Shifting Frontiers in Late Antiquity

Variorum
edited by Ralph W. Mathisen and Hagith S. Sivan
ISBN: 0860785882
price: $104.95   hardcover

This volume results from a conference held at the University of Kansas in March 1995, bringing together a team of scholars working on different aspects of frontier studies from the 3rd through the 7th century. The material takes in the whole extent of the Roman world, from Spain to Syria, and from Britain to Dacia, and one of the primary concerns is to clarify the role of Late Antiquity as a boundary between the world of antiquity, and that of the Byzantine and medieval periods.
The definition and management of the physical frontier is the subject of the first papers. This theme is elaborated in studies on how frontiers were perceived, whether actually on the borders of the empire or within it; social, ethnic, and religious categories are all investigated, similarly the effects that frontier regions had on the populations living within them. In the second part, the focus shifts further to metaphorical uses of the frontier, to examine boundaries of gender, culture and spirit. Many of these papers are also specifically concerned with the expanding boundaries of Christianity.
The studies presented here unite expertise from the fields of history, art history, archaeology, and literature, to draw a comprehensive and interdisciplinary picture of the realities, metaphors and ideologies of the frontier in Late Antiquity.
Contents: Introduction; Roman withdrawals from three transfluvial frontiers, Lawrence Okamura; The 'Germanic threat on the Rhine Frontier': a Romano-Gallic artefact?, John F. Drinkwater; Sidonius Apollinaris and the frontiers of Romanitas, Jill D.Harries; Geographical-psychological frontiers in sub-Roman Britain, Michael E. Jones; Two sides of a coin: Aurelian, Vaballathus and Eastern frontiers in the early 270s, Jacqueline Long; The transformation of the Eastern frontier, 260-305, John Eadie; Reconceptualizing Byzantium's Eastern frontiers in the 7th century, Walter E. Kaegi; From periphery to center: the transformation of late Roman self-definition in the 7th century, David Olster; Dacians, Sarmatians, and Goths on the Roman-Carpathian frontier: 2nd-4th century, Linda Ellis; Defining Romans, barbarians and the Roman frontier, Hugh Elton; Why not marry a barbarian? Marital frontiers in late antiquity, Hagith S. Sivan; Shifting frontiers in the law: Romans, provincials and barbarians, A. J. Boudewijn Sirks; Frontier societies and the transition between late antiquity and the early middle ages, David Harry Miller; Town, countryside and christianization at Paulinus' Nola, Dennis Trout; Transitional neighborhoods and suburban frontiers in late and post-Roman Carthage, Susan T. Stevens; From cave to monastery: transformations at the nome frontier of Gebel el Haridi in Upper Egypt, Christopher J. Kirby andSara E. Orel ; 'The bright frontier of friendship': Augustine and the christian body as frontier, Gillian Clark; Jerome's gift to women readers, Fannie J. LeMoine; Tír inna mBan: domestic space and the frontiers of gender in early medieval Ireland, Lisa M. Bitel; The paradox of sexual equality in the early Middle Ages, James A. Brundage; A transformation of genres in late Latin literature: classical literary tradition and ascetic ideals in Paulinus of Nola, André Basson; Imago veritatis aut verba in speculo: Athanasius, the Meletian schism, and linguistic frontiers in 4th-century Egypt, Michael DiMaio; Transformations: classical objects and their re-use during late antiquity, Constantin A. Marinescu; Christianization and de-paganization: the late antique creation of a conceptual frontier, Richard Rothaus; Crossing the supernatural frontier in western late antiquity, Ralph W. Mathisen; Hydatius and the final frontier: the fall of the Roman Empire and the end of the world, Richard W. Burgess; Crossing the impenetrable frontier between earth and heaven, Beatrice Caseau; Bibliography; Index.