Imperium to Regnum: Italy in Late Antiquity

International conference

Ghent, 10-12 January 2019

Organised by dr. Jeroen Wijnendaele and Prof. Lieve Van Hoof

with support from the Flanders Research Foundation (FWO), UGent Faculty of Letters and Philosophy

for registration and more information contact

click here for the poster

Introduction

During the first quarter of the first millennium CE, Italy was still the heart of the Roman Empire; the only political superstructure ever managing to encompass the entire Mediterranean world and its European hinterland. Yet during the second quarter of this same millennium, Italy underwent dramatic evolutions from demotion to a regular province (c. 285-395), to a new imperial hub kept afloat by cannibalizing other provinces' resources (c. 395-475), to an autonomous kingdom governed by barbarian leaders as part of an Eastern Roman 'Commonwealth' (c. 475-535). The transition from Imperium to Regnum will be crucial in this conference to understand the major political, social, economic, religious and culture changes impacting what was once the most important region of the Roman world.

Programme

Thursday 10 January

14:00 - Welcome and Registration
14:45 – Introduction (Lieve Van Hoof & Jeroen Wijnendaele – Ghent University)
15:00 – Third Century Crisis & Tetrarchy (Umberto Roberto - Università Europea di Roma)
15:30 – The Administrative Division of Italy and its impact on Fourth Century Political History (Noel Lenski – Yale University)

16:30 – Coffee Break

17:00 – Keynote I: Regional Aristocracies in Late Roman Italy (Daniëlle Slootjes – Radboud University Nijmegen)
18:15 - Reception

Friday 11 January

9:30 – The Child Emperors (Mark Humphries – Swansea University)
10:00 – The Shadow Emperors & Odoacer (Jeroen Wijnendaele – Ghent University)

11:00 Coffee Break

11:30 – Armed Forces (Philip Rance – Freie Universität Berlin)
12:00 – Epistolary Networks (Daniel Knox – Central European University)

12:45 Lunch

13:45 – Labor forces and the Countryside (Sarah Bühler – University of Tübingen)
14:15 - Cities and Urban Life (Neil Christie – Leicester)

15:15 Coffee Break

15:45 – Religious Minorities (Jessica Van ‘t Westeinde – University of Bern & Tübingen)
16:15 - Gendered Violence (Ulriika Vihervalli – Cardiff University)

17:15 Convenience Break

17:30 - Keynote II: Orientals and Italy – A Transnational Approach (Giusto Traina - Université Sorbonne)

19:30 Conference Dinner

Saturday 12 January

9:30 - Keynote III – Bishops and Episcopal Power (Bronwen Neil – Macquarie University)

10:45 - Coffee Break

11:15 - Italia in Late Antique Poetry (Michael Hanaghan – Australian Catholic University)
11:45 - Late Roman Italy as an Intellectual Environment (Peter Van Nuffelen – Ghent University)

12:45 – Lunch Break

14:00 - Roundtable Discussion