Category: Article

Clay on Wilderness and Civilization

John-Henry Clay, ‘Claiming the Wilderness in Late Roman Gaul’, JECS 30 (2022) 403-32.

Abstract. To the educated classical mind, the cosmos was built on a dichotomy between order and chaos that permeated the physical and natural world. Wilderness was a manifestation of chaos, while human civilization reflected the principles of order. Due to a tradition of classical education, this dichotomy helped structure the response of educated Gallo-Romans to the Christian desert tradition as its ideals spread to the west. Despite the appeal of monastic asceticism, its association with the desert provoked suspicion among those trained to regard wilderness as the antithesis of civilization and culture. It is, however, possible to detect an evolution in attitudes over the last century of Roman rule in Gaul, as successive generations responded to social and political transformations and developed new ways of relating to the natural world. Includes discussion of Paulinus of Nola, Sulpicius Severus, Rutilius Namatianus, John Cassian, Eucherius, Sidonius Apollinaris, and other authors.

Becker on the Power of Humility

Audrey Becker writes on ‘The Power of Humility: Fifth-Century Gallic Bishops in Negotiations with Barbarian Kings’ in the latest thematic issue of Studies in Late Antiquity.

Abstract. This essay examines the diplomatic efforts of Gallic bishops with barbarian kings, in the tense period after 406 CE and during the raids of Attila in Gaul in 451. The first part of this essay seeks to understand the narrative strategies at work in five late antique Gallic hagiographies. Written decades after the events narrated in them occurred, under different political circumstances, these texts re-imagined and re-interpreted these diplomatic encounters, bolstering claims of episcopal authority. The second part of this essay contextualizes the hagiographic claims of Gallic bishops’ involvement in diplomacy, paying particular attention to the role of episcopal humility in diplomatic encounters. It shows that this humility was not only a topos but also a useful diplomatic and religious tool.

Furbetta on Interactional Dynamics

Luciana Furbetta wrote ‘Dinamiche interazionali tra le élites e il potere a partire dalla testimonianza delle epistole di Sidonio Apollinare e Avito di Vienne’, Rivista Storica dell’Antichità 53 (2023) 297-313.

Abstract. The paper proposes some reflections on the possibility of combining the linguistic-philological analysis of late antique letter collections with the study of communication processes. In particular, we aim to study the modes of social interaction and mechanisms of action orientation within aristocratic circles between the power (with reference to the courts of barbarian kings and the ecclesiastics). The field of application chosen as a case study are the letters of Sidonius Apollinaris and Avitus of Vienne.

Read it here

Giannotti on a mundus senescens

Now available: Filomena Giannotti, ‘News from a mundus senescens: Romans, Visigoths and Saxons in a Letter by Sidonius Apollinaris (8.6)’, in: José Luís Brandão, Cláudia Teixeira and Ália Rodrigues (eds), Confronting Identities in the Roman Empire: Assumptions about the Other in Literary Evidence, London: Bloomsbury, 2023, 213-36.

Can be read online in open access. Hardback forthcoming 14 December 2023.

Goncalves on Honour and the Body

Vincent Goncalves has published ‘Les cheveux de Sidoine Apollinaire. Identifier le “corps de l’honneur” dans l’Antiquité tardive (ive-vie siècles après J.-C.)’ in: Christophe Badel and Henri Fernoux (eds), Honneur et dignité dans le monde antique, Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes, 2023, 259-76. Pays particular attention to hairstyle and Ep. 2.1.4 seu patriam dimittere seu capillos.

Read in OpenEdition. And here goes to the publisher’s catalogue