Histoire et Historiographie en Occident aux IVe et Ve Siecles

Three themes link the studies in this volume by Yves-Marie Duval. The first is how time was viewed in the Roman world of the 4th-5th centuries: did the history of the empire, or of the world, have an end, or was there a cyclical pattern to human life? The second theme is the manner in which history was then written; the ways in which Christian writers bent their sources to fit the thesis they were propounding. This is illustrated specifically by an examination of the changes in how the...
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Three themes link the studies in this volume by Yves-Marie Duval. The first is how time was viewed in the Roman world of the 4th-5th centuries: did the history of the empire, or of the world, have an end, or was there a cyclical pattern to human life? The second theme is the manner in which history was then written; the ways in which Christian writers bent their sources to fit the thesis they were propounding. This is illustrated specifically by an examination of the changes in how the figure of Theodosius II was represented, by Rufinus of Aquilea, by Augustine, and by the poet Claudian. The background to all these studies is the turmoil of the Great Invasion.Trois thèmes sont au centre des études du professeur Yves-Marie Duval. Le premier a trait à la notion du temps dans le monde romain des 4è et 5è siècles: l'histoire de l'empire ou celle du monde avaient-elles un terme, ou bien la vie humaine se déroulait-elle selon un cycle? Le second thème traite de la manière dont l'histoire était écrite à l'époque; la façon qu'avaient les auteurs chrétiens de plier leurs sources d'information aux thèses qu'ils soumettaient, Ceci est tout particulièrement illustré par un examen des différents remodelages du personnage de Théodose ler, selon qu'il était présenté par Rufin d'Aquilée, Augustin ou par le poète Claudien. A la base de l'ensemble de ces études se trouve le bouleversement de la civilisation romaine à l'époque des Grandes Invasions.