Melania the Younger

Description

Melania the Younger: From Rome to Jerusalem explores one of the most richly detailed stories of a woman of late antiquity. Melania, an early fifth-century Roman Christian aristocrat, renounced her staggering wealth to lead a life of ascetic renunciation. Her life spans many crucial events in the history of the later Roman Empire.

• Presents a revealing portrait of an immensely important figure in early Christianity
• Provides a translation of the Greek version of Melania's Life
• Explores the later Roman Empire through the life of a noblewoman
• Includes research on ancient wealth inequality; slavery; transportation problems; women's roles and status

About the Author(s)

Elizabeth A. Clark, John Carlisle Kilgo Professor, Emerita, Duke University

Elizabeth A. Clark is John Carlisle Kilgo Professor, Emerita, at Duke University. Her previous books include History, Theory, Text; Reading Renunciation; Founding the Fathers; and The Fathers Refounded.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Maps
Family Trees
Abbreviations
Chapter One: Finding Melania
Chapter Two: Rome: Empire, City, and Church
Chapter Three: Aristocracy, Family, and Property
Chapter Four: Pagans and Christians in Late Ancient Rome
Chapter Five: Ascetic Renunciation
Chapter Six: Exiting Rome and the Sack of the City
Chapter Seven: To Sicily and North Africa
Chapter Eight: To Jerusalem
Chapter Nine: To Constantinople and Back
Translation: The Life of Saint Melania the Younger
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Reviews

"... Clark seizes every opportunity to connect Melania's story to larger economic and social structures. The result is extraordinary. Readers are treated to expert distillations of a wide range of complex topics ..." - BLAKE LEYERLE, University of Notre Dame, ARYS: Antiquity, Religions and Societies

"The study is remarkable. Clark, an experienced teacher and an accomplished scholar, has drawn a compelling and inspiring picture of early Christianity.... [It] cleverly blends solid philology and exciting storytelling. Thanks to her mastery of the subject and her pedagogical skills, Clark has succeeded in making eminently complex topics, sometimes distant from our current concerns, understandable and interesting. Clark's book is a scientific page-turner. I hope that this accessible study will serve as an introductory text for courses on paleochristianism." - Bryn Mawr Classical Review

"Magisterial.... [Clark] shows us how dramatically what we can see in Melania has changed." - Times Literary Supplement