This thesis investigates the dual roles that women played in the cult of the martyrs in Christianity in Late Antiquity: as martyrs worthy of admiration and as venerators engaged in acts of celebration. The investigation is driven by questions regarding the identity, agency, and power of women in the cult of martyrs, focusing on late antique (second- to fifth-century) North Africa. Late antique Christians expressed their veneration of the martyrs in a variety of ways, including (but not limited to) special church services, praying for the martyrs, visiting martyrs’ shrines to ask for miracles (often healing in nature), and partaking in commemorative feasts at the martyrs’ graves on the anniversaries of their deaths. In all of these modes of veneration, women took on various roles that were analogous with other roles outside of the cult of the martyrs, such as wife, mother, patron, or client. Female martyrs are also identified using these roles, and thus this provides a useful area of comparison. By exploring these roles, this thesis arrives at a more nuanced understanding of women’s agency and power in traditional contexts and how such agency and power were transferred, continued, and challenged within the cult of the martyrs. The thesis engages in textual and discourse analysis of the relevant primary sources, particularly the martyr texts, sermons, letters, and treatises by North African writers. In the secondary literature, this study engages with the diverse works of classicists, historians, archaeologists, religious studies scholars, and feminist theorists. The interdisciplinary approach of the thesis is further nuanced by an examination of the concepts of identity, agency, and power. Applying these analyses to the context of women’s participation in the cult of the martyrs provides new insights into how we can uncover women’s experiences in ancient sources, where women’s voices are almost always obscured by male discourses.

Roman emperors came to power through a hybrid dynastic/elective selection system that was never formally codified. This lack of codification has caused problems for modern scholars looking to identify and categorize those who were involved in selecting the next Roman emperor. This thesis believes that these problems exist because scholars are not distinguishing the names of key ancient institutions from the underlying types of power which backed their capability for action. This thesis seeks to solve this problem by creating a categorization system for imperial accessions based around a basic unit called the “political interest.” At its core, a political interest is a combination of the name of the individual or group as listed in the primary sources, the different types of power they possessed, and the level of decision-making authority they wielded during an imperial selection. Using this system, this thesis creates a database of Late Roman emperors with information on when they came to power, the various stages of their accessions, what political interests supported them, and where these interests were located. This thesis then analyzes the political and geographic trends from the database and supplies provisional explanations as to why changes in the Late Roman accession process occurred.

L'axe Rhône-Rhin est durant toute l'Antiquité le théâtre d'une intense activité commerciale, favorisée par une large utilisation des nombreux cours d'eau navigables qui irriguent ce vaste espace. La fondation, peu après le milieu du Ier s. av. J.-C., des colonies romaines d'Arles et de Lyon, aux deux extrémités du couloir rhodanien, constitue le prélude à la mise en place, à l'époque d'Auguste, d'un nouveau système économique, destiné en particulier à l'approvisionnement des armées stationnées sur le limes germanique, qui engendrera un accroissement considérable des trafics commerciaux. Par la suite, pendant plusieurs siècles, ces deux centres urbains portuaires polariseront les échanges à longue distance, comme le soulignent tout particulièrement les données épigraphiques. Plus récemment, le développement de la céramologie a permis une approche complémentaire du commerce, basée sur l'étude de ses vestiges matériels. Cette discipline offre en effet la possibilité d'appréhender la nature des produits échangés, leurs provenances et leurs proportions relatives, ainsi que de préciser les évolutions de ces différentes caractéristiques au cours du temps.A Lyon, les trois dernières décennies ont été marquées par un important essor des recherches archéologiques, grâce auxquelles une abondante documentation céramologique sur l'ensemble de l'époque romaine est désormais disponible. D'autre part, à Arles, plusieurs fouilles majeures ont livré ces dernières années de très riches niveaux de dépotoirs portuaires et urbains dont l'étude, conduite dans le cadre de cette thèse, complète considérablement les connaissances sur le faciès matériel arlésien. En outre, la récente découverte, au large des Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, de l'un des avant-ports de la ville nous a offert une intéressante documentation complémentaire.Sur la base des données matérielles provenant des deux grands ports d'Arles et de Lyon, complétées de manière ponctuelle par celles de plusieurs autres sites de la vallée du Rhône, il a été possible de dresser une vaste synthèse diachronique du commerce rhodanien, prenant en compte aussi bien les produits transportés en amphores que les vaisselles céramiques. Ce large bilan des connaissances permet ainsi de suivre les évolutions des échanges commerciaux sur cet axe entre le Ier s. av. J.-C. et le VIIe s. ap. J.-C., mais aussi d'identifier plusieurs lacunes persistantes et de proposer un certain nombre de pistes de recherches. / The Rhône-Rhin axis is during the antiquity the theatre of an intense commercial activity, facilitated by a large use of many navigable waterways which that irrigate this vast space. The foundation, shortly after the middle of the 1st c. BC, of the roman colonies of Arles and Lyon, at the both extremities of the Rhone valley, is the prelude to the establishment, at the time of Augustus, of a new economic system, destined to the supply of the armies based at the Germanic limes, which will lead a considerable increase of the commercial traffics. In the following time, during several centuries, these both port urban centers will polarize the long-distance exchanges, as shown particularly by the epigraphic data. More recently, the development of ceramology has allowed a complementary approach to the trade, based on the study of his material remains. This discipline offers the possibility to assess the nature of the exchanged products, their provenances and their relative proportions, just as to clarify the evolutions of these different characteristics in time.In Lyon, the last three decades have been marked by a considerable expansion of the archeological researches, thanks to which an extensive ceramological documentation on the whole roman period is now available. On the other side, in Arles, several important excavations have given these last years some very rich levels of harbor and urban rubbish dumps of which study, conducted within the framework of this thesis, complete considerably the knowledge on the arlesian material features. Moreover, the recent discovery, off the coast of the Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, of one of the outer harbour of the city offers an interesting complementary documentation.On the basis of the material data from both big ports of Arles and Lyon, punctually completed by which of them of the others sites of the Rhône valley, it has been possible to make a vast diachronic synthesis on the rhodanian trade, taking into account as well the products transported in amphorae as the ceramic dishes. This large knowledge assessment allows following the developments of the trade on this axis between the 1st century BC and the 7th century AD, but also to identify several persistent gaps and to suggest some research leads.

This study was undertaken to explore how the concept of the definition of Roman identity changed over the course of the late Roman Republic and into the early Empire culminating with the death of Augustus in 14 AD. Since the 1970's the historiography surrounding the late Roman Republic and early Empire has had to contend with what exactly the populus Romanus and its power basis was. From these questions concepts of power, gender, group formation, and even nationalism have emerged. However, few academics have targeted the nucleus that all of these questions revolve around, how did the identity of the people of Rome, the populus Romanus, change over the shift from Republic to Empire. To highlight this shift in identity I first studied the public orations of Cicero and how he identifies his populus Romanus. After I progressed to studying this expanded populus Romanus within the written Latin works of Ovid, Horace, Virgil, and Livy to demonstrate that the identity of the populus Romanus is not static but rather continues to evolve along with the transition from Republic to Empire. This study is important to the historiography of the late Roman Republic and early Empire because it demonstrates that during the late Roman Republic Roman identity was shifting to incorporate several outside groups of people, effectively leading to the creation of an empire before Empire.

This thesis investigates the evidence for Sikel culture in central Sicily from the Bronze Age to the end of the fifth century. Previous scholarship on this period of Sicilian history has focused on the Greeks and their presence on the island; this thesis aims to bring to light the role that the Sikels played in the events of the early Classical period. The present work considers the interdisciplinary body of evidence for the Sikels before, during and after Ducetius’ συντέλεια in the mid-fifth century. The first chapter examines the archaeological evidence for the Sikels before Ducetius’ rise to power in 466 BCE. Continuities in Sikel burial practice and communal dining can be traced from the Bronze Age into the fifth century, and are significant in identifying and understanding the nature of Sikel presence at specific sites in the Sicilian interior. The next chapter focuses on Ducetius’ συντέλεια (466-440 BCE) and investigates the historical accounts of Sicily in the fifth century in conjunction with the archaeological evidence for the Sikels. Ducetius is considered in the context of the rise and fall of the Greek tyrants on the island in the first half of the fifth century. In addition, archaeological evidence at the site of Palikè, an important Sikel religious sanctuary, is examined, in order to highlight the continuity in Sikel religious practices during Ducetius’ remodeling of the sanctuary. This chapter then culminates with a discussion on the geographical extent of the Sikel territory to the death of Ducetius. Finally, the last chapter examines the historical and epigraphic evidence for the Sikels from Ducetius’ death to the rise of Dionysius I in 405. The Sikels remained important actors in Sicilian history in this period, and were considered by the Greeks and Carthaginians to be critical allies, as different groups vied for control on the island. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This thesis considers the political organization and territory of the Sikel people of eastern Sicily from the Archaic period to the end of the fifth century BCE. In 466 BCE, a figure by the name of Ducetius arose and united the Sikels into a federation, or συντέλεια, against the Greek neighbours who inhabited the coasts to the east and south. Of particular consideration in this thesis is continuity and change in Sikel culture and political organization before, during and after Ducetius’ συντέλεια. The aim of this investigation is to demonstrate that the Sikel territory remained a discrete entity from the Greek city-states, and that the Sikels living within this territory both adopted aspects of Greek culture and maintained Sikel practices, into the reign of Dionysius I of Syracuse at the end of the fifth century.

This thesis studies interactions between Egypt and the Aegean during the Middle to Late Bronze Ages, focusing on reciprocal influences in the spheres of healing, warfare, and legitimation of power. Chapter 1 provides an introduction, starting with an overview of previous research. The next two sections discuss a couple of issues of general significance, namely chronology and the Egyptian terminology for Aegean peoples and locations. The last two sections deal with issues of methodology and explain the aims of this work. Chapter 2 is devoted to healing practices. Like the two chapters that follow, it begins with a cross-cultural comparison between the Egyptian and Aegean milieus. The basis for the discussion is provided by references to Crete in a couple of Egyptian medical texts. Other potential indications of an exchange of medical lore include containers that might have been used for medical preparations, amulets with healing properties, and possible similarities in practices and medical terminology. Chapter 3 treats warfare, considering it in its broadest sense as a cultural phenomenon, besides looking for evidence suggesting military interaction or cooperation between Egypt and the Aegean. The material under scrutiny ranges from the decoration of weapons to the exchange of raw materials destined for the production of military equipment. Ideology and iconography also contribute to the discussion. Chapter 4 explores the possibility of Egyptian influence in the development of the Aegean ideologies of power and the exploitation of foreign contacts as a source of legitimation. The main body of the chapter deals with the role of exotica in the pursuit of prestige. Some potential examples of the adoption of foreign customs and ideas are also discussed. Chapter 5 summarises the conclusions of the previous chapters concisely and discusses how they may fit within the broader context of the study of Egyptian–Aegean relations. Finally, some possible lines of research for the future are suggested.

This thesis examines the relationship, in theory and in practice, between the concepts of justice (iustitia) and mercy (misericordia) in English courts between c. 1100 and c. 1250. During this period English judges (in courts of both common and canon law) were faced with a serious dilemma. The emergence of systematic law had fundamentally altered the pastoral foundations of the act of judgement. On the one hand, judges were incorporated into a system of law in which justice was expected to be routine and regular. They were bound by procedure, and ‘justice’ was considered to lie in the return of due punishment for injury. On the other, this notion of strict justice coexisted with an alternative way of conceiving of judicial responsibilities, which emphasised that justice was incomplete unless it incorporated within it the principle of mercy. This tradition argued that, both for the benefit of the offender and the judge’s own soul, it was safer and more virtuous to mitigate the punishments prescribed by law. English judges were caught in a dilemma, and were, in effect, obliged to choose between two fundamentally opposed ideas of justice, and two starkly contrasting approaches to sentencing. This thesis argues that such a choice was a problem which concerned the schools of theology as much as it did the courts of law. It examines the attempts of theologians and lawyers to resolve the dilemma and provide practical counsel to judges. Scripture, classical philosophy and patristic texts were the key sources in a discussion of how judicial discretion should be exercised in choosing between punitive and merciful courses of action. Rather than conceiving of justice as a purely procedural exercise, English law, and English judges, appreciated that the act of giving judgement was a complex pastoral challenge.

This thesis explores the influence of Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire on modern scholarship about two ancient Roman historians, Ammianus Marcellinus and Procopius of Caesarea. It reveals that Gibbon's way of thinking about these historians, whom he referred to as his "guides," continues to shape scholarly discourse about them.

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<p>This thesis argues that the Epicureans did not simply repeat the ipsa dicta of Epicurus, but developed new areas of study - (e.g., logic, rhetoric) of which Epicurus did not approve. This transmuted Epicureanism influenced the Romans of the late Republic and some of its ideas appear in Lucretius' De Rerum Natura.</p> <p>Chapter 1 offers a brief historical sketch of some Epicureans of the late Republic and suggests that there was a peculiarly Roman Epicureanism as evidenced by their lives and actions. Chapter 2 discusses changes in Epicurean attitudes due to the influence of other schools, and the desire to "popularize" Epicureanism among the Romans. Chapter 3 outlines the evidence for the existence of Epicurean works in Latin other than the De Rerum Natura. Chapter 4 deals with Lucretius' debt to the early Epicureans, the later Epicureans and his Roman milieu.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)