Suchergebnisse

"Environment and Society in the Long Late Antiquity brings together scientific, archaeological and historical evidence on the interplay of social change and environmental phenomena at the end of Antiquity and the dawn of the Middle Ages, covering the period ca. 300-800 AD. It gives a new impetus to the study of the environmental history of this crucial period of transition between two major epochs in premodern history. The volume contains both systematic overviews of the previous scholarship and available data, as well as a number of interdisciplinary case studies. It covers a wide range of topics, including the histories of landscape, climate, disease and earthquakes, all intertwined with social, cultural, economic and political developments"--

Fan fiction in antiquity suffers from a lack of certainty regarding what is canon: is what is now considered fan fiction really fan fiction, or is it another contemporary version of the canon? The concept of fan fiction thus ought to be combined with the idea of transmedia storytelling, building on snowball-effect stories. This approach is used in an analysis of how the saints in late antiquity became a characteristic of Christianity. This era used fan fiction–like texts describing saints' life stories; shrines and dedicated basilicas, which allowed distinct communities to gather and celebrate; pilgrimages, which combined adventure and biographical identification with the beloved saint; and pictures, relics, and pilgrim tokens. The Christian world in late antiquity has characteristics reminiscent of the universes created by transmedia storytelling, the aim of which is complete immersion in content.

Although there has been a tendency in modern scholarship on the Roman Empire in late antiquity (early third to early seventh century BCE) to view the period through the lens of transformation rather than violent upheaval, warfare undoubtedly became more frequent, at least compared with the first two centuries BCE, and impacted on regions of the empire long insulated from significant military conflict. The empire of late antiquity faced more significant external challenges, as well as more regular bouts of civil war. Increased use of archery, with its potential to inflict mass casualties, was a distinctive feature of battle in this period; siege warfare became more common, so that civilian populations experienced the violence of war more directly; and expansion in the size of the army placed increased pressures on recruitment and logistical support – pressures which resulted in greater use of force by the state to maintain the military establishment. Changes in the structure of the army also meant that troops were more frequently billeted on the civilian population, who thereby became more exposed to casual violence at the hands of their own troops. In these different ways, late antiquity can be considered a period of Roman history when military violence became more prevalent.

The imperial legislation of Theodosian and Justinian codes pays attention above all to the archiatri sacri palatii and to the Roman archiatri. Her lexicon is ambiguous and it is difficult to understand by the legislation what the term archiater really means in Late Antiquity. Prosopographical analysis allows to outile various social figures of medical doctors: archiatri of the sacred palace, iatrosophistai, civic physicians, statal physicians, military and ecclesiastical ones. By some epitaphs of the 5th century emerges that physicians were conscious of the social role of medicine, and they were proud of it. Medicina was thought in contemporary culture as ars honesta; this fact implies that, on the average, her practicioners were placed on the same level of craftsmen and tradesmen (i. e. viri honesti). In spite of the christian thought increased her attention on medical assistance of the poors, the physician's position lost his own visibility in our sources between the 5th to the 7th century. This fact is due to the change in thinking the concept of sickness: in christian world, sickness is not only a physical deficiency but becomes also a spiritual deficiency. Consequently the saint, and not the physician, becomes the symbolic figure whom people entrusts his own anxiety of salvation. Key words: Physician - Late Antique Italy - Byzantine Italy - Social History

It is often assumed that the political fortunes of the city of Rome and of its élite, the Senate, decline in late antiquity. Such decline is attributed to emperors residing in other centers closer to the frontiers and to the inflation of senatorial status in the fourth century. This article argues, however, that the senators of Rome continued to see themselves as important participants in imperial high politics throughout the period. Such ambitions were ably demonstrated by Q. Aurelius Symmachus, whose role as senatorial ambassador to the imperial court was predicated on the basis that the Senate in Rome was still an important political institution. Similar ambitions motivated Roman senators to give active support to rival sides in political usurpations in the fourth century; this activity was advertised, moreover, by an impressive series of dedications set up in the Forum Romanum in close proximity to the Senate House itself. The climax of these aspirations came in the unstable circumstances of the fifth century when, for the first time in over a hundred years, Roman senators seated themselves on the imperial throne. Far from being a moribund political anachronism, then, the Senate in Rome continued to act as a major partner in the running of the Empire throughout the last centuries of Roman rule in the West.

AbstractThe Mediterranean economy was retracting from the mid-sixth century while the Sasanian economy was expanding. Six trends are identified during Late Antiquity that extended into the Islamic period: (1) the development and spread of large estates with tenant labor, (2) the monetization of the economy, (3) the development and spread of irrigated agriculture, (4) the revival of mining, (5) the emergence of merchant diasporas, and (6) the domination of Indian Ocean commerce by Persian shipping. It is argued that these trends were strongest in Sasanian territory where the economic system identified as "Islamic" originated. À partir du milieu du sixième siècle l'économie méditerranéenne connaissait une régression alors que celle de l'Empire sasanide était en plein essor. Durant l'époque de l'Antiquité tardive et au cours de la période islamique, six tendances peuvent être relevées: 1) le développement et la diffusion des grands domaines avec fermiers à bail; (2) la monétarisation de l'économie; (3) l'extension de l'agriculture irriguée; (4) la revivi fication du secteur minier; (5) l'émergence des diasporas commerciales; et (6) la domination commerciale de la marine perse dans l'Océan indien. Selon notre analyse, ces tendances étaient plus fortement ressenties en territoire sasanide où le système économique dit "islamique" connut le jour.

Preliminary Material Volume 1 /Alexander Sarantis and Neil Christie -- Waging War in Late Antiquity /Alexander Sarantis -- War in Late Antiquity: Secondary Works, Literary Sources and Material Evidence /Conor Whately -- Military Equipment and Weaponry: A Bibliographic Essay /Alexander Sarantis -- Tactics: A Bibliographic Essay /Alexander Sarantis -- Organisation and Life in the Late Roman Military: A Bibliographic Essay /Conor Whately -- Strategy, Diplomacy and Frontiers: A Bibliographic Essay /Conor Whately -- Fortifications in the West: A Bibliographic Essay /Alexander Sarantis and Neil Christie -- Fortifications in Africa: A Bibliography Essay /Alexander Sarantis -- Fortifications in the East: A Bibliographic Essay /Alexander Sarantis -- Preliminary Material Volume 2 /Alexander Sarantis and Neil Christie -- Information and War: Some Comments on Defensive Strategy and Information in the Middle Byzantine Period (ca. A.D. 660–1025) /John Haldon -- Fortifications and the Late Roman East: From Urban Walls to Long Walls /James Crow -- Siege Warfare and Counter-Siege Tactics in Late Antiquity (ca. 250–640) /Michael Whitby -- Late Roman Military Equipment Culture /J. C. N. Coulston -- Barbarian Military Equipment and its Evolution in the Late Roman and Great Migration Periods (3rd–5th c. A.D.) /Michel Kazanski -- Recreating the Late Roman Army /John Conyard -- Reporting Battles and Understanding Campaigns in Procopius and Agathias: Classicising Historians' Use of Archived Documents as Sources /Ian Colvin -- Procopius on the Struggle for Dara in 530 and Rome in 537–38: Reconciling Texts and Landscapes /Christopher Lillington-Martin -- Ammianus Marcellinus and the Nisibene Handover of A.D. 363 /Susannah Belcher -- Imperial Campaigns between Diocletian and Honorius, A.D. 284–423: the Rhine Frontier and the Western Provinces /Hugh Elton -- The Archaeology of War and the 5th c. 'Invasions' /Michael Kulikowski -- Controlling the Pyrenees: a Macaque's Burial from Late Antique Iulia Libica (Llívia, La Cerdanya, Spain) /Oriol Olesti , Jordi Guàrdia , Marta Maragall , Oriol Mercadal , Jordi Galbany and Jordi Nadal -- The Archaeology of War: Homeland Security in the South-West Balkans (3rd–6th c. A.D.) /John Wilkes -- Military Encounters and Diplomatic Affairs in the North Balkans during the Reigns of Anastasius and Justinian /Alexander Sarantis -- Horsemen in Forts or Peasants in Villages? Remarks on the Archaeology of Warfare in the 6th to 7th c. Balkans /Florin Curta -- Military Infrastructure in the Roman Provinces North and South of the Armenian Taurus in Late Antiquity /James Howard-Johnston -- El-Lejjūn: Logistics and Localisation on Rome's Eastern Frontier in the 6th c. A.D. /Conor Whately -- Wars within the Frontiers: Archaeologies of Rebellion, Revolt and Civil War /Neil Christie -- The Justinianic Reconquest of Italy: Imperial Campaigns and Local Responses /Maria Kouroumali -- Abstracts in French /Alexander Sarantis and Neil Christie -- Index /Alexander Sarantis and Neil Christie -- Series Information /Alexander Sarantis and Neil Christie.

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Figures -- Acknowledgments -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction: Elemental Materialism in Soviet Culture and Society -- 1. Techno-Utopian Visions of Soviet Intellectuals after Stalin -- 2. Time in 1:72 Scale: The Plastic Historicity of Soviet Models -- 3. History in Wood: The Search for Historical Authenticity in North Russia -- 4. When Spaces of Transit Fail Their Designers: Social Antagonisms of Soviet Stairwells and Streets -- 5. The Men of Steel: Repairing and Empowering Soviet Bodies with Iron -- 6. Ordinary and Paranormal: The Soviet Television Set -- Conclusions: Soviet Objects and Socialist Modernity -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index

Offers a radically new account that advances the modern scholarly understanding of Babylonian Jewish history and society, and of Sasanian rule. Building upon recent developments in the study of the Sasanian Empire, the book offers a more direct model of Sasanian rule, within and against which Jews invariably positioned and defined themselves.