2016 NAPS Presidential Address New Romans: Salvian of Marseilles On the Governance of God

• Autores: Susanna Elm
• Localización: Journal of early Christian studies: Journal of the North American Patristic Society, ISSN 1067-6341, Nº. 1, 2017, págs. 1-28
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • [...]Salvian offers a sustained criticism of contemporary Roman society as a whole.45 Even though individual Romans may live the life of a sanctus, a true Christian, society as a whole has been woefully inadequate in obeying the commandments of the Law (GD 3.29).46 Romans read the gospel and then proceeded to turn their houses into brothels, nearly kill their neighbors through excessive taxation, defraud fellow Romans of their land, rob them of their freedom, gorge themselves on lavish meals while others starve, and lust for the theater and the games while the corpses of their fellow Romans pile up six deep along the walls of their smoldering cities, savaged by wild dogs.47 In sum, they had no excuse: they knew what they should do; they were fully cognizant of the divine commandments; they saw divine correction in action, but ignored and trampled it underfoot in an act of willful rebellion (GD 5.12).48 As a consequence, second, Romans lost (or had almost lost) the privileges that being Roman entailed. [...]God chose the present punishments accordingly and granted victory to the barbarians: "Are we surprised that the barbarians capture us, when we make captives of our own brothers?"49 Salvian's continuing conviction that in effect Romans are superior to barbarians, just as Roman ideology demands, is implicit in his interpretation of the significance of the barbarian victories.50 This is the very premise of his point. Once upon a time Romans were just, virtuous and victorious, and hence they have been granted the privilege of the divine law as a means to better themselves even further, but instead they had rebelled.51 Consequently, their utter failure to fulfill their obligations robbed them of their very Romanitas. Because Romans, that is, Catholic Christians, lost the privileges of their Roman-ness, barbarian peoples are now not only militarily superior, but, even more importantly, morally superior as well.52 That is the meaning of the present crisis, as God's chosen punishment makes crystal clear-those who can now claim the privileges and obligations of the Romans are the barbarians, who are, or have the chance to become, according to Salvian, the new Romans. [...]Carthage's extraordinary wealth also caused its male inhabitants to dress as women and to engage in homosexual acts.88 By the same token, for Christian authors effeminate men-in an adaptation of classic tropes that equated homosexuality with barbarian mores-were prone to idol worship and other forms of paganism and Salvian complies here, too.89 "Among the most powerful and the most noble," nota bene amongst the Christian most powerful and noble, reigns idol worship.90 Both in secret and quite openly, they continue to venerate the goddess Caelestis (or Tanit), "that demon of the Africans, to whom I believe the pagans of old gave such a striking name .