Social Control in Late Antiquity : The Violence of Small Worlds

"Social Control in Late Antiquity: The Violence of Small Worlds explores the small-scale communities of late antiquity - households, monasteries, and schools - where power was a question of personal relationships. When fathers, husbands, teachers, abbots, and slave-owners asserted their own will, they saw themselves as maintaining the social order, and expected law and government to reinforce their rule. Naturally, the members of these communities had their own ideas, and teaching them to 'obey their betters' was not always a straightforward business. Drawing on a wide variety of sources from across the late Roman Mediterranean, from law codes and inscriptions to monastic rules and hagiography, the book considers the sometimes conflicting identities of women, slaves, and children and documents how they found opportunities for agency and recognition within a system built on the unremitting assertion of the rights of the powerful"-- Provided by publisher Cover Half-title Title page Copyright information Contents List of Contributors Preface and Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Introduction: The Violence of Small Worlds: Rethinking Small-Scale Social Control in Late Antiquity Social Control in the Small Worlds of Late Antiquity Religion and the Small Worlds of Late Antiquity Part I Women and Children First: Autonomy and Social Control in the Late Ancient Household Chapter 1 Female Crime and Female Confinement in Late Antiquity Female Criminals and Late Antique Criminal Justice Judicial and Extrajudicial Redress of Female Crime Female Domestic Seclusion in the Late Antique World Female Monastic Confinement Conclusion Chapter 2 Holy Beatings: Emmelia, Her Son Gregory of Nyssa, and the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia Introduction The Law and Corrective Violence in the Household in Fourth Century Cappadocia Family Circumstances Surrounding Gregory's Traumatic Event Preaching the Beating: Violence and Meaning for the Faithful Conclusion Chapter 3 Power, Faith, and Reciprocity in a Slave Society: Domestic Relationships in the Preaching of John Chrysostom Sources Husband and Wife in Chrysostom's Preaching Father and Son in Chrysostom's Preaching Master and Slave in Chrysostom's Preaching Conclusion Chapter 4 A Predator and a Gentleman: Augustine, Autobiography, and the Ethics of Christian Marriage Reconceiving the Roman Sexual Landscape in Late Antiquity: Sexual Symmetry or Asymmetry? Wives and Concubines: Augustine's Moral Logic Conclusion: Christians, Marriage, and the Evolving Role of Bishops Part II 'Slaves, be subject to your masters': Discipline and Moral Autonomy in a Slave Society Chapter 5 Modelling Msarrqūtā: Humiliation, Christian Monasticism, and the Ascetic Life of Slavery in Late Antique Syria and Mesopotamia When Worlds Collide Institutional Slavery in Urban and Rural Syria and Mesopotamia: The Witness of John Chrysostom Modelling Msarrqūtā: Slavery and Syrian Asceticism Slavery as Ascetic Practice at the Dawn of Islam Conclusion Chapter 6 Constructing Complexity: Slavery in the Small Worlds of Early Monasticism Slavery in Jewish/Christian Asceticism Philo (20 bce–50 ce, Alexandria) Generations of Paul (~30–120 ce, Asia Minor) Slavery in Late Antiquity John Chrysostom (347–407 ce, Antioch) Slavery in Monastic Asceticism Gregory of Nyssa, Vita Macrinae (329–389/90 ce, Cappadocia) Palladius (368–431 ce), Historia Lausiaca Apophthegmata Patrum (fifth to seventh centuries) Monastic Material Landscapes Monastic Legal Landscapes Conclusion Chapter 7 Disciplining the Slaves of God: Monastic Children in Egypt at the End of Antiquity The Monastery as Refuge: Children Whose Survival Depended on Monks Children in Monasteries: Rules Governing an Uneasy Presence Institutional Perspectives: Children and the Reproduction of the Monastic Community Children, Not Only in But Also of the Monasteries: Strategies of Autonomy and Belonging Conclusion Part III Knowledge, Power, and Symbolic Violence: The Aesthetics of Control in Christian Pedagogy Chapter 8 John Chrysostom and the Strategic Use of Fear The Bridle of Fear Fear as a Goad Fear as a Deliberative State Conclusion Chapter 9 The Fear of Belonging: The Violent Training of Elite Males in the Late Fourth Century Violent Process and Violent Content in Libanius' Classroom in Late Roman Antioch Fear, the Maintenance of the Pedagogic Order and the Formation of the Elite Male Subject Limiting Individual Violence and Producing and Protecting the Community Violent Process and Content in Ascetic Training in the Communities of Basil the Great Fear, Shame, and the Formation of the Ascetic Subject Training Individual Ascetics and the Formation of the Monastic Community Conclusion Chapter 10 Words at War: Textual Violence in Eusebius of Caesarea Violent Historical Contexts Narrative Description of Violence Violent Language Violent Metaphors: Cutting Violent Metaphors: Forcing Logomachia: Words at War Quotation as 'Poaching': Complicating the Analysis of Textual Violence Chapter 11 Of Sojourners and Soldiers: Demonic Violence in the Letters of Antony and the Life of Antony The Sojourner Antony's Narrative Frame Demonic Intrusion Ascetic Subjectivity in Antony The Soldier Athanasius' Narrative Frame The Demon Enemy Ascetic Subjectivity in Athanasius Conclusion: From Sojourner to Soldier Chapter 12 Coercing the Catechists: Augustine's De Catechizandis Rudibus Becoming a Christian in Augustine's North Africa How to Manage Customer Expectations How to Manage Employee Dissatisfaction Selling Christianity in a Buyer's Market Conclusion Part IV Vulnerability and Power: Christian Heroines and the Small Worlds of Late Antiquity Chapter 13 Reading Thecla in Fourth-Century Pontus: Violence, Virginity, and Female Autonomy in Gregory of Nyssa's Life of Macrina Father Knows Best: Arranged Marriage and Parent–Child Complicity Flying the Nest: Thecla, Eugenia, and the Spectre of Violence Family Realities: Macrina, Emmelia, and the Pain of Compromise Reading Thecla: The Many Roles of Emmelia A Utopian Household: Gregory's Memorial and the Ascetic Female Home Chapter 14 Family Heroines: Female Vulnerability in the Writings of Ambrose of Milan Ambrose in Milan Building Legitimacy: Female Relatives in Ambrose's Early Episcopate Exposed Domesticity and High Politics in Ambrose's Letters Conclusion Chapter 15 Women on the Edge: Violence, 'Othering', and the Limits of Imperial Power in Euphemia and the Goth Introduction Synopsis Syrian Identity and Roman Power in Euphemia Violence and Dislocation: Gothia and Edessa Legitimising Violence Family, Gender, and Power Conclusion Bibliography Primary Sources Secondary Literature Index Explores power relations in the households, schools, and monasteries of late antiquity in light of social theory, in a way that will be of interest to advanced undergraduates and postgraduate historians, as well as to scholars in the humanities and social sciences with interests in religion, law, and the family.