Constantinople: Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian Imperial Capital

Front Cover
Univ of California Press, Jun 2, 2020 - Religion - 238 pages

As Christian spaces and agents assumed prominent positions in civic life, the end of the long span of the fourth century was marked by large-scale religious change. Churches had overtaken once-thriving pagan temples, old civic priesthoods were replaced by prominent bishops, and the rituals of the city were directed toward the Christian God. Such changes were particularly pronounced in the newly established city of Constantinople, where elites from various groups contended to control civic and imperial religion.

Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos argues that imperial Christianity was in fact a manifestation of traditional Roman religious structures. In particular, she explores how deeply established habits of ritual engagement in shared social spaces—ones that resonated with imperial ideology and appealed to the memories of previous generations—constructed meaning to create a new imperial religious identity. By examining three dynamics—ritual performance, rhetoric around violence, and the preservation and curation of civic memory—she distinguishes the role of Christian practice in transforming the civic and cultic landscapes of the late antique polis.

 

Selected pages

Contents

religion in Late antiquity
1
The Founding of a City
46
Violence and the Politics of memory
74
Cult Practice as a technology of social Construction
110
Imperial Piety and the Writing of Christian history
143
The making of a Christian City
179
Selected Bibliography
191
Index vii
192
15
213
46
215
74
216
179
217
Copyright

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Constantinople: Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian ...
Dr. Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos
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Common terms and phrases

Antioch apostoleion Arian Arkadios assertions authors Averil Cameron Berkeley bishop Brill Byzantine Byzantium California Press Cambridge University Press Cameron Christian cult Chronicon paschale Chronographia Church city’s civic cult Constantine Constantinople Constantinopolitan constructed cult sites cultic cultural Dagron divine edited emperor empress eusebios festivals fifth century fourth century gods Greek Gregory of nazianzos groups Hagia Eirene Historia ecclesiastica homilies homoousian Ibid imperial court individuals John Chrysostom John Malalas John’s Julian landscape Late Antiquity Leiden Libanios Libanius Makedonios mausoleum memory monuments narrative nestorios nicene Christianity non-Theodosian novatians Oratio orthodoxy Oxford University Press Pagan participation performances Philostorgios piety practices processions Pulcheria reign relics Religion religious rhetoric ritual action Roman Empire Rome sacrifice social Sokrates sokrates and sozomenos sozomenos space temples Theodosian Christianity Theodosios Theodosios’s tion traditional cult translated University of California Valentinian II violence Vita Constantini γὰρ δὲ ἐν καὶ τὰ τὴν τῆς τὸ τὸν τοῦ τοὺς τῶν

About the author (2020)

Rebecca Stephens Falcasantos is a Research Associate and Lecturer in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Her research focuses on the intersection of religious practices, rhetoric, and contestations over cultural dominance in the late Roman East.

Bibliographic information

TitleConstantinople: Ritual, Violence, and Memory in the Making of a Christian Imperial Capital
Volume 9 of Christianity in Late Antiquity
AuthorRebecca Stephens Falcasantos
Editionillustrated
PublisherUniv of California Press, 2020
ISBN0520304551, 9780520304550
Length238 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Ancient / General
Religion / Ancient
Religion / Christianity / History
Religion / Comparative Religion
  
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