Table Of ContentHISTORIOGRAPHY AND SPACE IN LATE
ANTIQUITY
TheRomanEmpiretraditionallypresenteditselfasthecentreofthe
world,aviewsustainedbyancienteducationandconveyedinimper-
ialliterature.Historiographyinparticulartendedtobewrittenfrom
an empire-centred perspective. In Late Antiquity, however, that
attitude was challenged by the fragmentation of the empire. This
bookexploreshowapost-imperialrepresentationofspaceemergesin
thehistoriographyofthatperiod.Mindsadaptedslowly,longignor-
ingConstantinopleasthenewcapitalandstillfindingcounter-worlds
attheedgesoftheworld.EveninChristianliterature,oftenthought
ofasintroducinganewconceptionofspace,theempirecontinuedto
influence geographies. Political changes and theological ideas, how-
ever,helpedtoimagineatransferralofempireawayfromRomeand
to substitute ecclesiastical for imperial space. By the end of Late
Antiquity,Romewasjustoneofmanycentresoftheworld.
peter van nuffelen is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent
University, where he leads an European Research Council–funded
teamonlateancienthistoriography.Hisrecentpublicationsinclude
Rethinking the Gods: Philosophical Readings of Religion in the Post-
HellenisticPeriod(CambridgeUniversityPress,2011),Orosiusandthe
Rhetoric of History (2012) and Penser la tolérance durant l’Antiquité
tardive(2018).
HISTORIOGRAPHY AND
SPACE IN LATE ANTIQUITY
edited by
PETER VAN NUFFELEN
GhentUniversity,Belgium
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Contents
ListofContributors pagevii
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction:FromImperialtoPost-ImperialSpace
inLateAncientHistoriography 1
PeterVanNuffelen
1 Constantinople’sBelatedHegemony 14
AnthonyKaldellis
2 BesidetheRimoftheOcean:TheEdgesoftheWorldin
Fifth-andSixth-CenturyHistoriography 36
PeterVanNuffelen
3 ArmenianSpaceinLateAntiquity 57
TimGreenwood
4 NarrativeandSpaceinChristianChronography:John
ofBiclaroonEast,WestandOrthodoxy 86
MarkHumphries
5 TheRomanEmpireinJohnofEphesus’sChurchHistory:
BeingRoman,WritingSyriac 113
HartmutLeppin
6 ChangingGeographies:WestSyrianEcclesiastical
Historiography,AD700–850 136
PhilipWood
v
vi Contents
7 WhereIsSyriacPilgrimageLiteratureinLateAntiquity?
ExploringtheAbsenceofaGenre 164
ScottJohnson
Bibliography 181
Index 213
Contributors
tim greenwood is Reader in the Department of Mediaeval History at
theUniversityofStAndrews.Heistheauthorofnumerousstudieson
the political, social and cultural history of late antique and medieval
Armenia and has recently published The Universal History of Step‘anos
Tarōnec‘i (2017), the first English translation and commentary of this
early-eleventh-centuryArmeniantext.
mark humphries is Professor of Ancient History and Head of the
Department of Classics, Ancient History and Egyptology at Swansea
University. He has published widely on various aspects of history,
literatureandreligioninlateantiquity.Heisoneofthegeneraleditors
oftheseriesTranslatedTextsforHistorians.
scott johnson is Associate Professor of Classics and Letters at the
UniversityofOklahoma.Hestudiestheliteraryandculturalhistoryof
the late antique world. His book Literary Territories: Cartographical
ThinkinginLateAntiquitywaspublishedin2016.
anthony kaldellis is Professor and Chair of Classics at The Ohio
StateUniversity.Hehaspublishedmanybooksandarticlesonaspectsof
Byzantinehistory,literatureandculture,includingmanytranslationsof
Byzantinesources.
hartmutleppinisProfessorofAncientHistoryattheGoetheUniversity
FrankfurtamMainandPrincipalInvestigatoroftheLeibnizprizeproject
PolyphonyofLateAntiqueChristianity.Hismainresearchareasarethe
historyofpolitical ideasandthehistoryofChristianityinantiquity.He
recentlypublishedDiefrühenChristen.VondenAnfängenbisKonstantin
(2018)andwithS.Alkier(ed.),Juden,Christen,Heiden.ReligiöseInklusion
undExklusioninKleinasienbisDecius(2018).
vii
viii ListofContributors
peter van nuffelen is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent
University. He publishes on philosophy and religion of the Roman
Empire, Early Christianity and the history and literature of Late
Antiquity. His most recent book is Penser la tolérance durant
l’Antiquité tardive (2018). With Lieve Van Hoof, he is publishing a
translation of Jordanes in the Translated Texts for Historians series, a
Clavis Historicorum Antiquitatis Posterioris, and an edition of fragmen-
taryLatinhistoriansofLateAntiquity(CambridgeUniversityPress).
philip woodisAssociateProfessorattheAgaKhanUniversity,Institute
for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, in London. His research deals
with minority groups in the Roman and Sasanian empires and in the
UmayyadandAbbasidcaliphates,fromthefifthtotheninthcenturies.
He has published two monographs on this subject: We Have No King
butChrist:ChristianPoliticalThoughtinGreaterSyriaontheEveofthe
ArabConquests(c.400–585)(2010)andTheChronicleofSeert:Christian
HistoricalImaginationinLateAntiqueIraq(2013).Heiscurrentlywork-
ingonabookonChristiansintheninth-centuryJazira.
