Le De anima marque un tournant dans la vie de Cassiodore, aristocrate romain, né vers 484, dont la famille s'était mise au service des rois Goths. Ayant terminé son parcours politique, il a fait ce qu' il a appelé sa« conversion » qui l'amènera à fonder le monastère de Vivarium et à s'y retirer. C'est au moment de ce changement de vie qu'il écrivit un traité sur l'âme et ses vertus, réflexion anthropologique, psychologique et morale, qui s'appuyait sur des écrits philosophiques, des écrits physiologiques empruntés à la tradition médicale, mais aussi sur les écrits scripturaires et l'œuvre de saint Augustin. C'est un traité plein de dévotion ; cherchant à connaître son âme, Cassiodore veut arriver à la connaissance de Dieu, et cet itinéraire de l'âme à Dieu constitue le cœur du traité. Cassiodore a christianisé le précepte de Socrate « nosce te ipsum » , et a suivi la démarche de saint Augustin : deum et animam scire cupio.La seule traduction française, à peu prés complète (il manque le chapitre XII et la prière finale), que nous avons, est de Stéphane de Rouville ; elle date de 1874. Il nous a paru intéressant de proposer une nouvelle traduction de ce texte, de le commenter et de l'annoter. C'est le but de ce travail.Mots clés :Âme, antiquité tardive, Saint Augustin, Écritures Saintes, Littérature au Moyen Âge. / The De anima marks a turning point in the life of Cassiodorus, an Roman aristocrat, born around 484, whose family was at the service of the kings Goths. When he ended his political career, he made what he called his« conversion » which will bring him to create the the monastery of Vivarium where he retired. At this change of his life, he wrote a treaty on the soul and its virtues, an anthropological, psychological and moral reflection, which leaned on philosophic and physiological writings borrowed from the medical tradition, but it also leaned on scriptural writings and on the writings of saint Augustin. It is a treaty full of devotion seeking to find your soul. Cassiodore wants to attain the knowledge of God, and this route of the soul to God constitutes the heart of the treaty. Cassiodore christianized the rule of Socrates « nosce te ipsum », and followed the approach of saint Augustin : deum and animam scire cupio.The only french translation, almost complete (the chapter XII and the final prayer are missing), that we have, is of Stéphane de Rouville from 1874. It seems interesting to us to propose a new translation of this text with our comments and annotations. It is the purpose of this work.Key words : soul, late antiquity, saint Augustin, Holy Writings, Literature in the Middle Ages

The emperor Justinian's religious policy has sometimes been characterized as haphazard or incoherent. This dissertation examines religious policy in the Roman Empire from the accession of the emperor Justin to the inception of the Three Chapters controversy in the mid 540's AD. It considers the resolution of the Acacian Schism, Justinian's apparent ambivalence with regard to the Theopaschite formula, the attempt to court the anti-Chalcedonians in Constantinople in the period leading up to the Council of 536, and the relationship between the genesis of the Three Chapters and Second Origenist controversies. Even during these seemingly disparate episodes, this dissertation argues that it is possible to account for the apparent incoherence of this period. To do so, we create an account which includes and appreciates the embeddedness of imperial policy within a social context with two key features. First, we must bear in mind the shifting interests and information available to the individual agents through and over whom the emperor hoped to project influence. Second, we must identify the shifting and hardening symbolic and social boundaries established through the interactions of these same, competing agents. These form the basis for in- and out-group categorization. The individual interests of individual people—whether Justinian, Vitalian, Dioscorus, Leontius, Eusebius, Theodore Askidas, or Pelagius—within complex networks must always be accounted for to give a complete picture. When this social context is accounted for, Justinian's approach appears as that of a rational actor, having incomplete information, with consistent policy goals, working within inconsistent constraints to achieve those goals.

This MA thesis will discuss the reception of common, non-scholarly polytheists (pagans) to the persecution of Christians from the early empire until the Great Persecution (303-313, 322-324). Though modern scholars have addressed this issue and asserted that there was a change in attitude, many have not developed this into anything more than a passing statement. When chronologically analyzing the Christian acts, passions, letters, and speeches recounting the deaths of martyrs deemed historically authentic, and accounting for the literary and biblical topoi, we can demonstrate that the position of non-Christians changed. The methodology of this thesis will chronologically assess the martyr acts, passions, speeches, and letters which are historically accurate after literary and biblical topoi are addressed. These sources are available in the appendix. Throughout this analysis, we will see two currents. The primary current will seek to discern the change in pagan reception of anti-Christian persecution, while the second current will draw attention to the Roman concept of religio and superstitio, both important in understanding civic religion which upheld the pax deorum and defined loyalty to the Roman order through material sacrifices and closely connected to one's citizenship. Religio commonly denoted proper ritual practices, while superstitio defined irregular forms of worship which may endanger the state. As we will see, Christians were feared and persecuted because it was believed that their cult would anger the gods and disrupt the cosmological order. The analysis will begin with a discussion centered on the "accusatory" approach to the Christian church during the first two centuries when the Roman state relied on provincial delatores (denounces) to legislate against the cult. During the first two centuries persecution was mostly provincial, sporadic and was not centrally-directed. We will see that provincial mobs were the most violent during the first two centuries. During the third century the actions of the imperial authority changed and began following an "inquisitorial" approach with the accession of Emperors Decius and Valerian, the former enacting an edict of universal sacrifices while the latter undertook the first Empire-wide initiative to crush the Christian community. It is during the third century that the attitude of non-elite pagans may have begun to change. This will be suggested when discussing the martyrdom of Pionius. When discussing the fourth century Great Persecution under the Diocletianic tetrarchy, it will be suggested that the pagan populace may have begun to look upon the small Christian community sympathetically. The thesis will conclude with the victory of Constantine over Licinius and the slow but steady rise of Christianity to prominence, becoming the official religio of the empire with traditional paganism relegated to the status of a superstitio.

Dans une société qui avait déjà fait une large place, non au monothéisme en tant que tel, mais à un certain hénothéisme, le christianisme a pu apparaître comme un phénomène inédit, en comparaison du polythéisme traditionnel. Plusieurs originalités le caractérisent, même si séparément, elles peuvent se retrouver dans d'autres mouvements religieux. Dans l'histoire de l'Afrique romaine cependant, l'élément déterminant qui peut expliquer la généralisation des conversions au christianisme se situe peut-être moins dans une croyance en un au-delà meilleur ou dans un rapport d'intimité inédit avec le sacré, que dans les aspects matériels mis en place par l'Église - assistance charitable, réseau d'évêchés, encadrement ecclésiastique - et dans le choix du Prince de faire de son empire un monde chrétien. Cette décision politique, initiée par Constantin et majoritairement suivie par ses successeurs, a sans doute représenté l'un des outils les plus efficaces de la christianisation dans la longue durée, mais elle pose la question des limites du processus, dans la mesure où les individus christianisés n'en sont pas pour autant nécessairement chrétiens, selon la définition que l'on retient pour ce terme. La dimension religieuse et individuelle est essentielle à la compréhension d'un processus qui, malgré la popularité de certaines pratiques, comme le culte des martyrs, a rencontré de nombreux obstacles : depuis le judaïsme et le paganisme, jusqu'au schisme donatiste et aux violences qui lui sont corrélées. Dans sa volonté de les annihiler, le pouvoir a donné à la christianisation de l'empire une dimension politique qui a renforcé l'institution ecclésiastique et sa légitimité. / .

No description available.

L’essor du monachisme au courant des IVe et Ve siècles a transformé le paysage religieux dans le bassin méditerranéen. Ce mouvement d’ascètes célibataires et l’impact de son institutionnalisation au sein de la Grande Église ont contribué à la formation d’une nouvelle identité religieuse et à la transformation des systèmes hérités des penseurs classiques. Ce projet, en partant des sources monastiques et classiques, mettra en lumière les relations entre les premiers moines chrétiens et les différentes figures de l’altérité – religieuse, intellectuelle et culturelle – dans la province égyptienne pendant la période byzantine. En se penchant sur différentes entités présentes sur le territoire égyptien, on sera en mesure de mieux comprendre de quelle façon l’identité monastique s’est formée dans sa relation avec l’altérité et comment les auteurs monastiques ont représenté ces groupes identitaires. Ainsi, au terme de cette présentation, le lectorat sera mieux outillé pour saisir les relations qu’entretiennent les premiers moines chrétiens et les divers visages de l’altérité dans le contexte monastique égyptien. / During the 4th and the 5th centuries, the emergence of monasticism transformed the religious landscape around the Mediterranean. This ascetic movement and the impact of its institutionalization within the Great Church contribute to the formation of a new religious identity and to the transformation of systems inherited from classical thinkers. Starting from the monastic sources, this project will shed light on the relations between the first Christian monks and the various figures of otherness – religious, intellectual, and ethnical – in the Egyptian provinces during Late Antiquity. By looking at different entities present in Egyptian territory, we will be able to understand how monastic identity was formed in its relationship with the otherness and how the monastic authors represent these identity groups. Thus, at the end of this presentation, the readers will be better equipped to understand the relationships between the first Christian monks and the various face of otherness in the Egyptian monastic context.

For thousands of years, people have been hearing, reading, and interpreting stories and myths in light of their own experience. To read a work by a different author living in a different era and setting, people tend to imagine works of literature to be something they are not. To avoid this fateful tendency, I hope to elucidate what it means to read a work of literature and interpret it: love it to the point of wanting to foremost discuss its excellence of being a piece of art. Rather than this being a defense, I would rather call it a musing, an examination on two texts that I adore: Beowulf and the Anglo-Saxon Exodus

Various interpretations of the Germanic invasions of the early Middle Ages have been advanced. These present to the student of historiography a fertile field for inquiry. In this thesis the interpretations of the Germanic invasions propounded by Jules Michelet (1798-1874) and Gustav Freytag (1816-1875) are examined with a view to establishing the cultural context in which their mutually exclusive versions were formulated, and the extent to which that context lent the interpretations of both writers a perceptible national and aesthetic bias.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This examination of the first five years of his preaching identifies key ways in which Augustine of Hippo transformed classical rhetoric into the pattern he would later outline in De doctrina christiana. This thesis argues that Augustine began his career as a priest giving sermons in line with the sophistic speeches he had taught before his conversion, but that by 396 he had "redeemed" his rhetoric to fit the new purposes of the Christian church. During these early years, Augustine reduced or removed the classical exordia and perorations in order to meld his sermons into the liturgy. He also humbled, but did not eliminate, his rhetorical polish as he shifted the main purpose of rhetoric from pleasing the elites to teaching the masses.

ChronARG, the result of international collaboration, is a critical presentation of recent scholarship pertinent to the study of ancient Greek material religion, published annually in Kernos.