Podcast episode
June 22, 2020
Episode 95: The Third Century and (the Long) Late Antiquity
[Corrigendum: Gentle listeners, we speak about the massive military and social reforms of the emperor Diocletian as a crucial marker for the change to late antiquity; this is quite right, but unfortunately we kept mixing up Diocletian (r. 284-305 CE) with the much-earlier and quite-irrelevant Domitian (r. 81-96)! Forget about Domitian: it’s Diocletian!]
The podcast is pulling back from the nitty-gritty of history for a moment to discuss an important concept in historiography: late antiquity. When we approach western esotericism as a whole phenomenon across a broad sweep of history – see pretty much all the reputable ‘Introduction to Western Esotericism’ books on the market – there is always a mention of something more-or-less along the lines of ‘… religious and philosophical movements of late antiquity like (fill in the blank: Neoplatonism, Hermetism, theurgy, esoteric Christianity or ‘Christian mysticism’, etc.).’ But what do we mean by ‘late antiquity’?
It may be that different scholars mean different things. We have thus written this episode to lay down some of what we here at the SHWEP mean by late antiquity. Viz: the period when classical antiquity was progressively transformed into something recognisably new, but something not yet ‘mediæval’. Can we be more specific?
Yes: firstly, major political and social changes occurred in the Roman empire, not least of which were the so-called ‘crisis of the third century’ and the institution of the Dominate, the later period of imperial rule wherein the empire was transformed into an increasingly-absolutist military/ideological machine of control. Secondly, late antiquity saw transformations in the ways people thought about things – what it was to be a human being, how the human being should relate to other human beings and to god(s), and so forth. We discuss what we see as three crucial developments occurring in the late-antique thought-worlds of the Mediterranean world:
- the rise of totalitarianism (both political and ideological),
- the interiorisation and privatisation of religion (sometimes called the ‘inward turn’), and
- the rise of the individual.
Enjoy your (individual) self, it’s later (antiquity) than you think.
Works Cited in this Episode:
- Glenn Bowersock. The Vanishing Paradigm of the Fall of Rome. Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 49(8):29–43, May 1996. We cite pp. 42-3.
- Brown 1971 and Brown 1978: see below. Brown on the Late Pagan Holy Man: Peter Brown. The Rise and Function of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity. JRS, (61): 80–101, 1971b.
- Gill 2006: see below.
- Smith 1993: see below. [Note that, in the work of Smith and of other scholars of religion, the term ‘Hellenistic’ is often used in a way quite different from the narrow definition usually given it by Classicists: thus, many religious developments which Classicists would consider typically late antique are discussed under the rubric of ‘Hellenistic religion’. These often are things (like, for example, the move away from temple-cult or sacrifice) which indeed begin in the Hellenistic period, but which really take over in late antiquity.]
- Tatian (c.120-180 CE): ‘There should be one code of law for all mankind, and one political organisation’, citing Brown 1971, p. 60.
Recommended Reading:
A comprehensive bibliography on just the concept of late antiquity would run to thousands of titles; the following list is just a brief indication of a few works which are especially relevant to this episode. Some argue for a long late antiquity, while others (esp. Ward-Perkins and Marcone) argue that, in essence, we need to re-instill some crises and hard cultural breaks into our historiography.
On Islam, see the corpus coranicum project at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, which is seeking to realign our understanding of the Qur’ân into late antiquity.
- G. W. Bowersock. Hellenism in Late Antiquity. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, MI, 1996b.
- Glen W. Bowersock, Peter Brown, and Oleg Grabar, editors. Late Antiquity: A Guide to the Post-Classical World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge,MA, 1999.
- Peter Brown. The World of Late Antiquity. Thames and Hudson, London, 1971a.
- Idem. The Making of Late Antiquity. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1978.
- Alexander Demandt. Der Fall Roms. Die Auflösung des Reiches im Urteil der Nachwelt. Munich, 1984.
- G. Fowden. From Empire to Commonwealth: The Consequences of Monotheism in Late Antiquity. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1993.
- Idem. Before and After Muhammad: The First Millennium Refocused. Princeton University Pres, Princeton, NJ/Oxford, 2014.
- Lloyd P. Gerson, editor. The Cambridge History of Philosophy in Late Antiquity, 2 vols. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2010.
- Christopher Gill. The Structured Self in Hellenistic and Roman Thought. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006.
- A. Heuss. Antike und Spätantike. In J. Kunisch, editor, Spätzeit. Studien zu den Problemen eines historischen Epochenbegriffs, pages 27–90. Berlin, 1990.
- Arnaldo Marcone. A Long Late Antiquity? Considerations of a Controversial Periodization. Journal of Late Antiquity, 1(1):4–19, 2008.
- H.-I. Marrou. Décadence romaine ou Antiquité tardive? IIIe–VIe siècles. Seuil, Paris, 1977.
- Arnoldo Momigliano. Christianity and the Decline of the Roman Empire. In idem, ed. The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century, pages 79–99. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1963.
- J.Z. Smith. Map Is Not Territory. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL/London, 1993b.
- Bryan Ward-Perkins. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005.
- Edward J. Watts. City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria. University of California Press, Berkley/Los Angeles, CA/London, 2006a.
Themes
Ælius Aristides, Clement of Alexandria, Cosmic Ascent, Hermeticism, Interiorisation, Late Antiquity, Late Platonism, Monotheism, Overview, Rome, Theurgy
Albert Hand
June 22, 2020
All I want for Christmas is an interview with Fowden on the historiographical concept of the Holy Man in Late Antiquity.
Earl Fontainelle
June 23, 2020
Me too, but Professor Fowden politely declined.
Ethan Dickey
June 23, 2020
Once again an episode of the SHWEP touches on a lot of topics that have been on my mind recently. The Late Antique period is worthy of close study at least for the reason that (to borrow the phrasing attributed to Twain) it rhymes with our own era. We live in a period in which a hegemonic political form (US-based neoliberalism), which has spread over most of the known world partly due to its cultural pluralism, seems to be showing signs of breakdown. Most recently the similarities (and differences) of the Antonine Plague are striking. I have found it quite instructive to note how people in administrative roles have responded to crises both past and present. This may give us some idea of the shape of what is to come.
To return to Late Antiquity on its own terms: I agree that the Rise of the Individual thesis is a bit overblown. I think we are rather biased by the extant textual evidence available to us. Perhaps it’s safer to say that this period saw the rise in personal devotions/reflections being committed to paper. With the more specific matter of interiorization, it bears some teasing out since this is a trend that will continue in Western Esotericism up to the present. To make a quick comparative jump, it’s worth noting that the (apparent) rise of interiorization was also happening at around the same time in China with the advent of the Shangqing school of Daoism.
But to me the more obvious trend is the gradual displacement of the temple cults by congregational worship. This can be traced back at least to the 3st Century BCE in which synagogues were the center of religious life in Jewish diaspora communities, becoming the near-exclusive loci of such after 70 CE. Whatever significance the Temple in Jerusalem might have held to the early Jewish-Christians, churches came to dominate as a matter of course. Manichaeanism also seems to have adopted the congregational form from the very beginning. And regardless of whatever actual connections to the Persian cult of Mithras, Roman Mithraism has left behind many ruins of its congregations. I’m most interested in the question of how Hermeticism played into this development. The standard modern interpretation, and indeed many of the Hermetica themselves seem to imply, that clusters of teachers and students took over the transmission of the tradition as the temples of Thoth fell into disuse. I have yet to take a deep dive into Christian Bull’s recent book on the subject, but as I understand he tries to draw a direct line from the temple cults to the community that produced the first Hermetica. It’s easy to speculate that other scenarios are possible. I like to entertain the idea that Hermeticism may have little to do with the temple cults at all, and may have originated from parallel Egyptian folk religious traditions. After all, the PGM offer only the tiniest glimpse of a much different religious culture than is generally taken for granted based on the ruins left to us by the priestly elites.
I’d also be interested in continued exploration of the rise of strict orthodoxy as with Tatian. As a life-long outsider, it always seemed strange to me how quick Christians are to resort to schism over the tiniest of theological disagreement. Especially when compared to Jews who tend also to have lengthy debates over minutiae, but don’t excommunicate one another over their differences. Are there any good critical overviews of the rise of heresiology you could point me to?
Earl Fontainelle
June 23, 2020
‘ it’s worth noting that the (apparent) rise of interiorization was also happening at around the same time in China with the advent of the Shangqing school of Daoism.’ How interesting. I love comparative synchronicities, regardless of whether they mean anything.
If you are interested in Christian Bull’s work on the way of Hermes, just wait a few months and the SHWEP will have something to say about it. We have one or two other Hermetic treats in the SHWEP Akashic Records as well.
I would like to put your question about a good critical overview of heresiology out to our community, because I would also want to read such a book.
Anyone?
James Lomas
June 30, 2020
I thought “the individual” emerged due to currencies and capital in the 4th and 5th century BC? I like the comment above, also, that the rise of congregational worship seems at odds with an indivduated religion. I’m most interested in the story where we lose the notion of the personal soul as part of the world soul (we are part of the logos) versus the individual soul judged individually. In parallel, the Indian Atman was always part of Brahma, never fully atomic. Never the less, reincarnation in both east and west are totalizing — always it is one whole soul that transfers, never parts of the soul. That’s an issue. But perhaps we take our post-late antiquity view of the personal soul and project its individualism back into the original logos/psuche/atman?
I am most intrigued by the totalizing story — and glad to see that you linked it to Plato. It made me think about what Aristotle called “the error of Socrates”, which was his notion of unity. Aristotle pointed out that the pursuit of unity as value would result in harmony reduced to unison or rhythm as a single beat. How, then, to have a view of beautiful and goodness as variety in unity? It doesn’t seem that any totalizing system accepts diversity/variety, in this manner.