Transformations of Late Antiquity

Essays for Peter Brown

Manolis Papoutsakis, Philip Rousseau

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781351878081
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

This book focuses on a simple dynamic: the taking in hand of a heritage, the variety of changes induced within it, and the handing on of that legacy to new generations. Our contributors suggest, from different standpoints, that this dynamic represented the essence of 'late antiquity'. As Roman society, and the societies by which it was immediately bounded, continued to develop, through to the late sixth and early seventh centuries, the interplay between what needed to be treasured and what needed to be explored became increasingly self-conscious, versatile, and enriched. By the time formerly alien peoples had established their 'post-classical' polities, and Islam began to stir in the East, the novelties were more clearly seen, if not always welcomed; and one witnesses a stronger will to maintain the momentum of change, of a forward reach. At the same time, those in a position to play now the role of heirs were well able to appreciate how suited to their needs the 'Roman' past might be, but how, by taking it up in their turn, they were more securely defined and yet more creatively advantaged. 'Transformation' is a notion apposite to essays in honour of Peter Brown. 'The transformation of the classical heritage' is a theme to which he has devoted, and continues to devote, much energy. All the essays here in some way explore this notion of transformation; the late antique ability to turn the past to new uses, and to set its wealth of principle and insight to work in new settings. To begin, there is the very notion of what it meant to be 'Roman', and how that notion changed. Subsequent chapters suggest ways in which fundamental characteristics of Roman society were given new form, not least under the impact of a Christian polity. Augustine, naturally, finds his place; and here the emphasis is on the unfettered stance that he took in the face of more broadly held convictions - on miracles, for example, and the errors of the pagan past. The discussion then moves on to

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Contents
• Contributors
• Editors’ Preface
• Abbreviations
• I Between Marrou and Brown: Transformations of Late Antique Christianity
• II Old and New Rome: Roman Studies in Sixth-Century Constantinople1
• III Old and New Rome in the Late Antique Near East
• IV Regulations for an Association of Artisans from the Late Sasanian or Early Arab Period
• V Crosses, Icons and the Image of Christ in Edessa: The Place of Iconophobia in the Christian–Muslim Controversies of Early Islamic Times
• VI Alle origini della tradizione pagana su Costantino e il senato romano(Amm. Marc. 21.10.8 e Zos. 2.32.1)*
• VII Four Funerals and a Wedding: This World and the Next in Fourth-Century Rome
• VIII Les réticences de saint Augustin face aux légendes hagiographiques d’après la lettre Divjak 29*
• IX Language, Morality and Cult: Augustine and Varro*
• X A World Full of Stories
• XI Safe-Conducts to Heaven: Holy Men, Mediation and the Role of Writing
• XII Book Burning as Purification*
• XIII Gregorio Magno e i ‘Libri dei Re’* Lellia Cracco Ruggini e Giorgio Cracco
• XIV The Late Antique Origins of the Lunatic Asylum?*
• XV Family Men: Masculinity and Philosophy in Late Antiquity
• XVI Radegundis peccatrix: Authorizations of Virginity in Late Antique Gaul
• XVII Gemistus Plethon and Platonic Political Philosophy
• Peter Brown: Select Bibliography
• Index