Victors and Pilgrims in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages

The practice of the imperial adventus and the concept of pilgrimage are already fully expressed in a recently discovered homily of St. Augustine that refers to a visit of Flavius Honorius in Rome in 403-404. To understand the implications of the text, the essay recreates the actual urban situation of Rome in those years. At the same time the homily contributes to this knowledge and by placing the text in its literary tradition the author is able to delineate the urban changes in the centuries before and after the event and better define the original equilibrium between the triumphal and religious aspects of this ceremonial entry. The author explores the balance of these two components over the centuries and shows how in the sixth century the triumphant element, despite its former dominance, weaken and the aspect of Pilgrimage increasingly came to dominate.