The Great Persecution, AD 303: A Commemoration. Proceedings of the Fifth International Maynooth Patristic Conference, co-editor with Vincent Twomey (Four Courts Press: Dublin, 2009).
Communities of the Blessed: social environment and religious change in northern Italy AD 200-400 (Oxford Early Christian Studies) (Oxford University Press: Oxford, 1999).
In Late Antiquity, as in other periods, particular ways of seeing had a profound impact on how co... more In Late Antiquity, as in other periods, particular ways of seeing had a profound impact on how contemporaries interpreted the world around them, 1 which, in turn, helps to explain why acts of erasure should be particularly potent. Moreover, late ancient viewers were demonstrably never simply passive "witnesses" to the world around them; rather, the descriptions they offered inscribed meaning onto what they saw, and in such acts of inscription simultaneous acts of erasure or omission could render the inscribed meaning more emphatic. A celebrated instance appears in Ammianus Marcellinus's famous ekphrasis of Rome in his account of the emperor Constantius II's adventus to the city in April 357 CE. The report is permeated by language that stresses the visual impact of monuments that are exemplary of Rome's imperial grandeur, particularly in terms of the emperor's response to them through his stupefied gaze. 2 Yet the description is selective, omitting any reference
Chapter 3 in J. Wijnendaele (ed.), Late Roman Italy : From Imperium to Regnum (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2023), 67-85, 2023
This chapter examines interactions between the imperial administration and Italy in the fourth an... more This chapter examines interactions between the imperial administration and Italy in the fourth and fifth centuries, seeing things, as it were, from the perspective of the imperial court and how it responded to various challenges confronting Italian society.
In 398 CE the western Roman emperor Honorius issued a law condemning attempts by Jewish town coun... more In 398 CE the western Roman emperor Honorius issued a law condemning attempts by Jewish town councillors in southern Italy to seek exemptions from compulsory public services. While this law is usually read for the light it sheds on the legal situation of Jews in the Christian Roman Empire, it is argued here that the ruling is also concerned with another issue. It was issued three years after the division of the Roman Empire into two halves, East and West, each with its own administrative structures, and with its emperor issuing laws for territories under his jurisdiction. Honorius notes that Italian Jews claimed exemptions in accordance with recent eastern legislation but rejects its validity for the West. This indicates how tensions between East and West caused difficulties for Italian Jews who, because of their pan-Mediterranean connections, did not fit easily into the empire's administrative frameworks.
Article for a popular audience, for a special issue on Christianity in Ancient History Magazine (... more Article for a popular audience, for a special issue on Christianity in Ancient History Magazine (No. 27, May/June 2020).
This chapter examines the extent to which the cultivation of the apostles Peter and Paul as founders of a specifically Christian Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries led to a displacement of the traditional foundation narrative of Rome associated with Romulus and Remus. A juxtaposition between the rival pairs of founders is found in sermons of Pope Leo I, and these can be read as indicative of a wider trend in which Rome's traditional founders receded from view. A key period in this transformation falls between the mid-fourth and mid-fifth centuries, beginning with the historian Aurelius Victor complaining about the lack of observance of Rome's 1100 th anniversary in 348, and concluding with Leo's rejection of the twins in favour of the apostles. A significant spike in the debate can be located in the Theodosian period, when imperial devotions to Peter and Paul were signalled by ceremonial and topographical changes in the city. The poetry of Prudentius is shown to provide a significant echo chamber for these changes.
F.-G. Herrmann & I. Repath (eds), Some Organic Readings of Narrative (Ancient Narrative supplement 27; Groningen: Barkhuis, 2019), 233-54., 2019
This chapter examines how, by means of a carefully constructed narrative, the fourth-century Lati... more This chapter examines how, by means of a carefully constructed narrative, the fourth-century Latin historian Ammianus Marcellinus presents not so much a description of the Roman empire in his own day as a diagnosis of its ills and recommendations of how they might be cured. The analysis focuses on the historian's celebrated description of the emperor Constantius II's adventus to Rome in 357. It is argued here that the account is remarkably subversive, both in terms of the description it offers, and how it is embedded in Ammianus' wider narrative. Constantius had come to Rome to celebrate a victory in civil war, but Ammianus regarded such festivities as wholly inappropriate at a time when the empire was facing existential threats from across its frontiers, and his description underscores his distaste. At the same time, Constantius' unmilitary lassitude is explicitly contrasted, by means of narrative juxtaposition, with an altogether more worthy demonstration of imperial activity focused on the defence of Roman territory by Ammianus' hero, the Caesar Julian.
Prepublication version of ‘Family, Dynasty, and the Construction of Legitimacy from Augustus to t... more Prepublication version of ‘Family, Dynasty, and the Construction of Legitimacy from Augustus to the Theodosians’, in S. Tougher (ed.), The Emperor in the Byzantine World. (Papers from the 48th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies) (Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 2019), 13-27.
Why did the Roman Empire become Christian? This question has significant ramifications for the wh... more Why did the Roman Empire become Christian? This question has significant ramifications for the whole of western history. Michele Renee Salzman is not, of course, the first to seek to explain this seismic change, but her approach seeks to make good the shortcomings of earlier attempts. She notes (pp. ix-x) the deficiencies of one of the most celebrated efforts, A. D. Nock's Conversion (Oxford, 1933). Nock's investigations were largely concerned with individual experiences, and for the period of late antiquity his main source was Augustine. Salzman highlights some of the difficulties with this approach: how representative is the individual of society (if at all)? And is not Augustine's experience problematic, since he interpreted it in different ways at different points in his life (pp. 11-12)? To compensate, Salzman aims to provide a statistical analysis, albeit of one section of the Empire's population: the senatorial aristocracy. Her investigation depends on a database of 414 aristocrats from the period 284-423 about whom details of religious affiliation are known. Salzman points out that the senatorial aristocracy of late antiquity was a much broader group than the old senate of Rome. By the end of the fourth century it numbered not hundreds any more, but thousands. The old elite was diluted and diversified by new members drawn from the equestrian order and the provincial nobility who acquired senatorial status as a reward for service of the emperor. However differentiated this new senatorial aristocracy became, one thing united them: a concern for status (pp. 43-61). It is
Les études récentes ont souligné l’art raffiné de l’historien Ammien
Marcellin. Cet article exami... more Les études récentes ont souligné l’art raffiné de l’historien Ammien Marcellin. Cet article examine un aspect souvent négligé ou mal compris de son récit : les descriptions physiques de ses protagonistes. La lecture de ces descriptions, à la lumière de la pensée tardo-antique de la physionomie, du geste et du comportement, suggère qu’elles offrent une forme cohérente de caractérisation, à travers laquelle Ammien met en évidence les jugements moraux qu’il offre sur les individus qui peuplent son histoire.
Prepublication version of ‘Christianity and Paganism in the Roman Empire, 250-450 CE’, in N. Bake... more Prepublication version of ‘Christianity and Paganism in the Roman Empire, 250-450 CE’, in N. Baker-Brian & J. Lössl (eds), A Companion to Religion in Late Antiquity (Malden & Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2018), 61-80.
Prepublication version of ‘Saints and Hagiography’, in P. F. Esler (ed.), The Early Christian Wor... more Prepublication version of ‘Saints and Hagiography’, in P. F. Esler (ed.), The Early Christian World, second edition (London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 501-514.
Studies in Late Antiquity: A Journal 1 (University of California Press 2017), 8-37.
The flourishing of late-antique studies in the last half-century has coincided with the rise of "... more The flourishing of late-antique studies in the last half-century has coincided with the rise of " world history " as an area of academic research. To an extent, some overlap has occurred, particularly with Sasanian Persia being considered alongside the late Roman Empire as constituting an essential component in what we think of in terms of the " shape " of late antiquity. Yet it is still the case that many approaches to late antiquity are bound up with conventional western narratives of historical progress, as defined in Jack Goody's The Theft of History (2006). Indeed, the debate about whether late antiquity was an age of dynamic transformation (as argued by Peter Brown and his disciples) or one of catastrophic disruption (as asserted, most recently, by Bryan Ward-Perkins) can be regarded as representing two different faces of an essentially evolutionary interpretation of western historical development. This article argues, however, that we can challenge such conventional narrative frameworks by taking a world historical perspective on late antiquity. It will show, first, that our interpretation of late antiquity depends on sources that themselves are representative of myriad local perspectives. Secondly, it will argue that since Gibbon's time these sources have been made to serve an essentially western construct of and debate about history. The final section will consider how taking a more global perspective allows us to challenge conventional approaches to and narratives of late antiquity.
Uploads
Books by Mark Humphries
Papers by Mark Humphries
This chapter examines the extent to which the cultivation of the apostles Peter and Paul as founders of a specifically Christian Rome in the fourth and fifth centuries led to a displacement of the traditional foundation narrative of Rome associated with Romulus and Remus. A juxtaposition between the rival pairs of founders is found in sermons of Pope Leo I, and these can be read as indicative of a wider trend in which Rome's traditional founders receded from view. A key period in this transformation falls between the mid-fourth and mid-fifth centuries, beginning with the historian Aurelius Victor complaining about the lack of observance of Rome's 1100 th anniversary in 348, and concluding with Leo's rejection of the twins in favour of the apostles. A significant spike in the debate can be located in the Theodosian period, when imperial devotions to Peter and Paul were signalled by ceremonial and topographical changes in the city. The poetry of Prudentius is shown to provide a significant echo chamber for these changes.
Marcellin. Cet article examine un aspect souvent négligé ou mal compris de son récit : les descriptions physiques de ses protagonistes. La lecture de ces descriptions, à la lumière de la pensée tardo-antique de la physionomie, du geste et du comportement, suggère qu’elles offrent une forme cohérente de caractérisation, à travers laquelle Ammien met en évidence les jugements moraux qu’il offre sur les individus qui peuplent son histoire.