Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD: Performing Paideia, Constructing the Present, Presenting the Self

by Lieve Van Hoof, Peter Van Nuffelen

Overview

Late Antiquity is often assumed to have witnessed the demise of literature as a social force and its retreat into the school and the private reading room: whereas the sophists of the Second Sophistic were influential social players, their late antique counterparts are thought to have been overshadowed by bishops. Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD argues that this presumed difference should be attributed less to a fundamental change in the role of literature than to different scholarly methodologies with which Greek and Latin texts from the second and the fourth century are being studied. Focusing on performance, the literary construction of reality and self-presentation, this volume highlights how literature continued to play an important role in fourth-century elite society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789004278486
Publisher:	Brill Academic Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	11/15/2014
Series:	Mnemosyne, Supplements Series , #373
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	260
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Lieve Van Hoof, Ph.D. (2006), K.U.Leuven, is post-doctoral research fellow at Ghent University, Belgium. Her publications include a monograph on Plutarch’s practical ethics (Oxford, 2010) and an edited volume on Libanius (Cambridge, 2014). She is currently preparing a monograph on the letters of Libanius.

Peter Van Nuffelen, Ph.D. (2003), K.U.Leuven, is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent University, Belgium. He has published widely on Roman philosophy and religion and on late antique historiography, including monographs on Socrates and Sozomen (Leuven, 2004) and Orosius (Oxford, 2012).

Contributors: Clare Coombe, Roald Dijkstra, Bertrand Lançon, Morwenna Ludlow, Neil McLynn, Sigrid Mratschek, Lieve Van Hoof, Peter Van Nuffelen, Mark Vessey, John Weisweiler.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations vii

Notes on the Contributors viii

1 The Social Role and Place of Literature in the Fourth Century AD Lieve Van Hoof Peter Van Nuffelen 1

2 Literary History: A Fourth-Century Roman Invention? Mark Vessey 16

3 Militia philosophorum: Le rôle des lettrés dans l'entourage des empereurs remains dw ive siècle Bertrand Lançon 31

4 Gregory's Governors: Paideia and Patronage in Cappadocia Neil McLynn 48

5 Lobbying through Literature: Libanius, For the Teachers (Oration 31) Lieve Van Hoof 68

6 Texts, Teachers and Pupils in the Writings of Gregory of Nyssa Morwenna Ludlow 83

7 Unreliable Witness: Failings of the Narrative in Ammianus Marcellinus John Weisweiler 103

8 A Living Relic for the Vicar of Rome: Strategies of Visualization in a Civil Case Sigrid Mratschek 134

9 A Hero in our Midst: Stilicho as a Literary Construct in the Poetry of Claudian Clare Coombe 157

10 The Apostles as Instruments of Social Engagement: The Poetical Bopresentation of the Apostles as a Means of Influencing Society Roald Dijhstra 180

11 A War of Words: Sermons and Social Status in Constantinople under the Theodosian Dynasty Peter Van Nuffelen 201

Bibliography 219

Index 242

Editorial Reviews

"Lieve Van Hoof and Peter Van Nuffelen’s excellent new volume (...) is successful in illuminating numerous examples of how texts constructed versions of reality, and images of their authors, to deal with specific situations. In fact, it is this close attention to details of text and context that characterises the volume’s most significant insights. (...) [A]s a whole this impressive volume demonstrates the benefits of applying techniques from the study of earlier imperial literature to works from late antiquity" Richard Flower, Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2015.10.25.

From the Publisher