Under the year 475 Victor recounts a unique version of the last days of the young emperor Leo II, the son of Zeno and Ariadne, grandson of the emperor Leo I and his wife Verina.
The Anglo-Saxon influence on Romano-Britain : research past and present
July 17, 2013 By
The Romano-British to Anglo-Saxon transition in Britain is one of the most striking transitions seen in the archaeological record. Changes in burial practice between these periods, along with historical, anthropological, environmental and linguistic evidence have all been thought to indicate that a mass migration of Angles and Saxons into Britain occurred in the 5th century A.D.
Settlement and Taxes: the Vandals in North Africa
April 14, 2013 By
With the Vandals, the migration of Northern barbarians flowed into a region that had of course been weakened by innumerable internal crises but was still essentially wealthy, productive and well governed.
Brigit: Goddess, Saint, ‘Holy Woman,’ and Bone of Contention
March 4, 2013 By
Brigit1 and Patrick, two saints from the beginnings of Christianity in Ireland in the fifth century CE, retain their popularity with Catholic Christians to this day.
The British Kingdom of Lindsey
February 3, 2013 By
The first piece of evidence which offers support for the above contention comes from the kingdom-name ‘Lindsey’ itself. Two forms of this name exist in Anglo-Saxon sources, reflecting two different Old English suffixes:6 Lindissi (later Lindesse, as used by Bede and the earliest manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle)7 and Lindesig…
Rebaptism as a Ritual of Cultural Integration in Vandal Africa
January 6, 2013 By
Midway through the first book of his History of the Vandal Persecution, Victor of Vita narrates the story of a Vandal master who deemed it appropriate to allow his two Roman slaves, Martinianus and Maxima, to marry.
New Testament from the oldest complete Bible available online for the first time
December 18, 2012 By
The New Testament volume from one of the British Library’s most valuable treasures, Codex Alexandrinus, has been made available online for the first time on the British Library’s website.
Ecclesiastics and Ascetics: Finding Spiritual Authority in Fifth and Sixth Century Palestine
October 4, 2012 By
In the context of ongoing christological controversy and division within eastern Christianity, the relationship between ecclesiastic and ascetic authority is a fruitful avenue of investigation.
A Distant World: Russian Relations with Europe Before Peter the Great
October 4, 2012 By
Despite their isolation and poverty, the Slavic plowmen succeeded in settling this unforgiving region, expanding their numbers, and, most importantly, creating the beginnings of a trading network along the many rivers of the region—the western Dvina, the Volkhov, the northern Dvina, and the Dniepr and its tributaries.
The Gallic Aristocracy and the Roman Imperial government in the fifth century A.D.
September 23, 2012 By
The recovery, however, proved to be too superficial for the continuing prosperity of either Gaul or the Western Roman Empire. The problems of the imperial government continued with little relief. The government still had to drive out and keep out the barbarians…
Clovis: How Barbaric, How Pagan?
August 18, 2012 By
The mainstream portrait of Clovis, still dominant in English and American writing, derives its many negative features from secondary sources written a half-century or more after his death and abounding in grossly unreliable anecdotes.
Shedding Light on a Dark Age: Britain in the Forth and Fifth Centuries
August 17, 2012 By
This paper seeks to examine the fourth and fifth centuries in Britain in order to address the issue of collapse versus continuity after the end of the Roman state.
Barbarian Invaders and Roman Collaborators
July 13, 2012 By
In a law drawn up on December 10, 408 (CTh 10.10.25) Honorius stated that a barbarian inroad was expected in Illyricum, and that numbers of
the inhabitants had taken flight to other provinces. He declared that their freedom was therefore in danger: they were likely to be kidnapped by unscrupulous men and enslaved.
‘Arthritis’ in Byzantium (AD 324-1453): unknown information from non-medical literary sources
June 24, 2012 By
Most Byzantine physicians described several types of arthritis that resemble rheumatoid arthritis, chronic deformans polyarthritis and gout.
VAGANTES: Necessary Imperfection: The Body of Sainte Marie l’Egyptienne
March 30, 2012 By
This paper seeks to examine the role of the body and its relationship to the world around it in the “vie de sainte” of Marie l’Egyptienne, who is an excellent example of a female saint who begins life as a sinner and transforms her body into something holy. This presentation will focus on the version of Marie l’Egyptienne’s life written by Rutebeuf in the 13th century, but will also bring in elements of other versions and of the stories of other female saints who transform their bodies for comparison.
The Conversion to Christianity in Medieval Ireland: St. Patrick vs. St. Bridget
March 17, 2012 By
Both St. Bridget and St. Patrick are patron saints of Ireland, but each had very different methods of converting people to Christianity from paganism during medieval times in Ireland.
A tragic case of complicated labour in early Byzantium (404 A.D.)
January 10, 2012 By
The study of the works of celebrated physicians of that era reveals that many of them had especially been occupied with the specialties of gynecology and obstetrics.
Christianity and burial in late Iron Age Scotland, AD 400-650
January 9, 2012 By
In the period after the fall of Rome and before the Vikings, Scotland became a Christian society, but there are few historical documents to help understand how this happened.
The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the Biography of Objects
January 8, 2012 By
The cemeteries contained the remains of not less than 867 people, some of whom died in childhood, but all of whom, if they had survived the first few years of life…
Visigoths and Romans: Integration and Ethnicity
November 15, 2011 By
The year was 414 and Galla Placidia, Roman princess and half-sister of Honorius, emperor of the Western Empire, sat next to Athaulf, barbarian king of the Visigoths
St Benedict of Nursia: the Birth of Western Monasticism
October 23, 2011 By
St Benedict of Nursia: the Birth of Western Monasticism Steele, Helen Published Online, Guernicus.com (2006) Abstract St Benedict of Nursia was the founder of western monasticism and an important figure in the early medieval church. Eschewing the dissolute lifestyle of Rome, he became an ascetic hermit, and then as others began to flock to him, he […]
A Late Antique Crossbow Fibula in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
October 23, 2011 By
A Late Antique Crossbow Fibula in the Metropolitan Museum of Art Deppert-Lippitz, Barbara Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 35 (2000) Abstract In 1995 The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired a gold brooch of a type generally known as the crossbow fibula (Figures 1, 2).’ At 11.9 centimeters in length (about 411/16 in.), with a weight of 78.4 grams, […]
Theoderic, the Goths, and the Restoration of the Roman Empire
October 13, 2011 By
The role of the nobility in the creation of Gallo-Frankish society in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD
October 9, 2011 By
The role of the nobility in the creation of Gallo-Frankish society in the late fifth and sixth centuries AD Wood, Catrin Mair Lewis PhD Thesis, University of Nottingham (2002) Abstract The aim of this dissertation is to explore the contribution made by the nobility, both Gallo-Roman and Frankish, to the creation of a new society after […]
Hierusalem in Laterano: Translation of Sacred Space in Fifth-Century Rome
October 5, 2011 By
Hierusalem in Laterano: Translation of Sacred Space in Fifth-Century Rome By Christian Sahner New Jerusalems: Hierotopy and Iconography of Sacred Spaces, edited by Alexei Lidov (Moscow, 2009) Introduction: Richard Krautheimer was the first to remark on the building surge that took place in the southeast of Rome during the course of the fifth century: “Centered […]
How you can Follow Us!