Frontmatter -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction: Expanding the Discourse on Good Christian Rulership -- A. The Good Christian Ruler in the Roman Empire -- Finding a Common Cause: Fourth-Century Greek Discourses on Rulership -- The Good Sinful Ruler: Ambrose of Milan and Theodosius I -- The Emperor's Two Cities: Augustine's Image of the Good Christian Ruler in De civitate Dei 5.24 -- Pious and Impious Christian Rulers According to Egyptian Historiography and Hagiography: A First Survey of the Evidence -- Faithful Rulers and Theological Deviance: Ephrem the Syrian and Jacob of Serugh on the Roman Emperor -- B. The Good Christian Ruler between Persia and Rome -- Images of the Good Ruler in Sasanian Iran: An Emic View -- Representations of Rulership in Late Antique Armenia -- The Depiction of the Arsacid Dynasty in Medieval Armenian Historiography -- Vakhtang I Gorgasali (r. 447-522) as a Christian Monarch in Georgia: His Depiction in the Life of Kartli -- The Creation of a "Pious" Image of King Vačʽagan II (r. c. 485-523) of Caucasian Albania in the Tale of Vačʽagan (Early Sixth Century) -- Concerning Four Kings From the Land of 'Deep Ravines, Dense Forests and Dark Thickets' -- C. The Good Christian Ruler in Post-Roman Traditions -- The Good Ruler from a Papal Perspective: Continuities and Discontinuities in Papal Letters from the Fourth to Eighth Centuries -- The Image of the Christian Ruler in the Catholic Monarchy of Visigothic Spain: Julian of Toledo's Historia Wambae -- Goodness and Cruelty: The Image of the Ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire in the Period of Christianisation (Ninth Century) -- A Christian King in Africa: The Image of Christian Nubian Rulers in Internal and External Sources -- D. The Good Ruler under Islamic Rule -- Justice and Good Administration in Medieval Islam: The Book of the Pearl of the Ruler by Ibn ʻAbd Rabbih (860-940) -- Images of Emperors and Emirs in Early Islamic Egypt -- Shaping the Good Christian King under Muslim Rule: Constantine and the Torah in the Melkite Arabic Chronicle of Agapius of Mabbug (Tenth Century) -- Index of Persons and Places -- Subject Index

Das spätantike und frühmittelalterliche Mediterraneum war durch eine enorme kulturelle und sprachliche Vielfalt gekennzeichnet. Zugleich schuf das Christentum Verbindungen, die sich unter anderem in gemeinsamen Erzählungen vom Königtum niederschlugen. Diese waren indes auch von weiteren Traditionen beeinflusst, griechisch-römischen, persischen, wie auch kaukasischen und anderen. Der Sammelband erörtert die Vorstellungen und Debatten über den guten christlichen Herrscher in verschiedenen Kontexten sowie Sprachen und beachtet dabei besonders diejenigen, die an der Peripherie stattfanden, etwa im Kaukasus oder in Nubien. Zum Vergleich werden auch nicht-christliche Konzepte herangezogen. Dadurch sollen Verflechtung und Verbundenheit der mediterranen Kulturen deutlich werden, aber auch die Konfliktlinien, die unter den Christen sowie zwischen ihnen und anderen Kulturen bestanden. Auf diese Weise integriert der Band allgemeine Geschichte und die Geschichte des christlichen Orients und versucht so eine Vielzahl von Spezialstudien für eine übergreifende Fragestellung fruchtbar zu machen.

The late antique and early medieval Mediterranean was characterized by wide-ranging cultural and linguistic diversity. Yet, under the influence of Christianity, communities in the Mediterranean world were bound together by common concepts of good rulership, which were also shaped by Greco-Roman, Persian, Caucasian, and other traditions. This collection of essays examines ideas of good Christian rulership and the debates surrounding them in diverse cultures and linguistic communities. It grants special attention to communities on the periphery, such as the Caucasus and Nubia, and some essays examine non-Christian concepts of good rulership to offer a comparative perspective. As a whole, the studies in this volume reveal not only the entanglement and affinity of communities around the Mediterranean but also areas of conflict among Christians and between Christians and other cultural traditions. By gathering various specialized studies on the overarching question of good rulership, this volume highlights the possibilities of placing research on classical antiquity and early medieval Europe into conversation with the study of eastern Christianity.

In English.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 29. Jul 2021).

Open Access EbpS

WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 050, 082, 650, 651