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Books by Noel Lenski
From East to West in Late Antiquity: Studies in honor of Jan Willem Drijvers, 2024
From East to West in Late Antiquity is a tribute from his fellow ancient historians and classicis... more From East to West in Late Antiquity is a tribute from his fellow ancient historians and classicists to Jan Willem Drijvers to mark his retirement after four decades of teaching and research at the University of Groningen. The book opens with a retrospective from Jan Willem himself, in conversation, followed by his own bibliography. Over twenty chapters from his colleagues past and present are then organised into seven sections, many of which are areas of expertise to which the honorand has contributed so much in his own work: Constantine and his dynasty, Ammianus Marcellinus, Rome and the East, Society and religion in late antiquity, Politics and power, Panegyric and imperial image, and Reception of the late ancient world. The volume is offered as a collective tribute to Jan Willem Drijvers, in acknowledgement of the debt he is owed by generations of scholars and students.
Papers by Noel Lenski
Römische Mitteilungen, 2023
This article reassesses recent efforts to redate the frieze on the Arch of Constantine to the end... more This article reassesses recent efforts to redate the frieze on the Arch of Constantine to the end of the reign of Diocletian. It offers a series of arguments to demonstrate that these reliefs are, as has been long thought, Constantinian. These focus on iconography (the use of known Constantinian imagery), narrative (allusions to events in Constantine’s military and political career known from written sources), historiography (the interpretation of the source tradition, especially for the arch’s “River Battle” scene), and technical matters (the fact that the frieze reliefs were carved in situ and the likelihood that the arch’s sculptors fashioned inset portrait heads of the emperor). Numismatic material and early modern prints provide new iconographic parallels that reinforce a conclusion that the frieze cycle was produced in the Constantinian era.
American Journal of Archaeology, 1996
DESCRIZIONE The fifth century CE represents a turning point in ancient history. Before 400 the Ro... more DESCRIZIONE The fifth century CE represents a turning point in ancient history. Before 400 the Roman Empire stood largely intact and coherent, a massive and powerful testament to traditions of state power stretching back for the previous 600 years. By 500 the empire had fragmented as state power retreated rapidly and the political and social forces that would usher in the Middle Ages be-came cemented into place. This volume explores this crucial period in the six broad areas of natural science, archaeology and material culture, barbarian and Roman relations, law and power, religious authority, and literary constructions. Assembling the papers of the twelfth biennial Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity Conference, The Fifth Century: Age of Transformation offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on this pivotal century in all of its ramifications. Nella storia dell’antichità il quinto secolo d.C. rappresenta un punto di svolta. Prima dell’anno 400 l’impero romano si ergeva complessivamente integro e unito: una testimonianza massiccia e impressionante delle tradizioni di un potere statuale risalenti a seicento anni prima. Nell’anno 500 l’impero era già diviso in seguito al rapido indebolimento del potere statale e all’azione congiunta di fattori politici e sociali che avrebbero condotto al Medio Evo. Il volume analizza questo periodo cruciale, prendendo in esame sei settori generali: scienze naturali, archeologia e cultura materiale, relazioni romano-barbariche, stato e diritto, potere religioso, produzione letteraria. Riunendo i contributi presentati al XII convegno biennale di “Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity”, The Fifth Century: Age of Transformation offre una vasta panoramica degli studi più recenti su questo secolo decisivo. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Jan Willem Drijvers and Noel Lenski, Introduction NATURAL SCIENCE Kyle Harper, The Climate of the Fifth Century Cam Grey, Climate Change and Agrarian Change between the Fourth and Sixth Centuries: Questions of Scale, Coincidence, and Causality Dominic Solly, A Spanish Bonanza? A Reexamination of Roman Gold Mining Technology ARCHAEOLOGY AND MATERIAL CULTURE Anna Flückiger, Blind Dating: Towards a Chronology of Fifth-Century Material Culture in Augusta Raurica John Hermann and Annewies van den Hoek, The Vandals and the End of Elite North African Ceramics: Relief Decoration on African Red Slip Ware Marco Cavalieri, Gloriana Pace, Sara Lenzi, Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (San Gimignano, Siena): A Roman Villa in Central Italy during Late Antiquity Zeev Weiss, Defining Limits in Times of Shifting Borders: Jewish Life in Fifth-Century Palestine Young Richard Kim, The Little Island That Could: Cyprus in the Fifth Century BARBARIAN AND ROMAN IN THE FIFTH-CENTURY WEST Ralph W. Mathisen, The End of the Western Roman Empire in the Fifth Century CE: Barbarian Auxiliaries, Independent Military Contractors, and Civil Wars Merle Eisenberg, A New Name for a New State: The Construction of the Burgundian Regio Veronika Egetenmeyr, «Barbarians» Transformed: The Construction of Identity in the Epistles of Sidonius Apollinaris LAW AND POWER Kevin Feeney, The Emperor is Dead, Long Live the Emperor: Imperial Interregna in the Fifth Century Meaghan McEvoy, Leo II, Zeno and the Transfer of Roman Imperial Rule from a Son to his Father in 474 CE Felix K. Maier, Active Rulership Unrealized: Claudian’s Panegyric on Honorius Marie Roux, Administrative Transitions in Gaul during the Second Half of the Fifth Century. The Example of the Visigothic Kingdom through the Breviary of Alaric RELIGION AND AUTHORITY Maijastina Kahlos, Shifting Sacrifices? Fifth-Century Developments in Ritual Life Aaron P. Johnson, The Fifth-Century Transformation of Apologetics in Cyril and Theodoret E. Tiggy McLaughlin, Ordinary Christians and the Fifth-Century Reform of the Church in Gaul Bronwen Neil, Pope Gelasius’s Theory of Law and its Implementation at the End of the Fifth Century LITERARY CONSTRUCTIONS AND CULTURAL MEMORY Edward Watts, Hypatia in the Letter Collection of Synesius Hajnalka Tamas, From Persecutor to Arbitrator of Orthodoxy: The Changing Face of Sextus Petronius Probus between the Fourth and the Fifth Century Jason Moralee, Commemorating Defeat: Cultural Memory and the Vandal Sack of Rome in 455
Constantine and the Cities, 2016
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2004
Human trafficking has become a global concern over the last twenty years, but its violence has te... more Human trafficking has become a global concern over the last twenty years, but its violence has terrorized and traumatized its victims and survivors for millennia. This study examines the deep history of human trafficking from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. It traces the evolution of trafficking patterns: the growth and decline of trafficking routes, the everchanging relationships between traffickers and authorities, and it examines the underlying causes that lead to vulnerability and thus to exploitation. As the reader will discover, the conditions that lead to human trafficking in the modern world, such as poverty, attitudes of entitlement, corruption, and violence, have a long and storied past. When we understand that past, we can better anticipate human trafficking’s future, and then we are better able to fight it.
Atti dell'Accademia Romanistica Constantiniana XXV, 2023
The concept of ‘Germanic law’ did not arouse controversy before the mid-twentieth century, but th... more The concept of ‘Germanic law’ did not arouse controversy before the mid-twentieth century, but the last fifty years have seen an almost complete retreat from its usage in many circles. This study reopens the question using a single law from the Visigothic code as its starting point. Liber Iudiciorum 6.4.3 uses the word iniuria to describe the personal assaults it punishes, but a close examination of this word shows that it is not used to refer to the Roman delict of that name. Instead, iniuria in this law and others in the same code clearly means a violent physical act. The law is then compared to others in the post-Roman legal tradition, and it is shown that this complex of laws bears a wide range of similarities in language and legal anthropology unto itself, and that these link them together and justify their characterization as representative of a ‘Germanic’ law tradition.
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery, eds. Pargas and Schiel, 2023
A brief but comprehensive survey of evidence and problems for the practice of slavery in the Roma... more A brief but comprehensive survey of evidence and problems for the practice of slavery in the Roman Empire.
From East to West in Late Antiquity: Studies in honor of Jan Willem Drijvers, 2024
From East to West in Late Antiquity is a tribute from his fellow ancient historians and classicis... more From East to West in Late Antiquity is a tribute from his fellow ancient historians and classicists to Jan Willem Drijvers to mark his retirement after four decades of teaching and research at the University of Groningen. The book opens with a retrospective from Jan Willem himself, in conversation, followed by his own bibliography. Over twenty chapters from his colleagues past and present are then organised into seven sections, many of which are areas of expertise to which the honorand has contributed so much in his own work: Constantine and his dynasty, Ammianus Marcellinus, Rome and the East, Society and religion in late antiquity, Politics and power, Panegyric and imperial image, and Reception of the late ancient world. The volume is offered as a collective tribute to Jan Willem Drijvers, in acknowledgement of the debt he is owed by generations of scholars and students.
Römische Mitteilungen, 2023
This article reassesses recent efforts to redate the frieze on the Arch of Constantine to the end... more This article reassesses recent efforts to redate the frieze on the Arch of Constantine to the end of the reign of Diocletian. It offers a series of arguments to demonstrate that these reliefs are, as has been long thought, Constantinian. These focus on iconography (the use of known Constantinian imagery), narrative (allusions to events in Constantine’s military and political career known from written sources), historiography (the interpretation of the source tradition, especially for the arch’s “River Battle” scene), and technical matters (the fact that the frieze reliefs were carved in situ and the likelihood that the arch’s sculptors fashioned inset portrait heads of the emperor). Numismatic material and early modern prints provide new iconographic parallels that reinforce a conclusion that the frieze cycle was produced in the Constantinian era.
American Journal of Archaeology, 1996
DESCRIZIONE The fifth century CE represents a turning point in ancient history. Before 400 the Ro... more DESCRIZIONE The fifth century CE represents a turning point in ancient history. Before 400 the Roman Empire stood largely intact and coherent, a massive and powerful testament to traditions of state power stretching back for the previous 600 years. By 500 the empire had fragmented as state power retreated rapidly and the political and social forces that would usher in the Middle Ages be-came cemented into place. This volume explores this crucial period in the six broad areas of natural science, archaeology and material culture, barbarian and Roman relations, law and power, religious authority, and literary constructions. Assembling the papers of the twelfth biennial Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity Conference, The Fifth Century: Age of Transformation offers a comprehensive overview of recent research on this pivotal century in all of its ramifications. Nella storia dell’antichità il quinto secolo d.C. rappresenta un punto di svolta. Prima dell’anno 400 l’impero romano si ergeva complessivamente integro e unito: una testimonianza massiccia e impressionante delle tradizioni di un potere statuale risalenti a seicento anni prima. Nell’anno 500 l’impero era già diviso in seguito al rapido indebolimento del potere statale e all’azione congiunta di fattori politici e sociali che avrebbero condotto al Medio Evo. Il volume analizza questo periodo cruciale, prendendo in esame sei settori generali: scienze naturali, archeologia e cultura materiale, relazioni romano-barbariche, stato e diritto, potere religioso, produzione letteraria. Riunendo i contributi presentati al XII convegno biennale di “Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity”, The Fifth Century: Age of Transformation offre una vasta panoramica degli studi più recenti su questo secolo decisivo. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements Jan Willem Drijvers and Noel Lenski, Introduction NATURAL SCIENCE Kyle Harper, The Climate of the Fifth Century Cam Grey, Climate Change and Agrarian Change between the Fourth and Sixth Centuries: Questions of Scale, Coincidence, and Causality Dominic Solly, A Spanish Bonanza? A Reexamination of Roman Gold Mining Technology ARCHAEOLOGY AND MATERIAL CULTURE Anna Flückiger, Blind Dating: Towards a Chronology of Fifth-Century Material Culture in Augusta Raurica John Hermann and Annewies van den Hoek, The Vandals and the End of Elite North African Ceramics: Relief Decoration on African Red Slip Ware Marco Cavalieri, Gloriana Pace, Sara Lenzi, Aiano-Torraccia di Chiusi (San Gimignano, Siena): A Roman Villa in Central Italy during Late Antiquity Zeev Weiss, Defining Limits in Times of Shifting Borders: Jewish Life in Fifth-Century Palestine Young Richard Kim, The Little Island That Could: Cyprus in the Fifth Century BARBARIAN AND ROMAN IN THE FIFTH-CENTURY WEST Ralph W. Mathisen, The End of the Western Roman Empire in the Fifth Century CE: Barbarian Auxiliaries, Independent Military Contractors, and Civil Wars Merle Eisenberg, A New Name for a New State: The Construction of the Burgundian Regio Veronika Egetenmeyr, «Barbarians» Transformed: The Construction of Identity in the Epistles of Sidonius Apollinaris LAW AND POWER Kevin Feeney, The Emperor is Dead, Long Live the Emperor: Imperial Interregna in the Fifth Century Meaghan McEvoy, Leo II, Zeno and the Transfer of Roman Imperial Rule from a Son to his Father in 474 CE Felix K. Maier, Active Rulership Unrealized: Claudian’s Panegyric on Honorius Marie Roux, Administrative Transitions in Gaul during the Second Half of the Fifth Century. The Example of the Visigothic Kingdom through the Breviary of Alaric RELIGION AND AUTHORITY Maijastina Kahlos, Shifting Sacrifices? Fifth-Century Developments in Ritual Life Aaron P. Johnson, The Fifth-Century Transformation of Apologetics in Cyril and Theodoret E. Tiggy McLaughlin, Ordinary Christians and the Fifth-Century Reform of the Church in Gaul Bronwen Neil, Pope Gelasius’s Theory of Law and its Implementation at the End of the Fifth Century LITERARY CONSTRUCTIONS AND CULTURAL MEMORY Edward Watts, Hypatia in the Letter Collection of Synesius Hajnalka Tamas, From Persecutor to Arbitrator of Orthodoxy: The Changing Face of Sextus Petronius Probus between the Fourth and the Fifth Century Jason Moralee, Commemorating Defeat: Cultural Memory and the Vandal Sack of Rome in 455
Constantine and the Cities, 2016
The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 2004
Human trafficking has become a global concern over the last twenty years, but its violence has te... more Human trafficking has become a global concern over the last twenty years, but its violence has terrorized and traumatized its victims and survivors for millennia. This study examines the deep history of human trafficking from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. It traces the evolution of trafficking patterns: the growth and decline of trafficking routes, the everchanging relationships between traffickers and authorities, and it examines the underlying causes that lead to vulnerability and thus to exploitation. As the reader will discover, the conditions that lead to human trafficking in the modern world, such as poverty, attitudes of entitlement, corruption, and violence, have a long and storied past. When we understand that past, we can better anticipate human trafficking’s future, and then we are better able to fight it.
Atti dell'Accademia Romanistica Constantiniana XXV, 2023
The concept of ‘Germanic law’ did not arouse controversy before the mid-twentieth century, but th... more The concept of ‘Germanic law’ did not arouse controversy before the mid-twentieth century, but the last fifty years have seen an almost complete retreat from its usage in many circles. This study reopens the question using a single law from the Visigothic code as its starting point. Liber Iudiciorum 6.4.3 uses the word iniuria to describe the personal assaults it punishes, but a close examination of this word shows that it is not used to refer to the Roman delict of that name. Instead, iniuria in this law and others in the same code clearly means a violent physical act. The law is then compared to others in the post-Roman legal tradition, and it is shown that this complex of laws bears a wide range of similarities in language and legal anthropology unto itself, and that these link them together and justify their characterization as representative of a ‘Germanic’ law tradition.
The Palgrave Handbook of Global Slavery, eds. Pargas and Schiel, 2023
A brief but comprehensive survey of evidence and problems for the practice of slavery in the Roma... more A brief but comprehensive survey of evidence and problems for the practice of slavery in the Roman Empire.
S. Hodkinson, M. Kleijwegt, and K. Vlassopoulos (eds.) Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Slaveries, 2022
The ‘bound colonate’ is a subject of controversy among scholars, some of whom argue that it exist... more The ‘bound colonate’ is a subject of controversy among scholars, some of whom argue that it existed as a new status between free and slave, while others feel it was merely a fiscal concern that has been exaggerated into a historiographic myth. A survey of the evidence confirms that the bound colonate grew out of fiscal registration in the late third century but then took on a life of its own as a third status of semi-servility in the following century. It had become fully articulated by the early fifth century
such that the many peasants enmeshed in it were compelled to live as permanent tenants bound to the land on which they were born and burdened with numerous impediments to their freedom. The bound
colonate survived intact in the eastern empire through the sixth century but was modified in various forms in the post-Roman successor states of the West.
Contents: Introduction: power and religion on the frontier of late Antiquity, Noel Lenski Part I ... more Contents: Introduction: power and religion on the frontier of late Antiquity, Noel Lenski Part I Religion and the Power of the Word: Disarming Aeneas: Fulgentius on Arms and the Man, Emily Albu 'Apocalypse? No' - the power of millennialism and its transformation in late Antique Christianity, Josef LA ssl Clementissimus imperator: power, religion and philosophy in Ambrose's De obitu Theodosii and Seneca's De clementia, Giacomo Raspanti Haec quibus uteris verba: the Bible and Boethius' Christianity, Danuta Shanzer. Part II Power over the Divine: Porphyry, Iamblichus and the Struggle for the Philosophical Tradition: The power of religious rituals: a philosophical quarrel on the eve of the great persecution, Elizabeth DePalma Digeser Subjugating the divine: Iamblichus on the theurgic evocation, Sergio Knipe Arbiter of the oracular: reading religion in Porphyry of Tyre, Aaron P. Johnson. Part III Emperors and the Deployment of Religious Power: Church, state and childr...
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 2011
THE END of the fourth book of his Ecclesiastical History, Socrates turns to the migration of the ... more THE END of the fourth book of his Ecclesiastical History, Socrates turns to the migration of the Goths into the Roman Empire and their defeat of the Emperor Valens at Adrianople in 378. He introduces this section with an excursus (4.33) on the conversion of the Goths to Christianity, a subject much closer to his theme of church history than Adrianople. Socrates recounts a civil war between the rival chieftains Athanaric and Fritigern; when Fritigern was worsted, he sought help from Valens, who offered him military support to defeat his rival; in thanks for this support, Fritigern converted to Christianity and caused his followers to do the same. Socrates goes on to describe the missionary activity of the Gothic bishop Ulfilas, who played a role in engineering the Gothic conversion: Ulfilas' proselytizing had provoked the rancor of Athanaric, who began a ruthless persecution against Gothic Christians, dated from other sources between 369 and ca 372. Given that Socrates provides a narrative of the Gothic conversion and associates it with a datable persecution, one would assume that we could easily derive a date for the conversion of Fritigern's Goths. Socrates, however, is not the only source to discuss the question nor to offer information on the date of the conversion. Sozomen, supplementing Socrates' material with other sources, dates the conversion to 376-a date supported by Theodoret,
C. DeWet, M. Kahlos, V. Vuolanto, Slavery in the Late Antique World, 150-700 CE, 2022
A survey of the practice of slaving throughout the centuries of the Visigothic kingdom, from 418 ... more A survey of the practice of slaving throughout the centuries of the Visigothic kingdom, from 418 - 711 CE - PROOFS
The New Late Antiquity: A Gallery of Intellectual Portraits, edited by Clifford Ando and Marco Formisano, 2021
Santo Mazzarino remains one of the most influential historians of late antiquity in the Italian w... more Santo Mazzarino remains one of the most influential historians of late antiquity in the Italian world, yet his contribution outside of Italophone scholarship has often gone unremarked. This article addresses that imbalance by showing the importance of his ideas of 'democratization' and 'adaeratio' and his early defense of the dynamism of late antiquity while showing that some of Mazzarino's contributions continue to reverberate without acknowledgement of their originator.
Les mondes de l’esclavage. Une histoire comparée, edited by Paulin Ismard, 2021
This paper explores the impact of Abrahamic monotheism on the practice and representation of slav... more This paper explores the impact of Abrahamic monotheism on the practice and representation of slaving and slavery. It covers a range of sources over the past three millennia with a particular focus on premodernity.
The Cambridge World History of Slavery, 2021
This article surveys the practice of slavery in Byzantine society from the fourth through the fif... more This article surveys the practice of slavery in Byzantine society from the fourth through the fifteenth century with an eye to introducing general readers to the problem and providing basic primary and secondary source references.
Late Antique Studies in Memory of Alan Cameron, edd. W.V. Harris and Anne Hunnell Chen, 2021
This paper offers a comprehensive look at references to slavery in the works of Ambrose of Milan ... more This paper offers a comprehensive look at references to slavery in the works of Ambrose of Milan and arrives at seven conclusions: 1) Ambrose portrays slavery as one of many labor regimes common in northern Italy in the late fourth century alongside tenancy and wage labor, 2) he adopts Stoicizing tropes in his explanation for slavery but interprets these through a Pauline lens that is also markedly anti-Jewish, 3) much of his Stoicism is accessed through Philo, but where Philo portrays Joseph as the Stoic sage, Ambrose assigns that role to Jesus 4) he equates Stoic folly with Christian sin, thus making slavery into a product of sinfulness, 5) in so doing he references a kind of 'natural slave' theory that justifies slavery for the fool/sinner, ideas rooted not in Aristotle but Plato, as transmitted through Basil, 6) he associates slavery with human greed which he claims disrupted a pre-lapsarian utopian world community, 7) motivated by these concerns, he became involved in the redemption of captives of the Goths and children recently sold into slavery in the wake of famine.
ποιμένι λαῶν. Studies in Honor of Robert J. Penella. Révue des études Tardo-Antiques, 12, supplément 8, 2019
This paper challenges recent work asserting that slave teachers continued to prevail in the educa... more This paper challenges recent work asserting that slave teachers continued to prevail in the education system in Greco-Roman Late Antiquity. It sketches out the fundamental transformation in education between the first century BCE and the fifth century CE and charts the development of a free market in educational labor.
NAC 47: 251-95, 2018
Il famoso medaglione cosiddetto «di Ticinum» recante l'effige dell'imperatore Costantino con il c... more Il famoso medaglione cosiddetto «di Ticinum» recante l'effige dell'imperatore Costantino con il cristogramma sull'elmo costituisce una delle più importanti e antiche nonché con-troverse testimonianze della svolta politico-religiosa dell'imperatore nella sua adesione pubblica al cristianesimo. Il medaglione non ha il marchio di zecca e fu oggetto di una se-rie di studi pubblicati da A. Alföldi tra il 1939 e il 1954 nei quali fu proposta l'at-tribuzione alla zecca di Pavia nonché la datazione al 315 d.C.-poco meno di tre anni dopo la vittoriosa battaglia di Ponte Milvio contro il rivale Massenzio, agli albori della quale Costantino ebbe la visione mistica della croce («in hoc signo vinces») e che diede al-l'imperatore l'opportunità di regnare da solo. Gli argomenti di Alföldi, oggi largamente accettati, si basavano sullo stretto confronto del busto dell'imperatore sul verso con altret-tanti busti su quattro solidi della zecca di Pavia. La nuova ipotesi qui presentata accetta da un lato l'attribuzione alle officine di Ticinum, propone però una datazione del medaglione più bassa al 321 d.C., allon-tanandolo così nel tempo dalla data della famosa battaglia. Anzitutto le raffigurazioni più antiche dell'elmo crestato e con il cristogramma sarebbero attribuibili solo al periodo tra il 318 e il 320 d.C. Inoltre, anche la protome di cavallo visibile sul medaglione ac-canto all'effige dell'imperatore sarebbe un elemento che, pur apparendo già in medaglioni databili attorno al 315 d.C., diviene in effetti più frequente solo tra il 320 e il 323 d.C. con un picco di popolarità nell'anno 321 d.C. in relazione alle emissioni che celebravano i quindicennalia di Costantino. Tra queste emissioni figurano, in particolare, alcuni es-emplari prodotti proprio nella zecca di Ticinum. La datazione più tarda trova infine supporto anche nelle fonti scritte, in particolare nel panegirico composto da Nazario nel 321 d.C. nella descrizione della cavalleria celeste che sarebbe venuta in soccorso a Costantino in occasione della battaglia di Ponte Milvio.
What is a Slave Society? The Practice of Slavery in Global Perspective, eds. N. Lenski and C. Cameron, 2018
Critiques the Finley thesis that slaveholding social formations can be broken into the simple bin... more Critiques the Finley thesis that slaveholding social formations can be broken into the simple binary - "Slave Societies" and "Societies with Slaves".
Co-organized with Damian Fernandez
Co-organized with Alexander Free, LMU Munich / Yale
Summer School itinerante, “La Città romana imperiale”. Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Dipartimento di Scienze Umane; Yale University, Department of Classics and History - Forenza, Potenza, Grumentum, Venosa, Acerenza, Metaponto, 3-9 giungo 2017.
La città antica era un luogo di cultura e di scambi commerciali. Le città erano luoghi vivi, in c... more La città antica era un luogo di cultura e di scambi commerciali. Le città erano luoghi vivi, in cui i giovani aderivano alle scuole di filosofia, di retorica, di medicina.
La città antica era la sede di un intenso dibattito politico, con spazi di incontro e di discussioni. Luoghi in cui i temi in questione erano conosciuti dalla popolazione che ne dibatteva, nei fora, nelle agorai, nei teatri, nelle basiliche civiche.
Luoghi in cui cresceva la cultura, come i ginnasi delle città dell’oriente.
Luoghi in cui c’erano scuole filosofiche, gruppi organizzati di lavoratori che partecipavano intensamente al dibattito per il miglioramento delle condizioni della vita cittadina.
Le terme, momento di svago, ma anche luogo di incontri e di socializzazione, in cui i ceti dirigenti trovavano momenti di discussione.
Luoghi della religione, in cui la popolazione si radunava e sviluppava la propria coesione.
Luoghi di cerimonie civiche, che in modo spesso suggestivo allietavano la vita dei centri urbani e del territorio e contribuivano a cementare un forte senso di appartenenza.
Speculum 98/3, 2023
Rome than the Liber Pontificalis or other manuscript-based texts. Osborne's expert analysis of th... more Rome than the Liber Pontificalis or other manuscript-based texts. Osborne's expert analysis of the graffiti of the catacombs (1985) reshaped conventional views of their abandonment in the Middle Ages; the new database of Christian epigraphy up to and including the eighth century (https://www.edb.uniba.it/) might provide further material for analysis. How different is this approach, and what does it deliver that histories written more conventionally from the textual record might bring? Osborne's history of the eighth century does not vary greatly from the accounts written by Thomas Noble, Federico Marazzi, or Clemens Gantner (to name the most recent historical treatments); the rise of papal autonomy, wealth, and power is steady, and the diplomatic advances and conflicts with the emperor, the Lombards, and the Franks still profoundly shape the fortunes of the city's rulers. If Osborne had entirely ignored the historical record and built his history directly from church buildings and their paintings, would a different picture have emerged? Perhaps not, as the art historical record of Rome, as we can reconstruct it today, is destined to align with writing produced by the papal court, as they were two sides to the same coin of high-status patronage, mutually affirming primacy at Rome and the bishops' inheritance of ancient legacies. The surviving churches and paintings have been preserved because of their associations with the hegemonic church; while there must have been other patrons, other buildings, perhaps paintings and mosaics in other elite spaces, we know nothing of them, and the archaeological data for the eighth century (briefly summarized on pp. 92-93) are limited indeed, at least in terms of the papacy. Osborne's account gives us a deeply pious city, presided over by the bishop and his court and filled with saints' relics and pilgrims from near and far. In this environment, the sculpture of liturgical furnishings and the shapes of letters communicated cultural changes and political shifts to Romans and visitors. The multivalence of images, where depictions can convey multiple registers of meaning, gives Osborne's account complexity around shifting representations of Roman identity in Santa Maria Antiqua, for instance. Osborne uses the art to explain the large-scale transformations and the local, small-scale relationships which animate the political movements that occurred in Rome. Given his emphasis on paintings and mosaics, it is unfortunate that there are so few images, several of which are murky grey on the page; a map would have been useful. The value of the book is in the synthesis of existing scholarship from a novel vantage point. Osborne's account gives the history of Rome in the eighth century texture, color, and space. He shows how memory, history, allegiance, and power were practiced and experienced in place, much more than they were crafted as letters on a parchment page.