TY - GEN T1 - The barbarian plain : Saint Sergius between Rome and Iran T2 - Transformation of the classical heritage ; A1 - Fowden, Elizabeth Key, 1964- LA - English PP - Berkeley PB - University of California Press YR - 1999 UL - https://ebooks.jgu.edu.in/Record/ebsco_acadsubs_ocm49414583 AB - During the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. there arose on the Euphrates frontier, between the empires of Rome and Iran, a city girded with glittering gypsum walls. Within these walls stood a great church, a shrine for the relics of Saint Sergius, who was martyred there, at Rusafa, in the early fourth century. Around Rusafa stretched the "Barbarian Plain," inhabited by Rome's Arab allies, many of whom revered the saint. Elizabeth Key Fowden examines the rise of the cult of Sergius in late antiquity, drawing on literary accounts, inscriptions, archaeology, images, and the landscape itself to construct a many-faceted picture of the role of religion in this frontier society. Focusing on the socio-cultural as well as the political dimensions of the Sergius cult, her study sheds light on the lives of the ordinary faithful, as well as on religion's place in the strategic calculations of hostile empires.Beginning with a detailed analysis of the surviving accounts of the martyrdom of Sergius, Fowden provides a discussion of Syrian Rusafa-Sergiopolis, traces the spread of the Sergius cult in Syria and Mesopotamia, and provides a provocative interpretation of the relation between the saint's presence at Rusafa and his role in frontier defense. She also discusses Arab Christianity in the context of late Roman culture in the East, as well as the continuation of the Sergius tradition after the Muslim conquest, emphasizing the changes and continuities brought by the rise of Islam. OP - 227 CN - BR1720.S23 F68 1999eb SN - 9780520922204 SN - 0520922204 SN - 0585383871 SN - 9780585383873 SN - 0520216857 SN - 9780520216853 KW - Sargis, : Saint, : active 4th century : Cult. KW - Sargis, : Saint, : active 4th century KW - Rusafa (Extinct city) : Church history. KW - Syria : Church history. KW - Iraq : Church history. KW - Christian saints. KW - Résafé (Ville ancienne) : Histoire religieuse. KW - Saints chrétiens. KW - RELIGION : Christian Church : History. KW - RELIGION : Christianity : History. KW - Christian saints KW - Cults KW - Iraq KW - Syria KW - Syria : Rusafa (Extinct city) KW - Church history ER -