Parabalani : A Terrorist Charity in Late Antiquity

Les émeutiers alexandrins qui assassinèrent Hypathie, la mathématicienne néo-platonicienne en 415, provenaient d’une association charitable appelée parabalani, composée de chrétiens pauvres mais en bonne santé, recrutés sous l’autorité du patriarche dans le but de prendre soin des malades. Après examen de l’émergence des soins hospitaliers dans l’Antiquité tardive, ainsi que de la législation du code théodosien de 416 et 418 restreignant le nombre et les activités des parabalani, il apparaît que ceux-ci, par référence à un passage de la Théophanie d’Eusèbe sont plus correctement appelés parabolani. Leur détermination à courir des risques dans leurs activités charitables fait penser au groupe mieux connu des philoponoi. En tant que chrétiens ils pouvaient parfois agir avec violence comme agents du patriarche.The Alexandrian mob that murdered Hypatia, the neo-Platonist mathematician, in 415 came from a charitable group called parabalani, consisting of poor but healthy Christians recruited under the authority of the patriarch for the purpose of caring for the sick. After a review of the emergence of hospital care in late antiquity as well as legislation in the Theodosian code from 416 and 418 restricting the number and activities of the parabalani, they are shown, by reference to a passage in Eusebius’ Theophany, to be called more correctly parabolani, whose willingness to run risks in charitable work evokes the better known philoponoi. As Christians they could sometimes act violently as agents of the patriarch

Religion in Early Fourth Century Roman Palestine: The Kfar ʿOthnay Mosaics

Two mosaics in western Palestine, both dating from the end of the 3rd cent. ce (or very early 4th), were discovered relatively recently in Israel. One is clearly Christian, and the other indeterminate, but their proximity in place and time merit a comparative analysis. This can illustrate the nature and diffusion of religious beliefs and symbols at a formative moment in Palestinian history.Deux mosaïques de Palestine occidentale, découvertes récemment en Israël et datées vers la fin du iiie siècle de n. è. (ou juste au début du ive), méritent une analyse comparative : l’une est incontestablement chrétienne mais l’autre reste indéterminée, peut-être juive ou chrétienne ou païenne. L’analyse propose des explications liées à la diffusion des cultes dans la société palestinienne à un moment de transition.تستحق لوحتان من الفسيفساء من غرب فلسطين، اكتشفتا في إسرائيل وأرختا من حوالي نهاية القرن الثالث الميلادي (أو من بداية الرابع)، تستحقان تحليلاً مقارناً: إحداهما مسيحية بلا ريب، لكن تبقى الأخرى غير محددة الهوية، يهودية، مسيحية أو وثنية. يقترح التحليل تفسيرات تتعلق بانتشار العبادات في المجتمع الفلسطيني في لحظة انتقالية

Jean-Baptiste Yon, Inscriptions grecques et latines de la Syrie XVII. 1 : Palmyre (BAH 195)

The magnificent site of ancient Palmyra in the Syrian desert has been, until the recent disturbances in Syria, exceptionally productive. In the middle of the previous century the history of Palmyra was in the hands of an exceptionally gifted and energetic group of archaeologists and philologists, of whom the most senior and influential were four incomparable French scholars, Henri Seyrig, Daniel Schlumberger, Jean Starcky, and Ernest Will. They were succeeded by a younger generation that repl..

Fiction as history: Nero to Julian

Using pagan fiction produced in Greek and Latin during the early Christian era, G. W. Bowersock investigates the complex relationship between "historical" and "fictional" truths. This relationship preoccupied writers of the second century, a time when apparent fictions about both past and present were proliferating at an astonishing rate and history was being invented all over again. With force and eloquence, Bowersock illuminates social attitudes of this period and persuasively argues that its fiction was influenced by the emerging Christian Gospel narratives.Enthralling in its breadth and enhanced by two erudite appendices, this is a book that will be warmly welcomed by historians and interpreters of literature

Between republic and empire: interpretations of Augustus and his principate

Representing five major areas of Augustan scholarship - historiography, poetry, art, religion, and politics - the nineteen contributors to this volume bring us closer to a balanced, up-to-date account of Augustus and his principate

Settler-Colonialism, Memoricide and Indigenous Toponymic Memory: The Appropriation of Palestinian Place Names by the Israeli State

Cartography, place-naming and state-sponsored explorations were central to the modern European conquest of the earth, empire building and settler-colonisation projects. Scholars often assume that place names provide clues to the historical and cultural heritage of places and regions. This article uses social memory theory to analyse the cultural politics of place-naming in Israel. Drawing on Maurice Halbwachs’ study of the construction of social memory by the Latin Crusaders and Christian medieval pilgrims, the article shows Zionists’ toponymic strategies in Palestine, their superimposition of Biblical and Talmudic toponyms was designed to erase the indigenous Palestinian and Arabo-Islamic heritage of the land. In the pre-Nakba period Zionist toponymic schemes utilised nineteenth century Western explorations of Biblical ‘names’ and ‘places’ and appropriated Palestinian toponyms. Following the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948, the Israeli state, now in control of 78 percent of the land, accelerated its toponymic project and pursued methods whose main features were memoricide and erasure. Continuing into the post-1967 occupation, these colonial methods threaten the destruction of the diverse historical cultural heritage of the land