Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-pd9xq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-09T17:02:17.677Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 10 - The Rape of Time

from Part I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2022

Simon Goldhill
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Get access

Summary

One of the most surprising expressions that captures a self-conscious positioning in time comes in a remarkable poem in Book 1 of the Palatine Anthology. The poem is not an epigram at all, despite its inclusion in the anthology, but rather a 76-line poem of dedication celebrating the construction of the church of St Polyeuctos in Constantinople. The church was rebuilt in the early sixth century by Anicia Juliana, who came from one of the most distinguished family lines in eastern Greek Christian nobility. Indeed, the original church had been built in the fifth century by the empress Eudocia, who was Juliana’s great-grandmother. Juliana, in her act of rebuilding, was certainly engaging in the familiar competitiveness, aimed at both contemporary and historical rivals, that continued Hellenistic euergetism – the public display of wealth and authority through the sponsoring of public buildings – in order to contribute to the splendid redesign of Christian urban space.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Christian Invention of Time
Temporality and the Literature of Late Antiquity
, pp. 206 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • The Rape of Time
  • Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Christian Invention of Time
  • Online publication: 13 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009071260.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • The Rape of Time
  • Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Christian Invention of Time
  • Online publication: 13 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009071260.011
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The Rape of Time
  • Simon Goldhill, University of Cambridge
  • Book: The Christian Invention of Time
  • Online publication: 13 January 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009071260.011
Available formats
×