No description available.

Although the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus stands as a foundation for the early Christian sculptural traditional scholars have devoted little serious study to the role it played in its cultural context of350s Rome. For the past four hundred years since its discovery, stylistic and chronological discussion of the Christian intercolumnar scenes has dominated any scholarly interpretations of this monument. The goal of this thesis is to shed light on how the sarcophagus interacted with its audience and patron, rather than to situate the images in a timeline of motifs. The interplay between the Roman elite, both pagan and Christian, the emperor, and the Church influenced the propagandistic goals of the sarcophagus. It is my opinion that the family of Junius Bassus, fixed between their pagan peers and Christian emperor, used the seasonal and calendar-inspired imagery of the ends and the ad sanctos burial of the sarcophagus at St. Peter's Basilica to propagandize Christianity as a religion that offered its members material and eternal wealth.

This thesis tackles a conspicuous absence in current scholarship on ancient theatre. Amid the recent scholarly interest in the rapid expansion of the theatre industry from the late fifth-century BC onwards, no study has been made of a central, defining even, element of ancient Greek drama at that time – the chorus. Instead, what we find is a widespread assumption concerning the fourth-century dramatic chorus, particularly with regard to the comic chorus, still prevalent in today’s scholarship: ‘The history of the dramatic chorus is one of decline both quantitatively and qualitatively’, states one of the more detailed recent reviews of the evidence for dramatic choral culture in the ancient world (Csapo and Slater 1995:349). The thesis focuses on the literary sources available to us concerning fourth-century dramatic choruses in Athens. The material is divided into three sections. The first section addresses the important testimony of Aristotle concerning the choruses of his day, particularly in the Poetics (chapter one). The second section analyses the choral text in the (probably fourth-century) Rhesus (chapter two), the interpolated choral passages in the Iphigenia at Aulis and Seven Against Thebes (chapter three), and the choruses of Aristophanes’ Assemblywomen and Wealth, as well as extant fragments of fourth-century comedy (chapter four). The third section is a survey of how the chorus is used in a wide range of fourth-century texts (chapter five), and gives special attention to Plato’s somewhat idiosyncratic presentation of the chorus in his works (chapter six). These analyses show 1) that ‘decline’ is an inappropriate term to describe the development of the chorus and 2) the creativity with which the chorus is used and thought about in fourth-century drama and society. The thesis aims to provide an elucidation of dramatic choral activity in the fourth century and to provoke further interrogation of the assumptions commonly held about the development of both the ancient chorus and ancient drama as a whole.

No figure of fourth-century Christianity seems to be at once so well known and so clouded in mystery as Hilary of Poitiers. His work as an historian provides invaluable knowledge of the mid-fourth century, and he was praised as a theologian throughout late antiquity. Today, however, discussions of his theology are founded upon less solid ground. This is largely due to methodological issues. Modern scholarship has often read Hilary through anachronistic historical and theological categories which have rendered his thought incomprehensible. Recent scholars have sought to overcome this and to reexamine Hilary within his own historical, polemical, and theological context. Much remains to be said, however, in regard to Hilary's actual theological contribution within these contextual parameters. This thesis contends that in all of Hilary's polemical and constructive argumentation in De Trinitate, which is essentially trinitarian, he is inherently and necessarily developing an anthropology. In all he says about the divine, he is saying as much about what it means to be human. This thesis therefore seeks to reenvision Hilary's overall theological project in terms of the continual, and for him necessary, anthropological corollary of trinitarian theology-to reframe it in terms of a 'trinitarian anthropology'. My contention is that the coherence of Hilary's thought depends upon his understanding of divine-human relations. I will demonstrate this through following Hilary's main lines of trinitarian argument, out of which flows his anthropological vision. These main lines of argument, namely, divine generation, divine infinity, divine unity, the divine image, and divine humanity, each unfold into a progressive picture of humanity from potentiality to perfection. This not only provides a new paradigm for understanding Hilary's own thought, but invites us to reexamine our approach to fourth-century theology entirely, as it disavows any reading of the trinitarian controversies in conceptual abstraction. Further, theological and religious anthropology are widely discussed in contemporary scholarship, and Hilary's profound exploration of divine-human relations, and what it means to be a human being as a result, has much to offer both historical and contemporary concerns.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T14:23:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Edalaura_Berny_Medeiros_Dissertacao.pdf: 628114 bytes, checksum: c19777106222ab459c83579c6e48d91a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-09-14 / Cause the lack of cultural ties observed in the other religions of his times, Eusebius engages in a pioneering work to give Christians a sense of belonging through the research on the history of Hebrew and Jewish dissidents who followed Jesus Christ, which, according to Eusebius, represent the continuation of the legitimate religion of the patriarchs. The work becomes more complex when the author begins the narrative of the events of his contemporary times, which make up the second part of his work Ecclesiastical History. Through this work, we intend to show that Eusebius used examples of Christians and pagans for the narrative of the events he witnessed and that this choice gave contradictions to the his presentation, which were remedied by the logic of his speech, which didactical proposal makes that the message of reinforcement ofChristian identity, through the logic of identity shaping by binary opposition, justifies inadequacies, contradictions and even omissions / Carente da ligação cultural observável nas demais religiões de seu tempo, Eusébio se empenha em um trabalho pioneiro para conferir aos cristãos um sentimento de pertença através da pesquisa sobre a história dos hebreus e dos judeus dissidentes que seguiram Jesus Cristo, os quais, segundo Eusébio, representam a continuidade legítima da religião dos patriarcas. O trabalho se torna mais complexo quando o autor chega à narrativa dos eventos de sua contemporaneidade, que compõem a segunda parte de sua obra História Eclesiástica. Através do presente trabalho, pretendemos mostrar que Eusébio utilizou exemplos de cristãos e pagãos para a narrativa dos eventos que presenciou e que essa escolha conferiu contradições à sua exposição, as quais foram sanadas pela lógica de seu discurso, cuja função didática faz com que a mensagem de fortalecimento da identidade cristã, pela lógica da formação de identidades por oposição binária, justifique impropriedades, contradições e até mesmo as omissões

My thesis offers a comparison of the Minor Prophets commentaries of Theodore of Mopsuestia and Cyril of Alexandria, isolating the role each assigns (1) the Twelve Prophets in their ministry to Old Testament Israel and (2) the texts of the Twelve as Christian scripture. While the two produce radically different commentaries in terms of quantity and detail of christological interpretation, the source of their divergence cannot be reduced to Cyril's admitting messianic prophecy whereas Theodore does not. Rather, I argue that Theodore does acknowledge christological prophecies, as distinct from both retrospective accommodation and typology. Further, a careful reading of Cyril's Commentary on the Twelve limits the prospective christological revelation he ascribes to the prophets and reveals the positive role he grants the Mosaic law prior to Christ's advent. My thesis secondly explores the Christian significance both Theodore and Cyril assign to Israel's exile and restoration, the pivotal event to which the Twelve bear witness. I here argue that Theodore's reading of the Twelve Prophets, while not attempting to be christocentric, is nevertheless self-consciously Christian. Cyril, unsurprisingly, offers a robust Christian reading of the Twelve, yet this too must be expanded by his focus on the church and concern to equip the church through the ethical paideusis provided by the plain sense of the prophetic text. Revised descriptions of each interpreter lead to the claim that the label “christocentric” obscures more than it clarifies and polarizes no less than earlier accounts of Antiochene/Alexandrian exegesis. I advocate rather for an approach that takes seriously Theodore's positive account of the unity and telos of the divine economy and the full range of Cyril's interpretation, in order to move beyond a zero-sum assessment and offer instead a positive account that appreciates the strengths of each Christian reading of the Twelve.

The focus of this thesis is Firmicus Maternus, his text the Mathesis, and their place in the intellectual culture of the fourth century AD. There are two sections to this thesis. The first part considers the two questions which have dominated the scholarship on the Mathesis and relate to the context of the work: the date of composition and Firmicus' faith at the time. Chapter 1 separates these questions and reconsiders them individually through an analysis of the three characters which appear throughout the text: Firmicus, the emperor, and the addressee Mavortius. The second part of the thesis considers the Mathesis within the intellectual culture of the fourth century. It examines how Firmicus establishes his authority as a didactic astrologer, with an emphasis on Firmicus' use of his sources. Chapter 2 examines which sources are credited. It considers the argument that Manilius is an uncredited source through an analysis of the astrological theory of the Mathesis and the Astronomica. In addition, the astrological theory of Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos is compared to the Mathesis to assess Firmicus' use of his named sources. The methods that Firmicus uses to assert his authority, including his use of sources, are compared to other didactic authors, both astrological or Late Antique in Chapter 3. This chapter examines whether Firmicus' suppression and falsifying of sources is found in other didactic literature. Chapter 4 considers possible reasons for the omission of Manilius' name and also the effect that this has had on intellectual culture and the place of the Mathesis within it.

As a writer of medical summaries and compendia, Oribasius has often been dismissed as a harbinger of late antique medical decline. This dissertation challenges this long-lived assumption by revaluating the compiler and his writings, and the place of medicine in the cultural and social landscape of late antiquity. Chapter one examines the scholarly biases that surround Oribasius’ career, positing that his Medical Collections were produced in response to the intellectual priorities of the Emperor Julian’s scholarly circle. Moreover, both the medical art and the physician were highly regarded in the fourth century, as chapter two demonstrates. Not only do the Collections reflect the priorities and order of empire, but the idea of the medical encounter granted both emperor and bishop a symbolic language with which to pose and articulate social questions in this period. Chapters three and four outline the ways Oribasius engaged with the medical realities of his day, by retaining in his compilation a sense of personal experience and patient interaction. In his borrowed case histories, female subservience in the face of medical authority is expected; whilst the hierarchy of the elite household is shown to dictate his approach to the patients within it. A messier reality of female agency in their own physical and spiritual care is better captured by Christian writers in the miracle account and sermon, in part because Christians like the Cappadocians and John Chrysostom imbued female choice with new theological meaning. Chapter five sets Oribasius’ approach to the female patient in the broader context of late antique social shifts. The compiler’s careful delineation of responsibility and blame in dealings with vulnerable pubertal and pregnant women reflect an attempt to reaffirm an unwritten social contract with the elite and the paterfamilias; a social priority which is also apparent in the legal compendia of the period. Christian writers, meanwhile, drew metaphorically upon medical discourses of generativity and patrimony to distinguish Christian society from the classical past, as chapter six demonstrates. In the final analysis, Oribasius’ Collections are shown to be intimately and variously in dialogue with the society that produced them, reflecting both the high standing of the art in late antiquity, and its symbolic role in defence of the social world, patriarchy and empire. Christian interactions with medicine are shown to reflect many of these same priorities, and to engage with medical norms in more pervasive ways than has often been noted. But it is only in the Christian text that the medical writers’ woman transcends the determinisms of her traditional generativity and physical inferiority, so central to the writings of Oribasius and his classical predecessors.