23,822 research outputs found
The historical imagination of Christopher Dawson
No full textChristopher Dawson (1889-1970) was one of his generation's most
important historians and religious thinkers, and was a significant
influence on many contemporaries including T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis,
and Russell Kirk. This dissertation is a study of his most
fundamental ideas concerning history and culture.
Chapter one examines Dawson’s sociological view of history.
Convinced that history was more than a scientific enterprise, he
believed that the true historian is one who reaches beyond the
material world to understand the essence of history’s dynamics. In
this way, the world can be conceptualized as a united whole,
separated by regional differences as a result of environment, race,
material, psychological, and religious factors. Dawson believed
that the political histories of the past several centuries failed to
grasp the undercurrents of historical change, and that the best way
to understand the past is to appreciate culture as an expression of
primeval religious traditions.
Chapter two treats Dawson’s understanding of progress. Dawson
was convinced that progress had become the “working-religion” of our
age. This secular faith, founded on scientific rationalism, first
pledged to fix the material failures of Western culture, but
unwittingly eroded its faith in God, and eventually, its moral
fiber. Dawson believed that true progress was progress of the soul
in its ordering toward the Creator.
Chapter three is a study of Dawson’s Christian, and more
specifically, his Catholic beliefs. Informed by religion, his
historical and cultural visions are not dogmatic, nor are they
polemical. He conceived of history as the unfolding of a divine
economy in the temporal world. Although Dawson is a proponent of
Roman Catholicism, his scholarship is an objective treatment of
history shaped by an undisguised, Christian worldview.
Additionally, the appendix is an introduction to Dawson’s life
and the circumstances surrounding his conversion to Roman
Catholicism. Particular attention is paid to the development of his
moral and historical imagination — both of which became intertwined to
form the basis of all of his scholarship
The Dominance of the Roman Army in Northern Britain and Subsequent Rift between Roman and Briton on the Military Frontier
No full textHUBER, CHRISTOPHER RYAN. The Dominance of the Roman Army in Northern Britain and Subsequent Rift between Roman and Briton on the Military Frontier. (Under the direction of Dr. S. Thomas Parker.)
Britain was a province far from the Roman heartland. An accomplishment in its mere inclusion within the Roman Empire, such distance made Britain a difficult prize to claim. Unable to successfully conquer the entirety of the island, the Romans established a permanent zone of military occupation that varied throughout the northern half of Britain. Under military governance, Roman interaction with local Britons remained limited, and no opportunity existed for the enfranchisement of the British aristocracy within the military administration. With minimal interaction between occupier and local, urban development, the foundation for Roman administration never took hold in the north, thus preventing the development of civil administrations or familiarity with the highpoints of Roman culture. The presence of Roman civilians on the frontier similarly remained limited. Civil settlements developed, in close association with military forts, but their administration and demographics remain unclear. Though drawing upon an ever increasing body of archaeological and epigraphic evidence to better understand the presence of Britons within the Roman military frontier, the cultural gap between native and occupier becomes similarly more apparent. With the withdrawal of Roman forces and authority in the early fifth century AD, most of Britain returned to a form that had been present during much of the Iron Age. In the north such a change was less drastic, as fewer aspects of Roman culture and society had taken hold due to the exclusion of Britons from administrative roles. Like the rest of Britain, those of the north returned to ways of life that had previously developed to fit the specific challenges of British life
After Sulla: study in the settlement and material culture of the Piraeus peninsula in the Roman and Late Roman period
No full textModem text-based and ancient historical accounts take the sack of Piraeus, the port of Athens in Greece, by the Romans under Sulla in 86 ВС as the terminal point of the history of the area in antiquity. Archaeological work on the town has tended so far to regard the post-Classical phases of the settlement as less interesting than those marking the 'heyday' of the port in the Classical period. This thesis explores the nature and scale of settlement in the area in the centuries spanning the town's destruction by the Romans in 86 ВС and the Late Roman period. The study is based on a re-assessment of archaeological data from old and recent rescue excavations in the modem town up to 1997. It also presents and discusses in detail the results of post-excavation work by the author on unpublished material from an extensive site excavated in the early 1980s, These results are compared to and synthesized with epigraphic and other testimonies to answer questions about the nature of settlement and the degree of social and cultural change in the area during the period in focus. The discussion focuses in particular on; 1) exploring continuity and change in the settlement patterns, demography and topography of the town, 2) the changing nature of domestic space and its organization, and 3) investigating patterns of pottery consumption and trade. These issues are examined in the context of the social, economic and cultural changes documented for the Roman imperial and Late Roman period by previous archaeological fieldwork and excavations in the region of southern Greece and the Aegean
Christopher KELLY, Ruling the Later Roman Empire.
No full textChauvot Alain. Christopher KELLY, Ruling the Later Roman Empire.. In: L'antiquité classique, Tome 76, 2007. pp. 568-569
The Empire, the Land, and the Exodus: A Study of How the Roman Empire Literally Shaped Christianity: 1 C.E. - 280 C.E.
No full textThis paper explores the factors and trends involved in the movement of Christian communities from Palestine into Asia Minor and regions west of the Aegean Sea. Because the first generation of Christians generally continued to identify themselves as Jewish, this paper looks into the factors that affected the Jewish community with the perspective that a large portion of the early Christians were still members of the Jewish community. Roman land control policies, taxation, and continuous loss and division of land all but pushed many Jews out of the region while the peace of Augustus led many more to depart more voluntarily. It was the culmination of all these factors that led to Jewish emigration from the Palestinian region. The paper will begin with a brief history of the birth of Christianity and the Jewish-Roman relationship in Palestine, followed by a discussion of factors that led to emigration from Palestine, and then end with an analysis of the locations of the Christian communities
Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography /
No full text"Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography contains 11 articles on how the Ancient Roman historians used, and manipulated, the past. What did they seek to accomplish by participating in its re-creation, what tools did they have at their disposal to do so, and which underlying conceptualisations of history can we glimpse behind their efforts? Key themes include the impact of the transformation from Republic to Empire on the production of history, the nature of intertextuality in historical writing, and the frontiers between history and other literary genres. The volume, edited by Aske Damtoft Poulsen and Arne Jönsson, encompasses diverse approaches to the study of Roman history and historiography, with contributors from the UK, US, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Italy. Contributors are: Rhiannon Ash, Roberto Cristofoli, Aske Damtoft Poulsen, Kyle Khellaf, Christopher B. Krebs, Christina Shuttleworth Kraus, Anne-Marie Leander Touati, Rachel Lilley Love, Ulrike Roth, Kai Ruffing & Johan Vekselius"--These questions formed the backbone of a conference entitled "Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography", which took place at Lund University 11-12 January 2018--Preface.Includes bibliographical references and index.Velleius Paterculus and the Battle of Actium / Roberto Cristofoli -- In short, the Republic: Florus and the (re)written Republic / Rachel Lilley Love -- Principatus ac Libertas!? Tacitus, the past and the principate of Trajan / Kai Ruffing -- "Making History": constructive wonder (aka Quellenforschung) and the composition of Caesar's Gallic War (Thanks to Labienus and Polybius) / Christopher B. Krebs -- When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, Livy (and Polybius) on the Gallic sack of Rome / Ulrike Roth -- Livy's Faliscan schoolmaster / Christina Shuttleworth Kraus -- From Thrasea Paetus to Calgacus - or was it the other way around? an example of Tacitean intratextuality / Aske Damtoft Poulsen -- The staging of death: Tacitus' Agrippina the Younger and the dramatic turn / Rhiannon Ash -- Tiberius and tears: grief and genre / Johan Vekselius -- Migration and mobile memory in the Roman historical digression / Kyle Khellaf -- Epilogue: history in Pompeii / Anne-Marie Leander Touati."Usages of the Past in Roman Historiography contains 11 articles on how the Ancient Roman historians used, and manipulated, the past. What did they seek to accomplish by participating in its re-creation, what tools did they have at their disposal to do so, and which underlying conceptualisations of history can we glimpse behind their efforts? Key themes include the impact of the transformation from Republic to Empire on the production of history, the nature of intertextuality in historical writing, and the frontiers between history and other literary genres. The volume, edited by Aske Damtoft Poulsen and Arne Jönsson, encompasses diverse approaches to the study of Roman history and historiography, with contributors from the UK, US, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, and Italy. Contributors are: Rhiannon Ash, Roberto Cristofoli, Aske Damtoft Poulsen, Kyle Khellaf, Christopher B. Krebs, Christina Shuttleworth Kraus, Anne-Marie Leander Touati, Rachel Lilley Love, Ulrike Roth, Kai Ruffing & Johan Vekselius"--Description based on print version record
From the Roman Republic to the American Revolution: readings of Cicero in the political thought of James Wilson
No full textAs a classical scholar and prominent founding father, James Wilson was at once statesman, judge, and political thinker, who read Cicero as an example worthy of emulation and as a philosopher whose theory could be applied to his own age. Classical reception studies have focused on questions of liberty, civic virtue, and constitutionalism in the American founding, and historians have also noted Wilson’s importance in American history and thought. Wilson’s direct engagement with Cicero’s works, however, and their significance in the formulation of his own philosophy has been long overlooked. My thesis argues that Wilson’s viewpoint was largely based on his readings of Cicero and can only be properly understood within this context. In the first two chapters of my thesis I demonstrate that Wilson not only possessed a wide-ranging knowledge of the classics in general, but also that he borrowed from Cicero’s writings and directly engaged with the texts themselves. Building upon this foundation, chapters three and four examine Cicero’s perspective on popular sovereignty and civic virtue, situate Wilson’s interpretations within contemporary discussions of Roman politics, and analyse the main ways in which he adapts Cicero’s arguments to his own era. Wilson retains a broader faith in the common people than seen in Cicero’s opinions, and he abstracts from Cicero a doctrine of sovereignty as an indivisible principle that is absent in the text; nevertheless, Cicero’s conception of a legitimate state and his insistence on the role of the people provided the foundation for Wilson’s thought and ultimately for his legitimization of the American Revolution. At the same time, like Cicero, Wilson views the stability of the state as resting in the personal virtue of the individual. While his enlightenment philosophy imparts optimism to his conception of the good citizen, his definition of virtue closely follows that of Cicero. As the final chapter of my thesis concludes, their individual interpretations of these theories of popular consent and virtue were instrumental in forming Cicero’s and Wilson’s justifications of civil disobedience
Effects of the basic multicellular unit and lamellar thickness on osteonal fatigue life
No full textA remodeling cycle sets the size of the osteon and associated lamellae in the basic multicellular unit. Treatments and aging affect these micro-structural features. We previously demonstrated decreased fatigue life with an unexplained mechanism and decreased osteon size in cortical bone treated with high-dose bisphosphonate. Here, three finite element models were examined: type-1: a single osteon, as a homogeneous unit and with heterogeneous lamellae and interlamellae, type-2: a control, interstitial-only tissue and type-3: the osteon with cement line, set within the interstitial tissue. Models were loaded in simulated, sinusoidal bending fatigue. As osteon size was decreased, lamellar number and lamellar thickness were incrementally adjusted for each model. As hypothesized, lamellae within the larger type-1 models attained greater cycles to failure and the addition of an osteon to type-2 models (generating a type-3 model set) yielded increased fatigue life. However, as the osteon size was decreased, the potential for compressive damage nucleation was increased within the lamellae of the osteons versus the interstitium. Also, osteons with fewer, thicker lamellae displayed increased fatigue life. Osteonal microstructure plays a role in damage initiation location, especially when BMU size is smaller. Previous findings by us and others could partially be explained by this further understanding of increased probability for damage nucleation in smaller osteons.Peer reviewe
Some aspects of its post-roman influence on the landscape
No full textHadrian's Wall is the longest single stone built ancient monument in the United Kingdom and its influence on the man-made landscape has been greater than that of any other surviving structure. Over the last century and a half archaeological excavation and research have largely pieced together the history and function of the monument as it pertains to the Roman period. Little in-depth research has been undertaken regarding its function in and influence on the landscape from the end of the Roman period to the present day. This study has attempted to understand the role that various factors including: geology, topography, population distribution, building types, farming practices, local history and national politics have had on the survival or destruction of the Wall and the influence that the Wall has had on such things as the place-names of settlements, field names, land forms, and even in the naming of houses, streets and businesses. The Wall is referred to in early 8th century manuscripts, Norman charters as well as medieval documents, charters, maps and estate plans and is described in varying detail by antiquarian sources. The present landscape along the Wall owes its existence to past generations and their close relationship to the Wall of Hadrian
Christopher Kelly, Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Revealing Antiquity 15)
No full textChristopher Kelly, Ruling the Later Roman Empire (Revealing Antiquity 15). In: Revue des études byzantines, tome 64-65, 2006-2007. p. 440
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