In the Shadow of the Sword: The Birth of Islam and the Rise of the Global Arab Empire

3 New Rome

1

Propertius: 3.22.21.

2

The quotation comes from Athenaeus, 6.273A–275A.

3

Plutarch,

Roman Questions

: 61.

4

This process had begun long before the formal absorption of Greece into the Roman Empire, and seems initially to have drawn upon contacts between Rome and the Greek settlements in Italy. “The Greeks imposed the Trojan legend upon the West as a form of Hellenic cultural imperialism, only to see it appropriated by the westerner to define and convey a Roman cultural identity” (Gruen, p. 31).

5

Livy: 26.27.

6

Virgil: 6.852–3.

7

Aristides: 26.59 and 99.

8

Virgil: 6.792–3

9

Ibid.: 1.279.

10

Such, at any rate, is the claim made by our admittedly hostile Christian sources. It is possible that their accounts of the humiliations inflicted upon Valerian reflect a measure of wishful thinking.

11

Cicero: 17.

12

Optatianus Porphyrius,

Carmen

: 4, line 6. The poem was composed to celebrate the founding of Constantinople, and clearly suggests that the new city’s status as a rival to Rome was manifest from the very beginning.

13

Eusebius,

Life of Constantine

: 3.54.

14

The earliest reference to this tradition can be dated to the fifth century AD. See Sozomen: 2.3.2.

15

See Fowden (1991) for a much earlier source which implies that the porphyry actually came from Rome.

16

Chronicon Paschale

, p. 16.

17

Zosimus: 1.58.4.

18

Procopius:

History of the Wars

, 1.11.9.

19

Procopius:

On Buildings

, 1.5.10.

20

Zosimus: 2.35.2.

21

Corippus: 3.244.

22

The Oracle of Baalbek

, line 166.

23

Procopius:

The Secret History

, 14.2.

24

Ibid.:

On Buildings

, 2.6.6.

25

This derives from Procopius (

The Secret History

, 30.21–3), who was admittedly almost rabid in his undercover hostility to Justinian. Nevertheless, even if some of the details of the changes to court ceremonial may have been exaggerated, the drift towards ever-greater formality is irrefutable.

26

Procopius:

The Secret History

, 8.27.

27

Ibid.: 8.24.

28

Novels

43, prologue.

29

Novels

98: 16 December 539.

30

Cicero,

On the Orator

: 1.197.

31

Novels

111.

32

CJ Constt. Summa

, preface.

33

The notion that the emperor constituted the law dated back at least to the fourth century AD.

34

John Lydus: 3.44.

35

A decree of Theodosius II (r. 408–50), quoted by Kelly, p. 187.

36

Procopius:

The Secret History

, 7.10.

37

Even the lowest figure we have, Procopius’s estimate of thirty thousand, is staggering. All ancient historians exaggerated battle casualties, but the massacre in the Hippodrome undoubtedly resulted in a prodigious death toll.

38

John Lydus: 3.70.

39

Novels

72: 538.

40

Procopius: 1.14.52.

41

Ibid.:

On Buildings

, 2.1.11.

42

Whether Procopius exaggerated the scale of Justinian’s contributions to the fortifications of Dara is a moot point. See Croke and Crow.

43

Isaiah: 40.15.

44

Ibid.: 40.17.

45

Genesis: 22.18.

46

Tractate Paschale

8. The rabbi himself, Eleazar ben Pedat, was born in the Holy Land.

47

“Ambrosiaster,” a commentator on St. Paul’s letters who was long mistaken for St. Ambrose. Quoted by Cohen, p. 159.

48

I am indebted to Shahrokh Razmjou for alerting me to this.

49

b. Kiddushin

70b.

50

Galatians: 3.28.

51

Ibid.: 3.25–6.

52

The first known use of the phrase “Old Testament” occurred in the writings of Melito of Sardis (c. AD 180), and that of the “New Testament” in Irenaeus’s

Against Heresies

(4.91), from around the same time.

53

Gospel of St. John: 14.6.

54

Gospel of St. Matthew: 28.19. See also 2 Corinthians: 13.13.

55

Acts: 2.2.

56

1 Corinthians: 12.13.

57

“Letter to Diognetus” (a): 5.

58

Ignatius, “Letter to the Ephesians”: 6.

59

Gospel of St. Matthew: 19.21.

60

Ibid.: 7.15.

61

Tertullian,

The Prescription Against the Heretics

: 21.

62

Ibid.

63

Romans: 15.19.

64

Gospel of St. Matthew: 5.18.

65

Tertullian,

Against Praxeas

: 2.

66

Irenaeus,

Against Heresies

: 1.8.1.

67

For the value placed on eyewitness accounts by both early Christian writers and classical historians, and the concurrent suspicion of written evidence, see Alexander (1990) and Byrskog. Unfortunately, the question of whether the canonical gospels do indeed preserve eyewitness accounts is not one that can be tackled in a single footnote.

68

See, for instance, the Gospel of Thomas, a number of Infancy Gospels, and the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew—the same text which features Christ’s conversation with His mother from the womb. In some of these gospels, Christ makes the birds come to life, not to amuse His friends, but to demonstrate to a killjoy Jew that it is permissible to work clay on the Sabbath.

69

See Origen: 1.1. No trace of the Gospel of Basilides has survived, however, so we are entirely dependent upon the reports of his enemies for a sense of what might have been contained within it.

70

Irenaeus,

Against Heresies

: 1.24.4.

71

Origen: 1.1.

72

Clement of Alexandria:

Stromateis

7.106.4.

73

Justin Martyr: 47.

74

t. Hul.

2.24.

75

Gospel of St. John: 3.7.

76

Alan Segal (p. 1) gives the metaphor a more biblical colouring: “Like Jacob and Esau, the twin sons of Isaac and Rebecca, the two religions fought in the womb.” See also, for a more radical phrasing of the same metaphor, Boyarin (2004, p. 5): “Judaism is not the ‘mother’ of Christianity; they are twins, joined at the hip.” As with so many other aspects of the history of ancient religion, the question of when Judaism and Christianity “parted ways” has been revolutionised over the past few decades. In the words of Carleton Paget, this constitutes “the most significant recent development in the discussion of Jewish–Christian relations” (p. 18). Carleton Paget’s is the best, most nuanced overview of recent scholarship (pp. 1–39).

77

Bardaisan, p. 49.

78

Evidence for this can be adduced from a site such as Sardis, in what is now western Turkey, where a synagogue built around AD 400 adjoined a colonnade that contained shops owned by a healthy mix of Christians and Jews. If this was the state of affairs in what was, by then, a Christian empire, then something similar almost certainly prevailed in third- and fourth-century Mesopotamia. See the essay by Rutgers.

79

See Becker, p. 380.

80

See Rouwhorst, pp. 81–2.

81

See Weitzman. Others argue that the translation was made by Jews who had already been baptised.

82

Eusebius,

History of the Church

: 3.27. Paul did not, in fact, advocate the abandonment of the Torah by Jewish converts, but that was rarely appreciated, either by the Gentile Christians who so admired him or by the Jewish Christians who often regarded him with deep suspicion.

83

From an inscription on a Persian curse bowl, quoted by Levene, p. 290.

84

Ignatius, “The Letter to the Magnesians”: 10.3.

85

The city was briefly lost to Ardashir in 241, but it was recaptured a couple of years later.

86

b. Gittin

55b. The rabbi was Rabbi Meir.

87

Kohelet Rabba

10.5.

88

Acts: 19.26.

89

Such, at any rate, is the tradition. It is probably true.

90

Eusebius,

History of the Church

: 5.1.

91

An alternative theory derived the word

religio

from

relegere

—“to write or reflect upon over and over again.” Whatever the derivation,

religio

itself signified practice, rather than belief.

92

The emperor was Galerius, in a decree of 311, quoted by Lactantius: 34.1.

93

From an inscription by one Demeas, who, in his own words, tore down “the deceitful likeness of the demon Artemis.” Quoted by Foss (1979), p. 32.

94

Jacob of Serugh, quoted by Griffith (2008), p. 123.

95

Daniel: 7.7.

96

Ibid.: 7.19.

97

Lactantius: 44.5.

98

Daniel: 7.11.

99

Isidore of Pelusium, p. 217.

100

Theodosian Code

: 16.2.16.

101

Eusebius,

Life of Constantine

: 1.28.

102

Ibid.: 2.12.

103

Ignatius, “The Letter to the Magnesians”: 10.1. See also “The Letter to the Philadelphians,” 6.1.

104

From a letter written by Constantine jointly to Arius and his bishop. It is quoted by Eusebius in his

Life of Constantine

: 2.71.

105

Eusebius,

Life of Constantine

: 3.10.

106

As so often with Christian neologisms, Tertullian seems to have been the first to use the word

religio

in a way analogous to our word “religion.” See Sachot, pp. 111–16.

107

Lactantius,

Divine Institutes

: 4.28.

108

Theodosian Code

: 16.10.12.

109

Socrates Scholasticus: 7.29.

110

Acta Martyrum et Sanctorum

: Vol. 2, p. 149.

111

The phrase was added in the 470s, by the Patriarch of Antioch, to the formula “Holy Powerful One, Holy Deathless One.” See Brown (2003), p. 119.

112

Barhadbeshabba of Holwan, p. 605.

113

John Malalas, p. 228.

114

Procopius:

History of the Wars

, 1.24. Opinions on the veracity of the episode vary widely.

115

Procopius:

Secret History

, 2.9.

116

John Lydus: 3.69.

117

Procopius:

On Buildings

, 1.10. The mosaic was part of the renovations to the Chalke that were required after the Hippodrome riots.

118

Ibid.: 2.6.

119

Theodosian Code

: 16.10.22.

120

Procopius:

Secret History

, 2.13

.

121

The exact chronology is obscure. See Watts, pp. 128–39.

122

Agathias: 2.31.4.

123

For the theory that the philosophers may have settled in Harran, see Athanassiadi (1993). As she has subsequently acknowledged, however, the theory remains controversial (1999, pp. 51–3).

124

1 Corinthians: 1.20.

125

It is Athanassiadi (1999, pp. 342–7) who argues (convincingly) that a bishop took up residence in this villa.

126

Paul the Silentiary: 489.

127

Procopius:

On Buildings

, 1.27.

128

Ibid.: 1.30.