Thesiss

This study uses the prose hagiography of the poet Venantius Fortunatus (c.530-600/609 CE) to examine the relationship between hagiographical narrative and pastoral care in the early Merovingian kingdoms. Consisting of the lives of six bishops and the ascetic Queen Radegund, this…

This thesis looks at the nature and evolution of communal responses to socio-economic problems in imperial Italy and Gaul. Ancient analysis of this topic tended to view any popular expression of discontent as the result of the moral failings of the plebs, or, somewhat more gener…

In the sixth-century, Gaul was undergoing a prolonged negotiation about how its communities should function, framed in terms of divine materiality, and it survives to us today in the period's most popular stories about itself: the Vitae of its saints. This thesis argues that hag…

The sack of Rome by the Gallic chieftain Brennus in 390 BCE was the cause of a collective trauma that influenced all sectors of Roman society. The collective trauma and memory were, in part, responsible for policy changes, religious and ceremonial practices, and military campaig…