ABSTRACT
Shifting Cultural Frontiers in Late Antiquity explores the transformation of classical culture in late antiquity by studying cultures at the borders-the borders of empires, of social classes, of public and private spaces, of literary genres, of linguistic communities-and of the modern disciplines that study antiquity. Although such canonical figures of late ancient studies as Augustine and Ammianus Marcellinus appear in its pages, this book shifts our perspective from the center to the side or the margins. The chapters consider, for example, the ordinary Christians whom Augustine addressed, the border regions of Mesopotamia and Vandal Africa, “popular” or “legendary” literature, and athletes. And although traditional philology rightly underlies the work that these chapters do, the authors draw from and combine a range of disciplines and perspectives, including art history, religion, and social history. By looking away from the core and toward the periphery, whether spatially or intellectually, we gain fresh insights into how ancient patterns of thinking and creating became reconfigured into the diverse cultures of the “medieval.” The book’s five parts address these shifting cultural frontiers from different vantage points.
