Michele Renee Salzman (born August 2, 1952) [1] is a distinguished professor of history at the University of California, Riverside. She is an expert on the religious and social history of late antiquity.
She is married to sociologist Steven Brint – also a distinguished professor at University of California, Riverside.
Salzman was born in Brooklyn [1] and received her B.A. degree from Brooklyn College in 1973. She was awarded her master's degree in 1975 from Bryn Mawr College in 1975. [2] Salzman received her PhD from Bryn Mawr College in 1981. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Studies on the Calendar of 354. [3]
In 1986–1987, Salzman was the Mellon fellow in classical studies at the American Academy in Rome. [4] [5] Salzman taught at Swarthmore College, Columbia University, and Boston University before joining the history faculty at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) in 1995. [6] Salzman was chair of the history department at UCR during 1999–2000, and was promoted to professor in 2000. [1]
Salzman has published widely on Roman and Greek history, late antique religion, culture and society, and Latin literature. Her publications have been described as 'austere and disciplined', and 'meticulous'. [7] [8] Professor Elizabeth A. Clark described Salzman's monograph On Roman Time as 'highly informative, insightful, and provocative'. [9] A research project by Salzman entitled 'The ‘Falls’ of Rome in Late Antiquity' examined the city of Rome and its response to crisis from the third to seventh centuries. [10] The outcome of this project, the monograph The Falls of Rome. Crises, Resilience, and Resurgence in Late Antiquity, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2021. Peter Brown described the book as a 'fresh interpretation' and 'a provocative study'. [11]
Salzman is an associate editor of the academic journal Studies in Late Antiquity. [12]
In 2008, Salzman was the Lucy Shoe Merritt Scholar in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. [13] In 2017, Salzman was appointed to the Board of Trustees at the American Academy of Rome. [14] Salzman was the Elizabeth and J. Richardson Dilworth Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study, Princeton University in 2018. [15]
The Ides of March is the day on the Roman calendar marked as the Idus, roughly the midpoint of a month, of Martius, corresponding to 15 March on the Gregorian calendar. It was marked by several major religious observances. In 44 BC, it became notorious as the date of the assassination of Julius Caesar, which made the Ides of March a turning point in Roman history.
The sack of Rome in 455, was carried out by the Vandals led by their king Gaiseric.
Maius or mensis Maius (May) was the fifth month of the ancient Roman calendar in the classical period, following Aprilis (April) and preceding Iunius (June). On the oldest Roman calendar that had begun with March, it was the third of ten months in the year. May had 31 days.
Clodius Celsinus Adelphius or Adelfius was a politician of the Roman Empire.
The Fasti vindobonenses are two sets of late antique consular annals ("fasti"), found in the Vindobonensis manuscript MS. 3416, together with the Chronography of 354. They were previously known as Anonymus Cuspiniani, since they were published by Johannes Cuspinianus in 1553, and are part of the Consularia Italica collection.
Polemius Silvius was the author of an annotated Julian calendar that attempted to integrate the traditional Roman festival cycle with the new Christian holy days. His calendar, also referred to as a laterculus or fasti, dates to around 448–449. He was active in southeastern Gaul.
The Navigium Isidis or Isidis Navigium was an annual ancient Roman religious festival in honor of the goddess Isis, held on March 5. The festival outlived Christian persecution by Theodosius (391) and Arcadius' persecution against the Roman religion (395).
A menologium rusticum, also known by other names, was a publicly displayed month-by-month inscription of the Roman calendar with notes on the farming activities appropriate for each part of the year. Two versions were recovered in Rome during the Italian Renaissance, the Menologium Rusticum Colotianum and the Menologium Rusticum Vallense. The first is now held by the Naples Museum and the second has been lost. Both of the known examples of the style appear to copy a separate original, include a sundial for tracking the hours of the day, and prominently display astrological information for each month. The original was probably carved sometime during the 1st century. In addition to these pillar-style menologia, the name is also sometimes applied to fasti and other wall calendars that include similar agricultural details in their coverage of the year.
The Iunonalia or Junonalia was a Roman festival in honor of Juno, held on March 7. Among extant Roman calendars, it appears only in the Calendar of Filocalus, and was added to the festival calendar after the mid-1st century AD.
In the Roman Empire, the Pelusia was a religious festival held March 20 in honor of Isis and her child Harpocrates. It would have coincided with the second day of the Quinquatria, a five-day festival to Minerva. The holiday was not a part of the Roman calendar before the mid-1st century AD, but had been added by the time of Marcus Aurelius (161–180). It is preserved in the Calendar of Filocalus as an official holiday.
The Gaianum was an area in the Transtiberim in ancient Rome. It is located in Regio XIV, about 300m northwest of the Mausoleum of Hadrian, south of the Naumachia Vaticana built by Trajan, and east of the Via Triumphalis. The historian Cassius Dio says that Caligula, also commonly known in ancient sources as Gaius, used the Gaianum for chariot exercises. A number of victory statues have been found in the area, but seem to have been installed originally at the Circus of Gaius and Nero. The Gaianum was probably only a track, not a circus building as such.
Martius or mensis Martius ("March") was the first month of the ancient Roman year until possibly as late as 153 BC. After that time, it was the third month, following Februarius (February) and preceding Aprilis (April). Martius was one of the few Roman months named for a deity, Mars, who was regarded as an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus.
The Serapia or Sarapia was a Roman Imperial religious festival devoted to the Greco-Egyptian god Serapis. It is found as an official holiday on 25 April as late as the Calendar of Filocalus in 354 AD. In farmers' almanacs (menologia rustica) dating to the first half of the 1st century, the day was a sacrum or rite for Serapis along with Isis Pharia, "Isis of the Lighthouse (Pharos) of Alexandria".
In the Roman Empire, the Lychnapsia was a festival of lamps on August 12, widely regarded by scholars as having been held in honor of Isis. It was thus one of several official Roman holidays and observances that publicly linked the cult of Isis with Imperial cult. It is thought to be a Roman adaptation of Egyptian religious ceremonies celebrating the birthday of Isis. By the 4th century, Isiac cult was thoroughly integrated into traditional Roman religious practice, but evidence that Isis was honored by the Lychnapsia is indirect, and lychnapsia is a general word in Greek for festive lamp-lighting. In the 5th century, lychnapsia could be synonymous with lychnikon as a Christian liturgical office.
The Tiberinalia is a Roman festival of late antiquity, recorded in the Calendar of Filocalus, on August 17 (XVI Kal. Sept.), the same day as the archaic Portunalia. As a festival honoring Father Tiber, it may reflect renewed Imperial patronage of traditional Roman deities, in particular the dedication made to Tiberinus by the emperors Diocletian and Maximianus.
In the Roman Empire of the 4th century, the Ludi Triumphales were games (ludi) held annually September 18–22 to commemorate the victory of Constantine over Licinius at Chalcedon in 324. No description of these games has survived, but they are significant in the historical transformation of Roman religious and state institutions under the Christian emperors, an era inaugurated by the conversion of Constantine. Forty-eight circus races (ludi circenses) are recorded for September 18, which was also celebrated as the birthday (dies natalis) of the emperor Trajan.
Susanna K. Elm is a German historian and classicist. She is the Sidney H. Ehrman Professor of European History at the Department of History at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include the history of the later Roman Empire, late Antiquity and early Christianity. She is Associate Editor of the journals Church History and Studies in Late Antiquity, and she is a member of the editorial board for Classical Antiquity.
Acilius Severus was a Roman Christian writer of the late 4th century AD, from Hispania. He was from a senatorial family based on known correspondence with the Roman writer Lactantius through written epistles to his ancestors. A fragmentary inscription dicated that his ancestry was rooted from the gens Acilia, a noble family since the first century CE. Severus’ father, who was also called Acilius Severus, was a Roman consul in 323 and prefect of Rome from 325 to 327.
Rita Lizzi Testa, also known as Rita Lizzi, is an Italian historian of late antiquity, specialising in Christianity and paganism in the fourth to sixth centuries CE. She is a Professor of Roman history at the University of Perugia.
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