A Contest of Interpretation: Roman Policy towards the Huns as Reflected in the “Honoria Affair” (A.D. 448/50)

Type: 
Lecture
Audience: 
Open to the Public
Building: 
Nador u. 11
Room: 
004 Smart Room
Thursday, December 10, 2015 - 5:30pm
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Date: 
Thursday, December 10, 2015 - 5:30pm to 7:00pm

A Contest of Interpretation:

Roman Policy towards the Huns  

as Reflected in the “Honoria Affair” (A.D. 448/50)

The lecture is dedicated to a famous scandal, that happened around the mid of the 5th century at the court of the Western Roman emperor Valentinian III. (425-455): His sister, the princess Honoria, who had dedicated herself to virginity, was caught in a illegitimate love-affair with one of her staff members, the property manager (procurator) Eugenius. The emperor responded with hard measures, but he was not able to prevent that the scandal was widely respected and even involved Attila, the ruler of the Huns. The aim of the lecture is to analyze the so-called ‘Honoria-affair’, considering its importance within Eastern and Western Roman Hunnic policy, and to demonstrate for which reasons it is revealing for assessing the political scopes of both Roman courts during the 5th century.

 

Mischa Meier studied Classics, History and Pedagogy at the Ruhr-University, Bochum (1991-1996). After gaining his PhD in 1998 (Ancient History) he published his dissertation (Aristokraten und Damoden. Untersuchungen zur inneren Entwicklung Spartas im 7. Jh. v. Chr. und zur politischen Funktion der Dichtung des Tyrtaios, Stuttgart 1998) and moved to the University of Bielefeld, where he stayed from 1999 to 2004 as Assistant Professor (wissenschaftlicher Assistent). At Bielefeld he wrote his Habilitationsschrift on 6th-century Eastern Roman history. The book was published in 2003 (Das andere Zeitalter Justinians. Kontingenzerfahrung und Kontingenzbewältigung im 6. Jahrhundert n. Chr., Göttingen 2003, 2nd ed. 2004), and shortly after Meier moved to the University of Bonn as Associate Professor (2004). Only a few months later he gained the position of a chaired Professor of Ancient History at the University of Tuebingen, where he is working since then. Meier’s main research interests are in the fields of Greek history (archaic and classical periods, in particular the history of Sparta), the early Roman principate (1st century AD) and later Roman history. Beyond that, he has published on ancient historiography, on historical disaster research and on the history of reception of ancient themes and issues. Meier has published several books and a lot of articles. Currently he is writing a book on the barbarian migration period.