Melania the Younger : From Rome to Jerusalem

著者名：Clark, Elizabeth A.

Oxford University Press（2021/02/03発売）

• 言語：ENG
• ISBN：9780190888220
• eISBN：9780190888251

Description

Melania the Younger: From Rome to Jerusalem explores the richly detailed story of Melania, an early fifth-century Roman Christian aristocrat who renounced her staggering wealth to lead a life of ascetic renunciation. Hers is a tale of "riches to rags." Born to high Roman aristocracy in the late fourth century, Melania encountered numerous difficulties posed by family members, Roman officials, and historical circumstances in disposing of her wealth, property (spread across at least eight Roman provinces), and thousands of slaves. Leaving Rome with her entourage a few years before Alaric the Goth's sack of Rome in 410, she journeyed to Sicily, then to North Africa, finally settling in Jerusalem-all while founding monasteries along the way. Towards the end of her life, she traveled to Constantinople (present-day Istanbul) in an attempt to convert to Christianity her still-pagan uncle, who was on a state mission to the eastern Roman court.Throughout her life, she was accustomed to meet and be assisted by emperors and empresses, bishops, and other high dignitaries. Embracing a fairly extreme asceticism, Melania died in Jerusalem in 439. A new English translation of her Life, composed by a long-time assistant who succeeded her in the direction of the male and female monasteries in Jerusalem, accompanies this biographical study.

Table of Contents

AcknowledgmentsMapsFamily TreesAbbreviationsChapter One: Finding MelaniaChapter Two: Rome: Empire, City, and ChurchChapter Three: Aristocracy, Family, and PropertyChapter Four: Pagans and Christians in Late Ancient RomeChapter Five: Ascetic RenunciationChapter Six: Exiting Rome and the Sack of the CityChapter Seven: To Sicily and North AfricaChapter Eight: To JerusalemChapter Nine: To Constantinople and BackTranslation: The Life of Saint Melania the YoungerNotesBibliographyIndex