Hagith Sivan

Who Was Egeria? Piety and Pilgrimage in the Age of Gratian

It has been customary to identify the author of the Itinerarium Egeriae (It. Eg.) as a nun or a “grande dame” from one of the western provinces of the later Roman empire—Spain, Gaul, or even Italy. Yet, a reexamination of the evidence suggests the possibility of a different solution regarding not only the authors religious affiliation and status in society but also her geographical origin. The newly proposed identification is linked with major developments of Christianity in the West, in particular with its spread within urban milieux and with the receptivity of contemporary society to the idea of pilgrimage.

Holy Land Pilgrimage and Western Audiences: Some Reflections on Egeria and Her Circle

In the vast literature centering on the Itinerarium Egeriae (IE) there is a serious lacuna. No attempt has been made to analyse the circle of readers to whom this remarkable document was addressed and for whose sake Egeria recorded so faithfully every detail of her journey. Yet if a full understanding of the IE is to be achieved, some definition of the circle of Egeria and of its relations with the pilgrim is essential. In other words, who in the West at that point in the late fourth century, would have been so interested in Holy Land pilgrimage as to read attentively such a personal account as the IE? The following is a tentative essay to gauge the concerns, expectations and cultural background of Egerias immediate circle of readers through her own emphasis on various aspects of her pilgrimage. In addition, the investigation will try to assess the place of pilgrimage in the life of western communities and the value of communications between the pilgrim on the road and the society back at home.

Ulfila's Own Conversion

Ulfila the Goth (ca. 310–383) has gained fame as the Arian apostle to his people. More accurately, he was responsible for the conversion of semi-Arianism during the 340s. Yet two distinct traditions exist regarding Ulfilas own religious formation. One is an Arianized version of his life in the reports of Philostorgius and Auxentius, which claims Ulfila as an Arian from birth. The other, a Nicene version gleaned from the works of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, asserts that Ulfila “converted” from Nicene orthodoxy to Arianism sometime between 360 and 376. How compelling is either biography? If, moreover, Ulfila had remained loyal to Nicene doctrines until at least 360, to what had he converted the Goths in the 340s?

Was Theodosius I A Usurper

This is the publishers verison, also available electronically from http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/klio.1996.78.issue-1/klio.1996.78.1.198/klio.1996.78.1.198.xml.

Jewish Childhood in the Roman World

This is the first full treatment of Jewish childhood in the Roman world. It follows minors into the spaces where they lived, learned, played, slept, and died and examines the actions and interaction of children with other children, with close-kin adults, and with strangers, both inside and outside the home. A wide range of sources is used, from the rabbinic rules to the surviving painted representations of children from synagogues, and due attention is paid to broader theoretical issues and approaches. Hagith Sivan concludes with four beautifully reconstructed “autobiographies” of specific children, from a boy living and dying in a desert cave during the Bar-Kokhba revolt to an Alexandrian girl forced to leave her home and wander through the Mediterranean in search of a respite from persecution. The book tackles the major questions of the relationship between Jewish childhood and Jewish identity which remain important to this day.

Early Jewish Magic: Research, Method, Sources (review)

to carry oil rather than wine. The contents of fi fthto seventh-century containers are particularly problematic: in earlier work Reynolds not only accepted oil as the main content of LRA 1 but supposed that the small Tunisian spatheia contained either wine or oil, whereas here he has opted for fi sh sauce or olives. Many of the data are unpublished and can’t be verifi ed. Reynolds has a phenomenal eye for fabrics and is able to distinguish among a very large number of Levantine sources (see fi g. 13) but no one else can, or does, report like this and little of it has been tested either scientifi cally or through publication. In other cases reporting is clearly incomplete: in Table 23, for instance, it is certain that the amphoras and coarse wares were underreported (see Table 25a, there are always more amphoras and coarse wares than fi ne wares or lamps in a deposit). More subtle is the selectivity of other tables where only seven or eight amphora types are recorded. Many of the goals dear to the hearts of twentieth-century archaeologists—complete reporting of data (no cherry-picking), fi rm stratigraphic control, and prompt publication—have been sidelined in order to present the data reported here. Reynolds himself seems to have rejected the model he suggested in Trade in the Western Mediterranean, AD 400–700 (BAR-IS 604, 1995), pp. 125, 127–29, in which the movement of “secondary” goods (fi ne wares and garum) or “tertiary” goods (cooking pots) always depended on the frequency and distribution of primary food stuffs and raw materials (amphoras). And we should not forget that grain, timber, marble, and other raw materials, “primary” goods essential to the Roman economy in the Mediterranean, are not included in this study. Only time will tell how many modifi cations will be needed to the broad picture or to the details. There is now, however, a starting point for archaeological discussion of the Mediterranean economy.

History and Geography in Late Antiquity: Merrills, A. H.: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 386 pp., Publication Date: August 2005

HISTORY tural features of the city and their Etruscan, Samnite, and Greek influences. Chapter 3 discusses Pompeii during and after the social wars and the installation of a veteran’s colony within the city. Ling discusses the distinctive architectural changes this brings about and the building of villas beyond the walls of the city. In chapter 4, Ling describes the changes in the city that occurred during the early empire. Much of Ling’s analysis is architectural. He discusses the continued development of the more ostentatious atrium house, buildings dedicated by Pompeii’s leading citizens, and the more lavish tombs built along the roads leading to the city. These first four chapters in particular reveal the results of much of the recent archaeological work focused on the city’s earlier periods. Chapter 5 discusses the final years of the city before its destruction, covering the famous amphitheatre riot of 59 AD and the damage from the earthquake of 62 AD. Chapter 6, “Life in the City,” is the longest chapter in the book, and is divided into seven large subsections followed by a brief summary. Topics include “Demography,” which is mostly concerned with determining the population of the city; “Civic Administration,” which discusses both administrative architecture and the structure of Pompeii’s local government; “Religion;” “Economic Life;” “Social Life;” “Domestic Life;” and, finally, “The Urban Fabric,” which discusses the infrastructure of the city. Chapter 7, “Pompeii after the Eruption,” is the most interesting. Ling discusses the history of Pompeii’s excavations and provides details concerning the classic and recent publications of Pompeii’s most prominent scholars in a vivid and engaging manner. The book includes a general topical bibliography and each chapter is documented by notation. This is an excellent book for classroom use and initial research. It is engaging, lavishly illustrated, and an excellent value.

Eyewitness to Jewish History: Blech, Rabbi Benjamin: Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 320 pp., Publication Date: July 2004

come Institute for the History of Medicine at Oxford, Harrison is in a perfect position to do this. In fact, his own research has concentrated on the connections of war and colonialism to the experience of disease. A pragmatist, he is critical of those who argue that we cannot know the disease but only the language constructed to describe that disease. On the other hand, his assumptions about the role of the state and state control in the definition and treatment of disease shows the influence of Foucault. Harrison begins his treatment with an outline of Galenic and medieval ideas of medicine. He acknowledges those such as Graham Twigg who argue that the disease that caused the Black Death epidemic was probably anthrax, but he generally suggests that Renaissance epidemics were the Bubonic Plague. Although he does discuss ideas about medicine, Harrison is most interested in the experience of disease. He recounts the debates over the Columban Exchange, concluding that mortalities among native peoples were as great as authors such as Alfred Crosby have believed. On the other hand, after recounting the debates over declining mortality and population growth in the nineteenth century, the author agrees with Thomas McKeown that nutrition may have been more important than sanitarian thought or public health interventions. Harrison may be at his best in discussions of disease in the European imperial possessions. His own work and that of others have made clear the ways in which Western medicine accommodated itself to ideas of imperial control and even racist assumptions about what Europeans saw as a less civilized, less modem, and therefore less healthy part of the world. He concludes with an informed discussion of contemporary disease and the critical role of international markets and spreading poverty in the emergence of new diseases. Harrison’s book is a masterful mix of narrative and historiographical analysis. His thesis about disease and the modem state, as well as the clarity of his text, will make this an accessible book even for beginner students, yet the breadth of his research and his explication of debates will make it useful to even the most advanced student and scholar.

Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: Image and Empire

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Byzantium: The Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages: Angold, Michael: New York: St. Martin's Press, 186 pp., Publication Date: November 2001

gives a series of short sketches with photos, is incongruous and seems to be an afterthought. The book also has some serious factual errors: Ma Ri, in Ma Ri Shibian (24), is incorrectly identified as a local festival; but actually Ma wan customarily used to represent the twenty-first day, especially in telegraphy. Hence Mu Ri Shibian is the May 21 Incident. The First Soviet Congress is referred to erroneously an the “first Party Congress” (166). Overall, the book has little value for specialists in Chinese studies, but general readers may find the snippets on the lives of women in China interesting, especially those exposed to the subject for the first time. The book also has a short bibliography, mostly of books written in English, and a brief pronunciation guide.