Christian Imperialism and Antisemitic Violence in Titus and Vespasian
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21420922 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kara L McShane (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 51 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 345-372 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Viator (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0083-5897 • E-ISSN: 2031-0234 |
| Publisher | Brepols Publishers NV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1484/j.viator.5.127051 |
| OpenAlex | W4205843865 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 19 |
This paper examines the understudied Middle English Titus and Vespasian, a fall-of- Jerusalem narrative that fictionalizes the historical Roman occupation and siege of the city circa 70 CE. While the poem follows roughly the same narrative trajectory as the more widely read Siege of Jerusalem, it fictionalizes these events at three times the length, incorporating considerably more episodes of anthropophagy, graphic suffering, and gruesome violence. I argue that Titus and Vespasian amplifies the antisemitic violence of poems such as Siege in order to validate such action as appropriate and proper Christian behavior. By presenting violence against Jewish bodies as a crucial element of the Roman emperor Vespasian’s conversion process, the poem constructs a notion of Christian orthodoxy that fuses violence and imperial power to Christian piety. Thus, Titus and Vespasian champions discourses of Christian imperialism that circulated throughout later medieval England, narratives that foster more circumspect but no less insidious antisemitic theologies into the present
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Judaism · Literature · Narrative · Roman Empire · Siege · Classics · History · Medieval History and Crusades · Medieval Literature and History · Religion and Society Interactions
The Law of Treason in England in the Later Middle Ages
The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the Crusades
Living Letters of the Law
Ecclesiastical History
The Destruction of Jerusalem in Early Modern English Literature
Narrating the Crusades
The Accommodated Jew
The depoliticized Saracen and Muslim erasure
The Inquisitor and the Moseret
The Invention of Race in the European Middle Ages
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |