In one of the sermons published by François Dolbeau, delivered between 400 and 404, Augustine alludes to a curious form of worship paid by some of his fellow believers to the columns of the churches. Such a practice is not mentioned elsewhere. In his online talk entitled “The survival of pagan practices among Christians in northern Africa”, Ignazio Tantillo, Professor of Roman History at the Università di Napoli l’Orientale, will review the different hypotheses formulated to explain and contextualize this peculiar form of worship, considered by some to be a survival of pagan or Jewish traditions, by others a form of veneration typical of the African world. Through the analysis of some epigraphic documents, new aspects will be added to the discussion.
The online talk will be delivered in the context of the 3rd Lecture Series in Late Antiquity (“When our world became Christian”), which is organized by the Open University of Cyprus (OUC), on March 18, 2021 at 19:00 (EET).
It will be broadcasted live through OUC’s eLearning Platform (eClass) at the web link: https://bit.ly/3qgKCQi
Ignazio Tantillo is Professor of Roman History at the Università di Napoli l’Orientale. His research interests embrace various aspects of Mediterranean history in the Roman period and especially in late antiquity: the imperial ideology and the representation of power through the analysis of different types of evidence which contain eulogistic purpose or ingredients (such as panegyrics, official documents addressed to the representatives of power, imperial constitutions, but also coins, inscriptions and honorary monuments); aspects of political and cultural history of the fourth century, from Diocletian to Theodosius; late antique northern Africa and its administration (both civil and military); Cassiodorus and Ostrogothic Italy; the city of Leptis Magna and Tripolitania; the province of Crete and Gortyn in the IVth century AD; the "statue habit" between II and VI century AD; the epigraphy of Roman Italy. He carried out surveys and research missions in several sites in Italy and abroad (most recently in Crete).
The Lecture Series, the programme of which is available here, is organized by the Programme "Studies in Hellenic Culture" of the Open University of Cyprus this spring semester (February – May 2021). Distinguished scholars from Cyprus, Italy and Greece examine various aspects of the period known as Late Antiquity but tends to focus on issues of Christianization, Late Antique Archaeology, and the Eastern Roman Empire.
Convenor: G. Deligiannakis, Associate Professor, Open University of Cyprus
