'a rescript from Hadrian in Justin Martyr's 1 Apology, in the medieval manuscript Parisinus graecus 450, fol. 239 (Source: gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France) |
By Birgit van der Lans
The Easter break – when Norwegian cities depopulate but the traditional Påskekrimi
provides for some excitement – gave me opportunity to write a few words to
introduce myself and my research on this blog. For about two months now I have
very much enjoyed being associated with the NeRoNe project, after moving from
Groningen to Bergen to join the research group "Ancient History, Culture and Religion" as a
guest researcher. The coming year I will be working on a project (funded by a contribution from the Niels Stensen Fellowship) on the roles
and expressions of religion in the diplomatic networks of the early Roman
Empire.
Birgit van der Lans joins the NeRoNE group as a guest- researcher for 2016. |
When we think about ‘diplomacy’, we associate it with international relations,
with foreign affairs and with a professional diplomatic service to negotiate
relationships between autonomous nation states. In the context of the Roman
Empire – as Fergus Millar has made clear – the distinction between external
diplomacy and internal affairs is less appropriate. The relationship between
Rome and the local polities that had become part of the Empire was managed by a
system of ‘internal diplomacy’ in which the emperor and other Roman officials
received embassies and responded to the countless demands and requests by very
different types of subjects.
Just like contemporary diplomatic practice is no longer the exclusive
terrain of nation states, the social agents who took part in diplomatic
exchange were diverse: besides cities, provincial councils or client kingdoms,
embassies were dispatched by local religious associations, ethnic communities, and
the ‘world-wide’ organisations of athletes and theatrical performers. City
magistrates, high priests presiding over different sorts of associations and
skilled rhetors were selected as envoys and amassed prestige by acting as
brokers. Diplomatic connections were formed by such travelling persons, but
also by the exchange of written documents: petitions, honorific decrees and
imperial rescripts were copied, circulated, archived and displayed by
interested parties.
This complex administrative system can be analysed as a social network
with nodes, hubs, edges and clusters and flows. I think that the network
perspective helps us to understand change and continuity in the imperial
administration, but I will be looking mainly for the religious practices, concepts
and agents that constituted – or impeded – diplomatic relations.
My chronological focus will be on the Hadrianic-Antonine period, when
Christians began to participate in diplomatic networks – or at least claimed to
do. From the second century onwards we hear of several Christians - Justin
Martyr, Melito of Sardis, Athenagoras of Athens, among others – who addressed
petitions to the emperor and used diplomatic forms and language to package
‘apologetic’ writings, in which they defended Christianity against accusations
of atheism, incest and cannibalism. I suspect that the activities of these new
diplomatic agents, who can be placed among other ‘intellectual’ diplomats
associated with the Second Sophistic, offer a fruitful entry point to
understand the intersection of religious and diplomatic networks in this
period.
I hope to give some updates on this blog about developments in research and
other planned activities – starting with my first talk for the research group "Ancient History, Culture and
Religion" this Thursday (the 31st). A few days later
I will travel to Canada for 6 weeks of research at York University, where I
will be working mainly on the diplomatic activities of Greco-Roman
associations, and a talk for the Ottawa Early Christianity Group. When I come
back to Bergen, the Påskehare is long gone, but the 17. Mai celebrations will soon
offer the next occasion to explore Norwegian traditions.
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