Kingdom of Snow: Roman Rule and Greek Culture in Cappadocia [Hardcover]

Raymond Van Dam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 30, 2002

Cappadocia had long been a marginal province in the eastern Roman empire, high on a rugged plateau in central Asia Minor and hardly influenced by classical Greek culture. But during the fourth century emperors visited repeatedly as they traveled between Constantinople and Antioch. In Cappadocia they met provincial notables and prominent churchmen, including Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus. These three Cappadocian Fathers were already competing with local landowners over the distribution of resources. As patrons representing their communities, they negotiated with provincial administrators and presented petitions to the imperial court. They also confronted emperors over Christian orthodoxy and Greek culture.

Kingdom of Snow investigates the impact of Roman rule in a remote province and the fate of Greek culture in an increasingly Christian society. The extensive writings of the Cappadocian Fathers combine to make Cappadocia one of the best-documented regions in the later Roman empire. Raymond Van Dam highlights the sometimes passionate relationships among bishops, local notables, imperial magistrates, and emperors as they struggled to gain prestige and power. In the drama of their personal confrontations they measured themselves and found their identities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Essential reading for theology students and any inquiry into the world of late antiquity."—Religious Studies Review

About the Author

Raymond Van Dam is Professor of History at the University of Michigan and author of the companion volumes Becoming Christian: The Conversion of Roman Cappadocia, both also available from the University of Pennsylvania Press.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (August 30, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812236815
• ISBN-13: 978-0812236811
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,205,468 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars dumbarton oaks, June 2, 2003

By 

Alvaro Lewis "jwatson5" (Redwood City, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kingdom of Snow: Roman Rule and Greek Culture in Cappadocia (Hardcover)

Raymond Van Dam by means of patristics has taken Cappadocia for his own with this excellent history. From the beginning Van Dam cites the need for scholars of early Christain fathers to push their knowledge and utility beyond the theological realm and into the arena of social history. In most of the chapters, Van Dam is able to narrate in impressive detail the battle of cultures and creeds in this province during the fourth century. He also reveals information on the quality of life of the Cappadocian lower classes by reading closely the petitions of Basil and Gregory of Nyssa. Each chapter does not always find fluid integration in the next, but the book as a whole expresses marvellous insight and understanding of the life in a border province, the fortification of a Christian ethical world, and the complex relations of Christian fathers with Roman emperors sharing varying degrees of Greek Culture. This volume stands as the first of three in what seems to be an refined and thoughtful historical enterprise.