The topic of justice will be addressed by Dr. Peter Van Nuffelen, Professor of Ancient History at the University of Ghent, in his open online lecture entitled “Spheres of Justice in the Late Roman Empire”, in the context of the 5th Late Antiquity Lecture Series “When our world became Christian“.
The Lecture Series is organized by the Undergraduate Programme “Studies in Hellenic Culture” of the Open University of Cyprus (OUC). The lecture will be broadcasted live through OUC’s eLearning Platform on Thursday, March 21st, 2024 at 19:00 (GMT+2), at the web link: https://shorturl.at/kBIOW. The Series, under the coordination of Associate Professor Georgios Deligiannakis, is supported by the Student and Alumni Union of the OUC Programme and the Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.
Link for Registrations: https://forms.office.com/e/RTfi7Fd8Kn
Abstract
Professor van Nuffelen will discuss the conceptions of justice that were current in sixth-century Constantinople. Whilst there were some diverging views, he will seek to show that they share set of presuppositions. Conceptions of justice in this period combine two accounts: a structural account, that relates justice to order, hierarchy and law, and a virtue-based one, that identifies justice as an individual or collective virtue. Structures cannot function without virtue. Through a range of examples, the paper shows how this dual, interrelated conception influenced sixth-century accounts, especially that of Procopius in the Secret History.
Peter Van Nuffelen is Professor of Ancient History at Ghent University, Belgium, and currently serves as Director of Studies and Deputy Head of the Department of History. His research interests include ancient religion and philosophy, and the history of Late Antiquity. Recent publications include the following: Penser la tolérance dans l’Antiquité tardive (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 2018), and, with L. Van Hoof, The Fragmentary Latin Histories of Late Antiquity (AD 300-620): Edition, Translation and Commentary, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020), and Jordanes: Romana and Getica (Translated Texts for Historians 75) (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020). These last two volumes are part of the output of an ERC Consolidator Grant (2013-2018). He is and has been a member of panels of various research funds.
