Arkadiy Avdokhin | University of Oxford (original) (raw)

Edited volumes by Arkadiy Avdokhin

This volume arises from the international conference 'Hymns of the First Christian Millennium — D... more This volume arises from the international conference 'Hymns of the First Christian Millennium — Doctrinal, Devotional, and Musical Patterns' held in June 2014 at the Institute of Classical Studies in conjunction with King's College London. The original scope of the conference has been re-scaled to focus particularly on late antique Christian devotion as it manifests itself in hymns; experts on a variety of topics of early Christian hymnody have been invited to boost both specificity and depth of discussion in the proposed volume. The resulting collection of papers covers a range of aspects of literary, social, doctrinal, musicological, and devotional patterns of Christian hymnic texts, their liturgical and pious use in the period of late antiquity.

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Articles by Arkadiy Avdokhin

Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2024

The use of epigraphy, including Christian pilgrimage graffiti, to trace geographic mobility in la... more The use of epigraphy, including Christian pilgrimage graffiti, to trace geographic mobility in late antique and Byzantine studies has been limited. This article, however, relies on linguistic (lexicological and phonological) analysis of a 7th–8th graffito at the shrine of the apostle Philip at Hierapolis, Asia Minor, to unpack a regional—Egyptian—variety of the late Greek koine used in the inscription, and to argue that whoever left the graffito had hailed from bilingual Greek- and Coptic-speaking regions of the Byzantine empire. This has larger implications for how we understand the appeal of this particular pilgrimage centre as well as for broader methodologies of epigraphic research into long-haul pilgrimage patterns.

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Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2021

Personal agency and social microhistory of hymn-writing and singing in late antiquity have been m... more Personal agency and social microhistory of hymn-writing and singing in late antiquity have been mostly neglected in the study of Christian liturgy. In this article, I approach the question of social and administrative standing of “singers of psalms” in monastic communities in late antique Egypt through the study of their epigraphic (self-)representation. I focus on Coptic inscriptions, both dipinti and graffiti, left on behalf of, or applied by singers themselves on the walls of public structures in the extensive monastery complex of Apa Apollo at Bawit. Through the exploration of the patterns of visuality of these inscriptions, their positioning, and the manner of execution, I seek to unpack social implications of their use as epigraphic commemoration. I argue that while, contrary to the generally held views, certain singers were part of the administrative and spiritual elite of ascetical communities at Bawit, their vocational and ecclesial identities tended to merge with other professional and clerical strata, so social cohesion was more important than self-centered group awareness.

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Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik , 2021

The mummy label (τάβλα) in Roman Egypt is typically an artifact of modest size (within the averag... more The mummy label (τάβλα) in Roman Egypt is typically an artifact of modest size (within the average range of 5 × 10 cm) with a brief text inscribed on it that includes the name, parentage of the deceased and, often but not always, her/his occupation, and age. Written in Demotic, Greek, or combining both, the labels were affixed to mummies (often with cords inserted through pigtails shaped in a resemblance of the tabula ansata) before entombment, sometimes substantially earlier, including during transportation along the Nile. As small objects that were part of the burial, the labels, inconspicuous for their small size and scribbled text, and interred (or otherwise enclosed within the burial space) alongside the mummy, would not be primarily designed for the eyes of a human beholder.

The object that I discuss challenges these conventions on a number of counts. It is a wooden plaque of substantial size (23 × 7 cm) that, despite the self-description as a τάβλα in its Greek verse inscription in red ink, engages with the reader and urges her/him to perform a commemorative ritual of offering wreaths to the tomb. What I offer is a brief discussion of the inscription followed by tentative suggestions as to the object’s possible ritual function as an element of the burial that will hopefully encourage further interest and research.

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Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (ZPE), 2020

This article is a study of an honorific inscription from a statue base of Andreas, an imperial of... more This article is a study of an honorific inscription from a statue base of Andreas, an imperial official in late fourth–early fifth antique Ephesos. By combining insights from the literary and intertextual analysis of the inscription with a discussion of the visual associations which the text relies on, we argue that Andreas’ inscribed praises find itself at the intersection of classicizing literary idiom, visual patterns of representation of the imperial power attested on coins, and New Testament phrasing. The inscribed honorific statue therefore is an instance of appropriation of traditionally Roman and Hellenic visual, ideological, and literary discourses by the increasingly Christian authors, readers, and viewers of public inscriptions in late antique cityscapes. It attests to profound, if subtly manifesting, shifts in the ‘epigraphic habit’ in late antiquity that were informed by the emergence of hybrid, equally Roman and Christian, identities and ways of representing them epigraphically.

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Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2015

The paper offers a reading of a sixth-century Christian dipinto which has been so far undeciphere... more The paper offers a reading of a sixth-century Christian dipinto which has been so far undeciphered. The inscription is set up in the 'chapel of St Paul' in Caesarea Maritima. I argue that the dipinto draws on the fourth-fifth century homiletic idiom, and probably is a piece of evidence for domestic private devotion going on in the chapel.

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This short paper offers a critical assessment of the historical method in the recent "Liturgical ... more This short paper offers a critical assessment of the historical method in the recent "Liturgical Subjects" by D. Krueger, and extends the discussion into wider reflections on methodology of the studies of Christian liturgy and how they reflect larger shifts in early Christian studies. It is argued that thinking in terms of 'grand narratives' and unchanging liturgical patterns is ultimately rooted in the academic agendas of the nineteenth century. It is also suggested that the quest for innovative approaches to liturgical research should account for both new methodologies introduced and the historical insights of traditional scholarship.

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Book Chapters by Arkadiy Avdokhin

Scale and the Study of Late Antiquity, 2023

This essay addresses physical as well as epistemological visibility of Christian(ized) inscriptio... more This essay addresses physical as well as epistemological visibility of Christian(ized) inscriptions as part of the cityscape of late antique Ephesos by looking at two case studies. The first is arguably the most well-known Christian inscription from Asia Minor—the epigram by one Demeas on his alleged destruction of an image of Artemis; the second largely obscure inscribed honours of an high-standing imperial official.
I argue that Demeas inscription, although looming large in scholarly narratives of "Christianization" of the region, would have fallen short of making a visual, and communicative, impact, set as it was in a densely-inscribed written space around the Library of Celsus. The proconsul's honorific epigram, while demonstrably featuring New Testament language, is equally problematic as a means of communicating Christian ideas as another, non-conspicuous inscription with stronger contenders for attention of city dwellers.
I conclude by offering critical remarks on how the visual significance of inscriptions as physical and spatial objects may be at odds with their elevated meaning when approached and analyzed as texts in printed editions, and how the recent trends in scholarship towards enhanced appreciation of materiality may change this.

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Studies in Byzantine Epigraphy, 2023

In this chapter, I discuss an epigraphic monument from early fifth-century Constantinople – a por... more In this chapter, I discuss an epigraphic monument from early fifth-century Constantinople – a porphyry obelisk set up at a strategic point in the cityscape with a series of Greek versified inscriptions. The inscriptions were commissioned by a praepositus sacri cubiculi, and constitute a forceful, and ingenious, effort by a palatine office-holder, who drew his power from his intimate relationship with the emperor, to fashion a public space for himself that would match his covert, if not entirely private, exercise of immense power.
Mouselios substantially re-shaped the capital’s cityscape, appropriating its historical legacy in order to establish his own monumental presence on Constantinople’s symbolic map of power. He achieved this by spatially inscribing himself onto a key element of the Constantinopolitan cityscape, and by visually, linguistically, and symbolically marginalizing the building inscription of an urban prefect as the original dedicator of the obelisk.

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Space and Communities in Byzantine Anatolia. ed. Nikos D. Kontogiannis and Tolga B. Uyar (Chicago 2021)

This chapter looks at an inscribed imperial sacra of Justinian I in the spatial and doctrinal con... more This chapter looks at an inscribed imperial sacra of Justinian I in the spatial and doctrinal contexts of late antique Ephesus. I bring together the recent methodological lenses of epigraphic visuality and spatiality, as well as social agency and, on the other hand, insights into doctrinal clashes between Miaphysites and Chalcedonians in fifth and sixth-century Ephesus, to produce a contextualized study of this inscription. The imperial message of 'orthodoxy' central to its rhetoric, I argue, would read divisively within the liturgical space of the church of St John as well as in the broader Ephesian cityscapes hotly contested by the conflicting doctrinal parties. Yet, as I suggest, the inscribed ruling could at the same time be making an almost surprisingly unifying point in the context of Justinian's efforts to win over the alienated yet strategically important Miaphysite regions of the Christian East. Alongside the doctrinal agenda, the inscription may also have been instrumental as part of episcopal and clerical competition within the city. The complex matrix of imperial and local agencies therefore was responsible for the inscription's spatial placing and dogmatically charged reading in late antique Ephesus and its spaces.

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Interacting with Saints in the Late Antique and Medieval Worlds (Brepols), 2023

In this chapter, I look at a mostly neglected aspect of the late antique cult of saints — hymns a... more In this chapter, I look at a mostly neglected aspect of the late antique cult of saints — hymns and prayers addressed to them, and/or performed at the sites of their veneration. Hymns and prayers as part of saints’ cult are spectacularly absent both in the (post)-Brownian scholarship and in studies of early Byzantine hymnody. As I suggest, this neglect arises out of particular methodological choices that centre academic attention on hymns as authorial, literary output, rather than on the lived experiences of late antique Christians interacting with saints. In order to re-gain, and understand, these experiences, I turn to miracle collections in Greek from various regions of the late antique Christian Mediterranean, from Egypt to Constantinople and to Seleucia (primarily the Miracles of Cosmas and Damian, the Miracles of Thekla, the Miracles of Artemios, but also other collections). These texts, I argue, reveal that performing hymns and addressing prayers to, and in honour of, saints constituted the core of the ritual experience of engaging with saints and martyrs, a sine qua non of establishing a mystical bond with them, and structured the ritual behaviour when visiting healing martyrs’ shrines and elsewhere.

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Religious Identifications in Late Antique Papyri: 3rd–12th Century Egypt (Routledge), 2022

This chapter explores the limitations of interpreting archaeological evidence through the lens of... more This chapter explores the limitations of interpreting archaeological evidence through the lens of group identity in the study of late antique religion and ritual. By looking at two papyri (P. Berol. 9794 and P. Louvre N 2391) and the hymns they contain (that also surface on a number of other artefacts and in a range of literary contexts), I seek to problematize how we approach the ritual actors behind the production and use of these manuscripts in terms of their putative belonging to “religions” and “cultic groups” as readily tangible social entities. By tracing the patterns of how the ritual hymns from these papyri were shared between religious frameworks that are conventionally thought of as mutually exclusive (Christians, “Gnostics,” “Hermetics” etc.), I argue that the widespread idea of an intimate link between doctrinal thinking and ritual of particular groups may be problematic. Ultimately, I suggest that it can be more economical and epistemologically valuable to view late antique artefacts, and the rituals they prescribe, as evidence of individual agency of particular scribes and their commissioners, rather than of “religious communities” as group actors.

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Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150 – 700 CE (CUP), 2022

The apostle Paul famously introduced, most centrally in Colossians 2.14, a conceptual language in... more The apostle Paul famously introduced, most centrally in Colossians 2.14, a conceptual language in which to speak about the faithful as “slaves of God”, who are at the same time freed from slavery to Satan. In this chapter, I look at one particular aspect of the afterlife of the Pauline metaphor of “divine slavery”—the imagery of the redemption from satanic slavery in late antique liturgical poetry and homiletics in Greek as both challenging and informed by broadly contemporary economic practices of debt-incurred loss of freedom. The first look at homiletic authors and hymn-writers of Greek-speaking late antique Christianities of the fourth to the sixth centuries CE (Gregory of Nyssa, John Chrysostom, Theodotos of Ankyra, Amphilochios of Iconium, Proklos of Constantinople, Romanos the Melodist). They offered to their liturgical audiences enthralling images of Christ tearing down Satan’s enslaving certificate (cheirographon) and thereby giving freedom to the humankind, but also developed peculiar theological conception of ‘heavenly bureaucracy’ as a salvation-giving aspect of the new divine dispensation inaugurated by Christ. Ultimately, I will attempt to offer a conceptualization of the liturgical metaphors of slavery as inextricable, for late antique Christians, from the pressing practicalities of massive indebtedness leading to the loss of freedom, and suggest that in the “lived” Christian religion, redemption could be conceived through a spectrum of images ranging from celestial legalism to an almost insidious thinking in terms of destruction of law and order in search of ultimate freedom from sin as debt.

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Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plutarch

Academic perspectives on the dynamics between early Christianity and the classical culture have b... more Academic perspectives on the dynamics between early Christianity and the classical culture have been going through a dramatic change in the last decades. The major development in how scholars conceive of early Christians vis-à-vis vis a vis the ‘Hellenic’, or ‘pagan ’, cultural heritage has been the constantly growing realization that the watershed between the two was at least not as neat as pictured before. In what follows, I will discuss three strands in the complex interaction of early Christian theologians with Plutarch’s writings. Proceeding from the instances of polemical attacks on ‘pagan’ religious thinking in Plutarch on to patterns of positive engagement with his legacy, I will emphasize how much Plutarch was an essential part of the literary and philosophical culture which Christians shared with non-Christians in late antiquity. My focus will be mainly on the third and fourth century AD and on the instances of sustained and demonstrably deliberate use of Plutarch’s writings by Christian theologians rather than on more general parallels and echoes of his works in early Christian discourse

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Tim Denecker, Mathieu Lamberigts, Gert Partoens, Pierre Swiggers & Toon Van Hal (eds.), Language and Culture in Early Christianity: A Companion. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.

This paper is a brief case study of a fourth-century Greek epigram from Aegina (IG IV, 53), which... more This paper is a brief case study of a fourth-century Greek epigram from Aegina (IG IV, 53), which is discussed as an instance of 'hybrid' diction bringing together classicizing diction and elements of Christian idiom. I frame my argument within the recent research into late antique epigraphic poetry and the dynamics of the traditional Hellenic and Christian styles in it. The case study, forming part of a Companion to languages in Christianity, seeks to highlight the recent developments in the study of the epigraphic discourse in late antiquity, the issues of literary paideia, and Christianization of the elite.

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Doctoral Thesis by Arkadiy Avdokhin

The present thesis is a study of Athanasios of Alexandria’s thought and writings—predominantly pa... more The present thesis is a study of Athanasios of Alexandria’s thought and writings—predominantly pastoral—in the context of ecclesial, ascetic, and liturgical developments in fourth-century Christian communities in Egypt. I explore Athanasios’ Festal Letters, individual correspondence (primarily the Letter to Markellinos), and the Life of Antony from the perspective of the bishop’s concerns about the contemporaneous diversity of devotional and liturgical practices of praying and hymn-singing.

The central argument of this thesis is that Athanasios had a coherent vision of the ideal Christian prayer and hymnody. For Athanasios, ‘orthodox’ Christians—lay and ascetics, educated devotees and common believers alike—should derive their practices of devotion and liturgy from the Bible—the Psalter and the Biblical odes—rather than other sources.

Athanasios’ programme of devotional and liturgical orthopraxy centred around the Biblical ideal is part of his much broader ecclesiological project of bringing unity to the division-riddled church of Egypt. The bishop conceives of the Scripturally-cued shared patters of praying and hymn-singing as one of the means to unify scattered Christian communities. Although his pastoral programme of a uniform Biblical devotion is not as self-consciously and combatively formulated as e.g. his polemic against the ‘Arians’ or Meletians, it surfaces across his writings with consistency. Targeted against the diversity of modes of prayer and hymn-singing practiced across a variety of doctrinally, ecclesially, and socially different communities, Athanasios’ pastoral programme of devotional orthopraxy reflected the trends towards unification in the bishop-led Christian culture of late antiquity and contributed to their further strengthening.

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Reviews by Arkadiy Avdokhin

Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2020

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Conference Organized by Arkadiy Avdokhin

This international conference brings together scholars from across a spectrum of specializations,... more This international conference brings together scholars from across a spectrum of specializations, affiliations, and academic traditions to look at Byzantine liturgy and hymnography across a considerable time span. Through talks and exchange of various kinds of academic expertise , we aim to seek new insights into the historical development of Christian liturgical ritual, hymn-writing and singing from the earliest times into late Byzantine epoch.

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This year's Annual Byzantine Colloquium will focus on Hymns of the First Christian Millennium - D... more This year's Annual Byzantine Colloquium will focus on Hymns of the First Christian Millennium - Doctrinal, Devotional and Musical Patterns. Organized by King's College London, the Colloquium is supported and funded by the Institute of Classical Studies. This two-day event aims to explore the fascinating, though under-studied, field of Christian hymnody of the first millennium. The twelve papers address wide-ranging aspects of Christian hymns and chant: from pagan and pre-Nicene origins on to the middle Byzantine chant, from Syriac hymnody to Coptic to Greek and Latin hymnic writings. Theological implications, musical developments and translation issues will be discussed. Organizers: Arkadiy Avdokhin (arkadii.avdokhin@kcl.ac.uk) and Dionysios Stathakopoulos (dionysios.stathakopoulos@kcl.ac.uk) The attendance is free, however, registration is essential, as we have a limited number of places. To register, please email Arkadiy Avdokhin at the email address above. For further information including a PDF version of the programme please visit the site of the Institute of Classical Studies (see the link below)

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Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2024

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Journal of Early Christian Studies, 2021

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Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik , 2021

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Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik (ZPE), 2020

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Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 2015

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Scale and the Study of Late Antiquity, 2023

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Studies in Byzantine Epigraphy, 2023

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Space and Communities in Byzantine Anatolia. ed. Nikos D. Kontogiannis and Tolga B. Uyar (Chicago 2021)

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Interacting with Saints in the Late Antique and Medieval Worlds (Brepols), 2023

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Religious Identifications in Late Antique Papyri: 3rd–12th Century Egypt (Routledge), 2022

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Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150 – 700 CE (CUP), 2022

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Brill's Companion to the Reception of Plutarch

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Tim Denecker, Mathieu Lamberigts, Gert Partoens, Pierre Swiggers & Toon Van Hal (eds.), Language and Culture in Early Christianity: A Companion. Leuven: Peeters, 2017.

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Byzantinische Zeitschrift, 2020

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This paper purports to look at how the development of the set of imperial virtues celebrated in i... more This paper purports to look at how the development of the set of imperial virtues celebrated in inscriptions (particularly in the eastern part of the empire) can be traced in late antiquity. The central question is to what extent the nascent and burgeoning Christian theology and wider contemporary discourse on the God-sanctioned imperial power penetrated the epigraphic record and reshaped it.
The representation of images of imperial power through visual means (numismatics and epigraphy) has usefully come in focus of recent studies (like C. Noreña’s Imperial Ideals in the Roman West: Representation, Circulation, Power). On the other hand, the birth and progress of the specifically Christian version of the Hellenistic concept of emperor as the representative of God with a very special link with the divine (famously formulated in Eusebius’ Tricennalian Oration in 335-36 AD and taken on by an unfailing flow of followers later) has long been studied as the foundation of the later Byzantine philosophy of power. However, the studies of the workings and implementation of these ideas through epigraphy have not been abundant.
Arguably, imperial pietas, while being a traditional Roman imperial virtue, was substantially expanded in the early Christian epigraphic discourse on emperors. The inscription on Constantine’s statue put up in Rome (as reported in Eusebius’ HE 9.9.11: “τούτῳ τῷ σωτηριώδει σημείῳ <…> τὴν πόλιν ὑμῶν ἀπὸ ζυγοῦ τοῦ τυράννου <…> ἠλευθέρωσα”) proclaimed the power of salvific cross as emperor’s ally; the Byzantine emperor in the 6th century came to be addressed as θεοστέφεος in inscriptions, which entered the official imperial titulature later. Inscriptional innovations, it would seem, were both informed by the theological and political discourses on imperial divine engagement and fed back into it in their turn.
In a nutshell, this paper looks at what possible routes could lead from Augustus’ four cardinal virtues in the clipeus virtutum to Justinian’s and Theodora’s Christian imperial piety in the inscription in the church of St Sergius and Bacchus in Constantinople in 530-ies.

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In most Greek novels heroes and heroines are depicted as addressing prayers in a range of context... more In most Greek novels heroes and heroines are depicted as addressing prayers in a range of contexts. Interestingly, the actual texts of prayers are often introduced into the narratives, at times forming substantial passages (cf. the prayer to Aphrodite in Chariton’s Chaerea et Callirhoe 2.3.6 or the prayer to Nile in Xenophon’s Ephesian Tale 4.2.6) while in other instances only short references to a fact of prayer is there.
Early Christian narrative genres like (apocryphal) acts, martyrologies or biographies (βίοι) of saints were notoriously influenced by the structural and stylistic patterns of the Greek novel. This paper looks at how much the depiction of prayers in them (cf. e.g. the Acta Thomae 47.15; Martyrium Polycarpi 14.3; Gregory of Nazianzus’ Vita Macrinae 24.1) can be usefully contextualized against the background of similar episodes of praying in the ancient Greek novels. Beyond the obvious perspective of literary tradition and borrowed patterns, it will discuss whether the early instances of prayerful address to God and Christ in the Christian narratives can be seen as one of the many competitive strategies challenging the “pagan” novel (as e.g. the narrative fragment of the Recognitions by (pseudo)-Clement (2-4 cc. AD), as M. Edwards has shown, were conceived as a challenge to the genre as a whole).
By combining the perspectives on the early Christian narrative texts as both appropriating patterns of the ancient novel and challenging them competitively in the way they construct textual representations of prayers, this paper will try to highlight complex relationship which is there between the nascent Christian discourse on prayer and its “pagan” tradition in the ancient novel.

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This paper looks at an aspect of early Byzantine popular involvement with hymnody which is massiv... more This paper looks at an aspect of early Byzantine popular involvement with hymnody which is massively overlooked. It sets out to highlight the contexts of unease like theological disputes, urban violence between dogmatic factions or contentions around liturgical practices in which hymns had a surprisingly large part to play. The paper also discusses how hymns were engaged by devotees of healing cult in 6th-7th cc. Constantinople. Besides, it briefly touches on the issue of popularity of Romanos' kontakia in this context.

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Recent research into the late antique religion, devotional art and literature has progressively d... more Recent research into the late antique religion, devotional art and literature has progressively deconstructed the notion of “Christian” and “pagan” artistic, religious and devotional patterns as clearly discernible entities. This paper looks at the interaction between Christian and non-Christian hymnic texts in terms of shared style and diction.
Certain features of the late antique hymnic diction as a "cultural commodity" common to different religious groups are discussed: the so-called Partizipstil, or the Du-Stil (E.Norden); the convoluted syntax relying heavily on attributive phrases and epithets; ornamental elements like acrostic and isopsephy.
The discussion spans from the Orphic hymns, hymnic pieces from the PGM and late antique narrative sources (e.g. ancient Greek novels and acts of martyrs), prose hymns by Aelius Aristides to early Christian hymns from the papyri, the Akathistos Hymn

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"Palladas, the most richly represented single author of epigrams in the Greek Anthology, remains ... more "Palladas, the most richly represented single author of epigrams in the Greek Anthology, remains a contested literary personality. The essential issue of dating his oeuvre underwent a substantial change in the scholarship of the 20th century – the scholarly consensus about his floruit first shifted from ca. 360-450 AD to ca.319-400 AD; recently K.Wilkinson has offered an even earlier date. The question of dating went closely together with that of localizing him geographically, the main options being Alexandria and Constantinople and the issue is still debated. The only crucial point where consensus seems to have been reached is his paganism as opposed to Christianity. The latter issue provides a particularly important perspective on Palladas' use of markedly “Christian” words and expressions in artful and suggestive play of style to express attitudes to Christianity ranging from irony to rampant sarcasm. Thus, e.g. in AP 9.180 Palladas speaks of Tyche as having “unmixed nature” introducing a provocatively clear reference to the contemporary dogmatic debates about the nature of Christ.
This paper seeks to establish a wider context for this lexical and religious interplay by addressing late antique epigrams from inscriptions as a backdrop for Palladas' practice of introducing the alien “Christian” elements into non-Christian text. There are two types of inscriptions which came in the focus of the study – honorific epigrams and epigrams on tombstones. Singling out the texts dated to 1 – early 4th century AD and avoiding overtly Christian ones, instances of “pagan” use of “Christian” words and notions were established and brought together (using the material published by R.Merkelbach and L.Robert). In an insightful parallel to Palladas, the authors of the late antique inscriptions seem to have entered into a play with style and religious notions. Thus, the use of σκιρτάω to mean “rejoice in smth.” with its clear Christian usus is paralleled in IG IV, 53. A honorific epigram from Ephesos praises a philosopher's ability to “open heaven” to his compatriots – quite in a manner of early Christian apocalyptic.
This kind of analysis is corroborated by the results reached by other scholars. As G.Bartelink and P. van der Horst has shown, late antique prose writers made occasional but clearly identifiable use of “Christian” expressions, like “οὐρανὸν ἀνοίγειν” (which is tantalizingly paralleled in the inscriptional use mentioned before) in Ep. 720.3 by Libanius.
The stylistic effect supposedly sought by Palladas when introducing the Christian lexical “outsiders” into the thoroughly classicising and traditional genre of scoptic epigram must have been intended to show that they did not belong there and that was where the borderline of Christian literary and ideological discourse lay. However, when seen against the background of systematically observed instances of overtly Christian vocabulary in an otherwise clearly “pagan” Greek honorific and funerary epigrams of 1-4 centuries AD, this effect could seem less evident. In Palladas' epigrams, just like in the inscriptions, we might be witnessing the very process of Christian discourse expanding boundaries and of its venturing into new genres and areas where it might have already sounded not so much out of place."

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Different doctrinal parties are reported by the early church historians (Socrates, Sozomen and Th... more Different doctrinal parties are reported by the early church historians (Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret) to be involved in episodes of urban confrontation in course of the so-called “Arian controversy” in the 4th century AD. E.g. Socrates says that choirs of “Arians” rallied Constantinopolitan streets singing hymns to challenge the Nicene partisans (HE 6.6-7). A similar pattern of use of doxological texts to express partisan unity of the “orthodox” is followed in Alexandria in early 350-ies, according to Theodoret (HE 3.17). These accounts of use of hymnic texts to form the militant doctrinal identity of the Nicene and non-Nicene parties can be interpreted as evidence for a peculiar cultural pattern of urban religious clashes (at times violent) shared by communities across the empire, from Constantinople the provinces.
This approach to textual evidence of the early hymnic practices has generally been privileged in the scholarship. However, such stance seems to neglect the problem of literary topoi used in the presentation of the “Arian” clashes. Arguably, the early church historians were exposed to the anti-Arian heresiological discourse already in place from mid-4th c. on, and many of their accounts can be shown to have been influenced by this discourse, including those of using hymns in urban clashes. In this case, the identification of this universal cultural pattern surfacing across empire becomes problematic. A case can be made for a unifying “orthodox” discourse expressed in the early church historians rather than a unified cultural practice.
In disentangling the effects of the heresiological discourse on the early accounts of hymns in public clashes, we can to approach one aspect of the cultural unity or difference between the 4th century Constantinople and other urban centres.

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The seminal study by P. J. Nordhagen (1968) introduced a new perspective on part of the frescoes ... more The seminal study by P. J. Nordhagen (1968) introduced a new perspective on part of the frescoes of Santa Maria Antiqua as an essentially Byzantine-oriented decoration program commissioned in the wake of the Lateran Synod of 649.
As was recently argued by D.Knipp, the incubation cult of Cyrus and John – a Byzantine influence as well – was admittedly practiced in the diakonikon. Bringing an explicit emphasis on the current version of orthodoxy as followed at the healing site (as seen in the lower apse decorations with saints holding scrolls with formulations of the Lateran Synod) is, arguably, another eastern trait.
While the historical identities of most incubation healing saints (and other miracle workers) are suspicious (pseudo-4th century saint St. Dometius blending with a 7th century martyr; St.Thecla, an apocryphic disciple of St.Paul; St.Demetrius, an martyred dux Augusti with a strong Arian record; Cosmas and Damian with their unclear Syriac – monophysite – origin; Cyrus and John featuring an invented martyrdom), they were theologically profiled to serve the needs of changing “orthodoxies” by way of creating widely accessible textual accounts of themselves and their cultic centres – the miracle collections of 5-7 centuries and hymns.
This textual tailoring of the doctrinal identity of incubation cults and their sites is a potent means of disseminating a newly arrived version of “orthodoxy” clearly paralleled in the early 8th century decoration program of Santa Maria Antiqua.

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XV International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Vienna 28th August – 1st September 2017) ... more XV International Congress of Greek and Latin Epigraphy (Vienna 28th August – 1st September 2017)
Thematic panels on Byzantine Epigraphy (the timetable and abstracts: https://epicongr2017.univie.ac.at/en/programme/thematic-panels/late-antique-and-byzantine-epigraphy/)
Chairs: Andreas Rhoby and Ida Toth
Contributors: Antonio E. Felle, Arkadii Avdokhin, Christoph Begass, Mustafa Sayar, Catherine Saliou, Ida Toth, Georgios Pallis, Anna Sitz, Estelle Ingrand-Varenne, Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou-Seibt, Sophia Kalopissi-Verti, Vasiliki Tsamakda, Christos Stavrakos, Dimitrios Liakos

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by Jas Elsner, Ida Toth, Marek Jankowiak, Anne McCabe, Paschalis Androudis, Emmanuel Moutafov, Pamela Armstrong, Georgios Pallis, Nicholas Melvani, Foteini Spingou, Georgios Deligiannakis, Andreas Rhoby, Antonio, Enrico Felle, Niels Gaul, Alexandra-Kyriaki Wassiliou-Seibt, Brad Hostetler, Arkadiy Avdokhin, Maria Lidova, and Paweł Nowakowski

The 49th Spring Symposium of the Society for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies INSCRIBING TEXT... more The 49th Spring Symposium of the Society
for the Promotion of Byzantine Studies
INSCRIBING TEXTS
IN BYZANTIUM:
CONTINUITIES AND TRANSFORMATIONS
18-20 March 2016, Exeter College, Oxford

In spite of the striking abundance of extant primary material – over 4000 Greek texts produced in the period between the sixth and fifteenth centuries – Byzantine Epigraphy remains largely uncharted territory, with a reputation for being elusive and esoteric that obstinately persists. References to inscriptions in our texts show how ubiquitous and deeply engrained the epigraphic habit was in Byzantine society, and underscore the significance of epigraphy as an auxiliary discipline. The growing interest in material culture, including inscriptions, has opened new avenues of research and led to various explorations in the field of epigraphy, but what is urgently needed is a synthetic approach that incorporates literacy, built environment, social and political contexts, and human agency. The SPBS Symposium 2016 has invited specialists in the field to examine diverse epigraphic material in order to trace individual epigraphic habits, and outline overall inscriptional traditions. In addition to the customary format of panel papers and shorter communications, the Symposium will organise a round table, whose participants will lead a debate on the topics presented in the panel papers, and discuss the methodological questions of collection, presentation and interpretation of Byzantine inscriptional material.

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24 - 26 January 2024 Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Medieval Research, Department o... more 24 - 26 January 2024
Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Medieval Research, Department of Byzantine Research
Georg Coch-Platz 2, 1010 Vienna, Austria

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