Roman identity is one of the most interesting cases of social identity because in the course of time, it could mean so many different things: for instance, Greek-speaking subjects of the Byzantine empire, inhabitants of the city of Rome, autonomous civic or regional groups, Latin speakers under ‘barbarian’ rule in the West or, increasingly, representatives of the Church of Rome. Eventually, the Christian dimension of Roman identity gained ground. The shifting concepts of Romanness represent a methodological challenge for studies of ethnicity because, depending on its uses, Roman identity may be regarded as ‘ethnic’ in a broad sense, but under most criteria, it is not. Romanness is indeed a test case how an established and prestigious social identity can acquire many different shades of meaning, which we would class as civic, political, imperial, ethnic, cultural, legal, religious, regional or as status groups. This book offers comprehensive overviews of the meaning of Romanness in most (former) Roman provinces, complemented by a number of comparative and thematic studies. A similarly wide-ranging overview has not been available so far.
Author(s): Walter Pohl, Clemens Gantner, Cinzia Grifoni, Marianne Pollheimer-Mohaupt
Series: Millennium-Studien 71
Publisher: de Gruyter
Year: 2018
Language: English
Pages: 586
Tags: Post-Roman europe;Roman Empire;early medieval identities;HIS002000: HIS002000 HISTORY / Ancient / General;HIS037010: HIS037010 HISTORY / Medieval;HBLA: Ancient history: to c 500 CE;HBLA1: Classical history / classical civilisation;HBLC1: Medieval history;Römisches Reich;Identität /Frühmittelalter;SDI: Standard Discount;1553: Geschichte/Altertum
Frontmatter......Page 1
Contents......Page 5
Abbreviations......Page 9
List of figures......Page 11
Preface and acknowledgements......Page 13
Introduction: Early medieval Romanness – a multiple identity......Page 15
Transformations of Romanness: The northern Gallic case......Page 53
Compelling and intense: The Christian transformation of Romanness......Page 71
Romans, barbarians and provincials in the Res Gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus......Page 81
A stone in the Capitol: Some aspects of res publica and romanitas in Augustine......Page 101
Remarks on linguistic Romanness in Byzantium......Page 121
Byzantine Romanness: From geopolitical to ethnic conceptions......Page 133
‘Romanness’ and Rome in the early Middle Ages......Page 151
The post-imperial Romanness of the Romans......Page 165
The Roman past in the consciousness of the Roman elites in the ninth and tenth centuries......Page 181
Looking up to Rome: Romanness through the hagiography from the duchy of Spoleto......Page 203
Rome and Romanness in Latin southern Italian sources, 8th–10th centuries......Page 223
Between Rome and Constantinople: The Romanness of Byzantine southern Italy (9th–11th centuries)......Page 237
Dalmatian Romans and their Adriatic friends: Some further remarks......Page 247
‘Roman’ identity in Late Antiquity, with special attention to Gaul......Page 259
Roman barbarians in the Burgundian province......Page 279
Histories of Romanness in the Merovingian kingdoms......Page 293
Romanness in Merovingian hagiography: A case study in class and political culture......Page 313
Roman law as an identity marker in post-Roman Gaul (5th‒9th centuries)......Page 329
From subordination to integration: Romans in Frankish law......Page 349
Goths and Romans in Visigothic Hispania......Page 373
‘Made by the ancients’: Romanness in al-Andalus......Page 381
Walchen, Vlachs and Welsh: A Germanic ethnonym and its many uses......Page 395
Four communities of pot and glass recyclers in early post-Roman Britain......Page 403
Romanness at the fringes of the Frankish Empire: The strange case of Bavaria......Page 419
When not in Rome, still do as the Romans do? Africa from 146 BCE to the 7th century......Page 437
Romanness in the Syriac East......Page 455
Bibliography......Page 479
Index......Page 571
