Society, Philosophy, and Religion in Late Antiquity

The period from the Theodosian dynasty and continuing into the sixth century AD saw the emergence of what many scholars – M. McEvoy (2013) and J. Hilner (2019) – have seen as new avenues for elite women to exercise their influence, most notably as royal mothers and sisters who were able, by working closely with trusted generals and imperial family members, to establish long and stable regimes in the name of child emperors. In religion, as well, a new visibility for elite women has also been detected.

ubique praesentem mihi: Long-Distance Amicitia and Physical Presence in the Letters of Paulinus of Nola

This paper offers a fresh historical reading of the concluding prayer to Paulinus of Pella’s confessional poem, Eucharisticos Deo sub ephemeridis meae textu, composed at Marseille around 460 CE, in which Paulinus claims that petitions for financial and reputational restoration have been answered by God (Euch. 579ff.).

Dramatizing the Enneads in Eunapius’ Life of Porphyry

This paper identifies philosophical elements in the biographical work of Eunapius of Sardis. It argues that Eunapius dramatizes Plotinian Neoplatonism through anecdote. The account of Porphyry’s depression (Lives of Philosophers and Sophists IV 1.7) serves as this paper’s case study. Ultimately, Eunapius is shown to use biography as a tool of philosophical communication.

In De ciuitate dei 18, Augustine deviates sharply from his own earlier convictions on human religious history. From Ep. 17 to the grammar-teacher Maximus (ca. 390) to Ciu. 7 (415/416), Augustine consistently held that the gods, especially Jupiter and Saturn, had been mortal rulers. The authority, grasped through Cicero and Vergil, was the Ἱερὰ Ἀναγραφή of Euhemerus, translated (as Sacra Historia) by Ennius.