SHIFTING FRONTIERS V:
“Violence, Victims, and Vindication in Late Antiquity”
Preliminary Program
THURSDAY, MARCH 20
2 pm Session 1:
VIOLENCE AND RESOLUTION ON THE
FRONTIER
"Praeter Morem": The Isaurian Incident of
Ammianus Marcellinus XIV 2.1
Linda Ann Honey, University of Calgary
The End of the Lower Danubian Limes: A Violent or a
Peaceful Process?
Alexandru Madgearu, Institute for Defense Studies and
Military History, Bucharest
Three Faces of Persecution: Manifestations of
Religious Conformity and Dissent in the Sasanid Empire of Yazdagird II (438-457
CE)
Scott McDonough, UCLA
3:15-3:30 Break
3:30 - 4:45 Session 2: VICTIMS AND VICTIMIZATION
Victims of Demonic Possession, Exploiters of
Circumstances?
Campbell Grey, University of Chicago
Violence towards and by Minorities: The Jews as a
Test Case
Michael Toch, Hebrew University
Violent Behavior and the Construction of Barbarian
Identity in Late Antiquity
Ralph Mathisen, University of South Carolina
5 p.m. Keynote Address: Walter Pohl (University of Vienna), Perceptions of Barbarian
Violence
6 p.m. Reception
FRIDAY, MARCH 21
8.30 am Refreshments
9.00 Session
3: VIOLENCE
AND THE PUBLIC PERSONA
Doing Violence to the Image of an Empress: The
Destruction of Eudoxia's Reputation
Wendy Mayer, Australian Catholic University
The Murder of Hypatia: Acceptable or Unacceptable
Violence
Edward Watts, Indiana University
A New Roman Empire: Epiphanius of Salamis and the
Geography of Heresy
Young Kim, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
10:15-10.30 Break
10:30 Session 4: INSCRIBING VIOLENCE
The Thessalonian Affair in Fifth Century Histories
Daniel Washburn, Stanford University
Violence and the Origin of Empire: Was Ioannes Lydos
a Republican?
Anthony Kaldellis, Ohio State University
On Violence and Fear in the Historians of the Later
Roman Empire -A Study of Dio, Herodian,
Lactantius and Ammianus Marcellinus.
Asko Timonen, University of Turku, Finland
12:00 - 1:15 Lunch
1:15 Session 5: ACTS
OF VIOLENCE AGAINST HISTORICAL LANDMARKS
The Destruction of the Serapeum: Pagan and Christian
Historiography of Violence
Daniel James Thornton, University of Toronto
Profanation and Religious Violence
Beatrice Caseau, Centre d’histoire et de civilisation
de Byzance, Paris
Hellenic Heritage and Christian Challenge: Conflict
over Panhellenic Sanctuaries in Late Antiquity
Amelia Brown, University of California, Berkeley
2:30 - 2:45 Break
2:45 Session 6: VIOLENCE
AND CHRISTIAN IDENTITY
Theodoret the Peacemaker: Confrontation, Leadership and
Consensus in the Syrian Episcopate, 431-5
Adam Schor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Christianising the Rural Communities of Late Roman
Africa: A Process of Coercion or Persuasion?
David L. Riggs, Indiana Wesleyan University
Monks as peacemakers in Late Antique Egypt: the
evidence from papyrology
Chrisi Kotsifou, Catholic Univ. of America.
The Moral And Psychological Views On Violence In The
Eastern Christian Ascetical Tradition
Danny Praet, Universiteit Gent
4:15 Business
Meeting
5:30 pm
Keynote Address: Brent Shaw
(University of Pennsylvania), Who Were the Circumcellions?
SATURDAY, MARCH 22
8:30 am Refreshments
9:00 Session
7: VIOLENCE AND THE LEGAL PROCESS
Fickle Friends on the Frontier: Loyalty and Law in Late
Antique Lazica
Tom Sizgorich, UCSB
’Kill All the Dogs!’ or ‘Apollonius Says!’: Two
Stories against Punitive Violence
Jackie Long, Loyola University, Chicago
'I Get By
With a Little Help from My Friends':
Deflecting Official Violence in the
World of Libanius
Scott Bradbury, Smith College
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30 Session 8:
VIOLENCE OF PLACE
The Inn as a Place of Violence in Talmudic Literature
Tziona Grossmark, Tel Hai Academic College
Violence and living conditions in prisons of Late Antique
Egypt
Sofia Torallas-Tovar, CSIC-Madrid
Questionable Revolts: Ethnic Violence in Palestine in
Late Antiquity
Hayim Lapin, University of Maryland
12:00 - 1:15 Lunch
1:15 Session 9:
CREATING A LANGUAGE OF VIOLENCE
Study of Torah as a Discourse of Violence: "The
War of Torah [study],"
Variations on a Theme
Aryeh Cohen, University of Judaism
Teaching Violence In The Schools Of Rhetoric
Janet B. Davis, Truman State University
“Kindly Correction from a Merciful God”: Pain,
Purgation and Justice
in Late Antique Conceptions of the Afterlife.
Isabel Moreira, University of Utah
A Christian Rhetoric of Destruction: the Violation of
the Imperial
Body in Lactantius’ De Mortibus
Persecutorum
David Soloff,
University of California, Berkeley
2:45-3:00
Break
3:00 Session 10: VIOLENCE
AND IMPERIAL POLICY
The Strategic Use of Violence in Diocletian’s
Religious Policy
Elizabeth DePalma Digeser, McGill University
Exiled Bishops and Clergymen in the Christian Empire:
Victims of Imperial Violence?
Eric Fournier, UCSB
Making Late Roman Taxpayers Pay: Imperial Government
Strategies and Practice
Hartmut G. Ziche, Wolfson College, Cambridge and
Université Marc Bloch, Strasbourg
Coercion, Resistance and "The Command Economy"
in Late Roman Aperlae
Bill Leadbetter, Edith Cowan University
5 pm Keynote
Address: Jill Harries (University of
St. Andrews), Violence, Victims and the
Roman Legal Tradition
6 pm Banquet
8 pm Concert Performance by the UCSB Middle East
Ensemble
SUNDAY, MARCH 23
8:30 am
Refreshments
9:00 Session
11: LEGITIMATION OF VIOLENCE
Augustine On Legitimised Violence
Gillian Clark, Bristol
The Anger of God: Extremist Violence in the Late
Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries.
Michael Gaddis, Syracuse University
Cyclic Violence and the Poetics of Negotiation in
pre-Islamic Arabia
Clarissa C. Burt, American University in Cairo
10:15-10:30
Break
10:30 Session
12: AGENTS OF VIOLENCE
John of Ephesus’ Life of Simeon the Mountaineer:Missionary
Reaction
to Persecution in Sixth Century Syria
Felix Racine, McGill University
Popular Mobilization
and Violence In Alexandria in the Early Arian Controversy
Carlos R. Galvao-Sobrinho, University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Bookburning in the Christian Roman Empire:
Transforming a Pagan Rite of Purification.
Daniel Sarefield, Ohio State University
12 pm Farewell Luncheon