East and West in the Early Middle Ages: The Merovingian Kingdoms in Mediterranean Perspective ed. by Stefan Esders et al. (review)

Abstract

(105–118). Chapter 6 investigates the imagery of exile in the case of Meletius of Antioch, whose orthodoxy was seen as ambiguous. While discussing the various later accounts on the whereabouts of Meletius’s relics and its link to his perceived orthodoxy (157–61, 167–72), Barry does not mention the cruciform church, excavated opposite the city just across the Orontes river, although this is probably the place where the relics of Meletius were finally deposited, and much of Barry’s analysis is about the location of the relics of both Meletius and his companion Babylas and what this means for Meletius’s orthodoxy. Barry’s assertion that Tertullian was seen as a problematic author precisely because he had cast flight (during persecution) in a negative light does therefore require further demonstration (176). Despite some reservations, the book is a good read, and its results on spatial theories in regard to flight and exile are pioneering and important.