Suchergebnisse

AbstractThe stereotype of slave-run latifundia being turned into serf-worked estates is no longer credible as a model of the transition from antiquity to the middle ages, but Chris Wickham's anomalous characterisation of the Roman Empire as 'feudal' is scarcely a viable alternative to that. If a fully-articulated feudal economy only emerged in the later middle ages, what do we make of the preceding centuries? By postulating a 'general dominance of tenant production' throughout the period covered by his book, Wickham fails to offer any basis for a closer characterisation of the post-Roman rural labour-force and exaggerates the degree of control that peasants enjoyed in the late Empire and post-Roman world. A substantial part of the rural labour-force of the sixth to eighth centuries comprised groups who, like Rosamond Faith's inland-workers in Anglo-Saxon England, were more proletarian than peasant-like. The paper suggests the likely ways in which that situation reflected Roman traditions of direct management and the subordination of labour, and outlines what a Marxist theory of the so-called colonate might look like. After discussing Wickham's handling of the colonate and slavery, and looking briefly at the nature of estates and the fate of the Roman aristocracy, I conclude by criticising the way Wickham uses the category of 'mode of production'.

Introduction. The article focuses on the reasons for the lack of political subjectivity among the Egyptians in the Byzantine period (4th – first half of the 7th centuries). During this period, the population of Egypt did not demonstrate it at any level: social movements (uprisings) did not offer such agenda; studies on literature and rhetoric show that the Egyptians were under the influence of the Roman statehood (Eastern Roman Empire). The aims of the study are therefore concentrated around the consideration of the causes and terms of the loss of political subjectivity by the Egyptians, and the reasons for the increase of it among the Romans. An additional task was a comparative analysis of the political and religious systems of Ancient Rome and Ancient Egypt and the possible influence of religious features on the configuration of political systems. Methods. The main methods used in the study are factor analysis and the comparative method. Analysis. The ancient Egyptian political system was "introverted" and static in nature. The complete loss of political subjectivity by the Egyptians can be, however, attributed to the Roman period. In the Persian and Ptolemaic ones, its existence is preserved due to two main factors: the practices of the Persians and Ptolemies to present themselves as Egyptian pharaohs and the strong positions of the Egyptian priesthood, who could keep an ancient political subjectivity. Results. The Romans, who refused to continue Ptolemaic practices and took drastic measures to limit the economic independence of the Egyptian priesthood, managed to nullify its authentic political subjectivity. Thanks to an "extroverted" and transformative political model, supported by a "political theology" based on the "Roman myth", the Roman state managed to maintain (or even strengthen) its subjectivity in the period of late Antiquity.

'The Cult of St. Thecla: A Tradition of Women's Piety in Late Antiquity' by Stephen J. Davis is reviewed.

Comments on Ettore Greco, Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa, & Stefano Silivestris Fifteen Proposals for a Bipartisan European Policy in Italy (2006). Focus here is on underscoring three points considered of particular importance with respect to undoing the European impasse & reversing the Italian economic decline: the euro, budget discipline, & the European budget. D. Edelman