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Updated 11/24/08
Images for Lect. 22

Lecture 22: Julian and later developments

I. Julian in power

a. Neoplatonism ("the Broad Church of Paganism")

- Plotinus ( A.D. 204-270); "the One"
- Porphyry (232-304): anti-Christian treatises
- Iamblichus (250-325): theurgy and magic; cf. Maximus and Sosipatra; Priscus

b. against the bureaucracy (anyone say "Byzantine"?) in Constantinople

- the main ranks: ab epistulis, a libellis, a rationibus, Cubicularius, agentes in rebus
- development under Claudius, Hadrian, Septimius Severus, and the late empire

c. the events at Antioch and Daphne (pp. 367ff.); St. Babylas vs. Apollo; Beardhater

d. personality and assessment

II. Some developments in the 4th and 5th centuries

a. villa economy
b. curiales (cf. Julian, p. 357)

III. Division of the empire in A.D. 395 (Arcadius, Honorius); the empire strikes back: Aetius vs. Attila the Hun in A.D. 451;
the formal end in the west: Romulus Augustulus deposed by Odoacer in A.D. 476;
end of the eastern Roman empire: 1453 (fall of Constantinople)

IV. Transformation: Ravenna

Theoderic (A.D. 493-526); Justinian (A.D. 527-565); Baptisteries; Churches of San Vitale, San Apollinare,
San Apollinare in Classe

V. Decline, fall, or change: some general perspectives

a. external vs. internal causes; Polybius (2nd cent. B.C.)
b. overkill: 210 reasons; Santayana (no, he's not this guy); broad perspectives vs. narrow analogies
c. diversity: multiple causes, regional factors, cause and effect (e.g. population decline)

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