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Christianity and Local Culture in Late Roman Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 September 2012

Peter Brown
Peter Brown
Affiliation:
All Souls, Oxford
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Extract

The task of this paper is, in part, an invidious one: for I shall have to begin by looking a gift-horse in the mouth. I shall have to question a group of opinions that link the rise of Christianity in Africa with a resurgence of the local culture of the area. This resurgence, it is said, explains not only the rapid collapse of Roman rule at the time of the Vandal invasion of 429, but the disappearance of Roman civilisation and of Christianity itself in Africa in the early Middle Ages.

Discussion of this suggestion, however, tends to be jeopardised from the start because claims for the honour of being the resurgent local culture of Late Roman Africa have been enthusiastically advanced on behalf of two distinct and mutually-exclusive local cultures, associated with the two native languages—with Punic, on the one hand, and with ‘Libyan’ (which is often described by a convenient if perilous anachronism as ‘Berber’), on the other. What is more, these claims have been advanced by two equally distinct groups of scholars, handling different evidence. The evidence for the survival of Punic—or, so as not to prejudge the issue, of a lingua Punica—is literary: Augustine of Hippo and Procopius are the sole authorities for the period. The evidence for ‘Berber,’ by contrast, is largely confined to the interpretation of Libyan inscriptions and of traces of unchanging habits of worship and craftsmanship allegedly betrayed in the remains of the Christian Churches of Central Numidia.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Roman Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1-2 , November 1968 , pp. 85 - 95
Copyright
Copyright © Peter Brown 1968. Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies

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References

1 For a discussion of the literature on this problem, see Brown, P. R. L., ‘Religious Dissent in the Later Roman Empire: the case of North Africa’, History XLVI, 1961, 83–101Google Scholar. More recently, see Mazzarino, S., ‘La democratizzazione della cultura nel Basso Impero,’ Rapports du XIe congrès international des sciences historiques II, 1960, 35–54Google Scholar; MacMullen, R., ‘Provincial Languages in the Roman Empire,’ American Journal of Philology LXXXVII, 1966, 1–14 (esp. 12–13Google Scholar, on Africa) and Enemies of the Roman Order (1967), 202–241.

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11 W. H. C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, 1964, esp. p. 332. It is said that this is illustrated, by the choice of ‘theophoric’ names: see Kajanto, I., Onomastic Studies in the Early Christian Inscriptions of Rome and Carthage, (Acta Instituti Romani Finlandiae II, I), 1963, pp. 102 and 115Google Scholar; but not all bearers of such names need be Christians: e.g. Moreau, J., Das Trierer Kornmarktmosaik (Köln, 1960), plate IGoogle Scholar; Farbtafel II, p. 21; also pp. 10–15, where the mosaic shows a Quodvultdeus at a sacrifice in a mystery-cult.

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13 Frend, Donatist Church, p. xvi: ‘Is Donatism part of a continuous native tradition as fundamentally unchanged as the Berbers in the outline of their daily life ?’ Compare E. Dermenghen, Le culte des saints dans l'Islam maghrébin, 1954 and G. Drague, Esquisse d'histoire religieuse du Maroc, 1951; but, for a shrewd criticism of this tendency to concentrate on the local, continuous peculiarities of religious life in the Maghreb, to the exclusion of its wider context, namely, the interaction of this life with the orthodox culture of the towns, see Berque, J., ‘Cent vingt-cinq ans de sociologie maghrébine,’ Annales XI, 1956, 296–324Google Scholar. Picard, G-C., ‘Pertinax et les prophètes de Caelestis,’ Revue de l'histoire des religions 155, 1959, 46–62, at p. 57Google Scholar, n. 1, is highly pertinent: ‘D'autre part, il ne nous parait pas possible de considérer la Numidie comme une sorte de réserve, où la population autochtone se serait maintenue sans subir d'altération depuis l'époque préhistorique jusqu'à nos jours.’

14 R. MacMullen, ‘Provincial Languages …,’ (above, n. 1) 14.

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24 Loc. in Hept. I, ad Gen. I, 24; Qu. in Hept. VII, 16; Tract. in Ioh. xv, 27; Enarr. in Ps. 128, 8 and 136, 18; Serm. 113, II, 2; de serm. Dom. in monte II, xiv, 47; Lambot, C., ‘Nouveaux sermons inédits de S. Augustin,’ Revue bénédictine XLIX, 1937, P. 265Google Scholar, lines 248–9; C. litt. Petil. II, civ, 229.

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26 e.g. Ep. 17, 2.

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28 Ep. ad Rom. incoh. expos. 13.

29 Simon, ‘Le judaïsme berbère’ ( = Recherches … pp. 39–42) and A. Chouraqui, Les Juifs de l'Afrique du Nord, 1952, pp. 14–19.

30 Jerome, , Liber hebraicarum quaestionum in Genesim, ad Gen. XXXVI, 24Google Scholar (P.L. 23, 993B–994A) reers to an appeal to Punic apud Hebraeos.

31 Serm. 46, 41.

32 ‘Baptism’ was spoken of by such Punici Christiani as Salus: de pecc. mer. et rent. I, XXIV, 34.

33 Brown, Augustine of Hippo, 138–43; 206–7 and 235–6.

34 The important distinction between a spoken patois and a ‘language of culture’, introduced by Simon, ‘Punique ou berbère?’ (Recherches… 95–6) in favour of Punic, seems to me to favour only Latin: see Picard, ‘Pertinax …,’ 58, n. 2, on the meagre quality of Punic inscriptions.

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49 See Rémi Crespin, Ministère et Sainteté: pastorale du clergé et solution de la crise donatiste dans la vie et la doctrine de S. Augustin, 1965, 116–17. This shows that the clergy was not recruited from classes that would have been literate.

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85 Enarr. in Ps. 21, 26.

86 Brown, ‘Religious Dissent …’, (above n. 1) 92.

87 On the repercussions of establishing a bishop in such villages, see Brown, ‘Religious Dissent …’, 95, to which add the epigraphic evidence for churches built by the local population, notably Année épigraphique 1894, nos. 25 and 138, and 1926, no. 60, and Augustine, , Ep. 44, VI, 14Google Scholar, on the loyalties surrounding such a church.

88 An oversight handsomely remedied by W. H. C. Frend, Martyrdom and Persecution in the Early Church, 1964. See Brown, , Augustine of Hippo 212–25.Google Scholar

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93 The following recent works provide some indication of the prosperity and Latin civilisation of Africa after 430: Marrou, H. I., ‘Épitaphe chrétienne d'Hippone à réminiscences virgiliennes’, Libyca I, 1953, 215–90Google Scholar; Courtois, Chr., ‘Sur un baptistère découvert dans la région de Kelibia’, Karthago VII, 1955, 98–126Google Scholar and Cintras, J. and Duval, N., ‘L'Église du prêtre Félix, Région de Kelibia’, Karthago IX, 1958, 157–265Google Scholar; Braun, R., ed. Quoduultdeus: Livre des Promesses et des Prédictions (Sources chrétiennes, 101), 1964Google Scholar; Diesner, H.-J., Fulgentius von Ruspe als Theologe und Kirchenpolitiker (Abhandlungen 2, Theologie, I Reihe, Heft 26), 1966, esp. 60–5Google Scholar; on secular culture, see esp. Cameron, A., ‘The Date and Identity of Macrobius’, Journal of Roman Studies LVI, 1966, 25–38Google Scholar (see Brown, Augustine of Hippo 420, n. 13); Riché, Culture et Éducation …, 76–8; on Luxorius, M. Rosenblum, Luxorius: a Latin poet among the Vandals, 1961; on Dracontius, Domenico Romano, Studi draconziani, 1959. Finally, Fontaine, J., Isidore de Séville et la culture classique de l'Espagne wisigothique II, 1959, 854–61Google Scholar, draws attention to the importance of Africa in the late sixth century.

94 Epp. 66, 3 and 209, 3. In the last case, there is no evidence that Augustine's final choice for bishop of Fussala did speak the lingua Punica: it was plainly an accomplishment that could be dispensed with.

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98 ‘ … il faut faire vite’: Fontaine, , Isidore de Séville … II, 884Google Scholar.

99 Ildefonsus of Toledo, de vir. ill. 4 (P.L. 96 200 c).

100 This is not to deny the interest of the survey of Frend, W. H. C., ‘The Winning of the Countryside’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History XVIII, 1967, 1–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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102 See Brown, , ‘The Later Roman Empire,’ Economic History Review 2 ser., XX, 1967, at pp. 331–3Google Scholar, and ‘Approaches to the Religious Crisis of the Third Century’, English Historical Review, LXXXIII (1968), at pp. 542 ffGoogle Scholar.