YM Lecture: A New Sort of City (Istanbul was Constantinople)

Today at 3:00 on the third floor of the library, there will be a special Year of the Mediterranean lecture.

Under the Roman Empire the Mediterranean world was still a commonwealth of cities, each protected from the uncertain forces of nature by the worship it offered to its traditional public gods. In 324 A.D. Constantine the Great founded a new city dedicated to the God of the Christian martyrs. Constantinople, now Istanbul, remains one of the great cities of the world. This lecture will examine its emergence as an imperial capital.

Oliver Nicholson is a historian of Late Antiquity, the half-millennium which most universities allow to slip down the crack between the Roman world and the Middle Ages. He studied at Oxford and has taught at the University of Minnesota since 1986. He is currently working on a book about Roman persecution of the early Christians and is the general editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity.Year of the Mediterranean Event - get a t-shirt!

Remember the YM Movie tomorrow: Rachida!

(Thanks to Student Activities Coordinator Becky Cavender for this information)