Byzantine News

An exhibition on late antique textile is opened in Manhattan: The Spring exhibition, Designing Identity: The Power of Textiles in Late Antiquity, offers intimate glimpses into the lives of those who commissioned and used textiles and more sweeping views across Late Antique society (roughly third to seventh century CE). The exhibition brings together over fifty textiles of diverse materials, techniques, and motifs to explore how clothing and cloth furnishings expressed ideals of self, society, and culture. By their valuable materials and virtuoso execution, the textiles displayed their owners’ wealth and discernment. To modern viewers, the materials and techniques also attest to developments around the Mediterranean world and farther east along the routes of the silk trade. The Late Antique owners, in choosing from a vast repertory of motifs, represented (hopefully more than actually) the prosperity and well-being of their households. The owners represented themselves through the d...

Harvard's Center for Hellenic Studies has recently published online A. Cameron's volume on Dialoguing in Late Antiquity. A passage from the Introduction : This book is about a particular form of writing by Christians in late antiquity, sometimes referred to as “the philosophical dialogue”—although by no means all the dialogues in question can be regarded as philosophical. The subject is central to the much wider question of the development of a specifically Christian rhetoric, especially in Perelman’s sense in which “the realm of rhetoric” constitutes “the entire universe of argumentative discourse,” [1] for Christian writers did indeed use the dialogue form as part of their argumentative endeavor. Click here to read the book

The Role of “Performance” in Late Antiquity Organizer: Ralph Mathisen, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity The 2014 panel sponsored by the Society for Late Antiquity at the annual meeting of the American Philological Association, to be held in Jan. 2-5 in Chicago, will be devoted to the topic of “performance” in all of its manifestations: administrative, bureaucratic, political, social, and religious. Late Antiquity was a world of ceremony, ritual, and performance. Performative rituals greased the wheels of interaction between patrons and clients, bishops and laity, officials and populace, and emperors and subjects. Manifestations of performance cropped up everywhere, in mime and pantomime, in circus factions, in religious liturgy, in the audience halls of the rich and powerful. Symbolic actions were manifested in verbal cues and gestures that were understood only by other participants in the performance. Different forms of e...

In the Department of History of Ghent University (Belgium), a post-doctoral position is available for four years (consisting of two two-year periods), as part of an ERC-funded research project on late antique historiography (A.D. 300-800). The project will a) establish a complete inventory of late ancient historiography; b) produce editions of fragmentary texts; c) study medieval compilations; and d) situate late-antique historiography in its cultural and literary context. Your profile: You possess a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline (or will possess one by 30/9/2013) and have an excellent knowledge of Classical Arabic and, if possible, knowledge of Syriac. Acquaintance with Greek and/or languages such as Coptic and Armenian constitutes an advantage. You have an interest in historiography, literature, and their wider historical and cultural context. You are able to work independently, but can also work in a team. --> Your duties: You will be given the chance to write a mo...

University of London School of Advanced Study INSTITUTE OF CLASSICAL STUDIES ANCIENT HISTORY SEMINAR SPRING TERM 2013 Crossing boundaries in late antiquity Organisers: Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe (KCL) and Benet Salway (UCL) THURSDAYS 4.30 pm Location: either room G22/26 or 349 (Painted Ceiling room) South block, Senate House, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HU 17 Jan. Michael Crawford (UCL): Between laissez-faire and dirigisme in the late Roman economy. Room G22/26 24 Jan. Benet Salway (UCL): Divide and rule: boundaries and jurisdictions in late antiquity. Room G22/26 31 Jan. Philip Wood (Aga Khan University, ISMC): Sasanian Christian perspectives on the reign of Khusrau II. Room 349 (Painted Ceiling room) 7 Feb. Sophie Lunn-Rockliffe (KCL): The devil in disguise: diabolical dressing-up games in late antiquity. Room 349 (Painted Ceiling room) --> 28 Feb. Averil Cameron (Oxford): Culture wars: history and literature in late antiquity. Room 349 (Painted Ceiling room)...

John the Lydian or John Lydus (Latin: Joannes Laurentius Lydus; Greek: Ἰωάννης Λαυρέντιος ὁ Λυδός) was a 6th century Byzantine administrator and writer on antiquarian subjects. His works are of interest for specific data about classical events. He was born in 490 AD at Philadelphia in Lydia, whence his cognomen "Lydus". At an early age he set out to seek his fortune in Constantinople, and held high court and state offices in the praetorian prefecture of the East under Anastasius and Justinian. In 552 he lost favour, and was dismissed. The date of his death is not known, but he was probably alive during the early years of Justin II (reigned 565-578). During his retirement he occupied himself in the compilation of works on the antiquities of Rome, three of which have been preserved: De Ostentis (Gr. Περὶ Διοσημείων), on the origin and progress of the art of divination De Magistratibus reipublicae Romanae (Gr. Περὶ ἀρχῶν τῆς Ῥωμαίων πολιτείας), especially valuable for the ad...

Conference Announcement and Call for Papers Centre d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance (UMR 8167) 52 rue du Cardinal Lemoine 75005 Paris May 24-25, 2013 The ‘School of Gaza’: Literary Space and Cultural Identity in Late Antiquity (source: Calenda ) Guiding line The study of literary activity in V-VI c. AD Gaza is in full bloom. In recent years, new editions of Procopius of Gaza, Chorikios and John of Gaza have been published or are in preparation as well as a bibliography of the literature covering the period 1930-2012, to appear in Lustrum. This is a good moment for an international conference in which senior specialists and young researchers of the period will be able to exchange views and to advance research on the topic. Building on the results achieved by two previous conference (Christian Gaza in Late Antiquity, ed. B. Bitton-Ashkelony, A. Kofsky, Leiden-Boston 2004 and Gaza dans l’Antiquité tardive. Archéologie, rhétorique et histoire, ed. C. Saliou, Salerno 2005), the...