Power and Persuasion in Late Antiquity: Towards a Christian Empire (The Curti Lectures, 1988)

Rating:
Summary: Petrus Brown deus est
Review: Peter Brown, professor of History at Princeton University is the father of the field of Late Antiquity and this monograph is yet another invaluable contribution. While most people believe the popular fallacy that the Roman Empire was in a state of decline in the 4th Century, Professor Brown shows us the Roman state at the peak of its power. He discusses what bound the various local elite to the emperor, arguring that a shared sense of education and culture provided a crucial sense of coherency to the Empire. In addition, he discusses the nature of public largess in the late empire, how local nobles maintained their positions as "nourishers of the cities."
He chronicles a world undergoing intense change, and the focus of the book is largly how the Christian clergy adopts traditional methods of "power and persuasion" to establish itself as the leading power in cities.
Students of Classics tend to ignore the 4th and 5th centuries, brusquely declaring them "medieval" and thus inconsequential to a student of Rome's classical glory. Brown's book brings to life a dynamic and important moment in Roman history, a moment at once rooted in traditional Roman values, yet at the same time caught up in a whirlwind of religious change. As always, Professor Brown writes with a humane and style, making the book a joy to read.