Transcript On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers

Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
“…Your father Yazdgard ruled the kingdom in peace & well-being
for 21 years and all his enemies everywhere were subjected and
friendly to him. This was because he honored the Christians, he built
churches and granted them peace. At the end of his reign, when he
turned away from this beneficial policy and became persecutor of the
Christians, spilling the innocent blood of a God-fearing people, you
know very well yourself of the extraordinary death he died…”
Letter of Constantine to Shapur II
(Vita Constantini IV.11)
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
Syriac Manuscript depicting
Moses before Pharaoh
Constantine & Helena, as imagined by Christians in medieval central Asia
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
B. Political & Religious Context
East Roman and Sassanian [Persian] Empire
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
B. Political & Religious Context
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
B. Political & Religious Context
C. Persecution of Christians
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
B. Political & Religious Context
C. Persecution of Christians
II. Christianity in the Caucasus
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
B. Political & Religious Context
C. Persecution of Christians
II. Christianity in the Caucasus
A. Armenia
B. Georgia [=Iberia]
The Caucasus: Armenia & Georgia
Armenian Manuscripts
Monasticism in Georgia:
A Georgian Stylite
Christianity On and Beyond the Roman Frontiers
I. Christians in the Persian Empire
A. Background: Syriac Christianity
B. Political & Religious Context
C. Persecution of Christians
II. Christianity in the Caucasus
A. Armenia
B. Georgia [=Iberia]
III. The Danube Frontier: Christianizing the Goths
…Now this people became Christian in the following way. In
the reigns of Valerian and Gallienus (253-268), a large number
of Scythians from beyond the Ister (Danube) crossed into
Roman territory and overran much of Europe. Crossing also
into Asia, they reached as far as Galatia and Cappadocia. They
took many prisoners, including some who were members of the
clergy, and went home with a great quantity of booty. Now the
pious band of prisoners, living as they did among the
barbarians, converted many of them to the way of piety and
persuaded them to adopt the Christian faith instead of the
pagan. Among these prisoners were the ancestors of Ulfilas;
they were Cappadocians by nationality…
…It was this Ulfilas who led the exodus of the pious ones,
being the first bishop appointed among them…Ulfilas was elected by
Eusebius (of Nicomedia) and the bishops of his party (the Arians) as
bishop of the Christians in the Getic land. Among the matters which
he attended to among them, he was the inventor for them of their own
letters, and translated all the Scriptures into their language - with the
exception, that is, of the Books of Kings. This was because these
books contain the history of wars, while the Gothic people, being
lovers of war, were in need of something to restrain their passion for
fighting rather than to incite them to it, which those books have the
power to do… The emperor established this mass of refugees in the
territories of Moesia, where each man chose to live; and he held
Ulfilas in the highest esteem, so as often to refer to him as the "Moses
of our time."
- Philostorgius Ecclesiastical History 2. 5, as excerpted by Photius