090098 VO Introduction to Culture, Literature and Society of the Late Antique (2017W)

This lecture-course will be based primarily, though by no means exclusively, on Latin texts from the Later Roman Empire. It is intended to provide an introduction to various aspects of Late Antique culture, literature, and society. The sources will be mainly literary, but not the approach, which will tendto the historical and, above all, the religious historical. We’ll begin with an overview of the concept of “Late Antiquity,” and then go back to Ancient Greece and Asia Minor to study Greek inscriptions (in English translation) that document the healing and judiciary functions of two pagan deities. After setting up ancient polytheism, we’ll be examining the concepts of mission and conversion and the arrival of Christianity in the Acts and texts related to the 1st and 2nd C. persecutions. We’ll move on to the Crisis of Empire in the 3rd C., Constantine and the Christianization of the Roman Empire, the barbarian invasions and the Fall of Rome. Time permitting, we may cover other topics such as monasticism.