Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late Antique City (4th – 7th Cent.)

253 Pages·2015·4.19 MB·English

by  Aude Busine (ed.)

Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late Antique City
(4th–7th cent.)
Religions in the
Graeco-Roman World
Series Editors
David Frankfurter (Boston University)
Johannes Hahn (Universität Münster)
Frits G. Naerebout (University of Leiden)
VOLUME 182
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/rgrw
Religious Practices and
Christianization of the
Late Antique City
(4th–7th cent.)
Edited by
Aude Busine
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Religious practices and Christianization of the late antique city (4th-7th cent.) : / edited by Aude Busine.
  pages cm. — (Religions in the Graeco-Roman world, ISSN 0927-7633 ; VOLUME 182)
 Includes bibliographical references and index.
 ISBN 978-90-04-29460-8 (hardback : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-90-04-29904-7 (e-book : alk. paper)
1. Religious life—History—To 1500. 2. Cities and towns—Religious aspects. 3. Christianity—Influence.
I. Busine, Aude, editor.

 BL624.R428 2015
 200.9173’209015—dc23
2015014834
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issn 0927-7633
isbn 978-90-04-29460-8 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-29904-7 (e-book)
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Contents
List of Figures vii
1 Introduction: Religious Practices and Christianization of the Late
Antique City 1
Aude Busine
2 Christianisme antique et religion civique en Occident 19
Claire Sotinel
3 Les lieux du polythéisme dans l’espace urbain et le paysage mémoriel
d’Antioche-sur-l’Oronte, de Libanios à Malalas (IVe-VIe s.) 38
Catherine Saliou
4 Holy Goals and Worldly Means. Urban Representation Elements
in Church Complexes 71
Ine Jacobs
5 Public Rituals of Depaganization in Late Antiquity 115
Johannes Hahn
6 Lingering Sacredness. The Persistence of Pagan Sacredness in the Forum
Romanum in Late Antiquity 141
Kristine Iara
7 A Few Thoughts on the Tituli of Equitius and Sylvester in the Late
Antique and Early Medieval Subura in Rome 166
Michael Mulryan
8 Four Bases from Stratonikeia: A (Failed) Attempt to Christianize
the Statue Habit 179
Bryan Ward-Perkins
vi contents
9 Pagans, Christians and Jews in the Aegean Islands:
The Christianization of an Island Landscape 188
Georgios Deligiannakis
10 Christian Controversy and the Transformation of Fourth-Century
Constantinople 206
David M. Gwynn
11 Conclusions : De la cité rituelle à la communauté sacramentelle 221
Hervé Inglebert
Index Locorum 239
List of Figures
3.1 Antioche-sur-l’Oronte dans l’Antiquité 39
4.1 Map with indication of the sites discussed by I. Jacobs 74
4.2 The Justinianic Rotunda at the Damous-el-Karita site at Carthage 77
4.3 Restored plan of the episcopal complex at Stobi 80
4.4 Plan of the episcopal complex at Salona 81
4.5 Plan of the pilgrimage complex at Menas 83
4.6 Theveste, photograph 87
4.7 Reconstruction of the colonnaded walkway at Alahan 89
4.8 Plan of the Cupola Church at Meryemlik 92
4.9 The tower-like fountain at Hierapolis 97
4.10 The West Gate of Sergiopolis/Resafa 99
7.1 Plan of hall east of S. Martino ai Monti 170
7.2 S. Martino ai Monti 174
7.3 Trench by apse of S. Martino ai Monti (August 1893) 175
8.1 Inscription 4, Stratonikeia (LSA 1202) 183

chapter 1
Introduction: Religious Practices and
Christianization of the Late Antique City
Aude Busine
In modern scholarship, Christianity and the classical city, which constitues
the original founding element of Greco-Roman civilization,1 are often deemed
to be incompatible. The communis opinio may be summarized in Mogens
Hansen’s assertion that the polis, with its polytheistic cults and events, was a
Pagan institution in which worthy Christians could take no part.2 More gen-
erally, Voltaire’s idea3 of a causal relationship between two distinct historical
phenomena, viz. the conversion to Christianity and the end of the Ancient
World, prevails in a significant number of studies of Late Antiquity.4 The con-
fusion encourages one to reassess the relationships between those two key
events. This volume, which results from the conference on “Religious Practices
and Christianization of the Late Antique City” held at the Université libre de
Bruxelles from January 19 to 21, 2012, seeks to study the phenomenon of the
Christianization of the Roman Empire within the context of the transfor-
mations and eventual decline of the Greco-Roman city. The studies brought
together here aim to describe with greater precision the possible links between
religious, but also political, economic and social mutations engendered by
Christianity and the evolution of the antique city. More particularly, an effort
will be made to measure the impact on the city of the progressive abandon-
ment of traditional cults to the advantage of new Christian religious practices.
The papers in this volume will cast a new light on the intersection between
the Christianization of the Roman Empire and the progressive disappear-
ance of the municipal civilization characteristic of Greco-Roman Antiquity.
It is hoped that this Introduction, though not intended to offer an exhaustive
1  Cf. Inglebert (2005) 22–30; Loseby (2009).
2  Hansen (2008) 169. Cf. Liebeschuetz (2001) 247–248.
3  Voltaire (1769) chap. XL, 255: “Le christianisme ouvrait le ciel mais il perdait l’Empire”. See
after him Gibbon (1776 [1906]), according to which the Church had destroyed “the solid
fabric of human greatness” (xxix).
4  For an analysis of the theme of decadence, cf. Mazzarino (1959); Schiavone (1996).
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