...This chapter introduces some of the traditional methodological and historiographical challenges to the social and cultural history of Late Antique and early Islamic Syria. It proposes a new approach to literary and source criticism that focuses on narrative as a lens for the interpretation...

..., and that agriculture was probably the major underpinning of that wealth. This chapter also details the characteristics of late antique villages and farmhouses and links their morphology with the type and scale of production conducted on the land to which they belonged. Bureaucrats Constantine Diocletian Egypt...

...Chapter 4 assesses the varieties of wine produced in late antique Oriens, details the techniques of production, and describes the well-developed agrarian practices that appear to have been widespread throughout the region. Arabs Athens Caucasus Franks Gaul Golan Grain Jews Mediterranean...

... of the senses and the possibility of coming close to a true understanding of the nature of the divine. Aeneas locus amoenus Vergil Hippolytus St Prudentius late antique literature landscape bibliographic imagination poetry Christianity I hope that it has become clear that the Prudentius I have...

... with generally good health but frequent skeletal evidence of trauma. In one Late Antique burial grooves and wear on the woman's incisors arose from drawing thread through them, indicating activity involving sewing or spinning. Muscle attachments and facet development on this woman's hand bones are consistent...

... Rostam tribute feasting and banqueting Mughals Shah Jahan Yazdin Maurice Roman emperor moon Wahram Chobin Sasanian late antique urbanism Persia Upon overthrowing the Arsacids, the Sasanians quickly and dramatically reshaped Mesopotamia and the Iranian plateau to bring it into accord...

...This chapter addresses the question of how the associations between mountains and the divine develop in early Christian and late antique culture. It focuses on the pilgrimage narrative of Egeria, who travelled in the Holy Land in the late fourth century CE and left one of the most extensive travel...

... Decemnovium Decii aristocratic Roman family Etruria Late Antiquity concept of Procopius of Caesarea senator and Greek historian Rimini Ariminum urban prefect praefectus urbi Via Appia Via Flaminia Bloch Marc French historian Finley Moses I Anglo American historian Settefinestre villa at Weber...

...This chapter presents the book’s framework as: (1) a new form of cultural history (animistic history of demons in the city or ecclesiastical authority); and (2) historiographical critique (why have demonologies of late antique cities been neglected in scholarship?). To that end, I present...

...This chapter applies Umberto Eco's idea of an open text to a series of late antique poems. The figural poetry of Optatianus Porphyrius, the allegorical Psychomachia of Prudentius, and the sixteen surviving Vergilian centos create space for the reader to resolve the discrepancies...

...This concluding chapter summarizes key themes. This book examines how the figure of the reader lends a sense of coherence and meaning to the Latin poetry from late antiquity. It shows that in the long fourth century, Latin poets explored the interaction between text, meaning, and interpretation...

...This chapter explores new dimensions of Aurelius Prudentius Clemens' Hamartigenia through a focus on ornaments and figures—textual devices that delighted late antique readers but which tend to be opaque to modern readers. The Hamartigenia offers many instances...

...This article examines the environmental, practical, and socio-economic aspects of rural life in Late Antiquity. It focuses on the period between the accession of Diocletian in the late third century and the establishment of the Rashidun Caliphate on the eastern fringes of the Roman world...

...This article analyzes one notable aspect of Late Antiquity: the upsurge in letter-writing among social elites and, particularly, in the publication of their letters in edited collections. It argues that the act of collecting and circulating letters is problematic for two reasons. On the one hand...

...This article discusses the history of Byzantium in Late Antiquity, distinguishing elements from the late antique centuries from those of classical culture. From classical antiquity the Byzantines inherited a language and its written production, a portion of the ancient content and method...

...This article examines the links between the fifteenth-century Italian Renaissance and Late Antiquity. It highlights three particular aspects: the realization of Renaissance thinkers that ancient Latin had been a "living" ancient language and the links to history-writing; the miscellany-oriented...

... monastic education classical and late-antique education asceticism Neoplatonism Dorotheus of Gaza humility Epistemological assumptions, as well as explicit epistemological prescriptions, are a crucial component of any educational endeavour. Education produces structures and hierarchies of knowledge...

... University, where I enjoyed the hospitality of Samuel Rubenson s Monasticism and Classical Paideia research team at an engaging workshop. Discussions with colleagues at UWA about exemplarity, ancient education, emotions history, and late-antique and Byzantine history helped ideas to crystallize. I recall...

...The introduction to this volume addresses three main issues. First, it provides a critical reassessment of the discipline of late antique studies, going back to its very foundations and revealing its historical, cultural, and political biases. Secondly, through presentation and discussion...