History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East

History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East PDF Author: Philip Wood
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199915407
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
This book examines the importance of the past, both real and imagined, in constructing contemporary culture in the period AD 500-1000. It goes beyond 'history-writing' in a narrow sense to examine philosophy, theology, liturgy and jurisprudence as vehicles for tradition and the imagination of a past 'golden age'. The papers straddle the Roman-Persian frontier and go well into the Islamic period: together, they push the boundaries of late antiquity' into the varied language traditions: not just Greek, but also Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Arabic.

History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East

History and Identity in the Late Antique Near East PDF Author: Philip Wood
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199915407
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 262

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book examines the importance of the past, both real and imagined, in constructing contemporary culture in the period AD 500-1000. It goes beyond 'history-writing' in a narrow sense to examine philosophy, theology, liturgy and jurisprudence as vehicles for tradition and the imagination of a past 'golden age'. The papers straddle the Roman-Persian frontier and go well into the Islamic period: together, they push the boundaries of late antiquity' into the varied language traditions: not just Greek, but also Syriac, Armenian, Coptic and Arabic.

Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature

Characterization in Ancient Greek Literature PDF Author: Koen De,Temmerman
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004356312
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 721

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Book Description
This is the fourth volume in the series Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative. The book deals with the narratological concepts of character and characterization and explores the textual devices used for purposes of characterization by ancient Greek authors from Homer to Heliodorus.

Proclus' Commentary on the Cratylus in Context

Proclus' Commentary on the Cratylus in Context PDF Author: Robbert Maarten van den Berg
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004163794
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
This book explores the various views on language and its relation to philosophy in the Platonic tradition by examening the reception of Plato's Cratylus in antiquity in general, and the commentary of the Neoplatonist Proclus in particular.

The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood

The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004421335
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
The Hagiographical Experiment: Developing Discourses of Sainthood throws fresh light on narratives about Christian holy men and women from Late Antiquity to Byzantium. Rather than focusing on the relationship between story and reality, it asks what literary choices authors made in depicting their heroes and heroines: how they positioned the narrator, how they responded to existing texts, how they utilised or transcended genre conventions for their own purposes, and how they sought to relate to their audiences. The literary focus of the chapters assembled here showcases the diversity of hagiographical texts written in Greek, Latin, Coptic, and Syriac, as well as pointing out the ongoing conversations that connect them. By asking these questions of this diverse group of texts, it illuminates the literary development of hagiography in the late antique, Byzantine, and medieval periods.

The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography

The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography PDF Author: Stephanos Efthymiadis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317043952
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 586

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Book Description
For an entire millennium, Byzantine hagiography, inspired by the veneration of many saints, exhibited literary dynamism and a capacity to vary its basic forms. The subgenres into which it branched out after its remarkable start in the fourth century underwent alternating phases of development and decline that were intertwined with changes in the political, social and literary spheres. The selection of saintly heroes, an interest in depicting social landscapes, and the modulation of linguistic and stylistic registers captured the voice of homo byzantinus down to the end of the empire in the fifteenth century. The seventeen chapters in this companion form the sequel to those in volume I which dealt with the periods and regions of Byzantine hagiography, and complete the first comprehensive survey ever produced in this field. The book is the work of an international group of experts in the field and is addressed to both a broader public and the scholarly community of Byzantinists, medievalists, historians of religion and theorists of narrative. It highlights the literary dimension and the research potential of a representative number of texts, not only those appreciated by the Byzantines themselves but those which modern readers rank high due to their literary quality or historical relevance.

Byzantino-Normannica

Byzantino-Normannica PDF Author: Alexēs G. K. Savvidēs
Publisher: Peeters Publishers
ISBN: 9789042919112
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 120

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Book Description
The monograph, based on Greek, Latin and Old French primary sources (especially Anna Komnene's Alexiad and William of Apulia's Gesta Roberti Wiscardi), as well as on a wide range of secondary material available in several languages, attempts a detailed description of the first century of Byzantine-Norman relations, namely from the early 11th to the early 12th century, focusing on the first two Norman expeditions against Byzantium's Ionian and Helladic possessions (1081-1085 and 1107-1108). The diplomatic background related to the intricacies of Byzantium's external affairs in one of its most perplexed historical periods, is discussed throughout in detail, making use of pertinent research from recent decades when studies on Byzantine diplomatic history have progressed considerably. Of particular interest in this book is the prosopography of the period (both Byzantine and Western), while special attention is also given to matters of chronology as well as to the historical geography and topography of the locations involved in the Ionian Sea (Septinsular area), southern Albania and northwestern Hellas (especially Epeiros and western Macedonia). The background of the first two Norman invasions, delineating Byzantine-Norman contacts since the late 1030s until the eve of the first Norman campaign of 1080/81, is also treated by describing some interesting terms and connotations encountered in both Byzantine and Western sources.

Crisis of Empire

Crisis of Empire PDF Author: Phil Booth
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520280423
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
This book focuses on the attempts of three asceticsÑJohn Moschus, Sophronius of Jerusalem, and Maximus ConfessorÑto determine the ChurchÕs power and place during a period of profound crisis, as the eastern Roman empire suffered serious reversals in the face of Persian and then Islamic expansion. By asserting visions which reconciled long-standing intellectual tensions between asceticism and Church, these authors established the framework for their subsequent emergence as Constantinople's most vociferous religious critics, their alliance with the Roman popes, and their radical rejection of imperial interference in matters of the faith. Situated within the broader religious currents of the fourth to seventh centuries, this book throws new light on the nature not only of the holy man in late antiquity, but also of the Byzantine Orthodoxy that would emerge in the Middle Ages, and which is still central to the churches of Greece and Eastern Europe.

The Art of Biography in Antiquity

The Art of Biography in Antiquity PDF Author: Tomas Hägg
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110737927X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 513

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Book Description
Greek and Roman biography embraces much more than Plutarch, Suetonius and their lost Hellenistic antecedents. In this book Professor Hägg explores the whole range and diversity of ancient biography, from its Socratic beginnings to the Christian acquisition of the form in late antiquity. He shows how creative writers developed the lives of popular heroes like Homer, Aesop and Alexander and how the Christian gospels grew from bare sayings to full lives. In imperial Rome biography flourished in the works of Greek writers: Lucian's satire, Philostratus' full sophistic orchestration, Porphyry's intellectual portrait of Plotinus. Perhaps surprisingly, it is not political biography or the lives of poets that provide the main artery of ancient biography, but various kinds of philosophical, spiritual and ethical lives. Applying a consistent biographical reading to a representative set of surviving texts, this book opens up the manifold but often neglected art of biography in classical antiquity.

The Bible in Christian North Africa

The Bible in Christian North Africa PDF Author: Jonathan P. Yates
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110491702
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 899

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Book Description
This second volume delves into the intricate dynamics that surrounded the use of Scripture by North African Christians from the late-fourth to the mid-seventh century CE. It focuses on the multivalent ways in which Scripture was incorporated into the fabric of ecclesial existence and theological reflection, as well as on Scripture’s role in informing and supporting these Christians’ decision-making processes. This volume also highlights the intricate theological and philosophical deliberations that were carried out between and among influential North African Christian leaders and scholars—in diverse cultural and geopolitical settings—while paying attention to the complex manner in which these Scripture-laden discourses intersected the wide variety of religious opinions and ecclesiastical and/or theological movements that so clearly marked this region in this era.

Greek Literature in Late Antiquity

Greek Literature in Late Antiquity PDF Author: Scott Fitzgerald Johnson
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131712474X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Late Antiquity has attracted a significant amount of attention in recent years. As a historical period it has thus far been defined by the transformation of Roman institutions, the emergence of distinct religious cultures (Jewish, Christian, Islamic), and the transmission of ancient knowledge to medieval and early modern Europe. Despite all this, the study of late antique literary culture is still in its infancy, especially for the Greek and other eastern texts examined in this volume. The contributions here presented make new inroads into a rich literature notable above all for its flexibility and unparalleled creativity in combining multiple languages and literary traditions. The authors and texts discussed include Philostratus, Eusebius of Caesarea, Nonnos of Panopolis, the important St Polyeuktos epigram, and numerous others. The volume makes use of a variety of interdisciplinary approaches in an attempt to provoke discussion on change (Dynamism), literary education (Didacticism), and reception studies (Classicism). The result is a study which highlights the erudition and literary sophistication characteristic of the period and brings questions of contextualization, linguistic association, and artistic imagination to bear on little-known or undervalued texts, without neglecting important evidence from material culture and social practices. With contributions by both established scholars and young innovators in the field of late antique studies, there is no work of comparable authority or scope currently available. This volume will stimulate further interest in a range of untapped texts from Late Antiquity.