The Emperor at the Council. Imperial Interventions in Late Antique Church Councils in Literary Sources and Documentary Records

This paper examines the modes of imperial interactions with Church councils, focusing on the emperor’s participation in episcopal meetings and its representation in late antique sources, both literary and documentary. The author argues that the availability and strategic dissemination of conciliar records could affect, for better or worse, the understanding of the imperial religious policy and attitude towards Church institutions. This is most clearly illustrated by Marcian’s behaviour at Chalcedon, and by the active steps he took to produce an official and imperially endorsed edition of the conciliar acts. The significance of Marcian’s initiatives emerges more clearly when placed in the context of developing practices with respect to conciliar procedure (and the imperial role therein) and the circulation of conciliar information. After considering possible precedents in both these fields, the article reconstructs the early circulation and reception of the Chalcedonian acts, focusing particularly on the records of the sixth session, which was presided by the emperor himself. The author discusses the role played by the imperial initiative at the council and in its aftermath, and how it contributed to shape the reception of Marcian’s image as a Christian ruler.

The Abbey of Werden on the Frankish-Saxon Frontier. The Depictions of Landscapes and Emotions in the vita Gregorii and the vitae Liudgeri

This study explores the depictions of landscapes and emotions in the ninth-century hagiographies associated with Liudger: the three vitae Liudgeri and Liudger’s own vita Gregorii. The Frisian missionary founded the monastery of Werden, situated near the Frankish-Saxon frontier. It will be argued that previous historiography on early medieval frontiers has predominantly focused on the military nature of frontiers. Here, more cultural or symbolic natures of the Frankish-Saxon frontier will be discussed. The hagiographical narratives will be examined in conjunction with the notion of a frontier as a ‘third space’. The vitae Liudgeri shaped a discourse that legitimated Liudger’s translation to Werden. This resulted in the creation of a new place of Christian worship in the competitive landscape of post-conquest Saxony, as part of the Christianization of the region. Monasteries like Werden were the places where new missionaries were educated who would continue this Christianization. Exemplary emotional behaviour of the saints, narrated in hagiographies, could help instruct this new generation. Altfrid and Liudger tried to dissuade emotions of anger, indicated by ira or furor, with their hagiographical narratives. These two perspectives offer a glimpse into the attempts of a local monastery to stand out in the Frankish-Saxon frontier.

Barbatoriam facere. Distinktion und Transgression in der römischen Kaiserzeit

While clothing issues of the Romans have been researched in recent years, the examination of facial hair has so far been rather unexplored. Therefore, little attention has been paid to the ceremonial first shave of young Romans (barbatoria), although beard growth, shaving and care provided information about hierarchies and identity, alleged sexual practices or periods of life cycle. The ritual of barbatoria was hence accompanied by assumptions about the character of a person. The article shows these dimensions of barbatoria using the examples of Octavian/Augustus, Caligula, Nero and Elagabalus. In doing so, it aims at pointing to the possibilities of distinction as well as transgression for staging the status as a young, wealthy Roman citizen that is becoming a ‘real man’.

The Death of Mani in Retrospect

The execution of the prophet Mani (c. 216 – 273) by the Sasanian king Bahram I (r. 271 – 274) received sharply different treatments in the historiography of three of the confessional groups of the Sasanian empire. Variously a persecuted prophet, a blasphemous lunatic or a sinister heresiarch the representations of this moment sought to establish its meaning in the context of communal narratives predicated on the claims of sacred history. Despite this, it is notable that Manichean, Christian and Perso-Arabic accounts clearly share features. This indicates not only that Mani’s death became a site of competition between the constituent groups of the Sasanian empire, but that the internal historiographies of these groups were in some sense entwined, or at least sensitive to the historical claims made by their opponents. This is particularly relevant in the case of the Perso-Arabic narrative. This version, which almost certainly descends from a priestly Zoroastrian source, presents a picture of a confident priesthood stiffening the spine of a wavering king. It is contended that the source of this story was composed as a counterstrike in a historical debate in which Christian and Manichean authors had successfully propagated an image of Bahram’s court as religiously tepid and his priests as slanderers or non-entities. That such an intervention was required signals a disjuncture between early and late forms of Sasanian ideology. Moreover, it presents more evidence in support of theories of a late and deliberate construction of Zoroastrian “orthodoxy”.

Natural Disasters and Time: Non-eschatological Perceptions of Earthquakes in Late Antique and Medieval Historiography

This contribution analyzes the rhetoric surrounding natural disasters in historiographic sources, challenging our assumptions about the eschatological nature of late antique and medieval historical consciousness. Contrary to modern expectations, a large number of late antique and medieval sources indicate that earthquakes and other natural disasters were understood as signs from God, relating to theophanic encounters or divine wrath in the present time. Building on recent research on premodern concepts of time and historical consciousness, the article underscores the fact that eschatological models of time and history—that is, the relentless linear, teleological progression of time towards the End of Days—was not how premodern people perceived the relationship between past, present, and future. The textual evidence presented here is supported by a fragmented and little-known illuminated historiographic text, the Ravennater Annalen, housed today in the cathedral library in Merseburg. This copy of a sixth-century illustrated calendar from Ravenna contains unique depictions of earthquakes in the form of giants breathing fire. Like the textual sources, this visual document should not be read as a premonition of the End of Days, rather it visualizes the belief that divine agency and wrath caused natural disasters.

Frühbyzantinische Kreuzdiskurse des 6. und 7. Jahrhunderts und ihre Rezeption in Konstantinopel, Kappadokien und im Westen

The paper establishes connections between funerary art in the Eastern (Cappadocia) and the Western Mediterranean (Lombard kingdom in Northern Italy) during the seventh century. Jewelry pendants and gemstone decorations are also covered. The similarities of the image concepts suggest common design principles, with the cross as a symbol of the Son of Man when God returns on Judgment Day (Mt 24, 30). As celestial signs in the midst of stars and planets, these forms of the cross, which may also have influenced the Baiuvarian and Alemannic gold-leaf crosses, have a cosmic character. Under the sign of the concentric cross, according to Mt 24, 31, the angels gather together the elect (Christians) from the four directions of the world.

A New Edition of the De cerimoniis: No Longer a ‘geteiltes Dossier’?

This review article presents a brief survey of the new critical edition, translation and commentary of the important tenth-century Byzantine imperial treatise known as the De cerimoniis aulae byzantinae (on the ceremonial of the Byzantine court), a title ascribed to the text only in the 16th century. The edition offers an up-to-date and highly accurate edition of the tenth century manuscripts through which the text has been transmitted and the detailed and rigorous commentary includes a complete historical and structural analysis of the two books into which the text is divided. In the course of their analysis, the editors arrive at a number of important new conclusions about the origins, intentions and structure of the text, the working methods of the emperor who commissioned it, and the aims and intentions of Basil the parakoimomenos, the person who commissioned the Leipzig manuscript, the chief surviving witness for the text. The 5 volumes of the publication represent a superb achievement by the team of French scholars under the original direction of Gilbert Dagron (†).