The world of the late antique Mediterranean is characterized by its saints’ shrines—structures that housed the tombs, relics, and other objects associated with holy entities. These shrines—these distinct places—differed in size, status, and degree of ecclesiastical and bureaucratic recognition, but together formed a widespread network of pilgrimage destinations, arenas of miraculous healings, and gathering points for bodies both human and divine, alive and dead, afflicted and non-afflicted. In facilitating such mingling, the shrines served as earthly, localized sites of holiness and saintly intervention, and yet were also involved in broader social, theological, and economic affairs. This dissertation focuses on one late antique shrine—that of Saints Cyrus and John, which likely reached its height of usage and popularity in the sixth and seventh centuries CE. Once located at Menouthis (modern Abuqir) near the Canopic mouth of the Nile (just outside of Alexandria), the shrine is now characterized by its near-absolute lack of material remains. For that reason, it has not been subjected to the types of material analyses performed on comparative sites with extant remains. Moreover, the only literary accounts of the shrine are attributed to a single author: Sophronios, the patriarch of Jerusalem (c. 560-638 CE). Sophronios’ writing is vivid, however, and he depicts the shrine as a vibrant, visceral space of material, bodily, and faunal entanglements. Blood gushes, tumors burst, and figs appear. Snakes call to one another, attendants hasten, crowds gather, and camel feces are revealed as a saint-sanctioned cure for leprosy. A center for sensory encounters of every kind, the shrine literally overflows with human, animal, and material occupants. Sophronios’ texts therefore invite a material, synesthetic analysis of the space, context, and participants of the shrine. This dissertation utilizes methods from studies in the materiality of religion (including so-called “new materialisms”) in order to: 1) build a material analysis of the shrine of Saints Cyrus and John based on its literary sources, and 2) model how scholars might better grapple with late antique pilgrimage sites (both extant and non-extant) and the materia of divine healing. Individually, the dissertation chapters offer separate ways of reassessing and reconstructing the shrine of Saints Cyrus and John. Taken together, they constitute a methodological intervention in the broader study of late antique saints’ shrines.

This thesis is an exercise in the archaeology of memory. It investigates the reuse and ‘reinvention’ of late antique sarcophagi during the Middle Ages in the southern part of Gaul, with a particular emphasis on their reinvention for saints. The region of Provence has a large number of sarcophagi reused for the burial of saints (at least 20), including many of its most important holy figures such as Mary Magdalene, Cassian and Honorat. I shall analyse three groups of sites: the Alyscamps in Arles, Saint-Maximin and Tarascon (the sites connected with Mary Magdalene and her companions) and the monastery of Saint Victor in Marseille. In each case, the sarcophagi became part of an invented narrative created around the imagined antiquity of the site. These narratives varied significantly: some were monastic, others episcopal or biblical, still others heroic: but all were created around antique sarcophagi. Antiquities thus became monumental realms of memory for individuals and events that were thought to have been of significant historical importance in Provence. They formed part of the popular history and collective identity of the region. I will show that their association with saints changed the very function of these objects, as many were no longer seen simply as tombs but also as relics in their own right. I use a variety of sources to help reconstruct this imagined history, particularly saints’ vitae that often provide information about cults, particularly regarding the location of sarcophagi and sometimes even details of miracles that they produced, but also medieval chartae, sermons, and pilgrims’ descriptions of sites and rituals. The results of this study show that sarcophagi were of major importance in the religious history of Provence during the Middle Ages, as they became "proof" of the antiquity of local cults and of the histories based on these legends that the region created for itself. My work contributes to our knowledge of medieval Provence and the history of its collections of sarcophagi.

At its greatest extent, the Roman empire represented one of the largest continuous areas of land to have been ruled by a single central administration in the classical period. While the extent of the empire may be determined from both the extensive body of literary evidence from the Roman world, and also from the physi- cal remains of great public works stretching from Britain to Arabia, the processes by which the Romans were able to apprehend larger spaces remain infrequently studied in modern scholarship. It is often assumed that Roman spatial awareness came from cartographic representations and that the imperial Roman administration must have possessed detailed scale maps of both individual regions and of the empire as a whole. In the first part of the present study, it is demonstrated that Roman spatial understanding may not have relied very extensively on cartography, and that any maps produced in the Roman world were designed to serve very different purposes from those that we might associate with maps today. Instead, it is argued that the extensive construction projects that defined the character of the imperial world would have pro- vided a means by which the larger physical spaces of the empire could be understood. However, as transformations began to occur within the built environment between the late-third and late-sixth centuries, spatial processes would have necessarily started to change. In the second part of the present study, it is suggested that attitudes toward the built environment would have led to changes in the physical arrangement of rural and urban spaces in late antiquity; furthermore the eventual dissolution of the constructed landscape that defined the Roman empire would have resulted in new approaches to the apprehension of larger spaces, approaches in which cartographic expression may have played a more central role.

Notre travail montre l’urbanisme de la ville de Zadar en Dalmatie, soit le développement de ses contenus urbains de ses débuts à l’Antiquité jusqu’à l’an 1409. Notre analyse urbanistique repose avant tout sur les monuments et autres vestiges matériels. Les sources historiques pertinentes furent bien évidemment prises en compte. Nous avons présenté la construction architecturale au cours de quatre périodes : Antiquité, Antiquité tardive, Haut Moyen Âge et Moyen Âge central et tardif. Pour chaque période, nous avons présenté les constructions de Zadar en quatre catégories distinctes d’après leur type d’architecture : fortifications, architecture profane publique, architecture profane privée et architecture sacrée. Les vestiges matériels liés à l’infrastructure de la ville furent également présentés (chaussées, canaux d’évacuation, etc.) Le développement de Zadar, à savoir la transformation de son urbanisme, fut analysé au travers de plusieurs époques en lien étroit avec la périodisation des événements historiques survenus sur la côte orientale de l’Adriatique. La période protohistorique fut également prise en compte. Notre analyse montre que la période antique définit le réseau orthogonal de voies de la cité. La construction intensive du Moyen Âge donna à la ville une physionomie urbaine qui conserva sur presque toute la surface de la cité les éléments principaux de l’urbanisme antique / This dissertation presents an analysis of the urbanism of the city of Zadar in Dalmatia, the development of the city and its urban contents from its beginnings in Antiquity until 1409. The urban analysis is based primarily upon the various surviving monuments and remnants. Relevant historical sources have also been taken into account. The different elements have been classified and presented according to four historical periods: Antiquity, Late Antiquity, Early Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages. Within each period, Zadar's buildings are categorised according to four typologies: Fortifications, Public Secular Structures, Private Secular Structures and Sacred Buildings. The remains of the city's infrastructure (sidewalks, drainage channels, etc.) have also been presented. The development of the city of Zadar, through its urban transformation, has been analysed through the outlined periods while keeping the usual periodization of general historic events on the eastern Adriatic coast. The protohistoric period has also been considered. Analysis has also revealed that the regular orthogonal grid of the city was defined in Antiquity, and that despite intensive construction during the medieval period when the city developed its urban physiognomy, nearly all the principle characteristics of the city established during Antiquity have been preserved.

<p>Rome’s Eastern trade flourished for over two centuries, from reign of Augustus to that of Caracalla, bringing highly valuable goods from India and East Africa to consumers in Rome, and this thesis examines the traders who operated in Egypt and transported goods between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Chapter 1 examines the identities of the traders, in terms of ethnicity, wealth, and social standing, and also examines the evidence for the involvement of the imperial family in the Eastern trade, while Chapter 2 analyzes the many different customs dues, transit tolls, and other taxes imposed upon Eastern traders operating in Egypt. Chapter 3 presents an analysis of customs abuses, including the forms of abuses which occurred, legislative attempts to curb abuses, and the frequency of abuses. Chapter 4 investigates the potential for profits in the Eastern trade, taking into consideration the various expenses, such as transport fees and customs dues, incurred in the course of transporting the goods across Egypt, as well as the evidence for the value of Eastern goods at Rome.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

<p>Scholarship dealing with the phenomenon of Christianisation in the Roman Empire has overwhelmingly been Christian-centred, often ignoring the importance of the declining pagan communities in the fourth century A.D. During this period of cultural and religious transformation in the Empire, the construction of religious identity by the Church resulted in the need for pagan communities to adapt themselves to a Judeo-Christian understanding of religion, in order to establish their place in an increasingly Christianizing society. Consequently, the isolation of pagans from, and their vilification within, the growing Christian world were factors that had aided the development of a pagan socio-religious identity which had not existed in previous centuries. Therefore, this paper will examine the question of what elements constituted the pagan identity in late antiquity, and, perhaps more importantly, how this identity had come to be formed.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

L’étude a pour objet le combat de cavalerie dans le monde romain du Ier siècle a.C. au VIe siècle p.C. Il s’agit d’un travail de synthèse, traitant de la doctrine d’emploi de la cavalerie aux époques impériale et proto-byzantine. Les questions organisationnelles et stratégiques sont abordées, mais la focale est surtout mise sur la tactique et la physionomie du combat. L’objectif de cette recherche est de rendre compte de l’évolution de l’art de la guerre durant la fin de l’Antiquité en analysant spécifiquement les enjeux liés au développement et à l’utilisation de la cavalerie. L’importance croissante des troupes montées dans la stratégie impériale marque en effet une rupture importante dans l’histoire de l’armée romaine. Au primat des guerres offensives, de la bataille rangée et de l’infanterie lourde succède progressivement celui de la temporisation, de la guérilla frontalière et des cavaliers-archers. Ces changements, qui n’ont jamais fait l’objet d’une analyse approfondie, sont ici situés dans le temps long de l’Antiquité romaine. Le dialogue des sources narratives, techniques, figurées et archéologiques permet de dégager un schéma évolutif cohérent, un « développement organique des formes de combat » (Hans Delbrück) que nous nous efforçons de réinscrire dans le contexte plus large de l’évolution de la culture militaire impériale, en attachant une importance particulière au rapport des Romains à la guerre et à leur perception idéale des rôles respectifs de l’infanterie et de la cavalerie. / This study is about cavalry warfare in the Roman world from the 1st century BC to the 6th century AD. It is a work of synthesis dealing with the employment doctrine of cavalry in the imperial and early Byzantine eras. Organizational and strategic issues are discussed, but the focus is mainly put on tactics and battle mechanics. The aim of this research is to account for the evolution of the art of war during the end of Antiquity by analyzing specifically the stakes involved in the development and use of cavalry. The growing importance of mounted troops in the imperial strategy marks an important change in the history of the Roman army, with a gradual shift from offensive warfare, pitched battle and heavy infantry toward deception, frontier warfare and mounted archery. These changes, which have never been the subject of a thorough analysis, are here reviewed in the overall context of Roman history. The cross-analysis of narrative, technical, iconographic and archaeological sources reveals a coherent evolutionary pattern, an "organic development of forms of combat" (Hans Delbrück), which we endeavor to reinsert in the wider context of a changing Roman military culture, attaching particular importance to the Romans' relationship to warfare and to their ideal perception of the respective roles of infantry and cavalry.

The present thesis examines probably the ultimate focal point in the history of the Christian South Caucasian Cultures – the Caucasian Schism that occurred in the early seventh century – a major scandal that ended the ecclesiastical communion between the Georgian and Armenian Churches and gave impetus to the rise of the so-called national Churches. The schism became the central point of reference in both medieval and modern Caucasian historiographies. Modern scholarship has advanced different claims concerning the nature, reasons and results of the Schism, in many cases arguing that almost all aspects of the respective cultures have been affected by the Schism. As for medieval Armenian historical narratives, they made a good conceptual use of the schism, presenting the schism as a major interpretive schema for the explanation of all aspects of their relations with their northern neighbours. Contrary to such view, I argue that our knowledge of the reasons behind the schism and theological controversies that preceded, accompanied or followed the Schism in the sixth century is in most cases determined by the conceptual framework created in the Middle Ages together with the changes in political state of affairs in the Caucasus. In the period between the tenth to thirteenth centuries, when all major South Caucasian powers were struggling for the unification of the Caucasus under their aegis, the remembrance of the schism became particularly important. The remembrance and indeed forgetting of the Caucasian unity and separation became a rhetorical tool in medieval Armeno-Georgian debates. Therefore instead of taking the Schism at face value, I propose to abandon the traditional liminalist perception of the history of unity and separation in the Caucasus, and adopt a more rewarding approach, that is to say to try to understand when, why and by whom were the crucial events of the Late Antique Caucasian history conceptualized and adapted for contemporary ideological needs.

This thesis is a study of the pre-Islamic passages of Abū Ḥanīfa Aḥmad ibn Dāwūd ibn Wanand Dīnawarī's Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl. This is to say that it stops at the beginning of the Arab conquest of Iran. It is intended for scholars of Late Antiquity. Special emphasis is placed on Dīnawarī's exposition of the rule of the Sasanian dynasty and questions relating to the mysterious Ḫudāynāma tradition which are intimately connected with it. Beginning with a discussion of Dīnawarī and his work, the thesis moves into a discussion of indigenous Iranian historiography. Speculation on the sources of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl follows, and the historiographical investigation of the most substantial portion of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl's notices on the Sasanian dynasty comes next. The conclusion summarises the findings of the thesis. The final section (an appendix) is a translation of the relevant part of Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl running from the beginning of that text to the reign of Šīrūya. This thesis was written with one main question in mind: what does Dīnawarī's Kitāb al-Aḫbār al-Ṭiwāl have to say about pre-Islamic Iranian history? A host of other questions arose immediately: who was Dīnawarī; when did he live; what did he do; how was his work perceived by others; where did Dīnawarī get his information and how did he present it; is Dīnawarī's information reliable? These questions are addressed one by one in my thesis.

De spectacle vivant, le théâtre d'Euripide devient très vite une pièce de collection dont la conservation, comme celle des deux autres grands poètes dramatiques, Eschyle et Sophocle, est décrétée par le législateur athénien Lycurgue. Très vite aussi, il est commenté, critiqué, enseigné. À travers les témoignages de sa réception, on veut comprendre quellesinterprétations antiques étaient proposées d’une tragédie d’Euripide, l’Oreste. On cherche dans le premier chapitre à établir la réception du personnage lui-même et de l’acte qui lui apporte une gloire équivoque – la vengeance du père par le meurtre de la mère – dans la tradition mythographique et judiciaire, et voir quelle part y prennent les questions posées parl’Oreste d’Euripide. Le deuxième chapitre examine la place que la tragédie occupe dans l’enseignement antique par l’étude des textes scolaires, exercices élémentaires découverts sur les papyri, manuels de rhétoriques, exercices types (progymnasmata) et déclamations. Les troisième et quatrième chapitres étudient les extraits les plus commentés : d’abord, les deux scènes les plus célèbres, le récit du messager et le diptyque de la maladie d’Oreste, qui se distinguent par la façon dont est traité leur sujet, le récit d’une assemblée politique et la représentation de la folie ; puis, des morceaux choisis pour leur genre, lyrique ou gnomique. Enfin, on examine dans le dernier chapitre les témoignages des spécialistes du « livre », de ceux qui ont transmis, édité, commenté, conservé l’Oreste d’Euripide. / From performing art, Euripides’ theatre very soon becomes a piece of collection, whose preservation, as for the two other Great tragedians, Aeschylus and Sophocles, is decreed by the Athenian statesman Lycurgus. It also is soon commented, criticized, taught. Through the reception’s testimonies, we want to understand which interpretations were given of anEuripidean tragedy, the Orestes, in the Antiquity. In the first chapter, we try to determine how Orestes’ figure itself and the equivocal glory of his act – i.e. avenging his father by killing his mother – were perceived in the mythographical and judiciary tradition, and which importance both of them give to the issues which are at stake in Euripides’ Orestes. The second chapter investigates which place the drama takes in teaching in Antiquity through school-texts, elementary exercises discovered on papyri, rhetoric handbooks, model exercises (progymnasmata) and declamations. The third and fourth chapters study the most commented extracts : first, the two most famous scenes, the messenger’s speech and thediptych of Orestes’ illness, which stand out through the treatment of their subject, i. e. the narration of a political assembly and the representation of madness ; then, some selected pieces on generic criteria, lyrical or gnomical. Finally, we investigate in the last chapter the testimonies of « book »’s specialists, of those who have transmitted, published, commented, preserved the Euripides’ Orestes.