Did patterns of endogamy exist in Roman kin groups? This issue has recently been raised in the context of arguments relating to Roman social structure. J. Goody suggests that the Christian Church in the western Roman empire fundamentally altered the structure of the Roman family by restricting close-kin marriage, adoption, remarriage, and concubinage. Contrary to Goody's thesis, R.P.Saller and B.D.Shaw insist that parallel and cross-cousin marriages were rare among aristocrats, and parallel-cousin marriages rare among the mob during the first three centuries after Christ. Consequently, the Christian ban on close-kin marriage had little impact on society. In addition, they point out that Roman dowries were relatively modest and aristocrats normally owned landed property dispersedly, so there was no reason to develop marriage strategies like close-kin marriage to protect the unity of the landed property of a family. Even today, however, scholars have not come to much agreement concerning this issue mainly due to a shortage of related historical materials. This article first attempts to investigate the theories regarding this issue, and comes to the following conclusions. (1)Those who look on Roman society as endogamous can not find strong evidence for their argument. (2)Similarly, those who look on Roman society as exogamous do not have a leg to stand on, especially Saller and Shaw who misinterpret their data based on an examination of funerary inscriptions, which lead them to the wrong conclusion. The author concludes from the above that ancient Rome was an "in-marriage" society from the Late Roman Republic to the establishment of Christianity as the state religion. To these conclusions, the following points have been added. (3)The explanation for the enactment of imperial legislation on close-kin marriage did not lie only in the realm of Christian ideology of family and sexuality. These laws did reflect real and current practice of close-kin marriage among the inhabitants in the western Roman empire. (4)There is strong evidence for the practice of endogamy in female marriage. In such cases, close-kin marriage makes sense as a strategy to prevent the fragmentation of family estates.

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During the years 1995-1996, the Yuangzhou Archaeological Excavations in China, funded by Japan Ministry of Education Grant-in-Aid for International Scientific Research, was a Joint Project by Japan and China.
During 1995, we discovered the Tomb of Shi Daoluo who lived during Tang dynasty, and was buried in 658 A. D. A Byzantine gold coin (Justin II, 565-578 A. D.) was discovered.
During 1996, the tomb of the Northern Zhou dynasty prime minister Tian Hong was discovered, who died and was buried in 575 A. D.
Five Byzantine gold coins: one Leo I, the Thracian (457-474 A. D.) coin, one Justin I (518-527 A. D.) coin, two Justinian I, co-regent (527 A. D.) coins, and one Justinian I, the Great (527-565 A. D.) coin were found.
This thesis 1) describes in detail and lists Byzantine gold coins excavated in China from 1914 to the present, including the coins from the Tomb of Shi Daoluo and from the Tomb of Tian Hong, 2) considers the background of cultural and economic relations between China and the West.

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Prudentius' Contra Symmachum contains the Prosopopoeia of Rome (II. 655-768). This is a reply to Symmachus' Prosopopoeia of Rome in his Relatio III. 9-10. Prudentius praises Stilicho's victory over Alaric at Pollentia in 402, and in these lines his tone sounds particularly panegyrical. Prudentius attempts to refute Symmachus by playing up Stilicho's victory with techniques of panegyrical literature. Against Symmachus' insistence that only the religious rites of paganism ensure the victory and security of the empire, Prudentius claims that Stilicho defends Rome under the protection of Christ and the victory of the empire is guaranteed without any pagan rituals. The ground of this claim is the repulse of Alaric by Stilicho. The description of Stilicho's victory at Pollentia by Prudentius is conspicuous for its panegyrical tones. According to Prudentius, (1) the recent victory over the Goths is more praiseworthy than Camillus' victory over the Gauls in early Republican years, because this time the city of Rome itself escaped occupation by foreign enemies (721-730); and, (2) Stilicho's prowess is greater than the repulse of Hannibal in Punic wars because the defeat of Hannibal was merely due to the luxury and dissipation of Campania and Magna Graecia but Stilicho owes his victory to the military valor of the Roman army (739-749). Late antique panegyrists often refer to past leaders in the Roman history in order to praise the current honorand. This technique generates an imaginary continuity between past glory and present situations, and provides a guarantee that past glory will be recovered by the current honorand. Such a panegyrical method is used by Prudentius in his Prosopopoeia of Rome. On the ground of Stilicho's prowess, Prudentius refutes Symmachus and assures his readers that Christianity benefits the Roman empire. After Stilicho's death and the sack of Rome by Alaric, however, Prudentius' rhetoric, deprived of its immediate historical context, would lose its original effect.

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This article discusses a role played by Libanius, the sophist of Antioch, utilizing letters he wrote to dignitaries in Constantinople. While the sophist's correspondence has been generally considered as a product of patronage to date, this article first discusses three cases concerning persons familiar to Libanius, in order to show that this correspondence was not motivated by the exigencies of patronage and that Libanius was rather making petitions for individuals or Eastern cities to the imperial government in accordance with administrative procedures. Then the author proceeds to analyze the whole corpus of Libanius' correspondence written during the reign of Theodosius, concluding that, independent of patronage, the sophist supported various people, among whom were included orphans, women and farmers who had no direct access to power nor any paideia that was a key element for unitng the social elite in Late Anfiquity. Thus, the author suggests that Libanius, who heretofore has been regarded only as an educational figure or public rhetor, played another role, by virtue of his public chair, of reporting individual problems occurring in local societies to the central government, regardless of the social background of the plaintiffs. Finally, the author offers a different interpretation of the relationships between the sophist and two praetorian prefects of the East. While emphasis has been put on the religious convictions of these prefects and on a radical fluctuation occurring in Libanius' political emergence, the author interprets the sophist's correspondence within cultural and social contexts and argues that despite regime changes Libanius maintained contact with the imperial government, which, in turn, shows that he could play the part of a social channel continually through the reign of Theodosius.

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四世紀はローマ帝国のキリスト教にとって、少数派の宗教者だけの宗教から一般大衆の宗教への転換期にあった。その推移を体現している人物が、シリアのヨアンネス・クリュソストモスである。本研究は生活に関する彼の思想を通して、この転換を考察する。それによると、「生活的なこと」と「霊的なこと」との明白な対立が出発点にある。まずは、生活から脱却して宗教に向かうこと、次に宗教によって生活を清めること、そして生活によって宗教を示すことで、その対立を超えることができる。こうして彼は、修道という宗教のみの生活を超え、世俗の生活的な宗教を拒否し、宗教的な生活を世俗にもたらそうとした。クリュソストモスは、表のキリスト教徒が世俗の生活自体をやめることを求めない。また、世俗的に生活することも、勧めていない。敢えて、世事にまみれた日常生活のただ中にあって宗教的に生活する、という第三の道を勧め、自ら身をもって示した。

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This article attempts to survey the financial privileges (beneficium) bestowed upon the Church and clergy in the Early Byzantine Empire, principally through an investigation of the Codex Theodosianus. This period is well known as the period when imperial financial system was successfully established and Christianity became a unique imperial faith. In the course of time Byzantine emperors following Constantine the Great were more or less eager to confer upon them the favor of tax exemptions. The results of the author's investigation are as follows. The distinction between the "Church" (ecclesia, εκκλησια) and "clergy" (episcopus et clerices, επισκοποι και κληρικοι), which was also recognized in the Codex, has been retained for the investigation. The Church was recognized as a legally independent organisation in the Codex. Each church in the eastern Roman provinces was ensured exemption first from the ordinary land tax co1lection (canon, canonica) and second from the munera possessionis, which was the burden imposed on the possesion of land itself, regardless of the proprietor. On the other hand the clergy were forced to pay the land taxes, despite exemptions from the munera sordida, genaral civil duty, and from the chrysargyron tax levy, which was devised in the age of Constantine the Great as an assessment on commercial trading. Many clerices, lower class of clergy, engaged in some form of producting or trading occupations on a small scale. Such business was regarded as a holy act benefitting each church, so tax exemption was given to it. Theoretically the privileges accorded to the clergy were bestowed for the purpose of benefitting the Church. Such treatment of Church and clergy in the public financial system was also profitable for the Empire. This is because the church would carry out the social welfare services which was expected of the imperial administration. During the early Byzantine period the church would increase its wealth and take charge of charitable activities in such institutions as xenodochium (hotels for strangers), ptochotrophium (poor houses), nosocomium (hospitals). In the 5th and 6th centuries similar financial privileges were also conferred upon these institutions. Accordingly, all of the financial privileges of the Church and clergy, I contend, were bestowed in exchange for the social welfare activities, as well as the administration of the sacrament, of churches based on their property in land.

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