Historiography and space in late antiquity / edited by Peter Van Nuffelen.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Nuffelen, Peter van, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church history--Historiography.

Church history.

Space (Philosophy)--History.

Space (Philosophy).

Rome--History--Empire, 284-476--Historiography.

Rome.

Rome (Italy)--History--476-1420--Historiography.

Rome (Italy).

Roman provinces--Historiography.

Roman provinces.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (ix, 217 pages) digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2019.

Summary:

The Roman Empire traditionally presented itself as the centre of the world, a view sustained by ancient education and conveyed in imperial literature. Historiography in particular tended to be written from an empire-centred perspective. In Late Antiquity, however, that attitude was challenged by the fragmentation of the empire. This book explores how a post-imperial representation of space emerges in the historiography of that period. Minds adapted slowly, long ignoring Constantinople as the new capital and still finding counter-worlds at the edges of the world. Even in Christian literature, often thought of as introducing a new conception of space, the empire continued to influence geographies. Political changes and theological ideas, however, helped to imagine a transferral of empire away from Rome and to substitute ecclesiastical for imperial space. By the end of Late Antiquity, Rome was just one of many centres of the world.

Contents:

Introduction: From imperial to post-imperial space in late ancient historiography / Peter Van Nuffelen

Constantinople's belated hegemony / Anthony Kaldellis

Beside the rim of the ocean: the edges of the world in fifth- and sixth-century historiography / Peter Van Nuffelen

Armenian space in late antiquity / Tim Greenwood

Narrative and space in Christian chronography: John of Biclaro on east, west, and Orthodoxy / Mark Humphries

The Roman Empire in John of Ephesus' church history: being Roman, writing Syriac / Hartmut Leppin

Changing geographies: West Syrian ecclesiastical historiography, AD 700-850 / Philip Wood

Where is Syriac pilgrimage literature in late antiquity? Exploring the absence of a genre / Scott Johnson.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 12 Aug 2019).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-108-65392-8

1-316-99782-0

1-108-68668-0