A prison in late antique Corinth
Matthew D. C. Larsen || 2024, Hesperia
Issue: 2
Volume: 93
Publisher: Hesperia: The Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens
Page numbers: 337–379
This article aims to offer a secure identification of the “Boudroumi” and the Northwest Shops in the Roman Forum at ancient Corinth as a site of incarceration in the Late Antique period. The identification is made based on both prisoner graffiti from the 5th to 6th century CE inscribed on slabs and the notebooks from the Corinth Excavations in 1901, which clarify that the slabs were discovered in situ and served as floor pavement. The small finds excavated from beneath the level of the pavement are analyzed to establish a terminus post quem for the repurposing of the structures into a prison, as well as the architectural changes made. Further, the structures’ reuse is contextualized within the broader history of Corinth.
A Roman Military Prison at Lambaesis
Matthew D. C. Larsen & Mark Letteney || 2021, Studies in Late Antiquity
This article identifies a military prison (carcer castrensis) in the Roman legionary fortress at Lambaesis (Tazoult, Algeria), and contextualizes the space among North African carceral practices evidenced in epigraphic, papyrological, and literary sources of the first through fourth centuries CE. The identification is made on the basis of architectural comparanda and previously unnoticed inscriptional evidence which demonstrate that the space under the Sanctuary of the Standards in the principia was both built as a prison and that it was used that way in antiquity. The broader discussion aims to highlight the ubiquity of carceral spaces and practices in the ancient and late ancient Mediterranean, and to elucidate some of the underlying practices and ideologies of ancient incarceration.
"The Real-and-Imagined Biography of a Gospel Manuscript"
Matthew D. C. Larsen || 2021, Early Christianity
Honorable mention (one of two) in the 2022 essay context of the Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography
Dieser Artikel erzählt die Objektbiographie eines der ältesten Manuskripte des alten lateinischen Evangeliums, Codex Bobiensis. Konzeptionell verwendet es den Rahmen von Edward Soja, der die „real-and-imagined“ Geschichte des Codex Bobiensis betrachtet und dabei berücksichtigt, was über das Artefakt bekannt sein kann und was die Menschen in seiner gesamten Geschichte darüber wissen könnten. Es zeichnet sein „Leben“ vom spätantiken Nordafrika bis zu seinem Platz in der Abtei von Bobbio und schließlich bis zu seiner (teilweisen) Zerstörung im Jahr 1901 in der Nationalen Universitätsbibliothek von Turin nach. Durch dieses relativ wenig diskutierte und oft übersehene Objekt versucht der Artikel, eine Mikrogeschichte nicht nur des spätantiken Nordafrikas, sondern auch des Christentums im lateinischen Westen und darüber hinaus zu erzählen.
Carceral Practices & Geographies in Roman North Africa
Matthew D. C. Larsen || 2019, Studies in Late Antiquity
I explore the landscape of carceral practices and geographies in late antique Roman North Africa by applying a comparative lens to carceral punishments of exile and condemnation to the mines. I situate the research within the field of carceral studies, using the concept of carceral practices and geographies (as opposed to the narrower concepts of prison and imprisonment). I first offer a contextualization of the punishments of exile and condemnation to the mines as carceral punishments, remaining especially sensitive to the legal, material, and spatial aspects of each punishment. I then consider how different North African Christians used their carceral punishments and geographies to negotiate issues of political and social power in the broader Roman Mediterranean, specifically the letter exchange between Cyprian and three other groups of Christians condemned to the mines (Ep. 76-79). I use the letter correspondence as a case study to explore the "real-and-imagined" aspects of carceral practices and geographies in Roman North Africa. The carceral punishments of exile and condemnation to the mines have legal, material, social, gendered, rhetorical, and lived-experience components, all of which are treated as distinct, yet also fluid and intersectional with each other. I conclude by gesturing to how the case study adds texture to our understanding of how carceral punishment worked in Late Antiquity.