Leadership in Late Antiquity

The emperor, the bishop and the holy man: these were the most evocative and powerful figures in late antiquity. They provided leadership, moral guidance, dispensation of favors, spiritual and pragmatic authority. Maybe emperors and holy men could seem, at first sight, more fascinating figures: but, actually, no one seems to express the changes and transformations of late antiquity better than the Christian bishop. Several studies have explored the development of the episcopal office but, at least until the 80's of XXth century, they usually fall into an underlying assumption: a strict division between the religious and secular aspects of the role of bishops. Since the late 1980s, above all thanks to Peter Brown's contribution, there is a recogniseable trend to treat episcopal power not as an isolated social or political phenomenon, but as a complex structure of secular and religious parts. However, this scholship's attention to an all-around definition of episcopal office usually focuse on the role of the bishop in his city. Instead, we aim to draw the attention to his role like a political and, above all, militar leader outside of the city, focusing on his charismatic fusion of some of the emperor's and holy men's characteristics.

Theophylact Simocatta

The Byzantine historian Theophylact Simocatta was probably born in Egypt in the late 580s. During his bureaucratic career he composed a Histories and three other minor works which presently survive: Problems of Natural History, Ethical Epistles, and On Predestined Terms of Life. The History was written in the early seventh century and was written in the tradition of secular, political history following Procopius, Agathias, and Menander Protector. Although he had not lived during the events he described, Theophylact’s History is an important source of information for the sixth-century Eastern Roman wars in the Balkans and in the East. However, his understanding of geography, the sequence of events, and the events themselves is often confusing. Anyway, his contribution to History and the development of culture and religion in the late ancient Orient is fundamental!