Literature and society in the fourth century AD : : performing paideia, constructing the present, presenting the self / / edited by Lieve van Hoof and Peter van Nuffelen.

• Superior document: Mnemosyne, Supplements, Volume 373
• TeilnehmendeR: Van Hoof, Lieve,; Nuffelen, Peter van,
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden, The Netherlands : : Brill,, 2015.; ©2015
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Edition: 1st ed.
• Language: English
• Series: Mnemosyne, bibliotheca classica Batava. Supplementum ; Volume 373.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (257 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.
• Other title: Preliminary Material --; 1 The Social Role and Place of Literature in the Fourth Century ad /; 2 Literary History: A Fourth-Century Roman Invention? /; 3 Militia philosophorum : Le rôle des lettrés dans l’entourage des empereurs romains du ive siècle /; 4 Gregory’s Governors: Paideia and Patronage in Cappadocia /; 5 Lobbying through Literature: Libanius, For the Teachers (Oration 31) /; 6 Texts, Teachers and Pupils in the Writings of Gregory of Nyssa /; 7 Unreliable Witness: Failings of the Narrative in Ammianus Marcellinus /; 8 A Living Relic for the Vicar of Rome: Strategies of Visualization in a Civil Case /; 9 A Hero in our Midst: Stilicho as a Literary Construct in the Poetry of Claudian /; 10 The Apostles as Instruments of Social Engagement: The Poetical Representation of the Apostles as a Means of Influencing Society /; 11 A War of Words: Sermons and Social Status in Constantinople under the Theodosian Dynasty /; Bibliography --; Index.
• Bibliography: Includes bibliographical references and index.
• ISBN: 9004279474
• ISSN: 0169-8958
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: edited by Lieve van Hoof and Peter van Nuffelen.

Late Antiquity is often assumed to have witnessed the demise of literature as a social force and its retreat into the school and the private reading room: whereas the sophists of the Second Sophistic were influential social players, their late antique counterparts are thought to have been overshadowed by bishops. Literature and Society in the Fourth Century AD argues that this presumed difference should be attributed less to a fundamental change in the role of literature than to different scholarly methodologies with which Greek and Latin texts from the second and the fourth century are being studied. Focusing on performance, the literary construction of reality and self-presentation, this volume highlights how literature continued to play an important role in fourth-century elite society.