IMC 2015: Sessions
Session 1113: Roma Sacra, II: Building Authority and Legitimacy - Ideology, Church Foundations, and Patronage in Late Antique and Early Medieval Rome
Wednesday 8 July 2015, 11.15-12.45
| Organisers: | Dorine van Espelo, Faculteit der Letteren, Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen Giorgia Vocino, Faculty of History, University of Cambridge |
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| Moderator/Chair: | Caroline Goodson, Department of History, Classics & Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London |
| Paper 1113-a | Mapping Authority: Empire, Papacy, and Geopolitics in Late Antiquity (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin, Politics and Diplomacy, Religious Life |
| Paper 1113-b | The Textual Authority of the Liber Pontificalis: The Life of Stephen III (Language: English) Index terms: Ecclesiastical History, Language and Literature - Latin, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Paper 1113-c | Where Constantinople Meets Rome: On the Byzantine Influence in Early Medieval Rome (Language: English) Index terms: Architecture - General, Art History - General, Ecclesiastical History, Politics and Diplomacy |
| Abstract | Paper -a will focus on the pontificate of Pope Leo I (440-461), a period that saw a full articulation of an ideology of Petrine authority and an increasing papal ability to intervene in the affairs of Western Christendom. Papal authority depended significantly on imperial support, and it has recently been argued that Valentinian III's 17th novella was more than just an imperial imprimatur of papal authority. This paper will explore this theme further, examining Leo's extensive correspondence for other indications of papal dependence on imperial support. Paper -b will focus on the Liber Pontificalis biography of Pope Stephen III (768-772) and on its account of his immediate predecessor (usually dubbed as 'anti-pope'), Constantine. It will examine alternative or parallel narratives of episodes in this period, in an attempt to uncover something of the approach of the writers of the LP biographies, and contemporary responses to their work. Paper -c seeks to expand upon recent scholarly ideas that Constantinople and Rome were much more in contact in the 8th and 9th century than has been acknowledged so far. The mosaic program in the Santa Prassede presents an excellent starting point for a more elaborate and in-depth analysis of the larger historical context of the political, cultural, and religious exchange and contacts between the Western and Byzantine Middle Ages. |