Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins

Professor Bryan Ward-Perkins
Tutor in Late Antique and Medieval History
Trinity College
01865 (2)79856
bryan.ward-perkins@trinity.ox.ac.uk

I trained as both a historian and an archaeologist, and research into Late Antiquity (the period circa AD 300-750), primarily in the Mediterranean region.  I chair Oxford's 'Centre for Late Antiquity' (that links the interests of over 80 scholars working in Oxford on this period across the different disciplines).

I have published extensively on urban and economic history, written a much discussed book on The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization.  My most recently completed work was a major collaborative project on the 'Last Statues of Antiquity', which has resulted in a freely available database and a print overview volume.

Since January 2014 I have been leading a European-funded project to chart and discuss the origin of the cult of saints within Christianity, investigating this development across all the linguistic and cultural groupings of early Christianity: Syriac, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic, Greek and Latin.

 

 

See page on Trinity College website

Featured Publication

The Last Statues of Antiquity, Oxford University Press 2016 (with R.R.R. Smith, ed.)

The Last Statues of Antiquity Book Cover

Spanning centuries and the vastness of the Roman Empire, The Last Statues of Antiquity is the first comprehensive survey of Roman honorific statues in the public realm in Late Antiquity. Drawn from a major research project and corresponding online database that collates all the available evidence for the 'statue habit' across the Empire from the late third century AD onwards, the volume examines where, how, and why statues were used, and why these important features of urban life began to decline in number before eventually disappearing around AD 600. Adopting a detailed comparative approach, the collection explores variation between different regions-including North Africa, Asia Minor, and the Near East-as well as individual cities, such as Aphrodisias, Athens, Constantinople, and Rome. A number of thematic chapters also consider the different kinds of honorand, from provincial governors and senators, to women and cultural heroes. Richly illustrated, the volume is the definitive resource for studying the phenomenon of late-antique statues. The collection also incorporates extensive references to the project's database, which is freely accessible online.

The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Oxford University Press 2005

The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization

Vicious barbarian invasions during the fifth century resulted in the cataclysmic end of the world's most powerful civilization, and a 'dark age' for its conquered peoples. Or did it? The dominant view of this period today is that the 'fall of Rome' was a largely peaceful transition to Germanic rule, and the start of a positive cultural transformation. 


Bryan Ward-Perkins encourages every reader to think again by reclaiming the drama and violence of the last days of the Roman world, and reminding us of the very real horrors of barbarian occupation. Attacking new sources with relish and making use of a range of contemporary archaeological evidence, he looks at both the wider explanations for the disintegration of the Roman world and also the consequences for the lives of everyday Romans, in a world of economic collapse, marauding barbarians, and the rise of a new religious orthodoxy. He also looks at how and why successive generations have understood this period differently, and why the story is still so significant today.

 

Research
  • Origin of the cult of Christian saints.
  • The archaeology, architecture and art history of Late Antiquity.
  • Urbanism, from Roman into post-Roman times.

My interests are in the period of transition from a Mediterranean and European world dominated by a pagan Roman Empire, to one of established Christianity, western barbarian kingdoms, an embattled Byzantium, and a powerful Muslim caliphate. Until recently, my primary interest has been the material culture of the period, in all its manifestations: from the humble remains of rural settlements, to the honorific statuary of cities and the lavish decoration of rulers’ palaces. With my current ERC project, I am now engaged in examining the new, and ever-growing, power of Christian saints. When and how did Christianity adopt the idea that long-dead martyrs and other holy figures could help us mortals in the present life? And how did the many manifestations of this belief develop (such as the fascination with relics, the celebration of saints’ feast-days, the seeking of cures, pilgrimage to saints shrines, etc.). My interests tend to be in a broad comparative picture, and the Cult of Saints project reaches from the Caucasus and the Persian empire, to Britain and Iberia.

Publications

  • The 'Cult of Saints in Late Antiquity' database

    November 2017
    |
    Dataset

  • The Last Statues of Antiquity

    January 2016
    |
    c-book

  • Old and New Rome Compared: The Rise of Constantinople

    June 2015
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Two Romes: Rome and Constantinople in Late Antiquity
    In Late Antiquity Constantinople was explicitly presented as a “new Rome’’ and given institutions and buildings to match those of the old capital. This chapter examines how the two cities did in fact compare. First, secular monuments are examined, where, despite serious efforts at emulation, the new city could never overtake the splendors that Rome had accumulated. Next, the focus turns to the Christian histories and status of the two cities, where the presence in Rome of Peter and Paul again ensured the continuing primacy of the old capital. However, in other respects Constantinople did come to rival Rome, and eventually overtake it. The infrastructure of the new city (its defenses, ports, and aqueducts, as well as housing) was added to on an impressive scale through the later fourth and fifth centuries. By contrast, recent archaeological evidence from Rome has shown that the extraordinary monumental and domestic splendors of the city were beginning to fall apart in the fifth century, though the evidence of church building is less clear. However, with the building of Justinian’s massively ambitious St. Sophia, which dwarfs any late antique building in Rome, Constantinople definitively took its place as the primary city of the ancient world.
    History

  • A new project and the geography of saintly cult

    January 2015
    |
    Chapter
    |
    Approches topographiques du fait religieux

  • A most unusual empire: Rome in the fourth century

    January 2014
    |
    Chapter
    |
    City-Empire-Christendom: Changing Contexts of Power and Identity in Antiquity

  • Last Statues CHAPTER

    October 2013
    |
    Internet publication
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  • Last Statues of Antiquity

    May 2013
    |
    Dataset

  • Last Statues of Antiquity

    January 2013
    |
    Other

  • The end of the statue habit (AD 284-620)

    January 2013
    |
    Other

  • The fall of the Western Roman Empire: an archaeological and historical perspective

    September 2012
    |
    Journal article
    |
    ANTIQUITY
More
Teaching

Current DPhil Students

  • George Woudhuysen
  • Aleksander Paradziński

I would be willing to hear from potential DPhil students regarding Late Antiquity (political, social, economic, religious).

I currently teach:

Prelims

 FHS

History of the British Isles I

History of the British Isles I

General History I

General History I

Approaches to History (Archaeology)

General History II
 

General History III
  Special Subject 2, Francia in the Age of Clovis and Gregory of Tours