1st Edition

Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity

Edited By Richard Miles Copyright 1999
    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    272 Pages
    by Routledge

    The essays in Constructing Identities in Late Antiquity concern themselves with the theme of identity, an increasingly popular topic in Classical studies. Through detailed discussions of particular Roman texts and images, the contributors show not only how these texts were used to create and organise particular visions of late antique society and culture, but also how constructions of identity and culture contributed to the fashioning of 'late antiquity' into a distinct historical period.

    1 Introduction: constructing identities in late antiquity 2 The writes of passage: cultural initiation in Heliodorus’ Aethiopica 3 Gender and identity in Musaeus’ Hero and Leander 4 Prudentius’ Psychomachia: the Christian arena and the politics of display 5 Dramatic identities: tragedy in late antiquity 6 Translate into Greek: Porphyry of Tyre on the new barbarians 7 Autobiographical identity and philosophical past in Augustine’s dialogue De Libero Arbitrio 8 The destruction of statues in late antiquity 9 Women and learning: gender and identity in scenes of intellectual life on late Roman sarcophagi 10 Constructing the judge: judicial accountability and the culture of criticism in late antiquity 11 The barbarian in late antiquity: image, reality, and transformation

    Biography

    Richard Miles is a Research Fellow in Classical Studies at the Open University, and a Teaching By-Fellow and Director of Studies in Classics at Churchill College, Cambridge. He is currently working on a book on text and authority in the late antique North African church.