The Worlds of Late Antiquity

Readings for Students

I. The Roman World: Government, Politics, and Power

• P. Brown, World of Late Antiquity
• Averil Cameron, The Later Roman Empire
• Averil Cameron, The Mediterranean world in late antiquity, AD 395-600
• Patrick J. Geary, Before France and Germany
• Peter Brown, Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity (by 31 March)
• Procopius, Secret History
• P. Heather and J. Matthews, Goths in the Fourth Century
• Pacatus, Panegyric to the Emperor Theodosius
• R. Krautheimer, Rome, profile of a city, 312-1308
• Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution
• Peter Brown, The Making of Late Antiquity
• Robert Browning, Justinian and Theodora
• Averil Cameron, Procopius and the Sixth Century
• A.H.M. Jones, The Decline of the Ancient World
• Sabine MacCormack, Art and Ceremony in Late Antiquity
• Kenneth G. Holum, Theodosian Empresses: Women and Imperial Dominion in Late Antiquity
• C. Pharr, The Theodosian Code
• H. Wolfram, History of the Goths
• T.D. Barnes, Athanasius and Constantius

  II. Education and Culture

• Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy
• R.T. Wallis, Neoplatonism
• H.I. Marrou, History of Education in Antiquity
• P. Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West
• H. Chadwick, Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Theology, and Philosophy
• M.T. Gibson, ed., Boethius
• R. Sorabji, ed., Philoponus and the Rejection of Aristotelian Science
• J.J. O'Donnell, Cassiodorus
• J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome
• L.D. Reynolds and N.G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars

  III. 'Paganism'

• Lane Fox, Robin, Pagans and Christians
• The Emperor Julian : panegyric and polemic, ed. S.N.C. Lieu.
• Julian, Works (Loeb Classical Library)
• Libanius, Orations (Loeb Classical Library)
• Iamblichus, On the Pythagorean way of life
• G.W. Bowersock, Julian the Apostate
• P. Athanassiadi Fowden, Julian and Hellenism
• Ramsay Macmullen, Paganism in the Roman Empire
• Garth Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes
• P. Chuvin, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans
• Philostratus, Life of Apollonius of Tyana
• Proclus, Elements of Theology

  IV. Christianity

• Henry Chadwick, The Early Church
• R. Macmullen, Christianizing the Roman Empire
• Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
• Encyclopedia of the Early Church
• J. Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition
• W.H.C. Frend, The Rise of Christianity
• Raymond Van Dam, Leadership and Community in Late Antique Gaul
• R. Mathisen, Ecclesiastical Factionalism and Religious Controversy in Fifth-Century Gaul
• R. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them
• W. Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles
• T.D. Barnes, Tertullian
• T.D. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius
• T.D. Barnes, Athanasius and Constantius

  V. Augustine

• Augustine, Confessions
• Augustine, City of God
• Peter Brown, Augustine of Hippo
• F. Van Der Meer, Augustine the Bishop

  VI. Holy Men and Monks

• Peter Brown, `The rise and function of the holy man in late antiquity', in his Society and the holy in late antiquity (also published in Journal of Roman Studies 61(1971), 80-101, with revisions suggested by Brown in Representations for 1983, under the title 'The Saint as Exemplar'; to be compared with G. Fowden, `The pagan holy man in late antique society,' Journal of Hellenic Studies 102 (1982) 33-59.
• Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks; Gregory of Tours, Life of the Fathers; Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Confessors;
• Chitty, Derwas J., The desert a city
• Egeria's Travels (trans. J. Wilkinson)
• Peter Brown, The Cult of the Saints
• J. Leclercq, The Love of Learning and the Desire for God
• The Rule of Benedict
• Elizabeth Clark, Ascetic Piety and Women's Faith
• Elizabeth Clark, The Origenist Controversy
• P. Rousseau, Pachomius: The Making of a Community in Fourth-Century Egypt
• Holy Women of the Syrian Orient, trans. S. Brock and S. Harvey

  VII. The Papacy

• Book of the Pontiffs
• Oxford Dictionary of the Popes
• J. Richards, Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages
• W. Ullmann, The Growth of Papal Government

  VIII. Private Life

• P. Veyne, et al., History of Private Life, Volume 1
• John Boswell, Christianity, Homosexuality and Society Tolerance
• John Boswell, The kindness of strangers : the abandonment of children in Western Europe from late antiquity to the Renaissance
• John Boswell, Same-sex unions in premodern Europe
• Brown, Peter, The Body and Society
• Aline Rousselle, Porneia
• Gillian Clark, Women in Late Antiquity: Pagan and Christian Lifestyles
• Patricia Cox Miller, Dreaming in Late Antiquity (or very similar title: not yet published from Princeton Press)

  IX. Italy after Theoderic

• T.S. Brown, Gentlemen and Officers
• C. Wickham, Early Medieval Italy
• B. Ward-Perkins, From classical antiquity to the Middle Ages : urban public building in northern and central Italy, AD 300-850

  X. Byzantium, Justinian and after

• Chronicon Paschale 284-628 AD
• G. Ostrogorsky, History of the Byzantine State
• A.A. Vasiliev, History of the Byzantine Empire
• R. Browning, The Byzantine Empire
• G. Downey, Constantinople in the Age of Justinian
• A. Toynbee, Constantine Porphyrogenitus and His World

  XI. Aftermaths

  Ireland pre-Patrick:

• P. MacCana, Celtic Mythology
• F.J. Byrne, Irish Kings and High Kings

  Ireland: conversion and after:

• Bieler, Ludwig, Ireland, harbinger of the Middle Ages
• R.P.C. Hanson, St. Patrick
• L. and M. DePaor, Early Christian Ireland

  Elsewhere:

• G. Bowersock, Hellenism in Late Antiquity
• P. Crone, Meccan Trade and the Rise of Islam
• R. Bagnall, Egypt in Late Antiquity
• E. Said, Orientalism
• B. Lewis, Arabs in History and other titles
• Marshall Hodgson, The Venture of Islam
• P. Hunter Blair, The World of Bede
• J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church
• Drinkwater and Elton, edd., Gaul in the Fifth Century

  XII. Modern Readers, Reactions, Syntheses, etc.

• Hodges and Whitehouse, Mohammed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe
• R.A. Markus, The End of Ancient Christianity
• Herrin, Judith, The formation of Christendom
• G. Fowden, Empire to Commonwealth: Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity
• E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• H. Pirenne, Mohammed and Charlemagne
• C.N. Cochrane, Christianity and Classical Culture

  XII. Art and architecture

• Thomas Mathews, The Clash of Gods: A Reinterpretation of Early Christian Art
• J. Beckwith, Early Christian and Byzantine Art
• R. Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture
• R. Krautheimer, Rome

  XII. Additional reference works and further reading:

• Oxford Classical Dictionary
• A.H.M. Jones, The Later Roman Empire
• Cambridge History of the Bible, volumes 1-2

  Miscellany:

• O. Maenchen-Helfen, The World of the Huns
• C. Thomas, Christianity in Roman Britain
• Peter Salway, Roman Britain
• Peter Hunter Blair, Roman Britain and Early England 55 BC to AD 871
• E. Luttwak, The Grand Strategy of the Roman Empire
• D.L. Kennedy, Rome's Desert Frontier from the Air
• Michael H. Dodgeon and Samuel N.C. Lieu, edd., The Roman eastern frontier and the Persian Wars (A.D. 226-363): a documentary history
• Arther Ferrill, The fall of the Roman Empire: the military explanation
• Robert Wilken, John Chrysostom and the Jews : rhetoric and reality in the late fourth century
• J. Lieu, J. North, and T. Rajak, edd., The Jews among pagans and Christians in the Roman world
• Grant, Michael, The Jews in the Roman World
• Edward James, The Franks
• Averil Cameron, Procopius and the sixth century
• B. Metzger, The Canon of the New Testament
• W.H.C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church
• John F. Matthews, Atlas of the Roman World
• Henry Chadwick, Atlas of the Christian Church
• Haim Beinart, Atlas of Medieval Jewish History
• F. Van Der Meer, Atlas of the Early Christian World