Shedding Light on a Dark Age: Britain in the Forth and Fifth Centuries
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.
Plague And Changes In Medieval European Society And Economy In The 14th And 15th Centuries
Standards of hygiene in the Middle Ages appeared high enough to prevent diseases as medieval Europeans, contrary to popular beliefs, bathed quite often. However, contact with domestic animals, which were frequently kept in the part of the house reserved for human activity, exposed people to animal-related diseases passed to humans via insects.
Living off the dead : the relationship between emperor cult and the cult of the saints in late antiquity
So while on the surface, Christianity and Roman religion seemed entirely different, it is clear that Christianity drew on certain aspects of Roman religion when establishing major tenets of Christian beliefs.
Classical and Secular Learning among the Irish before the Carolingian Renaissance
Classical and secular learn ing maintained their close association with each other until the end of antiquity, when they gradually became divorced.
Sacred Things and Holy Bodies: Collecting Relics from Late Antiquity to the Early Renaissance
Intimately tied to concepts of wholeness, corporeal integrity, and the resurrection of the body, the collecting of bones and body parts of holy martyrs was an important aspect of the Christian cult of relics already during Antiquity
Doctors as Diplomats in the Sixth Century A.D.
In the Roman world the status of doctor as doctor was never high. When he did achieve repute or rank, that usually depended not upon his practice of medicine as such, but upon the social or political connections that accrued to him from his success in it.
Barbarian Invaders and Roman Collaborators
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.
To Protect, Serve, and Sell Out: The Mongol Imperial Guard and the Roman Praetorian Guard
The first incarnation of the Mongol Imperial Guard differed from the Roman Praetorians, who were, from the moment of their origins, seen as an “elite unit” and an “important arm of the state and a formidable personal military power base.” The Mongol Imperial Guard under com- mand of Chinggis Qan, established in 1206, could be seen in light somewhat contrasting to that of the Romans.
Montaigne and the Sports of Italy
Athletic excellence was an equally strong component of Italian culture in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.
The Pictish Tattoo: Origins of a Myth
By tracing the extant literary references based on Caesar’s remark it is possible to see just how the innocent observation came to apply to a totally different people—how the myth was born.
‘The inordinate excess in apparel’: Sumptuary Legislation in Tudor England
Sumptuary legislation can be defined as a set of regulations, passed down by legislators through statutory law and parliamentary proclamations, that sought to regulate society by dictating what contemporaries could own or wear based on their position within society.
Graeco-Roman Case Histories and their Influence on Medieval Islamic Clinical Accounts
Medieval Islamic medicine has until now been studied primarily through its learned treatises. According to that theoretical corpus, written in Arabic, Islamic medicine mainly constitutes an elaborate systematization and synthesis of earlier Graeco-Roman sources.
The Roman elite and the power of the past: continuity and change in Ostrogothic Italy
This thesis examines the changes forced upon the Roman elite in the evolving political climate of Ostrogothic Italy.
Temptation and Redemption: A Monastic Life in Stone
The monks who wrote the legend of Eugenia and those of the other transvestite women/monks were explicitly including a female in an all male monastic milieu. Women, as a rule, were not allowed in male monastic enclosures; the Rule at Cluny strictly forbade any women to enter the grounds.
Was St Patrick a slave-trading Roman official who fled to Ireland?
With St Patrick’s Day upon us, a new study asks whether the saint fled his native Britain to escape a career as a Roman tax collector, only to arrive in Ireland and sell slaves.
Great Sites: Hamwic
Helena Hamerow on excavations at Southampton, which reshaped our views of the origins of English towns and of long-distance trade in the 8th/9th centuries.
Smashing the Bridge between Roman and Medieval Artillery: The Onager
This paper will attempt to uncover some information about the technological level of artillery used during the decline of the Roman empire and the beginning of the middle ages (300 AD – 600 AD). Although several types of artillery were used during this time, only the onager seems to have been unique to the period.
The continuity of Roman water supply systems in post-Roman Spain: the case of Valentia, a reliable example?
This paper will thus be structured in several sections. First it will be necessary to approach the topic of Roman water supply systems as a whole, their direct relationship with urbanism and city-dwellers, and how these monuments were a clear indicator of Romanitas, even in the post-Roman period.
Roman Architectural Spolia
My charge is to say something about spolia that illuminates the theme “Rome: The Tide of Influence.” “Influence” is another term requiring definition.
The Medieval and Renaissance Transmission of the Tabula Peutingeriana
Some time ago close correspondences were discovered between the content of the Tabula and a very unusual text composed in the eighth century, the Cosmographia of the Anonymous of Ravenna.
Relations between the Late Roman World and Barbarian Europe in the Light of Coin Finds
And so, during a period of well developed exchange between the Roman Empire and the Barbaricum, coinciding with the Golden Age and the House of Antonine, Roman coins started to flow more intensively in the reign of the last two Antonine emperors.