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One of the greatest - and most enigmatic - Roman emperors, Hadrian stabilized the imperial borders, established peace throughout the empire, patronized the arts, and built an architectural legacy that lasts to this day: the great villa at Tivoli, the domed wonder of the Pantheon, and the eponymous wall that stretches across Britain. Yet the story of his reign is also a tale of intrigue, domestic discord, and murder. In Following Hadrian, Elizabeth Speller illuminates the fascinating life of Hadrian, rule of the most powerful empire on earth at the peak of its glory. Speller displays a superb gift for narrative as she traces the intrigue of Hadrian's rise, making brilliant use of her sources and vividly depicting Hadrian's bouts of melancholy, his intellectual passions, his love for a beautiful boy (whose death sent him into a spiral), and the paradox of his general policies of peace and religious tolerance even as he conducted a bitter, three-year war with Judea. Most important, the author captures the emperor as both a builder and an inveterate traveler, guiding readers on a grand tour of the Roman Empire at the moment of its greatest extent and accomplishment.
Even the briefest glance at an art museum’s holdings or an introductory history textbook demonstrates the profound influence of Christian images and art. From Idols to Icons tells the fascinating history of the dramatic shift in Christian attitudes toward sacred images from the third through the early seventh century. From attacks on the cult images of polytheism to the emergence of Christian narrative iconography to the appearance of portrait-type representations of holy figures, this book examines the primary theological critiques and defenses of holy images in light of the surviving material evidence for early Christian visual art. Against the previous assumption that fourth- and fifth-century Christians simply forgot or ignored their predecessors’ censure and reverted to more alluring pagan practices, Robin M. Jensen contends that each stage of this profound change was uniquely Christian. Through a careful consideration of the cults of saints’ remains, devotional portraits, and pilgrimages to sacred sites, Jensen shows how the Christian devotion to holy images came to be rooted in their evolving conviction that the divine was accessible in and through visible objects.
A collection of essays investigating the economic transformations that took place in the states and kingdoms around the eastern Mediterranean following the conquests of Alexander the Great - changes which have had an enduring effect on global cultural patterns.
In Building the Body of Christ, Daniel C. Cochran argues that monumental Christian art and architecture played a crucial role in the formation of individual and communal identities in late antique Italy. The ecclesiastical buildings and artistic programs that emerged during the fourth and fifth centuries not only reflected Christianity’s changing status within the Roman Empire but also actively shaped those who used them. Emphasizing the importance of materiality and the body in early Christian thought and practice, Cochran shows how bishops and their supporters employed the visual arts to present a Christian identity rooted in the sacred past but expressed in the present through church un...
This text is presented in English and German. This book contains 19 articles dealing with various aspects of the Greek goddess Artemis and the Roman goddess Diana. The themes presented in the volume deal with the Near Eastern equivalents of Artemis, the Bronze Age Linear B testimonies, and Artemis in Homer and in the Greek tragedies. Sanctuaries and cult, and regional aspects are also dealt with - encompassing Cyprus, the Black Sea region, Greece and Italy. Pedimental sculpture, mosaics and sculpture form the basis of investigations of the iconography of the Roman Diana; the role of the cult of Diana in a dynastic setting is also examined. There is a single section that deals with the reception of the iconography of the Ephesian Artemis during the Renaissance and later periods.
Interpreting Italians is a socio-cultural travel guide designed for people whose interest in Italy goes beyond the readymade impression or the hackneyed cliché.
This book is the first comprehensive and comparative study of the difficult relationship between ethnic identities and political organisation in the post-Roman and early medieval kingdoms. 16 authors (historians, archaeologists and linguists) deal with ten important kingdoms of this period and with its political and legal context.
The portrait of Jesus in the book of Revelation is best understood in light of its royal and messianic dimensions.
This volume celebrates the centenary of Classical Archaeology as a University discipline in Denmark by presenting nineteen articles on classical archaeological research within Greek, Etruscan and Roman archaeology, ranging from fieldwork and research projects to the publication of material in Danish collections.
In his new book Doron Mendels addresses the topic of the authority of texts and their transmission, as well as different strategies of narration in ancient texts. Mendels provides extensive treatment of issues such as linearity, emporality and simultaenity of texts, whilst working to examine four core themes. First, the narrator and his strategies in the historiography of the Hellenistic period. Secondly, Jewish Historical thought in the Hellenistic period and beyond. Thirdly, issues of Hellenization in Palestine - power, honour, gifting, etiquette and sovereignty and their presentation in the main narrative of the Hasmonean period. Finally Mendels gives attention to the 'split' in the Jewish diaspora between east and west, as exemplified from a Christian point of view, it is this that unites these themes into a sustained examination of Jewish historical narrative and thought.