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Aspects of the Christianization of the Roman Aristocracy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2012
Extract
Perhaps the most significant feature of the end of paganism in Rome is that we do know about it; in the words of one of the earliest students of this death of a religion, Beugnot, ‘L'histoire n'a daigné qu'assister aux funérailles du paganisme.’ That this is so is due largely to the central position occupied in the religious history of the late fourth and early fifth centuries, by the senatorial aristocracy of Rome.
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References
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34 Jerome, Ep. 66, 2–3, CSEL 54, 648–9.
35 CIL VI, 1756.
36 See Meiggs, o.c, (note 6), p. 400.
37 Augustine, Epp. 92 and 99, CSEL 34, 436–444; 533–5., where she is a widow, with sons, interested in the property of the ‘clarissimus et egregius iuvenis’ Julianus, adjacent to the church in Hippo. He may be the Julianus who died without issue mentioned in Sermo 355, 4. For his house in Hippo, , Marec, , Libyca, 1, 1953, 95–108.Google Scholar
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40 ‘Valeri Faltoni Adelfi v c et in et Aniciae Italicae.’ N.S. 1953, p. 170 n. 32. See Meiggs, o.c. (n. 6.), 212–3.
41 [17 letters?] ‘ et cons ord et Italica inl. f.’ Riv. arch. crist. 33, 1957, 95–8, Ann. Epig. 1959, n. 237.
42 See the attempt of the Emperor Alexander Severus to trace his descent from the Metelli, SHA Vita Alex. Sev. c. 44: cf. the caustic comments of Jerome, Ep. 130, 3, CSEL 56, p. 177 ‘ut ramorum sterilitatem radix fecunda compenset, quod in fructu non teneas, mireris in trunco’.
43 Aug. De Fide et Operibus 21, 37, CSEL 41, p. 80.
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47 ibid.
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51 See Petit, P., Libanius et la vie municipale d'Antioche au IVe siècle, Paris, 1955, 191–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Canivet, P., L'histoire d'une entreprise apologétique au Ve siècle, 1957, esp. 21–41Google Scholar; and Festugière, A. J., Antioche païenne et chrétienne, Paris, 1959.Google Scholar
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53 See Theodoret, Hist. Eccl. 11, 16, on the negotiations between Constantius II and Liberius, in which Liberius is accused of having snubbed the Emperor ‘to please the Senate’.
54 See Murphy, art. cit. (note 31), p. 60 and stemma p. 63.
55 For Italian connections equally distributed between pagans and Christians at the end of the fourth century, see the list of ‘Patroni ex origine’ of Italian towns in Harmand, o.c. (n. 8), 204–5.
56 CIL VI, 1706.
57 Rut. Namat, De Reditu suo 1, 415 ff.
58 Marcellinus to Augustine, Ep. 136, 1: CSEL 44, p. 94. But Volusianus was hardly in a position to push his objections to Christianity to extremes at that time; his criticism of the political relevance of Christian morality is notably subdued, see Ep. 136, 2, CSEL XLIV, 95.
59 Augustine, Enchiridion 34, 10.
60 Photius, cod. 230 ed. Becker p. 271, B. 29. This has been taken by Seeck, o.c. (n. 9), p. CLXXXI to imply that Rufius Albinus was a Christian. E. Liénard, ‘Un courtisan de Théodose,’ Rev. belge de philol. 13, 1934, 73 ff. has built upon this assumption the ingenious theory of a politic conversion, in 389, as a sequel to the defeat of Maximus by Theodosius.
61 For the fate of Augustine's answers to Volusianus, see, Courcelle, P., Rev. de l'Hist. des Religions 146, 1954, 174–193.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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64 Vita L. 11, 23, p. 53. G. c. 53 p. 37.
65 Vita L. 11, 19, p. 51. G. c. 50, p. 35.
66 Vita L. 1, 12, p. 29. G. c. 7, p. 12. On his death, see the reassuring opinion of Augustine: Ep. 94, 3, CSEL 34, 2, p. 499 ‘maternae humilitatis nobilitatem, si veste non gesserit, mente praetulerit’. In his relations with Augustine he had shown himself nothing if not scrupulous, Epp. 46 and 47, CSEL 34, 123–136.
67 Vita L. 1, 11–13, pp. 28–31 and G. c. 11–13, pp. 14–16. The date of this interview with Serena, 404, does not coincide with the evidence for the death of Publicola, mentioned there, but ascribed to 407–8 on the basis of the correspondence of Augustine with Paulinus. Courcelle, , Rev. Ét. Anc. 53, 1951, 276Google Scholar, n. 1, has, therefore, rejected the account given in the Vita Latina. The date of the interview is taken as resting on other evidence—on the ages of the couple and the coincidence of their marriage with the return of Melania the Elder to Rome, in 397.
68 Zosimus V, 38. Only the Vita G. (c. 14, p. 17) mentions the good relations between Pinianus and Serena.
69 Vita L. 11, 1, p. 42. G. c. 19, p. 19–20. See Manganaro, art. cit. (n. 19), p. 221 where the ‘mors tracta’ of this unknown pagan of the ‘adversus paganos’ may refer to this lynching of the Prefect, Pompeianus.
70 Pelagius, Ep. ad Demetriadem, c. 30, pl. 30, 45. ‘Recens factum est, et quod ipsa audisti, cum ad stridulae buccinae sonum Gothorumque clamorem, lugubri oppressa metu domina orbis Roma contremuit. Vbi tunc nobilitatis ordo ? ubi certi et distincti illius dignitatis gradus? Permista omnia et timore confusa, omni domui planctus et aequalis fuit per cunctos pavor. Vnum erat servus et nobilis. Eadem omnibus imago mortis.’
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73 CIL VI, 1756; Prudentius, Contra Symm. 1, 552 ff.
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86 See esp. Paulinus, Ep. 13, 15, CSEL 29, 96: which emphasizes his isolation ‘Poteras, Roma, illas intentas in apocalypsi minas non timere, si talia semper ederent munera senatores tui’.
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