Working Papers by Subject - Late Antiquity

081001 Review of T. V. Evans and D. D. Obbink (eds.), The Language of the Papyri
Joshua Katz, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - This is a review, commissioned by and written for Bryn Mawr Classical Review, of an excellent collection of papers on the language — really, languages — found in Greek and Latin papyri and related sources from the third century B.C. to the seventh/eighth century A.D. Many of the contributions deserve a wider readership than I expect they will receive.
060901 State Intervention and Holy Violence Timgad / Paleostrovsk / Waco
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - The investigation attempts to analyze the role of state violence in the particular circumstance of a religious community that is put under siege by state military forces. It does this by comparing three type cases: two pre-modern instances, those of Timgad in early fifth-century north Africa and of dissident monasteries and churches in mid-seventeenth-century Muscovy; and the modern-day siege at Waco, Texas.
This paper replaces version 1.2 (020901) originally posted in February 2009.
This paper has now been published in Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol 77.4 (2009), pp. 1-42.
020901 State Intervention and Holy Violence Timgad / Paleostrovsk / Waco
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
This paper has been revised. See 060901 entry.
120801 The Medieval Tradition of Macrobius' 'Saturnalia'
Robert Kaster, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - In laying the groundwork for a new edition of Macrobius’ Saturnalia, I have extensively checked the reports of the manuscripts in the Teubner edition of James Willis (1963), drawn on the collations of two important manuscripts published by M. J. Carton in 1966, and collated seven additional pre-humanist manuscripts wholly or in part (these collations are published in working papers #060803, 060804, and 060805). Drawing on the new data, this paper provides a refined understanding of the medieval tradition, including an improved stemma.
A revised version of this paper has now been published as Chapter 1 of the monograph, Studies on the Text of Macrobius' "Saturnalia," American Philological Association Monographs (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 3-27.
090801 The Medieval Tradition of Macrobius' 'Saturnalia'
Robert Kaster, Princeton University
Revised December 2008. See 120801 entry.
060806 A Neglected Witness to Macrobius' 'Saturnalia'
Robert Kaster, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - Bern Burgerbibliothek cod. 514 (= Q, s. X), which preserves Book 7 of the Saturnalia, is the oldest surviving member of the family β2. This paper analyzes its relations to the other chief witnesses to β2 (R = Vat. Reg. lat. 2043; F = Laur. Plut. 90 sup. 25; A = Cambridge Univ. Ff.3.5; C = Cambridge CCC 71); an appendix demonstrates that Q is also the source of the text of Book 7 found in Vatican lat. 3417 (= J). A complete collation of Q can be found in working paper #060804 (Four Manuscripts of Macrobius’ 'Saturnalia').
This paper has now been published as "A Neglected Witness to Macrobius' Saturnalia," in Callida Musa: Papers on Latin Literature in Honor of R. Elaine Fantham, ed. R. Ferri, M. Seo, and K. Volk = Materiali e Discussioni per l'analisi dei testi classici 61 (2008[2009]), pp. 137-48.
060805 A Collation of Cambridge Corpus Christi College 71 (Macrobius 'Saturnalia')
Robert Kaster, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - Cambridge Corpus Christi College 71 (= C), written in the twelfth century (St. Albans), can be shown to be a gemellus of Cambridge University Library Ff.3.5, also written in the twelfth century (Bury St. Edmunds). Used by Gronovius and judged by La Penna (1953) one of the three most important witnesses to the family β2, C was ignored by Willis in his Teubner edition. A and C together provide useful evidence, parallel with the earlier Vatican Reginensis latinus 2043 (= R, s. X ex. / s. XI in., Mont St. Michel), for one segment of β2. A collation of C is published here for the first time.
060804 Four Manuscripts of Macrobius’ 'Saturnalia'
Robert Kaster, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - Vatican latinus 3417 (J, s. XII, Books 1-4 and 7), Florence Laurentiana Plut. 51.8 (W, s. XII, complete), British Library Harleianus 3859 (H, s. XII, complete), and Bern Burgerbibliothek 514 (Q, s. X, Book 7) are all are affiliated with the family β2. J (in Books 1-4), W, and H are derived from Vatican Reg. lat. 2043 (= R). Q, ignored since it was used by Jan in his edition of 1852, gives important testimony independent of R.
060803 A Collation of British Library Cotton Vit. C.III and Vatican Palatinus latinus 886 (Macrobius' 'Saturnalia')
Robert Kaster, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - British Library Cotton Vitellius C.III (= O, s. IX3/4, northern France) comprises Books 1-3 of Macrobius’ Saturnalia. Ignored by James Willis in his Teubner edition, it can be shown to be an older sibling of Vatican latinus 5207 (L, s. X1/4), a collation of which was published by M. J. Carton: O and L together provide important new evidence for the constitution of family β1. A collation of O is published here for the first time. Vatican Palatinus latinus 886 (= K, s.IX in., Lorsch) is also affiliated with β1 and provides a set of excerpts from Saturnalia 1-3. K was used by Ludwig Jan in his landmark edition; a partial collation was published by K. Tohill.
040801 Rome's Mediterranean World System and Its Transformation
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
Download PDF Abstract - An analysis of the recent large-scale interpretation of the great transition from the ancient world of the Roman Empire to the worlds of its successor states, economies, and societies offered by Chris Wickham in his ‘Framing the Early Middle Ages.’
This paper replaces version 1 (010801) originally posted in January 2008.
A revised version of the paper with the title "After Rome" has now been published in The New Left Review vol. 52 (May-June 008), pp. 89-114.
010802 State Intervention and Holy Violence: Timgad / Paleostrovsk / Waco
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
A revised version of this paper is forthcoming Summer 2008.
010801 Rome's Mediterranean World System and Its Transformation
Brent D. Shaw, Princeton University
This paper has been revised. See 040801 entry.
110603 What is the De Fisco Barcinonensi About?
Damian Fernandez, Princeton University
Abstract: The letter De fisco Barcinonensi is one of the few documents that we have on Visigothic taxation. In this paper, the evidence to determine the precise nature of the document is reviewed. It is suggested that the letter deals with the adaeratio (exchange rate between tributes in kind and tributes in coin), which can be explained both by a strict reading of the document and the political context in which this letter was issued. Consequently, the role of bishops in the process of tax collection is circumscribed to their function as representatives of the local communities and their elites.
This paper has been published in L'Antiquité Tardive, vol. 14 (2006), pp. 217.24.