ISC 28 Late Antiquity (Individual Short Communications) - Oxford Abstracts

ISC 28 Late Antiquity (Individual Short Communications)
09:00 - 10:40 Friday, 3rd September, 2021
Claudio Moreschini

214 Group Identity and Social Resilience in Early Christianity. The Case of
Tertullian’s De Spectaculis 28-30

Stefan Metz
Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany

Abstract

What is Christian, what is Roman? How ought a Christian live in a mostly non-Christian society? These
questions are addressed in Tertullian’s earliest writings. This problem is most prominently and exemplary
examined for the Roman games (spectacula) in his Work De spectaculis (ca. 196 a.d.). In terms of social
resilience, Tertullian addresses a core question: What is the nucleus of Christianity that needs to be preserved
so that the social and religious identity of Christians in the mostly non-Christian context of Roman society and
culture remains undisturbed. At first glance, Tertullian seems to be clear that this preservation of (what he
deems) a Christian identity can only be achieved by strict dissociation from everything Roman. On closer
examination however, in spect. 28-29, Tertullian opens the possibility for a transformation of Christian identity
by incorporating elements of Roman culture thus developing a form of “Roman Christianity”. This is achieved
through his concept of spectacula christianorum – a rebranding of Christian acts, concepts and media
promoted as “holy” alternatives to the Roman games. The examination of spect. 28-29 can shed new light on
Tertullian’s conceptualisation of Christian identity as well as on the relationship between social transformation
of group identity and social resilience.

860 Pagans, Christians and an Early Clash of Cultures in Late Antiquity?

Thomas Jürgasch
Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany

Abstract

Very often, reflections on cultural encounters and transformations start from a rather peculiar concept of
‘culture’. In this context culture is regarded as a homogeneous, coherent and self-contained entity, and as
such it is often described using the metaphor of a ‘container’. Apparently, such an understanding of culture as
a container very often forms the basis for the considerations of the encounters and relations between
Christians and so called “pagans” in late antiquity. Thus, such encounters, and especially the conflicting ones
in the first here centuries C.E., are often depicted as early forms of a ‘clash of cultures’, in the context of which
a distinctive and coherent Christian culture gets into conflict with its pagan counterpart.

As I will argue, such a view of the late ancient relations between Christians and pagans, based on the
aforementioned container metaphor of culture, is ignoring important aspects and backgrounds and promoting
a one-sided and truncated perspective on these encounters. Referring to more recent conceptions of ‘culture’
that stress its network character and the reciprocity relations of the actors involved, I would like to develop a
more differentiated view on the relations between Christians and pagans and the processes of cultural
transformation taking place in this context, especially during the so-called “Constantinian shift”.

317 Etymological Notes on Ascodrobi, Ascodrugitae, Τασκοδρούγιται,
Artotyrites: Galatian Heresies or Something Else?

Andrea Nuti
Università di Pisa, Pisa, Italy

Abstract

This paper regards some heretical groups apparently attested in Late Antiquity Galatia, such as Ascodrugitae/
Τασκοδρούγιται, Artotyrites etc., which are mentioned, e.g., by Hieronymus (Comm. in ep. ad Gal. 2.3
praef.; see alsoEpiphanius, Panarion proem. I 4-5, 48.14, 49.1-2; Philastrius haer. 74-76; et alii:
Augustine, Theodoret etc.).
Information about these heresies is scarce and confused and what we actually seem to possess is barely their
names (see, e.g., Raspanti 2010; Hort 1877). My paper will therefore focus on an etymological analysis of
these forms as onomastic dithematic compounds, which have a long history within Indo-European languages.
The analysis will include a discussion of the linguistic strata these names may plausibly be ascribed to (i.e.,
Greek, Galatian/Celtic, Anatolian etc.; see Katz 1998; 2002) and (possibly Galatian) lexical items such as, e.g.,
δροῦγγος (mentioned by Epiph. 48.14: cf. Late Latin drungus ‘globus hostium’, Old Irish drong ‘band’ etc.; see
LEIA D-201; Delamarre 2003 s.v.; Rance 2004). We will thus consider the case for keeping apart historical
aspects – i.e., concerning the rather uncertain and heterogeneous religious features of these alleged heresies
(see, e.g., Trevett 1995; Pilch 2002), as well as their very existence – and the linguistic datum. I will finally
advance the hypothesis that at the origin of these names is a long-time standing tradition of Namengebung
related to social groupings of various kind and, for us, of ill-defined status, not necessarily religious in nature.

Bibliography (selected)

Delamarre, Xavier 20032, Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise, Paris, Errance.
Hort, Fenton J.A. 1877, “Ascodrugitae”, in William Smith & Henry Wace (eds.), A Dictionary of Christian
Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines. Vol. 1, London, Murray, 175-176.
Katz, Joshua T. 1998, “Hittite tašku- and the Indo-European Word for ‘Badger’”, Historische Sprachforschung
111 (1): 61-82.
Katz, Joshua T. 2002, “How the Mole and Mongoose Got Their Names: Sanskrit ākhú- and nakulá”, Journal of
the American Oriental Society 122 (2): 296-310.
LEIA = Joseph Vendryes, Edouard Bachellerie, Pierre-Yves Lambert, Lexique étymologique de l’irlandais ancien,
Dublin-Paris 1959-, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.
Pilch, John J. 2002, “The Nose and Altered States of Consciousness: Tascodrugites and Ezekiel”, HTS Teologiese
Studies 58 (2): 708-720.
Rance, Philip 2004 "Drungus, δρουγγος, and δρουγγιστί: A Gallicism and Continuity in late Roman Cavalry
Tactics”, Phoenix 58 (1/2): 96-130.
Raspanti, Giacomo (ed.) 2010, Girolamo di Stridone, Commento alla Epistola ai Galati, Turnhout, Brepols.
Trevett, Christine 1995, “Fingers up Noses and Pricking with Needles: Possible Reminiscences of Revelation in
Later Montanism”, Vigiliae Christianae 49 (3): 258-269.

44 “Inter pressuras atque angustias”. Manichei, donatisti e circumcelliones tra
ariani e cattolici nell’Africa vandala

Fabiana Rosaci
Università degli Studi di Messina, Messina, Italy

Abstract

Obiettivo del contributo è indagare se il credo religioso di manichei, donatisti e circumcelliones abbia costituito
un fattore di resistenza rispetto agli sconvolgimenti politici e militari che hanno caratterizzato la storia
dell’Africa nel V secolo d.C. Assodata, soprattutto attraverso la testimonianza di Agostino, la Stimmung della
Chiesa africana agli inizi del secolo, oggetto d’esame saranno i decenni successivi alla conquista vandalica, al
presunto iniziale bouleversement nella proprietà terriera operato da Genserico, all’esilio, alla deportazione
della nobiltà, all’integralismo religioso e alla conseguente violenta persecuzione dei cattolici. Per tutta la loro
dominazione, i sovrani vandali professarono, più o meno tenacemente, il loro credo ariano e, talvolta, nelle loro
azioni apparvero privi di qualunque misericordia humanitatis nei confronti di qualsiasi fede alternativa alla loro.
È noto come, di contro, i cattolici, preoccupati soprattutto del nuovo pericolo rappresentato dall’arianesimo,
non diedero molto risalto alla reale situazione di manichei, donatisti e circumcelliones. Tuttavia, oltre alle
notizie circa la loro persecuzione, desumibili essenzialmente da Vittore di Vita, sia Leone Magno che i
sermones attribuiti a Quodvultudeus permettono di tracciare uno spaccato sulle condizioni di queste
“minoranze” religiose. Bisogna interrogarsi se costoro, che furono perseguitati dagli ariani con le medesime
modalità riservate ai cattolici, abbiano potuto costituire una sorta di “focolaio” di resistenza, sia ideologica che
fattiva, tra i colpi della disputa tra ariani e cattolici.

938 Tra λόγος e Brahman: Le Filosofie e i Filosofi dell’India nei Testi Cristiani
dell’Epoca Imperale

Caterina Fregosi
Independent scholar, La Spezia, Italy

Abstract

La sapienza indiana affascinò gli autori greci e latini dall’età ellenistica, età in cui, complici la spedizione
macedone e la nascita dei regni ellenistici orientali, furono prodotte in gran numero testimonianze sui
brahmani e su figure affini. L’intervento mirerà a commentare alcuni estratti di opere di autori cristiani che, in
età imperiale, si dedicarono ad approfondire le dottrine dei cosiddetti ‘gimnosofisti’. La Refutatio omnium
haeresium dello Pseudo-Ippolito è il testo classico più eloquente sulla teologia brahmanica: in I, 24, 1 si
attribuisce ai sapienti indiani la venerazione di un dio definito come λόγος e φῶς. Sulla scia di alcuni studi già
pubblicati a riguardo, si discuterà la possibilità di un legame fra queste dichiarazioni e i testi centrali della
filosofia indiana, le Upaniṣad più antiche, che all’epoca dei fatti, secondo alcuni studiosi contemporanei,
potevano essere giunte fino all’Occidente. Anche in altri testi cristiani si rileva un alto interesse per l’India: in
Clemente Alessandrino, in Sant’Agostino, in altre opere tarde e di paternità dibattuta (De gentibus Indiae et de
Bragmanibus forse di Palladio di Elenopoli e l’anonima Collatio Alexandri et Dindimi) emerge quanto il giudizio
cristiano sugli austeri filosofi d’India fosse ambivalente. Se, da un lato, se ne ammiravano la continenza e le
virtù contemplative, dall’altro, spesso, queste figure venivano paragonate ai seguaci delle eresie rinuncianti
più intransigenti, contro le quali la Chiesa aprì una battaglia affatto risoltasi alle soglie del Medioevo.