Competing Claims to "Nobilitas" in the Western Empire of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries

Abstract

From the Republic on into the early Empire, Roman senatorial nobilitas connoted not only the distinction of a distinguished family pedigree, but also the attainment of a high public office, the consulship. The association of birth with office persisted in the fourth and fifth centuries c.e. when the nobility still represented the most elite, most prestigious segment of the Roman senatorial aristocracy. But this was a group and a virtue that was not without its challengers. Christian leaders claimed nobilitas and its representatives for Christianity. Most often, as a survey of the texts from the western Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries shows, Christian leaders acknowledged the bases for nobilitas —family pedigree combined with public office—but subordinated these to Christian piety. By adopting this hierarchical notion of nobilitas , Christian leaders facilitated the conversion of the nobility even as they enabled them to continue in positions of preeminence within aristocratic Christian society. Even when the rhetoric of nobilitas was tied to the piety of the ascetic or virgin, the conservative rhetoric of Christian leaders, and the ability of the elites to manipulate this form of piety to their advantage, blunted the more radical implications of this notion of Christian nobilitas . As the texts will show, competing claims to nobilitas reflect conflicts within the Christian community, between ascetic and moderate models of piety, as well as conflicts with pagans. However, the Christian claim to and reformulation of nobilitas reveals, too, the influence of powerful elites who changed Christianity even as they changed their religious affiliation.

O monge e o demônio etíope: raça e discretio nas Collationes Patrum de João Cassiano (426-428)

“…Parcelas da aristocracia galo--romano avaliavam a adesão ao monacato como uma alternativa viável de manter sua posição de elite num cenário repleto de adversidades (MATHISEN, 1994). Além de proporcionar uma nobilitas espiritual, relacionada ao cumprimento de valores cristãos ( SALZMAN, 2001), o mosteiro se apresentava como etapa inicial de um cursus honorum de novo tipo, a partir do qual se poderia obter cargos nas estruturas eclesiásticas.…”

I consoli di dio: un topos poetico cristiano

“…Su questo cliché cf. Näf 1995, 83-116;Salzman 2001;Badel 2002Badel , 997-1001Salzman 2002, 213-18;Badel 2005, 190-9. 2 Così per l'agiografia di età merovingia Bosl 1971, 162: «Agli occhi degli agiografi del settimo secolo il mondo della nobiltà non costituiva un polo d'opposizione rispetto a quello del santo, ma solo il teatro nel quale diveniva evidente quanto vi era di santo nel santo. Anche se la vita ascetica entra chiaramente in un rapporto d'opposizione con la vita secolare, potere, autorità e prestigio sono valutati in modo estremamente positivo.…”

Mirrors for Bureaucrats: Expectations of Christian Officials in the Theodosian Empire

“… 9 For the Roman aristocracy: especially Brown 1961; Curran 2000: 260–320; Salzman 2001; 2002: 200–19. For the Greek East, see especially Elm 2012: at 11; and the judicious summary of Papadogiannakis 2012: 13–28.…”

“…These are much-studied letters, famous for their detailed treatments of the ethics of coercion and punishment (sometimes, we might suspect, rather more detailed than their recipients would have expected or welcomed). 14 9 For the Roman aristocracy: especially Brown 1961;Curran 2000: 260-320;Salzman 2001;2002: 200-19. For the Greek East, see especially Elm 2012: at 11; and the judicious summary of Papadogiannakis 2012: 13-28.…”