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CLST 277: The World of Late Antiquity
Spring Semester 2011
Dr. Jacqueline Long
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Study Questions
These questions suggest directions for you to pursue your
ideas about late antique history and culture. Questions about upcoming readings
generally flag issues I expect will be important in class
discussions. But the questions do not merely summarize our
discussions (summary too can be a worthwhile kind of studying, but it is different
from what these questions aim at), nor do they necessarily forecast exam questions very closely.
Rather, they invite you to develop interesting lines of thought.
One thing exams will ask you to do is to discuss specific
ideas about the late-antique world in terms of concrete evidence in
our course material. Therefore
you will find it useful, as you think about even very wide-ranging
questions, to identify specific pieces of evidence in the material
we are covering that help demonstrate your observations and prove your
insights, and to be able to explain clearly just how those pieces of
evidence validate the conclusions you draw.
file in progress - perennially |
The study questions in this file will be updated
through the course of the semester from study questions used the last
time this course was taught, with a slightly different arrangement of material.
If the days are off, it's
because the questions haven't yet been checked against the current
progress and interests of the class. The old questions remain worth thinking about,
but be sure double-check again later. |
Monday 14 March
From today's class:
- What conventional ideas about how a Roman emperor consults and gets advice
about important decisions are reflected in Ammianus's inferences about why
Constantius elevated Julian as Caesar? Where else does Ammianus reflect the
same conventional ideas about advice, in connection with Constantius or with
other rulers?
- What ideas about Roman imperial power are reflected in Ammianus's account
of the ceremony in which Constantius made Julian his Caesar? What elements of the
performance do the reflecting? How? In short, analyze this public ceremony as a
sort of pageant of imperial power, like Constantius's adventus to Rome and
his conduct there: how did sensory elements (sight, sound, etc.) help make late Roman
imperial public ceremonies into vehicles of communication between emperor and people?
- Be able to identify key episodes in Julian's biography. What
relationship did his life bear, even before he became Constantius's
Caesar, to major events of Constantinian family politics?
- Today's major (planned) digressions cover subjects to which we will return:
- What training did ancient Roman citizens identify as "education", and what did
they not-identify in this way: compare and contrast to our own culture's ideas. What
did the Romans expect education to do for the people who pursued it? Whom did they
expect to pursue it?
- What is meant by the term Neoplatonism? What importance did it have in
late-antique intellectual history? Who were its major figures and what contributions
did they make?
- How did Julian, in his capacity as emperor, try to support a
religious revival within the Empire? What did he do? What did he refuse
to do? How did he try to mobilize opinion? Identify and be able to analyze actions and
intended effects of specific policies Julian promoted for
pagan priests,
and for 
educators.
- How could a Neoplatonic understanding (like Julian's) reconcile
material sacrifice and ritual with a radically transcendent conception
of divinity?
For tonight's reading:
- Note the hard facts in the "Introduction" to the on-line
translation of Julian's
Misopogon,
but IGNORE the moral
evaluation it provides ("his mistake was..." "...frivolous city"): it
is subjective and unsupported, therefore not useful. Also, correct the
dates: Julian was in Antioch from July 362 to March
363.
- What does Julian say he has endeavored to do, during the time he has based his
operations in Antioch? How does he say the Antiochenes have responded? Keep in mind
that the conversational exchanges pictured in the satire are conventions of the
literary form Julian is using, not something he or his readers took literally - but
what ideas about the emperor and his relations with the people of the city does
Julian use this literary form to represent?
- How does Julian satirize his own physical person in
Misopogon? How does the physical image fit in with the moral
values he claims to uphold? How does he contrast himself with the
Antiochenes?
- What does Julian say in Misopogon about the city-space, social customs, and
history of Antioch? How do these ideas relate to the commentary he makes on his own
recent actions and policies? What other historical value should these remarks bear?
- What does Julian say about his own education in Misopogon?
Why does he discuss it in a public document?
Wednesday 16 March
From today's class:
- Identify the circumstances surrounding Julian's writing and publication of
Misopogon: what concerns brought him to Antioch? what other concerns did
he have to face while he resided there?
- Misopogon presents challenges to historical analysis both
in its
loose structure ("diatribe," a form used for popular moralizing, rather than
elegantly logical rhetoric), and
in its
use of irony, sarcasm, and humor. But if you look at how it confronts Julian and
the Antiochenes dynamically, it falls into four main sections, as we have discussed.
Get a handle on the satire by thinking about what themes center each of the four
sections, and how Julian shows himself and the Antiochenes going head-to-head in
each of them. Keeping in mind that the appeal Julian is making to the Antiochenes
through this very sophisticated piece depends on their actually upholding cultural
values much more similar to the ones he claims for himself in the piece than he
says that they do -again, he's being ironical- what cultural values does he
say inform his own behavior? What other late-antique works we have read reflect
similar values? The more specific the examples you can think
of, the better.
- What information does Misopogon contain about Julian's endeavors, as
emperor and pontifex maximus, to promote religious reform? What goals has
he pursued? What actions has he taken so as to pursue them? What consequences did he
expect to follow on his actions? What consequences did follow? Why? Compare and contrast
this account of Julian's actions to the direct documentation of his policies and
methods we have read in Lee's selections.
- What information does Misopogon contain about Julian's endeavors, while he
resided in Antioch, to improve civic life there? What policies did he initiate? What
concerns of the urban population did he meet? What actions did he take? What consequences
did he expect to follow on his actions? What consequences did follow? Why?
For tonight's reading:
- How does Augustine frame his Confessions: what does he
claim to be doing by giving this account of himself? to whom? why?
How does the perspective of
Augustine-the-writer relate to the perspective Augustine-the-character
takes within the narrative of the Confessions, and how does this
perspective affect the use we can make of Augustine's Confessions
as a literary source for late Roman history?
- How does Augustine analyze what he supposes he must have done
and felt as a baby? He says he cannot exactly remember his own
experiences of this period: on what basis does he make his analysis?
What forces does he say operate in a baby's life?
- What aspects of his boyhood and schooling does Augustine discuss?
Why does he choose them to discuss? How did he, and how does he, react
to literature?
- When Augustine was a boy, which members of his family were
religious? What religion(s) did they observe? How did their beliefs
affect Augustine?
- What happens to Augustine at puberty? How does his father react?
Why?
- What Augustine does say about learning, both in general and in
the context of his formal education? Compare and contrast with other information we
have encountered about late-Roman learning and education. How typical or how rare
do Augustine's experiences of learning and education seem to have been? How can you tell?
Friday 18 March
From today's class:
- Situate Augustine in his own biographical, historical, social, and cultural context:
where was he in his life when he wrote the Confessions, and what world did that life
belong to?
- Recurring again to Dr. Koeller's
History
Basics, how can we classify Augustine's Confessions as a source
for late antique social life and personal religious reflection? As we
endeavor to understand this source, in Dr. Koeller's terms, how do Augustine's
purposes in writing intersect with the information he provides? The Confessions
don't issue the same sharp challenge of bias that, say, Lactantius's
On
the Manner in which the Persecutors Died does, but selection and,
especially, Augustine's memoiristic re-evaluation of past actions and feelings do
filter the information he offers: how can we best take it into account?
- Compare and contrast what Augustine says about personal relationships
within his family to other information we have encountered about late-Roman
familial relationships. How typical or how rare does Augustine's experience of
family seem to have been? In what ways do factors such as
place of origin,
class,
education, and
religion
affect individuals' relationships? Identify specific examples
from our source-material.
For tonight's reading:
- Trace the information Augustine reports about his mother Monnica and her life, as
he seems to have judged it relevant to his own message across the Confessions.
[FWIW, the spelling with two ns seems to have been African, though most translators modernize it.]
What aspects of her life does he single out? What does he report? What comparisons and
contrasts can you draw between Monnica and other evidence we have seen about late-antique
life (including, but not limited to, tonight's selections in Lee; and especially, but not
necessarily only, relating to
women's life and
Christian life)?
- What ideas do tonight's selections in Lee suggest about
Christian women in
the late-antique family,
women's service in
Christian church-communities, and
Christian sexual
ethics? Note where and when the texts each originated; how far do they let us generalize
any set of "Christian ideas about women"?
Monday 21 March
From today's class:
- According to what Augustine indicates, how was authority distributed in his parents'
household: who effectively controlled what concerns of the household as a whole, and on
what basis did he or she exert this control? How can you tell? Consider both
religious and
secular areas of
concern and activity, and
how Monnica connects
her religious principles and her secular activities.
- What normative expectations of marital authority does Augustine suggest were
generally held within his and his primary readers' society? Compare and contrast the
norms Augustine seems to recognize as practiced (whether or not he thinks they are good
norms to have) with other texts we have seen relating to family life; distinguish
descriptive sources,
where real-life conditions are reported, and
prescriptive sources,
where someone is recommending a particular idea of how things "should" be, either by
endorsing "good" conduct or by censuring "bad" conduct.
- What religious activities does Monnica practice,
at home in Africa
and in Italy? To what
extent does her activity conform with gendered standards of the late-antique Church?
- What practices and ideals of family life, and in particular of female conduct, does
Monnica's childhood illustrate?
For tonight's reading:
- What values and concerns do other people in Augustine's life connect with
Augustine's education? What values and concerns connected with
literature and education are especially important to Augustine himself?
- What aspects of Manichaean doctrine does Augustine recall (Book
3.6 and following)? In what light does he portray this phase of his
spiritual life? How did Monnica react?
- How does Augustine reflect on astrology? How does this subject
relate to his spiritual concerns?
- What happens to Augustine's friend at Thagaste? Why does it affect
Augustine as it does?
- How does Augustine pursue his interests in beauty and in
philosophy? What do these subjects have to do with one another, and
with Augustine's other spiritual interests at the time? How does he
look back on his investigations?
Wednesday 23 March
From today's class:
- Trace the course of Augustine's education, as he describes it in Books 1-4
of his Confessions. What kinds of things does he describe learning, at
what stages of formal and informal education? What types of learning were a part
of late-antique schooling? What types of learning were not part of schooling, and
how did Augustine pursue them?
- Through what stages did late-antique schooling progress? Be able to identify
and to distinguish
"primary" education,
studies with a
grammaticus, and studies
with a rhetor, and to track Augustine's formal education through these classes.
- With what purposes was formal education identified in late antiquity? How did
what people did in formal education help advance these purposes?
- What people are involved in the different passages of Augustine's learning?
In what ways? How did he form his relationships with them?
- In what extra-curricular but studious activities did Augustine engage, during
and after his own time of being a student? Be able to identify what he did, why and
on what basis, and how it related to formal studies.
For tonight's reading:
- What major interests and developments in literary and visual culture does Cameron
outline as having been important in late antiquity? Where in our study-material to date
can you identify items that help illustrate ideas she discusses?
- How do Claudian's short poems about
The
Magnet (one poem) and
The
Crystal (7 short poems on the same topic) combine natural science with visual imagery,
traditional mythology, and other ideas in order to make elegant verbal curios comparable to the
objects they are describing? What aesthetic values discussed by Cameron do these poems represent?
- Prepare Excursus 3 for Friday.
Friday 25 March
From today's class:
- How did late-antique education connect with late-antique visual and material culture, and
with people and culture more broadly than only educated people and educators?
Identify specific examples and be able to explain how education is
either involved or parallel.
- How did late antique Christians react to the prevalence of pagan elements in traditional
literature and art? N.b.: several different answers apply - distinguish who gave what answers,
and consider why all the differences appear. Identify concrete examples that
illustrate the interface of Christianity and pagan elements in traditional culture, and be
able to explain what they show about Christian attitudes toward tradition and toward paganism.
- Depending what you read about late antique art, you may see contrasts made between the
naturalism of artistic styles identified with earlier periods, and more schematic visual
presentations that start to appear in our period. The distinction is worth making, but it has
been over-drawn (recent scholarship is doing a better job now). Think of examples of naturalistic
and schematic representation in late antique art, and be able to explain how the style chosen
for a particular representation contributes to the artistic impression it makes.
- What aesthetic values were particularly admired by late antique viewers of late antique
art and visual culture generally? How did verbal arts evoke similar effects? Think
of examples to illustrate the tastes and trends you discern, and be able to explain how they fit your
analysis.
For tonight's reading:
- Who was Mani, as the Cologne Mani Codex remembers him? What
does the Codex record that Mani identified as the crucial event
of his life? What did Mani say he learned from this experience? What
does the Codex record that he did, in consequence?
- What figures does the Manichaean Psalmbook identify as
theologically important? What does it say they do?
- What features of Manichaean doctrine and practice does the
Christian author of P.Ryl. 3.469 object to? Why?
- What rights did Roman emperors try to deny to Manichees? On what
basis?
- How does Augustine, as a Hearer, begin to find problems with
Manichaean doctrine? How has he signalled these difficulties in earlier
parts of his account, before he comes to the time when he confronts
them? How does he try to solve them: where does he look for
clarification? Does he find it? How does he react?
Monday 28 March
From today's class:
- What were the main ideas of Manichaean doctrine? What affinities with
other spiritual and intellectual movements in the later Roman empire did
Manichaeanism claim or exhibit - whether because Mani was influenced by
them in forming his doctrine, or with the result that Roman citizens were
more sympathetic to Manichaeanism than they might have been to more alien
doctrines?
- In what ways did Mani's actions and the texts that he and his
followers produced help spread his doctrine? Consider both pragmatic
and emotional aspects. Identify specific pieces of evidence for your
assessments, and be able to explain and justify them.
- Compare and contrast Augustine's reactions to Manichaeanism, both
as a young man,
within the narrative of Confessions, and
as an older
man, writing Confessions, with both
Augustine's
reactions to Christian Scripture and to classical literature including
philosophy, and
other contemporary
reactions of ecclesiastical writers and Roman emperors. What dangers in
Manichaeanism does Augustine's period of interest illustrate? How
accurately do reactions against Manichaeanism portray the religion and
its doctrine?
For tonight's reading:
- Trace the succession of emperors from Julian (the last member of the Constantinian
dynasty who achieved imperial status) to Theodosius: who came to power? On what basis? What
important events for the Empire as a whole took place during their reigns? Use
the succession of emperors as a set of points of reference for chronology of this
period.
- How did the parameters of social class (especially at the upper ranks) shift
during this period? How did class relate to positions in the Roman army or imperial
government? How did class relate to economic power? What other kinds of social power
did superior rank confer?
- How was the class of coloni, tenant-farmers, defined? To what regulations
were these people subject, and when were these rules instituted? What concerns does
the Roman government seem to have been trying to guarantee by these rules? What other
consequences did they have?
- What religious policies are associated with Valentinian and other members of his dynasty?
Wednesday 30 March
From today's class:
- What authority made Jovian emperor? What problems did he have to address? What measures
did he take so as to resolve them? How were his policies evaluated by his contemporaries,
and what traditions of Roman values informed their evaluation?
- What authority made Valentinian emperor? What authority made Valens and Gratian emperors,
at what rank? What authority made Valentinian II emperor? What ideas and emotions concerning
imperial legitimacy does the succession of this dynasty illustrate the Roman armies and
people felt?
- Compare and contrast the religious policies associated with Valentinian and other members
of his dynasty with Constantine's
and his sons'; with Julian's.
- What constellations of power did the phenomenon of child-emperors create? What stake did
people besides the child-emperor himself have in his position:
senior emperors of the
same dynasty, officials
of his court, non-office-holding
members of the imperial family,
Roman citizens in the
area where his court was based,
potential usurpers?
For tonight's reading:
- Review all material assigned since Exam I, in preparation for Exam II on Friday.
Organize your thoughts about important central focuses of our inquiry; see the
Study Guide for suggestions with which to start.
- What are the big events that set the course of Roman history through
the periods we have been tracing? Put them together in sequence.
Analyze their causes and effects, so that you can
understand the sequence as a progression,
not just an arbitrary series.
- Besides "event-history", we are now also engaged with the history of broader
social and
cultural trends
- what important developments of our period shaped
the way people
interacted with one another or
the way they looked
at and thought about their world? Where in our study-material have we seen particular moments
in these trends? What elements of the trends drew on earlier traditions? What is new?
Identify and analyze the causes and the effects.
- Review all the assigned study-materials to date, and your notes on them.
What information have they presented us with? How have they presented it?
How does this information relate to the events, ideas, trends, causes, and effects we have
been tracing? Identify good items of relevant source-material you can cite and
explain in support of your insights into our shared historical inquiry. Review study-questions
in the other file and above in this file so as to refresh your
insights into important lines of inquiry.
- Review all class-discussions to date, and your notes on them (including the
Excursuses). What types of analysis have we brought
to bear on our sources? What have we learned? Identify good examples
of source-analysis that you can explain in support of your insights.
Think also about how you can apply the same techniques to other sources we have
maybe examined from different angles - capitalize on your intellectual resources.
- The study-questions in the other file and this file are
fairly open-ended. They encourage
you to think through the implications of our material, and explore the connections
you find. Exam questions will suggest a tighter focus, in the interests of being
possible to answer within the confines of an in-class exercise. The two sets of
questions will come together in that if you have been thinking about the issues
raised by class discussions and these study questions, and noting where our sources
provide important evidence and how we can use it, you will be well prepared to write
concrete, specific, persuasive essays on the exam. Focus on the
exam questions and be sure to address them fully, drawing on the connections you have
made in your open-ended studying. The more you can back up your ideas with specific,
concrete evidence and clear explanations, the more impressively you will make your exam
demonstrate your mastery of our material.
- Good luck!
Friday 1 April
From today's class:
- CONGRATULATIONS! You have completed the second examination.
- Keep thinking about the exam questions: in an even-more-perfect world, what more
could you say about this history, these sources, and these techniques of historical
inquiry?
For tonight's reading:
Monday 4 April
From today's class:
- Continue to identify useful sources of information and assess critically what they're
telling you about your research topic.
- Coordinate your endeavors with your project-group and think about how best to present
an overview of your work to the class.
For tonight's reading:
- What objectives can be identified on either side of the later Roman empire's military
conflicts with tribal groups? What means did the Romans and the tribes each use to
pursue their objectives? What resources did they call on?
- What objectives can be identified on either side of the later Roman empire's military
conflicts with the Persian empire? What means did the Romans and the Persians each use to
pursue their objectives? What resources did they call on?
- What other occasions called on Roman military resources? What other dynamics did these
conflicts generate?
- What measures generally credited to Diocletian endeavored to address problems with the
military defense of the Roman empire: what was done, and how would it have helped?
- What measures generally credited to Constantine endeavored to address problems with the
military defense of the Roman empire: what was done, and how would it have helped?
- Trace the historical patterns of non-Romans' service in Roman military forces. How did
they change in the mid- and later fourth century? What events and dates mark significant
change? What consequences were caused?
- Situate the battle of Adrianople as a significant event within this set of developments,
both in Ammianus's
account, and
in
Cameron's assessment
- How does Ammianus characterize different barbarian groups relevant to the chain of
events he treats in Book 31 and to the events' causes: what cultural values does his account
incorporate?
- How does Ammianus characterize Roman officials who play a significant role in the
action of Book 31: what objectives are they pursuing? How do their actions relate to their official
responsibilities? Compare and contrast to Roman officials elsewhere in Ammianus's
narrative: what picture of Roman administration does his history produce?
- How did Theodosius resolve the crisis that climaxed in the Battle of Adrianople? (As
Cameron notes, that climax is more a matter of Roman memory than of absolute military
significance, but close enough.) What consequences did this solution create?
Wedesday 6 April
From today's class:
- Ammianus double-frames the events of Book 31, first as the concluding episode of
Valens's life, then as the concluding episode of his history as a whole. First, note
how he does so; then see what new events alter the overall trajectory. What does this
epilogue show about Roman resources for recovering from a disaster like the Battle of
Adrianople? Finally, think about how looking at an episode of history from different
angles changes the way it can be evaluated: what does it matter if you think of it
as something
for which a particular individual is ultimately responsible -even taking into account
the deeds and misdeeds of his subordinates and the conflicting interests to which he
is subject- or else
as a problem
for a whole people?
- What safeguards does Valens attempt to set around the Gothic immigration? Why do
they fail? What does Ammianus use this episode to suggest about Roman administration
of a frontier zone?
- What other problems of the eastern Empire keep Valens from being able to deal
more effectively with the Gothic immigration and its consequences? What bigger problems
of imperial resources does this episode illustrate?
- What support is Valens able to call upon Gratian and the western administration
for? Why is it not more effective? What problems of the distribution of resources
and authority in two halves of the Empire does this episode illustrate?
- What judgments does Ammianus draw from the episode, implicitly as well as
explicitly? How does he show that he's drawing them? What cultural and social
values (ethnic, national, military, moral, and political) inform his judgments?
For tonight's reading:
Get the complete texts of our documents for tonight on-line: Symmachus,
Referral
3 and Ambrose,
Letters
XVII and XVIII; you may find it helpful also to refer to Lee's
introductions to his selections from these documents, items #6.4, 6.5.
- What arguments does Symmachus advance in favor of retaining the
Altar of Victory in the Senate House of Rome? How does it, according
to him, relate to the well-being of the Roman state? How do emperors'
acts concerning the Altar reflect on them as emperors, and on the
success of their reigns? What values underlie Symmachus's arguments?
- What arguments does Ambrose advance against retaining the Altar of
Victory in the Senate House of Rome? How does Ambrose account for the
religious history of the Roman state? What values and assumptions
underlie Ambrose's arguments?
Friday 8 April
From today's class:
- Who was Symmachus? Who was Ambrose? Compare and contrast their backgrounds and
biographies, and the stake each accordingly had in the Altar of Victory.
- Trace the history of the Altar within the Senate House in Rome. What function
did it serve: what did people actually do with it? What symbolic value did they attach
to it? What changed, from the early Empire to late antiquity?
- Analyze Symmachus's arguments for returning the Altar to its traditional place.
What values and understandings -both religious and political- does he attach to the
Altar? Based on your other knowledge of late antique cultural values (held by Christians
as well as pagans) relating to traditional paganism, how acceptable would Symmachus's
arguments have seemed? Be able to cite specific, concrete evidence
and to explain how it relates to the arguments Symmachus makes. Are there any
arguments an accurate understanding of traditional Roman state cult might have advanced,
that Symmachus could not use? What and why?
- How apt and fair are Ambrose's counter-arguments? How does he pick up and
reinterpret elements of Symmachus's arguments? How accurately does he represent the
functions of the Altar and the traditional state cults of Rome?
For tonight's reading:
- Take Ambrose's On the Sacraments (Lee #14.6) as an example
of his rhetorical technique as a bishop: how does he present ideas to
his listeners? How does he use imagery? How does he involve his
listeners in the experience he is talking about? How does he relate
ideas and images from the Old Testament to his Christian message?
- What images does Ambrose use in his evening-hymn (Lee #14.10)?
What relationship between worshiper and divinity does he suggest? In what way
do Ambrose's language and imagery promote these ideas?
- According to his
Letter
XX, how was Ambrose involved in controversy over whether a
basilica church should be set aside for Arian Christians in Milan, in
385? What was he asked to do? What did he do? How does he justify his
position?
Monday 11 April
From today's class:
- What are generally recognized as Ambrose's main contributions to
the western-European traditions of Catholicism?
- How did Ambrose's innovations relate to intellectual trends
within the late-antique Roman Empire and to specific events of
Ambrose's life?
- Think of relevant examples from Ambrose's preaching, hymnody, and
negotiations with emperors, that you can identify and analyze in order
to support your insights about what Ambrose did and why it
matters.
- What issue was in conflict that Ambrose reported to his sister in
Letter XX? Who were the stakeholders? What stakes did Ambrose
identify them as having; what conflicting interpretations does his
report indicate also operated in the controversy? On what principles were
the conflicting claims based? How broadly recognized were those principles,
in this period: compare and contrast Ambrose's account to other material we
have read this term that touches on related points of imperial and
ecclesiastical prerogative.
For tonight's reading we rejoin Augustine in Milan:
- What portrait does Augustine present of Ambrose: what does the bishop of
Milan do that is important to this witness? Add the impressions Augustine gathers
of Ambrose to information about Ambrose we have encountered in other sources,
including Ambrose's own writings.
- Make a list of the people Augustine recognizes in Confessions (both in
Books 6-7 and in earlier books) as having participated significantly in his spiritual
development: teacher-figures, fellow-searchers, people Augustine himself instructs in
some way - why are they each important to Augustine in this retrospective account of his
life? What information does he give about them and their lives that is useful to
historical inquiry about late Roman social life?
- How does Augustine finally reject the idea that astrology significantly relates
to an individual's fate?
- How do Neoplatonic texts enable Augustine to change the basis on which he
understands God's relationship to the created world? What does this way of thinking
enable him to decide that "evil" amounts to? How does he experience this moment of recognition?
Wednesday 13 April
From today's class:
- What activities took up Ambrose's time as a bishop, according to Augustine, from day
to day? What did the routine business of his job entail, apart from political lobbying
such as over the Altar of Victory or crises such as the demand he allow a basilica be used
for Arian worship? How did Ambrose fit in the intellectual research that informed his preaching
in ways that were so useful to Augustine spiritually?
- What patterns of late antique society are reflected in Augustine's portrait of Alypius?
Why are these general trends important to Augustine, in Alypius's particular case? For our
purposes, how does Alypius's individuality enhance the generalized phenomena he illustrates?
- What expectations surround Augustine's prospects for marriage: who brings what objectives
to the arrangements? What understandings and values inform the parties' dealings with one another?
- What intellectual problems relating to the nature of divinity and the requirements of
religion does Augustine identify as occupying his attention in this period of his life? What
information, what kinds of reasoning, and what standards of judgment does he apply to the
business of trying to solve his problems?
For tonight's reading:
- Who was Antony, according to Athanasius's account of his life?
What did he do? Where did he get the ideas on which he acted, according to
Athanasius - what instructions did he think of himself as following, and what
examples did he follow?
- Define and be able to identify examples of the main varieties of ascetic
lifestyle that late antique culture recognized.
- What problems with asceticism were discussed in our period? From what perspectives
did aspects of ascetic lifestyles seem problematical?
- Once Augustine's intellectual difficulties with Catholic
Christianity are cleared away, you might think, his story would be
complete. But it isn't. What changes the nature of his commitment to
Christianity? How does it affect him, in the moment and in longer term?
- What changes for Augustine with his conversion? What does not
change?
- How does Augustine describe the parameters of Monnica's life in
Book 9? How do the other parts of her life's story, that he presents
here, recontextualize the way she has figured within Augustine's own
spiritual life-story?
- What does Augustine, in retrospect within Book 9, recall about two climactic
moments of Ambrose's episcopate during Augustine's time in Milan,
the clash
with Valentinian II's court over Arian use of a basilica in Milan and
the
discovery and installation of the relics of the Milanese martyrs Protasius and
Gervasius? How does his baptism affect his relationship to these events?
Friday 15 April
From today's class:
- Trace how the concept of ascesis developed from Classical antiquity
to the usage that gives English the meanings of our word "ascetic": who was using
this term, and what did they use it to describe -what activity in pursuit of what
goals- and how did the usage change over time?
- What were the main categories of things late antique Christian ascetics
renounced for the sake of their spiritual practice? What ideas did they typically
attach to their renunciation of these things - why did they think they were appropriate
objects of renunciation, for their particular purposes?
- How did Christian ascetic renunciation relate to late-antique ideas about social
responsibility? Consider both
traditional
secular ideas relating to families and the state and
specifically
Christian ideas about community and social needs. Identify passages
in our texts that you can cite and use to explain who raised what concerns, from what
perspectives.
- How did Christian ascetic renunciation relate to late-antique ideas about sexuality
and family? Identify passages in our texts that you can cite and
use to explain who raised what concerns, from what perspectives.
- How did Christian ascetic renunciation relate to late-antique ideas about individual
and ecclesiastical authority? Identify passages in our texts that you can cite and
use to explain who raised what concerns, from what perspectives.
- According to the Confessions, Augustine advanced toward his
ultimate relationship with the Catholic Christian God along both
intellectual and emotional tracks, which sometimes intersected and
sometimes parted from one another; sometimes he proceeds in interaction
with others, sometimes in private meditation with himself and God.
Trace how the two tracks run, together and separately: what concerns
arrest Augustine's intellect? where does his heart participate? how do
both tracks ultimately converge in his conversion?
- As reported or referred to in Augustine's Confessions, how does the motif of the
"unintended message" impel spiritual movement? How did Augustine, and other late antique people,
apply the principle in interpreting similar moments as spiritual messages?
For tonight's reading:
- What do the documents relating to pilgrimage show to have been
components of this type of religious experience: what did pilgrims do?
Where did they go? What did they hope to find? What other activities,
besides those they specifically purposed, involved them on their
pilgrimages? What did their activities mean to them?
- What criticisms of pilgrimage did Gregory of Nyssa make? To what
goals does he give importance?
Monday 18 April
From today's class:
- Why did people in late antiquity go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land?
What types of experience did they seek? How did they expect it would benefit them?
In what ways do texts and objects give evidence for popular beliefs?
Note
how you are using sources in order to answer historical questions.
- What support of pilgrimage, and what criticism against it, did Christian
doctrine give to writers who shaped the ideas of the Church? Compare and contrast
these theoretically-informed
perspectives on pilgrimage to popular
sentiments: to what extent were these writers and the broad population of Christians in general
concerned about the same elements of pilgrims' experience? Where they differed, what concerns
made their outlooks different?
- How could non-pilgrims relate to pilgrims' experiences?
- Besides the religious value of pilgrimage, what other facts and ideas about the
way life was lived in late antiquity does evidence about pilgrims' experience enable
historical inquiry to learn?
For tonight's reading:
- Identify clearly the authorship, context, and purpose of the various expressions of hostility
towards Jews or Judaism tonight's reading-assignment includes.
- What contacts between Jewish and Christian people got forbidden, as a matter of conciliar
Church policy? What attitudes and values do the prohibitions express? On the other hand, what do
they imply had been happening - why did the councils choose to articulate the prohibitions?
- On what kinds of occasions did bishops advance anti-Jewish arguments? What events or what
social pressures provoked them - and who was exerting the pressures? What goals were the bishops
trying to re-direct by means of their arguments?
- What policies did emperors enact into law concerning Jewish individuals and communities? Compare
and contrast the general attitudes the laws express with the specific provisions they make. Note also
the dates of these provisions - how did imperial policy regarding Jews shift from earlier periods?
Wednesday 20 April
From today's class:
- What considerations traditionally governed
Diaspora Jews' stance in
relationship to Gentile communities,
Roman government's
stance in relationship to Jewish communities, and
the attitudes of
ordinary non-Jews (pagan or Christian, but without particular investment in any institutional
stance) towards Jews and Judaism?
- What considerations complicated the attitudes towards Jews and Judaism promulgated by
Christian clergy?
- What considerations governed late-antique emperors' legislation concerning Jews and Jewish-Christian
relations?
- Identify specific passages in our texts that illustrate your answers,
and be able to explain how you can use that evidence to deduce the attitudes and purposes that
generated the texts and the actions with which they are associated.
For tonight's reading:
- According to Ambrose's
Letter
XL, what circumstances surrounded the burning of a synagogue at Callinicum? How did
Theodosius react - what did he propose to have done? How did Ambrose come to be involved?
What did he want Theodosius to do? How does he justify his position?
- According to Ambrose's
Letter
LI, what circumstances surrounded the soldiers' massacre of citizens at Thessalonica?
How did Ambrose come to be involved? What did he want Theodosius to do? How does he justify
his position?
- Beyond the immediate concerns, how does Ambrose propose more generally that an emperor and
a bishop ought to deal with one another? What kinds of authority does Ambrose argue should
operate in the relationship? What reasoning governs his proposals?
Happy
Easter!
Wednesday 27 April
From today's class:
- What statements by Ambrose in
Letter
XL, and what logical reasoning from those statements,
enable you to reconstruct the burning of a synagogue in Callinicum in 388?
- Besides the events involved in the burning of the synagogue itself, what
considerations enter into Ambrose's response? What facts and what relationships
of power are involved? What statements in Letter XL and what reasoning enable you
to recognize and assess these considerations? For example - but think also what
further considerations you can identify:
spiritual
authority and the welfare of souls,
the idea of
persecution and its potential to spur popular resistance,
economic
burdens of secular social responsibilities on local upper-classes across the Roman empire,
imperial authority
and civil order.
- What happened in the massacre of citizens in Thessalonica in 390? What statements by Ambrose in
Letter
LI even touch on these events, and what logical reasoning from the statements do you
need to apply in order to recognize references to the events?
- How was Theodosius's authority as emperor implicated in the massacre? Analyze how the
mechanism of what Ambrose proposed Theodosius should do offered Theodosius a route out of
the political problems the massacre caused for him. What additional consequences did this
course of action create?
For tonight's reading:
- What considerations does Cameron identify as important factors in the "decline and
fall" (or not) of the later Roman empire?
- What causes and effects does she explain?
- How do these themes and these chains of causes and effects relate to our study-material
over the whole term? Look for specific connections. What new lights does this perspective
cast on the other conclusions we have drawn from this material?
- What was the Theodosian Code? (Check back on the relevant pages in Cameron, too.) How was its
publication announced to the Roman Senate? How did the senators respond? In what form was their
response recorded?
- Looking ahead: Study guide for the final exam.
