Fall 2024 Princeton University
The course will focus on the formation of the Christian West from Ireland to the Eastern Mediterranean until ca. 1000 CE. We will start with the insignificance of the Fall of Rome in 476 CE, to move on to much more fundamental changes in the Ancient and medieval world: the Christian revolution in the 4th century, the barbarian successor states in the fifth, their transformation into Christian kingdoms, or the emergence of new nations and states whose names are still on the map today and which all came to be held together by a shared culture defined by the Rise of Western Christendom in the first Millennium.
General
Readings
Wednesday, September 4: Introduction: the world of late Antiquity, or ancient Europe in a wider world
No readings assigned.
No precepts in the first week.
Monday, September 9: The Roman Empire and its Barbarians
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), Introduction, pp. 37–52.
Source Readings:
[\a] Tacitus, Agricola (on Britain and the Celtic peoples in the Roman Empire)
[\a] Tacitus, Germania (on the northern Germanic barbarians northeast of the Roman frontier)
[\o] Tacitus, Annals (on barbarian outsiders in Rome — scandal!)
[\c] Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae (Histories) selections on Roman–barbarian encounters along the frontiers
Roman laws on barbarians
Wednesday, September 11: The Christian Revolution and the Transformation of the Roman Empire
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 72–92
Source Readings:
Who are these Christians? A letter from a Roman governor (Pliny) to the Roman emperor, 2nd
cent. CE
[\c] The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas, in Patrick J. Geary (ed.), Readings in Medieval History, 4th ed. (Ontario: Broadview Press, 2010), pp. 58–64.
[\a] The Horatius Trial,(discussed by a modern legal historian based on the account of the Roman
historian Livy [ca. 60 BC to 17 CE])
[\o] Eusebius, Oration to Constantine, transl. Philip Schaff, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 1. (http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.toc.html).
[\c] Augustine, The City of God Against the Pagans, Book 1, 1–3, transl. R. W. Dyson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 3–7.
[\c] Augustine, Sermon 198 in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, vol. III/6, Sermons (184–229Z) on the Liturgical Seasons, 4th release (Charlottesville, VA: InteLex Corporation, 2014). via PU catalogue
Suggested Readings:
Christian pastoral power: The response of Saint Ambrose to Symmachus
Monday, September 16: Barbarian Empires: Huns and Goths
[\o] Modern Studies: H. Wolfram, The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples (Berkeley, 1997), pp. 123–44
Source Readings:
[\o] Augustine, The City of God Against the Pagans, Book 1, 1–3, transl. R. W. Dyson (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 3–7.
[\c] “The Huns,” in Michael Maas (ed.), Readings in Late Antiquity: A Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 2000), pp. 318–326.
[\c] Eunapius, Fragments 42, transl. R. C. Blockley, in The Fragmentary Classicising Historians of the Later Roman Empire (Liverpool: Francis Cairns, 1983), pp. 60–65.
Monday, September 23: Kingdoms of the Empire: Barbarian Governors of “Little Romes”
[\o] Modern Studies: H. Wolfram, The Roman Empire and its Germanic Peoples (Berkeley, 1997)
Source Readings:
[\c] Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters to Syagrius, transl. W. B. Anderson, in Works of Sidonius Apollinaris, vol. 2 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), pp. 181–183 and 437–439.
[\c] Sidonius, On the Visigothic King Theoderic, transl. W. B. Anderson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), vol. 2, pp. 335–340.
[\c] Sidonius, Poems 12 (on his Burgundian neighbors), transl. W. B. Anderson (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1936), vol. 1, p. 213.
[\a] The Book of Constitutions: Laws of the Burgundian King Gundobad, 2, 38, 55, 60, 81, 80, 84, 97, transl. Katherine Fischer Drew, The Lombard Laws (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1972).
The Roman Law of the Visigoths (Preamble), transl. H. Reimitz.
Wednesday, September 25: Post-Roman Christianities and the Transformation of the Roman World
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 93–113
Source Readings:
[\c] The Life of the Jura-Fathers (Lupicinus), transl. T. Vivian and J. B. Russell, Lives of the Jura Fathers (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1999), pp. 144–146.
[\c] Avitus of Vienne, Letters, transl. Ian Wood and Danuta Shanzer, in Letters and Selected Prose (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2002), pp. 19ff, 227f.
[\o] Victor of Vita, History of the Vandal Persecution, Book III, 1–8, 17–20, 61–62, transl. J. Moorhead (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992), pp. 64–66, 70–72, 89.
Monday, September 30: 476 and All That: Italy and the Non-End of the Roman Empire
[\a] Modern Studies: W. Pohl, “Invasions and Ethnic Identity,” in Italy in the Early Middle Ages, ed. C. La Rocca (Oxford, 2002)
Source Readings:
[\o] Anonymus Valesianus II History of King Theoderic the Great, transl. B. Thayer, (selections).
[\c] Cassiodorus, Letters, III.17; IX.25, transl. S. J. B. Barnish, Cassiodorus: Variae (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992), pp. 54, 127–130.
[\c] Jordanes, Getica, transl. Lieve Van Hoof and Peter Van Nuffelen (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020).
[\c] Procopius, Wars, V.1–2 (on Theoderic the Great) and V.9 (on the education of Theoderic’s grandson Athalaric), transl. H. B. Dewing, Procopius: History of the Wars, Vol. V (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934; repr. 2007), pp. 11–15.
[\c] Cassiodorus, Letters, III, 17; IX, 25, transl. S.J.B. Barnish (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992), pp. 54, 127-130.
Wednesday, October 2: The Emergence of the Franks: From Germanic Barbarians to French Ancestors
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 123–141
Source Readings:
[\o] Procopius, Wars, VII.11–12, transl. H. B. Dewing, Procopius: History of the Wars, Vol. VII (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1934; repr. 2007), pp. 118–122 (on the Franks).
[\c] Agathias, Histories I.2.6, ed. and transl. J. D. Frendo, Corpus Fontium Historiae Byzantinae II A (Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1975), pp. 10–13.
[\c] Gregory of Tours, Histories II.9–12 (on early Frankish history), transl. Lewis Thorpe, The History of the Franks (London and New York: Penguin, 1974), pp. 120–129.
Monday, October 7: The First “Catholic” State in Europe – Anomaly and Success of the Frankish Kingdoms
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 154–165
Source Readings:
[\c] Letters from and to Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, in A. C. Murray (ed.), From Roman to Merovingian Gaul: A Reader (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2000), pp. 259–268.
[\c] Council of Orléans (511 CE), transl. in Murray, From Roman to Merovingian Gaul (no. 41), pp. 569–571.
[\c] Gregory of Tours, Histories, transl. Lewis Thorpe (London: Penguin, 1974):
Book 4, ch. 36 (on Bishop Nicetius of Lyon)
Book 5, Preface
Book 5, ch. 18 (The Praetextatus case — a trial for high treason)
Book 9, ch. 30 (defending the tax exemption of the city of Tours)
[\a] Gregory of Tours, Glory of the Martyrs, ch. 63, transl. Raymond Van Dam (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1988), p. 87.
Wednesday, October 9: The Roman Empire That Wouldn’t Die: Byzantium
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 176–189
Source Readings:
[\c] Procopius, Wars, Book I, 24, 32–38 (on Empress Theodora), transl. H. B. Dewing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954), pp. 231, 233.
[\c] Procopius, On Buildings, Book II, ch. 6, transl. H. B. Dewing (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954).
[\c] Procopius, Secret History, chs. 8–10 and 19–21 (excerpts), transl. H. B. Dewing (Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954), pp. 32–42, 78–84.
Monday, October 21: Between East and West: The Papacy and the Christian Churches
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 190–215
Source Readings:
[\a] Gregory the Great, The Book of Pastoral Rule, in Maas (ed.), Readings in Late Antiquity (no. 16), p. 114f.
[\c] Gregory the Great, Letters, Books 1, 4, 5, 9, 11, and 13, transl. John R. C. Martyn, The Letters of Gregory the Great, 4 vols. (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 2004).
[\c] The Rule of Saint Benedict, transl. W. H. McNeill and S. Houser, in Medieval Europe: Readings in the History of Western Civilization, pp. 22–23, 31–33.
Wednesday, October 23: The Atlantic Corridor
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 126–133, 340–354
Source Readings:
[\c] Beowulf, excerpts from Seamus Heaney (bilingual edition; New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000), pp. ix–xvii, 3–11, 17–31, 35–43, 69–87.
[\c] Anglo-Saxon Old Testament Narratives, excerpts from Exodus, in Daniel Anlezark (ed. & trans.), Old Testament Narratives (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2011), pp. 207–209, 223–229, 337–345.
[\c] Saint Patrick, Letter to Coroticus, transl. John Skinner, in The Confession of Saint Patrick and Letter to Coroticus (New York: Doubleday, 2010), 5 pp.
[\c] Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Book IV, ch. 24, transl. Leo Sherley-Price and R. E. Latham (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968), pp. 248–251.
Monday, October 28: The End of Ancient Christianity and the Formation of Western Christendom
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 119–121, 321–339, 355–379
Source Readings:
[\c] Adomnán, Life of Columba, transl. A. O. and M. O. Anderson (London: Thomas Nelson, 1961), pp. 225–229.
[\o] Penitential of Columbanus, transl. J. T. McNeill and H. M. Gamer, Medieval Handbooks of Penance (New York: Columbia University Press, 1938), pp. 225–229.
[\c] Jonas of Bobbio, Life of Columbanus, in A. O’Hara and I. N. Wood (eds.), Jonas of Bobbio: Life of Columbanus, Life of John of Réomé, and Life of Vedast (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2019).
[\c] Columbanus, Letter to the Pope, in J. W. Coakley and A. Sterk (eds.), Readings in World Christian History, Vol. 1 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), pp. 255–257.
Life in an Early Medieval Monastery: The Monastery of St. Gall, in P. Erhart (ed.), Life in the Early Middle Ages, transl. J. Kreiner and H. Reimitz (St. Gall, 2021).
Wednesday, October 30: New Europeans: The Peoples from the Steppe and the Emergence of the Slavs
Source Readings:
[\o] Maurice, Strategikon: Handbook of Byzantine Military Strategy, transl. George T. Dennis (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984), pp. 116–118, 120–126.
[\o] Theophylact Simocatta, History, Books I.3–4, 7.13, transl. M. and M. Whitby (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), pp. 23–25, 196–197.
[\c] Chronicle of Fredegar, Book IV, chs. 48, 68, transl. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (London: Nelson, 1960), pp. 39–40, 56–58.
Monday, November 4: Christians and the Rise of Islam
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 267–294
Source Readings:
[\c] Chronicle of Fredegar Book IV, chs. 64–65, transl. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (London: Nelson, 1960), pp. 52–55.
[\o] Ibn Isḥāq, Sīrat Rasūl Allāh, transl. Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 104–107.
[\a] “The Earliest Sura,” “The Heart of the Qurʾān: The Throne Verse,” and “The Satanic Verses,” in F. E. Peters, A Reader on Classical Islam (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994), pp. 175–179.
[\o] “The Constitution of Medina,” excerpt from Ibn Isḥāq, Sīrat Rasūl Allāh, transl. Alfred Guillaume, The Life of Muhammad (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 231–233.
Wednesday, November 6: East Meets West: Christians, Muslims, and Jews in Medieval Iberia
Source Readings:
[\o] Isidore of Seville, In Praise of Spain, in Olivia Remie Constable (ed.), Medieval Iberia: Readings from Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Sources (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1997), pp. 3–4.
[\o] The Visigothic Conversion to Catholicism, in Constable, Medieval Iberia, pp. 11–17.
[\o] Muslim–Christian Treaty, in Constable, Medieval Iberia, pp. 37–38.
[\o] A Christian Account of the Life of Muhammad, in Constable, Medieval Iberia, pp. 48–50.
[\o] Ibn Ḥayyān, Muqtabis, in Constable, Medieval Iberia, pp. 71–72.
[\o] A Jewish Administrator, in Constable, Medieval Iberia, pp. 73–74.
[\o] Ibn Ḥazm, On the Inconsistencies of the Four Gospels, in Constable, Medieval Iberia, pp. 81–83.
Monday, November 11: The First European Dynasty: The Rise of the Carolingians
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 408–428
Source Readings:
[\c] Life of Gertrud of Nivelles, transl. Paul Fouracre and Richard Gerberding, in Late Merovingian France: History and Hagiography, 640–720 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1996), pp. 319ff.
[\c] Carolingian Continuations of the Fredegar Chronicle, chs. 12–23, transl. J. M. Wallace-Hadrill (London: Nelson, 1960), pp. 91–97.
[\c] Saint Boniface, Letters, transl. A. C. Murray, in From Roman to Merovingian Gaul: A Reader (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 2000), pp. 637–638, 645–649.
[\a] Frankish Church Councils (742 and 743 CE), transl. A. C. Murray, in From Roman to Merovingian Gaul (no. 41), pp. 649–651.
New Prologue to the Oldest Frankish Law Code (under Pippin I, c. 760s), transl. H. Reimitz (prepared for this class).
Wednesday, November 13: A New Augustus from the North: Charlemagne
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 428–461
Source Readings:
[\c] Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, transl. David Ganz, in Two Lives of Charlemagne (London and New York: Penguin, 2009).
[\o] Annals of the Monastery of Lorsch, entry for the years 800–801, transl. P. D. King, in Charlemagne: Translated Sources (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
[\o] Carolingian Capitularies, “General Admonition,” transl. P. D. King, in Charlemagne: Translated Sources (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 208–219; and Capitularies for the Missi of 789 and 802 CE, transl. H. Reimitz.
Monday, November 18: Ninth-Century Renaissances: Reframing the Classical Past in Medieval Empires
[\c] Modern Studies: P. Adamson, “Founded in Translation,” in Philosophy in the Islamic World (Oxford, 2016), pp. 19–25
Source Readings:
[\c] Description of the Emperor’s Palace at Ingelheim, transl. Paul Edward Dutton, in Carolingian Civilization: A Reader, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Broadview Press, 2004), pp. 253–254.
[\o] The Old Saxon Heliand, in Thomas Coakley and Andrea Sterk, Readings in World Christian History, Volume I: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), pp. 310–315.
Otfrid of Weissenburg, Preface to the Old High German Gospel Harmony (excerpt).
Wednesday, November 20: The Ends of the Carolingian Empire and the Crystallization of the West
[\c] Modern Studies: Chris Wickham, The Inheritance of Rome (London, 2008), pp. 427–452
Source Readings:
[\c] Notker the Stammerer, On Good Old Times Under Charlemagne, chs. 1–3, 5, 9–10, transl. David Ganz, in Two Lives of Charlemagne (London: Penguin, 2008), pp. 55–57, 58–60, 61–63.
[\c] The Death of Charles the Bald, from the Annals of St. Bertin (year 877), transl. Janet L. Nelson (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1991), p. 502f.
[\c] The Saxon Poet’s Thoughts on Charlemagne, in Paul Edward Dutton, Carolingian Civilization: A Reader (as above, no. 80), p. 535f.
Monday, November 25: The Vikings and the Christian West
[\c] Modern Studies: Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200–1000, 4th ed. (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013), pp. 463–488
Source Readings:
[\c] Life of Olaf Trygvasson, chs. 1–3, 6–7, 21–32, 51–55, 68–69, 79, 81–84, in Snorri Sturluson, Heimskringla, or the Lives of the Norse Kings, transl. A. H. Smith (New York: Dover Publications, repr. 2019), pp. 15–16, 118–119, 129–139, 157–161, 175–179.
Monday, December 2: The Vikings and the East: From the Baltic to Byzantium
Source Readings:
[\c] Excerpts from The Book of Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān, in Ibn Fadlan and the Land of Darkness: Arab Travellers in the Far North, transl. Paul Lunde and Caroline Stone (London: Penguin Classics, 2012), pp. 3–4, 31–55.
[\o] The Russian Primary Chronicle on the Christianization of Russia, in Thomas Coakley and Andrea Sterk, Readings in World Christian History, Volume I: Earliest Christianity to 1453 (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004), pp. 310–315.
Suggested Reading:
Pope Nicholas I, Letter to the Bulgar Khan Boris, transl. W. L. North from the edition of Ernest Perels, in MGH Epistolae VI (Berlin: Weidmann, 1925), pp. 568–600.
Wednesday, December 4: Medieval Europe c. 1000
[\c] Modern Studies: W. C. Jordan, Europe in the High Middle Ages (New York, 2001), pp. 20–79
Source Readings:
[\o] Liudprand of Cremona, The Embassy to Constantinople, chs. 1–14, transl. F. A. Wright, in The Works of Liudprand of Cremona (London: Routledge, 1930), pp. 235–243.
[\o] Pope Sylvester II, Conferral of the Royal Title to the Hungarian Ruler Stephen, in Oliver J. Thatcher, A Source Book for Mediaeval History: Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Ages (New York: Scribners, 1905), pp. 119–120.