Roman Empire
More general subjects:
Spectacle benefaction and the politics of appreciation
Case studies from Italy, Gallia Narbonensis and Africa Proconsularis
In the remotest corners of the Roman Empire large crowds were as beguiled by spectacles as their Roman counterparts. Provincial spectacles however did not share the technical wonders of flying machines elephant dressage and synchronised swimming seen at imperial extravaganzas. Is it this lack of the sensational that accounts for the relative paucity of scholarly attention paid to regional spectacles and in particular their sponsors?
When spectacles are viewed purely as entertainment the messy realities of institutionalized social economic and political power that regulated them are obscured. A clearer understanding of the spectacle can therefore be achieved by contextualizing it in the big picture of regional and provincial life against the backdrop of Roman power and control. The spectacle itself was highly political in its aims and intent. Access to sponsorship of a spectacle similarly relied on hierarchies of political power and privilege and consequently required strategic negotiation of candidacy promises expenditure and recognition. Rivalry competition and emulation was endemic.
This epigraphic analysis focusing on the western Roman Empire (Italy Gaul and North Africa) during the Imperial period identifies the milieux of provincial sponsors their strategies and quest for public honours.
Sur la route du devoir
Le καθῆκον dans la pensée des stoïciens romains
Qu’y a-t-il à l’origine du devoir une idée d’une importance capitale dans l’histoire intellectuelle de l’Occident ? Parmi ses premières incarnations il faut reconnaître le καθῆκον stoïcien « ce qui est convenable » latinisé en officium « devoir ». Cette notion a été développée par les stoïciens hellénistiques mais les témoignages les plus amples à ce sujet proviennent des représentants de l’école ayant vécu à l’époque de l’Empire romain à savoir Sénèque Musonius Rufus Épictète Hiéroclès et Marc Aurèle. Dans ce livre nous essayons de reconstruire une histoire aussi complète que possible du καθῆκον à travers une analyse exhaustive des sources disponibles.
Du Christianisme et des hommes dans l’Antiquité Tardive. Essais de prosopographie
Le néologisme savant de ≪ prosopographie ≫ apparaît à la Renaissance et désigne dans un premier temps une oeuvre littéraire combinant généalogie de princes éloges de leurs vertus et galerie de portraits. Après les travaux érudits de l’Âge classique sur les dirigeants religieux du passé il faut attendre le xix e siècle pour que la prosopographie soit érigée en discipline scientifique.
Reposant sur un dépouillement systématique de la documentation conservée la prosopographie propose une étude sérielle des membres d’un groupe constitué sur une période et une durée déterminées.
En raison de la richesse des sources conservées l’Empire romain a suscité de manière précoce en Europe des études prosopographiques. La période couverte par les iii e-vii e siècles communément appelée ≪ Antiquité tardive ≫ offre une richesse documentaire et littéraire exceptionnelle liée en partie à l’expansion du christianisme et à la conversion du monde antique à la nouvelle religion. Cette abondance de sources explique la réalisation de grandes enquêtes prosopographiques portant d’abord sur l’ensemble des élites civiles puis sur les milieux ecclésiastiques monastiques ascétiques et dévots.
Le présent livre mobilise les résultats obtenus et les recherches en cours pour montrer l’importance de l’apport de la prosopographie à l’histoire du christianisme antique dans des domaines aussi variés que l’histoire des conciles l’hagiographie l’onomastique la hiérarchie ecclésiastique et l’histoire des femmes.
Counterfeits, Imitations, and Copies of Roman Imperial Denarii
Making and Faking Coins on Both Sides of the Limes
Roman Imperial denarii from the first–third centuries ad are almost without exception the most common ancient coinage to be found in Central Northern and Eastern Europe beyond the Roman limes. Perhaps surprisingly however a significant percentage of these coins are in fact counterfeit comprised largely of denarii subaerati (plated denarii fourrées) and denarii flati (base-metal cast copies). Moreover these fake coins were not only manufactured by Romans themselves but also by barbarian peoples in Eastern Europe far from the Roman limes in what should be considered a mass-scale phenomena.
This volume draws together archaeological numismatic and historical research in order to offer a new assessment of the production and use of counterfeit Roman Imperial denarii both within the European provinces of the Roman Empire and in European Barbaricum. Drawing on the results of the research project Barbarian Fakers. Manufacturing and Use of Counterfeit Roman Imperial Denarii in East-Central Europe in Antiquity from the University of Warsaw the papers gathered here explore the transfer of ideas technology and finished products that led to the transfer of counterfeit coinage across the Empire and shed light on how why and when such coins were created and used.
Figures exemplaires de pouvoir sous l’Empire dans la littérature gréco-latine
The exemplum held immense power in antiquity especially in the political field. What role did historical or legendary figures from the Greco-Roman past play during the Empire in speeches intended to build legitimise or question power? How were they selected? How did they work? These are the questions that the eighteen contributions in this volume seek to answer. This multifaceted approach crosses several literary genres including poetry historiography and political or philosophical discourse which are examined over six centuries. It considers different types of power or authority (imperial power but also the authority of the magistrate in the Greek city during Roman domination and the power of bishops). This highlights the plasticity of exempla that depending on the context could justify or question a vast diversity of ideologies and practices of power.
Living with the Army II
The Results of Remote Sensing and Fieldwalking Surveys in Novae (Lower Moesia)
This book presents the results of a research project realised in 2012-14 in the surroundings of the Roman legionary base at Novae (Moesia inferior) transformed in late Antiquity into a civilian town. The publication also contains material from surveys conducted in 1977 and in 2000 which have so far only been partly published.
Various research methods were implemented jointly to enable at least a partial reconstruction of the settlement’s character. These included geophysical prospection field walking and the mapping of metal finds supplemented by a series of analyses such as the testing of plant pollen and macroremains with the aim of providing as complete a reconstruction as possible of the past environment in the fortress’ surroundings. We attempted to record both the finds originating from earlier epochs and those from later ones in order to provide a more complete reconstruction of the settlement landscape and the character of the site.
Bathing at the Edge of the Empire
Roman Baths and Bathing Habits in the North-Western Corner of Continental Europe
Roman bathhouses are considered to be prime markers when studying romanization in the provinces of the Empire as these very specific - and archaeologically recognizable - buildings together with their associated ideas about the body and personal health introduced a decidedly Roman habit into regions that had hitherto been unfamiliar with (communal) bathhouses and heating technology. While traditionally studies into Roman baths and bathing have focused on large public baths in the cities of the empire however those from the area that now roughly corresponds to modern-day Belgium have often been neglected in recent research as this was an area with few important urban centres.
This book for the first time investigates the introduction spread and eventual disappearance of Roman-style baths and of bathing habits in this north-western corner of the Roman Empire. A detailed analysis of the architecture technology and decoration of both public and private baths is combined with a discussion on the role of bathing in the area’s romanization and supplemented by a fully illustrated catalogue of all bathhouses in the area of study. In doing so the volume sheds new light not only on the evolution of baths and bathing in this region but also on their broader role in larger historic processes such as cultural change across the Empire.
Passeurs de culture
La transmission de la culture grecque dans le monde romain des i er-iv e siècles après J.-C.
If the word « culture » comes from the Latin word cultura the concept itself which means general knowledge acquired through schools books and cultural institutions is related in the Roman world of the first centuries ad to Greek paideia. As for paideia which was then restricted to social elite it covered literary education formulated and conveyed by sophists and grammarians in the time of the Roman Empire as well as other forms of Greek culture like music philosophy and sports.
This book focuses on cultural mediators first of all professors who are examined from various points of view: social and cultural status teaching practices or ambivalent representations. Nevertheless transmission of knowledge exceeds the environment of school; it is performed through literary and intellectual productions within specialized disciplines and through reinterpretations which convey a singular world view.
The present collection of essays displays the circulation of culture between the Greek and Roman worlds throughout an Empire whose epicentre is paideia.
Civic Identity and Civic Participation in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
During the Ancient Greek and Roman eras participation in political communities at the local level and assertion of belonging to these communities were among the fundamental principles and values on which societies would rely. For that reason citizenship and democracy are generally considered as concepts typical of the political experience of Classical Antiquity. These concepts of citizenship and democracy are often seen as inconsistent with the political social and ideological context of the late and post-Roman world. As a result scholarship has largely overlooked participation in local political communities when it comes to the period between the disintegration of the Classical model of local citizenship in the later Roman Empire and the emergence of ‘pre-communal’ entities in Northern Italy from the ninth century onwards.
By reassessing the period c. 300-1000 ce through the concepts of civic identity and civic participation this volume will address both the impact of Classical heritage with regard to civic identities in the political experiences of the late and post-Roman world and the rephrasing of new forms of social and political partnership according to ethnic or religious criteria in the early Middle Ages. Starting from the earlier imperial background the fourteen chapters examine the ways in which people shared identity and gave shape to their communal life as well as the role played by the people in local government in the later Roman Empire the Germanic kingdoms Byzantium the early Islamic world and the early medieval West. By focusing on the post-Classical late antique and early medieval periods this volume intends to be an innovative contribution to the general history of citizenship and democracy.
Means of Christian Conversion in Late Antiquity
Objects, Bodies, and Rituals
This volume presents the proceedings of the conference Materiality and Conversion: The Role of Material and Visual Cultures in the Christianization of the Latin West organized by the Centre for Early Medieval Studies in 2020. Its contributions thus focus on the Christianization of the Roman Empire between the fourth and sixth centuries. The studies examine the religious change through the “material turn” approach building on the material and sensorial dimension of Christian conversion and especially the baptismal rite as one of the key components of the process. The material and visual cultures are regarded as vectors and witnesses of conversion to Christianity while human body is viewed as one of the agents in ritual actions. The volume covers a wide range of topics including the prebaptismal purification the moment of immersion in the baptismal font the postbaptismal alteration of perception as well as the continuous changes in funeral forms. As such the papers attempt to shed more light on the role of materiality in the complex and rapid conversion to Christianity in Late Antique West.
Les mystères au ii e siècle de notre ère : un tournant
Cet ouvrage enquête sur ce que nous proposons d’appeler une « mystérisation » des discours et des pratiques au IIe siècle de notre ère dans l’empire romain - c’est-à-dire une multiplication diversification et intensification des références aux (cultes à) « mystères » dans des contextes variés mais cohérents et dans les différents groupes religieux présents dans l’empire (païens juifs et chrétiens). Ce « tournant » mystérique affecte non seulement des pratiques rituelles et les discours qui les entourent mais au-delà de nombreux domaines du savoir qui comme Platon en son temps se mettent à mobiliser le vocabulaire et l’imagerie des mystères. L’enquête se déploie donc à la fois sur le terrain des rituels « mystériques » - dans des cultes qui se diffusent comme ceux d’Isis ou de Mater Magna parallèlement à la continuation des mystères grecs (à Éleusis et Samothrace) - et sur celui de la construction des savoirs de tous ordres qui s’élabore alors (médecine philosophie rhétorique littérature) et où se banalise l’emploi d’un lexique mystérique. Elle réunit donc des collègues spécialistes de champs disciplinaires variés - historiens historiens des religions archéologues philologues et bien sûr philosophes - et de systèmes religieux différents - polythéisme judaïsme et christianisme.
Polemics and Networking in Graeco-Roman Antiquity
Disagreement rivalry and dispute are essential to any intellectual development. This holds true for ancient cultures no less than for us today. From the classical period to the Hellenistic age and to Late Antiquity competition and polemics have shaped the course of intellectual history in Antiquity. Polemical encounters and controversies are often linked to group identities and intellectual networks such as philosophical schools textual traditions artistic circles and religious communities. This collection of studies sprang from the ambition to study the interplay between polemics and intellectual networks from a variety of perspectives and disciplines.
The volume gathers fifteen case studies by leading scholars and young researchers alike. They address a wide range of topics from the Old Academy and the Hellenistic schools to the Neoplatonic commentators of Late Antiquity from biographical literature to literary criticism from artistic manuals to scientific treatises and from pagans to Christians. As multi-sided as the picture that emerges from these case studies may be they all testify to the fact that implicit and explicit polemics are ubiquitous in ancient Greek and Roman literature and have served as triggers of intellectual progress across times and disciplinary boundaries.
Anthropology of Roman Housing
At a time when we reflect intensively on the issue of social cohesion on the influence of architecture in lifestyles and on relationships between neighbourhoods within large modern cities this book aims to approach the study of "inhabiting modes" in Roman urban dwellings. Drawing on concepts common to historical anthropology and incorporating evidence from multiple lines of research (archaeological iconographic textual and others) this volume aims to contribute to the invigoration of a social history of ancient housing through new research projects publications and digital tools from both individual and collaborative efforts. This field of study is currently undergoing a period of disciplinary revitalization and this volume is an opportunity to present the most recent work and to conduct a dialogue in an interdisciplinary perspective.