Later Roman Empire

L’Antiquité tardive constitue une période de première importance en raison de l’ampleur des sources conservées et des événements survenus. Durant cette époque, qui s’étend du IIIe au VIIe siècle, l’Empire romain connaît des évolutions profondes et progressives qui ont non seulement modifié l’organisation du monde méditerranéen antique, mais aussi posé les fondements des périodes et des civilisations postérieures et limitrophes.
C’est durant l’Antiquité tardive que l’autorité de l’État monarchique et bureaucratique devient omniprésente par le biais de la loi, de l’impôt et de l’armée, que le poids des autorités locales se réduit au profit des capitales administratives et de leur système de cour, que le brassage des populations aboutit à leur recomposition et à une fusion des élites, que la conversion au christianisme, malgré les divisions confessionnelles, provoque une intégration et une uniformisation culturelle sans précédent des populations par l’adhésion à une même transcendance et l’élaboration d’une esthétique commune.

In recent years, much ink has been spilt over the famous – although never thoroughly assessed – ruler of Palmyra. In 2005, the eminent Paul Veyne had already devoted a few insightful pages to the subject, with claims that are certainly open to debate, in one of his most enjoyable books.

The paper asks the question what the Romans really meant, when the used the term "barbarian". The evidence shows that the Romans had been often uneasy with this greek word, as in the end they themselves would be Barbarians, too. Further, the paper focuses also on the non-biological (or even "racial") approach of the Romans. Barbarians can become citizens, if they accept Roman paideia and a cultural set of Romanitas. The Dacians and Tracians are used in this context as examples from a rather neglected zone of the Empire.

This article examines the performance context of Synesius of Cyrene’s
(ca. 370–415 CE) On Kingship. Synesius draws heavily on the classical tradition, and also incorporates many elements of Themistius’ philosophical style into his speech. But the work was not delivered before the emperor, as it purports, and hints at the fictionality of its own dramatic situation. These hints are not mere play but fit very closely the rhetorical needs of the circumstances. The performance appears to have been a success.

Awards: Named a Best Book of 2020 by The Economist. Reviews: Kirkus (2.2020), Publishers Weekly (4.2020), Library Journal (5.2020), BookList (5.2020), The Wall Street Journal (5.2020), Boston Globe (6.4.2020), The Economist (6.20.2020), The Atlantic (July/August 2020), Literary Review (UK) (7.8.2020), The New Criterion (7.9.2020), Financial Times (London, UK) (7.10.2020), History Extra  (BBC History Magazine) (8.4.2020), The Times (UK) (8.14.2020), Times Literary Supplement (10.23.2020), London Review of Books (3.15.2021)

This article examines the composition of the Roman-Byzantine border troops of the Egyptian-Nubian limes with special reference to the role of African and 'black' African units or individual soldiers as stratiotai, limitanei, foederati, symmachoi, bucellarioi and nautai. Their role during the Muslim Arab conquest of Egypt is assessed with special reference to Copts, Beja and Nubians. Attention is also given to the episode of the so-called 'common' Byzantine-Axumite fight against the 'Homeritai' of Dhu Nuwas (during the reign of Justin I).

This paper studies the fall of the caesar Gallus, conecting it with the process of the two Apollinaris (father and a son) who were involved in the fabrication of a purple tunic in the province of Tiro and with the riots in Antioch at the 354.

Development of the Roman army presents to alike sight of the Roman History. Generally, army and administration of the Roman shared same fortune, and entity of Roman supremacy bounded to success of army. Especially, the army underlined the Roman system throughout Imperial period. In this time, Augustus established classical the Roman Army that seen as superior war machine starting from first century (AD) till third century. However, end of third century onwards the Roman army shows different character. Number of non-Roman soldiers and cavalry gradually increased in the compound of the Roman army. Generally, this process is called " barbarization " of the Roman army and it has been associated with disintegration of West Roman Empire. But also, it becomes one of the basic features of the Late Roman army or the Early Byzantine army.

The Roman empire set law at the center of its very identity. A complex and robust ideology of law and justice is evident not only in the dynamics of imperial administration, but a host of cultural arenas. Citizenship named the privilege of falling under Roman jurisdiction, legal expertise was cultural capital. A faith in the emperor’s intimate concern for justice was a key component of the voluntary connection binding Romans and provincials to the state.
Even as law was a central mechanism for control and the administration of state violence, it also exerted a magnetic effect on the peoples under its control. Adopting a range of approaches, the essays explore the impact of Roman law, both in the tribunal and in the culture. Unique to this anthology is attention to legal professionals and cultural intermediaries operating at the empire’s periphery. The studies here allow one to see how law operated among a range of populations and provincials—from Gauls and Brittons to Egyptians and Jews—exploring the ways local peoples creatively navigated, and constructed, their legal realities between Roman and local mores. They draw our attention to the space between laws and legal ideas, between ethnic, especially Jewish, life and law and the structures of Roman might; cases in which shared concepts result in diverse ends; the pageantry of the legal tribunal, the imperatives and corruptions of power differentials; and the importance of reading the gaps between depiction of law and its actual workings.
This volume is unusual in bringing Jewish, and especially rabbinic, sources and perspectives together with Roman, Greek or Christian ones. This is the result of its being part of the research program “Judaism and Rome” (ERC Grant Agreement no. 614 424), dedicated to the study of the impact of the Roman empire upon ancient Judaism.

La christianisation du monde antique est un thème central d'un point de vue historique (c'est un des grands sujets d'étude de la fin de l'Antiquité gréco-romaine avec la disparition de l'Empire d'Occident et la fin du système civique classique), mais aussi d'un point de vue méthodologique. En effet, on croit couramment que la christianisation du monde antique fut une réalité qu'il suffirait de décrire, alors qu'il s'agit en fait de la penser, car elle est d'abord une représentation des historiens héritée de modèles antiques (Eusèbe de Césarée, Augustin d'Hippone) ou modernes (Voltaire, Marx, Freud). Pour pouvoir traiter "la christianisation du monde antique" comme sujet historique, il faut donc d'abord réfléchir sur une question d'historiens : "le problème de la christianisation du monde antique". Pour cela, il faut faire un peu d'histoire moderne et contemporaine, analyser l'apparition et le sens du terme de christianisation, et faire le bilan de l'historiographie de la question. Ensuite, on peut tenter de penser "la christianisation du monde antique" de quatre manières : par l'analyse philologique des termes désignant la conversion en grec, latin et syriaque ; par l'étude des sources littéraires chrétiennes à propos des chrétiens, afin de mettre en évidence les représentations antiques du problème de la définition du chrétien ; par le recours aux sources non littéraires (épigraphie, papyrologie, archéologie funéraire, archéologie monumentale, iconographie) afin de contourner la question des représentations liées aux textes antiques ; par l'enquête sur les sources littéraires chrétiennes à propos de la conversion des païens, qui permet de déconstruire des textes qui créaient une réalité autant qu'ils la décrivaient. Ainsi, en questionnant les évidences qui structurent nos pensées sur le passé, on peut espérer les distancier afin de mieux comprendre comment le monde antique est devenu chrétien.

Julian the Apostate in Johannes Antiochenus.
Uncorrected draft of a paper forthcoming in A. Marcone (ed.), L'imperatore Giuliano.  Realtà storica e rappresentazione. Firenze: Le Monnier, 2015. This paper anticipates a few conclusions of the book "Antieroe dai molti volti: Giuliano l'Apostata nel Medioevo bizantino", published in 2014.

One of the great maxims of history is that it is written by the victors, and nowhere does this find greater support than in the later Roman Empire. Between 284 and 395 AD, no fewer than 37 men claimed imperial power, though today we recognize barely half of these men as 'legitimate' rulers and more than two thirds died at their subjects' hands. Once established in power, a new ruler needed to publicly legitimate himself and to discredit his predecessor: overt criticism of the new regime became high treason, with historians supressing their accounts for fear of reprisals and the very names of defeated emperors chiselled from public inscriptions and deleted from official records. In a period of such chaos, how can we ever hope to record in any fair or objective way the history of the Roman state?

Emperors and Usurpers in the Later Roman Empire is the first history of civil war in the later Roman Empire to be written in English and aims to address this question by focusing on the various ways in which successive imperial dynasties attempted to legitimate themselves and to counter the threat of almost perpetual internal challenge to their rule. Panegyric in particular emerges as a crucial tool for understanding the rapidly changing political world of the third and fourth centuries, providing direct evidence of how, in the wake of civil wars, emperors attempted to publish their legitimacy and to delegitimize their enemies. The ceremony and oratory surrounding imperial courts too was of great significance: used aggressively to dramatize and constantly recall the events of recent civil wars, the narratives produced by the court in this context also went on to have enormous influence on the messages and narratives found within contemporary historical texts. In its exploration of the ways in which successive imperial courts sought to communicate with their subjects, this volume offers a thoroughly original reworking of late Roman domestic politics, and demonstrates not only how history could be erased, rewritten, and repurposed, but also how civil war, and indeed usurpation, became endemic to the later Empire.


CONTENTS:
Frontmatter
List of Figures
List of Abbreviations
Typographical Note
PART I
I: Usurpation, Legitimacy, and the Roman Empire
I.1: Why usurpation?: the problem of the imperial succession
I.2: 'This litany of manifest usurpers and rebellious generals': why had the imperial succession become so unstable by the third century?
I.3: 'The difference between a tyrant and a king is one of deeds, not of name': how was usurpation understood in the late Roman Empire?
I.4: 'Let these things go unspoken': usurpation and modern research
II: Usurpation, Legitimacy, and Panegyric
II.1: Known unknowns, and unknown unknowns: how to use panegyric as a source
II.2: 'In which I would tell many lies': who dictated the content of panegyric?
II.3: 'And would be viewed with favour by those who knew them to be such': panegyric, audience, and influence
II.4: Propaganda and power
PART II
III: A House Divided Against Itself
IV: 'At last Roman, at last restored to the true light of Empire': Dyarchy, Tetrarchy, and the Fall of the British Empire of Carausius
IV.1: Birthing the late Roman state: dyarchs, tetrarchs, and a new language of power
IV.2: Emperors and bandits: the British Empire under Carausius and Allectus
V: Tyranny and Betrayal: Constantine, Maximian, Maxentius, and Licinius
V.1: Constantine's usurpation: Constantine, Galerius, and Maximian
V.2: The tyrannus: Maxentius and the rewards of civil war
V.3: Notable by his absence: Licinius and the rise of the Constantinian dynasty
VI: Tyranny and Blood: Constantius, Constans, Magnentius, and Vetranio
VI.1: Smiling for the cameras: the sons of Constantine, 337-50
VI.2: The son of the father: Constantius the tyrant-slayer
VII: Usurper, Propaganda, History: The Emperor Julian
VII.1: The voice of a usurper: Julian's rise to power
VII.2: Bleaching the stains: Julian's sole rule
VIII: Panegyric and Apology: The Accession of Jovian and the Usurpation of Procopius
VIII.1: The need for victory: Jovian and the demands of imperial rhetoric
VIII.2: The enemy inside: Valentinian, Valens, and Procopius
VIII.3: 'He who sought rule for himself behind the cloak of a little boy': the usurpation of Valentinian II
IX: Dismembering the House of Valentinian: The Usurpation of Theodosius and the War with Magnus Maximus
IX.1: 'And nobly he made the vote his own': the usurpation of Theodosius
IX.2: Divided loyalties: the usurpation of Magnus Maximus
X: Crisis and Transformation: Imperial Power in the Fifth Century
XI: Conclusion: Those Made Tyrants by the Victory of Others
Appendix I: The Panegyrics
Appendix II: Quantifying Usurpation: Notes to Accompany Figure I.2
Endmatter
Bibliography
Index

A few weeks ago I was approached by one of my students who was attempting to write a short letter regarding the history of Nicholas (Nikolaos) of Myra, a bishop of the early Christian Church. After helping her analyze some of the more credible evidence of his life and works I thought it would be worthwhile write a short post regarding the topic.

Christianization of the Roman Empire in the IV century  is  studied  as  a
historical  phenomenon  in  its  characteristic  manifestations,  including
preconditions  of  Christianization,  rates  of  dissemination  of  Christianity  in
the  Roman  Empire,  religious  policy  of  the  Roman  emperors  from
Constantine  to  Theodosius,  formation  of  the  Church  as  religious,
ideological, social and political institution. Christianization is understood as
the process of interaction and mutual influence of all the structures of the
late  antique  civilization  and  the  Christian  religion  with  all  its  institutions.
The problem of the struggle inside the Church is also examined. The survey
is grounded on various sources, including the works of the Fathers of the
Church, church historians, pagan authors, and the Roman legislation.

This thesis presents a model for the finances of the later Roman Empire, roughly the period of the 4th and 5th century CE. The model is supplemented by a discussion of the methodological problems of model-building. This discussion tries to show to what extent a model can obtain results which have a higher explanatory value than those produced by an empirical analysis of the same problem. The present model for the financial development of the late empire is constructed using four basic factors. These macro-factors of development are in themselves models. They analyse the economic development of the period in question, resource consumption by various groups of economic elite, the economic impact of the imperial superstructure and institutions, specifically the army and the late Roman bureaucracy, as well as the fiscal system which is discussed in terms of an analysis of a redistributive system. The results of this model show that the socioeconomic and socio-political factors which have been discussed are strongly interdependent. The model thus is able to demonstrate the implausibility of theories of economic decline and financial crisis which can be shown to be incompatible with the development of the economic elites and the institutions of the late Roman state which has been observed.

Generations of historians have often treated the large-scale recruitment of barbarians in the late Roman army as one of the root causes of the decline of the western Roman Empire. But evidence from both the literary and material sources for views on this so-called 'barbarization' of the field armies during the fourth century AD has been exaggerated and misinterpreted. On the contrary, the growing presence of barbarians in the Roman war machine did not diminish the Empire's status as Mediterranean super power.

Procopius’ Anecdota, better known as his ‘Secret History’ is the most valuable source written by an eyewitness available to modern historians for the reign of the Emperor Justinian and his wife Theodora. Procopius was a secretary to Belisarius, Justinian’s most trusted general, and his writing certainly suggests that he knew the public and possibly the private life of his subjects intimately. As respected a historian as Procopius was, the Secret History remains a stunning and vicious attack upon a reigning monarch during his lifetime, replete with invective and bile.

It has been almost 50 years since Peter Brown published his book “The World of Late Antiquity” and thus gave rise to a whole school of thought that challenged the notion of urban decay and the decline of the Roman Empire pioneered by Edward Gibbon. The international discourse on the late antique world has gained much from this approach of looking beyond the Roman-barbarian dichotomy and focusing on the intricate play of religious, social and economic factors that shaped late antique cityscapes. However, the Balkan and especially the local scholarship on Late Roman urbanisation, has not moved much beyond the notions of urban decay caused by barbarian attacks. Even in works published as late as 2019, Huns, Slavs and Avars rampage through the cities of the Macedonian provinces, even though neither archaeological evidence nor primary written sources lend themselves well to support such narratives. Therefore, this presentation seeks to examine and to reevaluate how primary written sources are (mis)used in local scholarship to create almost fanciful urban histories.
In the research for this presentation, several case studies (the focus was on the cities of Stobi and Scupi) were examined against a dossier of primary written sources and contemporary scholarship dealing with this topic. The sources in question cover the period between late 3rd and early 7th c. and were penned by authors of different backgrounds, political agendas and familiarity with the Balkans. This analysis was juxtaposed with the urban histories of Stobi and Scupi as presented in major publications. Mindful of the time constriction in presenting, I am focusing on only one alleged raid (a Hunnic invasion of the mid-440s) on one late Roman city (Stobi) as an illustration.

My dissertation is about the Epitome de Caesaribus, which is a 48 chapters long breviary titled Libellus de vita et moribus imperatorum breviatus ex libris Sexti Aurelii Victoris a Caesare Augusto usque ad Theodosium in medieval codices. This work, written at the turn of the 4th-5th century, was the last pagan historical work written in Latin, therefore it separates the era of ancient and medieval historiography as well.