A Brief History of Emperor Constantine
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Hadrian and the Greek East
HADRIAN AND THE GREEK EAST: IMPERIAL POLICY AND COMMUNICATION DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University By Demetrios Kritsotakis, B.A, M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2008 Dissertation Committee: Approved by Professor Fritz Graf, Adviser Professor Tom Hawkins ____________________________ Professor Anthony Kaldellis Adviser Greek and Latin Graduate Program Copyright by Demetrios Kritsotakis 2008 ABSTRACT The Roman Emperor Hadrian pursued a policy of unification of the vast Empire. After his accession, he abandoned the expansionist policy of his predecessor Trajan and focused on securing the frontiers of the empire and on maintaining its stability. Of the utmost importance was the further integration and participation in his program of the peoples of the Greek East, especially of the Greek mainland and Asia Minor. Hadrian now invited them to become active members of the empire. By his lengthy travels and benefactions to the people of the region and by the creation of the Panhellenion, Hadrian attempted to create a second center of the Empire. Rome, in the West, was the first center; now a second one, in the East, would draw together the Greek people on both sides of the Aegean Sea. Thus he could accelerate the unification of the empire by focusing on its two most important elements, Romans and Greeks. Hadrian channeled his intentions in a number of ways, including the use of specific iconographical types on the coinage of his reign and religious language and themes in his interactions with the Greeks. In both cases it becomes evident that the Greeks not only understood his messages, but they also reacted in a positive way. -
Exiling Bishops: the Policy of Constantius II
University of Richmond UR Scholarship Repository Classical Studies Faculty Publications Classical Studies 2014 Exiling Bishops: The olicP y of Constantius II Walter Stevenson University of Richmond, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.richmond.edu/classicalstudies-faculty- publications Part of the History of Christianity Commons Recommended Citation Stevenson, Walt. "Exiling Bishops: The oP licy of Canstantius II." Dumbarton Oaks Papers 68 (2014): 7-27. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Classical Studies at UR Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Classical Studies Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of UR Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Exiling Bishops: The Policy of Constantius II Walt Stevenson onstantius II was forced by circumstances to all instances in which Constantius II exiled bishops Cmake innovations in the policy that his father and focus on a sympathetic reading of his strategy.2 Constantine had followed in exiling bishops. While Though the sources for this period are muddled and ancient tradition has made the father into a sagacious require extensive sorting, a panoramic view of exile saint and the son into a fanatical demon, recent schol- incidents reveals a pattern in which Constantius moved arship has tended to stress continuity between the two past his father’s precedents to mold a new, intelligent regimes.1 This article will attempt to gather -
Domitian's Arae Incendii Neroniani in New Flavian Rome
Rising from the Ashes: Domitian’s Arae Incendii Neroniani in New Flavian Rome Lea K. Cline In the August 1888 edition of the Notizie degli Scavi, profes- on a base of two steps; it is a long, solid rectangle, 6.25 m sors Guliermo Gatti and Rodolfo Lanciani announced the deep, 3.25 m wide, and 1.26 m high (lacking its crown). rediscovery of a Domitianic altar on the Quirinal hill during These dimensions make it the second largest public altar to the construction of the Casa Reale (Figures 1 and 2).1 This survive in the ancient capital. Built of travertine and revet- altar, found in situ on the southeast side of the Alta Semita ted in marble, this altar lacks sculptural decoration. Only its (an important northern thoroughfare) adjacent to the church inscription identifies it as an Ara Incendii Neroniani, an altar of San Andrea al Quirinale, was not unknown to scholars.2 erected in fulfillment of a vow made after the great fire of The site was discovered, but not excavated, in 1644 when Nero (A.D. 64).7 Pope Urban VIII (Maffeo Barberini) and Gianlorenzo Bernini Archaeological evidence attests to two other altars, laid the foundations of San Andrea al Quirinale; at that time, bearing identical inscriptions, excavated in the sixteenth the inscription was removed to the Vatican, and then the and seventeenth centuries; the Ara Incendii Neroniani found altar was essentially forgotten.3 Lanciani’s notes from May on the Quirinal was the last of the three to be discovered.8 22, 1889, describe a fairly intact structure—a travertine block Little is known of the two other altars; one, presumably altar with remnants of a marble base molding on two sides.4 found on the Vatican plain, was reportedly used as building Although the altar’s inscription was not in situ, Lanciani refers material for the basilica of St. -
Who Was St. Helen, and Why Is There a Well Bearing Her Name in Farnhill ?
The Farnhill “Shelley Well” – the origin of this odd name Time and again have I pondered and sifted my thought in the prison of the night. From “Elene” by Cynewulf What is the Shelley Well ? For those of you that don’t know, “Shelley Well” is the local name for the stone trough, fed by a spring, and located on the road-side in front of Spout House, in High Farnhill. Fig 1: The curiously-named Shelley Well It’s an odd name, and some people in the village will tell you that it is properly called St. Helen’s Well. Of course this immediately poses two questions: who was St. Helen, and why is there a well bearing her name in Farnhill ? This article aims to offer some possible answers. Who was St. Helen ? It’s not an easy question to answer, because: There’s an historical St. Helen, the mother of the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. There’s also a mythologized St. Helen, where the basic facts associated with the historical Helen have been re-imagined, to provide a British origin. And, most confusingly, there’s a mythological Helen, whose mythology has subsequently been used to create an almost certainly imaginary early Welsh saint. The historical St. Helen, the mother of Constantine the Great Helen, or more correctly Helena, was born around 250AD, probably in Asia Minor, and was the daughter of an inn-keeper1. Around 270AD she married Constantius Chlorus, a Roman general. They had a one son, Constantine, who was born in 272 (or perhaps 274), but were divorced in 289 when Constantius made a politically advantageous marriage to the daughter of the emperor of the western half of the Roman empire, Maximian. -
The Rulers of Palenque a Beginner’S Guide
The Rulers of Palenque A Beginner’s Guide By Joel Skidmore With illustrations by Merle Greene Robertson Citation: 2008 The Rulers of Palenque: A Beginner’s Guide. Third edition. Mesoweb: www. mesoweb.com/palenque/resources/rulers/PalenqueRulers-03.pdf. Publication history: The first edition of this work, in html format, was published in 2000. The second was published in 2007, when the revised edition of Martin and Grube’s Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens was still in press, and this third conforms to the final publica- tion (Martin and Grube 2008). To check for a more recent edition, see: www.mesoweb.com/palenque/resources/rulers/rulers.html. Copyright notice: All drawings by Merle Greene Robertson unless otherwise noted. Mesoweb Publications The Rulers of Palenque INTRODUCTION The unsung pioneer in the study of Palenque’s dynastic history is Heinrich Berlin, who in three seminal studies (Berlin 1959, 1965, 1968) provided the essential outline of the dynasty and explicitly identified the name glyphs and likely accession dates of the major Early and Late Classic rulers (Stuart 2005:148-149). More prominent and well deserved credit has gone to Linda Schele and Peter Mathews (1974), who summarized the rulers of Palenque’s Late Classic and gave them working names in Ch’ol Mayan (Stuart 2005:149). The present work is partly based on the transcript by Phil Wanyerka of a hieroglyphic workshop presented by Schele and Mathews at the 1993 Maya Meet- ings at Texas (Schele and Mathews 1993). Essential recourse has also been made to the insights and decipherments of David Stuart, who made his first Palenque Round Table presentation in 1978 at the age of twelve (Stuart 1979) and has recently advanced our understanding of Palenque and its rulers immeasurably (Stuart 2005). -
The Gallic Empire (260-274): Rome Breaks Apart
The Gallic Empire (260-274): Rome Breaks Apart Six Silver Coins Collection An empire fractures Roman chariots All coins in each set are protected in an archival capsule and beautifully displayed in a mahogany-like box. The box set is accompanied with a story card, certificate of authenticity, and a black gift box. By the middle of the third century, the Roman Empire began to show signs of collapse. A parade of emperors took the throne, mostly from the ranks of the military. Years of civil war and open revolt led to an erosion of territory. In the year 260, in a battle on the Eastern front, the emperor Valerian was taken prisoner by the hated Persians. He died in captivity, and his corpse was stuffed and hung on the wall of the palace of the Persian king. Valerian’s capture threw the already-fractured empire into complete disarray. His son and co-emperor, Gallienus, was unable to quell the unrest. Charismatic generals sought to consolidate their own power, but none was as powerful, or as ambitious, as Postumus. Born in an outpost of the Empire, of common stock, Postumus rose swiftly through the ranks, eventually commanding Roman forces “among the Celts”—a territory that included modern-day France, Belgium, Holland, and England. In the aftermath of Valerian’s abduction in 260, his soldiers proclaimed Postumus emperor. Thus was born the so-called Gallic Empire. After nine years of relative peace and prosperity, Postumus was murdered by his own troops, and the Gallic Empire, which had depended on the force of his personality, began to crumble. -
Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl Boise State University
Boise State University ScholarWorks History Faculty Publications and Presentations Department of History 1-1-2007 Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl Boise State University Publication Information Odahl, Charles Matson. (2007). "Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy". Connections: European Studies Annual Review, 3, 89-113. This document was originally published in Connections: European Studies Annual Review by Rocky Mountain European Scholars Consortium. Copyright restrictions may apply. Coda: Recovering Constantine's European Legacy 111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111 Constantine the Great and Christian Imperial Theocracy Charles Matson Odahl, Boise State University1 rom his Christian conversion under the influence of cept of imperial theocracy was conveyed in contemporary art Frevelatory experiences outside Rome in A.D. 312 until (Illustration I). his burial as the thirteenth Apostle at Constantinople in Although Constantine had been raised as a tolerant 337, Constantine the Great, pagan polytheist and had the first Christian emperor propagated several Olympian of the Roman world, initiated divinities, particularly Jupiter, the role of and set the model Hercules, Mars, and Sol, as for Christian imperial theoc di vine patrons during the early racy. Through his relationship years of his reign as emperor -
Bowl Round 5 Bowl Round 5 First Quarter
NHBB B-Set Bowl 2017-2018 Bowl Round 5 Bowl Round 5 First Quarter (1) The remnants of this government established the Republic of Ezo after losing the Boshin War. Two and a half centuries earlier, this government was founded after its leader won the Battle of Sekigahara against the Toyotomi clan. This government's policy of sakoku came to an end when Matthew Perry's Black Ships forced the opening of Japan through the 1854 Convention of Kanagawa. For ten points, name this last Japanese shogunate. ANSWER: Tokugawa Shogunate (or Tokugawa Bakufu) (2) Xenophon's Anabasis describes ten thousand Greek soldiers of this type who fought Artaxerxes II of Persia. A war named for these people was won by Hamilcar Barca and led to his conquest of Spain. Famed soldiers of this type include slingers from Rhodes and archers from Crete. Greeks who fought for Persia were, for ten points, what type of soldier that fought not for national pride, but for money? ANSWER: mercenary (prompt on descriptive answers) (3) The most prominent of the Townshend Acts not to be repealed in 1770 was a tax levied on this commodity. The Dartmouth, the Eleanor, and the Beaver carried this commodity from England to the American colonies. The Intolerable Acts were passed in response to the dumping of this commodity into a Massachusetts Harbor in 1773 by members of the Sons of Liberty. For ten points, identify this commodity destroyed in a namesake Boston party. ANSWER: tea (accept Tea Act; accept Boston Tea Party) (4) This location is the setting of a photo of a boy holding a toy hand grenade by Diane Arbus. -
Fertile in Tyrants Call for Papers
‘A Province Fertile in Tyrants’ Representations of Roman Emperors and Usurpers on the Island of Britain from the Second Century AD Onwards Call for Papers Statue of Constantine the Great near York Minster (work of Philip Jackson, 1998) In around 415 AD, Saint Jerome, from his retreat in Jerusalem, described the Isle of Britain, at the other end of the Roman world, as a ‘province fertile in tyrants’: ‘Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannorum’ (Jerome, Ep. 133). A century later, the monk Gildas repeated this phrase, ascribing it mistakenly to Porphyry, in his admonitory De Excidio Britanniae (§4.4.). Indeed, from the end of the second century AD onwards, numerous usurpations originated among the legions stationed on the Island. We can cite Clodius Albinus (193-197), Carausius (286-293), his assassin and successor Allectus (293-296), Magnus Maximus (383-388) and finally, in rapid succession, Marcus (406-407), Gratian (407) and Constantine III (407-411). On a completely different level, but remarkably similar in the way he was perceived by posterity, Constantine I (306-337), son of Constantius Chlorus, was proclaimed emperor at York in 306 and launched his imperial bid for power in Britain; the usurpers at the end of the fourth, beginning of the fifth century were keen to drape themselves in his mantle. The history and posterity of those emperors and usurpers will be the object of a one day (or more, if response to this call for papers warrants it) symposium, to be held in Boulogne-sur-Mer on Friday, February 9th 2018 (and the following day if necessary). -
Christopher White Table of Contents
Christopher White Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 Peter the “rock”? ...................................................................................................................................... 4 Churches change over time ...................................................................................................................... 6 The Church and her earthly pilgrimage .................................................................................................... 7 Chapter 1 The Apostle Peter (d. 64?) : First Bishop and Pope of Rome? .................................................. 11 Peter in Rome ......................................................................................................................................... 12 Yes and No .............................................................................................................................................. 13 The death of Peter .................................................................................................................................. 15 Chapter 2 Pope Sylvester (314-335): Constantine’s Pope ......................................................................... 16 Constantine and his imprint .................................................................................................................... 17 “Remembering” Sylvester ...................................................................................................................... -
Masonic Token: July 15, 1909
MASONIC TOKEN. --- ------------------------------------------—---------------- WHEREBY ONE BROTHER MAY K-N(J W VOLUME 5. PORTLAND, ME., JULY 15, 1909. Ng. 9. with a very pleasant excursion into Aroos Published quarterly by Stephen Berry Co., §650 insurance on the paraphernalia. The Council had insurance of §500 ; the East took County to the camp of M. W. Bro. No. 37 Plum Street, Portland, Maine. ern Star §150. The records were kept else Chase. Twelve cts. per year in advance. where and were saved. The collection of St. John’s Day. Established March, 1867. - - 43d Year. proceedings was burned. Portland Commandery spent the day on The Grand Master has made the follow Advertisements 34.00 per inch, or $3.00 for Great Chebeague Island in Casco Bay. half an inch for one year. ing changes in the 1st and 25th districts for St. Alban Commandery went to Hampton No advertisement received unless the advertiser, convenience in visiting : Beach, N. H., where it met Trinity of or some member of the firm, is a Freemason in good standing. 96 Monument, Houlton, and Manchester, N. H. 197, Aroostook, Blaine, Lewiston Commandery went to Augusta A CRUST. are transferred to the 1st district, and where it was entertained by Trinity. 72 Pioneer, Ashland, and Bradford Commandery of Biddeford went August waits with folded hands, 209 Fort Kent, Fort Kent, to Moosehead Lake 27th and 28th and Dreaming in the golden haze; Barley for the reaper stands are transferred to the 25th district. stopped at the Kineo Honse. Bronzing in the sun’s soft rays. Palestine Commandery of Belfast went to New Masonic Temple.—The Building On the ponds the lilies lie, Seal Harbor. -
The Political and Military Aspects of Accession of Constantine the Great
Graeco-Latina Brunensia 24 / 2019 / 2 https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2019-2-2 The Political and Military Aspects of Accession of Constantine the Great Stanislav Doležal (University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice) Abstract The article argues that Constantine the Great, until he was recognized by Galerius, the senior ČLÁNKY / ARTICLES Emperor of the Tetrarchy, was an usurper with no right to the imperial power, nothwithstand- ing his claim that his father, the Emperor Constantius I, conferred upon him the imperial title before he died. Tetrarchic principles, envisaged by Diocletian, were specifically put in place to supersede and override blood kinship. Constantine’s accession to power started as a military coup in which a military unit composed of barbarian soldiers seems to have played an impor- tant role. Keywords Constantine the Great; Roman emperor; usurpation; tetrarchy 19 Stanislav Doležal The Political and Military Aspects of Accession of Constantine the Great On 25 July 306 at York, the Roman Emperor Constantius I died peacefully in his bed. On the same day, a new Emperor was made – his eldest son Constantine who had been present at his father’s deathbed. What exactly happened on that day? Britain, a remote province (actually several provinces)1 on the edge of the Roman Empire, had a tendency to defect from the central government. It produced several usurpers in the past.2 Was Constantine one of them? What gave him the right to be an Emperor in the first place? It can be argued that the political system that was still valid in 306, today known as the Tetrarchy, made any such seizure of power illegal.