Introduction

The Introduction offers a survey of the primary non-Christian and Christian sources available for a reconstruction of the short reign of Jovian. The most important source obviously is Book 25 of Res Gestae of the pagan Ammianus Marcellinus. He presents a gloomy picture of the person and reign of Jovian in order to save the image of his hero and Jovian’s predecessor, Julian (the Apostate). From Edward Gibbon onward, modern scholarship has adopted this unfavorable image that presents Jovian’s reign as a meaningless period between the emperorship of Julian (361–363) and the rule of the Valentinians (364–378). However, Jovian’s rule was vital for the sustenance of imperial leadership after Julian’s disastrous Persian military campaign and religious policies, both of which caused considerable upheaval. Jovian’s reign was a return to the norms of the pre-Julianic period and brought back stability to the Roman empire. For an emperor who ruled such a short time, the Christian Jovian had an unexpected and surprising afterlife. The second part of the book discusses Jovian’s “Nachleben” in the so-called Syriac Julian Romance, a text of historical fiction that has rarely been studied and is largely unknown to historians of the late Roman period.

Gerda von Bülow, Sofija Petković (eds), Gamzigrad-Studien I. Ergebnisse der deutschserbischen Forschungen im Umfeld des Palastes Romuliana. Römisch-Germanischen Forschungen, Band 75, Wiesbaden 2020, Reihert Verlag

As the title suggests, this work is only first volume of the final publication of German-Serbian excavations at Gamzigrad in the Zaječar District in eastern Serbia. It is very important archaeological site, one of Serbia’s UNESCO World Heritage Sites.1 The ruins itself were well known and have been excavated since 1953 by Serbian archaeologists as well as being mentioned in several publications previously (Herder 1846 [first mention]: 20–21; Kanitz 1861: 8–9; Breithaupt 1861 and few mentions in Serbian literature, Serbian excavations: Vasič 2007 and Żivić 2011). However, it was not until the 1980s that an inscription was found during excavations that allowed for final identification (Srejović 1985).The archaeological site is located south of the Danube River, near the present city of Zaječar. Its unique position on the map of archaeological sites in Europe is a consequence of being the location of the complex including palace and temples called Felix Romuliana built by the emperor Galerius (Caesar during first tetrarchy, 293–305 AD, and Augustus in the second – 305–311 AD) in the ancient province of Dacia Ripensis. The whole area of this complex covers about 40,000 m2 and was thus clearly a site of some importance especially in the late Roman period.

The Rhetorical Arts in Late Antique and Early Medieval Ireland

This book represents the first study of the art of rhetoric in medieval Ireland, a culture often neglected by medieval rhetorical studies. In a series of three case studies, Brian Stone traces the textual transmission of rhetorical theories and practices from the late Roman period to those early Irish monastic communities who would not only preserve and pass on the light of learning, but adapt an ancient tradition to their own cultural needs, contributing to the history of rhetoric in important ways. The manuscript tradition of early Ireland, which gave us the largest body of vernacular literature in the medieval period and is already appreciated for its literary contributions, is also a site of rhetorical innovation and creative practice.

For a novel identification of the ‘first palace of the kings of Egrisi’ in Nokalakevi-Archaeopolis

Because of the complicated foreign policy in the fourth century (regular attacks of the Goths and Huns on Roman Empire, the rise of Persia and subordination of Kartli, Armenia and Albania), Rome was unable to exert proper control over its eastern provinces, including the eastern Black Sea coast and, accordingly, it was compelled to put up with the Lazis becoming more and more active in western Georgia [Muskhelishvili 2012:39]. Apparently, the Lazis evaluated the existing situation properly and gradually made their neighboring tribes of the Apsils, Abazgs and Sanigs subordinate to them [Lomouri 2011:119-120]. Unification of the western Georgian tribes by the Lazis and formation of a strong kingdom was in the interests of the Roman Empire too. Scholars suggest that Rome encouraged this process, rather than hindering it, because presence of a strong kingdom in western Georgia which had control over various passes and fortified cities on the Black Sea coast would serve as a defensive barrier for eastern provinces of Rome from northern nomadic tribes [Melikishvili 1970:556-557; Lomouri 2011:120; Muskhelishvili 2012:39]. Procopius of Caesarea puts special emphasis on this situation. According to him, “For the barbarians inhabiting the Caucasus Lazika is just an obstacle” [Procopius of Caesarea 1965:94]. Thus, from the third century, the Lazis gradually annexed the tribes residing in western Georgia and laid foundation for the kingdom of Lazika (Egrisi), whose borders approximately fell within the limits of western Georgia (Fig. 1). The king of Lazika had subordinated the neighboring tribes, but, on the other hand, formally it was a vassal of the Roman (Byzantine) emperor. According to Procopius of Caesarea, the Lazis “were Romans’ subordinate, but they did not pay any tribute or submit to them. The only thing they did was that when their king died, the Roman king would send an heir to the throne, or the symbol of power, to them. The latter would rigorously protect the borders of this country together with his subordinates so that the hostile Hunns would be unable to invade Roman lands from the Lazis’ bordering Caucasus Mountains passing through Lazika. They firmly protected them without getting any money or army from the Romans and did not go to war with the Romans either [Procopius of Caesarea 1965:72-73]. It is obvious that despite gaining factual independence, Romans still had considerable influence on western Georgia. It is not surprising - from the first century BC, after Pompey campaigned against Colchis and later (in the first-second cc AD) Rome deployed garrisons on the Black Sea coast, Rome gained a firm foothold in western Georgia. Analysis of archaeological material shows that this influence was not only political, but economic and cultural as well. For instance, the inland area of western Georgia yielded a large number of Roman coins of the first three centuries of the common era. Among them remarkable is a hoard of silver coins of the second-third centuries (907 items) discovered in Village Eki (Senaki Municipality) in 1971. It included a drachma of King Orod II of Parthia (57-38) and didrachmas and denarii minted in the names of Roman emperors Nerva, Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, Lucius Verus, Commodus, Pertinax, Niger, Septimius Severus and so on. 774 coins of the Eki hoard are struck in the mint of Caesarea, 131 – in the mints of Rome and those of the eastern provinces of Roman Empire, and the rest – in other provinces [G. Dundua, V. Tsirghvava 1971:42:45]. This and other contemporaneous discoveries prove that in the late Roman period Roman influence in western Georgia, especially in its western regions, was really strong.

THE 2019 EXCAVATIONS OF THE ROMAN PERIOD AND THE MIGRATION PERIOD AT THE YASKOVICHI-1 SETTLEMENT IN THE PRIPYAT POLESIE

В статье представлены результаты исследований 2019 г. на селище Ясковичи-1, открытом в 2017 г. на северной окраине Припятского Полесья. Памятник содержит выразительный горизонт позднеримского периода (рубежа II/III - середины IV в.), сопоставимый с древностями киевской культуры. На примере отдельных фрагментов посуды и вещей прослеживаются связи его жителей с носителями вельбарской культуры. Следующий горизонт памятника - пражской культуры -представлен отдельными находками и немногочисленными фрагментами керамики. Последние соотносятся преимущественно с ранними этапами развития пражского керамического комплекса в Припятском Полесье, не исключая фазы «0» - финала позднеримского времени и начала эпохи Великого переселения народов. The paper presents results of the excavations conducted at the open settlement of Yaskovichi-1 in 2019. The settlement was discovered in 2017 in the northern fringe of the Pripyat Polesie. The site contains a horizon dating to the late Roman period (the turn of the 3 - mid-4 centuries) rich with finds comparable with antiquities of the Kiev culture. Analyzing some fragments of the vessels and other items, the author traces down the links between its residents and the Wielbark population. The subsequent horizon of the site, i.e. that of Prague culture, is represented by individual finds and few fragments of ceramics. The latter are correlated, mostly, with the early development of the Prague ceramic assembly in the Pripyat Polesie, without excluding phase 0, which is the final stage of the Late Roman period and the beginning of the Migration Period.

Noble shape, humble metals. Bronze and silver shield-head and snake-head rings of Roman era Scandinavia

Gold snake-head rings are a famous and much studied artefact group of the Late Roman Period in Scandinavia. But before and during their heyday, women in the same areas were occasionally buried with shield-head and snake-head rings made of silver or bronze. This paper surveys the material and traces the origin of these designs from the Wielbark Culture in coastal Poland about AD 100. The early shield-head rings probably arrived across the Baltic with the women who wore them. After the AD 210s, non-gold rings are a feature of the gold snake-head rings’ core production and distribution area on the Baltic Islands and south-east mainland Sweden. The women who wore them were not tribal royalty, but enjoyed comfortable economic means and had the right to display this top-level symbol in more affordable materials.

Animal husbandry between the Roman times and the High Middle Ages in central Europe: a biometrical analysis of cattle, sheep and pig

This paper presents a meta-analysis of biometrical data of cattle (Bos taurus), sheep (Ovis aries), and pig (Sus domesticus), with a diachronic, long-term approach (first–twelfth centuries AD) and at a large regional scale (Switzerland and adjacent areas of France), with the aim of looking at changes in animal husbandry during the transition between Roman times and the Early Middle Ages. With this in mind, a comprehensive biometrical analysis is carried out, on the basis of the log-ratio technique (or logarithmic size index — LSI). The results show an increase of the size of domesticates during the Late Roman period, as well as a long period of size decrease in the subsequent centuries. The possible reasons behind this size decrease are discussed, focusing on three factors: a genetic change, less direct control over feeding and breeding, and changing patterns of herd sex ratios. We argue that these changes should be seen as an efficient adaptation of animal husbandry strategies to broader social, economic, and political transformations.

The lunula pendants from the cemetery of Frontovoe 3 from the Late Roman Period in the South-Western Crimea

The flat cemetery of Frontovoe 3 was discovered in 2018 by a team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the Nakhimovskii district of modern Sevastopol, in the south-western area of the Crimean Peninsula. The site comprising 328 graves was excavated completely. The cemetery appeared ca. late first century AD and ceased to exist in the late fourth or early fifth century AD. The cemetery showed expressive spatial structure and contained eloquent assemblages with abundant grave goods allowing us to determine its chronological zones. This paper addresses the finds of silver crescent-moon-shaped pendants from graves 13 and 94. Similar ornaments occurred in burial assemblages in the Crimea and the northern Dagestan, Kalmykia, Lower Don area, and also in Sarmatian graves in the Great Hungarian Plain. The lunula pendants in question form a chronological reference point for the Pontic-Danubian antiquities in the Late Roman Period.