Pagans and Christians in Fourth Century Rome: Evidence and Theory from Alföldi to Cameron

Level: 
Doctoral
Course Status: 
Elective
CEU credits: 
2
ECTS credits: 
4
Academic year: 
2012/2013
Semester: 
Fall
Start and end dates: 
24 Sep 2012 - 7 Dec 2012
Host Unit: 
Department of Medieval Studies
Non-degree Specialization: 
SRS—Specialization Religious Studies
CEU Instructor(s): 
Marianne Sághy
Learning Outcomes: 
Familiarity with core texts from late antiquity; ability to formulate research questions and develop arguments in religious studies; understanding of an important conceptual, religious, intellectual and ideological debate assessed through class discussion.
Assessment : 
Oral presentation of a chosen topic (30%), active participation in class (30%), a seminar paper (40%).
Full description: 

This seminar deals with one of the most portentous questions in historiography, the consequences and interpretations of Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity. Historical sources as well as generations of scholars have promoted the idea of a religious conflict between pagans and Christians. Recently, however, the struggle of paganism and Christianity has lost its hold. The conflict has been declared a historical construction, the ‘last pagans’ of Rome seem to be chimerae of historical imagination. Instead of struggle, new conceptual frameworks have emerged, such as a competition and challenge.

What do we know about the survival of paganism in post-Constantinian Rome and how do we know what we know? Does it make sense to differentiate between ‘pagans’ and ‘Christians’? The course will discuss starkly oppositional historiographical constructions concerning paganism and Christianity in fourth-century Rome from Alföldi’s “conflictual model” to Salzman’s “assimilation and inculturation” and to Cameron’s “deconstructionism.”

The course is a preparation for the March 2013 workshop on “Pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire: Testing Theories.”

 

Readings:

Andrew Alföldi, The conversion of Constantine and Pagan Rome. Tr. Harold Mattingly (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1948)

Michelle R. Salzman, On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1990).

Alan Cameron, The Last Pagans of Rome (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010)

Michelle R. Salzman, „The Christianization of Sacred Time and Sacred Space.” The Transformations of ’Urbs Roma’ in Late Antiquity. Ed. W. V. Harris. (Portsmouth, Rhode Island: Journal of Roman Archaeology Supplement XXX, 1999), pp. 123-134.

John R. Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital. Rome in the Fourth Century. (Oxford: University Press, 2000).

Dennis E. Trout, „Damasus and the Invention of Early Christian Rome.” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 33:3 (2003): 517-536

Jean Doignon, „Oracles, prophéties, «on-dit» sur la chute de Rome (395-410). Les réactions de Jérôme et d’Augustin.” Revue des Études augustiniennes 36 (1990) 120-146.

Henry Chadwick, “Oracles of the End in the Conflict of Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century.” Mémorial André-Jean Festugière. Ed. E- Lucchesi- H. D. Saffrey. (Geneva : Patrick Cramer, 1984), pp. 125-129.

Pierre Chuvin, Chronique des derniers païens : la disparition du paganisme dans l'Empire romain, du règne de Constantine à celui de Justinien. (Paris : Fayard, 1991)

Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (London : Viking Press, 1986)