- History, Social History, Ancient History, Roman North Africa, Late Antiquity, History of Sociability, and 14 moreRoman social history, Roman North Africa (Archaeology), Early Christianity, Late Antiquity, Reading Habits/Attitudes, Rumor and Gossip, Contentious Politics, Collective Action, Poverty, Popular Culture, History from Below, Roman History, Roman Archaeology, Late Antique Archaeology, and Roman urban craftsedit
- Julio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira teaches Ancient History at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo state, Brazil). H... moreJulio Cesar Magalhães de Oliveira teaches Ancient History at the University of São Paulo (São Paulo state, Brazil). He completed his Bachelor and Masters in History in the Brazilian University of Campinas (São Paulo state), before continuing his thesis research in France from 2002 to 2006. He has a doctorate in history and archeology of the ancient worlds of the University Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defense. From 2008 to 2013 he taught Ancient History at the University of Londrina (Parana state, Brazil). His researches centre on the social history of non-elites in the Roman world, especially in Late Antiquity, with a particular focus in popular politics, collective action and forms of sociability. His research interests also include the rural and urban history and archaeology of Roman North Africa and the dynamics of religious identities in Late Antiquity. He is currently working on a comparative study of rumour and politics in the Late Roman Republic and the Later Empire.edit
Augustine’s Sermon 24 is a valuable testimony to the ambiguous situation in which the statues of gods were found in the cities of the late Roman Empire after the banning of pagan worship. The sermon was pronounced in Carthage at the... more
Augustine’s Sermon 24 is a valuable testimony to the ambiguous situation in which the statues of gods were found in the cities of the late Roman Empire after the banning of pagan worship. The sermon was pronounced in Carthage at the beginning of the 5th century in a context of serious tensions between pagans and Christians (and even within the Catholic community). A group of pagans had restored a statue of Hercules that was famous in the city. This had provoked the indignation of the Christians and the removal of the golden beard of the statue in circumstances humiliating to the pagans. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the context, perceptions and political issues underlying these opposing attempts to restore and reject a divine statue.
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The disputes between the Catholic and Donatist churches of North Africa from the early fourth to the early fifth century had never been confined to the scholarly debate. Throughout the controversy, the leaders of both parties had employed... more
The disputes between the Catholic and Donatist churches of North Africa from the early fourth to the early fifth century had never been confined to the scholarly debate. Throughout the controversy, the leaders of both parties had employed numerous tactics to persuade the common people of the rightness of their cause, and to guarantee their loyalty and support. By composing popular songs, spreading pamphlets and rumours, or even mobilizing ordinary Christians for the seizure and occupation of basilicas, the church leaders had made the faithful their partners in the dispute. After the Vandal conquest, the theological confrontations between Arians and Catholics also resulted in a vast literature of combat, the opposition between the two Churches still had as stake the control of the basilicas, and the Arian clergy developed from the start a real missionary project. The problem is to know whether the popular mobilization remained as important as it had been during the Donatist controversy. The purpose of this paper is to assess the nature of crowd movements and the extent of the engagement of ordinary Christians in this new war of religions.
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[Forthcoming] Controllers of Crowds? Popular Mobilization and Episcopal Leadership in Late Roman North Africa (In: MANDERS, E.; SLOOTJES, D. eds. Leadership, Ideology and Crowds in the Roman Empire of the 4th century CE. Leuven: Peters. 'Interdisciplinary Studies in Ancient Culture and Religion').more
The fourth century CE witnessed the rise of a new and more assertive type of church leadership, especially in the context of the religious controversies. Developing new forms of communication with ordinary Christians to mobilize their... more
The fourth century CE witnessed the rise of a new and more assertive type of church leadership, especially in the context of the religious controversies. Developing new forms of communication with ordinary Christians to mobilize their support, they also brought into being new forms of popular power. Scholars have not failed to note this more active engagement of urban crowds in the fourth and early fifth centuries. But their preferred approaches have mainly been ‘top-down’, focusing on the role of leaderships or on the broader structures of social control. We must not forget, however, as scholars of other periods have noted, that it is not enough to point out the existence of social strain or structural conditions to explain popular engagement. We must also remember that ‘contentious politics is not born out of organizers’ heads but is culturally inscribed and socially communicated’ (Tarrow). Taking into account these warnings, the objective of this essay is to apply a more bottom-up approach to study of popular collective action in the cities of North Africa in fourth and early fifth century CE, as revealed in our written sources and more specifically in the works of St Augustine. By starting from the pursuit of the basic principles of collective action as proposed by sociologists and historians of other periods, we may stand a better chance to understand how urban crowds could be mobilized by, against or independently of bishops and to balance the respective roles of leaders and masses in the age of Augustine.
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Popular culture may be understood as a system of shared values, attitudes and meanings, and the symbolic forms in which they are embodied. Although this definition may be seen as fruitful, it frequently resulted in approaches to culture... more
Popular culture may be understood as a system of shared values, attitudes and meanings, and the symbolic forms in which they are embodied. Although this definition may be seen as fruitful, it frequently resulted in approaches to culture aloof to conflict. But culture may be also treated as an arena of conflicting elements that only take form as a system in specific circumstances: in this sense “popular culture” may be seen as a framework, a habitus or, in the words of E. P. Thompson, as a pool of diverse resources that can be situated within its proper material abode. In light of this, instead of classifying the objects of culture along previous established lines, it will be more fruitful to pay attention to the state of play in cultural relations. The objective of this essay is to explore the implications of this approach to the study of plebeian forms of communication and sociability in late-Roman cities. After summarizing the specific context in which these popular practices had developed, we focused in the specific context of the North African cities in Late Antiquity, as expressed in the works of St Augustine. As we shall see, the plebeian culture of discussion that characterized these late-antique cities could not be seen as a world of its own, nor as the simple by-product of the culture of the elite. On the contrary, practices like rumour and gossip, the public reading of books and pamphlets and the many forms of social protest were only shaped in an arena of conflicting interests. In Late Antiquity, these traditions were mobilized and energized by a new and more assertive type of church leadership that no longer attempted only to contain and dismiss, but actively engage and transform the cultures of the common people. Nevertheless, being never entirely controlled by the social, political or religious elites of the time, these practices not only shaped popular values, but also favoured the adaptation, the transformation and even the subversion by the common people of anything that was conveyed to them.
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O estudo da guerra possui larga tradição e continua mais atual do que nunca. Nos últimos anos, as abordagens sobre a guerra multiplicaram-se. A própria humanidade foi ligada, por diversos estudiosos, ao surgimento e diversificação dos... more
O estudo da guerra possui larga tradição e continua mais atual do que nunca. Nos últimos anos, as abordagens sobre a guerra multiplicaram-se. A própria humanidade foi
ligada, por diversos estudiosos, ao surgimento e diversificação dos conflitos bélicos, há
milhares de anos, no Pleistoceno. O economista Mark Bowles liga o altruísmo humano ao combate entre grupos humanos e relaciona, portanto, o surgimento da cultura, daquilo que
caracteriza os agrupamentos humanos, com a guerra.
ligada, por diversos estudiosos, ao surgimento e diversificação dos conflitos bélicos, há
milhares de anos, no Pleistoceno. O economista Mark Bowles liga o altruísmo humano ao combate entre grupos humanos e relaciona, portanto, o surgimento da cultura, daquilo que
caracteriza os agrupamentos humanos, com a guerra.
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Compared to the scholarly interest in popular politics in Classical Greece or Republican Rome, the study of the urban plebs of the Later Roman Empire has been remarkably neglected, despite the recurrent discussions about urban violence in... more
Compared to the scholarly interest in popular politics in Classical Greece or Republican Rome, the study of the urban plebs of the Later Roman Empire has been remarkably neglected, despite the recurrent discussions about urban violence in the period. This book is an attempt to reverse this situation for the particular context of the North African provinces, from the beginning of the fourth century to the Vandal conquest. Its main objective is to understand the forms and conditions of popular participation and collective action in the cities of North Africa, by placing them in the broader context of economic activities, social relations, and cultural traditions of the plebs. In order to explore the logic inherent in each crowd action, the author analyses a number of episodes of popular intervention revealed by 4th- and 5th-centuries ecclesiastical sources, and particularly by the sermons and letters of Saint Augustine. These case studies are preceded by a more general analysis of the textual and archaeological evidence on the formative experiences of the plebeian life: work, dwelling conditions, and networks of sociability. This wider context is intended to furnish a better understanding of the bases on which the members of the urban plebs could establish relations of group solidarity and cultivate a political culture that prescribed and legitimized their forms of collective action.
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The universal presence of rumours that precede and accompany riots everywhere in the world and everywhere in history had for long led scholars to interpret the phenomenon as a sort of social disease. According to this view, rumours that... more
The universal presence of rumours that precede and accompany riots everywhere in the world and everywhere in history had for long led scholars to interpret the phenomenon as a sort of social disease. According to this view, rumours that circulate in times of crisis would be seen as a natural product of a “breakdown” of society, demonstrating the mental underdevelopment of individuals or the unconscious motives of a group. Against this psycho-pathological paradigm, a number of historians and social scientists adopting a more interactive approach have emphasized that rumours are not the cause of collective violence, but only a practice of communication and social interaction available to a group. Rumours, in this sense, are a key to understanding the interpretive framework that protesters give to their action and to the “political opportunities” they perceive as available to them. The objective of this essay is to explore, in this light, the relationship between the spread of news of the death of an emperor and the irruption of riots in late antique cities. My aim is to understand how the urban plebs, the religious factions or their leaders perceived (and encouraged) the flow of official or unofficial news about the fate of the ruler as a “window of opportunity” and as a method of mobilizing an action.
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The violence that characterized the Christian controversies of Late Antiquity was often the result of the dynamic of identity and difference that was engendered by these disputes. This was particularly the case in North Africa, where... more
The violence that characterized the Christian controversies of Late Antiquity was often the result of the dynamic of identity and difference that was engendered by these disputes. This was particularly the case in North Africa, where boundaries between “Catholics” and “Donatists” during the fourth and the beginning of the fifth century were created and maintained by the constant mobilization of a repertoire of hatred. What is striking, however, is that the most serious episodes of collective violence between African Christians almost always involved the capture or the defence of church buildings. The purpose of this paper is to explain why Christian basilicas featured so prominently in this particular dispute. Starting from the theoretical propositions of archaeologists and social scientists working on the materiality and phenomenology of places and landscapes, I suggest that rather than regarding churches as a merely setting or backdrop, we can regard them as an active agent in the construction of Christian identities. In order to do this, I examine, successively, the geographic location and sensory perceptions of Christian basilicas, their material form and the dynamic uses of their internal space, and the contested meanings that different groups of Christians invested in their churches as places of worship and memory.
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Compared to the situation prevalent in the Early Empire, the imperial regime of Late Antiquity undoubtedly enhanced its ability to control the flow of political information, by the use of skilled personnel primarily dedicated to collect,... more
Compared to the situation prevalent in the Early Empire, the imperial regime of Late Antiquity undoubtedly enhanced its ability to control the flow of political information, by the use of skilled personnel primarily dedicated to collect, collate and retrieve information. Yet even so, the vastness of the empire and the slowness of communications remained the most important challenges to imperial absolutism. From the point of view of the urban plebs or of local political actors, the use of these clandestine news that we call “rumours” could represent an attempt to assess the opening of opportunities for action in a political environment marked by a deep uncertainty. The objective of this paper is to understand how the urban plebs, the religious factions or their leaders perceived (and encouraged) the flow of official or unofficial news about the fate of the ruler as a “window of opportunity” and as a method of mobilizing an action.
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Much has been written about the origins of the Donatist controversy as a memory reconstructed in later contexts or, inversely, as a set of facts which, although obscure, could be reconstituted through a critical reading of sources. But... more
Much has been written about the origins of the Donatist controversy as a memory reconstructed in later contexts or, inversely, as a set of facts which, although obscure, could be reconstituted through a critical reading of sources. But the ambiguities in the perceptions of African Christians that were already present at the beginning of the schism and that contributed to the construction of these divergent memories must also be considered. The purpose of this article is to evaluate the different uses of rumours at the outbreak of Donatist controversy and understand the process that raised these stories to the status of beliefs that justified and delimited the identity boundaries between African Christians.
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The Sack of Rome in 410 CE provoked the spread of refugees well around the Mediterranean. As a result, issues that had concern the Latin Church were brought to the attention of Eastern Christians. This was the case of Pelagius, who, by... more
The Sack of Rome in 410 CE provoked the spread of refugees well around the Mediterranean. As a result, issues that had concern the Latin Church were brought to the attention of Eastern Christians. This was the case of Pelagius, who, by seeking refuge in Hippo and then in Palestine, ultimately forced Augustine to take part in a controversy that would affect the entire western Christian tradition: the debate on Grace. The letters exchanged during the Pelagian controversy between Augustine and his correspondents show us not only the role of epistolary networks in the course of these debates, but also how the normal flow of people and news in the Mediterranean could be mobilized, although not always controlled by players in this game. The aim of this paper is to investigate the means, the forms and the actors involved in the communication between Rome, the North Africa and Palestine during the Pelagian controversy.
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As a practice of popular justice, executions by lynching had a long tradition in the Roman world. Nevertheless, the constant reference in the textual sources of Late Antiquity to this kind of collective violence seems to indicate a new... more
As a practice of popular justice, executions by lynching had a long tradition in the Roman world. Nevertheless, the constant reference in the textual sources of Late Antiquity to this kind of collective violence seems to indicate a new concern of authorities and ancient authors with its political consequences. The aim of this study is to analyze the characteristics of lynching in the Mediterranean cities of the fourth and fifth centuries taking into account the relationship between official and popular justice, the mechanisms and processes that most often led to the lynching and the objectives, targets and motivations of the participants. It is intended to demonstrate, on the one hand, how the conception of “fair death” which underlies all forms of lynching revealed the permanence in the Mediterranean cities of the ancient notions of citizenship and rights of the people. On the other hand, it aims to highlight how the impact and political resonance of the frequent use of these informal rituals of execution had been modified (and amplified) in the Late Roman Empire, becoming one of the most characteristic forms of political confrontation in the period.
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The rituals of popular justice that characterized the urban life of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries are also one of the most obvious links we can establish between popular culture and the urban space. Forms of... more
The rituals of popular justice that characterized the urban life of the Roman Empire in the fourth and fifth centuries are also one of the most obvious links we can establish between popular culture and the urban space. Forms of collective sanction, such as the public humiliation and the menacing parade, the destruction of properties, and the lynching of offenders, were all public performances that took place in the streets and squares of cities. Such performances also depended on customary practices of occupation of the urban space and shared some features with the festive rituals that paced the urban life. For all these reasons, in its conception and in its enactment, popular justice can properly be viewed as a kind of “street theatre”. Historians of other periods had for long explored such links between riot and carnival and the ways customary forms of popular justice could be adapted to different social contexts. But as Nicholas Rogers has rightly stressed, an obsession with symbolism and ritual can easily lead to a “cosmic populism”, that is, to the exaltation of irreverent counter-cultures, to the detriment of analyses of power. In this essay, I would like to identify some of the main characteristics of popular justice and street theatre in Late Antiquity, paying special attention to their rituals, mechanisms and processes. But in order to understand the historical significance of these practices, we must also to replace them in the broader political context of the Late Roman cities, at a time of increasing mobilization of the common people in the struggles for power in the urban space.
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The historiography on Ancient North Africa has been widely marked by the experience of the modern colonialism and the subsequent process of decolonization. All that resulted in a polarized view of the history of the ancient Maghreb and in... more
The historiography on Ancient North Africa has been widely marked by the experience of the modern colonialism and the subsequent process of decolonization. All that resulted in a polarized view of the history of the ancient Maghreb and in the constant use of binary oppositions in the study of ancient realities. This paper, in particular, studies the construction and uses of the opposition between “nomad” and “sedentarist”, “pastoralist” and “agriculturalist” in the colonial and postcolonial historiographies on the Maghreb. In addition, it shows how recent archaeological works have stimulated new perspectives of investigation on the history of pastoralism in ancient North Africa.
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In spite of all that can be said about his idiosyncrasies and his genius, Augustine was a man of his land and of his time. To understand his life, his work, his concerns or his theological and philosophical formulations is useful to keep... more
In spite of all that can be said about his idiosyncrasies and his genius, Augustine was a man of his land and of his time. To understand his life, his work, his concerns or his theological and philosophical formulations is useful to keep in mind the broader context of North African history in the Roman Empire, especially in its last centuries. That is the purpose of this chapter.
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The transition from a civic to a Christian model of society has been viewed by many scholars as one of the crucial transformations of Late Antiquity. Nevertheless, this view has the drawback of presenting civic categories as mere fossils... more
The transition from a civic to a Christian model of society has been viewed by many scholars as one of the crucial transformations of Late Antiquity. Nevertheless, this view has the drawback of presenting civic categories as mere fossils destined to disappear and the discourse about poverty and charity as a force that gives a place to “the poor”, but that is never shaped by them. The aim of this paper is to question the relevance of this approach in the particular case of the North African cities during the fourth and fifth centuries. I hope to demonstrate how this new discourse on charity and poverty could be adapted by city dwellers for their own ends. By the same token, we shall see how this discourse could indeed coexist in the urban popular milieu with the older notions of citizenship and rights as part of the same repertoire of survival strategies and forms of collective action.
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Studies on the written culture of the Roman world have changed in recent years from issues on the extent of literacy in society to broader approaches that seek to understand the different uses of writing in specific socio-cultural... more
Studies on the written culture of the Roman world have changed in recent years from issues on the extent of literacy in society to broader approaches that seek to understand the different uses of writing in specific socio-cultural contexts. Following these new research directions, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the various uses of writing among rural populations of Roman and post-Roman North Africa. The spread in the countryside of contracts and petitions, of new reading practices and even of threatening letters is more than an indication of the integration of the African countryside to the Roman economy, or of the spread of Christianity in Late Antiquity. It is also indicative of how a dominant written culture could be actively appropriated by rural populations to meet their own, practical and symbolic needs.
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Archaeology can in many ways contribute to the social history of historical societies, particularly providing insight to social practices that are frequently ignored or simply presupposed in the textual sources. This paper emphasizes the... more
Archaeology can in many ways contribute to the social history of historical societies, particularly providing insight to social practices that are frequently ignored or simply presupposed in the textual sources. This paper emphasizes the importance of the excavations of artisan and commercial districts at Carthage and Timgad for our understanding of plebeian relations of solidarity and sociability in the Roman towns of North Africa. The purpose of this study is thus not only to expose the close proximity between modest housing and workshops in these urban areas, but also to show how this evidence can contribute to our understanding of the relations of cooperation and mutual assistance between working class neighbors through the common use of space. It also aims to demonstrate the importance of the spaces of sociability in the social life of these quarters.
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The Donatist controversy permitted the preservation of official documents that otherwise would have been lost. This article offers a new translation preceded by a historical commentary of one of these documents: the Acta Munatii Felicis,... more
The Donatist controversy permitted the preservation of official documents that otherwise would have been lost. This article offers a new translation preceded by a historical commentary of one of these documents: the Acta Munatii Felicis, the minutes of the search and seizure of the property of the Church of Cirta in North Africa in fulfillment of the first edict of the Diocletian's persecution. Besides the light it throws on the Great Persecution, the document also offers a valuable insight on the situation of Christian congregations on the eve of the peace of Constantine.
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The series of events stemming from the acts and passions of the Christian martyrs, written in the heat of persecution up to the more legendary and epic stories spreading from the late 4th and early 5th centuries has often been viewed by... more
The series of events stemming from the acts and passions of the Christian martyrs, written in the heat of persecution up to the more legendary and epic stories spreading from the late 4th and early 5th centuries has often been viewed by historians as one of the more striking transitions of hagiography in Late Antiquity. Nevertheless, the use of the judicial processes in the writing of the traditional martyrs' acts as well as in the composition of the more extensive and epic narratives remained highly valued in the minds of North African Christians, Donatists and Catholics alike, at least until the beginning of the 5th century. The purpose of this paper is to understand the reasons for the high regard in which the documents in the archives were held, especially the official ones, and to research the different, practical uses made from them by North-African Christians, from the 3rd to the beginning of the 5th century.
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North Africa under the Roman Empire experienced an extraordinary agricultural development, which was in part based on a particular land use, with large numbers of tenant farmers or “coloni”. We are informed about the functioning of this... more
North Africa under the Roman Empire experienced an extraordinary agricultural development, which was in part based on a particular land use, with large numbers of tenant farmers or “coloni”. We are informed about the functioning of this system by a series of six large inscriptions relating to the areas of land held as imperial property in the Medjerda Valley, in Tunisia. This paper presents a Portuguese translation and a historical commentary of the oldest of these epigraphic documents, the inscription of Henchir Mettich.
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The rise of Late Antiquity as an autonomous domain for historical research constitutes one of the major revolutions in the historiography of the second half of the 20th century, even though the frontiers and foundations of this period... more
The rise of Late Antiquity as an autonomous domain for historical research constitutes one of the major revolutions in the historiography of the second half of the 20th century, even though the frontiers and foundations of this period remain far from consensual. This paper discusses the genesis of the concept of Late Antiquity and questions the heuristic value of the conception of a long, distinctive period that stands on its own. It also aims to test the significance of this conception through the particular case of the urban history of North Africa.
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The objective of this paper is to present the general lines of the current debate on urban violence and religious conflicts in the Later Roman Empire. We also discuss the importance of changing the prevailing perspective of current... more
The objective of this paper is to present the general lines of the current debate on urban violence and religious conflicts in the Later Roman Empire. We also discuss the importance of changing the prevailing perspective of current studies to understand the reasons and motivations for the popular involvement in these disputes. This alternative approach is applied here to the specific case of the riots of June 408 in the small town of Calama, in North Africa.
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"This article examines two sermons delivered by Saint Augustine at Carthage in June 401. Preached in a context of serious tensions between Christians and pagans as well as within the Catholic community, these sermons are precious... more
"This article examines two sermons delivered by Saint Augustine at Carthage in June 401. Preached in a context of serious tensions between Christians and pagans as well as within the Catholic community, these sermons are precious documents about the forms of popular action and the involvement of the common people in the religious conflicts of the age.
Augustine's sermon 24 is a discourse designed to calm the fury of the Christian crowd in a dangerous situation for the African bishops assembled in a council at Carthage on 16 June 401. A statue of Hercules, recently restored, had had its golden beard "shaved" by the action of a Christian mob. The faithful then occupied the church and spilled into the streets not only to protest against the pagans and their idols, but also to demand the active involvement of the clergy in their struggle against idolatry. As a consequence of these manifestations, a leading pagan, the money manager Faustinus, who had been explicitly criticized by the Christian mob, joined the Catholic Church. In the sermon 279 and in his post-sermonem Morin 1, preached on Sunday 23 June 401, Augustine took the defense of the converted before the congregation that refused to accept what seemed to be a simulated and interested conversion.
In this text, we analyse the political and religious implications of the manifestations evoked in these sermons and try to explain the motivations and behaviour of their participants."
Augustine's sermon 24 is a discourse designed to calm the fury of the Christian crowd in a dangerous situation for the African bishops assembled in a council at Carthage on 16 June 401. A statue of Hercules, recently restored, had had its golden beard "shaved" by the action of a Christian mob. The faithful then occupied the church and spilled into the streets not only to protest against the pagans and their idols, but also to demand the active involvement of the clergy in their struggle against idolatry. As a consequence of these manifestations, a leading pagan, the money manager Faustinus, who had been explicitly criticized by the Christian mob, joined the Catholic Church. In the sermon 279 and in his post-sermonem Morin 1, preached on Sunday 23 June 401, Augustine took the defense of the converted before the congregation that refused to accept what seemed to be a simulated and interested conversion.
In this text, we analyse the political and religious implications of the manifestations evoked in these sermons and try to explain the motivations and behaviour of their participants."
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"Saint Augustine's sermon 302 is a monitory discourse delivered around AD 409/412 at Hippo in the aftermath of the brutal lynching of a corrupt imperial agent by some of the common people exasperated by his exactions. We analyse this riot... more
"Saint Augustine's sermon 302 is a monitory discourse delivered around AD 409/412 at Hippo in the aftermath of the brutal lynching of a corrupt imperial agent by some of the common people exasperated by his exactions. We analyse this riot in its social context and explain some of its implications for our understanding of the political culture and behaviour of the urban plebs in late Antiquity.
Analysis reveals that the man killed was a custom officer acting in collusion with the tax collectors in the port of Hippo. The rioting crowd was composed not only of merchants and their servants, but also of craftsmen and shopkeepers, their employees and the young men of their families. The anatomy of the riot reveals that the murder of the corrupted officer was perpetrated only after the popular grievances had been loudly expressed and the authorities had failed in punishing the criminal. The murder is also viewed by the activists and their passive supporters alike as a capital punishment and as a right of the people.
This popular disturbance may have been a "governmental catastrophe" to the authorities and it surely called into question the credibility of Augustine as a bishop and patron for his failure to intervene in favour of the victims of the corrupted officer before the riot. Nevertheless, the measures considered by Augustine to counteract a new riot are additional evidence of the vigour of this form of popular intervention in the life of the city. "
Analysis reveals that the man killed was a custom officer acting in collusion with the tax collectors in the port of Hippo. The rioting crowd was composed not only of merchants and their servants, but also of craftsmen and shopkeepers, their employees and the young men of their families. The anatomy of the riot reveals that the murder of the corrupted officer was perpetrated only after the popular grievances had been loudly expressed and the authorities had failed in punishing the criminal. The murder is also viewed by the activists and their passive supporters alike as a capital punishment and as a right of the people.
This popular disturbance may have been a "governmental catastrophe" to the authorities and it surely called into question the credibility of Augustine as a bishop and patron for his failure to intervene in favour of the victims of the corrupted officer before the riot. Nevertheless, the measures considered by Augustine to counteract a new riot are additional evidence of the vigour of this form of popular intervention in the life of the city. "
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Popular culture may be understood as a system of shared values, attitudes and meanings, and the symbolic forms in which they are embodied. Although this definition may be seen as fruitful, it frequently resulted in approaches to culture... more
Popular culture may be understood as a system of shared values, attitudes and meanings, and the symbolic forms in which they are embodied. Although this definition may be seen as fruitful, it frequently resulted in approaches to culture aloof to conflict. But culture may be also treated as an arena of conflicting elements that only take form as a system in specific circumstances: in this sense “popular culture” may be seen as a framework, a habitus or, in the words of E. P. Thompson, as a pool of diverse resources that can be situated within its proper material abode. In light of this, instead of classifying the objects of culture along previous established lines, it will be more fruitful to pay attention to the state of play in cultural relations. The objective of this essay is to explore the implications of this approach to the study of plebeian forms of communication and sociability in late-Roman cities. After summarizing the specific context in which these popular practices had developed, we focused in the specific context of the North African cities in Late Antiquity, as expressed in the works of St Augustine. As we shall see, the plebeian culture of discussion that characterized these late-antique cities could not be seen as a world of its own, nor as the simple by-product of the culture of the elite. On the contrary, practices like rumour and gossip, the public reading of books and pamphlets and the many forms of social protest were only shaped in an arena of conflicting interests. In Late Antiquity, these traditions were mobilized and energized by a new and more assertive type of church leadership that no longer attempted only to contain and dismiss, but actively engage and transform the cultures of the common people. Nevertheless, being never entirely controlled by the social, political or religious elites of the time, these practices not only shaped popular values, but also favoured the adaptation, the transformation and even the subversion by the common people of anything that was conveyed to them.
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A popular history of the period 300-800 would be inevitably marked by the constant references in our written sources to outbursts of violent collective action. Urban food riots, clashes between competing religious groups and fights... more
A popular history of the period 300-800 would be inevitably marked by the constant references in our written sources to outbursts of violent collective action. Urban food riots, clashes between competing religious groups and fights between rival circus factions are often represented as a typical characteristic of life in the cities of the Late Roman Empire and some of the states that succeeded it. Yet, to have noted the recurrence of popular mobilization and collective action in our accounts would be sufficient to characterize Late Antiquity as an "age of crowds"? If yes, in what way? Scholars that are divided today on the definition and character of the period, also differ about the nature, reality and extent of this violence: while "catastrophists" suggest an increase in violence as a natural consequence of the gradual disintegration of classical society or the rise of Christianity, "revisionists" tend instead to empty the impact and extent of this violence, emphasizing rather the power of social control or the peaceful coexistence between ethnic or religious groups. My purpose in this essay is to discuss the anomic assumption underlying both views, since both take violence either as an inevitable consequence of stresses in the social fabric, or as an exceptional rupture of a more normal order. I would like to show how the questioning of these assumptions would open new perspectives for understanding the conditions of occurrence and the forms taken by collective action in Late Antiquity. What I am saying here is that what characterizes the period in question is not the exacerbation of violence or its control. It is rather the opening of new opportunities for popular intervention, driven by new factors such as the outbreak of religious controversies, but structured from a base still deeply connected to the traditions of the ancient city.
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This volume aims to address the question of political communication in the Roman world. It draws upon social sciences and the current trend for the historical study of political communication. The book tackles three main problems: What... more
This volume aims to address the question of political communication in the Roman world. It draws upon social sciences and the current trend for the historical study of political communication.
The book tackles three main problems: What constitutes political communication in the Roman world? In what ways could information be transmitted and represented? What mechanisms made political communication successful or unsuccessful?
This edited volume covers questions like speech and mechanisms of political communication, political communication at a distance, bottom-up communication, failure of communication and representation of political communication.
It will be of help to specialists in the Roman world, but also to students and researchers of political sciences, and specialists of political communication in pre-industrial times.
The book tackles three main problems: What constitutes political communication in the Roman world? In what ways could information be transmitted and represented? What mechanisms made political communication successful or unsuccessful?
This edited volume covers questions like speech and mechanisms of political communication, political communication at a distance, bottom-up communication, failure of communication and representation of political communication.
It will be of help to specialists in the Roman world, but also to students and researchers of political sciences, and specialists of political communication in pre-industrial times.