Religious Violence in the Ancient World : From Classical Athens to Late Antiquity

"Much like our world today, Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE) is often seen as a period rife with religious violence, not least because the literary sources are full of stories of Christians attacking temples, statues and 'pagans'. However, using insights from Religious Studies, recent studies have demonstrated that the Late Antique sources disguise a much more intricate reality. The present volume builds on this recent cutting-edge scholarship on religious violence in Late Antiquity in order to come to more nuanced judgments about the nature of the violence. At the same time, the focus on Late Antiquity has taken away from the fact that the phenomenon was no less prevalent in the earlier Graeco-Roman world. This book is therefore the first to bring together scholars with expertise ranging from classical Athens to Late Antiquity to examine the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity throughout Antiquity. JITSE H.F. DIJKSTRA is Professor of Classics at the University of Ottawa. His research centres on the process of religious transformation in Late Antiquity, in particular in its Egyptian context. He is the author of numerous studies on the subject, including the monograph Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion. A Regional Study of Religious Transformation (298-642 CE) (2008). CHRISTIAN R. RASCHLE is Associate Professor of Roman History at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in the history of the administration and political system of the Roman Empire, especially the reorganization of its provinces in Late Antiquity, and themes in the cultural history of the first century CE (Lucan)"-- Provided by publisher Cover 1 Half-title 3 Title page 5 Copyright information 6 Contents 7 Acknowledgements 10 List of Contributors 12 A Note on Abbreviations 15 General Introduction 17 Situation in Current Research and Themes of the Volume 17 Overview of Contributions to the Volume 23 Part I Methodology 31 Chapter 1 Sacred Prefigurations of Violence: Religious Communities in Situations of Conflict 33 Introduction: A Causal Relationship between Religion and Violence? 33 A Contemporary Case of the Link between Religious Communities and Violence: The 9/11 Attack as a Ghazwa of Muhammad 37 An Ancient Case of the Link between Religious Communities and Violence: The Violent Zeal of Phinehas for the Observation of God's Covenant with Israel 45 The Thomas Theorem 51 Jewish and Muslim Definitions of the Middle East Conflict 54 Conclusion: Methodological Rules for the Investigation of the Relationship between Religious Communities and Acts of Violence 59 Chapter 2 Priestesses, Pogroms and Persecutions: Religious Violence in Antiquity in a Diachronic Perspective 62 Introduction 62 Socrates and Phryne 64 The 'Pogrom' of Alexandria in ad 38 68 The Roman Persecutions 73 Christian Cultural Violence: The Case of Gaza 78 Conclusion 82 Part II Religious Violence in the Graeco-Roman World 85 Chapter 3 Ancient Greek Binding Spells and (Political) Violence 87 Introduction: Cultures of Terror 87 Current Approaches 88 A Body in Parts 92 A Political Discourse 94 Subjectivation 98 Conclusion: Bodies Politic 101 Chapter 4 The Expulsion of Isis Worshippers and Astrologers from Rome in the Late Republic and Early Empire 103 Introduction 103 The Cults of Isis and Sarapis 108 Astrology 116 Conclusion 120 Chapter 5 Religious Violence? Two Massacres on a Sabbath in 66 ce: Jerusalem and Caesarea 122 Introduction 122 Context, Method and Possible Stakes 122 Two Massacres: Josephus' War 127 Narrative and Real Life - Generally and in Caesarea 129 Conflict in Jerusalem - and Massacre 137 Conclusions: Life vs. Narrative, Judaeans vs. Romans, Religious vs. Other Violence 145 Chapter 6 Religion, Violence and the Diasporic Experience: The Jewish Diaspora in Flavian Rome and Puteoli 149 Introduction: Violence and Religion before Later Antiquity 149 Enlightened Polytheists and Monotheistic Zealots, or: Why Religion and Violence Must Be Disaggregated 152 Different Manifestations of Violence 159 Cultural Violence and Religion: IVDAEA CAPTA 163 Victims of Violence 173 The Promotion of Particularism and the Permanence of Structural Violence 178 Gods as Foreigners 187 Conclusion 191 Chapter 7 Animal Sacrifice and the Roman Persecution of Christians (Second to Third Century) 193 Introduction 193 The Role of Animal Sacrifice in Trials of Christians Prior to Decius 196 Animal Sacrifice in the Decree of Decius 203 The Christian Rejection of Animal Sacrifice 206 Christian Responses to the Decree of Decius 210 Conclusion 216 Chapter 8 The Great Persecution and Imperial Ideology: Patterns of Communication on Tetrarchic Coinage 219 Explaining the Outbreak of the Great Persecution 219 Tetrarchic Coinage: The General Picture 224 Tetrarchic Coinage: Religious Representation 228 Coins and the Great Persecution 236 Appendix 1 Messages Propagated on the Coin Types of Severus, Gallienus, Diocletian and Galerius 239 Appendix 2 Messages on the Coin Types of the Tetrarchs, 284-313 242 Chapter 9 The Violent Legacy of Constantine's Militant Piety 244 Introduction 244 Images of Christians and Emperors 245 Lactantius' Portrayal of Constantine 247 Constantine and the Gauls 256 Conclusion 262 Part III Religious Violence in Late Antiquity 265 Chapter 10 Religious Violence in Late Antiquity: Current Approaches, Trends and Issues 267 Introduction 267 Religious Violence as a Category 269 Rhetoric and Reality 277 Making Sense of Religious Violence 280 Chapter 11 Coercion in Late Antiquity: A Brief Intellectual History 282 Introduction 282 A Late Ancient Concept of Coercion 285 A Brief Intellectual History 286 Augustine on Coercion by the State 292 Conclusions 300 Chapter 12 Crowd Behaviour and the Destruction of the Serapeum at Alexandria in 391/392 ce 302 Introduction 302 Crowd Behaviour and Social Psychological Models 304 Previous Scholarship on the Serapeum Incident 307 Crowd Behaviour and the Serapeum Incident 311 Conclusion 318 Chapter 13 Violence and Monks: From a Mystical Concept to an Intolerant Practice (Fourth to Fifth Century) 322 Ancient Monasticism and Factual Violence 322 Theoretical Issues 324 Ancient Monasticism and Ascetic Violence 328 Monastic Exegesis of Matthew 11:12 332 Conclusion 336 Chapter 14 The Discipline of Domination: Asceticism, Violence and Monastic Curses in Theodoret's Historia Religiosa 339 Introduction 339 Asceticism and/as Dominance: Theodoret's Ascetic Discourse and the Violence of the Self 342 The Monastic Curse: A Violent Asceticisation of the Other 349 The Death Curse: The Zenith of Ascetic Dominance and Radical Anti-Asceticism 354 Conclusion 359 Chapter 15 Suffering Saints: Shaping Narratives of Violence after Chalcedon 361 Introduction 361 Victims of Violence: Early Anti-Chalcedonian Narratives of Imperial Persecution 362 Witnesses for Christ: Expanding the Scope of Meaningful Suffering 371 John of Ephesus: Violence in Anti-Chalcedonian Rhetoric after Justinian 376 Conclusion 381 Chapter 16 Fighting for Chalcedon: Vitalian's Rebellion against Anastasius 383 Introduction 383 The Religious Background to Vitalian's Revolt 383 Late Antique Generals and Religious Politics 387 The Sources for Vitalian's Revolt 389 Vitalian's Revolt 393 Reframing the Historical Record 402 Conclusion 403 Chapter 17 The Emperor, the People and Urban Violence in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries 405 Introduction 405 Urban Violence, the Factions and the Church: Recent Research 406 The Causes of the Weakening of the Emperor's Position 410 The Consequences of the Weakening of the Emperor's Position 414 Conclusion 419 Index of Sources 422 General Index 439 "Much like our world today, Late Antiquity (fourth-seventh centuries CE) is often seen as a period rife with religious violence, not least because the literary sources are full of stories of Christians attacking temples, statues and 'pagans'. However, using insights from Religious Studies, recent studies have demonstrated that the Late Antique sources disguise a much more intricate reality. The present volume builds on this recent cutting-edge scholarship on religious violence in Late Antiquity in order to come to more nuanced judgments about the nature of the violence. At the same time, the focus on Late Antiquity has taken away from the fact that the phenomenon was no less prevalent in the earlier Graeco-Roman world. This book is therefore the first to bring together scholars with expertise ranging from classical Athens to Late Antiquity to examine the phenomenon in all its complexity and diversity throughout Antiquity. JITSE H.F. DIJKSTRA is Professor of Classics at the University of Ottawa. His research centres on the process of religious transformation in Late Antiquity, in particular in its Egyptian context. He is the author of numerous studies on the subject, including the monograph Philae and the End of Ancient Egyptian Religion. A Regional Study of Religious Transformation (298-642 CE) (2008). CHRISTIAN R. RASCHLE is Associate Professor of Roman History at the Université de Montréal. He specializes in the history of the administration and political system of the Roman Empire, especially the reorganization of its provinces in Late Antiquity, and themes in the cultural history of the first century CE (Lucan)"-- Provided by publisher