Ioannis Papadopoulos, University of Leeds, UK

3rdNetworks& Neighbours Annual Symposium, Leeds, 3rd – 4th July 2015

Future Perfect: Late Roman Attempts of Utopian Establishments.

The dominant trend among the various manuals and treatises of European Utopian Literature and
Thought so far is the assumption that there is a break of two thousand years between Plato’s Republic
and Thomas More’s Utopia, a gap in political idealism, planning and vision, overshadowed by the
Christian eschatological concept of the New Jerusalem.1 Indeed the work of John the Evangelist on
the island of Patmos proved to be tremendously influentialto such an extent that many modern writers
like Lewis Mumford,2Marie-LouiseBerneri,3 Frank and FritzieManuel4and Ruth Levitas5chose to skip
the fifteen centuries between Classical Antiquity and the Renascence claiming a break in utopian
political thinking, due to the dominance of Christian Eschatology, andunderestimating the attempted
social experiments of the mid-time. There is no doubt that the pathways of Eschatology and Utopia
occasionally come across each other6 but this doesn’t indicate intellectual stagnation, on the contrary
it proved to be the fertile ground for the emergence of new ideological complexities.The Apostle
described the coming of ‘a New Heaven and a New Earth, for the former ones had passed away’ and
the enthroned God appeared to say ‘‘I’ am making everything New’’7manifesting the coming of the
Perfect Future.This paper will approach the often neglected attempts of founding utopian communities
in a period extended from the late second until the early fifth centuries AD and provide a snapshot of
the vision, values and idealism of the late antique mind. A chance for a potential alternative present
and futurein an age of political, social and religious transition that linked the Classical and Hellenistic
Utopias with Augustine’s City of God.

The Hellenistic world had already proved to be a quite worthy successor of Plato since the cultural
osmosis which occurred after the Greek expansion in the Near East and the contact with distant
people opened the Classical mind and its curiosity to new intellectual horizons and enriched the Greek
imaginary with new cultural representations of Otherness. Already in the late fourth century BC,
Theopompus described a fourth continent at the north fringes of the oikoumeni away from Europe,
Asia and Africa, inhabited by a highly sophisticated folk 8 and no more than a generation
laterAlexarchus founded the city ofUranopolis in northern Greece not far away from Thessalonica

1
See Book of Revelations, 3 :12 and 21:2.
2
See L. Mumford, The Story of Utopias (New York: Harrap, 1922).
3
See M. L. Berneri, Journey Through Utopia (London: Routledge, 1950).
4
See F.E. Manuel and F. P. Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World (Oxford: Blackwell, 1979).
5
See R. Levitas, The Concept of Utopia (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1990).
6
SeeA. Liakos, Αποκάλυψη, Ουτοπία και Ιστορία: Οι Μεταμορφώσεις της Ιστορικής Συνείδησης (Athens: ΠΟΛΙΣ,
2011), p. 35. [Apocalypse, Utopia and History: The transformation of Historical Consciousness].
7
Revelations, 21:1 and 5.
8
See J. Ferguson, Utopias of the Classical World (London: Thames & Hudson, 1975), p. 122.
and introduced an artificial vocabulary to be used there which was characterised by various
archaisms.9Also, Aristonicus, a Pergamene rebel against Rome in 133 BC attempted, with the help of
the Stoic philosopher Blossius of Cumae, to transform the remains of the Attalid kingdom of
Pergamum into an egalitarian society known as Heliopolis (City of the Sun).10Euhemerus of Messene,
described in his opus entitled as Sacred Inscription (ἹεράἈναγραφή), his journey to the island of
Panchaea, located according to DiodorusSiculus,11 at the Arabian Sea.The latter mentions as well in
hisBibliotheca Historica the Utopian treatises of Dionysius Scytobrachion called Hespera, a
community which, according to the first century historian, lies to the marshes west of Ethiopia12and
also the work of Iambulus,Island of the Sun, located by the shores of India.13Later on however, during
the Roman imperial times, treatises like these mentioned here were considered nothing more but
Romance and their authors became targets of caricature and irony by Lucian in his VeraeHistoriae
(ἈληθῶνΔιηγημάτων)14 who classified them in the same category with the second centuryWonders
beyond Thule (Τὰ ὑπὲρΘoύλην ἄπιστα) of Antonius Diogenes, the first novel of ‘science fiction’
recording among other things the first mission to the moon. It could not have been different since by
the time of the Antonine era the archetype of Utopia had been identified with the city of Rome and its
Empire, for enthusiasts like Aelius Aristides who was rejoicing in his panegyric To Rome (ΕἰςῬώμην)
in 143 AD about the Roman achievement of unifying the entire oikoumene into a common
marketplace (κοινὴνἀγορὰν) and seeing in the Eternal City the most perfect expression of the
Cosmos, 15 the old Hellenistic descriptions of isolated insular societies beyond the OrbisRomanus
made no sense at all. Utopia abandoned the fringes of the maps and resettled within the Roman
Imperial space, the Universal Empire seemed to have reached the ideal state and form where no
change was needed.16By the reign of Marcus Aurelius however, appeared the first signs of anxiety
that foretold the end of the perpetual vacation for the merry ‘citizens of the world.’

The second half of the second century AD was a period of religious and intellectual re-orientation17
partly forged by the ‘signs of the times.’ During the gloomy 160’s and 170’s various structural
problems become to emerge, along with the addition of new calamities,that demanded, according to

9
See Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae, III, 98.
10
See Florus, Epitome de T. LivioBellorumomniumannorum DCC Libri duo, I, xxxv, 20. Also T. W.
Africa, ‘Aristonicus, Blossius, and the City of the Sun’, Internationl Review of Social History, vol. 6, 1,
(April 1961), pp. 110-124.
11
See DiodorusSiculus, Bibliotheca Historica, III, 57,2, III, 71,5. Also T. S. Brown, ‘Euhemerus and the
Historians’, The Harvard Theological Review, vol. 39, 4 (October 1946), pp. 259-274.
12
DiodorusSiculus, Bibliotheca,III, 53, 4-6.
13
DiodorusSiculus, Bibliotheca, II, 55-60. Also D. Wnston, Iambulus’ ‘Islands of the Sun and Hellenistc
Literary Utopias’, Science Fiction Studies, vol. 10, 3 (November 1976).
14
See R. A. Swanson, ‘The True, the False, and the Truly False: Lucian’s Philosophical Science
Fiction,’Science Fiction Studies vol. III, 3 (November 1976).
15
See Aelius Aristides, To Rome, 348-349 and 372-375.
16
See R. Evans, Utopia Antiqua: Readings of the Golden Age and Decline at Rome (Abingdon, Oxon:
Routledge, 2008), pp. 8, 13.
17
See J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Continuity and Change in Roman Religion (Oxford: Clarendon Press,
1979), p. 205.
many, some radical solutions. Messianism was of course nothing new if we consider the case of
Apollonius of Tyana and our familiar Jesus Christ more than a century earlier18 but the circumstances
towards the waning of the second century appeared like a prelude to the Apocalypse that was once
promised. The Parthian War of Lucius Verus (161-166) and the following plague that was carried by
soldiers returning from the provinces of Mesopotamia19 in combination with the frequent occurrence
of earthquakes20 was interpreted by many as a prelude of an Age to come. It is no coincidence the
fact that during this period various prophets emerged in the distant corners of Asia Minor promising
Salvation and Justice. Alexander of Abonoteichus (105-170) appeared from an insignificant coastal
town of Paphlagonia in the 160’s as a prophet and priest of the snake god Glycon announcing that the
son of Apollo was to be born again in his native city. For that purpose, heasked the emperor for
permission to rename it Ionopolis.21 Not much later according to the biographer of Marcus Aurelius in
the Historia Augusta, a certain man climbed on a fig tree in the Campus Martius, prophesizing the
End of the World by the coming of fire from heaven. When he fell from the tree however he was
arrested.22 Many Christians also thought that divine providence had revealed its will among them once
again. One of them in particular, in Syria, advised his fellow-believers that they should follow him in
the desert where they supposed to meet Christ, giving the impression, according to Hippolytus of
Rome,23 of a band of raiders.Another one, the prophet Peregrinus, occasionally Christian, wandered
around Greece, provoked in public the Athenian benefactor and super-star Herodes Atticus and
committed suicide by setting himself on fire during the Olympics of 165 AD in order to convince the
audience about his message. Athenagoras24 informs us that Peregrinus became an abject of veneration
ever-since while AulusGellius claimed that he met him in Athens and he appeared to him as a rather
sober and respected man. 25 A statue was erected in situ to honour the eccentric prophet which
attracted various pilgrims for some time while his stick was treated as a relic.

Indeed the Times were more than fertile for prophecy and it was in the isolated countryside of
Phrygia that Eschatology joined Utopian thought in quest for Redemption. Phrygia was a rather
unfamiliar landscape for the Greco-Roman experience since the Hellenization of the previous
centuries had been rather slow. The isolationism and alienation of the inhabitants along with a strong
sense of regional patriotism must have been a reason for the particularly un-Roman Christian creed to
spread in the area. In a landscape remote enough for the development of secession and at the same

18
See J. M. Robertson, Pagan Christs: Studies in Comparative Hierology (London: Watts & Co, 1928),
p. 274-280.
19
See Aelius Aristides, Oratio XXXIII, 6.
20
See Eusebius, HistoriaEcclesiastica, IV, 13, 4.
21
SeeD. Kyrtatas, Λουκιανός: Αλέξανδρος ή ο Ψευδομάντης, Ανώνυμος: Μόντανος ο Ψευδοπροφήτης
(Athens: Άγρα, 2005), p. 80-98. [Lucian: Alexander or the False-Oracle, Anonymous: Montanus the
False-prophet].
22
See ScriptoresHistoriaeAugustae, Marcus Antoninus, XIII, 6.
23
See Hippolytus, In Danielem, IV, 18-19.
24
See Athenagoras, Embassy for the Christians, 26.
25
See AulusGellius, NoctesAtticae, XII, 11.
time being at the crossroad of the Apostles and believers who travelled along with their ideas from
Palestine and Syria to Europe, the crafting of a separate path or an alternative interpretation of the
Message was only a matter of time.26 Around 165 a recent Christian convert and former priest of
Apollo or Cybele, Montanus, started to prophesize in ecstasy about the arrival of the New Jerusalem
in his native land and for that reason he named the proximate insignificant village
(μικρότατονκωμύδριον) 27 of Pepuza and Tymion after the Holy City. Soon he was joined by two
women prophets, Maximilla (d. 178/9) and Priscilla (d. 175) who played a fundamental role in his
movement known from then on as the New Prophecy. Christ appeared in front of Maximilla and
Priscilla dressed as a woman, announcing to them the coming of the New Jerusalem.28Montanus’
Utopian establishment was theoretically based in the Scriptures and more precisely in John’s letter to
the nearby Church of Philadelphia29informing the local community that they should bear the name of
God’s Holy City and also the name of God himself. Indeed the apocalyptic tradition must have been
quite influential in the Seven Churches of Asia addressed by the Apostle. Additionally the passing of
Paul and his activity in Galatia and Phrygia30 must have left a radical imprint in the local Christianity
which might partly explain the dominant role of women in the montanist movement.31Various Biblical
figures like Eve and the prophet and sister of Moses, Miriam, were treated with great respect.32We
learn from Augustine33 about their emphasis in what they thought as Paul’s ‘prophecy’ (‘‘for what is
perfected has not yet come’’)34 justifying themselves as the chosen ones to perfect what was left
unfinished. The prophets purified their chosen place with a strict way of life, by ‘fasting’ and ‘not
denying the name of Christ’ as it was instructed to the Philadelphians in the Book of Revelation35 and
with new rituals like the second baptism and re-marriage after which it was forbidden to sin, as we
learn from the much later epistle of the 8th century Patriarch of Constantinople Germanus to his
deacon Antimus 36 who also informs us that the Montanists believed in the existence of ‘Eight
Heavens in age to come’ as well as to fire-breathing dragons and lions. Thus they revealed the
influence of the apocryphal Apocalypse of Peter to the New Prophecy, a work of the second century
(c.135) which was considered by many Christian apologists like Clement of Alexandria, as an actual

26
See C. Trevett, Montanism: Gender, Authority and the New Prophecy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), p. 44.
27
See Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis XVI, de spiritusancto 1.8. Also Epiphanius, Panarion, 48, 14-5
and Filastrius of Brescia, DiversarumHaereseon Liber, 49.
28
See Epiphanius, Panarion, 49, 1.
29
Revelations, 3:12
30
See Acts, 16:6 and 18:23.
31
See C. Trevett, Montanism, pp. 15, 23-24.
32
See R. L. Fox, Pagans and Christians in the Mediterranean World from the second century Ad to
the conversion of Constantine (London: Penguin, 1986), p. 407.
33
See Augustine, De Haeresibus, 26-28.
34
1 Corinthians, 13:9-10.
35
Revelations, 3:8 and 3:11.
36
See Germanus, Ad Antimum, V.
work of the Apostle.37 It focuses not so much on the message of Salvation but in the punishments of
those who did not follow the Will of God. 38 People started to gather around the prophets’
establishments and Montanus appeared to organize their living, even appointing revenue collectors
according to Apollonius of Ephesus. 39 He also composed new scriptures (καινὰςγραφάς), 40 the so
called third Testament as a sequel to the previous two.

The surprised Christian leaders of the second century initially seemed rather sympathetic as we learn
from Tertullian who reports that it was Pope Victor (189-199) or Zephyrinus (199-218) who
recognised Montanus and sent a letter to compromise the two opponent sides which had divided the
Christian community in Asia Minor although he recalled it after waves of protest.41Later Christian
polemists, like Cyril of Jerusalem, claimed that the followers of the New Prophecy were committing
sacrifices of infants, using their bodies as ‘unlawful food,’42 Jerome however chose not to believe
about them anything that involved blood (sic falsumomne quod sanguinisest)43but he expressed his
detest (if not horror) because the bishops in the movement stood third in hierarchy, after the patriarchs
and the koinonoi,instead of holding the place of the Apostles as in the mainstream Church did.44The
montanist Utopian experience was approached by scholars like Henry Chadwick with the model of
the Circle and Ellipse, a dual approach of the theme of New Jerusalem in the early Church. During
the second and third centuries the focus of the Christian audience orientated either to Jerusalem as the
cradle of Christianity (Circle) or towards Rome, as the place of martyrdom of Peter and Paul
(Ellipse).45 The imperial capital however never managed to overshadow Jerusalem as a sacred locus
for the Christians before the fourth century.The destruction of Jerusalem by Hadrian (135) and its re-
establishment as a typical Roman colonia named AeliaCapitolina had already made the waiting for
the New Jerusalem even more exciting and at the same time transformed it to a portable
symbol.46Montanus’ interpretation of the Revelations led him to choose a site where the descending
heavenly Jerusalem could be seen from ‘above a high mountain’47 and he managed to find one in his
native Phrygia. In times of peace however the Church appeared to approach Rome and admit its
symbolic significance as a factor of security and wise leadership.48 Ignatius of Antioch revealed in his

37
See Eusebius, HistoriaEcclesiastica, VI, 14,1.
38
See B. D. Ehrman, Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 26.
39
See Apollonius of Ephesus, PeriEkstaseon,V, 18, 2 in R. E. Heine, The Montanist Oracles and
Testimonia(Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1989), p. 22.
40
See Eusebius, HistoriaEcclesiastica, VI, VI, 20, 3.
41
See Tertullian, AdversusPraxeam, I.
42
See Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis XVI, de spiritusancto, 1,8.
43
See Jerome, Epistula 41 (Ad Marcellam), 4.
44
See Jerome, Epistula 41, 3.
45
See Henry Chadwick, The Circle and the Ellipse. Rival concepts of authority in the early church
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1959) p. 1-17.
46
See W. Tabernee, Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments: Ecclesiastical and Imperial Reaction
to Montanism (Leiden: Brill, 2007), p. 115-116.
47
Revelations, 21:10.
48
See C. Trevett, Montanism, p. 141-142.
letter to the Ephesians49 that the Christian congregation should be united behind firm leaders who
would guarantee perpetual peace, wishes that were not that far away from those of Aelius Aristides
and the rest Second Sophistic orators. Half a century later the emergence and spread of Montanism
would justify the worst fears of Ignatius and the rest of the bishops with a stable leadership in Phrygia
and a creed which despite its local character could be portable since it spread in Thrace, North Africa,
Rome and even Lyon.In fact the persecution that took place in the latter in 177 AD was maybe
targeting the Montanists since they must appeared way more radical than other Christian groups, if the
Roman authorities were able to make a distinction among the various sects.50

The situation as it was expected was not improved in the post-Constantinian period. The new
dominant rhetoric in the fourth century Church, established by Eusebius, which represented the World
as a battlefield of the forces of Good and Evil and the Christian community under siege by the Devil
in two ways, by persecution and if that failed by heresy, didn’t offered much flexibility or multiple
interpretations.51 In his entry for the Church in the days of Hadrian the author represented the Devil as
trying to penetrate into the pious community by heresy since he had already failed with the method of
persecution52. The Church had now found its own Utopia in Eusebius's PraeparatioEvangelica and
was no longer going to tolerate prophets as it was the case in the Apostolic Age neither was going to
accept prophecies in a state of ecstasy, claiming that the Old Testament prophets were always sober
and punctual when prophesizing.53The prophetic tradition would be abandoned at least for the next
millennium, being considered unnecessary since the bishops were now more than ready and willing to
provide guidance and protection. Ignatius was already advising the Philadelphians ‘never to do
anything without a bishop.’54If Montanus was born a century earlier he might have been a saint, like
Paul perhaps, but by the end of the second century there were already more than enough prophets
around. When the secular authorities embraced fully this dialectic, the fate of Montanism was sealed.
The movement came to an end when John of Ephesus arrived at Pepuza in 550 to implement the anti-
heretical legislation of Justinian I, he destroyed the shrine that contained the relics of Montanus,
Maximilla and Priscilla, burned their bones as well as their books and confiscated the property of the
devotees.55 As an act of reaction and protest to the imperial bullying the last Montanists burned their
churches down preventing also further pillaging and with them ended the utopian parallel world in
which the followers of the New Prophecy were living since the second century.56

49
See Ignatius, Letter to the Ephesians, XIII, 2.
50
See W. Tabernee, Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments, p. 175. Also W. H. C. Frend, The
Early Church: From the beginnings to 461 (London: SCM, 1991), p. 70.
51
See Eusebius, HistoriaEcclesiastica, I, 1, 2-3.
52
Eusebius, HistoriaEcclesiastica, IV, 7, 1.
53
SeeD. Kyrtatas, Λουκιανός: ΑλέξανδροςήοΨευδομάντης, Ανώνυμος: ΜόντανοςοΨευδοπροφήτης, p.
243.
54
See Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Philadelphians, 7.
55
See John of Ephesus, HistoriaEcclesiastica, III, 36-37.
56
See W. Tabernee, Fake Prophecy and Polluted Sacraments, p. 401.
 Despite the multitude of prophets however, none appeared to be able to protect Roman society
from turbulence and uncertainty at the beginning of the third century. The quest for a Messiah was
still continued however as we can see in the case of the empress Julia Domna, wife of Septimius
Severus (193-211) who instructed Flavius Philostratus to write the biography of Apollonius of Tyana
(TὰἐςτὸνΤυανέα Ἀπολλώνιον). Less than a decade later Plotinus was travelling to Rome after
participating in the fatal campaign of Gordian III against Sassanid Persia in 244. In an age of Crisis
and social turmoil he and his disciples managed to offer relief to orphans and widows, taking care of
their needs as a ‘holy and god-like guardian’ (ὡς ἱερῷτινικαὶθείῳφύλακι)57 in a time when the Church
of Rome according topope Cornelius (251-53), cited by Eusebius, had under its protection about 1.500
widows and poor.58 The Neoplatonist philosopher’s activities and teaching soon came to the attention
of the fellow Greekempress Cornelia Salonina, and of her husband Gallienus (253-268). The latter
considered by many as a second Augustus (in an uneasy timing) and a patron of Greek culture in the
manner of Hadrian, he appeared as willing to unleash an artistic revival of Antoninian classicism in all
aspects of public life.59 Though this portrayal of the imperial couple has been debated, their visit in
Athens in 264 (the first imperial advent in the city since the time of Commodus) must had also a
culture agenda (apart from the obvious symbolic and geostrategic reasons just before the Herulian
invasion of Greece) which would support a theory of Gallienic‘Renaissance.’60

Plotinus took advantage of their mutual friendship and proposed to the emperor to permit him and his
disciples to establishthemselves in an abandoned town in Campania which was once a community of
philosophers and after restoring it they would name it Platonopolis. Those who would settle in the
renovated city would live under Plato’s laws and use the resources from the surrounding countryside
to sustain themselves. The philosopher’s wish was about to be fulfilled, Porphyry narrates,61 but the
reaction of the court influenced the emperor who not long after recalled his decision. It is not clear
however if the philosophers would apply the platonic principles of the Republic or the more moderate
constitution of the Laws and we are not even sure about the prehistory of the site. Perhaps it might
have been the remains of an old Pythagorean community or what left of the ‘Academy’ of Cicero, a
similar previous attempt by the famous Roman orator with the help of Philo of Larissa, former head of
the Platonic Academy of Athens who had come to Rome in 88BC.62 It is also quite difficult to figure
out the philosopher’s motives for the establishment of such a community. It could be anything from
zeal to implement the platonic principles or the need for some kind of refugee in a form of a
coenobitic community away from the gloomy realities of the mid-third century, a pagan monastery

57
See Porphyry, Vita Plotini, 9.
58
See Eusebius, HistoriaEcclesiastica, VI, 43, 11.
59
See J. Ferguson, Utopias of the Classical World, p. 178.
60
See D. Armstrong, ‘Galienus in Athens, 264,’ ZeitschriftfürPapyrologie und Epigraphik, 70 (1987),
pp. 235-258, p. 235-236.
61
See Porphyry, Vita Plotini, 12.
62
See D. O’ Meara, Platonopolis: Platonic Political Philosophy in Late Antiquity (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 2005), p. 16.
with a platonic regula, let’s say. On the other hand it is rather challenging to imagine Plotinus to be
pre-occupied with the administrative duties of such a community on a daily basis without time for
reflection and writing. Additionally it comes to contrast with the traditional apathetic view of the
Neoplatonists about politics but there is no doubt that some of his students like Rogatianus and Zethus
would have a significant role in the business of running this establishment.However even if the
project would be completed it would be just one more Roman colonia founded by the patronage of
the contemporary emperor, a prospect that would make Plato’s utopian vision appear rather distant.
Furthermore, the Roman authorities and the administrative machine would not tolerate the invasion
and colonisation of imperial space by a philosophical modus vivendi outside the traditional Graeco-
Roman standards.63Nevertheless, the old classical norms would be anyway tested during this period
and by the beginning of the fourth century the Roman Imperium was in many aspects a new State on
the aftermath of the Diocletianic and Constantinian Revolutions, almost unrecognizable even for non-
conformists like the disciples of Plotinus.

The artificial optimism of the fourth century however and the recently established discourse of the
temporachristianaas it was proclaimed in the work of authors like Ambrose, Jerome and
Prudentiusbegan to fade. By the end of the first decade of the fifth century, the course of politics and
diplomatic failures that led to the accidental sack of Rome in 410 along with the invasions of the West
after 407 sunk the regional elites to a crisis of identity and orientation. The times seemed to be once
more Post-Apocalyptic since the core of the Romanitas which guaranteed until that time ‘the security
of a way of life’64 had been defied and defiled. In this liquid atmosphere the social experiment of
Claudius PostumusDardanus stands as an example of trial for the utopian alternative. Coming outside
of aristocratic circles but with some good educational background in law and oratory and having
served twice as a Praetorian Prefect of Gaul (406-407 and 414)65he had an active role in the course of
the contemporary politics by negotiating with the Visigothic king Athaulfin order to withdraw his
supportfrom the usurper Jovinus who was finally executed by Dardanus in Narbonne(413) along with
his brother Sallustius, his Pretorian Prefect DecimusRusticus and many nobles from the area of
Auvergne.66Dardanus was a rather representative case of the novihomines that emerged during the
reign of Gratian (375-383) and managed to gain important administrative offices due to their
education and talent as it was the case with Ausonius a quarter of a century

63
See J. M. Schott, ‘Founding Pltonopolis: The Platonic Politeia in Eusebius, Porphyry and
Iamblichus,’ Journal of Early Christian Studies, vol. 11, 4, (Winter 2003), pp. 501-531, p. 527.
64
See P. Brown, Augustine of Hippo, a Biography (London: Faber & Faber,1967), p. 289.
65
See A.H.M. Jones, J.R. Martindale, J. Morris, The Prosopography of the Late Roman Empire, vol. II
395-527 (London: Cambridge University Press, 1971), p. 346-47.
66
See Olympiodorus, History, fragment 20 in R.C. Blockley, The fragmentary classicising historians of
the later Roman empire. Eunapius, Olympiodorus, Priscus and Malchus, vol. I (Liverpool: Francis
Cairns,1981), p. 182-184. Also C. Chaffin, Olympiodorus of Thebes and the sack of Rome: A Study of
the HistorikoiLogoi, With Translated Fragmants, Commentary and Additional Material (New York:
Edwin Mellen Press, 1993), p. 84.
earlier.67SidoniusApollinaris expresses his detest in a letter to his friend Aquilinus,68 the grandson of
the aforementioned Pretorian Prefect, for the actions of Dardanus against the ‘flowers’ of the Gallic
Aristocracy who had supported Jovinus (a virGalliarumnobilissimus) against Honorius. 69 His
aristocratic pen criticizes of course the vices of the political players of the time, mentioning the
inconstantia (unreliability) of the usurper Constantine III, the facilitatem (pliability) of Jovinus and
the perfidia (faithlessness) of Gerontius but all the vices together were reflected upon Dardanus.70 It is
a common phenomenon among members of the aristocratic gentes of the time to be almost drawn to
the service of usurpers, as the case of Paulinus of Pella underPriscusAttalus also confirms,71 taking an
important risk to achieve a better deal for their families and land property.72Dardanus’s negotiation as
an intermediate between Athaulf and Honorius in his capacity of an important local and neutral citizen
who ‘did not yield to the tyrant’73 gained him prestige and respect and had a significant contribution
to the final arrangement of the political issues in Gaul by Constantius III. After this turn of events he
appeared to feel rather uneasy among the surrounding hostile local aristocracy74 or by the turmoil
related to the insecurity of the barbarian crossing of the Rhine’s limes in 407 and the coming of the
Visigoths in the West after 410, he retired from public life establishing himself and his family in one
of his estates near Sisteron. After fortifying the site he carved an inscription in a nearby rock surface
declaring that he founded the Theopolis (City of God). The dedicatory inscription which has been
preserved in situ mentions the following:

«Cl(audius) PostumusDardanusv(ir) inl(ustris) et pa/triciaedignitatis, ex consulari

pro/vinciaeViennensis, ex magistroscri/nii lib(ellorum), ex quaest(ore), ex
praef(ecto), pr(a)et(orio) Gall(iarum), et / NeviaGalla, clar(issima) et inl(ustris)
fem(ina),materfam(ilias ) / eius, loco cui nomenTheopoliest / viarumusum,caesis
utrumquemon/tiumlaterib(us), praestiterunt, muros/ et portasdederunt; quod in
agro/ proprioconstitutumtuetioniom/niumvolueruntesse commune, adni/tente
etian(!) vir(o) inl(ustri) com(ite) ac fratre me/morativiriCl(audio) Lepido ex
consulari/ GermaniaePrimae, ex mag(istro)memor(iae), / ex com(ite)rerum
privat(arum), utergaomni/um salutemeoru/m studi<or>ume/t devo/tionis

67
See M. R. Salzman, The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and religious Change in the
Western Roman Empire (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004), p. 87.
68
See SidoniusApollinaris, Epistula V, 9.
69
See Orosius, HistoriarumLibriAdversusPaganos VII, VII, 42, 5. Also J. Harries, SidoniusApollinaris
and the Fall of Rome, AD 407-485 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), p. 29-30.
70
SidoniusApollinaris, Epistula V, 9, 1.
71
See Paulinus of Pella, Eucharisticus, 293-6.
72
See J. F. Drinkwater, ‘The Usurpers Constantine III (407-411) and Jovinus (411-413)’, Britannia,
Vol. 29 (1998), pp. 269-298, p. 288.
73
See ChronicaGallica 452, 69.
74
See J. F. Mathews, Western Aristocracies and Imperial Court, A.D. 364-425 (Oxford: Clarendon
Press, 1975), p. 322-323.
public[ae]ti /tuluspossi[t]ostendi »75

Claudius PostumusDardanus, a noble man of patrician rank, formerly consul of the province of
Vienne, head of the petitions department, quaestorand praetorian prefect of the Gauls, and his wife
NeviaGalla, a distinguished and noble woman, appointed themselves as caretakers of the place called
Theopolis and, after approaches had been carved out on both sides of the mountains, gave it walls and
gates. They wanted their land to be shared for the safety of all. Claudius Lepidus, Dardanus’s
otherwise not mentioned brother, former consul of Upper Germany, Magister Memoriae and comes of
the Res Privatae, also lent his support so that a notice could be displayed of their concern for the
safety of everyone and of their devotion to the community. There might be evidence that
RutiliusNamatianus has mentioned this Lepidus in his De RedituSuo where he refers to ‘still another
of the Lepidi for whom famawas complaining’76 since he was not properly praised which might be a
reference to the contribution of the two brothers to the restoration of order in Gaul.77 It has been
argued that the settlement of Dardanus in the AlpesMaritimae78 was a declaration of loyalty to the
legitimacy of the Honorian regime to which the founder offered so valuable service and that the
inscription must have functioned as some kind of devotion display to the local Roman administration
and its contemporary concerns of erected fortifications in private estates. 79 Apparently the former
Pretorian Prefect wished to present himself as protector of his relatives and his community from any
potential disloyal forces or hostile revanchist aristocrats.There is no doubt that the language of the
inscription expresses some kind of anxiety of the possibility that this fortified site might be considered
as a threat and emphasises that this establishment was for the interest of the community and not of a
certain individual. A later law of Theodosius II (420) from the section of De
aedificiispublicisetprivatis which has been preserved by a single reference in the
80
LexRomanaBurgundiorum confirms Dardanus’ anxiety since it clarifies that fortification of private
property was possible only in times of external threat and with the consensus of the local
community. 81 Before this date, such an operation would be only possible through direct imperial
permission in limited exceptional cases.Salvian later would portray the evolution of this tension

75
See Hermann Dessau, InscriptionesLatinaeSelectae1279 vol. 1, (Berlin Weidmann, 1892-1916), p.
284-285.
76
See RutiliusNamatianus, De RedituSuo, I, 307.
77
See D. Fry, ‘Is Claudius PostumusDardanus the Lepidus of De RedituSuo I. 307?,’ Hermes, 121, 3
(1993), pp. 382-383, p. 382-383. Also S. Muhlberger ‘Looking back from the mid century: The Gallic
Chronicler of 452 and the Crisis of Honorius’ reign’ in J. Drinkwater, H. Elton (eds.), Fifth Century Gaul:
A Crisis of Identity? (Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 1992), pp.28-37, p. 34.
78
See R. J. Goodreach, Contextualizing Cassian: Aristocrats, Asceticism, and Reformation in fifth
century Gaul(Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 20.
79
See S. Connolly, ‘Fortifying the City of God: Dardanus’ Inscription Revisited,’ The Classical Journal,
Vol. 102, No. 2 (Dec. - Jan., 2006/2007), pp. 145-154, p. 145.
80
See J.F. Matthews,Laying down the law: a study of the Theodosian code (New Haven, Conn.: Yale
University Press, 2000), p.113.
81
See S. Conolly, ‘Fortifying the City of God: Dardanus’ Inscription Revisited,’ p. 146.
during the 440’s in his De Gubernatione Dei reporting about individuals and groups who betook
themselves to fortresses (castella) because of fear of the enemies like Barbarians, Bagaudae or
imperial tax collectors.82 In our case the fact that the inscription has no mention of Dardanus’ second
prefecture means that the foundation of the Theopolis took place between 407 and 414, therefore
before the issuing of the specific law, so the mention of ergaomniumsalutemeorumstudiorum et
devotionispublicaetitulus probably served as a clarification regarding the legal status of his attempt. It
might have also functioned as a warning to any potential usurper who would come around searching
for resources and man-power, in any case the display of their offices and their connection to the
imperial court must have had some sort of apotropaic use. That place would stand away from the
struggles of emperors, usurpers and nobles but it appears that it served a higher purpose than just a
mountainous sanctuary.

The former Pretorian Prefect had correspondence with some of the most active ecclesiastical
authors of the period, two letters have been preserved addressed to him, one by Augustine,83 dated
around 417 and another one by Jerome (414)84 which reveal Dardanus’s metaphysical reflections and
questions and perhaps his agenda about the organization of the Theopolis. The bishop of Hippo
Regiusappears to have hadDardanus in high esteem and praiseed him of his known Charity85 and
answered his correspondent’s questions regarding the exact location of Paradise and of the presence
of God. Augustine leaves him with no doubt that since God is everywhere so could
Paradise.86Dardanus appears to be too much preoccupied with the waiting for the CivitasCaelestis that
he started dreaming of a reflection of it on Earth. He might have thought of himself of becoming
Pretorian Prefect of the souls of the community as he once was for their terrestrial bodies. After all it
was quite commonly known since the time of Prudentius that Heaven was a very Roman place.
Paradise is described in his Liber Peristephanon as a dimension where God rules as a perpetual
consul.87Augustine also quotes from the Book of Job88 to state that human life is on warfare on this
earth.89 The same could be said for the Roman Empire in the early 400’s and Theopolis might have
served as a reflection of Paradise until the City of God could be finalised as a process. The bishop
continues to describe the Church as Heaven on Earth which ‘was raised up to be blessed as the eternal
dwelling of God’ and this temple would be built by the hands of men and he justifies it by Peter’s
quotation ‘but you as living stones (ὡςλίθοιζῶντες), built up a spiritual house.’90Zealots like Dardanus
might have literally interpreted this passage. The cataclysmic events of the period probably persuaded
82
See SalvianDe Gubernatione Dei, V, 8. Also R. W. Mathisen, Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul:
Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1993), p. 55.
83
See Augustine, Letter 187.
84
See Jerome, Letter 129.
85
Augustine, Letter 187, 41.
86
Augustine, Letter 187,3-6.
87
See Prudentius, Liber Peristephanon, II. 554-565.
88
See Job, 7:1.
89
Augustine, Letter 187, 20.
90
See Peter, I: 2,5.
him that Rome was no longer the City of God despite its sanctity and importance as the City of the
Apostles and Martyrs, since Paradise could be now anywhere, then why not in a village on the Alps.

Jerome had already addressed him as the Christianumnobilissimus and

nobiliumChristianissimus 91 and assured him as well that Paradise could be located anywhere and
anytime. When Jerome undertook the writing of his Commentariorum in Hiezechielem in 410 just
before the sack of Rome,interpreted a specific passage from Ezekiel 92 as a vision of the
aedeficiumcivitatis,93 a city that will be restored, and in particular, its temple, which would surpass in
splendour that of Solomon and Zorobabel. Something that contradicts his approach in his
Commentary on Isaiah which was completed before the sack of the Eternal City, indicating a sense of
a realized eschatology reflected on the condition of Rome after 41094 which was a prelude to a greater
fulfilment towards New Jerusalem.Roma factamHierosolymam,95 he admitted, with both holy cities
destroyed the heavenly Jerusalem could be anywhere. According to this conclusion he advised his
friend Rusticus in 412 to seek the terramrepromissionis under the guidance of his own bishop in
Marseilles.96 The publication of the first books of Augustine’s De Civitate Dei must have a similar
influence to Dardanus, consisting the only contemporary proof that Augustine’s magnum opus had
any impact during his own lifetime. The African bishop however clarified that the CivitasCaelestis
existed invisibly as a parallel to the CivitasTerrena and it was not located in a specific locus.
Nevertheless there is no doubt that the utopian experiment of Theopolis was influenced if not guided
by some of the most illustrious Church authors of the time.

The Utopian establishments of the (Montanist) New Jerusalem, thePlatonopolis as well as the
Theopolis link the utopian thought of Classical Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages and they are still
defying the narrow approach of modern scholarship on the History of (pre-modern) Utopian societies.
Of course their evolution wasn’t linear since they were influenced by different Cosmo theories and
systems of belief but they were always stubbornly present in times of Crisis and Transition, indicating
the potential alternative that was remaining latent in Late Antiquity Thought long after Plato and way
before Thomas More.

Ioannis Papadopoulos, University of Leeds

91
Jerome, Letter 129, 8.
92
Ezekiel, 40-43
93
See Jerome, Commentariorum in Hiezechielem, 12.40.1-4.
94
See F. W. Schlatter,‘A Mosaic Interpretation of Jerome, "In Hiezechielem,"’ VigiliaeChristianae, Vol.
49, 1 (March 1995), pp. 64-81, p. 76.
95
See Jerome, Letter 127, 8, 3.
96
See Jerome, Letter 125, 20.