Fourth Century Research Articles

Երուսաղեմի Հայոց Սուրբ Փրկիչ վանքը և իր վիմական ժառանգությունը / THE ARMENIAN MONASTERY OF HOLY SAVIOUR IN JERUSALEM AND ITS EPIGRAPHIC HERITAGE

The Armenian Monastery of Holy Saviour is one of the unique Armenian holy places in Jerusalem, whereas the date of the construction is still unknown. It was likely built in the fourth century under the patronage of Queen St. Helena. The monastery is located at the site, where the house of High Priest Caiaphas was formerly located. The religious belief states that one of the Hebrew high priests ordered soldiers to whip and defame Christ there right after the betrayal. (Math. 26: 3-4, 57, 67). The century of the historical appropriation of the monastery by the Armenians is undisclosed. However, Armenian historical sources of Jerusalem mention that the Armenian congregation used to live in the monastery in the 12th-13th centuries. They built a scriptorium and produced many Armenian manuscripts. The first lapidary inscriptions of the monastery have come down to us since the 14th century. The number of the inscriptions has grown in further years since the Armenian pilgrims, donors, and sponsors, who visited the Holy Land or lived there, used to commission many memorial inscriptions and locate them on the khachkars in the cemeteries or pierce them in the walls of the sepulchres they built or renovated. The Jerusalem Armenian cemetery still survives near the monastery. This is the reason that most of the inscriptions are epitaphs. Our paper will present only a few of them.

Unter Freunden. Nähe und Distanz in sozialen Netzwerken der Spätantike by Seraina Ruprecht

Reviewed by: Unter Freunden. Nähe und Distanz in sozialen Netzwerken der Spätantike by Seraina Ruprecht Lisa Brunet Unter Freunden. Nähe und Distanz in sozialen Netzwerken der Spätantike Seraina Ruprecht Munich: C. H. Beck, 2021. Pp. viii + 360. ISBN: 978-3-406-77399-0 A friend in need is a friend indeed. From philosophical treatises to Euripedian tragedies, friendship is arguably one of the most prevalent themes in ancient Greek writings. Thus, it is unsurprising that friendship in Classical and Late Antiquity has long been at the center of scholarly debate. Whereas earlier studies have regarded terms such as philia and amicitia as "weapons of politics" (Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution [Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1939], 157), recent work has tended to adopt a slightly broader view, highlighting the relationship with patronage as well as taking into account the emotional dimensions of ancient "friendship." Unter Freunden aligns with these contemporary tendencies but focuses more specifically on friendship in Late Antiquity, and relationships among Christians and non-Christians particularly, topics which have often been overlooked, as Ruprecht rightly remarks. Moreover, with her analysis of the letters written by Libanius as well as Christian authors such as John Chrysostom and the Cappadocian Fathers, she attempts to counterbalance the scholarly emphasis on western authors. Overall, three main research questions are formulated. First and foremost, this book attempts to grasp the social concept of philia in the fourth century. Secondly, specific forms of communication among friends are analyzed, with particular attention paid to expressions of proximity and distance. Finally, the question arises how the concept of philia changed through the increasing Christianization of the Roman empire and its relation to the Christian agape. In Chapter 1, Ruprecht defines friendship as "a cluster of social practices" (15) and she stresses the voluntary and interpersonal nature of this relationship between (near-)peers. Furthermore, she explains her preference to denote friendships in terms of "proximity" and "distance" as opposed to "inclusion" and "exclusion" in order to properly present the various gradations of friendship rather than to think of friendship in terms of absolutes. In this chapter, the problematic interpretation of the term philia as denoting friendship already becomes apparent. As she demonstrates throughout the book, philia does not necessarily correspond to present-day notions of friendship. On the contrary, some examples she provides could be described today as communication among acquaintances at best, frenemies at worst. The epistolary exchanges between Libanius and Anatolius of Berytus, praetorian [End Page 306] prefect of Illyricum, could be seen as examples of the latter (74–83). Chapter 2 concerns the extensive corpus of letters written by Libanius, who is described as a representative of the pagan elite. Following Hans-Ulrich Wiemer, Ruprecht argues that Libanius never rose to the rank of honoratus, for which she convincingly cites fragments from Libanius's corpus. His social prominence therefore ought to be explained through his status as a sophist. Indeed, sophists are known to have had considerable influence within the interactions between the cities of the Greek East and Roman authorities. Libanius's letters reveal his sizeable network of relationships among the social and political elites, ranging from Rome to Milan. A strength of this book is its critical analysis of the epistolary corpus that has survived. That is, most of the sources under analysis are Libanius's letters. Although they most likely were published posthumously, some aspects suggest that Libanius already intended a later publication. Particularly convincing is Ruprecht's theory about Libanius's editorial intervention and that he manipulated the evidence handed down to us. Thus, these letters ought to be understood as a conscious representation of Libanius and his contacts. Still, regardless of their reliability, the letters reveal contemporary norms and expectations of philia. More specifically, they reveal a continuing obligation to exchange favors. As a result, philia relationships contributed significantly to the cohesion of the upper classes. Particularly interesting are Libanius's descriptions of close interactions between friends in everyday life, such as private invitations, dinners and baths. Ruprecht reminds us that these details too were deliberately used for the portrayal of a stable philia in letters. In fact, the letters themselves are exemplificatory of the...

A Lord’s Prayer inscription from Amorium and the materiality of early Byzantine Christian prayer

AbstractThis article presents an analytical study of a rare example of the text of the Lord’s Prayer inscribed on an early Byzantine ceramic plate that was found in excavations at Amorium. The graffito inscription is discussed in detail and the text identified securely with the Lord’s Prayer as preserved from the Gospels of Mathew and Luke. It is an extremely rare find in Asia Minor. At the same time, the inscribed vessel is examined as an object within its possible context, ecclesiastical, domestic or other, through comparison with other known examples. Finally, the article discusses the possible uses of the Lord’s Prayer in day-to-day life and the materiality of prayer for Christians during the early Byzantine period between the fourth and seventh centuries.

The ethics of care in the late antique Christian discourse: (trans)historical perspectives on the social, political and philosophical value of care

The paper examines the historical context of ethics of care in early Christian discourse. The historical context of the ethics of care enables us to comprehend the ways in which ethics of care was employed and disseminated as part of political ideology and public discourse, significantly influencing the social relations of the rapidly changing Roman world between the fourth and seventh centuries. The Byzantine Empire is a prime example of a political entity in which philanthropy was the driving force behind imperial politics and social relations. Emperor Justinian?s laws, which proclaimed social justice and protection for those in need, serve as a case study for an ethics of care. Also, the ethics of care is reconfigured within the context of Byzantine theology as a theology of care, in which the primary virtue of a true Christian is his fervent love for the community (agape). The ethics of care is then examined from the perspective of gender and the newly established cult of the Theotokos, which degendered the concept of maternal thinking and maternal care by making it a universal experience and the new moral code for all Christians.

Social Status of Roman Senators According to the Theodosian Code: Legislation and Reality

In 438, at the initiative of Emperor Theodosius II, one of the most significant legislative collections of the late Roman Empire, the Codex Theodosianus (Eng. Theodosian Code), was published, which is a valuable source on the social history of the Roman state in Late Antiquity. Based on the data of the Codex Theodosianus and Novellae of Emperors, the author of the article reconstructs the most important components of the social status of Roman senators of the fourth century BC. It is revealed that in the view of the emperor and the compilers of the Theodosian Code, the senatorial aristocracy was thought of as the highest class of the Roman Empire. Several factors influenced the status of Roman senators. Following a “suitable” way of life and proper performance of political functions determined the position of the senator in society and formed his reputation not only in the eyes of the emperor, but also in the eyes of his community, as well as other classes. The way a person got into the ranks of the senatorial aristocracy also affected the status. So, it was not so much the origin that was important, but the observance of legality in obtaining titles, and, in the case of decurions, the legitimacy of the transition from one estate to another. Finally, the possession of the patrimony and ensuring its proper functioning guaranteed the full and timely payment of taxes by the senators, and in the eyes of the ruler was important for maintaining the high status of the senatorial aristocracy. Unlike legislation, reality was more complex. Thus, the social status was influenced by a much larger number of components (for example, the acceptance or rejection of a Roman aristocrat by the city plebs), moreover, the proper fulfillment by the senator of all the requirements put forward by the imperial power did not always lead him to success in political activity.

Early Greek Catapults and ‘First-Generation Artillery Towers’

This article is intended to offer a discussion on the origins of the catapult in the Greek world. The discussion focusses on one problematic point, non-torsion artillery and its distribution. There are good reasons to think that such early catapults remained a kind of experimental weapon; it is only after the invention of torsion artillery, i. e. after the middle of the fourth century BC, that the catapult became a common weapon, widespread throughout the Greek world. As a result, the study calls into question the typology of artillery towers defined by Ober and its chronological implications.

John Henry Newman and the Development of Doctrine: Encountering Change, Looking for Continuity by Stephen Morgan

Reviewed by: John Henry Newman and the Development of Doctrine: Encountering Change, Looking for Continuity by Stephen Morgan Guy Nicholls C.O. Stephen Morgan John Henry Newman and the Development of Doctrine: Encountering Change, Looking for Continuity Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2021 xvi + 315. Hardback. $75.00. John Henry Newman is undoubtedly one of the greatest Christian thinkers of any age, who made significant and highly original contributions to many areas of philosophy and theology. This beautifully written and closely argued book justifies the author's claim that Newman made no single contribution to theology more important than his long exploration of these questions: how can doctrine actually change and develop, whilst simultaneously remaining faithful to the original revelation? How can we know this to be so? In researching and pursuing this matter in ever greater depth and detail, Newman, according to Morgan, "addressed a question that had posed for him a serious existential difficulty for a very considerable period of time" (263), viz. how, in encountering change, can we find continuity? In pursuing this quest Newman has also bequeathed to the Church of our own time a vitally urgent hermeneutic tool to tackle questions concerning [End Page 206] the nature and extent of ecclesiastical authority to make definitive pronouncements on matters of doctrinal development. Morgan draws a striking picture of the intricacy of Newman's mind in framing the question and in devising various theories to provide its solution. In many ways it is most helpful to begin from the latest stage of Newman's research, which was the publication of the book that effectively divided his life into two halves: the first Anglican, the second Catholic. The 1845 Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine was described by Newman as "an hypothesis to account for a difficulty." First of all, the genesis of this "difficult" question of development of doctrine is to be located in the historical and revealed nature of the Christian religion. Christianity is an historical religion based not only on the facts of the life and teaching of Christ, but on the transmission, or "tradition," of these facts down the generations which form his Church. In short, the central fact of the Christian religion is the person of Christ, who, as the incarnate Son of God, is the subject of divine revelation. This fact can also be described as an "idea" which exists in human minds and is therefore subject to the multiform processes of human thought and reflection. Morgan has skillfully traced the unfolding of Newman's thought processes and of the interaction between him and his contemporaries, both Anglican and Catholic, in arriving at a fully articulated theory of development of doctrine. In so doing, he has also constructed a robust defense of Newman against those who have called into question Newman's own claim to honesty or who have impugned the accuracy of his memory when, more than twenty years after the climax of this period had passed, he was obliged to defend himself in the Apologia Pro Vita Sua against Charles Kingsley's charge of untruthfulness in his dealings with his fellow Anglicans before his conversion. Morgan conducts a painstaking forensic examination of New-man's letters and other writings in which he tested his own intricate theories to account for the "difficulty" of the phenomenon of doctrinal development. But as Morgan shows, Newman's successive attempts to locate development within Anglican fidelity [End Page 207] to patristic antiquity and within the via media of the Anglican church between the "extremes" of Roman excess and Protestant error, were utterly "pulverised" by the Catholic Nicholas Wiseman's 1839 article on the fourth century Donatist schism. Wiseman quoted the judgement of St. Augustine, "securus iudicat orbis terrarum," which Newman immediately sensed was precisely applicable to his own contemporary view of the Anglican and Catholic churches. Newman took this to show that the Anglican church was not as he had claimed, a true branch of the Catholic Church, but rather a schismatical body. The Anglicans were in a parallel position to the Donatists of North Africa, and out of communion not only with St. Augustine but also with the papacy...

Chain of Gold: Greek Rhetoric in the Roman Empire by Susan Jarratt

Reviewed by: Chain of Gold: Greek Rhetoric in the Roman Empire by Susan Jarratt Anna Peterson Susan Jarratt, Chain of Gold: Greek Rhetoric in the Roman Empire. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2019. 200 pp. Coined by Philostratus in the early third century CE, the label “Second Sophistic” (c. 50-250 CE) is increasingly recognized as an imperfect periodic designation. Does it refer exclusively to the tradition of epideictic rhetoric as described by Philostratus? Or can it be expanded to include the full range of Greek literary production during the first three centuries CE? At its core the term reflects feelings of belatedness and nostalgia, such that the common narrative of the period has become one in which an elite Hellenic identity was defined above all by paideia (“education” or “culture”). While this rooting of an elite Greek identity in the classical past is well recognized as a response to Roman hegemony,1 recent scholarship has begun to expand on this conventional view, pointing to elements of continuity both with earlier Hellenistic literature and the literature of the fourth century CE.2 Jarratt’s monograph Chain of Gold consequently sets a tall task for itself in once again addressing the cultural politics of the Second Sophistic. It is an ambitious and thought-provoking work, even if in the end it does not completely succeed in what it sets out to do. At its core, it argues for a reappraisal of the “second sophistic habit of dwelling in the past” as something that was not “monologic and static” but “varied and dynamic” and that offered the writers and performers of the period “a politically protected way of ‘talking back’ to empire.” (17) For Jarratt, the obsession with the past that has come to define this period of Greek literature is not a simple matter of nostalgia but rather of critical memory, one that allowed the authors of this period to reimagine and keep alive a deliberative civic space. Jarratt’s aim in this book is not at its core an entirely new idea. That said, what makes her work so thought provoking is her desire to locate “a colonial counterdiscourse” in a broad range of works (38). Moreover, she is certainly correct that too often classicists have been overly hesitant about reading the literature of the period through the lens of postcolonial theory (3). In addition to an introductory chapter outlining the monograph’s methodology, Chain of Gold develops this argument across six case studies, covering respectively Dio Chyrsostom’s Euboean Discourse (Chapter 2), Aelius Aristides’ Roman Oration (Chapter 3), Philostratus’ Life of Apollonius of Tyana [End Page 103] (Chapter 4) and Imagines (Chapter 5), Heliodorus’ Aithiopika (Chapter 6), and Libanius’ To Those Who Call Him Tiresome (Chapter 7). Generally speaking, this is a nice mixture of well-trod and often overlooked texts. Her strongest chapters are those which connect what she calls rhetorical vision to the post-colonial concerns outlined in the monograph’s first chapter. For example, her discussion in Chapter 3 of Aristides’ Roman Oration explores how “the ‘ sophist . . . draws on the resources of [Homeric] epic to enhance his powers of visualization,” providing his audience not only “a phantasm of [Rome’s] imperium but also a techne of viewing” (47). Likewise, Chapter 5 reads Philostratus’ Imagines—an intriguing collection of descriptions of works of art—as an exploration in rhetorical vision that pushes the limits of ekphrasis. Treating the text as a museum of sorts, Jarratt acts as curator, bringing out how the text handles reoccurring images of youth, women, and different ethnicities, among others. This is Jarratt’s most successful chapter, in part thanks to the inclusion of an appendix, which maps out the paintings in relation to one another. In a few instances, however, Jarratt does not make full use of the ancient evidence. The clearest example of this comes in her discussion of Dio Chrysostom’s Euboean Discourse (Or. 7). In this speech, Dio professes that he will narrate a personal experience, relating how, after being shipwrecked in Euboea, he was taken in by a huntsman, who recounted his own troubled participation in local politics. The huntsman’s tale then prompts Dio to expound on...

The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission) ed. by Frieder Ludwig

Reviewed by: The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission) ed. by Frieder Ludwig Marcus Felde The First World War as a Turning Point: The Impact of theYears 1914–1918 on Church and Mission (with Special Focus on the Hermannsburg Mission). Edited by Frieder Ludwig. Berlin: Lit Verlag, 2020. 236 pp. This book originated in a symposium in Hermannsburg on the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War. The purpose was to consider the impact of that war on German missions overseas and the churches planted by their work. These writings are of personal interest because I served fourteen years in the part of Papua New Guinea (PNG) which once was known as "Kaiser-Wilhelmsland." It is not difficult to see in the PNG church the effects of actions taken against German missions during the First World War and again during the Second World War. German missionaries in New Guinea were from Rhenisch and Neuendettelsau organizations rather than the Hermannsburg Mission, but they faced similar difficulties and had similar outcomes. "New World" missionaries were one answer to the dilemmas created in the "Third World" when the "Old World" went to war. Philip Jenkins opens the volume by showing how people and their governments made use of religion during World War I both for legitimation and for comfort; it was pervasive and powerful. But he ends his essay with an aphoristic quip (a play on the title of a Goya painting) which seems to contradict his thesis: "The sleep of religion brings forth monsters" (48). Is he blaming the horrors of World War I on a dearth of religion, after arguing that religion was pervasive throughout? Is he advocating for any and all religions? One declaration made me wince: "The good news for the churches was that the war did not kill religion" (38). Perhaps his 2014 book The Great and Holy War made clearer distinctions? Perhaps in it he had room to explore also the faith-based revulsion many Christians felt and feel about warfare? Martin Tamcke, Volker Metzler, and Rolf Hosfeld opened my eyes to a neglected part of history: troops, local officials, and citizens massacred about 200,000 Christians in the Urmia region of Assyria (now parts of Iran and Turkey) during World War I. (This is distinct from the better known massacre of Armenians.) What [End Page 96] a horrible dilemma Germans faced. They had a relationship with those "Nestorian" Christians through mission work. Their government was allied in war with a largely Muslim nation (the Ottoman Empire) which used the cover of war to purge violently Christians who traced their faith heritage back to the fourth century. Kevin Ward brings a British perspective on the nexus of war and mission and its ramifications for Anglican missions in Africa. "The war called into question 'German' assumptions of European cultural superiority and 'British' delusions of imperial splendour, but it certainly did not automatically end them" (122). He points out that the war followed closely the 1910 World Missionary Conference, damaging (perhaps fatally?) its high aspirations for the Christianization of the world. Adam Jones and Fritz Hasselhorn perceive a silver lining to the deleterious effect of the war on German missions in Africa. During and after the war, at first of necessity and then intentionally, missionaries were moved to yield authority to the people they had come to serve. A new and necessary trend had only begun. "While the missionaries were used to be[ing] 'in the position of little kings with their congregations,' in the future they should feel 'part of the whole.'" (140) [Emphasis is in the 1903 letter of Egmont Harms, director of the Hermannsburg Mission.] Essays by Hagos Abrha, Iris Leung Chui Wa, Pui Yee Pong, and Jayabalan Murthy ensure some balance, representing not the mission societies but the churches that grew from (and despite) their efforts. Two of those essays look at Hong Kong and one at India, British territories where German missionaries were regarded as hostiles. Like the other essays, they offer both "facts on the ground" and thoughtful reflection about mission work...

Survival and rebirth : archaistic elements in the Greek art of the Classical period

This paper aims to present an overview of archaistic elements in ancient Greece in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. The first part provides a background for their emergence in the second half of the fifth century and summarises the possible reasons why it might have happened. Its primary focus lies in presenting examples from sculpture, vase painting and toreutics and in connecting the archaistic traits which appear on them. The particular elements are described and placed in time. In the final chapter, we draw a conclusion.

Social Mobility in the Environment of the Roman Senatorial Aristocracy (The Age of Diocletian and Constantine I)

This article discusses the social mobility among the Roman senatorial aristocracy in the late third and early fourth centuries. According to the accounts of narrative, legislative, and epigraphic sources and applying the methods of prosopography, the author analyzes the possibilities that the Roman senators had for their rise. The Roman aristocracy can be divided into several subgroups. Particularly closed and privileged was the group of patrician senators. The main channels of their social mobility were the conclusion of legal marriage, the birth within the legal marriage, the adoption of “new persons” by a representative of the patrician family, and, to a lesser extent, the procedure of the imperial adlectio. The modes of social mobility of other subgroups of the Roman senatorial aristocracy were more variable due to their activities in the imperial service. For senators who were not patriciates, the emperor acted as the main regulator of the influx of “new persons” and the rise of existing aristocrats. Under Emperors Diocletian and Constantine I, the promotion of aristocrats was situational, depending on state tasks. The only targeted reform to increase the total number of the senatorial aristocracy of Rome was carried out from 312 to 326; in result, the number of senators significantly increased for the first time in a long period and amounted to 2,000. In contrast to the interpretation established in historiography, in the late third and early fourth century, the senatorial aristocracy kept its privileged position in relation to other social groups. Having recovered from the consequences of the third-­century crisis, the Roman senators managed to rally; they represented a political force that the rulers had to reckon with. In result, the aristocrats got real opportunities to realize their political potential.

Significatio and significatus as terms denoting diathesis in the ancient Roman grammar

The term significatio, which refers to the category of diathesis (voice), entered the terminological apparatus of Roman grammarians no earlier than the end of the second century AD, but rather it happened only during the next century. However, the basis for the use of that term was laid by Valerius Probus no later than the beginning of the second century AD. If not Cominian, then Diomedes was the grammarian who in the first half of the fourth century AD finally established the use of the term significatio for verbal voice due to the insufficiency of the old term genus verborum. The use of the term significatio has issued from reasoning about the complex relation between semantics and morphology. The relatively rare term signifi catus served to highlight those cases where this relation was particularly intricate or subject to debate. Tracing the application of the latter term, as well as the analogous Greek term τὸ σημαινόμενον, it is possible to establish a certain continuity in the works of grammarians. Examples concerning verbal voice were, by all evidence, used already by the Stoic Posidonius to illustrate the complexity of the semantics–morphology relation. Valerius Probus, apparently, assimilated the corresponding Greek tradition through acquaintance with the works of the grammarian Habron and applied it to his theory of verb forms.

Decimatio:Myth, Discipline, and Death in the Roman Republic

AbstractThe military punishment ofdecimatio, the cudgelling by lot of one in ten men in a disgraced unit, often described as a cornerstone of Roman military discipline, was never practised during the third and second centuries BC. The punishment was possibly used as an extraordinary measure a couple of times in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. It soon fell into total desuetude but was cultivated as a rhetorical construct that proclaimed theoretical powers commanders no longer dared effect. It was only revived, or rather reinvented, during the Late Republic, a violent moment that saw the confluence of antiquarian enthusiasm with military dynasts whose unrestrained powers allowed them to manifest what had previously been an aristocratic talking point.

The Effect ofFourth Century (HIJRI)Compendiums on Facilitating & Teaching Arabic Grammar The Book "Al-Wadih" by Al-Zobaidias a Sample

Our research paper aims to monitor the effect of the 4th century grammatical compendiums on facilitating and teaching the Arabic grammar, by selecting to Al-Zobaidi’s book “Al-Wadih” as an example through which we seek to simplify and teach the approaches of the 4th century gramaticians in facilitating and teaching grammar, and the approach of Al-Zobaidi in particular. By authoring this book, Al-Zobaidi did not criminalize himself as a leader of facilitation and education; this is why we aim through this study to highlight the significance of his book “Al-Wadih” in facilitating and teaching the Arabic grammar,by means of a unique curriculum that was carried out in the fourth century (HIJRI). After addressing the approach of the 4th century (HIJRI) in general, which should render us to raise the questionon the gramaticians of the 4th century (HIJRI)and on whether they had aneffect on facilitating and teaching the Arabic grammar? What is the value of Al-Zobaidi'sAl-Wadih book, and what is its status? Seeking to meet the objectives, it has been sought to adopt a methodology based on clarifying some of the concepts and terminologies of the study, then to address the approach of the fourth century toward facilitation, and then to study the content of Al-Wadih book, the approach of the Zebeidi in it, and its effect on facilitating the grammar.Following that analytical descriptive approach, this is why, using inference and proof, we have concluded with the following results: Al-Zobaidi'sAl-Wadih book has a clear and profound effect on facilitating and teaching the rules of the Arabic grammar to beginners, for it is characterized by its ability, competence and the right approach based on the learners’ level
 

Itineraria Terrae Sanctae minora III: Some Early Twelfth-Century Guides to Frankish Jerusalem

This article presents new editions of four short guides to Jerusalem and the holy places and their environs, written around the time of the First Crusade: De Situ urbis Ierusalem, Qualiter sita est civitas Ierusalem, Hec sunt loca que habetur iuxta Hierusalem, and the five different versions of Descriptio Ierusalem. The texts are discussed within the context of an evolving tradition of Holy Land geographical descriptions and guides, which had begun in the fourth century and experienced an accelerated phase of development at the time when the Holy City returned once more to Christian hands.

THE FIND OF ANCIENT COINS IN THE TIASMYN RIVER BASIN FROM THE SIXTH TO THE FIRST CENTURY BC

THE FIND OF ANCIENT COINS IN THE TIASMYN RIVER BASIN FROM THE SIXTH TO THE FIRST CENTURY BC

Persian Collections: Center and Periphery at Achaemenid Imperial Capitals

The absence of a true Achaemenid Persian “historiography” necessitates that we look elsewhere to construct Persian ideological interactions with the periphery. Like many Mesopotamian kings before them, the Achaemenids became famous for their collecting practices, and sources often depict them looting and stealing artifacts—many of an antiquarian nature—from conquered peoples. Recently, scholars have argued that we should read this picture as a later Greco-Roman historiographical construct, meant to retroactively vilify the Persian kings for their involvement in Hellenic affairs. However, the archaeological record, read together with cuneiform sources, appears to corroborate these statements. The careful recontextualization in Persian capitals of important cultural heritage items, looted mainly from religious environments in rebellious areas, served not only to demonstrate the superiority and dominance of the Persian center over the periphery but also to situate the Persian kings in an historical continuum of Mesopotamian kingship. A reevaluation of Achaemenid collecting practices from the sixth to the fourth centuries BCE may allow for a more complete understanding of the discursive nature of Persian imperial display.

Pro Kontra Eksistensi Sajak Dalam Al-Qur’an

Differences in understanding in this concept give rise to various kinds of differences among scholars. One of them is the debate about the existence of rhymes (saja’) in the Qur'an, and this is a very classic problem. This debate had already arisen in the middle of the fourth century hijri spearheaded by imam Abul Hasan Al Asy'ari then popularized by imam Al Baqilani and imam Ar Rummani. These three high priests flatly rejected the existence of rhymes in the Qur'an and preferred the term fâshilah or fâwashil. On the other hand, the pro-life in this matter, such as the mu'tazilah figures, remained adamant in defending their opinions and presenting arguments that he considered strong. Therefore, this paper tries to find common ground and tries to take a middle ground from these differences, because there are points of similarity in them so that it is very possible to combine and collaborate. Among the results of this study is that the term fâshilah is more common than the term rhyme (saja’). So the consequence is an opinion that chooses the term fâshilah for the naming of each end of the verse, indirectly acknowledging the existence of rhymes (saja’) in the Qur'an. Because the rhyme (saja’) itself is part of the fâshilah that is in the Qur'an.

Archaeometric characterization of black gloss ware from Populonia (Tuscany): Imported pottery and local production of the Petites Estampilles Group

This paper presents a chemical characterization by means of WDXRF and mineralogical characterization by means of XRD of 21 individuals of black gloss pottery from the excavations on the acropolis of Populonia. The results shed new light on the circulation of pottery to this major urban centre in North Etruria during the Roman Republican period, while they also suggest the likelihood of local manufacture. In particular, we identify at Populonia four different black gloss productions that can be archaeometrically defined as Campanian A, Volterra, Etrusco-Latial 1 and a possible local production of ceramics belonging to the Petites Estampilles Group, active in the late fourth and third centuries BCE. Once thought to be a workshop located at Rome itself, this class is now understood as a diffuse network of workshops located in South Etruria and Latium producing pottery of similar technology and style. The present study potentially extends the map of its production to North Etruria in a region at that time newly incorporated into the expanding Roman Republican empire.

Понятия справедливости и благочестия в византийской политико-философской мысли IV века

Introduction. The article analyzes the transformations of the concept of justice in early Byzantine thought. The purpose of the article is to test the hypothesis that the semantic shifts in the meaning of the concept of justice in the philosophical and theological literature were due to political processes and events. Methods. The article analyzes the political philosophical and political theological texts of the fourth century: “Oration in Honor of Constantine on the Thirtieth Anniversary of His Reign” by Eusebius of Caesarea; “Panegyric in Honour of Constantius” and “The Heroic Deeds of Constantius” by emperor Julian (“The Apostate”); “On Kingship” by Synesius of Cyrene. In the course of the analysis, the methodological tools of the history of concepts were used. Analysis. The analysis revealed a conflict between the concepts of “justice” and “piety”. It was found that the analyzed texts violate the ancient political and philosophical correlation of these concepts in which piety is considered as a form of justice. In the texts of Eusebius of Caesarea, piety is presented as a particular virtue without any connection with justice. Moreover, the frequency of using the concept of “piety” in the sense of the ruler’s virtue significantly exceeds the frequency of using the concept of “justice” in the sense of political virtue. In the texts of the Emperor Justinian, the discursive status of “justice” is restored. However, in the political philosophy of Synesius of Cyrene, the correlation of the concepts of “justice” and “piety” prescribed by Eusebius of Caesarea is fixed. Results. These processes is due to the influence of religious discourse on political one which is quite understandable in the works of theologians, on the one hand, and the crisis of polis and republican political technologies and discourses in the situation of increasing complexity of administrative tasks faced by the Roman emperors of the 4th century, on the other hand which subsequently led to the formation of a specific Byzantine “taxis” – a socio-cultural order. In this regard, the texts of Emperor Julian can be considered as an unsuccessful attempt to restore the previous discourse, an attempt to restore justice to a dominant place among the virtues of the ruler. The failure of this attempt is attested from the texts of Synesius of Cyrene. All the above allows us to conclude that a new Christian-imperial political discourse is being generated in the corpus of philosophical and theological texts in which the concept of justice is given a relatively modest place.