The research project focused on Rome as a cultural and Milan as a political capital and Antioch as a concentrated site of political, religious, social, and cultural transformations in Roman Syria in the 3rd or 4th and 5th centuries. In the periods to be examined, for different reasons, the three cities were the scenes of intellectual and cultural changes. They can be understood as “stages” upon which political and cultural world theater played out; the persons acting and writing in these sites can be seen as actors; and the institutions existing in them can be regarded as platforms for their interactions. Here, the cities are termed “sites of discourse”, i.e., sites where, as depicted by the participating persons, certain discussions took place, positions were negotiated or authoritatively determined, and, through these negotiations, power, culture, knowledge, and/or ideologies were staged.

Research