Rafał Kosiński

A Child on the Throne. The Reign of the Emperor Leo II, AD 473–474

Leo II was the son of Zeno and Ariadna, daughter of the emperor Leo I, who reigned in the years AD 457–474. In accordance with historical tradition, it is assumed that he was born around the year 467, and took over the imperial power in 474. During the same year he elevated his father Zeno to Augustus, and subsequently, after a period of joint rule which lasted several months, Leo II died. This article is an attempt to sort out the scarce and frequently mutually contradictory historical accounts, and to modify the chronology on Leo II recently proposed by Brian Croke. It is primarily focused on the date of Leo’s birth, recognizing that it had taken place in the autumn  of 469. Subsequently, in the autumn of 473, Leo I elevated his grandson, within a brief time span, first to the rank of Caesar in October, and then, on 17 November, to be Augustus. After his grandfather’s death shortly thereafter, on 18 January 474, Leo II, in accordance with the Senate’s decision, had appointed his father Zeno as co-ruling emperor – on 29 January. After a little less than a year of joint rule the young emperor died in November 474.

Once again on the date of the martyrdom of Simeon bar Sabba’e and the persecution of Christians in Persia under Shapur II

The article is a contribution to the more than one-hundred-year-long discussion on the date of death of Simeon bar Sabba’e, the metropolitan bishop of Seleucia-Ctesiphon, and the beginning of the persecution of Christians in Persia during the reign of Shapur II. The author emphasises that the main source on Simeon’s martyrdom is a hagiographical work, which, as such, can be interpreted strictly on the basis of the principles relevant to the genre. Taking into consideration some of the hypotheses formulated so far, the author holds the view that it is not possible to determine the precise date of Simeon’s death. It could only be assumed that it must have occurred somewhere between February 344 and July 345, most likely late in 344.

Samaritans in the Roman Empire in 2nd half of 5th century
The following paper is devoted to social unrest which stirred up in Samaria in the second half of the 5th century under the reign of successive emperors – Marcian, Zeno and Anastasius. The article is an attempt at explaining why after centuries of peaceful existence within the Roman Empire, Samaritans decided to take to arms – what were the reasons and the course of these armed riots. The author analysed both Samaritan and Christian sources. The results of the analysis go against the current views – it appears that until the reign of Emperor Justinian there had not been any large-scale rebellions among Samaritan population. There had been no armed conflict that would engulf a large part of Samaria – only local riots which were of a religious not political character. There had been no rebellion against the ruler or the existing political system – the riots were directed against the Church which was expanding, mostly in spatial terms, its area of influence. Pilgrimage movement of foreign Christianity which posed a serious threat to Samarian places of cult stirred up resistance among the local population which manifested in the form of violent incidents directed against pilgrims headed towards the Holy Land. Sometimes these acts of violence escalated to larger-scale levels of conflict as it happened during the reign of Emperor Marcian. Assessing the level of such incidents under the reign of Zeno, whose rule is traditionally considered in historiography a period of great rebellion against the Roman rule, is a separate issue. Yet careful analysis of the sources indicates that these riots were nothing more than local religious conflicts and they definitely were not an attempt at becoming independent from Rome. What is more the date, 484 A.D., which is universally assigned to this event is inaccurate – the incident took place a few years earlier.

The idea of modern city parks was born in the USA, wherefrom was transferred to Europe and towards other continents. It was represented by the pioneer of landscape architecture F.L. Olmsted, author of the Central Park in Manhattan (in 1857, area 350 ha). After 156 years, Manhattan still sustains a position of the leading model for good creating contemporary city parks. The main motivation of it, is a quality of a city life. At first “green lung” of them, also their surfaces biologically active, realized an idea of hygienic and salubrious industrial city, then reducing results of pollution emitted by fuel both used for heating and for vehicles. Now, the leading idea is amelioration of stressful existence in super modern metropolis; this encourages towards plural and attractive creation of parks.