Philosophy
This tradition asserted that all things originate from one transcendent source and that the human soul could achieve union with that source through philosophical contemplation and ascetic discipline.
What is Neoplatonism?
This pastime, which garnered criticism from several prominent bishops including John Chrysostom, was the most popular form of entertainment in the cities of the late antique Mediterranean.
What is the Circus (chariot-racing)?
Inflation had grown so rampant in the course of the third century that the emperors Aurelian and Diocletian both issued regulatory edicts designed to establish a fixed limit on this.
What is the price of goods?
The westward migrations of these Asiatic steppe nomads prompted the Goths to cross the Danube frontier and seek refuge in the Roman Balkans.
Who are the Huns?
"Justinian on the other hand was greatly feared and assiduously courted, for he stirred up trouble all the time, producing universal turmoil and confusion. This was the moment he chose for arranging his engagement to Theodora. But as it was impossible for a man who had reached the rank of senator to make a harlot his wife, such a thing being prohibited from the beginning by the most venerable laws, he forced the Emperor to abrogate the laws by establishing a new one. From that moment he lived with Theodora as his legal spouse, thereby enabling everyone else to get engaged to a harlot."
What is Procopius, Anecdota (Secret History)?
This 6th century aristocratic Roman statesman, after years of public service under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, retired to a villa in Calabria where he and his fellow monks set about copying works of Scripture, secular literature, and philosophy.
Who is Cassiodorus?
The biography of this famous desert father proved to be something of a best-seller among the educated classes of the Empire.
Who is Anthony of Egypt?
Throughout late antiquity, the cities of Rome and Constantinople became increasingly reliant on these, a free shipment of grain from the agricultural centers in Egypt and Africa.
What are the annonae?
Fleeing from the increasingly hostile leaders of the Quraysh clan, Muhammad's emigration from Mecca to Yathrib in 622 is sometimes referred to as this.
What is the hijra?
"When we were still under legal surveillance and my father was inclined to vex me with his words and continually strove to hurt my faith because of his love: “Father, I said, Do you see this vessel lying here, a pitcher or whatsoever it may be?” And he said: “I see it.” And I said to him: “Can it be called by any other name than that which it is?” And he answered: “No.” “So can I call myself nought other than that which I am, a Christian.”
Then my father, angry with this word, came upon me to tear out my eyes; but he only vexed me, and he departed vanquished, he and the arguments of the devil. Then because I was without my father for a few days I gave thanks unto the Lord; and I was comforted because of his absence. In this same space of a few days we were baptised, and the Spirit declared to me, I must pray for nothing else after that water, save only the endurance of the flesh."
What is the Martyrdom of Sts. Perpetua and Felicity?
This temple complex and center of neoplatonic learning in Alexandria was destroyed by a Christian mob in 391.
What is the Serapeum?
The veneration of this Roman soldier-turned-bishop, who famously cut his cloak in half to clothe a beggar, dominated the religious landscape of the cities of late antique Gaul.
Who is Martin of Tours?
This poll tax was imposed by the Arabs on the various ahl al-kitaab as a payment that ensured military protection and continued freedom to practice their religious rites.
What is the jizya?
The worship of this supreme deity, one of two cosmic entities locked in perpetual combat and associated with light, fire, and purity, first originated in the plateaus of Persia.
Who is Ahura Mazda (Ohrmazd)?
"Even so the clouds of my melancholy were broken up. I saw the clear sky, and regained the power to recognise the face of my physician. Accordingly, when I had lifted my eyes and fixed my gaze upon her, I beheld my nurse, Philosophy, whose halls I had frequented from my youth up.
'Ah! why,' I cried, 'mistress of all excellence, have you come down from on high, and entered the solitude of this my exile? Is it that you, too, even as I, have been persecuted with false accusations?'"
What is Boethius, On the Consolation of Philosophy?
This tradition claimed that humans should strive to live a life of virtue which is the only good unto itself and that they should be ruled by reason rather than passions of the mind and body.
What is Stoicism?
These papyri fragments, dating to the Decian Persecutions, required the signature of a Roman provincial administrator who oversaw each citizen doing their part to preserve the pax deorum.
What are libelli (certificates of sacrifice)?
This class of minor provincial elites, who traditionally paid the taxes for their entire communities as a display of their civic virtue, was continuously undermined by an ever-growing burden of taxation.
Who are the curiales (curial class)?
The impressive series of defensive fortifications constructed in Armenia, Georgia, and Persia, which were according to tradition commissioned by Alexander the Great, are said to have held back the forces of these heralds of the apocalypse.
Who are Gog and Magog?
"Thus the pious emperor, glorying in the confession of the victorious cross, proclaimed the Son of God to the Romans with great boldness of testimony. And the inhabitants of the city, one and all, senate and people, reviving, as it were, from the pressure of a bitter and tyrannical domination, seemed to enjoy purer rays of light, and to be born again into a fresh and new life. All the nations, too, as far as the limit of the western ocean, being set free from the calamities which had heretofore beset them, and gladdened by joyous festivals, ceased not to praise him as the victorious, the pious, the common benefactor: all, indeed, with one voice and one mouth, declared that [he] had appeared by the grace of God as a general blessing to mankind."
What is Eusebius, The Life of Constantine?
This prominent early Christian author from North Africa famously opined: "What then has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What does the academy to do with the church? ... Away with those who produce a Stoic, Platonic, and dialectic Christianity!"
Who is Tertullian of Carthage?
This late fourth-century Roman poet, whose work has been maligned as a "condemnation of the taste of his age," famously ranked the greatest cities of the empire, beginning with golden Rome and ending with his native Bordeaux.
Who is Ausonius?
This monetary principle, applicable to the third century debasement of the silver coinage, asserts that poor quality currency will naturally drive higher quality coinage out of circulation (and primarily into hoards).
What is Gresham's Law?
A Roman governor stationed in Dacia in the third century, criticized those who lived beyond the limes for these two cultural deficiencies.
What are they cultivated no olives and they drank no wine?
"I must have no doubt but that profit arises from good works, and loss from sin, that my friend is Ohrmazd and my enemy Ahriman, and that there is only one religious way. [This] one way [is that] of good thoughts, good words, and good deeds, [the way of] Heaven, of light and of purity, of the Infinite Creator, Ohrmazd, who was always and will ever be. [There is also] the other way of evil thoughts, evil words, and evil deeds, [the way of] darkness, and of the finiteness, utter misery, death, and wickedness which belong to the accursed Destructive Spirit (Ahriman) who once was not in this creation, and again will not be in the creation of Ohrmazd, and who in the end will be destroyed."
What is the Book of the Counsel of Zartošt?