the panel on Illyricum in Rome

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1 From 28 to 30 January I attended the 36 th conference of the Australasian Society for Classical Studies at University of Adelaide. Here I presented a paper entitled Flavius Constantius and the Aquitanian Settlement of the Visigoths in a session on late antiquity together with Neha Patel from University of Auckland on wealth, status and women s religious experiences in the letters of Jerome and Michael Champion from University of Western Australia on Dorotheus of Gaza and the interaction of classical and Christian cultures. This was chaired by my former colleague Silke Sitzler. As well, I chaired a panel on other religions in which Susan Thorpe from University of Auckland presented a paper on Egyptian religious life in the 21 st Dynasty and Greg Horsley from University of New England presented a paper on epigraphic evidence for pagan angels. I attended the executive committee meeting and was re-elected as ACU representative on the executive committee for the coming year at the AGM. From 7 to 9 May I attended the XLIII Incontro di Studiosi dell Antichità Cristiana at Institutum Patristicum Augustinianum. This year s theme was Costellazioni geo-ecclesiali da Constantino a Giustiniano: Dalle chiese principali alle chiese patriarcali. I presented my paper Boniface I and Roman Ecclesiastical Supervision of the Churches of Illyricum Orientale: The Evidence of Retro maioribus to Rufus of Thessaloniki. This was in a panel on Illyricum chaired by Angelo Di Berardino, OSA, and included Esteban Moreno Resano from Zaragoza, Josef Rist from Bochum, Ivan Bodrožić from Zagreb and Dominic Moreau from Strasbourg. the panel on Illyricum in Rome While in Rome I was able to meet with His Eminence, George Cardinal Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy, in his offices in the Vatican. The cardinal has long been a supporter of our Centre and this was an opportunity to thank him for his unfailing interest in our work and to update him on our current projects. I also had the opportunity to visit the museum Centrale Montemartini just south of Testaccio, along the Via Ostiense. This overflow of material from the Capitoline Museums is arranged in an entirely different way from that found on the Capitoline Hill and the pieces are displayed in a disused power station, making for some stark contrasts. This gem of a hidden treasure is well worth the effort to get to see. Centrale Montemartini I also had the opportunity to visit Spoleto, an Umbrian town some 125 km north of Rome, and significant in the electoral dispute between Boniface I and Eulalius in that Emperor Honorius called upon its bishop to celebrate Easter in Rome in 419 while the two rival candidates were forbidden from entering the city. enjoying the view across Spoleto

2 After several days enjoying my first visit to Lisbon I went to London. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to see the procession back to Buckingham Palace of the royal family from the State Opening of Parliament. It certainly was an occasion of great public spectacle. in the words of Thomas Ford, I did but see her passing by Time to relax From 31 May to 2 June I attended the annual conference of the Canadian Society of Patristic Studies (CSPS) as part of the Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at University of Ottawa. I presented a paper entitled Boniface I s Theology of Papal Authority in Manet beatum to Illyrian Bishops. It was in a panel on emperors and popes chaired by Theo de Bruyne and included Jeffrey Aubin from Laval and Rajiv Bhola from Ottawa. The society was celebrating its 40 th anniversary and there were reflections on the past four decades from Theo de Bruyne from Ottawa and the society s current president, Robert Kitchen from Regina. the panel on conflict at ANZAMEMS in Brisbane the panel on emperors and popes at CSPS in Ottawa I attended the tenth biennial conference of the Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (ANZAMEMS), held at University of Queensland, here in Brisbane, held from 14 to 18 July. I was part of a panel sponsored by the Australian Early Medieval Association (AEMA) entitled Forged by Conflict, chaired by Kriston Rennie of University of Queensland. The other speakers in my panel were Steven Joyce and John D Alton. My paper was entitled Church and State in the Dispute over the Vicariate of Thessaloniki during the Pontificate of Boniface I. AEMA held its annual general meeting during the conference during which I was re-elected to its executive committee as editor of Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association for my sixth year. In April, the volume I edited, The Bishop of Rome in Late Antiquity was published by Ashgate. The volume started from two workshop sessions at the 16 th International Conference on Patristic Studies in Oxford in Several further contributions were sought and I am glad to see it come to fruition. Besides myself, the contributors are: Glen Thompson, Marianne Sághy, Christian Hornung, Albert Ferreiro, Michele Salzman, Philippe Blaudeau, George Demacopoulos, Bronwen Neil, Dominic Moreau, and Christopher Hanlon.

3 From 10 to 14 August I attended the 17 th International Conference on Patristic Studies, at Oxford University. I participated in the three-day workshop Religious Conflict and Diplomacy convened by Wendy Mayer. My paper was entitled, Ecclesiastical Conflict between Rome and Constantinople in the Early Fifth Century: Diplomatic Efforts to Resolve the Dispute about Perigenes of Corinth. I spoke on Friday afternoon in the third session, chaired by Wendy herself. My fellow panelists that day were Maijastina Kahlos (University of Helsinki), Hajnalka Tamas (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), and Chiara Tommasi (Università di Pisa). The other members of the workshop were Silke-Petra Bergjan (Universität Zürich), Chris De Wet (University of South Africa), Wendy Mayer (Australian Catholic University), Justin Pigott (Australian Catholic University), Pauline Allen (Australian Catholic University), Christine Shepardson (University of Tennessee), Marek Jankowiak (Oxford University), and Damien Casey (Australian Catholic University). On Wednesday 12 August, at the Kings Arms Hotel in Oxford, during the conference, we launched the volume Christians Shaping Identity from the Roman Empire to Byzantium, which Wendy Mayer and I edited. It is volume 132 of Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae. It contains twenty-three chapters by various authors all paying tribute to the work of Pauline Allen. Wendy and I are most grateful for all the assistance from the people at Brill in making this volume a reality. Speaking in Oxford On Saturday, 15 Book launch in Oxford August, again maintaining my tradition after the Oxford conference, I went off to visit somewhere historic. This time it was to Leicester where I visited the recently discovered site of the carpark burial of Richard III and his new tomb in Leicester Cathedral. It was also an opportunity to visit the Roman baths of Leicester and the museum, as well as the mainly fourteenth-century Guildhall and the site of Leicester Castle. I travelled with two ACU colleagues, Barry Craig and Justin Pigott. For two weeks from 17 August I travelled in southern France with Barry Craig, visiting the sites of Roman Gaul. For a few days we were based in Narbonne. It has a great museum of antiquities and medieval artefacts next to the unfinished cathedral and a Roman cryptoporticus. From Narbonne we could take day trips to see Toulouse and Carcassonne. The Musee des Antiques de Toulouse, next to the basilica of Saint Sernin, has a great collection of Roman archaeological finds. One of Innocent I s letters was to

4 Bishop Exsuperius of Toulouse. It was great to see Saturninus, the first bishop of Toulouse in the third century mentioned by Gregory of Tours, immortalised in stain-glass windows in the cathedral. Disappointingly, I did not get to see the remains of the Roman amphitheatre across the river in Ancely/Purpan. The walled city within Carcassonne (an important site in the Albigensian Crusades) was well worth the walk from the train station, even though it was full of tourists and every building inside the walls seems given over to shopping. At By the Garonne in Toulouse Going medieval in Carcassonne Next it was off to Avignon for a week. This was the base for exploring not only the city famous for being the home of fourteenth-century popes, but quite a number of other cities and sites nearby: Pont du Gard (the famous aqueduct spanning the river), Vaison-la-Romaine (including a large archaeological site of several villas and a theatre), Aix-en-Provence, Arles (with its baths, forum, cryptoporticus, amphiteathre, theatre, museum, and circus, not to mention Van Gogh vistas), Nîmes (with its Maison Carée, best-preserved amphitheatre in the Roman world, Porta Augusta, Castellum, and Tour Magne), Orange (with its triumphal arch, best-preserved theatre in the Roman world with a nearly intact scaenae frons), and Marseille (remains of the old Roman harbour next to the Marseille History Museum, Notre-Dame de la Garde quite an effort to get to the top on foot, abbey of St Victor, cathedral unfortunately closed for restoration, and Roman Maritime Museum). Pont du Gard Pont du Gard Roman villas in Vaison-la-Romaine Amphitheatre in Arles

5 Amphitheatre in Nîmes Maison Carée in Nîmes Theatre in Orange Remains of the Roman harbour in Marseille

6 Papal palace in Avignon Not quite sur le pont d Avignon Our third base was in Nice. This enabled a visit to Monaco and Monte Carlo but unfortunately it was not possible to get up the hill to see La Turbie, although I caught a glimpse of it. Where we stayed in Nice At the princely palace in Monaco On 17 September I was invited to speak to the Department of Classics and Ancient History seminar at University of Sydney. I am grateful to Richard Miles for the invitation and Eleanor Cowan for the all the co-ordination. My paper was entitled Flavius Constantius and Affairs in Gaul: The Evidence of Rutilius Namatianus.