Lucy Grig

University of Edinburgh, Classics, Faculty Member

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Lucy Grig teaches Classics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests centre on the literary and visual culture of the Roman world, with particular focus on Late Antiquity.

Her first book, 'Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity', was published in 2004. 'Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity', co-edited with Gavin Kelly, was published in March 2012. Articles, published and forthcoming, look at late antique urbanism, Caesarius of Arles, St Jerome, the Bible in visual and popular culture, gold glass, poverty, the late antique city of Rome, and more martyrs.

She is currently working on popular culture in antiquity, and has recently published 'Popular Culture in the Ancient World' (Cambridge University Press, 2017).

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Books by Lucy Grig

Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity. Eds. Lucy Grig and Gavin Kelly. New York, 2012.

Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity. London, 2004

Articles and Book Chapters by Lucy Grig

The late antique urban histories of Constantinople and Rome are normally, and quite reasonably, viewed separately from each other; but there is a case for comparing them directly, since Constantinople was in-creasingly described as a “new” or “second” Rome, and provided with facilities and an adm...

Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity, Apr 3, 2012

54 Ward-Perkins apostolic succession, was decreed to be second only to the bishop of Rome, and ab... more 54 Ward-Perkins apostolic succession, was decreed to be second only to the bishop of Rome, and above even the ancient and proud sees of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. 3 Imitation, and a degree of rivalry with Old Rome, is implicit in the texts that describe the new city. For instance, a Latin description of Constantinople written in around 425, the Notitia Urbis Constantinopolitanae, divides the city into fourteen regions, in clear emulation of the old capital, and bears the title Urbs Constantinopolitana nova Roma (“The City of ...

'Cities in the 'long' Late Antiquity, 2000-2013 - a survey essay

This essay surveys major themes and developments in the recent study of late antique urbanism. Fi... more This essay surveys major themes and developments in the recent study of late antique urbanism. First, re-evaluations of the late phase of classical urbanism are discussed, whereby a simple narrative of ‘decline’ has been replaced by a much more chronologically and geographically nuanced picture. The importance of regional, indeed local, specificity is stressed, with different areas of the ancient world experiencing often radically different urban trajectories. Key aspects of late antique urbanism are considered, including the relationship between town and country, economic urban life, political versus social and religious urban history, before concluding with consideration of areas where future research is particularly needed.

'Deconstructing the Symbolic City: Jerome as guide to late antique Rome',

This article considers the writings of St Jerome as a source for writing a cultural history of th... more This article considers the writings of St Jerome as a source for writing a cultural history of the city of Rome in Late Antiquity. Jerome is of course, in many respects, an unreliable witness but his lively and often conflicted accounts of the city do nonetheless provide significant insights into the city during an age of transition. He provides a few snippets for the scholar of topography, but these do not constitute the main attraction. Jerome’s city of Rome appears above all as a textual palimpsest: variously painted in Vergilian colours as Troy and frequently compared with the biblical cities of Babylon, Bethlehem and Jerusalem. In the final analysis, it is argued, Jerome’s Rome is surprisingly unstable, indeed a ‘soft city’.

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This paper looks at the engagement of the Church with popular culture in Late Antiquity, focusing... more This paper looks at the engagement of the Church with popular culture in Late Antiquity, focusing on the case of Caesarius of Arles. Caesarius’ sermons, particularly his eighty Admonitiones, reveal a bishop who aimed at nothing less than the wholesale reform, or even assassination, of this culture and its replacement with a new Christian culture. Its analysis reveals the methods and strategies used by Caesarius in his attempt to contain and absorb the popular, focusing on a single aspect: the role of song in a predominantly oral culture. Caesarius consistently attacked popular singing, stigmatising it as immoral and even diabolical, proposing in its place the chanting of psalms during church services. In this way Caesarius’ campaign for the ‘right’ kind of singing played an important role in his campaign to reform the behaviour of his congregation. However, the struggle of the Church to contain and absorb a dynamic popular culture would be a difficult one.

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'Imagining the Capitolium in Late Antiquity', in A. Cain and N. Lenski (eds), The Power of Religion in Late Antiquity (Farnham/Burlingon, VT, 2009): 279-292

Throwing parties for the poor: poverty and splendour in the late antique church

Poverty in the Roman world, Jan 1, 2006

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Portraits, Pontiffs and the Christianization of Fourth-Century Rome

Papers of the British School at Rome, Jan 1, 2004

This article takes the corpus of figured gold glass from fourth-century Rome as a case study to e... more This article takes the corpus of figured gold glass from fourth-century Rome as a case study to examine the development of a Christian material and visual culture in Late Antiquity. The iconography of the corpus, wide-ranging but with a notable focus on portraiture, clearly shows the development of new Christian imagery. Portraits of Roman martyrs and Roman bishops constitute some of the most popular forms of imagery. These glasses can be related to the contemporary efforts of Pope Damasus to promote Roman bishops and Roman martyrs as well as his own position. We can see the corpus as providing evidence of two striking themes or processes. First, the glasses show the potential lying in the use of material culture by bishops and their allies. Secondly, the corpus allows us to trace the early development of what would crystallise as devotional imagery in the early medieval and Byzantine world.

Torture and truth in late antique martyrology

Early Medieval Europe, Jan 1, 2002

Talks by Lucy Grig

Call for papers Roman Archaeology Conference 2018 - (Session 5C ) The Mediterranean Countryside in Late Antiquity (AD 300-600)

by Angelo Castrorao Barba and Lucy Grig

ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE 2018 University of Edinburgh The Roman Archaeology Conference 201... more ROMAN ARCHAEOLOGY CONFERENCE 2018 University of Edinburgh

The Roman Archaeology Conference 2018 will be hosted by the School of History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh between Thursday 12 and Saturday 14 April 2018 (with excursions to be scheduled for Sunday 15 April) – please note the new dates.

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Session

5C – The Mediterranean Countryside in Late Antiquity (AD 300-600)

Dr. Angelo Castrorao Barba (Palermo), [email protected]
Dr. Lucy Grig (Edinburgh), [email protected]

In recent years, research on the late antique countryside has burgeoned considerably. One notable feature under analysis has been that of ‘non-linear dynamics’ in settlement, economic and cultural patterns. In some regions, but also within micro-regions themselves, we can observe the co-existence of apparently opposing phenomena, such as on one hand the exploitation of luxury and wealth and the continuity of the imperial tradition and on the other the emergence (or re-emergence) of particular settlement types (vici/secondary settlements or fortified sites), according to a changed political/economic context and/or to the emergence of the Church as a new actor/power in the landscapes of Late Antiquity.

The aim of this session is to discuss and re-think the framework of the Mediterranean countryside during Late Antiquity analyzing and comparing the heterogeneity and complexity of the following issues across different regions of the Mediterranean basin:
• Growth of elite wealth and the emergence of luxury in rural villae
• Increase in agricultural production and long-distance trade
• New roles of secondary settlements (e.g. ‘villages’ and stationes/mansiones, dispersed and polynuclear settlements)
• Crisis and breakdowns in specific regional contexts
• Insecurity and militarization of the landscape
• Christianization of rural areas

Contributions regarding specific geographical areas focusing on the key themes of the sessions will be strongly encouraged (single excavations contextualised in a wider territorial context; regional and micro-regional data from survey and landscape archaeology projects) as well as broader overviews.

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Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity. Eds. Lucy Grig and Gavin Kelly. New York, 2012.

Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity. London, 2004