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'I have taken pains to get copies of them': Epistolary relations between the sons of Constantine and the Christian Church
No full textRevisiting Proba's Confession: The Proem of the Vergilian Cento and the Reign of Julian the Apostate
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A new religion? The emergence of Manichaeism in Late Antiquity
No full textThis chapter investigates the close relationship between Mani, Manichaeism, and empire in Late Antiquity; in particular it examines the dialogue between the legitimizing language of empire, and the scope and character of Mani's teachings as a form of theological rhetoric. The theological narrativizing of Mani's loss of patronage and subsequent imprisonment and death into a passion story akin to the Gospel's depiction of Jesus’ last days became a pillar of Manichaean liturgy. The evolution of legendary material for Mani's birth and upbringing offers a portrayal of Mani's emergence as an iconoclast. Mani relativized his own contribution by identifying prior exponents of “wisdom and deeds” from previous eras. Key features of Mani's religion actively rejected the prevailing norms and values of local society in a spirit that chimed with earlier Gnostic attempts to formulate a countercultural response to the ills afflicting the human soul
Introduction: In the shadows of Constantine and Julian: The sons of Constantine, AD 337-361
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Religion in the Hellenistic and Early Post-Hellenistic Era
No full textThis chapter outlines some features of religion in the Hellenistic and early Post-Hellenistic world to provide a background for the discussion of themes and issues arising from the study of late-antique religions. It addresses the global character of the Hellenistic world, and the way this transformed religions. It also explains the nature of civic as well as personal religion in the Hellenistic era, phenomena such as cults of human persons, oracles, “magic” and “interactions” with religions in the Middle East, Central and South Asia, Egypt and Africa, for example Zoroastrianism and Judaism. It will also briefly consider the origins of Christianity. It then goes on to outline the rise of Roman domination of the Mediterranean and its implications for religion, for example the tendency towards universalism and monism and the spread of Christianity. It also touches upon topics such as educational-cultural movements (the Second Sophistic), phenomena such as the turn to the individual (Gnosis), and the wider context (Persia, Africa, North and North-West)
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