This seminar will explore the religious and cultural history of the late Roman world from about AD 200 to 600, focusing primarily on the relationship between Greco-Roman paganism and early Christianity. Why were the early Christians persecuted? How did Christianity become the dominant religion in the Roman empire? What exactly did "conversion" mean? Did pagan religion truly disappear or did it survive in altered forms? These are some of the questions we will study as we examine varieties of religious experience and patterns of religious conflict in late antiquity.

The purpose of the seminar is to train students in serious historical research using primary sources, with an end to producing a substantial (25-30pp) paper. The course will begin with a general introduction to the period and to the main issues of religious history, as well as some of the major texts. Students will then meet with the instructor individually to develop a research project on a topic of their choice. Possible areas of inquiry might include classical paganism, early Christian martyrdom and persecution, questions of conversion and missionization, the significance of Constantine, the Christianization of the Roman state, pagan-Christian debate and argument, the disappearance of organized pagan worship, or questions of "pagan survival."

Required texts (purchase at Follett’s Orange Bookstore):

Peter Brown, The World of Late Antiquity.

Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians.

Hans Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine.

Ramsay MacMullen and Eugene Lane eds., Paganism and Christianity: A Sourcebook.

Xerox packet: purchase directly from the History Dept., 145 Eggers Hall.

Online texts: I am assuming that all of you have access to computers, and that you know how to send and receive email, and use an internet browser to navigate websites. If this is not the case, talk to me immediately: you need to learn. I have checked out every website and link given below, and found them to be working properly as of August 28^th. Still, the internet can be unreliable. If you are unable to access an assigned text, please notify me immediately (do not wait until the next class to tell me!) so that we can make alternative arrangements.

On reserve (Bird Library): see attached list.

• Attendance and participation at all scheduled class meetings (including the student presentations at the end of term) are absolutely mandatory. This class meets only once a week – and not even every week – so please be there.
• Assigned readings: The schedule below should make clear which are required and which are optional/supplemental. Generally, the primary sources are to be considered "primary" – we will spend most of our time in class discussing these. Whenever possible, try to bring those texts to class with you. "Secondary" readings (books by modern scholars) are intended to provide you with background and context; although they are useful and important, we will not normally take much class time with them. Read the sources first, and form your own impression, before you read what somebody else has written about them. "Optional further reading" is especially recommended for those whose research topic might fall within the area covered in that particular week.
• E-mail discussion: I have set up a special mailing list for this course, pagans@listserv.syr.edu. Please subscribe to this list as soon as possible.  Instructions on how to subscribe. For each week in which there are assigned readings, I would like for you to share with your classmates your comment or reaction to one or more of the texts you’ve read. Please send these to the list no later than the Friday before; feel free to respond to what other people have said. A paragraph is enough. Don’t feel like you have to "cover" all the assigned readings in your comment; find one interesting thing to say about one text. Don’t stress out and don’t treat this like a formal paper: it can be impressionistic and rough; you can spit it out in 10 minutes if you’ve spent time doing the reading. E-mail comments will not be graded, but they will count toward "class participation" and your grade will suffer if you don’t do them at all.
• Short paper: Due in class on Oct. 18, this short (about 5-7pp) essay should be an in-depth analysis of a single text. Try out the techniques for critical reading of sources that we’ve been discussing in class. Set it in a historical context and find out something about its author (for this assignment, encyclopedia articles will suffice); expose its biases, interrogate its agenda. This is partly intended as a "warm up" for the main research project, and you may choose to incorporate this work (with revision) into your final paper.  Click here to link to a very helpful discussion of "How to Read a Primary Source," written by a professor at Bowdoin College.
• Research project and final paper: By the beginning of October, you should start to think (at least in general terms) about a particular topic within the broad theme of "Pagans and Christians" that you would like to pursue. Over the course of the semester, each of you will meet with me individually several times (at appropriate intervals as indicated on the schedule) so that I can help guide you through the stages of the process. On Oct. 25, turn in a "paper proposal": a 1-2 page explanation of what you’re going to write about, and a preliminary list of 4 or 5 significant sources you’ll be using. On Nov. 15, turn in a detailed outline of your paper, and a full bibliography of primary and secondary sources. On Dec. 6, a first draft of your paper is due. Although I won’t enforce an exact length, you should aim for about 25-30 pages. In the following week, meet with me to discuss revisions. Make those revisions, and turn in the final draft on Dec. 20. NO EXTENSIONS will be given except in case of death, dismemberment or other serious medical or family emergency. I have structured the schedule this way to ensure that you will be making steady progress on the paper throughout the whole semester, and won’t end up cranking out thirty pages in a single marathon caffeine binge the night before it’s due. The result will be a far better product and a much less painful process.
• Class presentations: The best way to really learn something is to turn around and teach it to other people. Accordingly, I’ve reserved the last few weeks of the semester (by which time your papers should be well underway) for you to share the results of your research with the rest of us. Plan to talk for about 15 minutes. You may choose to write out your remarks in full, or talk from an outline, whichever is more comfortable for you; you might find it helpful (though it’s not required) to make up a handout. Each of you will also take a turn serving as a respondent to another presenter. The two of you should plan to meet before class and discuss the topic in detail. Respondent should read the presenter’s paper, or as much of it as is written at that point, and plan to answer the presentation with about 5 minutes’ worth of constructive criticism that will then lead into open discussion.

Grading will be weighted approximately as follows:

Class attendance/participation (includes e-mail comments and assigned response to student presenter): 30%.

Short source-analysis paper: 10%.

In-class presentation: 20%.

Research project and final paper (including required intermediate stages such as proposal, outline, first draft): 40%.

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Primary texts:

Skim through MacMullen/Lane pp.1-154 and read as much as you can. Make sure to read at least one selection from each of the twelve chapters. Read in particular (we’ll be talking about these in class): Artemidorus’ dream-book [15-18]; Mithraic texts [72-73]; the Isis-initiation from Apuleius’ Golden Ass [84-103]; Lucian’s exposure of a "false" cult [119-137]; the pagan "holy men" Apollonius and Plotinus [138-147].

Secondary:

Lane Fox, 1-167 (required).

Brown, World of Late Antiquity. Try to read this entire book (about 200pp) during the first few weeks of September. Although we will not be discussing it in class, it will give you a very helpful comprehensive overview of the history and culture of the period we’ll be covering. At the back are good chronological charts and a map. Pages 11-59 are particularly relevant to this week’s reading.

Optional further reading:

Many more texts on pagan cults (Isis, Mithras etc.) can be found in Meyer, Ancient Mysteries (on reserve).

Additional chapters in Lane Fox.

Chuvin, Chronicle of the Last Pagans: first two chapters (on reserve).

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Sept 20: No class – Yom Kippur. Get a head start on next week’s reading!

Primary texts:

In MacMullen/Lane, skim through pp.152-260. Again, try to read closely at least one document from each chapter. Be sure to read: Pliny’s correspondence with Trajan [164-166]; Athenagoras’ Apology [173-198]; Gregory the Wonder-Worker [207-215].

Xerox pack: Manichaean texts [1-3].

Online:

Passion of Perpetua: the single most famous account of Christian martyrdom. Also one of very few texts from the ancient world actually written by a woman.

Why we persecute Christians: Edict of the Emperor Maximin Daia, quoted in Eusebius’ History of the Church, Book 9, Chapter 7.

Legends of the Apostles (apocryphal texts): Read either Acts of Paul and Thecla, or Acts of Thomas (Part 1 and Part 2).  Or read both if you have time!

Secondary:

Lane Fox ch. 6, "Spread of Christianity" required.

Review Brown, WLA 60-69.

Optional further reading:

Stevenson, A New Eusebius: excellent sourcebook covering all aspects of Christian life (early controversies and heresies, church discipline, Christian apologetic, pagan criticism, persecution, and more) from the time of the Apostles through Constantine. On reserve.

A Christian Ethnography: Bardaisan’s Book of the Laws of the Countries (c.200). Fascinating account of the customs of different nations, incorporated into a Christian apologetic.

Many more accounts of martyrdom in Musurillo, Acts of the Christian Martyrs; women martyrs of Persia and Arabia (warning: very graphic!) in Brock and Harvey, Holy Women of the Syrian Orient pp.63-121. On reserve.

Other chapters in Lane Fox, Part Two as relevant to your interests: ch.7 for Christian attitudes toward wealth, sexuality and the body; ch.8 on prophecy, vision and some interesting early Christian heresies; ch.9 on martyrdom and persecution; ch.10 on bishops and authority. Ch. 10 also discusses Gregory the Wonder-Worker in more detail.

Detailed narrative history: particular chapters in Frend, Rise of Christianity (on reserve) as relevant.

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Between Sept 27 and Oct 11, each student should meet with me individually to discuss preliminary ideas for research project.

The Conversion of Constantine:

MacMullen/Lane pp.261-264 gives short excerpts from Lactantius and Eusebius that describe Constantine’s famous vision: read these closely.

Xerox Pack:

And where were YOU during the Persecution? The Donatist Controversy.

Documents on the outbreak of the schism [4-14]

Passion of Maximian and Isaac: a Donatist martyr-text in which the "persecutor" is a Christian emperor [15-22]

"This is for your own good": Augustine for religious coercion [23]

High Crimes and Misdemeanors: Bishops on Trial.

Synod of the Oak, 403: Charges against John Chrysostom [24-26]

"Robber Council" of Ephesus, 449: Charges against Sophronius of Tella [27-32]

Council of Chalcedon, 451: Trial of Dioscorus of Alexandria [33-51]

Required Secondary:

Pohlsander, Constantine.

Optional further reading:

Payback time: Lactantius, How the Persecutors Died.

Eusebius, History of the Church:  bks 8-10.

Eusebius, Life of Constantine. Both texts, in full.

Stevenson, Creeds, Councils and Controversies: a huge selection of texts on all aspects of Christian life and thought in the fourth and early fifth centuries (on reserve).

On the Donatist controversy: more Donatist martyrs in Maureen Tilley, Donatist Martyr Stories (in library). Peter Brown, "Religious Dissent in Roman North Africa" and "Religious Coercion in Roman North Africa" in Brown, Religion and Society in the Age of Saint Augustine (on reserve).

More on the Great Persecution and on Constantine: Lane Fox Chs. 11 and 12, "Sinners and Saints" and "Constantine and the Church." Constantine’s Oration; Oration in Praise of Constantine. Both in Eusebius; online location as above. Barnes, Constantine and Eusebius (on reserve).

Relevant chapters in Frend, Rise of Christianity.

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Julian "the Apostate": MacMullen/Lane pp.266-278.

Xerox pack:

The legal suppression of paganism:

Edicts from the Theodosian Code [52-57].

Violent Christianization:

A legend of Abraham, from the Book of Jubilees [58-60]

A pagan complains: Libanius’ "For the Temples" [61-90]

The Christian answer: Ambrose [91-101]

How to become a bishop: Rabbula of Edessa [102-107]

The destruction of the Serapeum, and Christian victory: Rufinus [108-113]

The Bible (any version): 1 Kings 18:17-40. Elijah and the priests of Baal, a model for religious violence.

Online:

Three Accounts of the death of Hypatia of Alexandria.

Optional further reading:

Review Brown, WLA 70-81 and 96-112.

Stevenson, Creeds, Councils, Controversies.

More on Julian "the Apostate": Ammianus Marcellinus’ History, books 21-25 (a pagan view) and Christian texts (with helpful introduction and commentary) in Lieu, The Emperor Julian: Panegyric and Polemic, and more texts in King, Julian the Emperor. See also Bowersock, Julian the Apostate. All on reserve.

Mark the Deacon, Life of Porphyry of Gaza (fascinating story of the destruction of pagan temples at Gaza).

The debate over the Altar of Victory: Symmachus’ Relationes, in Barrow, Prefect and Emperor (on reserve).

Christian-Jewish conflict: Severus of Minorca, Letter on the Conversion of the Jews (on reserve).

Lane Fox, final chapter.

Chuvin, A Chronicle of the Last Pagans.

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DUE in class: Short (5-7pp) paper, detailed analysis of a single primary source text.

Primary texts:

MacMullen/Lane pp.279-283 and 286-289.

Xerox Pack:

A reluctant convert: Augustine’s letter to Firmus [114-121]

A pillar of his community: Life of Simeon the Stylite [122-130]

On reserve:

A barbarian Constantine: the conversion of Clovis, king of the Franks. Sources in Hillgarth, Christianity and Paganism pp.72-83.

St. Patrick in Ireland: Confession and Letter to Coroticus. Both are in Stevenson, Creeds, Councils. Confession is also online.

Optional further reading:

For Augustine’s account of his own conversion (not to mention his childhood, adolescence and "youthful indiscretions"), read his Confessions (several copies available in library).

A late antique spy story: the misadventures of a "secret agent" sent to investigate suspected heretics in fifth-century Spain. In Eno ed., The Letters of Saint Augustine (on reserve) pp.81-98.

Barlaam and Ioasaph: The story of Buddha, retold in a Christian setting.

More on Simeon the Stylite: other versions of his life are translated in Doran, Lives of Simeon Stylites (on reserve).

David Frankfurter’s article, "Stylites and Phallobates" (on reserve) offers an intelligent discussion of the question of "pagan survival" in Christian practice, with reference to possible pagan antecedents of the Christian pillar-saints.

The Hillgarth sourcebook (on reserve) offers a great selection of texts on conversion/Christianization in post-Roman and early medieval Western Europe.

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DUE in class: paper proposal. 1-2 page explanation of topic, preliminary list of 4 or 5 major sources.

Xerox Pack:

Reread Rufinus on the Serapeum [108-112].

Shenoute, Letter to a Pagan Notable [131-132]. A Christian monk denounces an oppressive landlord.

Macarius of Tkow and the pagan village [133-134].

On reserve:

Sample the Sayings of the Desert Fathers: read any 5 pages’ worth.

Coptic spells in Meyer, Ancient Christian Magic: any 5 pages.

Excerpts from Life of Antony and Life of Shenoute, to be distributed in class on Oct. 17.

Optional further reading:

Full texts of both Life of Antony and Life of Shenoute are on reserve; Life of Antony is also online

Frankfurter, Religion in Roman Egypt (on reserve).

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Nov 1: No class. Between Nov 1 and 12, meet with me to discuss research progress.

Nov 8: No class.

Nov 15: No class. DUE: detailed outline of paper, full bibliography. Turn in at the History Dept., 145 Eggers Hall, by 3 p.m.

Nov 22: Student presentations. During weeks of Nov 22 and Nov 29, meet with me again to discuss progress.

Nov 29: Student presentations.

Dec 6: Student presentations. ROUGH DRAFT of paper due in class. Over the next week, students should meet with me to discuss revisions.

Dec 13: Make-up class can be scheduled, if more time needed for student presentations.

Monday, Dec 20: FINAL PAPER DUE. Turn in at the History Dept., 145 Eggers Hall, by 3 p.m.

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