Classica et Mediaevalia

https://tidsskrift.dk/classicaetmediaevalia/issue/feed Classica et Mediaevalia 2025-04-01T08:46:22+02:00 Thomas Heine Nielsen heine@hum.ku.dk Open Journal Systems   https://tidsskrift.dk/classicaetmediaevalia/article/view/152393 An unnoticed twelfth-century manuscript of Arator’s Historia Apostolica, Wrocław University Library, Akc. 2018/1 2024-12-20T08:54:30+01:00 Michal Broda heine@hum.ku.dk

This article concerns a hitherto unknown 12th-century manuscript containing the Historia Apostolica of Arator, a 6th-century Christian poet. The codex was donated in 2018 to the Wrocław University Library, where it was given the shelf mark Akc. 2018/1. It came to the Library badly damaged and underwent conservation treatment in the Library’s Special Collections Conservation Workshop. This paper describes the physical condition of the manuscript before and after conservation, as well as presenting its content. The manuscript has not yet been cited at all in the literature on Arator, it is not included in the list of all his manuscripts, and has not been described in any catalogue. Neither its provenance nor its fate until the 19th century, when it found its way to the book collection of professor Friedrich Haase from the University of Breslau, is known.

2025-01-07T00:00:00+01:00 Copyright (c) 2024 https://tidsskrift.dk/classicaetmediaevalia/article/view/152591 Circular flow: universal and local in the Imperium Galliarum 2025-01-07T16:27:11+01:00 Kristian Kanstrup Christensen heine@hum.ku.dk

This article investigates the cultural tendencies of the Gallic Empire (c. AD 260-274). The persistence of imperial institutions shows the Gallic emperors intended to convey an impression of continuity. Yet the numismatic record also shows the influence of a distinct cultural environment associated with the Batavian community and the Rhine army. Batavian forms of Hercules, originally developed through the transformation of the Roman Hercules to suit a local context, were elevated into Postumus’ (r. c. AD 260 to 269) imperial propaganda, confirming a long-held hypothesis in anthropology postulating a circular flow of cultural borrowing in agrarian societies between local and elite traditions.

Situated in the border area of several powerful neighbors, the polis territory of Ambrakia was exposed to numerous territorial claims from its early history onwards. A close reading of the story of the quarrel of the gods fighting over the possession of the city reveals that the passage must be understood as an illustration of those various interests in the city prior to the Roman conquest. Yet it was precisely when the domination of Greek states in the region came to an end that the Ambrakiots undertook a remarkable border-management initiative including at least three boundary regulations dating to the 160s BC. This article asks for the reasons behind this initiative and emphasizes the political room for maneuver the Ambrakiots exploited after the Third Makedonian War.