Browsing by Subject "Classics"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    The Blessed Tome from Rome: the Political and Theological Aspirations of Pope Leo I in the context of the Robber Synod of Ephesus and the Council of Chalcedon
    (2018) Henke, Jacob;
    “There is nothing more serious than the sacrilege of schism, because there is no just cause for severing the unity of the Church.”1 With these words, Augustine, the bishop of Hippo Regius, firmly opined that those who embraced theological and doctrinal tenets, incompatible with catholic and orthodox teaching, were culpable of severing the unity of the Church. This particular criticism was leveled against the Donatist factions of Northern Africa, a sect of rigorists who denied the validity of the sacraments when administered by traditores, literally ‘the one[s] who had handed over’ the Scriptures and the names of their fellow Christians during the Roman persecutions. However, by the time Augustine wrote these words, the church had already weathered several waves of divisive theological controversies and several additional schisms, specifically pertaining to the nature of Christ, loomed on the horizon. The First Council of Ephesus in AD 431, the so-called Latrocinium, or Robber Synod of 449, and the Council of Chalcedon in 451 would all attempt to resolve these controversies and the bishops and patriarchs of the major sees would play substantial roles in the attempted clarification of orthodox christology. However, beneath the veneer of theological debate, these bishops and patriarchs sought not only to implement their own christology but also to further the political power of the disparate episcopal sees. Leo I of Rome (c. AD 400-461) provides a prime example of these overlapping theological and ecclesio-political ambitions. Through numerous epistles, sermons, and his dogmatic Tome to Flavian, he strategically used political compromise and shrewd theological interpretation in an effort to resolve the fifth-century christological controversies, to mend the rift between the Antiochene and Alexandrian factions, and to establish papal primacy over the various ecumenical sees, bringing them into communion with Rome.
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    Language and literacy in Roman Judaea: a study of the Bar Kokhba documents
    (2012-10) Wise, Michael Owen
    This is a study of language and literacy in an ancient multi-lingual setting, Judaea in the years 63 B.C.E. - 136 C.E. It first surveys scholarly views on these topics, and then proposes a new method of investigating the questions raised: a study of the signed documents and letters discovered among the materials conventionally known as the "Bar Kokhba texts." The major sites where materials were discovered are reviewed, and the complex history of publication is examined for each site. The essential approach is that of "signature literacy," a well-established method for investigating the rates of literacy in societies of the past. The language of each signature is studied in relation to the language of the document to which it is attached, and analyzed to determine fluency of the writing. One thereby learns something about language knowledge and level of literacy for each signatory. In tandem with this approach significant efforts are made to elucidate the prosopography of the texts. A separate chapter considers the Bar Kokhba letters. The final chapter proposes a new understanding of the uses of Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek in Judaea during these years, and argues for particular levels of literacy for each tongue.
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    Rhetorical Ethics in the Comedy of Aristophanes
    (2014-05) Larson, Sean
    Understanding the role of the comic playwright Aristophanes in the history of persuasive speech and performance is no small task. Rhetoric scholars and classicists often consider his plays testimonial documents for the origins and practice of oratory in the late 5th century BCE in Athens; "Clouds" in particular is regularly treated as contemporary evidence that the sophists were peddlers of logical snake-oil, teaching unscrupulous students how to take advantage of their fellow citizens purely for selfish ends. This point of emphasis reduces Aristophanes to the role of historical witness without giving him credit for his own acts of social commentary and intellectual contributions to the polis. Other attention is given to Aristophanes as pandering moralist, decrying the outrageous and inimical behaviors corrupting a once prosperous city and its many institutions. This avenue of research routinely minimizes the playwright's influence because his anti-war plays appear to have little practical effect on Athenian politics, and focuses mainly on institutional critique without solutions for the audience to consider. My purpose in this dissertation is to draw attention to Aristophanes as an ethicist who uses comedy to reorient audience values and behaviors. Using Kenneth Burke's theory of the hortatory negative, I argue that Aristophanes depicts his characters as abhorrent models for oratorical behavior, suggesting implicitly to the audience via inference that an alternative type of speaker may engage in more ethical oratory and thereby provide more effective and beneficial leadership in the polis.