This collection of papers arose from an international symposium held at the University Charles de Gaulle – Lille III in November 2010. It pays tribute to J. Demulliez, emeritus professor of Christian history in the same University and kingpin of the PCBE.
Various studies are gathered around a main theme: Roman prosopographical research, with a special emphasis on Late Antiquity. This volume shows both the renewal of this method, and the diversity of the sources and tools it uses. Seventeen essays cover a great variety of themes and span a wide period, from the first century b.c. to the seventh century a.d. It is difficult to do justice to so many highly insightful and incisive studies in a short review. I will provide the substance of each essay, followed by some concise comments.
A short foreword by H.-v.C. and P. Jaillette presents some of the main achievements of the prosopographical method, notably in the study of Late Antiquity. It is followed by two introductory papers. The first one by B. is a useful historiographical and methodological summary of prosopography. Then H.-v.C. evokes in a few pages the rich scientific and academic career of J. Demulliez.
In his programmatic and interesting second contribution, B. emphasises the necessity to renew the prosopography of the usurpers, from Claudius to Theodosius, by comparing epigraphic, numismatic and papyrological sources, and focusing on the symbolic dimension of the imperator Caesar Augustus recognition, and the dialectic of legitimisation or delegitimisation of imperial power. Contra the literary clichés conveyed by the SHA, he shows that the usurpers were very close to the normative models of legitimate emperors.
The very challenging paper of M.-L. Bonsangue focuses on the fifteen equites Romani she has identified in the colonia of Narbonne, from a very early date (the 70s–60s b.c. with the Fabii Maximi) until the second century a.d. Her renewed interpretation of the inscription of the Ara Numinis Augusti leads her to think that there were probably more equites in Narbonne than has previously been thought. Some of them were of Italian origin, others were the descendants of Caesarian veterans, who had long careers in the service of the Empire.
A. Álvarez Melero presents an inventory of women related to equestrian officers from the African and Spanish provinces. Despite the scarcity of epigraphic sources, his precise and exhaustive work underlines the numerous exogamic unions in this group, and the concentration of these women in the provincial capitals, in cities enjoying a privileged status (Latin or Roman colonies, municipia) or in early Romanised and economically dynamic regions, where they had numerous public or private activities (flaminicate, dedications …) as well as in their patria.
M. Kantiréa focuses on the holders of political power or religious authority in Cyprus after 293. The governors, first equestrian praesides, then from the second half of the fourth century viri clarissimi of consular rank, acting on the emperor's behalf, developed an intense building activity. From the fifth century onwards, the clergy, thanks to the imperial legislation, tended to substitute for the ancient local nobility (which abandoned its initial opposition to conversion), exercised justice and developed euergetic activities, a Christian urbanism, as well as a growing independence towards the patriarch of Antioch.
F. Van Haeperen compiles a provisional list of 320 dedications from Ostia, which allow her to study the offerings linked to a ‘community’, as actor or receptor of these gifts. More than the dedications issued by the civic community and its representatives, she focuses her attention on the dedications produced within the context of the many associations and colleges (where freedmen had an important role), professional or neighbourhood associations (having a predilection for Mithra), as well as specific groups such as soldiers, slaves, freedmen or religious communities.
M.-O. Charles-Laforge studies the public priestesses of Venus in Pompeii through the epigraphic attestations of women from five of the most important Pompeian gentes: the Mamii, the Eumachii, the Holconii, the Istacidii and the Alleii. Combining the prestige of this priesthood with their social status as members of these gentes, their important and various financial resources, and euergetic activity, they received honours equal to eminent men in the city.
J. Vilella presents the pre-Nicaean biography of Hosius of Cordoba, the first and the main member of the πρόεδροι of the Council of Nicaea. His historic-philological analysis leads him to underline the proximity of the Cordoban with Constantine, obvious in the beginning of the Donatist schism. Sent by the emperor to Alexandria in 324, he was put in charge of the organisation of a synod to solve the problems brought up by the Arian controversy. As later in Antioch or Nicaea (325), Hosius conformed then to the anti-Arian line of bishop Alexander.
The contribution of J.A. Jiménez-Sánchez hinges on the so-called Chronica Caesaraugustana, long attributed to Maximus of Zaragoza, but in fact a collection of anonymous notes made from different sources in the margin of earlier chronicles, in an unknown place of Tarraconensis. The manuscript tradition moved some of these notes, creating dating errors. Carefully rereading it in the light of the few indications provided by Isidorus of Seville, J.A. Jiménez-Sánchez reconstructs the chronology of Gesalic's brief reign over Visigothic Spain, between 508 and 510.
F. Prévot shows with great insight how Sidonius Apollinaris constructed through his correspondence and its very structure an idealised picture of himself, especially in the first three books, then in the first published anthology (477/478). The layout of the letters, beyond literary or chronological considerations, displays his desire to justify his public action, to construct the image of a great aristocrat, and to stand for what was really important to him, friendship, culture, the pastoral role of bishops and the importance of the Church in difficult times.
In the Vita of Hilary of Poitiers by Venantius Fortunatus, subject of the brilliant paper by L. Pietri, the reworking of earlier sources two centuries after Hilary's death reveals an evolution in the sanctity ideal. The Episcopal charisma of the bishop and his thaumaturgic powers were magnified to meet the expectations of readers. Venantius credited Hilary with two miracles performed by his disciple Martin of Tours, adding a third one, praising the ideal of virginity, in order to link him to the nuns of Radegund's monastery.
P. Maymó I Capdevilla develops a comprehensive study, mainly through the Registrum of Gregory the Great, on the Byzantine military hierarchy in Byzantine Italy at the time of the Lombard threat. The local administration seems to have been characterised by its militarisation, its hierarchical mobility and its great adaptability. The predominance of autochthonous elements shows the militarisation of Italian society and the high level of social integration of the military officers.
In his stimulating contribution, C. Buenacasa Pérez shows how wealth, originally condemned by the early Church Fathers, was admitted, through its use for charity, by the moral treatises of Cyprian of Carthage and Clement of Alexandria. This explains the many mentions of wealth in the Vitae of the fourth and fifth centuries. Their prosopographical value, however, is doubtful, since the monks are stereotypically pictured renouncing wealth. For monk-bishops, who mostly did not, biographers insist on their spiritual wealth, the way they used their material wealth in charities, or their austerity.
R. Villegas Marín proposes a convincing reading of some literary accounts of Gallo-Roman aristocrats converted to asceticism at the beginning of the fifth century. Those who went through this period of socio-economic crisis without losing their social position explained their conversio by the divine grace. On the other hand, those who lost everything tended to give a more providentialist interpretation. These diversae vocationes explain the opposition of the Provençal monks to the Augustinian theology of grace.
This very rich display of important and original essays has a true methodological dimension, as S. Demougin reminds us in her concluding remarks, completing and illustrating a former volume of similar ambitions (A. Cameron [ed.], Fifty Years of Prosopography: the Later Roman Empire, Byzantium and Beyond [2003]). Moreover, the numerous and eclectic avenues of research these papers propose underline the vitality of such studies. Mixing prosopographical and biographical approaches to the ancient world, this book constitutes a landmark in these studies.
