Journal of Late Antiquity最新文献

{"title":"\"Once Again He Speaks\": Performance and the Anthological Habit in the Manichaean Kephalaia","authors":"J. Han","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0024","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article presents one way to understand the peculiar internal structure of kephalaia as found in the early fifth-century Manichaean codex known as the Kephalaia of the Teacher. It uses the concept of the \"anthological habit\" developed among scholars of rabbinic literature as a prism to understand the interface between literary structure and pedagogical performance of kephalaia. Through a close analysis of three kephalaia, it argues that kephalaia are the products of circumscribed practices of textual anthologization. As such, kephalaia do not draw attention to its the textual surface but instead function as a rough guideline for a Manichaean teacher to perform before his disciples. This article further suggests that there was a certain virtuosity to the teacher's performance since the kephalaia's practice of anthologization makes an implicit claim that every discrete element within the cosmos is actually a contiguous part of a coherent whole, thereby gesturing towards the totalizing horizons of \"Mani's\" revelation through the performance of the kephalaia themselves.","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49328860","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Not a Roman Trial of Christians: A Reassessment of P.Mil.Vogl. VI 287","authors":"A. Dolganov, É. Rebillard","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0033","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0033","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:An article published in this journal in 2019 proposes to identify a fragmentary papyrus containing a Greek record of court proceedings from Roman Egypt (P.Mil.Vogl. VI 287) as the only known authentic transcript of a trial of Christians by a Roman governor. The present article reassesses the problem from the perspective of Christian sources and papyrological evidence and presents a revised text and new interpretation of the papyrus in question.","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47964556","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Roman Military Architecture on the Frontiers: Armies and their Architecture in Late Antiquity ed. by Rob Collins et al. (review)","authors":"Alexander Sarantis","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0019","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44546597","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A Social Explanation for the Disappearance of Roman Thermae","authors":"Jordan Pickett","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0026","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:This article challenges two recurring notions in the socio-political, architectural, and urban histories of Roman antiquity and Late Antiquity. The first is that Roman thermae, the grandest of imperial baths with some four dozen known examples around the Empire, were \"egalitarian\" or \"democratic\" spaces for urban assembly. The second concerns current explanations for the disappearance of thermae as a genre of Roman urban architecture during Late Antiquity. Religious explanations involving prudery, or anxiety about public nudity, remain common but arguably carry little weight. Extant financial and environmental explanations, however, are well founded but should be considered alongside a fourth explanation offered here: namely, that the same widespread social conflicts and tensions emergent on Roman streets also appeared in thermae after the later third century. Alongside rearrangements of the Roman Empire and its social structures, public baths were conveniently appropriated as praetoria or venues for public business and as spaces where evolving societal tensions could take root and thrive. Under such pressures—social, environmental, and financial—thermae could be readily repurposed or abandoned by the state and communities.","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44782648","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"\"Barbarians\" and Blemmyes: Who Was in Control of the Red Sea Port of Berenike in the Late Antique Period?","authors":"Matthew M. Cobb","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0029","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0029","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:In the early centuries ce, the Roman state attempted to monitor, tax, and protect traders and travelers crossing the Eastern Desert (against the potentially dangerous barbaroi). These traders were operating from sites like Berenike and Myos Hormos, key ports for the Red Sea branch of the Indian Ocean trade. Conversely, during the course of the third century, this situation changed. The praesidia (small forts) lining these routes were abandoned, Myos Hormos ceased to operate, and activity at Berenike reached a low ebb. In the late antique period there was a revival of activity, with more northerly ports like Clysma and Aila coming into prominence. Berenike also saw a revival, but who controlled this site remains less clear. Three possible scenarios are examined in this article. The first is that the Roman state was (in)directly in charge, perhaps through Christianized Saracen foederati. The second is that (a certain faction of) the Blemmyes were employed as foederati. The third is that the Blemmyes largely controlled Berenike and that traders were permitted to operate at the port under their sufferance. It is argued here that the latter two possibilities are now the most likely in light of recent archaeological and epigraphic discoveries.","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44826038","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Historical Scenes in Mosaics from Late Roman Syria and Palestine: Building on the Seleucid Past in Late Antiquity","authors":"Ra‘anan Boustan, Karen C. Britt","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0027","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:Among the floor mosaics discovered in the ongoing excavations in the fifth-century synagogue at Huqoq in Galilee, none has elicited more interest than the Elephant Mosaic. The subject matter of this mosaic departs from the artistic conventions believed to govern ancient synagogue art. Contrary to the view that narratives in synagogue mosaics were solely based on scripture, this mosaic depicts the first known example of a historical narrative. Scholars have commonly presumed that engagement with the historical past is rare in floor mosaics. This view requires modification in light of recent mosaic discoveries from Syria that reflect an abiding interest in the region's history. These mosaics bolster our claim that the Elephant Mosaic depicts an episode from the Hellenistic period, indicating that interest in the past among the Jewish communities in Galilee not only transcended the boundaries of sacred scripture but also participated in far broader cultural and artistic trends.","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48067906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"From the Editor","authors":"A. Cain","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0034","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41304763","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Confronting Pandemic in Late Antiquity: The Medical Response to the Justinianic Plague","authors":"John Mulhall","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0022","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0022","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract:From the sixth to the eighth centuries, the Roman world suffered the first known pandemic caused by Yersinia pestis, the bacterial agent of bubonic plague. Despite the pandemic's horrors, scholarly consensus has maintained that medical authors took no notice of the Justinianic Pandemic. This article introduces the first evidence that physicians at the time of the Justinianic Pandemic described the illness that raged around them. Through a close analysis of the language used by contemporary historians to describe the symptoms of the pandemic, it is possible to uncover discussions of the pandemic in medical literature that have remained hidden in plain sight. Specifically, this article argues that the sixth- and seventh-century physicians John of Alexandria, Stephanus of Athens, and Paul of Aegina not only describe the illness of the pandemic, but also develop sophisticated ways of diagnosing the illness, understanding it physiologically, and treating it. In so doing, these authors go beyond medical precedent to construct innovative responses to an unprecedented pandemic.","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49483182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Religious Violence in the Ancient World: From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity ed. by Jitse H. F. Dijkstra and Christian R. Raschle (review)","authors":"H. Drake","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0017","url":null,"abstract":"What is religious violence in the ancient world, and where do we even begin to construct definitions? These two questions are at the heart of the impressive volume edited by Jitse H. F. Dijkstra and Christian R. Raschle. The terms religion and violence have been the intense focus of scholarly debate for a few years now. Rather than shy away or dismiss how our contemporary definitions do or do not fit into an ancient context, this volume takes on this challenge and dares to be an explicitly interdisciplinary exercise from its very inception. This is a hefty volume so I will keep my comments and reflections brief. I first offer summaries of each section and spotlight contributions that stood out to me, but my review is by no means exhaustive. Scholars of religious violence in the ancient world have long since passed the decline and fall model touted by Edward Gibbon and have since spent much time wrestling with conceptualizing and defining slippery categories. The first section of the volume lays out the methodological framework for working with loaded terms and evolving definitions. For example, the first essay by Hans Kippenberg makes a careful distinction between the study of religious violence and the study of religion and violence. For far too long the dominant discourses, especially in a post-9/11 world, have defaulted to the former and Kippenberg helpfully lays out practical steps to draw religious scholars to the latter. This is a distinction that then Jan Bremmer draws further attention to in a focused case study on attempts to reconstruct violence perpetrated by Christians in the late ancient world. And while religion produced the language and justification for violence, Bremmer reminds us that religions are not inherently violent—despite what political pundits or Hollywood would lead the public to believe. The next section offers a comparative approach by sampling various groupings of religious communities. Esther Eideinow’s contribution examines the affective use of Athenian binding spells to curb larger social behaviors. It is a welcome shift away from studies that overemphasize the exceptional or marginal understanding of katadesmoi. The imperial consequences of trying to control or suppress deviant or seemingly fringe religious practices are then spotlighted in both essays by Christian Raschle and Steve Mason. These two essays pair nicely, as large-scale efforts to control Roman cult practices were intended more to enhance civic piety rather than to target the peculiar nature of any one tradition. Raschle, for example, focuses on efforts to control religious groups with boundaries, whereas Mason focuses on the literary response to those violent efforts to enforce control. Christian groups and violence still hold onto the peculiar, but the clash with Roman elite ideals remains central in this section. Both James Rives and Elizabeth DePalma Digeser turn to consider the imaginative play on potential competing ideologies central to a Chr","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44097976","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Revisiting Prefects in Bronze: New and Rediscovered Tesserae","authors":"M. Kulikowski","doi":"10.1353/jla.2021.0030","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1353/jla.2021.0030","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Abstract:</p><p>This short article updates \"Urban Prefects in Bronze,\" published by this author in 2017 in the <i>Journal of Late Antiquity</i>. To the corpus of bronze <i>tesserae</i> of urban and praetorian prefects from late and post-imperial Italy, it adds four <i>tesserae</i> previously unknown and notes the re-surfacing of two more thought lost or phantoms. These new <i>tesserae</i> introduce one new prefect to the fifth-century <i>fasti</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":16220,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Late Antiquity","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.2,"publicationDate":"2021-10-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45270640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}