The End of the Pagan City. Religion, Economy, and Urbanism in Late Antique North Africa

• Autores: Eric Fournier (res.)
• Localización: Journal of early Christian studies: Journal of the North American Patristic Society, ISSN 1067-6341, Nº. 4, 2016, págs. 608-609
• Idioma: inglés

• Es reseña de:

  • The End of the Pagan City. Religion, Economy, and Urbanism in Late Antique North Africa

    Anna Leone

• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • [...]of the Pagan City, Anna Leone argues that practical, economic concerns trumped religious considerations in explaining the material transformations of late antique cities. Leone emphasizes three "different directions of change" (28): early abandonment, before imperial prohibitions and mainly because of natural causes; destruction, which were few in North Africa; and reuse, mainly in response to imperial legislation requiring maintenance of urban monumentality. Because temples were sometimes reused for secular activities, and secular buildings (civil basilicas and baths) became churches, Leone argues that "the availability of building material and the topographical location" (79) were the main factors that determined reuse, and not religious ones. In Chapter Five Leone investigates the provenance of recycled marble decorations in new Christian constructions, mainly in sixth-century Byzantine churches (such as the beautiful example of the Lepcis Magna ambo on the dustjacket). Because this seems to have been "an organized system" (191), she surmises an infrastructure in place to support it.