Civic transformation of the Mediterranean city: Antioch and Ravenna,300--800 CE.

详细信息   

• 作者：Schoolman ; Edward McCormick.
• 学历：Doctor
• 年：2010
• 导师：Rapp, Claudia,eadvisor
• 毕业院校：University of California
• ISBN：9781124321424
• CBH：3431811
• Country：USA
• 语种：English
• FileSize：9132929
• Pages：418

文摘

This dissertation examines elements of civic life and elite culture as Antioch and Ravenna evolve from Roman regional capitals to early Byzantine centers to medieval cities, and especially the ways in which local elites adapt Roman traditions and institutions as they evolve socially, religiously, and demographically. The first half of the dissertation focuses on the visible transformation of local elites and urban hierarchies as cities lose their Roman administration and develop new institutions in response to immediate political and social concerns. This is addressed through a study of the prosopographies for Ravenna and Antioch, examinations of patterns of change in titles and occupations, church donations within the context of civic patronage, and in the networks formed by individuals with elite status. These research avenues do not show a drastic decline in civic complexity or the abrupt collapse of Roman administration, but rather a much smoother transition into early medieval patterns for urban elites. The second half of the dissertation relies on physical and archaeological evidence in order to trace the survival and adaptation of Roman traditions by the elite citizens of Ravenna and Antioch. Rather than individuals, the focus here is on how the preservation and transformation of material culture reflects changes in civic society. For Ravenna, the principal features of study are the surviving sarcophagi, in which the shift from egalitarian public commemoration to political ecclesiastic monument is visible. For Antioch, the institution under consideration is the public bath, which transformed in function from a public luxury to a facility geared primarily toward hygienic and even religious purification. The Roman traditions of burial in sarcophagi and bathing in public baths survive in these cities beyond the end of Late Antiquity by means of their adaptation to new political and social realities.