A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity

by Douglas Boin

  Figure 13.4 Although its precise findspot is unknown and specific details of its acquisition history, in 1951, are not as well documented as cultural heritage advocates currently propose, this female rider likely comes from the desert city of Turfan. Made from fired clay, the figure was likely deposited in a grave at the Astana cemetery, from which other similar artifacts have come. It dates to the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE). The Tang period was a pivotal age for Chinese expansion into Central Asia, and fashion was at the forefront of this change. Elaborately decorated silk veils became a popular look among women when they were seen in public; this woman rider may, in fact, be missing her silk veil, which would have originally hung from her wide‐brimmed hat. The city of Turfan (in Xinjiang, Uighur Autonomous Region) is situated in the Taklamakan Desert and lies along the northern routes taken by traders to and from China. Because of the extreme heat, many graves were discovered with otherwise perishable materials, like silk and recycled paper. Among the latter were pawn receipts, giving the price of goods in the Tang dynasty, even preserving the origins of the traders passing along these desert roads. Measurements: c.14.25 in. high (36.2 cm) x 11.50 in. long (29.2 cm). Open‐Access collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

  Figure 13.5 a,b This Sasanian silver coin, showing King Hormizd IV (r. 579–590 CE), was found in a burial at the Astana cemetery in Turfan. Although the Chinese army and Chinese government invested heavily in their frontier trading posts like Turfan, these cities were also important stopping points for foreign traders, many of whom came from Sogdiana in Central Asia or from farther afield. As a result of the diversity of people running these routes, Chinese money was hardly the only currency used in transactions. The high prevalence of Sasanian coins in “Silk Road” tombs, for example, like the one seen here from Turfan, suggests that Persia played a crucial role in this economic ecosystem. Coins from the Roman Empire, by contrast, are rare, even during the sixth and seventh centuries CE. Many of the Roman ones that have been found are counterfeit. British Museum inventory number IA,XII.a.3.

  Chapter 14 Figure 14.1 The Temple platform, where two Jewish Temples once stood until the second was destroyed by a Roman army in 70 CE. Almost every Christian Roman emperor from the politically accommodating, like Constantine, to hard‐liners like Theodosius chose to leave it barren and desolate. In doing so, all asserted the political and cultural superiority of Christianity over Jewish history by leaving this important Jewish worship place in ruins. Beginning with the Umayyad ruler ‘Abd al‐Malik, Muslim rulers of Jerusalem – looking to distinguish themselves from other “People of the Book” – would communicate the same message taking a slightly different approach. Instead of leaving the platform in ruins, ‘Abd al‐Malik would erect the shrine, the Dome of the Rock, directly in its center. By the tenth century CE, a mosque would be constructed nearby (off to the right). The site is known in Arabic as Al Haram al Sharif (“The Noble Sanctuary”).

  Figure 14.2 Among the people living in the southwestern Arabian peninsula were the Sabaeans, who had come to power around the eighth century BCE. The Sabaeans built this sanctuary at Ma’rib, in modern Yemen. It was dedicated to Almaqah and received worshippers for more than a thousand years, until at least the third or fourth century CE. Sabaean architecture helps scholars visualize the landscape of the pre‐Islamic Arabian peninsula. These square‐shaped pillars formed part of the sanctuary’s entrance. Similar cuboid forms appear throughout Arabia, in part because of the long‐established custom there of artists working in stone (in contrast to the Roman world where pourable concrete inspired different forms). Managed by a local family, the Ma’rib sanctuary provided a safe space where individuals from different tribes or with competing interests might come together. Both in form and in its custom, the Ma’rib sanctuary evokes the social world of other sanctuaries on the pre‐Islamic Arabian peninsula, like Mecca.

  Figure 14.3 From the outside, the hunting lodge at Qusayr ‘Amra appears to be a modest structure whose domes and vaults, nevertheless, give it a dramatic profile against the desert landscape. Built of local limestone, the lodge sits in an area east of the Jordan River valley (modern Jordan, about 50 miles outside Amman) at the base of a wadi, or canyon, that fills with rain. In the foreground, at left, is a cistern for storing water. The lodge’s entrance, with its dramatic triple‐vaulted room, lit by high windows, is at right. This photograph of the property faces south. Early to mid‐eighth century CE.

  Figure 14.4 In contrast to its unadorned exterior, Qusayr ‘Amra’s interior walls, including its entry vaults, are awash in frescoes. Some painted scenes show women nude, alluding to the luxuries of the bath. Others, such as these two panels, promoted values that were important to the Umayyad elite. Located on the east vault of the reception hall, they are part of thirty‐two scenes which show ordinary men at work: transporting materials, pounding anvils, carving stone. Although their message is perhaps not immediately apparent today, the lodge’s owner may have commissioned these scenes of daily life because he saw building, like patronage, as a metaphor for good governance – a value shared by the Umayyads’ neighbors. Early to mid‐eighth century CE.

  A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity examines the social and cultural landscape of the Late Antique Mediterranean. The text offers a picture of everyday life as it was lived in the spaces around and between two of the most memorable and towering figures of the time—Constantine and Muhammad. The author captures the period using a wide‐lens, including Persian material from the mid third century through Umayyad material of the mid eighth century C.E. The book offers a rich picture of Late Antique life that is not just focused on Rome, Constantinople, or Christianity.

  This important resource uses nuanced terms to talk about complex issues and fills a gap in the literature by surveying major themes such as power, gender, community, cities, politics, law, art and architecture, and literary culture. The book is richly illustrated and filled with maps, lists of rulers and key events. A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity is an essential guide that:

  Paints a rich picture of daily life in Late Antique that is not simply centered on Rome, Constantinople, or Christianity

  Balances a thematic approach with rigorous attention to chronology

  Stresses the need for appreciating both sources and methods in the study of Late Antique history

  Offers a sophisticated model for investigating daily life and the complexities of individual and group identity in the rapidly changing Mediterranean world

  Includes useful maps, city plans, timelines, and suggestions for further reading

  A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity offers an examination of everyday life in the era when adherents of three of the major religions of today—Christianity, Judaism, and Islam—faced each other for the first time in the same environment.

  Douglas Boin is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri. He is the author of Ostia in Late Antiquity and Coming Out Christian in the Roman World.

  Wiley Blackwell Social and Cultural Histories of the Ancient World

  This series offers a fresh approach to the study of ancient history, seeking to illuminate the social and cultural history often obscured by political narratives. The books in the series will emphasize themes in social and cultural history, such as slavery, religion, gender, age, medicine, technology, and entertainment. Books in the series will be engaging, thought provoking accounts of the classical world, designed specifically for students and teachers in the classroom.

  Published

  A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity

  Douglas Boin

  Forthcoming

  A Social and Cultural History of Archaic Greece

  Adam Rabinowitz

  A Social and Cultural History of Classical Greece

  Elizabeth Kosmetatou

  A Social and Cultural History of the Hellenistic World

  Gillian Ramsey


  A Social and Cultural History of Republican Rome

  Eric M. Orlin

  A Social and Cultural History of the Roman Empire

  Jinyu Liu

  A Social and Cultural History of Late Antiquity

  Douglas Boin

  This edition first published 2018

  © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data

  Names: Boin, Douglas, author.

  Title: A social and cultural history of late antiquity / by Douglas Boin.

  Description: Hoboken, NJ : Wiley, 2018. | Series: Wiley Blackwell social and cultural histories of the ancient world | Includes bibliographical references and index.

  Identifiers: LCCN 2017042187 (print) | LCCN 2017056942 (ebook) | ISBN 9781119076995 (pdf) | ISBN 9781119076988 (epub) | ISBN 9781119077008 (cloth) | ISBN 9781119076810 (pbk.)

  Subjects: LCSH: Mediterranean Region–Civilization. | Mediterranean Region–History–To 476. | Mediterranean Region–History–476‐1517. | Social change–Mediterranean Region–History–To 1500. | Romans–Mediterranean Region–History. | Romans–Mediterranean Region–Social life and customs. | Romans–Mediterranean Region–Social conditions.

  Classification: LCC DE71 (ebook) | LCC DE71 .B59 2018 (print) | DDC 937/.06–dc23

  LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017042187

  Cover Design: Wiley

  Cover Images: (Front cover) Juan Manuel Casillas Delgado / Alamy Stock Photo; (Front cover background) © tomograf/iStockphoto; (Back cover) © OnstOn/iStockphoto

  Illustrations

  1.1 The Buddhist caves at Bamiyan, Afghanistan, where two colossal images of the Buddha once stood

  2.1 A coin from the third century CE with a portrait of the Empress Zenobia (271–275 CE)

  3.1 Latin inscription praising the Roman Emperor Honorius on display in the Roman Forum

  3.2 The funerary and temple complex of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el‐Bahari in Upper Egypt

  4.1 Bronze plaque showing the Roman god Mithras slaying a bull

  4.2 Image of the first Sasanian king, Ardashir of Persia (r. 224–242 CE), carved into the cliff face at Naqsh‐i Rustam, Iran

  4.3 View of the Ka’ba of Zoroaster at Naqsh‐i Rustam, a monument which refers to the new Sasanian leaders as the kings of the people of “Iran”

  4.4 Cameo, carved from sardonyx, depicting a battle between the Sasanian King Sapur I (r. c.242–270 CE) and the Roman Emperor Valerian

  4.5 Aurelian’s new wall for the city of Rome, late third century CE

  5.1 Fresco from the synagogue at Dura Europos, Syria, showing the pharaoh’s daughter finding the infant Moses in the Nile River

  5.2 A silver plate with the Roman goddess Cybele from the city of Parabiago, outside Milan, Italy

  6.1 View of the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, looking northeast, showing the arch and rotunda built by the Roman ruler Galerius

  6.2 Close‐up view of three sculpted scenes from the Arch of Galerius at Thessaloniki, Greece (c.298–303 CE)

  6.3 Plan of the old agora, or market center, of Athens, Greece, south of the Acropolis, c.400–700 CE.

  7.1 A detail from the Great Palace Mosaic at Constantinople, found in the area east of the hippodrome, where the emperor’s palace was located

  8.1 Silver plate showing the Roman Emperor Constantius II (r. 337–361 CE)

  8.2 A reconstruction of the imperial fora of Late Antique Rome

  8.3 Plan showing the Aventine Hill, Rome, in Late Antiquity

  8.4 Plan of the Roman burials underneath St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican

  8.5 The city of Constantinople in the late fourth century and early fifth century CE

  8.6 Digital reconstruction of the porphyry column which stood at the center of the Forum of Constantine, Constantinople

  8.7 An example of African Red Slip Ware showing a criminal tied up for torture and death in the jaws of the beasts of the amphitheater

  9.1 View of the synagogue at the Roman city of Sardis in Asia Minor

  9.2 The floor of a synagogue at Hammat Tiberias, near the Sea of Galilee, laid with mosaic

  10.1 Map showing the location of Mauri units, Roman soldiers recruited from northern Africa, stationed in Egypt, c.339–539 CE

  10.2 Two clay molds used for baking bread found at Ostia, Rome’s cosmopolitan harbor town

  10.3 An expensive mosaic floor showcasing a prize racehorse from a villa at Mérida in modern Spain

  10.4 Plan of the lower Campus Martius, Rome, in Late Antiquity

  11.1 A collection of residences known as the “Slope Houses,” built into a terrace on the south side of one of the main city streets in Ephesos

  11.2 View, seen facing north, of the Roman marketplace at Gerasa (Jerash, modern Jordan)

  12.1 Portrait of a woman, Anicia Juliana, in the opening pages of an early sixth‐century CE codex

  12.2 The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, begun in 688 CE, finished in 691 CE

  13.1 Detail from the south facade of a church at Ptghni, Armenia, built in the late sixth or early seventh century CE

  13.2 The church of Hagia Sophia (“Holy Wisdom”), Constantinople

  13.3 Portrait of the Buddha (“Enlightened One”) carved during the Gupta period, c.430–435 CE, from the city of Mathura, India

  13.4 Female rider made from clay, likely from the Astana cemetery in Turfan, dating to the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE)

  13.5 Sasanian silver coin showing King Hormizd IV (r. 579–590 CE), a,bfound in the grave of a burial at the Astana cemetery in Turfan

  14.1 The Temple platform in Jerusalem where two Jewish Temples once stood, a holy place which Christian Roman emperors left in ruins, and where the
Dome of the Rock now sits

  14.2 Sanctuary at Ma’rib, modern Yemen, an important pre‐Islamic holy site

  14.3 Exterior of the hunting lodge at Qusayr ‘Amra, modern Jordan

  14.4 Detail of two construction workers on Qusayr ‘Amra’s interior vaults

  Boxed Texts

  Exploring Culture

  1.1 Late Antiquity Lost at the Start of the Twenty‐First Century

  2.1 Christianity before “The Bible”

  3.1 Studying Memory, or the Past within the Past

  4.1 The People of “Iran”

  5.1 A Rich Legacy of Human Figures in Jewish Art

  6.1 The Many Lives of Rome’s Colosseum

  7.1 The Emperor’s Residence in Constantinople

  8.1 Silver Gifts and the Roman Emperor on the Crimean Peninsula

  9.1 Shenoute’s Monastery in Egypt

  10.1 The Grain Industry, Free Bread, and the Bakers at Ostia

  11.1 The “Third Gender”

  12.1 The Mash‐Up Poem

  13.1 Literature, History, and Material Culture in Armenia, Crossroads of Empires