Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.453
W. Mayer
In this major review essay, two recent edited collections serve as a prompt to reflect more deeply on the contribution of edited collections as a whole to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Late Antiquity. The impact of the pressures brought to bear on the genre by publishers, employers, and funders in the current academic-capitalist environment is discussed. It is argued that the genre across the majority of its subcategories continues to have significant value for the field.
{"title":"The Edited Collection and the Advancement of Late Antiquity","authors":"W. Mayer","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.453","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.453","url":null,"abstract":"In this major review essay, two recent edited collections serve as a prompt to reflect more deeply on the contribution of edited collections as a whole to the advancement of knowledge in the field of Late Antiquity. The impact of the pressures brought to bear on the genre by publishers, employers, and funders in the current academic-capitalist environment is discussed. It is argued that the genre across the majority of its subcategories continues to have significant value for the field.","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48656415","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.287
Ra‘anan Boustan
{"title":"Entanglements of Religion and Empire","authors":"Ra‘anan Boustan","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.287","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46367079","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-08-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.403
Sihong Lin
This article analyzes the aftermath of the Gothic War in northern Italy, particularly the battles between Eastern Roman and Frankish forces. While the initial clashes in 553–54 are well-recorded, only fragmentary information survives for the following years. Justinian’s Frankish War, for lack of a better description, can nonetheless be chronicled if we turn to texts that have rarely been discussed together. By focusing on the sources for the reigns of King Childebert I of Paris (511–58) and King Chlothar I of Soissons (511–61), it is possible to discern how their domestic priorities in Gaul were influenced by their differing relationships with Constantinople. Similarly, the letters of Pope Pelagius I (556–61) are an untapped resource for the empire’s ongoing conflict with the Franks, as his correspondence with Childebert’s kingdom, although largely concerned with the contemporary Three Chapters controversy, nonetheless suggests that the papacy had attempted to ameliorate the damage wrought by Frankish forces in Italy. As a result, although a detailed narrative of the Frankish War cannot be written today, it remains possible to trace the diplomatic and political aspects of the war in Italy and the Merovingian kingdoms. Far from an epilogue to the long-running Gothic War, Justinian’s war with the Franks in the 550s was a significant conflict in its own right, and its consequences need to be examined through a Mediterranean-wide perspective.
{"title":"Justinian’s Frankish War, 552–ca. 560","authors":"Sihong Lin","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.403","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.3.403","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyzes the aftermath of the Gothic War in northern Italy, particularly the battles between Eastern Roman and Frankish forces. While the initial clashes in 553–54 are well-recorded, only fragmentary information survives for the following years. Justinian’s Frankish War, for lack of a better description, can nonetheless be chronicled if we turn to texts that have rarely been discussed together. By focusing on the sources for the reigns of King Childebert I of Paris (511–58) and King Chlothar I of Soissons (511–61), it is possible to discern how their domestic priorities in Gaul were influenced by their differing relationships with Constantinople. Similarly, the letters of Pope Pelagius I (556–61) are an untapped resource for the empire’s ongoing conflict with the Franks, as his correspondence with Childebert’s kingdom, although largely concerned with the contemporary Three Chapters controversy, nonetheless suggests that the papacy had attempted to ameliorate the damage wrought by Frankish forces in Italy. As a result, although a detailed narrative of the Frankish War cannot be written today, it remains possible to trace the diplomatic and political aspects of the war in Italy and the Merovingian kingdoms. Far from an epilogue to the long-running Gothic War, Justinian’s war with the Franks in the 550s was a significant conflict in its own right, and its consequences need to be examined through a Mediterranean-wide perspective.","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-08-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45072450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.216
M. Doerfler
Natural disasters feature prominently among the topics that preoccupied late ancient homilists. Earthquakes, droughts, pandemics, and other catastrophes both inflicted untold suffering on their communities and raised pressing questions of interpretation: to whom ought Christians ascribe the origin of these scourges? what message or lessons did they convey? and how could their impact be reconciled with the existence of a loving and powerful deity, intimately invested in the well-being of Christian communities? To address these questions, homilists across the Greek- and Syriac-speaking world turned to a wide range of textual and cultural resources. Many of the resulting works nevertheless coalesce around one central theme: that of children and the child/parent dyad. Authors turned to the familiar tropes of parents protecting, punishing, or educating their offspring—and the latter’s ambivalent characterization as both vulnerable and intractable in ancient discourse—to craft “disaster mythologies,” narratives designed to make sense of disaster and thus effect desirable responses on the part of the speakers’ audiences. This article explores this topos in the writings of three late ancient orators: the fourth-century Syriac homilist Cyrillona; his Greek contemporary Gregory of Nyssa; and the sixth-century bishop of Antioch, Severus.
{"title":"An Earthquake for Pulcheria","authors":"M. Doerfler","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.216","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.216","url":null,"abstract":"Natural disasters feature prominently among the topics that preoccupied late ancient homilists. Earthquakes, droughts, pandemics, and other catastrophes both inflicted untold suffering on their communities and raised pressing questions of interpretation: to whom ought Christians ascribe the origin of these scourges? what message or lessons did they convey? and how could their impact be reconciled with the existence of a loving and powerful deity, intimately invested in the well-being of Christian communities? To address these questions, homilists across the Greek- and Syriac-speaking world turned to a wide range of textual and cultural resources. Many of the resulting works nevertheless coalesce around one central theme: that of children and the child/parent dyad. Authors turned to the familiar tropes of parents protecting, punishing, or educating their offspring—and the latter’s ambivalent characterization as both vulnerable and intractable in ancient discourse—to craft “disaster mythologies,” narratives designed to make sense of disaster and thus effect desirable responses on the part of the speakers’ audiences. This article explores this topos in the writings of three late ancient orators: the fourth-century Syriac homilist Cyrillona; his Greek contemporary Gregory of Nyssa; and the sixth-century bishop of Antioch, Severus.","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42796383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.276
Brooks Hedstrom, L. Darlene
{"title":"Review: Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa, edited by Kathleen Bickford Berzock","authors":"Brooks Hedstrom, L. Darlene","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.276","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41827558","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.176
Travis W. Proctor
The city of Ephesus experienced a marked civic transformation in Late Antiquity. After having centered its settlements and economic fortunes on its proximity to a deep-water harbor for over a millenium, late antique Ephesus gradually shifted to an inland, fortified settlement on Ayasoluk Hill. While several factors undoubtedly informed this civic reorientation, the most commonly cited impetus for Ephesus’s late antique reorientation was the infilling of its deep-water harbor. This article argues that, in addition to this environmental cause, an important cultural shift correspondingly informed Ephesus’s late antique reconfigurations. Namely, the emergence and development of the tomb of John on Ayasoluk Hill, informed by an array of literary legends associating the apostle with the city, increasingly positioned this site as a cultic and economic focal point in Late Antiquity. This article argues that an important early strand in this cultural fabric was the Acts of John, a collection of apocryphal tales that narrate John’s exploits in Ephesus. Significantly, the Acts of John articulates a “counter-cartography” that disassociates Christian identity from prominent Ephesian cultic sites and accentuates the importance of spaces “outside the city” of Ephesus, including and especially the tomb of John. Through its own circulation as well as its influence on later Johannine narratives, the early Acts of John helped inform a shift in the cultural cartographies of Ephesus, where Greco-Roman polytheistic spaces were gradually devalued in favor of Christian sites, the tomb of John on Ayasoluk chief among them.
{"title":"Environmental Change, the Acts of John, and Shifting Cultic Landscapes in Late Antique Ephesus","authors":"Travis W. Proctor","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.176","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.176","url":null,"abstract":"The city of Ephesus experienced a marked civic transformation in Late Antiquity. After having centered its settlements and economic fortunes on its proximity to a deep-water harbor for over a millenium, late antique Ephesus gradually shifted to an inland, fortified settlement on Ayasoluk Hill. While several factors undoubtedly informed this civic reorientation, the most commonly cited impetus for Ephesus’s late antique reorientation was the infilling of its deep-water harbor. This article argues that, in addition to this environmental cause, an important cultural shift correspondingly informed Ephesus’s late antique reconfigurations. Namely, the emergence and development of the tomb of John on Ayasoluk Hill, informed by an array of literary legends associating the apostle with the city, increasingly positioned this site as a cultic and economic focal point in Late Antiquity. This article argues that an important early strand in this cultural fabric was the Acts of John, a collection of apocryphal tales that narrate John’s exploits in Ephesus. Significantly, the Acts of John articulates a “counter-cartography” that disassociates Christian identity from prominent Ephesian cultic sites and accentuates the importance of spaces “outside the city” of Ephesus, including and especially the tomb of John. Through its own circulation as well as its influence on later Johannine narratives, the early Acts of John helped inform a shift in the cultural cartographies of Ephesus, where Greco-Roman polytheistic spaces were gradually devalued in favor of Christian sites, the tomb of John on Ayasoluk chief among them.","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46606806","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.241
Nadine Viermann
In 636 CE, Roman and Arab contingents met at the river Yarmouk. After days of fighting, the Roman army suffered a disastrous defeat. The provinces of Palestine and Syria, which had been reconquered from Persian occupation only a few years prior, were again lost to enemy forces. The emperor Heraclius (610–641), who had coordinated the defense in person, left Syria in haste. A passage in Nicephorus’ Breviarium covers what happened in Constantinople in the aftermath of the battle: It tells a seemingly strange tale of Heraclius being so afraid of water that he would not enter the capital until a bridge of boats was built over the Bosporus. In scholarship this tale is often reproduced uncritically. Deconstructing the passage, I argue that the image of a mentally frail Heraclius is an instance of political satire that exposed the emperor’s weak position and ridiculed his attempts to cope with the destabilizing consequences of Roman defeat. When seen from a structural perspective, it becomes clear that Heraclius was not afraid of water but intended the bridge of boats to serve as a triumphalist statement at a moment when the situation in Constantinople threatened to slip out of his control.
{"title":"The Battle of Yarmouk, a Bridge of Boats, and Heraclius’s Alleged Fear of Water","authors":"Nadine Viermann","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.241","url":null,"abstract":"In 636 CE, Roman and Arab contingents met at the river Yarmouk. After days of fighting, the Roman army suffered a disastrous defeat. The provinces of Palestine and Syria, which had been reconquered from Persian occupation only a few years prior, were again lost to enemy forces. The emperor Heraclius (610–641), who had coordinated the defense in person, left Syria in haste. A passage in Nicephorus’ Breviarium covers what happened in Constantinople in the aftermath of the battle: It tells a seemingly strange tale of Heraclius being so afraid of water that he would not enter the capital until a bridge of boats was built over the Bosporus. In scholarship this tale is often reproduced uncritically. Deconstructing the passage, I argue that the image of a mentally frail Heraclius is an instance of political satire that exposed the emperor’s weak position and ridiculed his attempts to cope with the destabilizing consequences of Roman defeat. When seen from a structural perspective, it becomes clear that Heraclius was not afraid of water but intended the bridge of boats to serve as a triumphalist statement at a moment when the situation in Constantinople threatened to slip out of his control.","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46097827","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.272
M. Delcogliano
{"title":"Review: Eusebius and Empire: Constructing Church and Rome in the Ecclesiastical History, by James Corke-Webster","authors":"M. Delcogliano","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.272","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.272","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47908351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.173
E. Digeser
{"title":"Dealing with Disaster","authors":"E. Digeser","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.173","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.173","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43637900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-05-01DOI: 10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.267
F. M. Gillman
{"title":"Review: The Fathers Refounded: Protestant Liberalism, Roman Catholic Modernism, and the Teaching of Ancient Christianity in Early Twentieth-Century America, by Elizabeth A. Clark","authors":"F. M. Gillman","doi":"10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.267","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1525/sla.2021.5.2.267","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":36675,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45840841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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