Competing Claims to "Nobilitas" in the Western Empire of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries

Bibliographic Data

ID9307772
AuthorsMichele Renee Salzman (corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume9
Issue3
Pages359-385
Publication date2001-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of early Christian studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1067-6341 • E-ISSN: 1086-3184
PublisherJohns Hopkins University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/earl.2001.0048
OpenAlexW2074527083
LanguageEN
Citations received10
References cited7

From the Republic on into the early Empire, Roman senatorial nobilitas connoted not only the distinction of a distinguished family pedigree, but also the attainment of a high public office, the consulship. The association of birth with office persisted in the fourth and fifth centuries c.e. when the nobility still represented the most elite, most prestigious segment of the Roman senatorial aristocracy. But this was a group and a virtue that was not without its challengers. Christian leaders claimed nobilitas and its representatives for Christianity. Most often, as a survey of the texts from the western Empire of the fourth and fifth centuries shows, Christian leaders acknowledged the bases for nobilitas —family pedigree combined with public office—but subordinated these to Christian piety. By adopting this hierarchical notion of nobilitas , Christian leaders facilitated the conversion of the nobility even as they enabled them to continue in positions of preeminence within aristocratic Christian society. Even when the rhetoric of nobilitas was tied to the piety of the ascetic or virgin, the conservative rhetoric of Christian leaders, and the ability of the elites to manipulate this form of piety to their advantage, blunted the more radical implications of this notion of Christian nobilitas . As the texts will show, competing claims to nobilitas reflect conflicts within the Christian community, between ascetic and moderate models of piety, as well as conflicts with pagans. However, the Christian claim to and reformulation of nobilitas reveals, too, the influence of powerful elites who changed Christianity even as they changed their religious affiliation

Ancient history · Archaeology · Aristocracy (class · Asceticism · Christianity · Elite · Empire · Nobility · Piety · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Roman Empire · Sociology · Theology · Virtue · Classical Antiquity Studies · Classical Studies and Legal History · Historical and Religious Studies of Rome · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies