Journal•ISSN: 0075-4358
Journal of Roman Studies
Cambridge University Press
About: Journal of Roman Studies is an academic journal published by Cambridge University Press. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Roman Empire & Empire. It has an ISSN identifier of 0075-4358. Over the lifetime, 2136 publications have been published receiving 48792 citations. The journal is also known as: JRS.
Topics: Roman Empire, Empire, Politics, Cicero, Ancient Rome
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
More filters
TL;DR: The authors explored a broad territory of Roman economic history over a long period and explored several probabilities in the form of propositions, but the evidence is so sparse that it is difficult to prove that each proposition is right.
Abstract: This essay is speculative and tentative, a preliminary attempt at exploring a broad territory of Roman economic history over a long period. For the sake of clarity, I have canvassed several probabilities in the form of propositions, but the evidence is so sparse that it is difficult to prove that each proposition is right. It is disappointing to confess at the outset that one's case is unproven and that the generalizations advanced are disproportionately large in relation to the supporting evidence. Even so, the experiments made here with both evidence and methods may stimulate others into refuting or reshaping the propositions. And besides, some of the methods can be usefully applied to other problems in Roman history.
599 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the position of the holy man in Late Roman society is studied. But it is worth noting that there is a danger that the Holy Man may be taken for granted as part of the Byzantine scene, since most explanations of his position are deceptively easy.
Abstract: To study the position of the holy man in Late Roman society is to risk telling in one's own words a story that has often been excellently told before. In vivid essays, Norman Baynes has brought the lives of the saints to the attention of the social and religious historian of Late Antiquity. The patient work of the Bollandists has increased and clarified a substantial dossier of authentic narratives. These lives have provided the social historian with most of what he knows of the life of the average man in the Eastern Empire. They illuminate the variety and interaction of the local cultures of the Near East. The holy men themselves have been carefully studied, both as figures in the great Christological controversies of the fifth and sixth centuries, and as the arbiters of the distinctive traditions of Byzantine piety and ascetic theology.The intention of this paper is to follow well known paths of scholarship on all these topics, while asking two basic questions: why did the holy man come to play such an important role in the society, of the fifth and sixth centuries ? What light do his activities throw on the values and functioning of a society that was prepared to concede him such importance? It is as well to ask such elementary questions. For there is a danger that the holy man may be taken for granted as part of the Byzantine scene. Most explanations of his position are deceptively easy.
561 citations
TL;DR: Tertullian, illustrating the sacrilegious nature of pagan religion, records that in an auditorium he saw a person being burned to death in the role of Hercules and another being castrated as Attis; both of these examples he adduces to substantiate his assertion to his pagan audience that ‘criminals often adopt the roles of your deities'.
Abstract: Tertullian, illustrating the sacrilegious nature of pagan religion, records that in an auditorium he saw a person being burned to death in the role of Hercules and another being castrated as Attis; both of these examples he adduces to substantiate his assertion to his pagan audience that ‘criminals often adopt the roles of your deities’ (‘et ipsos deos vestros saepe noxii induunt’) The practice that Tertullian here deplores is the subject of this paper: the punishment of criminals in a formal public display involving role-play set in a dramatic context; the punishment is usually capital
355 citations
TL;DR: This article studied the relationship between the commemorator's relationship with the dead and the deceased in a corpus of Latin inscriptions and found that the relationship can be inferred from the data of tens of thousands of tombstones.
Abstract: Tombstones furnish perhaps three-quarters of the entire corpus of Latin inscriptions. Many of these give no more than the name of the deceased, but tens of thousands also offer the historian a few additional details, such as age at death and the name and relationship of the commemorator. Previous studies of the tombstones en masse have focused on nomenclature and age at death. In this study we wish to ask what conclusions can be drawn from the data about the commemorator's relationship with the deceased.
308 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a survey of Jewish life in the Diaspora, focusing on the following: 1. The Jews in Rome 2. The Jewish Jews in Alexandria 3. Jews in the Province of Asia 4. Jewish Constructs of Greeks and Hellenism 5.
Abstract: Introduction Part I: Jewish Life in the Diaspora 1. The Jews in Rome 2. The Jews in Alexandria 3. Jews in the Province of Asia 4. Civic and Sacral Institutions in the Diaspora Part II: Jewish Constructs of Diaspora Life 5. Diaspora Humor I: Historical Fiction 6. Diaspora Humor II: Biblical Recreations 7. Jewish Constructs of Greeks and Hellenism 8. Diaspora and Homeland Abbreviations Notes Bibliography Index
298 citations