Luise Marion Frenkel is going to present a working paper on 'Narratives of synodical harmony and consensus in Late Antiquity'

Roman and Christian identities and especially their processes of institutionalisation have often been related to the decision-making processes of select representative bodies, such as the Senates in Rome and Constantinople, and the synods. The project aims to show that the literary evidence provides little insight into the real processes and rituals of decision-making. Instead, the texts in manuscripts, papyri, epigraphy and other media provide information about the expectations about concepts and methods which could be associated to these groups and processes. In view of the evidence about the production, use, archival, transmission and translation of texts in Late Antiquity, the current research focus is on the options for using written media in what were predominantly oral cultures and on the choice of idiom and literary styles which engage with values that can be associated to the Roman Empire. The goal is a book on ‘the authority of consensus in Late Antiquity’, focusing on expressions of unanimity which envisaged imperial readership. The production and use of narratives about consensus in Christian synods will probably be the leitmotiv. Particular attention will be given to the literature de facto or allegedly produced in the first half of the fifth-century about fourth-century and contemporary events. Emphasising that the texts were created, received and modified as part of various social and cultural contexts in which they were only a fraction of the narratives and values associated to its contents and authors, a number of examples will provide a composite picture of the values and expectations about the proceedings and their literary representations.