scholarly journals Drakoncjusz w więzieniu: siła poezji przeciwko sile władzy

Vox Patrum ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 69 ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Natalia Cichoń
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Cultural Background ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Royal Court ◽  
African People ◽  
Important Message ◽  
Peculiar Character ◽  
Similar Basis

In this paper I examine presumed reasons for the imprisonment of the Carthaginian poet of the fifth century A.D., Blossius Aemilius Dracontius. He wrote a panegyric for a dominus ignotus making a political faux pas – in the result Guntamund, the vandal king, imprisoned him – analyzing Dracontius’s poetry and taking into consideration the political and the cultural background I aim to find out who was the most probable recipient of the poem. These reflections lead in the conclusion to the presentation of the peculiar character of the agreement between Romano-African people and barbarians, mostly on the cultural and literary level. In his poetry Dracontius gives us very important message about the relations be­tween the educated classes of both nations on the Vandal royal court – we can as­sume that in the Vandal Kingdom still existed literary patronage on a very similar basis as it existed earlier in the Roman Empire.

scholarly journals Selective Memory: Augustine and Contemporary Just War Discourse

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Lee
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Just War ◽  
Religious Faith ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Augustine Of Hippo ◽  
Tony Blair ◽  
British Prime Minister ◽  
Imperial Politics ◽  
Moral Justifications

AbstractRecent moral justifications of military intervention in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq have drawn upon just war concepts set out by Augustine of Hippo in the early fifth century. Augustine, writing as the political hegemony of the Roman Empire was ebbing away, provides a valuable touchstone for anyone engaged in analysing the complex interplay of power, war, morality and religious faith. Like most of the problems Augustine addressed in his writings, his attitude to just war was rooted in a potent mix of imperial politics, concern for individual souls and establishing and defending church orthodoxy. Though his personal telos was to be found in the Heavenly City, Augustine did not try to avoid the difficulties of dealing with the contradictions involved in the Christian's encounter with the decidedly ungodly Earthly City. Though he never ruled out the need for political power to be wielded through the medium of martial force, Augustine would only accede to such action with great reluctance. This article investigates aspects of the use and misuse of Augustine and his ideas in both the political and academic arenas in the justification of recent military interventions. Analysis of statements made by the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the book Just War Against Terror by American political theorist Jean Bethke Elshtain will show how Augustinian concepts have been used selectively to serve broader political agendas. Blair and Elshtain have been chosen for this study because they were both, in their respective fields, influential figures who advocated the 2003 invasion of Iraq; they are both declared Christians; Elshtain has explicitly associated herself with Blair's approach; and they both rejected any notion of religious crusade in the aforementioned interventions. By considering casus belli which included self-defence, opposing evil and liberating the oppressed, this article will demonstrate that the selective use of Augustine would eventually weaken the very case it was meant to strengthen. In the process, commonalities and discontinuities between Augustine's ideas in their original context and their application in the present will be highlighted. The article concludes that, in the process of using Augustinian concepts to justify recent military action, his renowned reticence regarding the use of force was undermined.

Getting Over Athens

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Wiater
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
New Model ◽  
Dionysius Of Halicarnassus ◽  
The One

This chapter examines the ambivalent image of Classical Athens in Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Roman Antiquities. This image reflects a deep-seated ambiguity of Dionysius’ Classicist ideology: on the one hand, there is no question for Dionysius that Athenocentric Hellenicity failed, and that the Roman empire has superseded Athens’ role once and for all as the political and cultural centre of the oikoumene. On the other, Dionysius accepted Rome’s supremacy as legitimate partly because he believed (and wanted his readers to believe) her to be the legitimate heir of Classical Athens and Classical Athenian civic ideology. As a result, Dionysius develops a new model of Hellenicity for Roman Greeks loyal to the new political and cultural centre of Rome. This new model of Greek identity incorporates and builds on Classical Athenian ideals, institutions, and culture, but also supersedes them.

Christograms as Signs of Authority in the Late Roman Empire

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ildar Garipzanov
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Final Section ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Rhetorical Device ◽  
Early Christian ◽  
Courtly Culture ◽  
Diachronic Change ◽  
Late Roman

The first section tests the main interpretations of Lactantius’ passage on Constantine’s victorious sign in 312 against existing graphic evidence from the 310s and early 320s, and consequently supports the interpretation of Lactantius’ description as a rhetorical device invented or modified by the Christian narrator. The next two sections support the argument that the perception of the chi-rho as Constantine’s triumphant sign became entrenched in courtly culture and public mentalities from the mid-320s onwards, and trace the diachronic change of the chi-rho from its paramount importance as an imperial sign of authority under the Constantinian dynasty to its hierarchic usage alongside the tau-rho and cross in the Theodosian period. The final section presents a contextualized discussion of the encolpion of Empress Maria and mosaics from several early baptisteries, illustrating the paradigmatic importance the chi-rho and tau-rho for early Christian graphicacy around the turn of the fifth century.

Gods Save the King

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna-Maria Hartmann
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Civil Wars ◽  
The Political ◽  
Roman Religion ◽  
Religious Conflicts ◽  
Fear Of God ◽  
Moral Superiority

In Alexander Ross’s Mel Heliconium (1642) and Pansebeia (1653), the ancient gods and the stories surrounding them are the product of the greatly successful civil theology of the Roman Empire. Ross’s first mythography was written to intervene, on the royalist and Laudian side, in the political and religious conflicts of the Civil Wars. In such times, the virtuous Romans and their use of religion could provide a positive example for governing England. Ross’s portrayal of Roman religion dissociates it from the disreputable beginnings of paganism and emphasizes its monotheism, rationality, moral superiority, and charity. In their undisputed political wisdom, ideal princes of the Roman Empire championed religion because they knew that this would stabilize their reign and keep people in order through the fear of God. Ross’s mythographical work attempts to re-create the ancient function of the fables, by using them to restore the people’s fear of God and king.

المساعي السياسية والإصلاحية للإمام أبي الوليد الباجي

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 537-548
Author(s):  
Sebbane Habib ◽  
Omar Boukhri
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
Political Situation ◽  
Islamic Jurisprudence ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Umayyad Caliphate ◽  
Scientific Life

After the fall of the Umayyad Caliphate, the Andalusian Islamic state witnessed a political rupture as a result of chaos, rivalries and sectarian conflicts throughout the fifth century AH corresponding to the eleventh century AD. These dangerous security breakdowns led to the disintegration and division of the Islamic Caliphate in Andalusia into a group of independent kingdoms and small emirates which ultimately found themselves on one hand in permanent wars between them, and on the other in skirmishes with the neighbouring Christian forces. This fact contributed to lack of stability and peace of these lands and the establishment of weak governing systems for a long time. This political situation stressed the worsening of their social conditions and their scientific life. Nevertheless, this situation generated a motivating nostalgia and rage in some scholars and jurists such as Imam Abū al-Walīd al-Bājī who is considered one of the key-figures and scholars of Andalusia. He had a prominent role in pushing forward and reviving scientific life by setting various new foundations in order to reform some fields. His writings were directed for educational purposes. Besides, he included the reform of Islamic jurisprudence, which was aimed primarily for jurists and rulers. Furthermore, some of his writings were sermons and ethical moral instructions for commoners. His endeavours led him to enter the political life as he assumed the judicial profession of a judge, that enabled him to be in more touch with the various kings of sects giving him the chance to advise and guide them. His efforts in that end resulted in seeking to reunite the kings of the sects and their princes under the banner of Islam and unite their forces for the defence of Muslim presence in Andalusia against the Christian threat.

Gildas and his prophecy for Britain

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Stephen Joyce
Keyword(s):  
Political Power ◽  
Church Leaders ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Sixth Century ◽  
The Political

In his De excidio Britanniae, Gildas systematically set out to admonish the morally corrupt secular and church leaders of partitioned fifth- or sixth-century Britain, calling for repentance, unity, and obedience to God's law in order to restore his beloved patria. Examining Gildas' use of rhetorical and biblical legitimations, this paper will argue that his warning of divine judgement for sin was inspired by a scriptural revelation that directly equated partitioned Britain with a divided biblical Israel just prior to the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians. In doing so, Gildas, drawing on both Jeremiah, prophet to the nations, and Paul, apostle to the nations, strikingly claimed prophecy. It will be argued that Gildas' unique prophecy for Britain, built on respect for romanitas, fear of de praesenti iudicio, and a singular providential claim to the inheritance of Israel, defined the political power of his natio not by gens but by obedience to God's law. In doing so, Gildas appears to draw on cultural, literary, and religious themes more appropriate to the late-fifth century than the mid-sixth century.

scholarly journals Islam's Attitude towards Democracy Comparative Study in International Human Rights Law

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Suhail Hussein Al-Fatlawi
Keyword(s):  
Legal System ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
The Political ◽  
Islamic State ◽  
International Human Rights Law ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Muslim Scholars

<p>Democracy was established in the Greek cities in the fifth century B.C. It is a liberal western system. In this regard, various Islamic countries applied democracy as a political and legal system where the people elect their representatives in the legislative authority in order to put the legal regulations that organize the human behavior.</p>The research included a brief idea about liberal democracy, its history and objectives, the political and legal system in the Islamic state, the dispute among Muslim scholars on the application of democracy in the Islamic states; some Muslim scholars refuse to apply democracy since the legal system in Islam relies on the Holly Qor'an and the Prophet's speeches, which are a biding regulation for Muslims, while other authors believe that Islam accepts democracy and others think that Islam should have its special democracy that differs from the liberal democracy. This paper discussed the political and legal systems that were applied the Islamic state during the history of Islam. Finally the paper presented the most conclusions and recommendations reached by the researcher.

The Date and Circumstances of Olympiodorus of Thebes

Traditio ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 48 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gillett
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Imperial Court ◽  
Political Narrative ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Western Half

Olympiodorus of Thebes is an important figure for the history of late antiquity. The few details of his life preserved as anecdotes in hisHistorygive glimpses of a career which embraced the skills of poet, philosopher, and diplomat. A native of Egypt, he had influence at the imperial court of Constantinople, among the sophists of Athens, and even outside the borders of the empire. HisHistory(more correctly, his “materials for history”) is lost, surviving only as fragments in the narratives of Zosimus, Sozomen, and Philostorgius, and in the rich summary given by the ninth-century Byzantine patriarch Photius. These remains comprise the most substantial narrative sources for events in the western Roman Empire in the early fifth century. Besides its value as a source, theHistoryis important as a monument to the vitality of the belief in the unity of the Roman Empire under the Theodosian dynasty. Olympiodorus wrote in Greek, and knowledge of his work is attested only in Constantinople, yet his political narrative, from 407 to 425, concerns only events in the western half of the empire. To understand the significance of these facts, it is necessary to set the composition of Olympiodorus's work in its proper context. Clarifying the date of publication is the first step toward this goal. Internal and external evidence suggests that the work was written in 440 or soon after, more than a decade later than the date of composition usually accepted. Taken with thematic emphases evident in the structure of theHistory, this revised dating explains why an eastern writer should have written a detailed account of western events in the early part of the century. Olympiodorus's account is a characteristic product of the highly literate class of eastern imperial civil servants, and of their genuine preoccupation with the relationship between the eastern and western halves of the Roman Empire at a time when both were threatened by the rise of the new Carthaginian power of the Vandals.

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