From romanitas to christianitas

Transformation of Identities between Antiquity and Middle Ages

The aim of this project is to study the process of constructing and re-creating the conscious Roman and Christian identities, as they were understood during the end of the Roman republic, Imperial period, and the early and high Middle Ages. The researchers of this project approach the different levels and periods of the construction of the Roman identity by analysing the written tradition and public monuments of the Roman world. It can be argued that the Romans constructed their public identity by the help of the Roman historical memory and literary tradition. They defined the proper Roman way of life by the process of defining opposites, e.g. the exemplary good and bad figures (exempla).

The set of values and ideas that constituted the Roman identity was named romanitas by the Christian apologetics who wanted to prove the Christian religion was not against the Roman values. It strongly includes the ideas the Romans described with the concept pietas. During the first centuries of the Christian church the concept romanitas evolved into the concept christianitas, but the essential values of romanness were never lost. The medieval respublica christiana was still very much modelled according to the values of the respublica romana.

It is widely accepted that the present day European identity is based on two important pillars, namely classical heritage and the Christian values. The moulding together of romanitas and christianitas created what one would now call European culture or identity. The starting point of the project is that there is no stable identity but the identity is re-created from time to time by cultural processes of the group. Memory in itself (and thus also history) is a cultural construction. The study of the process of deliberate constructing and re-creating the Roman and Christian identities and their memory during the Roman republic, Imperial period, and the Middle Ages is the main purpose of this project.

The research group consists of the following scholars and post-graduate students of the ancient and medieval times: PhD Marja-Leena Hänninen (University of Helsinki); PhD Alexandr Koptev (University of Helsinki); MA Jussi Rantala (University of Tampere); MA Miikka Tamminen (University of Tampere) and docent Jussi Hanska (University of Tampere) as the Head of the Project.

External experts in the project include several internationally esteemed researchers: professor Christian Krötzl (University of Tampere); assistant professor Katariina Mustakallio (University of Tampere); professor Maurizio Bettini (University of Siena); professor Eva Cantarella (University of Milan); professor Francesco Scorza-Barcellona (Università di Roma II, Torvergata) and docent Heikki Mikkeli (University of Helsinki).