Season 6: Late Antiquity

Synthesis and Economic Restructuring

Late Antiquity (c. 200-600 CE) was the principal subject of Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. To Enlightenment historians like Gibbon, Late Antiquity saw the curtain of the Dark Ages pulled over the Classical period. Conversely, to earlier Christian historians, Rome’s last centuries were only of interest in that they witnessed the rise of Christianity. Either way, historians have traditionally seen the later Roman empire as an unlovely period of strife and collapse. Yet today’s specialists tell the story differently.

Following the work of scholar Peter Brown in the 1970s, historians have reevaluated the centuries between 200 and 600 more as years of revolution and synthesis. Barbarians fought Romans, certainly. But barbarians also were Romans – full citizens grouping together to assert themselves against prejudicial policies and broken promises. Similarly, during Late Antiquity, Christians and pagans indeed scrimmaged with one another. But paganism was not a single thing. Nor was Christianity. And in the intercontinental world of the Roman empire, Christians were often quite happy to be neighbors, co-workers, and friends with pagans, just as the opposite was true. Moreover, then as now, many people simply weren’t very religious.

Late Antiquity’s Early Centuries

Our programs on Late Antiquity are chronological in organization, and they jump back and forth between texts that are Christian, texts that are pagan, and texts that are a bit of both. The season begins with an overview. Episode 86: An Introduction to Late Antiquity presents the main figures and historical events of the period. Then, in Episode 87 and Episode 88, we meet the Greco-Syrian satirist Lucian of Samosata (c. 125-180). Lucian was a student of ancient Athenian literature. A satirist of all philosophy and religion, Lucian’s A True Story is often called the world’s first sci-fi tale, and it later influenced Enlightenment heavyweights like Jonathan Swift and Voltaire. We also read the Aethiopica of Heliodorus (Episode 89), the longest novel to survive from antiquity.

Following Lucian, we turn to the subject of early Catholicism. In Episode 90: Ante-Nicene Catholicism, we use several important primary sources to explore how the roles of bishops and the papacy evolved between 50 and 200 CE. We also study some of the early (or Ante-Nicene) church fathers, including Clement of Alexandria and Irenaeus of Lyon. With a grounding on early Christian theology, we move on to some of the most significant Christian writings of the 200s and 300s.

Late Antique Icons: Martyrs, Desert Hermits, and Saints

The two great Christian genres of the Middle Ages were the martyr tale, and the hagiography (or saint’s life). Both had roots in Late Antiquity. In Episode 91: The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity, we read the earliest major martyr tale in Christianity, along with various other fragmentary texts that predate it. Then, in Episode 92: Athanasius’ Life of Antony, we read one of Late Antiquity’s most famous biographies. Saint Antony’s biography became massively popular among early Catholics. It also teaches us about the earliest roots of Christian monasticism. Equally famous is Severus’ Life of Saint Martin, (Episode 93), the story of a busy, sometimes truculent Gallic bishop, and learn about the real history through which he lived.

Late Pagan Poetry

By the year 400, Christianity had assumed something like its present form. The Roman Catholic church had partnered with Roman emperors, to great mutual advantage. Yet late antiquity’s pagan poets continued to produce verses in the styles of their ancient Roman and Greek forebears. These poets included Ausonius (Episode 94), and Rutilius Namatianus (Episode 95). Together, they watched the 300s turn to the 400s, with some degree of ambivalence about the ideological uniformity Christianity was attempting to mandate. In spite of this uniformity, however, pagan literature continued to be written. The writer Nonnus (c. 400s CE) may have been a pagan, a Christian, or both, or neither. What he certainly was, however, was a scholar and poet. Nonnus’ gigantic epic poem, the Dionysiaca, (Episode 96 and Episode 97), is nearly the length of the Iliad and Odyssey combined. It recounts the life of Dionysus, and the wine god’s journey to the east, to conquer India. Nonnus also wrote a paraphrase of the Gospel of John. In our nearly five hours of programs on the poet, we consider his chief works, and how he exemplifies the changing world of the 400s.

Titans of Late Antiquity: Jerome, Augustine, Boethius

No Christian theologian since Saint Paul had the impact of Saints Jerome and Augustine. Jerome (c. 370-420) (Episode 98), enchanted by the stories of desert hermits, had his own short stint in the dry Syrian countryside. More famously, his correspondences with Roman women, obsession with chastity, and production of the Latin Vulgate made for a long, colorful career. Even more famous is Saint Augustine (354-430). Augustine’s Confessions, (Episode 99 and Episode 100), might be the most impactful book of Late Antiquity. An intimate autobiography as well as a conversion narrative and theological tract, the book’s popularity has never let up. His City of God (Episode 101 and Episode 102) was ultimately the most influential work of theology written after the first century, being among other things the book where the doctrine of Original Sin is hammered out the most clearly and emphatically.

Finally, Boethius’ The Consolation of Philosophy (523 CE), (Episode 103), while hardly original, was still a ubiquitous book in the Latin Middle Ages. A self-help manual for the downtrodden philosopher, the book blended stoicism and Christianity in a way that appealed to many medieval readers.

The season on Late Antiquity is nearly complete, in spite of long and unfortunate gaps in production due to the host. It will conclude with programs on the Talmud, Gregory of Tours, Venantius Fortunatus, and Isidore of Seville, before we move on to the first of the Upcoming Seasons on early Islamic history.

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