Search results for ""Author Peter Van Nuffelen""

Collecting papers on historiography, papyrology, history, and material culture, this volume charts the changing faces of Hellenistic civilization from the fourth century B.C. to Late Antiquity. The Macedonian colonisation and the Roman conquest had an important impact on society, politics, and culture of the Eastern Mediterranean. The papers address issues such as bilingualism and the role of 'invented traditions' in Roman Egypt. They emphasise local differences within the Roman Empire, for example the difficult access inhabitants of Egypt had to Roman citizenship. Other contributions asses the perspective of the sources and how they reveal different facets of Hellenistic society. Drawing on approaches developed in the Section of Ancient History of the University of Leuven, the contributions pay homage to three retiring professors, L. Mooren, G. Schepens, and H. Hauben, who each in their different way have explored the changing faces of Hellenism for the past thirty years.

Read more less

The fourth century was a major religious battleground. The rise of Christianity, and in particular its dominance from Constantine onwards, marked an important shift in the religious history of the Mediterranean. Christianity saw this change as the victory of its monotheism over the polytheism of paganism. This volume studies how similarities between paganism and Christianity were obscured in the polemic that was waged by Christianity against paganism and in the pagan responses to it. The volume includes papers on Porphyry, Augustine, Themistius, Latin verse inscriptions, as well as dealing with the different ways in which Christian and pagan thinkers conceived of monotheism. A recurring theme in the papers shows that a concrete religious issue lay at the heart of such polemic: who can one worship? Christians would restrict worship to their God, whereas pagans accepted cultic acts for the many traditional deities. The debate about monotheism was therefore not just about conceptions of the divine, but was part of the creation and defence of social, cultural and religious identities in Late Antiquity. In exploring how the notion of monotheism was shaped by Late Antique polemic and how this still influences our understanding of it, this volume also hopes to inform contemporary debates about the dangers of monotheism.

Read more less

Of Gothic descent, Jordanes wrote a unique set of histories. The Getica narrates the history of the Goths from their earliest origins until the middle of the sixth century. Building on the lost history of Cassiodorus, it is the earliest example of a history told from the perspective of one of the barbarian peoples establishing kingdoms in the fifth and sixth centuries. It had great influence on later medieval historians, on national histories of the nineteenth century and on modern accounts of Gothic history. The Romana is a survey of world and Roman history. Whilst largely dependent on traditional Roman histories and chronicles for events up to the fourth century, it contains much unique information for the last two centuries it narrates. This book offers the first translation into English of the Getica for a century and the first modern translation of the Romana. The introduction locates the Getica and the Romana in the context of ancient historiography, building a new picture of Jordanes as a historian and of the two works themselves. It also offers a detailed discussion of the sources used by Jordanes, suggesting possible ways to identify his debt to Cassiodorus. Extensive notes guide the reader through these fascinating but often complex texts.

Read more less

Of Gothic descent, Jordanes wrote a unique set of histories. The Getica narrates the history of the Goths from their earliest origins until the middle of the sixth century. Building on the lost history of Cassiodorus, it is the earliest example of a history told from the perspective of one of the barbarian peoples establishing kingdoms in the fifth and sixth centuries. It had great influence on later medieval historians, on national histories of the nineteenth century and on modern accounts of Gothic history. The Romana is a survey of world and Roman history. Whilst largely dependent on traditional Roman histories and chronicles for events up to the fourth century, it contains much unique information for the last two centuries it narrates. This book offers the first translation into English of the Getica for a century and the first modern translation of the Romana. The introduction locates the Getica and the Romana in the context of ancient historiography, building a new picture of Jordanes as a historian and of the two works themselves. It also offers a detailed discussion of the sources used by Jordanes, suggesting possible ways to identify his debt to Cassiodorus. Extensive notes guide the reader through these fascinating but often complex texts.

Read more less

De financiele crisis, klimaatverandering, pedofilie - onze maatschappij ziet zich vandaag geconfronteerd met heel wat ingewikkelde problemen. Het debat over deze uitdagingen blijft echter veelal hangen in de jachtige en al te vaak oppervlakkige mode van de dag. Deze bundel kiest daarentegen resoluut voor een lange-termijnvisie, en gaat te rade bij de oude Grieken en Romeinen. De tijd waarin de klassieke Oudheid geidealiseerd werd is lang voorbij, maar terugkijken naar de verdiensten en gebreken uit het verleden dwingt ons om onze eigen opvattingen kritisch te herzien. Deze bundel biedt geen pasklare oplossingen voor het democratisch tekort, de multiculturele maatschappij of de betaalbaarheid van de gezondheidszorg, maar daagt ons wel uit om uit in confrontatie met het antieke ideeengoed onze eigen horizonten te verleggen. Bijdragen van Luc Devoldere, Koenraad Verboven, Richard Seaford, Lieve Van Hoof, Toon Van Houdt, Christian Laes, Peter Van Nuffelen, Ludo Abicht, Luc Van der Stockt en Bart De Wever. Met een voorwoord van Herman Van Rompuy.

Read more less