Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

Browse

Filters

2010 - 20183

Settings

Subject: search.filters.subject.Late Antiquity

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The End of Pagan Temples in Roman Palestine
    (2018) Stoehr, Greg; Lapin, Hayim; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    I am investigating fate of polytheist temples in Late Antique Roman Palestine, with a primary focus on the archaeological remains of the temples themselves. This focus is a deliberate effort to steer the conversation about “Christianization” and the “end of paganism” into the domain of empirical evidence. The inner religious states of individuals, and hence populations, confound efforts at quantification. Thus, this dissertation is instead an accounting of the fate of the public venues that were used by pagans, for specific ritual behavior that enhanced status, in what was the most significant part of the Empire in terms of the history of Christianity. Ancient Palestine in the third and early fourth centuries was part of the normal Mediterranean pagan milieu. Cities such as Bet Shean, Aelia Capitolina, and Caesarea Maritima provide us with evidence for dozens of pagan temples. This study finds evidence for forty-four temples. There were certainly many more than those for which we have evidence. All of these pagan temples eventually went out of commission. Only three temples in Palestine had endings that were remarkable enough to be preserved in the literary record. The ending of the rest was far less dramatic, if we even know about it. A combination of neglect, natural disaster, extended quarrying through time, and encroachment of ritual space by other buildings was significantly more common than more dramatic scenarios that involved overt social conflict. What we hear from impassioned literary sources does not seem to be typical when compared with the archaeology. It might be hypothesized that an urban culture of enlightened indifference preferred to allow temples to linger and slip away, in an unremarkable fashion, rather than forcibly eliminate them.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    PROCOPIUS OF CAESAREA, PRAGMATIKE HISTORIA, AND THE LIMITS OF IMPERIAL POWER
    (2017) Frechette, Joseph Raymond; Eckstein, Arthur M; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The implicit assumption in many recent treatments of the sixth century historian Procopius of Caesarea and his history of the wars of the emperor Justinian is that the “classicizing” elements contained in the Wars are a product of mimesis that Procopius deployed for literary or political purposes. These approaches lead to the conclusion that the Wars are disconnected from the realities of the mid sixth century. This dissertation suggests that we may gain a better understanding not only of this important historian and his most substantial work, but also the regime he served and criticized, by suspending our disbelief and taking the Wars on its own terms. That is, as a work of analytical history whose author expected would be useful to its readers in the conduct of military and political affairs. To this end it examines Procopius’ career, the nature and relative dates of his works, the historiographic context in which he operated, the nature of his audience, some of the recurrent issues faced by Roman commanders as described in the Wars and their practical applicability to a contemporary military audience, points of contact between Procopius and the didactic military literature of the period, the inapplicability of discussing Procopius as a critic of a “totalitarian” regime, and the Wars’ portrait, instead, of an imperial regime limited by both external and internal constraints.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Costume as an Indicator of Status in Late Antique Mosaic Pavements of the Eastern Mediterranean
    (2010) Zielinski, Risa Storlie; Holum, Kenneth G; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Romans used everyday costume to indicate status. The evidence analyzed here is mosaic pavements from Roman Syria and Palestine portraying a range of individuals from different social levels. Chapter 1 discusses costume as a means of communication and symbolic behavior, how the Romans used costume to indicate status, and why mosaics are useful in this analysis. Chapters 2 and 3 explore how everyday costume, as represented in mosaics, indicated status by using garment quantity, color, decoration, and jewelry. Chapter 2 analyzes mosaics from the second through fourth centuries AD, chapter 3 those of the fifth and sixth centuries. The main point is to show how costume in mosaics, and presumably in real life, changed in the transition from the High Empire to Late Antiquity.