• Altering Infamy Status, Violence, and Civic Exclusion in Late Antiquity

    Author(s):
    Sarah Bond (see profile)
    Date:
    2014
    Group(s):
    Late Antiquity
    Subject(s):
    History, Ancient, Law, Ancient, Religions, Civilization, Greco-Roman, Religion, Civilization, Classical
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    heresy, roman history, roman law, Ancient history, Ancient law, Greco-Roman religion, Religions of late Antiquity
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/M6MN4S
    Abstract:
    This paper investigates the application of the legal stigma of infamia (disrepute) in Late Antiquity. The legal status is used as a lens through which to view the changing systemic, religious, and social landscapes between the reigns of Diocletian and Justinian, indicating the various uses and, ultimately, abuses of the status, as well as the marked consequences of expanding its definition. The use of the legal status to marginalize religious deviants in particular is inspected. This analysis reveals that the amendment of infamia to include heretics, apostates, and pagans signals the use of classical law to define orthodoxy and to articulate the anxiety over the pagan-Christian religious transition. The unforeseen consequences of infamia's expansion were the abetment of violence in the fourth and fifth centuries. Moreover, the disqualification of religious deviants from serving on curial councils had a noticeable impact on some municipalities in the later empire, and may have created a loophole with which to avoid curial service altogether.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    10.1525/CA.2014.33.1.1
    Publisher:
    University of California Press
    Pub. Date:
    2014-5-19
    Journal:
    Classical Antiquity
    Volume:
    33
    Issue:
    1
    Page Range:
    1 - 30
    ISSN:
    0278-6656,1067-8344
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    6 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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