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Clement VII and the Crisis of the Sack of Rome

Paul Flemer

in Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence

This chapter provides a discussion on the treatment of Clement VII and the Sack of Rome. It is suggested that the events in Rome caused Clement to relive the tragic assassination of his father, ... More

This chapter provides a discussion on the treatment of Clement VII and the Sack of Rome. It is suggested that the events in Rome caused Clement to relive the tragic assassination of his father, Giuliano de' Medici, during the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478. Clement's diplomacy after the Sack of Rome shows a profound awareness of the Laurentian legacy and of the memory and myth of the Laurentian “golden age,” which had come to occupy such a large place in the consciousness of Florentine intellectual circles after 1494. Clement was not always the target of conspiracy; he was a conspirator, too. He turned to the past in his moment of crisis. The fact that the past failed him only testifies to those broader political and cultural changes that were then gathering force in Europe.Less

Augustine

John Marenbon

in Pagans and Philosophers: The Problem of Paganism from Augustine to Leibniz

This chapter investigates Augustine's role in addressing the Problem of Paganism. After the Sack of Rome in 410 CE, Augustine set out to produce his most ambitious work, a Christian rethinking, not ... More

This chapter investigates Augustine's role in addressing the Problem of Paganism. After the Sack of Rome in 410 CE, Augustine set out to produce his most ambitious work, a Christian rethinking, not just of the history of Rome, but of the relationship between God and the course of human history. Written in the safety of North Africa, the City of God (CG), begun probably in 412 but not finished until about fourteen years later, is both an intellectual masterpiece and a foundational book for the Problem of Paganism. Although the problem has somewhat different contours for him from those it would take on in the Middle Ages, in the City of God and other works Augustine looks closely at three of the main strands of the problem — wisdom, salvation, and virtue — and takes positions which set the agenda for almost all subsequent discussion.Less

Introduction

Peter Van Nuffelen

in Orosius and the Rhetoric of History

The Historiae have a negative press in scholarship. The main reason is that scholars such as H.‐I. Marrou and E. Peterson construed Orosius as the opposite of Augustine: whilst the latter was ... More

The Historiae have a negative press in scholarship. The main reason is that scholars such as H.‐I. Marrou and E. Peterson construed Orosius as the opposite of Augustine: whilst the latter was understood as having located salvation in eschatology, Orosius seemed to identify the Roman empire as the realization of God's promises. As a consequence, scholarship has focused on Orosius' theology of history and has neglected to study the Historiae as a work of history, which, in line with traditional practice, was heavily influenced by the study and practice of rhetoric. The introduction also shows that the audience Orosius aims at is identical to that of Augustine's City of God: elite Romans with sympathy for Christianity who had fled Rome after the sack of 410.Less

The Interregnum and the Rise of Flavius Constantius

Meaghan A. McEvoy

in Child Emperor Rule in the Late Roman West, AD 367-455

In this chapter the events following the execution of Stilicho are explored, particularly the rapid rise and fall of successive chief ministers, and the striking inactivity of the now adult emperor ... More

In this chapter the events following the execution of Stilicho are explored, particularly the rapid rise and fall of successive chief ministers, and the striking inactivity of the now adult emperor Honorius. The serious military troubles represented by Visigothic invasions of Italy and powerful usurpers based in Gaul are examined, as is the breakdown in relations between the central government and the senatorial elite represented by negotiations prior to the sack of Rome and provincial elite support for the usurper Constantine III in Gaul. The eventual rise of the general Flavius Constantius, his successful establishment of a new regime, and marriage to the emperor’s sister Galla Placidia and acclamation as co-Augustus are traced. Finally, the repercussions of the deaths of first Constantius and then Honorius are foreshadowed, while the question of Honorius’ fulfilment of his religious and ceremonial role in particular is given extensive attention.Less

Exiting Rome and the Sack of the City

Elizabeth A. Clark

in Melania the Younger: From Rome to Jerusalem

Chapter 6 explores the dramatic events spurring Melania and her entourage to leave Rome in advance of the Gothic sack of the city in August 410. After the death of Melania’s father in perhaps 405 or ... More

Chapter 6 explores the dramatic events spurring Melania and her entourage to leave Rome in advance of the Gothic sack of the city in August 410. After the death of Melania’s father in perhaps 405 or 406, Melania and Pinian went to a suburban property to begin their renunciations. Goths advanced into Italy starting in 401; from 407 onward, Alaric demanded ransom money and goods to prevent his attack on the city. Serena, wife of Stilicho and a member of the imperial court, had arranged with the emperor for court officials to assist the couple with the divestment of their property. When both Stilicho and Serena were killed, Melania and Pinian lost a major source of protection. The emperor Honorius dawdled in meeting Alaric’s requests, and Roman senators resisted parting with their wealth to pay the ransom. The Roman city prefect perhaps attempted to confiscate the couple’s property in order to pay the ransom but was killed in a riot over the bread supply. The extreme difficulty of divesting themselves of their possessions is clearly on display (Serena herself had claimed that she could not afford to buy their Roman mansion), as is the fierce opposition of their relatives, especially Pinian’s brother. The sack of Rome elicited various responses from Christian and pagan writers.Less

Baldassar Castiglione and the Art of Being Inconspicuously Conspicuous

in In Your Face: Professional Improprieties and the Art of Being Conspicuous in Sixteenth-Century Italy

This chapter describes a model of discretionary comportment both of and for court culture in sixteenth-century Italy, focusing on Baldassar Castiglione and his work as a diplomat. It explains what it ... More

This chapter describes a model of discretionary comportment both of and for court culture in sixteenth-century Italy, focusing on Baldassar Castiglione and his work as a diplomat. It explains what it meant, in theory and in practice, to be conspicuous and yet deftly inconspicuous in the courts of the period. It also explores how strategies for being conspicuous changed dramatically in the late Renaissance as some writers became more and more openly indecorous and manifestly aggressive in print, particularly after the Sack of Rome. Those strategies for being inconspicuously conspicuous also coincided with an unprecedented outpouring of books on proper conduct and professional propriety, which include Castiglione's own influential Cortegiano.Less

Augustine’s City of God

Jon Stewart

in The Emergence of Subjectivity in the Ancient and Medieval World: An Interpretation of Western Civilization

Chapter 12 begins with an introduction to St. Augustine in the context of his historical times. The City of God was written immediately after the sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths and in response ... More

Chapter 12 begins with an introduction to St. Augustine in the context of his historical times. The City of God was written immediately after the sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths and in response to those who held Christianity responsible for it. Augustine rigorously defends Christianity against its critics. By means of an analysis of the City of God, this chapter explores Augustine’s vision of pagan Rome as sinful and decadent in contrast to the glorious image presented by Virgil in the Aeneid. Augustine develops Christ’s statements about the inward nature of sin and expands its scope considerably. Building on Jesus’ claims about the Kingdom of God, Augustine develops the idea of the City of God in contrast to the City of Man. Augustine’s account of the origin of evil and his prohibition of suicide are also discussed. Augustine develops a sphere of inwardness that is invulnerable to the changes in the external world.Less

The Making of the Book

Gerard O'Daly

in Augustine's City of God: A Reader's Guide

This chapter discusses the occasion of the composition of City of God, Alaric’s Gothic sack of Rome in 410, and reactions to it. The theme of Rome’s fall, and its moral and religious implications, in ... More

This chapter discusses the occasion of the composition of City of God, Alaric’s Gothic sack of Rome in 410, and reactions to it. The theme of Rome’s fall, and its moral and religious implications, in Augustine’s sermons of 410–11, and in correspondence with prominent Roman political figures in the same period, is surveyed and linked to its treatment in City. The dates of composition of its various sections from 412 on (the work was completed by 426-7), and of their publication, are discussed, as well as the dedication of Books 1–2 to Flavius Marcellinus. Evidence is provided from Augustine’s correspondence on the format and dissemination of the work. The questions of its intended readership and of the possible revision of the work are discussedLess

From history to legend: M. Manlius and the geese

Nicholas Horsfall

in Fifty Years at the Sibyl's Heels: Selected Papers on Virgil and Rome

Students of early Roman history have been compelled to acknowledge the existence of a story, according to which, in 390 BC, the Capitol fell, like the rest of Rome, to the Gauls. Such a narrative ... More

Students of early Roman history have been compelled to acknowledge the existence of a story, according to which, in 390 BC, the Capitol fell, like the rest of Rome, to the Gauls. Such a narrative evidently precludes the rousing of the sleeping garrison and hence the saving of the Capitol by the geese as narrated in Livy. Our earliest textual evidence does nothing to encourage acceptance of the traditional Livian version. The story of the geese is itself of a familiar and universal type and at a later stage geese and dogs were both involved in a commemorative ritual, on whose detail we are copiously and variously informed. The growth of a popular and patriotic tale could have led to this more complex pattern of growth.Less