In this episode, I interview Dr Carlos Machado from the University of St Andrews about the social perceptions and realities of poverty in the Late Antique period.
Dr Machado is a Roman historian whose work focuses on aspects of urban space in the Late Antique Roman world, from elite building, honorific monuments, and domestic spaces; he is now working on shedding a light on the strata of society that seldom received attention in the historical record or monumental commemorations - the poor - which is what we shall dig into today. We discuss preconceptions about who the 'poor' of antiquity were, and how the early Christian church tried to deal with the shifting fortunes of their communities when facing historical realities of cycles of poverty in the past.
I have included some links below for anyone wishing to find out more about Dr Machado's recent publications, and his upcoming project work.
Urban space and aristocratic power in late antique Rome: AD 270-535
Machado, C., 25 Oct 2019, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 317 p.
The epigraphic cultures of Late Antiquity
Bolle, K. (ed.), Machado, C. (ed.) & Witschel, C. (ed.), 2017, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. 615 p. (Heidelberger althistorische Beiträge und epigraphische Studien; vol. 60)
Dr Machado has recently won an AHRC-DFG partnership grant for a project entitled ‘Land and loyalty: the politics of land in the later Roman world (4th to 6th century)’. This forthcoming project will analyse the politics of imperial and royal land grants and how this practice changed the dynamics of Mediterranean societies between 300 and 600 CE.
To follow Carlos on Twitter (X); @AmianoMarcelino, or you can check out his Academia.edupage or University of St Andrews contact page.
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