A Helping Hand from the Divine. Notes on the Triumphalist Iconography of the Early Theodosians (original) (raw)
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2016
This MA thesis will discuss the reception of common, non-scholarly polytheists (pagans) to the persecution of Christians from the early empire until the Great Persecution (303-313, 322-324). Though modern scholars have addressed this issue and asserted that there was a change in attitude, many have not developed this into anything more than a passing statement. When chronologically analyzing the Christian acts, passions, letters, and speeches recounting the deaths of martyrs deemed historically authentic, and accounting for the literary and biblical topoi, we can demonstrate that the position of non-Christians changed. The methodology of this thesis will chronologically assess the martyr acts, passions, speeches, and letters which are historically accurate after literary and biblical topoi are addressed. These sources are available in the appendix. Throughout this analysis, we will see two currents. The primary current will seek to discern the change in pagan reception of anti-Christian persecution, while the second current will draw attention to the Roman concept of religio and superstitio, both important in understanding civic religion which upheld the pax deorum and defined loyalty to the Roman order through material sacrifices and closely connected to one's citizenship. Religio commonly denoted proper ritual practices, while superstitio defined irregular forms of worship which may endanger the state. As we will see, Christians were feared and persecuted because it was believed that their cult would anger the gods and disrupt the cosmological order. The analysis will begin with a discussion centered on the "accusatory" approach to the Christian church during the first two centuries when the Roman state relied on provincial delatores (denounces) to legislate against the cult. During the first two centuries persecution was mostly provincial, sporadic and was not centrally-directed. We will see that provincial mobs were the most violent during the first two centuries. During the third century the actions of the imperial authority changed and began following an "inquisitorial" approach with the accession of Emperors Decius and Valerian, the former enacting an edict of universal sacrifices while the latter undertook the first Empire-wide initiative to crush the Christian community. It is during the third century that the attitude of nonelite pagans may have begun to change. This will be suggested when discussing the martyrdom of Pionius. When discussing the fourth century Great Persecution under the Diocletianic tetrarchy, it will be suggested that the pagan populace may have begun to look upon the small Christian community sympathetically. The thesis will conclude with the victory of Constantine over Licinius and the slow but steady rise of Christianity to prominence, becoming the official religio of the empire with traditional paganism relegated to the status of a superstitio.
Ambrose of Milan and the Altar of Victory: Persecution Rhetoric in Support of Empire
Constantine the Great was the first Roman emperor to be a Christian. However, his ascension to the purple did not automatically make Christianity the official religion of the empire, nor did it outlaw paganism. However, Constantine’s rise did begin a process by which Christianity went from being a marginal and persecuted group to being the religion of the empire. As Christianity proceeded from outlawed, to permitted, to official, it transformed from being defined in opposition to the Roman empire to being nearly one and the same with it. One episode in this gradual transition is the controversy in the late fourth century over the Roman Altar of Victory. As a result of the events surrounding this episode, public funding was removed from pagan cults in Rome and the senate was redefined so as to no longer be a pagan institution. As most scholars tell the story, one of the major players in this decision, and perhaps the most important player, was not the emperor, not a senator, not a court official, but a Christian bishop: Ambrose of Milan. The church became an active force in imperial politics, and in so doing, developed its own new imperialistic identity. In this paper, we will explore the relationship between Christianity and empire in relation to the 384 CE Altar of Victory controversy. After reviewing some introductory information on the Altar of Victory and Ambrose of Milan, we will explore the details of the 384 controversy before examining more directly the two most important primary documents involved: the 3rd Relatio of Symmachus and the 17th Epistle of Ambrose. Finally, I will show how Ambrose uses the rhetoric of martyrdom and persecution in support of imperial power and Christian supremacy.
Becoming Roman? Romanness, Non-Romanness, and Barbarity in Pacatus’ panegyric on Theodosius
2021
This paper analyses the use of the stereotypical concepts of Romanness and barbarity in Pacatus’ Panegyrici Latini 2(12), delivered in 389 AD. The Gallic panegyrist had to address the Eastern Roman emperor Theodosius’ employment of Gothic troops against his Roman adversary, Magnus Maximus, who was stationed in the Western Empire, which could have been grounds for the Western elite to question his legitimacy. This speech is an early example of the deteriorating dichotomy between Romans and non-Romans, a trend which would continue in the fifth century. The speech provides us with a singular Roman perspective on the changing ethnic composition and hierarchy within the Empire. By analysing Pacatus’ descriptions of the Goths, it becomes clear that they are ascribed more positive, almost Roman traits, while at the same time still corresponding to the prevailing barbarian stereotype to some degree. Moreover, by simultaneously suggesting that Maximus’ soldiers have lost their Roman identity, Pacatus problematises the distinctions between Romans and non-Romans, Goths and barbarians, and consequently the idea of civil war itself, even further.
Mirabilia Journal, 2022
When Theodosius the Great became emperor, the influence of Christianity had expanded throughout the Roman Empire. The Christians gained the upper hand in the Empire mainly after the death of Julian and when they became in the majority. This power led the emperor Theodosius to behave toward pagans with cruelty that didn’t match to a Christian emperor. He was responsible for the massacre in Thessalonica of the province of byzantine Greek Macedonia. There 7000 thousand people were killed. In this paper, we will examine which was the attitude of Ambrosius of Milan to the emperor, when the bishop thought that the Church was just being used as a political prop or fig leaf. Which is the importance of the letter of Ambrose that was written to Theodosius? How did this Ambrose’s criticism to Theodosius for his ruthless slaughter, barring the emperor from entering church or taking communion for several months, and ordering him to do penance for several months before he could enter again and receive the host, change Theodosius’ behaviour as Christian? Did the letter of Ambrose to Theodosius have a catalytic role to later sanctity of the emperor? Ambrose’s penance should not be accepted as a win of the church over the emperor but only as a demonstration of the power of atonement over the penitent sinner. This power should not discriminate people according to their political power but according to their actions as Christians.
Graciano: um imperador em luta contra alamanos e godos (Séc. IV d.C.)
De Rebus Antiquis. 2018, 8, (8), 2019
In a fourth century marked by constant threats to the power of empire, authors such as the senator Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, the historian Ammianus Marcellinus and the bishop Ambrose, put their feathers at the service of identifying the barbarian enemies that plagued the empire of Gratian. According to these discourses, perfidy and falsehood dominated the Goths; the ferocity, the Alamanos. In Gratian were the virtues necessary to overcome these enemies. A coin coined under Gratian also carried this elaboration. In this article, I investigate the contrasts generated between vices and virtues to propagate dichotomies rooted in that society: barbaric savagery against Roman civility. I suggest that such comparisons emphasized the perilousness of foreign peoples and, on the other hand, emphasized imperial public utility.
A Polite Conversation, an Edict, and a Sword: A Look at the Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran
Journal of Theological Studies, 2019
This article offers a fresh analysis of the Martyrdom of Julius the Veteran, a martyr act narrating the trial and execution of a Christian military veteran of the legio XI Claudia stationed at Durostorum in Moesia Minor in 304 CE. The article establishes a literary tendency in the martyr acta whereby a correlation is made between increasing or decreasing descriptions of violence and increasing or decreasing demonization of the persecutors. A close analysis of the exchange between Julius and the legatus Augustalis Maximus, specifically of the modifiers Satanae and subdolus in Julius' rejection of Maximus' attempt to resolve the case without Julius dying or losing honour, results in a more nuanced look at the concept of Romanitas and Christian-Roman identity boundaries than has previously been attempted for this military martyr act.
The present contribution provides an examination of the relationship between the emperor and the divine sphere in Latin panegyric poetry of the fifth and sixth centuries. Following the path magisterially set forth by Claudian, poets like Sidonius Apollinaris and, later on, Corippus employs the same literary genre to praise the newly-come Germanic kings or the Eastern Emperor. They have, however, to face a profoundly transformed historical and political realm, not to mention a different approach towards religion. Whereas Panegyrici Latini and Claudian could make wide use of mythological similes to celebrate Rome, her grandeur and the deeds of the emperor, his successors deal with the ancient gods in quite a clear-cut or, so to say, crystallized way. They show a conservative (and, to some extent, nostalgic) attitude and still believe in the endurance of Rome, which is fated to last eternally. The sacralization of Rome (with the concurring ideas of a Christian providence and the literary cliché of pagan aeternitas) is integrated within the frame of an empire that has become totally Christianized and, especially in the East, finds in political theology a privileged terrain to establish its roots. In particular the link between Christianity and the emperor as vicar of God is well outlined by the symbolism of court ceremonial and gesture, which panegyrics describe in great detail.
Byzantina Symmeikta 30, 2020
Averil Cameron once described panegyric as “the most artificial of all classical genres to modern taste.”Living in the age of Donald Trump—where “alternative facts” have become commonplace—most current historians would likely agree with this assessment. Flexible “truths” were certainly a key tool in any panegyrist’s arsenal. Like the modern Presidential Press Secretary, it was part of the ancient orator’s task to reiterate, shape, and massage imperial messaging to an emperor’s subjects. Though it was always easier to trumpet an emperor’s actual virtues and deeds, in certain cases, an orator needed to espouse exaggerated—and sometimes— fabricated virtues. A skilled rhetorician could mould reality to such a degree, that even a feeble emperor, like Honorius (r. 395-423), could be recast as a mighty warrior. Little wonder then that most modern historians have not relied on panegyrics as their primary means of unpicking truths about emperors, their rivals, or specific political events in the late Roman Empire. So it might surprise some, that Adrastos Omissi (henceforth AO) in this provocative and engagingly-written study unapologetically and deftly wields panegyrics as his preferred methodological tool by which to study both usurpation as a concept and to recover something of the shadowy “usurpers” themselves