The importance of being gorgeous

gender and Christian imperial rule in late antiquity

A free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more. In this book, Susanna Elm radically changes our understanding of imperial rule in the later Roman Empire. As ...

Wandering, begging monks

spiritual authority and the promotion of monasticism in Late Antiquity

An apostolic lifestyle characterized by total material renunciation, homelessness, and begging was practiced by monks throughout the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries. Such monks often served as spiritual advisors to urban aristocrats whose patronage gave them considerable authority and independence from episcopal ...

Crisis of Empire

doctrine and dissent at the end of Late Antiquity

This book focuses on the attempts of three ascetics-John Moschus, Sophronius of Jerusalem, and Maximus Confessor-to determine the Church's 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 ...

The matter of the gods

religion and the roman empire

What did the Romans know about their gods? Why did they perform the rituals of their religion, and what motivated them to change those rituals? To these questions Clifford Ando proposes simple answers: In contrast to ancient Christians, who had faith, Romans had knowledge, and ...

The matter of the gods

religion and the Roman Empire

What did the Romans know about their gods? Why did they perform the rituals of their religion, and what motivated them to change those rituals? To these questions Clifford Ando proposes simple answers: that in contrast to ancient Christians, who had faith, Romans had knowledge ...

City and school in late antique Athens and Alexandria

This lively and wide-ranging study of the men and ideas of late antique education explores the intellectual and doctrinal milieux in the two great cities of Athens and Alexandria from the second to the sixth centuries to shed new light on the interaction between the ...