EUH 5394
Proseminar in Late Antiquity
LATE ANTIQUITY: FROM PAGAN ROME TO CHRISTIAN EUROPE
Fall 2006
Thurs. 3:00-6:00 pm, CBD 0230
Prof. Andrea Sterk
Office: 220 Keene-Flint; 392-0271, x 257
Office Hours: Tues. 2:00-3:30, Fri. 9:30-10:30, or by appointment
Course Description
This seminar will introduce students to the central sources, themes, and historiographical debates
in the field of Late Antiquity. Special emphasis will be placed on religious developments and
the rise of Europe.
Required Texts (all available in paperback):
Ammianus Marcellinus, The Later Roman Empire (Penguin, ISBN: 0140444068)
Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire (Harvard, 2005, ISBN: 0-674-51194-8)
H.A. Drake, Constantine and the Bishops: The Politics of Intolerance (Hopkins, 2002, ISBN:
8018-7104-2)
Salzman, Michele, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious and
Change in the Western Roman Empire (Harvard, 2004, ISBN: 0-674-05603-3)
Ward-Perkins, Bryan. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization (Oxford, 2005, ISBN: 0-19280564-9)
Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, 200-1000 AD, 2nd ed.
(Blackwell, 2002, ISBN: 0631221387)
Patrick Geary, The Myth of Nations. The Medieval Origins of Europe (Princeton, 2003, ISBN:
0691114811)
*Other required articles and book chapters will be available through JSTOR or electronic reserve
at the library. At times books and journal articles will be placed on regular course reserve and
you will need to photocopy the relevant pages. All readings must be printed out and brought to
class each week.
Strongly recommended: (especially if you can find cheap used copies)
Eusebius, Life of Constantine, tr. Av. Cameron & Stuart Hall (Oxford, ISBN: 0-19-814924-7).
A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire, 284-602: A Social, Economic, and Administrative
Survey, 2 vols (Hopkins, ISBN: 0-8018-3285-3)
Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750 (Norton,1989, ISBN: 0393958035)
John R. Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital. Rome in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 2000,
ISBN: 0199254206)
Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth. Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity
(Princeton, 1994, ISBN: 0691015457) – This book is O/P, but copies are available used and
new at very cheap prices through Amazon.com. We will read the whole book.
Late Antiquity Syllabus, Fall '06 -2Requirements:
Each student will prepare one two oral reports on a historical source relevant to the topic of the
week. Each student will also be in charge of co-leading discussion for two of the weekly
meetings. This will involve preparing discussion questions to put to the class. Brief (1-2 page)
weekly reaction papers and one longer (4-5 page) analysis of the week’s readings will be
required of all students who are not reporting or leading discussion. The final paper will be a
bibliographic essay on a late antique topic that relates to your research, a topic of interest in late
antiquity, or an aspect of late antique historiography covered in the course (ca. 12-15 pages).
This final paper is due exam week at the end of the course; however, during the final two
seminar meetings, each student will prepare a brief oral presentation on their topic to be followed
by questions and discussion.
Note: Possible authors and works for source reports are listed at the start of the Bibliography
below. For each week, some authors and works that would fit with that week's topic are listed as
"source reports," but these are only advisory and you should feel free to choose different works.
Grading:
30%
10%
20%
40%
participation, including leadership of discussions & short weekly reaction papers
one 4-5 page analytical paper on one’s week’s readings
two or three source reports
final paper, including short presentation on your topic
Late Antiquity Syllabus, Fall '06 -3-
Topics by Week (Subject to Revision; check class website for changes)
1. Aug. 24
Introduction
2. Aug. 31 Defining Late Antiquity
a) Introduction to Historiography and Geography
b) Christianization
Cameron, chs. 1-2, pp.1-29
Brown, Peter et al. "The World of Late Antiquity Revisited." Symbolae Osloenses
72 (1997), 5-90.
Benet Salway, "The Nature and Genesis of the Peutinger Map," Imago Mundi: the
international journal for the history of cartography 57.2 (2005), 119-135.
Brown, Peter. Introduction & ch. 1 in Rise of Western Christendom, 1-34; 37-52.
Recommended:
Boyarin, Border Lines, Introduction
3. Sept. 7 Diocletian: Administering the Revived Empire
a) Crises of the Third Century
b) Religion and Empire
Excerpts from the following: Lactantius, De mortibus persecutorum; Aurelius
Victor; Latin Panegyrics; Zosimus
Cameron, ch. 3
Brown, Western Christendom, ch. 2, 54-71.
Curran, J. Pagan City and Christian Capital (Oxford, 2000), Ch. 1: "Emperors,
Gods, and Violence in Third-Century Rome," 1-42.
Rives, J. “The decree of Decius and the religion of the empire,” JRS 89 (1999),
135-154.
Rees, R. Diocletian and the Tetrarchy (Edinburgh, 2004), pp. 3-90.
Reports: Lactantius; Aurelius Victor; Latin Panegyrics; Zosimus
4. Sept. 14
Constantine and the New Empire
a) Eusebius on Constantine
b) Constantine, Religion, & Empire
Eusebius: Life of Constantine (NPNF).
Cameron, ch. 4.
Brown, Western Christendom, ch. 2, 72-92.
Drake, Constantine and the Bishops, Chs. 5-7.
Rapp, Claudia. "Imperial Ideology in the Making: Eusebius of Caesarea on
Constantine as 'Bishop.'" JTS, n.s. 49 (1998): 685-95
Reports: Eusebius; Oration to the Saints
Late Antiquity Syllabus, Fall '06 -45. Sept. 21
Religion and the State
a) The Reign of Julian
b) Pagans, Christians, and the Law in the Fourth Century
Anti Pagan Polemic: Carmen contra paganos; Pseudo-Cyprian, Carmen ad
senatorem (Transl. in Croke and Harries, pp. 80-85).
Theodosian Code BK XVI (Excerpts from Croke and Harries, pp. 16-27)
Ammianus Marcellinus on Julian: Bks 16-18, 20-25 (to p. 299).
Cameron, chs. 5-7
Ando, Clifford. "Pagan Apologetics and Christian Intolerance in the Ages of
Themistius and Augustine." JECS 4 (1996), 171-207.
Curran, John. Pagan City and Christian Capital: Rome in the Fourth Century
(Oxford, 2000), Ch, 5: "The Legal Standing of the Ancient Cults of Rome."
Hedrick, Charles, History and Silence: Purge and Rehabilitation of Memory in
Late Antiquity (Austin, 1990), ch. 3: "Unspeakable Paganism.
MacMullen, R. "What Difference Did Christianity Make?" Historia 35 (1986), 32243.
Reports: Ammianus Marcellinus; Theodosian Code; Carmen Contra Paganos
6. Sept. 28
Education, Culture, and Authority
a) The Church Fathers and Education
b) New and Old Models
Basil, On Christian Education
Jerome, Letters 22.30 (to Eustochium), & 53 & 58.4-8 (to Paulinus of Nola).
Augustine, De doctrina Christiana, Book 2
Cameron, ch. 10.
Vessey, Mark. "The Demise of the Christian Writer and the Remaking of 'Late
Antiquity': From H.-I. Marrou's Saint Augustine (1938) to Peter Brown's Holy
Man (1983)." JECS 6 (1998): 377-411.
Chin, Catherine. “The Grammarian’s Spoils: De Doctrina Christiana & the Contexts
of Literary Education.” In Karla Pollman & Mark Vessey, eds., Augustine and
the Disciplines. From Cassaciacum to Confessions. Oxford, 2005
Brown, Peter. Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian
Empire (Madison, WI, 1992), Ch, 2: "Paideia and Power," pp. 35-70.
Lim, Richard. “Meddlesome Curiosity, Mystification, and Social Order in late
Antiquity.” Chapter 5 of Public Disputation, Power and Social Order in Late
Antiquity (Berkeley, 1995), 149-181.
Elm, Susanna. “Hellenism and Historiography: Gregory of Nazianzus and Julian in
Dialogue.” In The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies: Gender, Asceticism,
and Historiography. Ed. Dale B. Martin & Patricia Cox Miller (Duke, 2005).
Reports: Historia Augusta; Servius on Vergil; Jerome; John Chrysostom
7. Oct. 5
New and Old Elites, Part I: Senators and Bishops
a) Ambrose, Symmachus, and Friends
b) Christian Aristocracy, Christian Empire
Late Antiquity Syllabus, Fall '06 -5Symmachus, Letters including those to Ambrose (in Croke & Harries, Chapter 5).
Altar of Victory debate - Letters of Symmachus & Ambrose
Ambrose, De Officiis
Correspondence between Jerome and Augustine
Drake, Constantine and the Bishops, chaps. 11 & 12. [skim chs. 8-10]
Salzman, Christian Aristocracy, Chs. 1-4, 7.
Cameron, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire, chapters 1 and 4.
Rapp, Claudia. “The Elite Status of Bishops in Late Antiquity in Ecclesiastical,
Spiritual, and Social Contexts” Arethusa 33.3 (2000) 379-399. [on-line]
Van Dam, Raymond. “Emperors, Bishops and Friends in Late Antique
Cappadocia,” JTS n.s. 37/1 (1985): 53-76.
Reports: Symmachus; Ambrose; Augustine; Prudentius
8. Oct. 12
New and Old Elites, Part II: Bishops, Monks, and Ascetics
a) West
b) East
Athanasius, Life of Antony (if you haven’t read it)
Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 43 (on Basil)
Brown, Western Christendom, ch. 4, 93-122.
Leyser, Conrad, Authority and Asceticism from Augustine to Gregory the Great,
Chs. 1 and 2 (on Augustine and Cassian)
Brown, “The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity, 1971-97.”
JECS 6 (1998): 353-76
Garth Fowden, “The Pagan Holy Man in Late Antique Society,” Journal of
Hellenic Studies, Vol. 102, (1982), 33-59.
Sterk, Renouncing the World, Introduction & ch. 5: “Gregory of Nazianzus:
Ascetic Life and Episcopal Office in Tension”
Elm, “Desert Mothers and Wandering Virgins: the Apophthegmata Patrum.”
Chapter 8 of “Virgins of God”
Reports: Cassian, Basil, Lives of Symeon Stylites, Desert Mothers
9. Oct. 19
Barbarians, the Economy, and the Fall of Rome
[We will not meet as a seminar this week. Instead I will meet with you individually to
discuss your final paper topics. At that meeting a refined topic statement and a substantial
bibliography (around 3 pages) is due. Additionally, you are responsible for completing this
week’s readings, which will form part of our discussion on Oct. 26. The usual short reaction
paper on either set of readings will be due next week.]
Cameron, chs. 8-9. 113-150.
Brown, Western Christendom, ch. 5, 123-141.
Heather, Peter. “The Barbarian in Late Antiquity: Image, Reality, and
Transformation.” In Richard Miles, ed., Constructing Identities in Late
Antiquity (New York, 1999), pp. 234-58.
Late Antiquity Syllabus, Fall '06 -6M. McCormick, Origins of the European Economy: Communications and Commerce,
AD 300-900 (Cambridge, 2001), pp. 1-23, 27-41, 115-19, 385-87, 778-98.
F. de Callataÿ, “The Graeco-Roman economy in the super long run: a lead, copper
and shipwrecks,” JRA 18 (2005): 361-372.
Frend, “The Monks and the Survival of the East Roman Empire in the Fifth
Century,” Past & Present 54 (1972): 3-24.
Reports: Procopius; Jordanes
10. Oct. 26
The Fall of Rome (cont.)
Brown, Western Christendom, ch. 6, 145-165.
Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford, 2005.
BMCR Review of Ward-Perkins by James O'Donnell
Nov. 1 (Wednesday): Lunch with Daniel Boyarin, 12:30-2:30
Prof. Boyarin is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the
author of several books including, most recently, Border Lines. The Partition of
Judaeo-Christianity (University of Pennsylvania, 2004). Jewish Studies will be
providing lunch for our seminar plus a few invited guests, and we will be discussing
a chapter of Prof. Boyarin’s book.
11. Nov. 2
Cities, Saints, Christianization & the Jews (5th-6th century)
Sulpicius Severus, Life of St. Martin
Brown, Western Christendom, ch. 6 & 7, 145-189
Brown, The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
(Chicago, 1981), chs. 1-2 & 5-6; skim 3 & 4.
Van Dam, Raymond, “Martin of Tours and the Conversion of Gaul,” ch. 6 in
Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul, pp.119-140.
Markus, R.A. The End of Ancient Christendom (Cambridge, 1990), Part III: Topoi:
Space & Community (chs.1 and 10-12, pp.1-17 & 139-197).
Miles, Margaret R. “Santa Maria Maggiore’s Fifth-Century Mosaics: Triumphal
Christianity and the Jews.” HTR 86:2 (1993): 155-175.
Goffart, Walter. “The Conversions of Avitus of Clermont, and Similar Passages
in Gregory of Tours.” In Jacob Neusner and Ernest Frerichs, eds., “To See
Ourselves as others See Us”: Christians, Jews, “Others” in Late Antiquity
(Scholars Press, 1985), 473-497. [on conversion of Jews in HF]
Recommended: Nicholas De Lange, “Jews in the Age of Justinian,” in The Cambridge
Companion to the Age of Justinian, ed. Michael Maas (Cambridge, 2005), pp.401-26.
Reports: Gregory of Tours; Gregory the Great
Late Antiquity Syllabus, Fall '06 -712. Nov. 9
The West: The Rise of Christian Europe
Hillgarth, J.N., sources
Brown, Western Christendom, chs. 8-11, 190-266.
Geary, Patrick. Myth of Nations (whole book)
Jocelyn Hillgarth, “Modes of Evangelization of Western Europe in the Seventh
Century,” in Irland und die Christenheit, 311-31.
Markus, End of Ancient Christianity, ch.13-14, 213-228.
Recommended: Geary, Patrick. Before France and Germany, chapters 3 & 4
Reports: Gregory the Great; Columbanus; Bede
13. Nov. 16
The View from the East: Byzantium & Beyond
Cameron, ch. 11.
Brown, Western Christendom, chs. 12 & 13, 267-320
Garth Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth
Walker, Joel. “The Limits of Late Antiquity: Philosophy between Rome and
Iran” The Ancient World 33.1 (2002), 45-69; also essays by Shean (on
literature) & Kaegi (commentary) in the same volume.
Reports: Procopius, On the Wars; Codex Justinianus [Corpus Iuris Civilis]
Nov. 23: THANKSGIVING – No class
14. Nov. 30
[Work on papers & presentations!]
Revisiting Decline, Fall, & Late Antiquity as an Epoch (1st half of class)
Holum, Kenneth. "The Classical City in the Sixth Century: Survival and
Transformation," in Michael Maas, ed., The Cambridge Companion to the
Age of Justinian (Cambridge, 2005), 87-112.
Liebeschuetz, J. H. W. G. "Late Antiquity and the Concept of Decline: An AngloAmerican Model of Late Antique Studies." Nottingham Medieval Studies 45
(2001), 1-11.
Momigliano, A. “Declines and Falls,” The American Scholar 49 (1979-80), 3750.
Recommended: K. Bowen and S. Gutteridge, “Rethinking the later Roman
landscape,” JRA 18 (2005), 405-413.
Wickham, C. "The Other Transition: From the Ancient World to Feudalism." Past
and Present 103 (1984), 3-36.
Reports: Orosius; Augustine, City of God
Student Presentations (2nd half of class; 3 or 4 this week; the rest next week)
15. Dec. 7
Student Presentations
Dec. 11 (Monday)
Final Papers Due