Research Focus Group Workshop: Shifting Economic Power in Autun: The Donation of Constantine

Autun’s textual and material record illustrates how and why ancient patterns of life in northeast Gaul began to give way during Late Antiquity. Adopting a methodology developed in feminist historiography, this paper explores the effect on Autun’s political economy of resources funneled to Autun’s bishop by the emperor Constantine in the early 4th century. Because Constantine did not restrict his patronage just to Autun, the city serves as a case study demonstrating how the introduction of imperial patronage to local bishops could push cities toward a more “medieval” political economy.

Elizabeth Digeser is a Professor in the Department of History, where she studies the intersection of religion and philosophy with Roman political power, as well as the processes of transformation (political, religious, economic) in Late Antiquity. Her publications include A Threat to Public Piety: Christians, Platonists and the Great Persecution; The Rhetoric of Power in Late Antiquity: Religion and Politics in Byzantium, Europe and the Early Islamic World, edited with Justin Stephens and R. M. Frakes; and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity.

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Sponsored by the IHC’s Crossing Borderlands Research Focus Group

Image credit: Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Trier