On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity (Volume 17) (Transformation of the Classical Heritage)

Because they list all the public holidays and pagan festivals of the age, calendars provide unique insights into the culture and everyday life of ancient Rome. The Codex-Calendar of 354 miraculously survived the Fall of Rome. Although it was subsequently lost, the copies made in the Renaissance remain invaluable documents of Roman society and religion in the years between Constantine's conversion and the fall of the Western Empire. In this richly illustrated book, Michele Renee Salzman establishes that the traditions of Roman art and literature were still very much alive in the mid-fourth century. Going beyond this analysis of precedents and genre, Salzman also studies the Calendar of 354 as a reflection of the world that produced and used it. Her work reveals the continuing importance of pagan festivals and cults in the Christian era and highlights the rise of a respectable aristocratic Christianity that combined pagan and Christian practices. Salzman stresses the key role of the Christian emperors and imperial institutions in supporting pagan rituals. Such policies of accomodation and assimilation resulted in a gradual and relatively peaceful transformation of Rome from a pagan to a Christian capital. Frontmatter List of Illustrations (page ix) List of Abbreviations (page xv) Preface (page xxi) Part I. The Codex-Calendar of 354 I. INTRODUCTION: ANTECEDENTS AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THE CODEX-CALENDAR OF 354 (page 3) II. DESCRIPTION OF THE CONTENTS OF THE CODEX-CALENDAR OF 354 (page 23) Part II. The Calendar: A Roman Calendar for A. D. 354 III. THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE MONTHS IN THE CALENDAR OF 354 (page 63) IV. THE TEXT OF THE CALENDAR OF 354 (page 116) Part III. The World: Roman Society and Religion and the Codex-Calendar of 354 V. CONSUETUDINIS AMOR: ROME IN THE MID-FOURTH CENTURY (page 193) VI. EPILOGUE: THE TURNING OF THE TIDE (page 232) Appendices (page 247) Appendix 1: The Manuscripts and Their Tradition (page 249) Appendix 2: Comparable Calendar Cycles from the Latin West (page 269) Appendix 3: Latin Poetry of the Months (page 273) Appendix 4: The Text of the Distichs (Anthologia Latina 665) in the Codex-Calendar of 354 (page 275) Appendix 5: Dating the Codex-Calendar of 354 (page 279) Appendix 6: Consular Dating as a Criterion for Source Analysis of the Codex-Calendar of 354 (page 283) Appendix 7: A Fourth-Century Variant Myth (page 287) General Index (page 289) Index of Illustrated Subjects (page 313)