Introduction
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Journeys to Byzantium? Roman Senators Between Rome and Constantinople
Journeys to Byzantium? Roman Senators Between Rome and Constantinople Master’s Thesis Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Michael Anthony Carrozzo, B.A Graduate Program in History The Ohio State University 2010 Thesis Committee: Kristina Sessa, Advisor Timothy Gregory Anthony Kaldellis Copyright by Michael Anthony Carrozzo 2010 Abstract For over a thousand years, the members of the Roman senatorial aristocracy played a pivotal role in the political and social life of the Roman state. Despite being eclipsed by the power of the emperors in the first century BC, the men who made up this order continued to act as the keepers of Roman civilization for the next four hundred years, maintaining their traditions even beyond the disappearance of an emperor in the West. Despite their longevity, the members of the senatorial aristocracy faced an existential crisis following the Ostrogothic conquest of the Italian peninsula, when the forces of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I invaded their homeland to contest its ownership. Considering the role they played in the later Roman Empire, the disappearance of the Roman senatorial aristocracy following this conflict is a seminal event in the history of Italy and Western Europe, as well as Late Antiquity. Two explanations have been offered to explain the subsequent disappearance of the Roman senatorial aristocracy. The first involves a series of migrations, beginning before the Gothic War, from Italy to Constantinople, in which members of this body abandoned their homes and settled in the eastern capital. -
The Summit of Ancient Latin Mathematical Competence:Apuleius and Augustine
Roskilde University The Summit of Ancient Latin Mathematical Competence Apuleius and Augustine Høyrup, Jens Published in: Actes du XIIIe Colloque Maghrébin sur l'Histoire des Mathématiques Arabes (COMHISMA13) Publication date: 2018 Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Citation for published version (APA): Høyrup, J. (2018). The Summit of Ancient Latin Mathematical Competence: Apuleius and Augustine. In M. Abdeljaouad, & H. Hedfi (Eds.), Actes du XIIIe Colloque Maghrébin sur l'Histoire des Mathématiques Arabes (COMHISMA13) (pp. 157-170). COMHISHA. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain. • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 13e colloque maghrébin sur l’histoire des mathématiques arabes, Tunis 2018 THE SUMMIT OF ANCIENT LATIN MATHEMATICAL COMPETENCE: APULEIUS AND AUGUSTINE Jens HØYRUP Roskilde Universitetscenter (Danemark) Dedicated to Samia Ahasniou and Saliha Mostefai Abstract. According to all we know, Latin Antiquity was utterly unfamiliar with the theoretical aspects of mathematics; Quintilian did not know finger reckoning from geometry, while Cicero explains that the Romans were not interested. -
Ravenna Its Role in Earlier Medieval Change and Exchange
Ravenna its role in earlier medieval change and exchange Ravenna its role in earlier medieval change and exchange Edited by Judith Herrin and Jinty Nelson LONDON INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Published by UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDY INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU First published in print in 2016 (ISBN 978‑1‑909646‑14‑8) This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution‑ NonCommercial‑NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY‑ NCND 4.0) license. More information regarding CC licenses is available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Available to download free at http://www.humanities‑digital‑library.org ISBN 978‑1‑909646‑72‑8 (PDF edition) DOI: 10.14296/917.9781909646728 iv Contents Acknowledgements vii List of contributors ix List of illustrations xiii Abbreviations xvii Introduction 1 Judith Herrin and Jinty Nelson 1. A tale of two cities: Rome and Ravenna under Gothic rule 15 Peter Heather 2. Episcopal commemoration in late fifth‑century Ravenna 39 Deborah M. Deliyannis 3. Production, promotion and reception: the visual culture of Ravenna between late antiquity and the middle ages 53 Maria Cristina Carile 4. Ravenna in the sixth century: the archaeology of change 87 Carola Jäggi 5. The circulation of marble in the Adriatic Sea at the time of Justinian 111 Yuri A. Marano 6. Social instability and economic decline of the Ostrogothic community in the aftermath of the imperial victory: the papyri evidence 133 Salvatore Cosentino 7. A striking evolution: the mint of Ravenna during the early middle ages 151 Vivien Prigent 8. Roman law in Ravenna 163 Simon Corcoran 9. -
The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity
The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citation Wilkinson, Ryan Hayes. 2015. The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences. Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:17467211 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity A dissertation presented by Ryan Hayes Wilkinson to The Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the subject of History Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts May 2015 © 2015 Ryan Hayes Wilkinson All rights reserved. Dissertation Advisor: Professor Michael McCormick Ryan Hayes Wilkinson The Last Horizons of Roman Gaul: Communication, Community, and Power at the End of Antiquity Abstract In the fifth and sixth centuries CE, the Roman Empire fragmented, along with its network of political, cultural, and socio-economic connections. How did that network’s collapse reshape the social and mental horizons of communities in one part of the Roman world, now eastern France? Did new political frontiers between barbarian kingdoms redirect those communities’ external connections, and if so, how? To address these questions, this dissertation focuses on the cities of two Gallo-Roman tribal groups. -
Does the Getica of Jordanes Preserve Genuinely Gothic Traditions?*,1
chapter 7 Making a Gothic History: Does the Getica of Jordanes Preserve Genuinely Gothic Traditions?*,1 The nature of the gentes that destroyed or, as some would prefer, transformed the Roman Empire has been the object of much recent scholarly discussion. How far were these peoples actually created within the Roman world? It is clear that once they entered the empire they took up very many elements of the culture of the empire, most obviously religion and language. An alterna- tive and older view is that the gentes had much longer histories, and that their identities, that is their consciousness of being respectively Goths or Vandals, or Franks, or whatever, had developed well before, in some cases centuries before, they had contact with the Romans, and that their history within the boundaries of the empire was merely a continuation of much longer, scarcely documented history. In this view, the size, importance, and composition of a gens might change a great deal under the impact of historical exigencies. But the cohesion and solidarity of the group was preserved by a body of customs and core traditions that was passed from generation to generation.2 This study is intended to support the second view, that the Goths were a gens when they entered the empire. The nature of these core traditions has been much discussed and their very existence denied. The problem is that that before they entered the empire the gentes were illiterate, and that even after they had come into contact with the Romans and settled inside the empire, our information about them is over- whelmingly derived from Roman sources, which tell us what the Romans thought and felt about these barbarian people, but not what they felt about themselves. -
The Edictum Theoderici: a Study of a Roman Legal Document from Ostrogothic Italy
The Edictum Theoderici: A Study of a Roman Legal Document from Ostrogothic Italy By Sean D.W. Lafferty A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Sean D.W. Lafferty 2010 The Edictum Theoderici: A Study of a Roman Legal Document from Ostrogothic Italy Sean D.W. Lafferty Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2010 Abstract This is a study of a Roman legal document of unknown date and debated origin conventionally known as the Edictum Theoderici (ET). Comprised of 154 edicta, or provisions, in addition to a prologue and epilogue, the ET is a significant but largely overlooked document for understanding the institutions of Roman law, legal administration and society in the West from the fourth to early sixth century. The purpose is to situate the text within its proper historical and legal context, to understand better the processes involved in the creation of new law in the post-Roman world, as well as to appreciate how the various social, political and cultural changes associated with the end of the classical world and the beginning of the Middle Ages manifested themselves in the domain of Roman law. It is argued here that the ET was produced by a group of unknown Roman jurisprudents working under the instructions of the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great (493-526), and was intended as a guide for settling disputes between the Roman and Ostrogothic inhabitants of Italy. A study of its contents in relation to earlier Roman law and legal custom preserved in imperial decrees and juristic commentaries offers a revealing glimpse into how, and to what extent, Roman law survived and evolved in Italy following the decline and eventual collapse of imperial authority in the region. -
Cassiodorus Chronicle Edition Mommsen, 1894; English Translation Bouke Procee, 2014
Cassiodorus Chronicle Edition Mommsen, 1894; English translation Bouke Procee, 2014. Introduction Flavius Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus, was a Roman statesman and writer, serving in the administration of Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths at Ravenna, Italy. Senator was part of his surname, not his rank. His best known work is his Variae, a letter collection, written as an example book for high official scribes. Cassiodorus wrote his chronicle for Eutharic, husband of Amalasuintha, the daughter of King Theoderic the Great, and heir apparent to Theoderic's throne. Most likely he did this in 519, the year that Eutharic was consul, together with Justin, the Eastern emperor. He used as sources material from Livy, Jerome, Prosper of Aquitaine and Eutropius, which he epitomized and adapted for his own purpose. Two manuscripts of Cassiodorus' chronicle survive: Parisinus Latinus 4860, a tenth-century manuscript, kept in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris; and Monacensis 14613, written in the eleventh century, and kept in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Mommsen published an edition based on these manuscripts in 1894, in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Auctores Antiquissimi 11, pp. 109-1611. This edition is shown below, alongside the English translation. CHRONICA MAGNI AURELII CASSIODORI CHRONICLE OF MAGNUS AURELIUS CASSIODORUS SENATOR, vir SENATORIS v.c. et inl., ex questore sacri palatii, ex clarissimus and inlustris, ex-quaestor of the sacred palace, ex-consul, ex- cons. ord., ex mag. off., ppo atque patricii. magister officiorum, praetorian prefect and patrician. 1 PRAEFATIO. PREFACE Sapientia principali, qua semper magna revolvitis, in In your princely wisdom, in which you always consider important matters, ordinem me consules digerere censuistis, ut qui annum you directed me to set the consuls in order so that you, who had adorned the ornaveratis glorioso nomine, redderetis fastis veritatis year with your glorious name, might restore to the fasti the dignity of pristinae dignitatem. -
Exegesis and Empire in the Early Byzantine Mediterranean
Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum Studies and Texts in Antiquity and Christianity Herausgeber/Editor: CHRISTOPH MARKSCHIES (Heidelberg) Beirat/Advisory Board HUBERT CANCIK (Tübingen) • GIOVANNI CASADIO (Salerno) SUSANNA ELM (Berkeley) • JOHANNES HAHN (Münster) JÖRG RÜPKE (Erfurt) 17 Michael Maas Exegesis and Empire in the Early Byzantine Mediterranean Junillus Africanus and the Instituía Regularia Divinae Legis With a Contribution by Edward G. Mathews, Jr. With the Latin Text Established by Heinrich Kihn Translated by Michael Maas Mohr Siebeck MICHAF.L MAAS, born 1951; 1973 BA in Classics and Anthropology at Cornell University: 1982 Ph.D. in Ancient History and Mediterranean Archaeology at Berkeley; Professor of History and Director of the Program in Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations at Rice Univer- sity, Houston, Texas. ISBN 3-16-148108-9 ISSN 1436-3003 (Studien und Texte zu Antike und Christentum) Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.di'. © 2003 by J. C. B. Möhr (Paul Siebeck), P. O. Box 2040, D-72010Tübingen. This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, in any form (beyond that permitted by copyright law) without the publisher's written permission. This applies particularly to reproductions, translations, microfilms and storage and processing in electronic systems. The book was printed by Guide-Druck in Tübingen on non-aging paper and bound by Buchbinderei Held in Rottenburg. Printed in Germany. Acknowledgments It is a pleasure to thank the institutions that enabled me to write this book and the many friends who gave advice and encouragement during its composition. -
Collectio Avellana and Its Revivals
The Collectio Avellana and Its Revivals The Collectio Avellana and Its Revivals Edited by Rita Lizzi Testa and Giulia Marconi The Collectio Avellana and Its Revivals Edited by Rita Lizzi Testa and Giulia Marconi This book first published 2019 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2019 by Rita Lizzi Testa, Giulia Marconi and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-2150-8 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-2150-6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................. viii Rita Lizzi Testa I. The Collectio Avellana and Its Materials Chapter One ............................................................................................................... 2 The Power and the Doctrine from Gelasius to Vigile Guido Clemente Chapter Two............................................................................................................. 13 The Collectio Avellana—Collecting Letters with a Reason? Alexander W.H. Evers Chapter Three ......................................................................................................... -
This Is a History of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric and the Arian Heresy
This is a history of the Ostrogoths, Theodoric and the Arian heresy Ostrogoths The Ostrogoths were one of the two chief tribes of the Goths, a Germanic people. Their traditions relate that the Goths originally lived on both sides of the Baltic Sea, in Scandinavia and on the Continent. Their oldest habitations recorded in history were situated on the right bank of the Vistula. They left these, all or in part, about the middle of the second century, and settled near the Black Sea, between the Don and Danube. Thence they emerged frequently to attack and pillage the cities of Greece and Asia Minor, and fought continuously with the Romans and the neighbouring Germanic tribes. The emperor Decius fell in battle with them in 251. Crossing the Danube into Thracia in 269 they were defeated by Claudius. Aurelian drove them back across the Danube and gave them Dacia. After that, the Ostrogoths were east of the River Dniester, and the Visigoths to the west. During the reign of Constantine they again attempted to cross the Danube but were repulsed. During the years 350-75 the Goths were united under the leadership of Ermanaric, the Ostrogoth. In 375 they were conquered by the Huns. Some escaped into the Crimea, where they retained their language up to the sixteenth century; the mass of the people, however, remained in their own lands and paid tribute to the Huns; but were otherwise fairly independent and elected their own kings. When the empire of the Huns collapsed after the death of Attila (453), the Ostrogoths regained independence. -
The Guilt of Boethius
The Guilt of Boethius Nathan Basik Copyright © 2000 by Nathan Basik. All rights reserved. This document may be copied and circu- lated freely, in printed or digital form, provided only that this notice of copyright is included on all pages copied. 2 Introduction In the nineteenth century, Benjamin Jowett spent over thirty years translat- ing Plato’s Republic. That is an extreme example of perfectionism, but it helps us appreciate the magnitude (and the hubris) of the goal Boethius set for himself in the Introduction to his translation of Aristotle’s De Interpretatione: translating, analyzing, and reconciling the complete opera of Plato and Aristotle.1 As “incom- parably the greatest scholar and intellect of his day,”2 Boethius may have had the ability and the energy his ambition required. But we will never know how much Boethius would have achieved as a philosopher if he had not suffered a premature death. In 523, less than a year after being named Magister Officiorum3 by King Theodoric, Boethius was charged with treason, hastily and possibly illegally tried, and executed in 526.4 Since the contemporary sources of information about the affair are vague and fragmented, the passage of nearly 1500 years has brought no consensus in explaining Boethius’ tragic fall from a brilliant intellectual and political career. Though disagreement still shrouds the details of every aspect of the case, from indictment to execution, I will argue that Theodoric was fully justified in perceiving Boethius as a traitor. Claims that age or emotional passion or military pressures diminished the King’s judgment are, in this instance, unacceptable. -
Part 1 Addressing Community: Terms, Concepts and Meanings
part 1 Addressing Community: Terms, Concepts and Meanings ∵ Gerda Heydemann - 9789004315693 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 03:29:40AM via free access <UN> Gerda Heydemann - 9789004315693 Downloaded from Brill.com09/27/2021 03:29:40AM via free access chapter 1 People(s) of God? Biblical Exegesis and the Language of Community in Late Antique and Early Medieval Europe Gerda Heydemann Christians in late antique and early medieval Europe were accustomed to imagining their religious community as a people. The notion of the “chosen people”, the “people of God”, functioned as a governing metaphor for articulat- ing the sense of belonging to a community which was at the same time univer- sal and took multiple local forms, all-encompassing but exclusive in its special bond with God. Christian authors used the vocabulary associated with politi- cal or ethnic communities—populus, plebs, natio or gens—to describe and define their community and its coherence, or to delineate its boundaries. Christians encountered the metaphor of the people of God through their engagement with the text of the Hebrew Bible (“Old Testament”). The Old Testament narratives about Israel as God’s chosen people provided a powerful model for Christian communities. When Christian authors appropriated this model they had to explain the ancient biblical concepts to their contemporary audiences. In doing so, they linked the text of the Bible to the political vocabu- lary of their own present. They not only drew on a common-sense understand- ing of what it meant to belong to a people, but also sometimes explicitly reflected on the range of meanings and the usage of the relevant terminology.