Polarizzazioni sociali, clientelismi e rivolte popolari a Edessa in epoca tardoantica: un approccio attraverso gli Atti siriaci del II Concilio di Efeso (449)

Abstract

The Syrian Acts of the II Council of Ephesus, a rich material little used as a source of social history, offers an effective image of the urban environment of many of the cities of the pars Orientis of the Empire.

Taking the cue from an episode —of which we provide an evenemential and prosopographic reconstruction— which took place in the town of Edessa during the politico-ecclesiastical conflict between the supporters of the duophysite theology and the monophysites, we will analyze the social context of one of the most lively poleis of the late ancient Christian East where we find a hierarchical society, structured according to the powerful dynamics of social aggregation, in which the middle classes, often used by secular and ecclesiastical elites as clients or pressure groups, coexist with the potentially more conflictive segments of the population, protagonists of many urban riots.

The purpose of the article is to shed light on the difficult, sometimes violent, coexistence, within the urban milieu, of groups very heterogeneous from the religious and ethno-cultural perspectives, as well from the socio-economic perspective.