with the idea over the past two thousand years. The book begins in the late Roman Empire, moving chronologically through the Renaissance, the British project of colonial Indology, the development of theosophy and occultism in the nineteenth century, and the Euro-American counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s.

The solidus hoard of Casa delle Vestali in context

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 107-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Svante Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman Emperor ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Gold Coins ◽  
Late Roman

In this paper, I discuss the context of a Late Roman solidus hoard found in the Casa delle Vestali on the Forum Romanum in Rome. The hoard consists of 397 solidi, Late Roman gold coins. Most of the hoard consists of uncirculated solidi struck in the name of the Western Roman emperor Procopius Anthemius (AD 467–472). By means of situating the hoard within the context of the reign of Anthemius and the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the aim of this paper is to determine if the coins in the Vestal hoard can be related to other contemporary coin hoards by means of numismatic typology; this information could add to our understanding of why Anthemius’ reign is considered such an unmitigated failure and why the Empire collapsed soon after his murder. In this article, the composition of the hoard is examined, and the contents are compared to other contemporary solidus hoards in the Mediterranean, Gaul, Poland and Scandinavia. I argue that this comparison shows that the Vestal hoard is not part of a larger network but that the hoard constitutes the remains of an isolated occurrence—as initially suggested by its unusual composition and location.

THE 2017 AMENDMENTS TO THE LAW REFORM (MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE) ACT 1976: A MILESTONE OR A STONE’S THROW IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MALAYSIAN FAMILY LAW?

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 449-479
Author(s):  
Sridevi Thambapillay
Keyword(s):  
Child Custody ◽  
Family Law ◽  
Law Reform ◽  
The Real ◽  
The Past ◽  
Marriage And Divorce ◽  
Conversion To Islam ◽  
Family Issues ◽  
The Law ◽  
Muslim Family

The Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976 (LRA) which was passed in 1976 and came into force on 1st March 1982, standardized the laws concerning non-Muslim family matters. Many family issues concerning non-Muslim have emerged ever since, the most important being the effects of unilateral conversion to Islam by one of the parties to the marriage. There has been a lot of public hue and cry for amendments to be made to the LRA. After much deliberation, the Malaysian Parliament finally passed the amendments to the LRA in October 2017, which came into force in December 2018. Although the amendments have addressed selected family law issues, the most important amendment on child custody in a unilateral conversion to Islam was dropped from the Bill at the last minute. Howsoever, at the end of the day, the real question that needs to be addressed is whether the amendments have resolved the major issues that have arisen over the past four decades? Hence, the purpose of this article is as follows: first, to examine the brief background to the passing of the LRA, secondly, to analyse the 2017 amendments, thirdly, to identify the weaknesses that still exist in the LRA, and finally, to suggest recommendations to overcome these weaknesses by comparing the Malaysian position with the Singaporean position. In conclusion, it is submitted that despite the recent amendments to the LRA, much needs to be done to overcome all the remaining issues that have still not been addressed.

The Corrupting Sea

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Bond
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Roman History ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
The Law ◽  
Institutional Decline ◽  
Roman Administration

The chapter focuses on a period that has often been described in terms of a moral and institutional decline. It interrogates both legal and literary sources pertaining to imperial Roman administration, and asks to what extent do they offer evidence of increasing corruption or merely greater awareness of its debilitating effects. In addition, it also explores the extent to which the rhetoric of corruption itself can be seen as an anticorruption tactic on the part of some elites, with the power to shape norms outside the formal remit of the law. Ultimately, what it shows is that, though corruption may not have been a problem unique to the later Roman Empire, the array and severity of anticorruption tactics introduced during this period do distinguish it from previous eras of Roman history.

Christograms as Signs of Authority in the Late Roman Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Courtly Culture ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Late Roman

The first section tests the main interpretations of Lactantius’ passage on Constantine’s victorious sign in 312 against existing graphic evidence from the 310s and early 320s, and consequently supports the interpretation of Lactantius’ description as a rhetorical device invented or modified by the Christian narrator. The next two sections support the argument that the perception of the chi-rho as Constantine’s triumphant sign became entrenched in courtly culture and public mentalities from the mid-320s onwards, and trace the diachronic change of the chi-rho from its paramount importance as an imperial sign of authority under the Constantinian dynasty to its hierarchic usage alongside the tau-rho and cross in the Theodosian period. The final section presents a contextualized discussion of the encolpion of Empress Maria and mosaics from several early baptisteries, illustrating the paradigmatic importance the chi-rho and tau-rho for early Christian graphicacy around the turn of the fifth century.

Letters and Communication Networks in Merovingian Gaul

2020 ◽  
pp. 530-555
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Communication Networks ◽  
Complete List ◽  
Narrative Texts ◽  
Manuscript Tradition ◽  
Letter Exchange ◽  
Late Roman

While some letters from Merovingian-era Gaul are well known—for example, Remigius’s letters to Clovis or Radegund’s letters founding her monastery—the scale and scope of extant and attested letters tell us more about the period than the sum of data from individual documents. The cumulative range of known epistolary communications indicates that Merovingian Gaul, like the late Roman Empire of the previous centuries, hosted multiple, entangled networks of social and political interconnections. This chapter considers how we can set about contemplating both the limitations and value of the evidence we have. Comparison with contemporary Egypt, from which letters are preserved both in manuscript tradition (as with Gaul) and as papyri originals, evokes the possibility of envisaging Merovingian Gaul quite differently from our received image. The extant evidence for letters is surveyed, including “literary” collections of letters, letters preserved in other types of texts, and the extensive number of descriptions of letter exchange in narrative texts. The chapter includes the first checklist of more than 500 extant letters and a list of narrative sources, including the first complete list of references to letters in the works of Gregory of Tours.

Unique Osteoid Osteoma of the Frontal Sinus From the Late Roman Empire

2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 965-966 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Varotto ◽  
Maria Teresa Magro ◽  
Rodolfo Brancato ◽  
Carmine Lubritto ◽  
Lorenzo Memeo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Osteoid Osteoma ◽  
Frontal Sinus ◽  
Late Roman

scholarly journals Does the Law Determine What Heritage to Remember?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marie-Sophie de Clippele
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Identity ◽  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
State Intervention ◽  
Historical Knowledge ◽  
Human Right ◽  
Political Will ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Law ◽  
Ideological Manipulation

AbstractCultural heritage can offer tangible and intangible traces of the past. A past that shapes cultural identity, but also a past from which one sometimes wishes to detach oneself and which nevertheless needs to be remembered, even commemorated. These themes of memory, history and oblivion are examined by the philosopher Paul Ricoeur in his work La mémoire, l’histoire, l’oubli (2000). Inspired by these ideas, this paper analyses how they are closely linked to cultural heritage. Heritage serves as a support for memory, even if it can be mishandled, which in turn can affect heritage policies. Memory and heritage can be abused as a result of wounds from the past or for reasons of ideological manipulation or because of a political will to force people to remember. Furthermore, heritage, as a vehicule of memory, contributes to historical knowledge, but can remain marked by a certain form of subjectivism during the heritage and conservation operation, for which heritage professionals (representatives of the public authority or other experts) are responsible. Yet, the responsibility for conserving cultural heritage also implies the need to avoid any loss of heritage, and to fight against oblivion. Nonetheless, this struggle cannot become totalitarian, nor can it deprive the community of a sometimes salutary oblivion to its own identity construction. These theoretical and philosophical concepts shall be examined in the light of legal discourse, and in particular in Belgian legislation regarding cultural heritage. It is clear that the shift from monument to heritage broadens the legal scope and consequently raises the question of who gets to decide what is considered heritage according to the law, and whether there is something such as a collective human right to cultural heritage. Nonetheless, this broadening of the legislation extends the State intervention into cultural heritage, which in turn entails certain risks, as will be analysed with Belgium’s colonial heritage.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document