Barbarian Plain: Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran

Elizabeth Key Fowden

Published by University of California Press 1999

Barbarian Plain

Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran

Elizabeth Key Fowden
Edited by: Elizabeth Key Fowden

In the series Transformation of the Classical Heritage

https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520922204

Overview
Contents

About this book

During the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. there arose on the Euphrates frontier, between the empires of Rome and Iran, a city girded with glittering gypsum walls. Within these walls stood a great church, a shrine for the relics of Saint Sergius, who was martyred there, at Rusafa, in the early fourth century. Around Rusafa stretched the "Barbarian Plain," inhabited by Rome's Arab allies, many of whom revered the saint. Elizabeth Key Fowden examines the rise of the cult of Sergius in late antiquity, drawing on literary accounts, inscriptions, archaeology, images, and the landscape itself to construct a many-faceted picture of the role of religion in this frontier society. Focusing on the socio-cultural as well as the political dimensions of the Sergius cult, her study sheds light on the lives of the ordinary faithful, as well as on religion's place in the strategic calculations of hostile empires.

Beginning with a detailed analysis of the surviving accounts of the martyrdom of Sergius, Fowden provides a discussion of Syrian Rusafa-Sergiopolis, traces the spread of the Sergius cult in Syria and Mesopotamia, and provides a provocative interpretation of the relation between the saint's presence at Rusafa and his role in frontier defense. She also discusses Arab Christianity in the context of late Roman culture in the East, as well as the continuation of the Sergius tradition after the Muslim conquest, emphasizing the changes and continuities brought by the rise of Islam.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	IX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	XI
PREFACE Publicly Available Download PDF	XIII
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	XV
NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION Publicly Available Download PDF	XVII
ABBREVIATIONS Publicly Available Download PDF	XIX
MAPS Publicly Available Download PDF	XXII
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
ONE Portraits of a Martyr Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	7
TWO Martyr Cult on the Frontier The Case of Mayperqat Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	45
THREE Rusafa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	60
FOUR The Spread of the Sergius Cult in Syria and Mesopotamia Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
FIVE Frontier Shrine and Frontier Saint Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
SIX The Cult of S. Sergius after the Islamic Conquest Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	174
BIBLIOGRAPHY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	193
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: University of California Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 254
Illustrations
- Other: 17 figures, including b/w photographs and line illustrations, 3 maps
Keywords: History; General; Ancient

eBook

Published: August 31, 1999
ISBN: 9780520922204

Hardcover

Planned Publication: August 31, 1999
ISBN: 9780520216853