Urban Developments in Late Antique and Medieval Rome: Revising the Narrative of Renewal (Social Worlds of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, 9)

A narrative of decline punctuated by periods of renewal has long structured perceptions of Rome’s late antique and medieval history. In their probing contributions to this volume, a multi-disciplinary group of scholars provides alternative approaches to understanding the period. Addressing developments in governance, ceremony, literature, art, music, clerical education and the construction of the city’s identity, the essays examine how a variety of actors, from poets to popes, productively addressed the intermittent crises and shifting dynamics of these centuries in ways that bolstered the city’s resilience. Without denying that the past (both pre-Christian and Christian) consistently remained a powerful touchstone, the studies in this volume offer rich new insights into the myriad ways that Romans, between the fifth and the eleventh centuries, creatively assimilated the past as they shaped their future. Cover 1 Table of Contents 6 Preface and Acknowledgments 8 List of Abbreviations 10 1. Introduction: Revising the Narrative of Renewal for Late Antique and Medieval Rome 12 Gregor Kalas and Ann van Dijk 12 2. Rome at War: The Effects of Crisis on Church and Community in Late Antiquity 42 Kristina Sessa 42 3. Portraits of Poets and the Lecture Halls in the Forum of Trajan: Masking Cultural Tensions in Late Antique Rome 76 Gregor Kalas 76 4. Rolling Out the Red Carpet, Roman-Style: The Arrival at Rome From Constantine to Charlemagne 110 Jacob Latham 110 5. (Re-)Founding Christian Rome: The Honorian Project of the Early Seventh Century 150 Dennis Trout 150 6. After Antiquity: Renewing the Past or Celebrating the Present? Early Medieval Apse Mosaics in Rome 178 Erik Thunø 178 7. The Re-Invention of Rome in the Early Middle Ages 206 John Osborne 206 8. Rewriting the Renouveau 238 Dale Kinney 238 9. Renewal, Heritage, and Exchange in Eleventh-Century Roman Chant Traditions 280 Luisa Nardini 280 10. Reforming Readers, Reforming Texts: The Making of Discursive Community in Gregorian Rome 300 William North 300 Manuscripts Cited 332 Index 334 A narrative of decline punctuated by periods of renewal has long structured perceptions of Rome's late antique and medieval history. In their probing contributions to this volume, a multi-disciplinary group of scholars provides alternative approaches to understanding the period. Addressing developments in governance, ceremony, literature, art, music, clerical education and the city's very sense of its own identity, the essays examine how a variety of actors, from poets to popes, addressed the intermittent crises and shifting dynamics of these centuries with creative solutions that bolstered the city's resilience. Without denying that the past (both pre-Christian and Christian) always remained a powerful touchstone, the studies in this volume offer rich new insights into the myriad ways that Rome and Romans, between the fifth and the eleventh centuries, creatively assimilated the past in order to shape the future