This essay aims to investigate the role of fate in the Apocryphon of John – an issue which, with a few exceptions, has been surprisingly overlooked by modern scholarship. In the few modern publications available on the subject, the concept of fate has previously solely been examined in the light of the Greek Philosophical schools, often neglecting texts from a Jewish-Hellenistic context.  Here it is argued that the depiction of fate in the Apocryphon of John, as well as the dualism between Pronoia – the providence of god – and its negative counterpart, the imitating spirit, is closely related to Jewish speculations about external influence and free will in literature such as the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and the Community Rule from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Furthermore, it is argued that the author – much like Philo of Alexandria - presents Pronoia – the providence of god - as an extension of God, a concept which preserves his transcendence and at the same time allows him to intervene in earthly activities. Similarly, the imitating spirit, which is also presented as identical to fate, works as an extension of the demiurge. As a result of this reading of the text, the dualism between God’s providential activities carried out by Pronoia and the influence of fate over mankind, carried out by the imitating spirit, becomes more evident and radical. It has recently been argued that the discourse of enslavement under fate only was applied to “the other” and that it was used primarily to draw boundary demarcations between the own group and the ones outside it. In this essay, I go against this hypothesis and suggest that the threat of enslavement under fate primarily appears in conjunction with paraenetic discourse and is used to exhort the followers to emulate a certain behavior.

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Oration 30 (Or. 30) has been commonly used in scholarship as positive affirmation of religious violence and temple destruction in late Antique Syria. This view of widespread violence in late 4th century Syria was previously supported by scholarship on temple destruction and conversion, which tended to argue that temple destruction and conversion was a widespread phenomenon in the 4th and 5th centuries. Recent archaeological scholarship, however, argues against this perspective, in favour of temple destruction and conversion being a rather exceptional and late phenomenon. The question must therefore be asked, to what extent can Libanius’ Or. 30 be used as a source of temple destruction in the Antiochene countryside in Late Antiquity? This question is explored through three chapters which examine: the text and context of Or. 30, the use and application of Roman law in Or. 30, and the archeological evidence for temple destruction and conversion in the Antiochene countryside. This research has revealed that Libanius tends to use similar arguments in his ‘reform speeches,’ that there was no legal basis for temple destruction in the late 4th century, and that there is no archaeological evidence for widespread temple destruction occurring around the composition of Or. 30. Thus, the evidence shows that Libanius’ claim of widespread violence must be seen as an exaggeration. Meaning that Or. 30 cannot be used to support the idea of widespread destruction and religious violence in the Antiochene countryside at the end of the 4th century or, for that matter, Late Antiquity in general.

This dissertation explores the transmission of the letters of Pope Leo the Great (pope, 440-461). In Chapter 1, I set out the contours of Leo’s papacy from external sources and from the letters, showing the significance of these letters for understanding his papacy and its context: our vision of the mid-fifth century would be much scantier without them. After discussing the letters in context and as sources, I conclude this chapter by examining the varied editions of his letters from Giovanni Bussi in 1470, through the only full edition, that of the Ballerini brothers in the 1750s, to the partial editions of Eduard Schwartz and Carlos Silva-Tarouca in the 1930s, a tribute to Leo’s enduring importance. Chapter 2 deals in detail with the pre-Carolingian canonical collections of Leo’s letters, beginning with the earliest in the late 400s and early 500s. Through these collections, I trace the ongoing significance of Leo for canon law as well as noting the links between early Italian collections, e.g. Teatina, Sanblasiana, and Quesnelliana, and postulate that one Gallic collection, Corbeiensis, was the source of another, Pithouensis. I also question the concept of a ‘renaissance gélasienne’ while still admitting the importance of this period for canonical activity. Chapter 3 deals with the letter collections gathered in relation to the Council of Chalcedon (451) – the old Latin version, Rusticus’ version, and the later Latin text, assessing their relationships and importance for our knowledge of Leo as well. Chapter 4 is an exploration of Leo’s letters through the Carolingian and post-Carolingian Middle Ages. The Carolingian explosion of manuscripts is the most important assessed, and I deal with Leo’s various collections in the period, especially Pseudo-Isidore, and demonstrate their relationships and those between them and the earlier collections. To give the reader a sample of the editorial implications of my scholarship, I include as an appendix an edition of Ep. 167 with an apparatus detailing the most significant manuscripts and a translation of my edition as a second appendix. This popular letter exists in different recensions, so it serves an important key to Leo’s text criticism. The third appendix is a conspectus of the letters.

Denna studie berör den nuvarande disputen om namnet “Makedonien” mellan Grekland och Republiken Makedonien. Grekisk identitet undersöks genom disputen och visas vara ett viktigt element för att förstå disputen. Diskurser produceras från både det Grekiska och Makedoniska perspektivet, vilka visar hur både antiken och den nuvarande disputen konstrueras. En tredje diskurs konstrueras från antika Grekiska författare för att problematisera Grekisk identitetskonstruktion, vilken framställer greker som ensamma arvtagare åt de antika Grekerna. Disputen visas ha politiserats både inbördes och bilateralt i båda länderna, försök till kompromisser från vardera sida riskerar därför att förarga och raljera populistiska uppfattningar i landet. Den moderna Grekiska nationen som ett förverkligande av de antika Grekerna visas vara föreställda i att de antika Grekerna värderade sin stadsstat suveränitet högt och inte hade en uppfattning av Greker som en politisk grupp, utan snarare som en väldigt lös kulturell grupp.

According to its first great historian, the story of the English Church began in a street market in Rome sometime around 580. There, Bede reported, a young cleric named Gregory joined a large crowd examining what newly arrived merchants had to sell: Dicunt, quia die quadam cum, aduenientibus nuper mercatoribus, multa uenalia in forum fuissent conlata, multi ad emendum confluxissent, et ipsum Gregorium inter alios aduenisse, ac uidisse inter alia pueros uenales positos candidi corporis, ac uenusti uultus, capillorum quoque forma egregia. Quos cum aspiceret, interrogauit, ut aiunt, de qua regione uel terra essent adlati. Dictumque est, quia de Brittania insula, cuius incolae talis essent aspectus. The conversation continued as Gregory quizzed them regarding their religion and homeland, including the part usually summarized as “non Angli, sed Angeli!” The slaves were from Deira and their king was named Ælla; Gregory made further puns on these. Afterward, he went to the Bishop of Rome, begging to be sent as a missionary to the English. Though the Pope was willing to send him, the Roman people would not allow Gregory to leave the city. Eventually, Gregory himself became Pope and dispatched Augustine and his companions to fulfil his ambition. Gregory’s encounter with the angelic slaves has long been one of the most familiar stock-images of English history even though, in the principal source, Bede himself warns that he cannot testify to its veracity as he only knows the story from oral accounts. However, the very strength of an oral tradition makes it seem likely that the idea of English slaves being sold in Rome did not surprise Bede or his audience while, as Pope, Gregory himself wrote instructing his representatives in Marseille to purchase English slaves there. Other written evidence demonstrates that, at the end of the sixth century, there was a movement of slaves from the Anglo- Saxon kingdoms southwards to Gaul as well as a further movement of slaves from Gaul into the Mediterranean world. Whether or not Gregory ever actually had the reported conversation, it was widely seen as likely that slaves from Britain would be offered for sale in Rome. This slave trade across Gaul, as well as a second route along the Atlantic coasts of western Europe, brought a steady supply of goods from the developed economies of the eastern and southern Mediterranean to these western lands while, in return, the peoples of those regions exported both raw materials and other humans. At the time of Gregory’s papacy, this system of exchange linked all the parts of the former Roman Empire. Within little more than a century, however, it had all but disappeared. That trade within the former boundaries of the Roman Empire and its disappearance in the period between the time of Gregory’s visit to the market (roughly 580) and Bede’s recording of it (sometime before 731) is the subject of this thesis. Investigating the slave trade in the long seventh century in the post-Roman world will involve investigations into both slavery and commerce in a period in which neither was static. Instead, the seventh century was an era of rapid and profound change in many things, not least of which were transformations within the slave trade itself. Yet, the slave trade, as argued in this thesis, can be seen as providing a critical framework for understanding the economic and cultural developments of the entire period. The slave trade and its fluctuations may even have been a driving force in some of the enormous social changes of the time that continue to shape the present world. Four principal theses will be advanced and supported through the combination of a reading of the written sources (primarily, though not exclusively, those in Arabic, Greek, and Latin), an examination of relevant archaeological data, and the use of analogous evidence from other periods. These four propositions may be seen as the basis of the overall argument demonstrating 1) that slaves were numerous and that they played a crucial role in the societies of the post-Roman world, 2) that the continuing function of these societies required a greater supply of slaves than could be provided internally, 3) that this resulted in a long-distance slave trade that was a key force in the post-Roman system of exchange in the Mediterranean world, 4) and that the breakdown of this system of trade and of many contacts across the Mediterranean during the seventh century was caused primarily by alterations in the sources of the slave supply of the most developed economies. None of these four has been argued previously though academics have been increasingly examining the pre-modern history of slavery and of the slave trade. Though numerous articles and volumes have looked at particular aspects of slave-systems in the periods immediately before or after, none have examined the slave trading systems of the long seventh century itself. Similarly, those works that do touch on it have been largely concerned with other issues or focussed solely on a single region, whether that is the Byzantine Empire, the British Isles, Spain, Gaul, or the earliest Islamic societies. Older works were similarly limited in geographic scope, with even the broadest concentrating solely on European or Islamic materials. No one has previously attempted to bring together materials from the whole of the post-Roman world in a single coherent account nor has any prior scholarship shown either the ubiquity of slavery in the period or the extent of the slave trade at the time. By putting together these four arguments, an overall thesis that provides an original synthesis and reconciliation between divergent interpretations of the economies of the end of the Roman Empire and the formation of the medieval world will be created.

Les cérémonies d’ouverture et de clôture des Jeux Olympiques modernes (1896-2008) se composent d’un rituel et d’un spectacle, inspirées des Jeux Olympiques de l’Antiquité, des conceptions de Pierre de Coubertin ainsi que du contexte dans lesquelles elles évoluent au cours du XX e siècle.Pour dégager le sens de ces spectacles populaires, trois niveaux d’analyses sont indispensables.Dans un premier temps nous nous interrogerons sur le sens de la liturgie olympique, c’est à dire la dimension symbolique du rituel olympique. L’apport de l’Antiquité est à ce sujet essentiel.Dans un second temps, nous nous questionnerons sur l’impact de l’esthétique et la manière de mettre en scène ces spectacles. Les conceptions de Pierre de Coubertin, véritable connaisseur des mises en scène, est ici l’élément déterminant. Nous verrons également l’apport de théoriciens et d’artistes comme Maurice Pottecher ou René Morax et John Ruskin dans l’esthétique souhaitée par Coubertin.Enfin, dans un dernier point et pour mettre en perspective les deux première thématiques, nous nous intéresserons à la dimension dramaturgique de ces cérémonies pour voir que deux thèmes traversent l’ensemble des spectacles ; le culte à mystère et la science. / Opening and closing ceremonies of the modern Olympic Games (1896-2008) are made up of a ritual and a show, inspired by the Olympic Games of antiquity, conception of Pierre de Coubertin as well as of context in which they evolve in the course of XXth century.To clear the sense of these popular shows, three levels of analyses are necessary.At first, we will think about the sense of Olympic liturgy, that is symbolic dimension of the Olympic ritual. The essential subject in this case is the contribution of antiquity.In a second point, we will be questioned on the impact of the aesthetics and the way to stage these shows. Pierre de Coubertin's conceptions, in this case, is conciderated as the decisive element of the true expert of productions. Endeed, We will see the contribution of theoreticians and artists Maurice Pottecher or René Morax and John Ruskin in the desired aesthetics by Coubertin.Finally,in a last point, in order to put in perspective two previous themes, we will be interested in the dramaturgic dimension of these formalities to see that two topics cross all shows; worship with mystery and science.

Costuma-se avaliar o último movimento das pesquisas de Foucault como um suposto refúgio, um retorno aos gregos que traria consigo a marca de uma dupla recusa: à política e à modernidade. Prova disso seria o seu fechamento na análise acerca das práticas de si de uma época de ouro na qual este si divergiria radicalmente do sujeito moderno. Suplantado, assim, este polo referencial da modernidade, o relativismo pós-moderno daria a Foucault seu último nome. Na contramão dessa leitura, pretendemos desenvolver apontamentos (pautados sobretudo em trabalhos específicos dos anos de 1980) que possam apresentá-lo como um filósofo eminentemente moderno, que busca na abordagem genealógica ao invés de histórica dos Antigos a amplificação do campo de investigação de problemáticas presentes. Campo este em que as formações subjetivas terão papel privilegiado na recorrência que Foucault empreende a filosofias em que o si é tomado como um modo de vida ao qual conhecimento, ética, política e estética estão atados na constituição histórica dos sujeitos. Esse movimento, orientado por uma atitude crítica constante, traria consigo a potencialidade de redirecionamento do olhar à nossa modernidade e da experiência que poderíamos fazer de nós mesmos, sujeitos modernos. / It is customary evaluate the last movement of Foucaults work as a supposed refuge, as a return to the Greeks, that would bring the mark of a double refusal: to the politics and to the modernity. Proof of this would be the enclosure of this movement into the analysis of the practices of the self of a golden age in which this self would differ radically from the modern subject. Supplanted thereby this referential polo of modernity, the postmodern relativism would give to Foucault his last name. Contrary to this interpretation, we intend to develop notes (which are guided especially by works that characterize the Michel Foucaults production in the 1980s) that may present him as a philosopher eminently modern, who seeks with a genealogical approach and not a historical one of the Ancients, the amplification of the investigation field of the present\'s problematic. It is a field where the subjective formations have a privileged role in his recurrence to philosophies in which the self is taken as a way of life to which knowledge, ethics, politics and aesthetics are tied in the historical constitution of the subject. This movement, guided by a constant critical attitude, would bring with itself the potentiality to redirect both the look to our modernity and the experience of ourselves, modern subjects.

A presente tese é sobre gnosticismo, doutrina religiosa da Antiguidade tardia, em sua relação com a poesia. Procura circunscrever seu âmbito, definir suas características e localizar seus principais temas: entre outros, o dualismo, os mito do demiurgo, das duas almas, do andrógino primordial, sua noção do tempo e sua relação com hermetismo, astrologia e alquimia. Mostra como mitos e temas gnósticos e até um estilo, um modo gnóstico de escrever, reaparecem ou são retomados por poetas românticos, simbolistas e modernistas, inclusive aqueles de língua portuguesa. Entre outros, examina William Blake, Novalis, Gérard de Nerval, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Lautréamont, Breton, Fernando Pessoa, Dario Veloso e Hilda Hilst. Sustenta que, sendo arcaico e anacrônico em seu dualismo e sua complexa cosmovisão e teologia, ao mesmo tempo o gnosticismo pode ser associado a uma mentalidade moderna e, como parte dela, a criações literárias, algumas inovadoras, pelo caráter sincrético e por formular uma crítica total, cósmica, na era da crítica. Também mostra como poetas não apenas absorveram ou reproduziram aquela doutrina, mas o fizeram de modo pessoal e original, transformando-a e reinventando-a. E, principalmente, como, utilizando suas categorias e temas, tentaram promover uma subversão do senso comum, da percepção instituída do mundo, justificando paralelos do gnosticismo como misticismo rebelde com a rebelião romântica e seus continuadores. / The present thesis is about Gnosticism, the religious doctrine of Late Antiquity, in its relationship to poetry. The focus is to establish the realm of Gnosticism, to define its characteristics, and to locate its main themes. Dualism, the myth of the demiurge, the two souls, the primordial androgynous, its notion of time, and relations of Gnosticism with Hermetism, Astrology and Alchemy are, amongst others, some of the subjects and themes. The thesis shows how Gnostic myths and subjects and even a Gnostic style of writing reappear or is resumed by romantic poets, symbolists and modernists, including those of Portuguese language. Among others, examines William Blake, Novalis, Gérard de Nerval, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, Lautréamont, Breton, Fernando Pessoa, Dario Veloso and Hilda Hilst. Holds that Gnosticism, being archaic and anachronic in its dualism, complex weltanschauung and theology, can be associated at the same time with a modern mentality and, as part of it, with literary creations, some innovative, for its syncretism and its formulation of a total and cosmic review in the era of the criticism. Finally, also shows how poets didn\'t just absorb or reproduce that doctrine, but that they did it in a personal and original way, transforming and reinventing Gnosticism. And, most outstandingly, how, using its categories and themes, poets encouraged subversion of the common sense, and the formal perception of the world, therefore justifying parallels of Gnosticism as a rebellious mysticism with the Romantic rebellion and its followers.

A pesquisa ter por objetivo analisar a escrita da história na Antigüidade Tardia à luz de dois dos mais importantes autores do período: Gregório de Tours e Isidoro de Sevilha. Desta forma, esperamos compreender as razões que levaram os autores a escolher o gênero histórico para narrar os acontecimentos que tomavam curso na Gália e na Hispânia. Defendemos que é só mediante a análise do papel outorgado pelos bispos aos francos e visigodos que é possível compreender efetivamente as intenções que motivaram a produção dos Decem Libri Historiarum e da Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum et Sueborum. / The objective of our research is analyze the writing of history in Late Antiquity in the light of the two most important authors of the period: Gregory of Tours and Isidore os Seville. Thereby, we aim to understand the reasons which made they choose the historical narrative gender to describe the events which took course in Gaul and Hispania. We advocate that it is only through the studing of the role awarded by the bishops to the Franks and Visigoths that is possible to appreciate the intentions which motivated the production of the Decem Libri Historiarum and the Historia Gothorum, Wandalorum et Sueborum.