Compared to St. Peter’s, the privileged Roman pilgrimage destination since Early Christian times, the story of relic veneration at the Lateran is more ambiguous. There was no saint’s sepulchre as the devotional and liturgical focus of the church, and its principal relics had a strangely "abstract" character. Throughout the Middle Ages, different strategies were used to improve the reception of the Lateran relics, focusing principally on increased visibility. The peak of "making present" relics was reached with the fifteenth century, when a singular "reliquization" of several objects in the old Lateran palace took place, overlapping the abandoned patriarchíum with a new, sacred memorial topography (the palace of Pilate and other Holy Land sites). Many of these new relics were venerated in a particular performative and haptic way by the pilgrims who compared for example, their bodies’ height to the mensura Christi, passed the "doorways of the palace of Pilate" and progressed on their knees up the "Scala Santa", kissing the bloodstains which the Saviour had left on its steps. The chapter places the palace relics into the Lateran’s traditions and analyzes the reception strategies and veneration practices related to them, focusing especially on the role of materiality and physical approach as devotional means.

Warfare was a significant phenomenon throughout the history of the Roman world, exerting a fundamental influence on the evolution and fortunes of the Roman state over more than a millennium, and on the neighbours with whom the Roman state came into conflict. Warfare’s role varied according to the relative size of the Roman state at particular points in time and the relative strengths of its neighbours, making it difficult to generalise. The complexities of historical causation also need to be acknowledged so as to avoid the temptation to make warfare the underlying explanation for everything in Roman history. Even with those caveats, however, there is no denying the impact of war in Roman history. At the risk of over-simplification and over-generalisation, this epilogue attempts briefly to draw out some larger themes and observations.

Sources for children in early Egyptian monasteries are primarily textual. This chapter discusses the terms used to refer to children in monastic documents from Egypt written in Greek and Coptic. The language is often ambiguous, with terms that can refer to child or enslaved person in Greek, and terms in Coptic that may refer to familial relationships (sons and daughters) or monastic status or rank (new monks) or age (minor children). A methodology is established for assessing the presence of minor children and adolescents based on the language of the written sources.

The Lateran area is a privileged place for the study of the ancient topography of Rome. Several excavations give us a relatively accurate idea of ??the Caelian Hill, although many of them are only partially published. We also have valuable references to the Caelian in the written sources, which need to be interpreted from both a philological and a historical and topographical point of view. This chapter offers an overview of the evidence, proposing revisions and corrections of some relevant issues at the center of discussion in recent years. It also explores the issue of private houses and the first seat of the Bishop of Rome in connection with the Lateran Basilica. The aim is to outline in a more precise way the urban evolution of the Lateran, which is particularly important in the transition from mid-imperial Rome to the late antique and early medieval city.

This chapter examines three subjects relating to the themes of authority and allegiances. The first section considers the qualities that Romans considered important for effective generalship, including calculated displays of courage and a reputation for good fortune, which astute generals could foster as a way of strengthening their authority and the morale of their men. The much-debated subject of pre-battle speeches is also discussed, with less familiar but highly relevant late Roman evidence brought to bear. The second section examines the strategies deployed for maintaining the obedience of soldiers and changing patterns of military mutiny over the course of Roman history, with a view to identifying factors which influenced its incidence. The third and final section addresses the subject of civil war: its incidence and impact, and the ways in which commanders sought to negotiate the strains that internal conflicts placed on soldiers’ loyalties.

This chapter examines children's daily life in monasteries, examining rules and narrative accounts to reconstruct the social history of these children. Despite the gaps and limitations of our sources, we can map some of the difficult terrain minor children navigated. On the one hand, monasteries offered a fairly stable home with food, healthcare, and educational opportunities for a lifetime. (Though even children could be expelled from the monastery.) On the other hand, children were regarded as a challenge, even a danger, to adult monks, who often prioritized adults’ needs and power over children’s well-being. This chapter looks at these complexities with respect to sexuality, food, labor, health, illness, disability, and even death.

Despite being communities of celibate individuals who had renounced marriage and family, monasteries housed and raised minor children. The definition of childhoodin Egypt of late antiquity varied by gender and status and constituted age ranges rather than a clearly defined beginning and end point. Challenges with the source material include a paucity of references to children, ambiguity in primary sources about age, and the frequent context of trauma.

The “Holy Heads” of Peter and Paul, attested in the 11th century within a secondary altar of the Laurentius-Oratory in the Patriarchium Lateranense and later on inside the main altar of the Sancta Sanctorum, increased their status exponentially after having been transferred by Pope Urban V (1368-70) into the Lateran Basilica. Embedded in two huge, lavishly decorated anthropomorphic reliquaries they were enclosed high up in the new tabernacle above the main altar of the Cathedral of Rome. The new mise-en-scène emphasized their role as symbols of the double apostolicity of Rome and of the Roman Church restored after the return of the Papacy from Avignon. In the late 14th and15th Century the Capita apostolorum became one of the most prestigious relics in Rome in competition with the Veronica at the Vatican. The skulls of Peter and Paul in their precious containers – displayed only few times a year – attracted not only pilgrims, but also thieves. A lost fresco cycle in the transept painted shortly after the attempt to steal some jewels and gems from their reliquaries at Easter 1438 should have deterred potential thieves with its representation of the cruel punishments inflicted on the alleged culprits.

This chapter considers the experience of war from two perspectives. The first half examines the problem of literary topoi in ancient descriptions of battle and some of the ways in which scholars have tried to make sense of them. Debate about the dynamics of battle is discussed, together with the ‘face of battle’ approach. Attention is given to controversies over the application of conclusions from modern contexts about ‘ratio of fire’ and small-group cohesion. The application of ‘non-linear’ models is also considered apropos the unpredictability of battle. Finally, the battle of Busta Gallorum (43 BC) provides an intriguing case study of a battle for which, unusually, an eyewitness account has been preserved. The second half focuses on civilian experiences of war, especially in the context of sieges. Civilian involvement in the defence of cities is examined, as is the impact of food shortages, famine and disease, together with the sexual violence and enslavement that typically followed the capture of a besieged city. The impacts of raiding and of protracted wars are also considered. Late Roman evidence is particularly illuminating for the experiences of those enslaved through war.

The overall approach of the book is thematic, with the Introduction providing important context for what follows, especially for those less familiar with Roman history, first by defining key terms and parameters (especially explaining the chronological range of the volume, from the fourth century BC to the early seventh century AD), and then through an overview of the incidence of warfare, both external and internal, across the course of Roman history. The evolution of Roman military forces from the Republic through to Late Antiquity is outlined, with particular attention to Augustus’ formalisation of a standing army and the reconfiguration of the empire’s forces in the early fourth century. Finally, the most important ancient sources for the subject are introduced, with discussion of key literary sources (Polybius, Caesar, Livy, Josephus, Tacitus, Ammianus Marcellinus and Procopius), the less familiar Syriac chronicle atttributed to Joshua the Stylite, military treatises, documentary evidence (inscriptions, papyri) and relevant archaeological material.

In 2009, 42 fragments of white marble with Cosmatesque decorative inserts were found in the store rooms of the Vatican Museums. Inscriptions on some of these fragments identified their source as the medieval portico of San Giovanni in Laterano, destroyed in 1732. Shortly after the dismantling of the ancient façade, the slabs were reused in the new floor of the Basilica's Portico Sistino. Research conducted on these fragments demonstrated that they were what remained of the frieze on the front of the portico, consisting of an alternation of panels and disks delimited by a band in Cosmatesque work and filled with mosaics, some of which are figurative and with short inscriptions. The fragments were reassembled where possible and restored by the Restoration Laboratories of Marble and Mosaics of the Vatican Museums, while investigations were carried out on the compositional materials from the Diagnostic Laboratory of the Vatican Museums. At the same time, bibliographical and archival research has been carried out which has allowed for a visualisation of the whole scheme.