The lecture is part of the New Work in the Humanities Series 2013–14: New Work on Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The lecture will delineate the notion of the future expansion of Christianity as this is expressed in the works of Eusebius of Caesarea and as it is implied in the statements and actions of Constantine. It will attempt to conjure up what Christians of the age of Constantine thought about the future prospects of Christianity. By this means, the lecture will define what was considered by Christians to be the limits of the possible in the age of Constantine, and, hence, what they could accept as the measure of their success. In so doing, it hopes to rescue discussion of the age of Constantine from many anachronisms that project onto this period ambitions and expectations of success for the Christian church that belong to later generations.

Peter Brown is Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor Emeritus of History at Princeton University. He previously taught at London University and the University of California, Berkeley. Brown has written on the rise of Christianity and the end of the Roman Empire. His works include: Augustine of Hippo (1967); The World of Late Antiquity (1972); The Cult of the Saints (1981); Body and Society (1988); The Rise of Western Christendom (1995 and 2002); Poverty and Leadership in the Later Roman Empire (2002); and Through the Eye of the Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West (350–550 AD) (2012). He is the winner of an Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Achievement Award, a Klug Prize, and numerous honorary degrees and book prizes.

The lecture will be held in English. Simultaneous translation will be available. Seating on a first-come, first-served basis. The Friends of the Library Annual Book Sale will be held in the Academy's salone from 10am to 5pm on the same day.

The event is part of the New Work in the Humanities Series 2013–14: New Work on Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.

The question of Christian-Pagan relations in Rome during the final centuries of empire has been a vexed one, with some positing a kind of pagan revival, intent on preserving the old religion in the face of Christian ascendency, while others have argued that the very notion of hard “Christian” and “Pagan” categories fails to describe the way late antique people identified themselves during this age of change. In this lecture duet, reknown scholar Alan Cameron, whose monumental recent book The Last Pagans of Rome offers the fullest assessment yet of pagan identity, discusses how the senator and alleged hard-core pagan Symmachus corresponded with Christian friends and colleagues. Archaeologist Kristine Iara takes up the problem from another angle, examining the small and subtle ways in which the Rome Forum continued to be a pagan sacred space in an increasing Christian city. This event is organized in collaboration with Incontri Tardoantichi a Roma (ITAR).

Alan Cameron (Columbia University/American Academy in Rome Scholar in Residence): Were Pagans Afraid to Speak their Mind in a Christian World: The Correspondence of Symmachus

Kristine Iara (American Academy in Rome): Sacralità ostinata: la persistenza della sacralità pagana nel Foro Romano tardo antico

The presentations will be held in English and Italian.

Nuovi scavi e lavori di restauro condotti dalla Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali presso l'area del Mausoleo di Augusto, del Circo Massimo, sulle Mura Aureliane e in vari tratti di acquedotti del suburbio romano, hanno rivelato nuovi elementi sulla vita a Roma tra il IV e l'VIII secolo d.C. I relatori sono: Valeria Bartoloni, Laura Braccalenti, Marialetizia Buonfiglio, Elisabetta Carnabuci, Caterina Maria Coletti, Ersilia Maria Loreti, Stefania Pergola, Gian Luca Zanzi. Conclusioni di Riccardo Santangelo Valenzani.

In collaborazione con la Sovrintendenza Capitolina ai Beni Culturali.