Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian Its Nature, Management, and Mediation

by Bell, Peter N.

• ISBN13: 9780199567331
• ISBN10: 0199567336
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-05-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Social Conflict in the Age of Justinian explores a range of often violent conflicts across the whole empire - on the land, in religion, and in sport - during this pivotal period in European history. Drawing on both sociology and social psychology, and on his experience as a senior British Civil Servant dealing with violent political conflicts in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, Bell shows that such conflicts were a basic feature of the overwhelminglyagricultural political economy of the empire. These conflicts were reflected at the ideological level and lead to intense persecution of intellectuals and Pagans as an ever more robust Christian ideological hegemony was established. In challenging the loyalties of all social classes, they also increased the vulnerability of an emperor and his allies.

Author Biography

Peter N. Bell is a Member of Common Room at Wolfson College, Oxford. His interests focus on the social and cultural history of Late Antiquity and its contemporary relevance, as well as on historical theory.

Table of Contents

Preface
List of Maps and Illustrations
Abbreviations
Part 1: Approach, Methods, Sources
1. Understanding Social Conflict
2. The Analytical Framework
Part 2: Three Case Studies
3. Social Conflict in Countryside and Town
4. Two Empire-wide Conflicts: the Circus Factions and the Christians
Part 3: Ideological Conflicts - Their Management and Mediation
5. Ideological Conflict in the Reign of Justinian I
6. Constructing Legitimacy
7. Hagia Sophia: Ideology in Stone a Case Study
Part 4: Conclusions
8. Conclusions
Bibliography
Index