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IMC 2016: Sessions

Session 1520: Rome and After, I: Food of the Divine

Thursday 7 July 2016, 09.00-10.30

Sponsor:Oxford Centre for Late Antiquity (OCLA), University of Oxford
Organiser:Christopher Doyle, Department of History, National University of Ireland, Galway
Moderator/Chair:Mark Humphries, Department of History & Classics / Centre for Medieval & Early Modern Research, Swansea University
Paper 1520-aIdolothyta, Pauline, and Post-Pauline: The Evolution of Food as Discrimen
(Language: English)
Danuta Shanzer, Institut für Klassische Philologie, Mittel- und Neulatein, Universität Wien
Index terms: Language and Literature - Greek, Pagan Religions, Religious Life, Sermons and Preaching
Paper 1520-bSun Gods and Saturnalias: Establishing Christmas and Fixing Its Date in the Late Roman Church
(Language: English)
Adrastos Omissi, Faculty of History, University of Oxford
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Pagan Religions
Paper 1520-cA Banquet of Genres: Eutropius's War Council, Eut. 2.322-461
(Language: English)
Catherine Ware, Department of Classics, University College Cork
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance), Manuscripts and Palaeography, Rhetoric
Abstract

Paper -a concerns the consumption of idolothyta (food of idols) in relation to the evolution of various forms of tasting-ordeals from the 1st century AD through to the early Middle Ages. Paper -b examines evidence for the pre-Constantinian celebration of the feast of Christmas, the formalization of the festival under the imperial church, and the influence that the position of Christmas during the year had on its evolution. Paper -c examines the poet Claudian's exploitation of literary stereotypes, from Classical writers including Juvenal and Plautus, in his invective against Eutropius where a war council is convened during a lavish banquet.