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